Footloose

[goodhelmet]

Awesome 80s All Japan tag team. I love the Furnas/Kroffat series. They don't have longevity but they have a great couple of years.

[El-P]

Awesome awesome team. Yeah, the Kroffat/Furnas series is insane. Kawada was still searching himself but was already one hell of a worker and Fuyuki worked harder than ever at this point.

[Timbo Slice]

Tremendous for the short time they were together, really worked well with gaijin teams and Kawada really found his niche before Ricky left with Onita. I think they'll be on my list, but I'm not quite sure how high yet.

[G. Badger]

Footloose is probably my favorite tag team right now. They are just so enjoyable to watch. Fuyuki followed Tenryu to SWS & WAR where they kept a very similar style...rope running, stiff clubbering blows, attitude, and relatively short match times (compared to where AJ was headed). I think that's what's interesting about Kawada in Footloose & Tenryu's Revolution stable...did he prefer this style over the grander Kings Road style? He surely excelled in both.

 

Key matches to me:

 

vs Takashi Ishikawa & Mighty Inoue 4/21/88: weird moves, teases, tricks, and smart work. A great match for sure!

 

vs Shunji Takano & Shinichi Nakano 7/19/88

&

vs Shunji Takano & Shinichi Nakano 9/15/88:

The first match is the better of the two but both are fantastic. The first is fast & wild where the rematch this more about hate. These should be seen together.

 

 

Giant Baba, Rusher Kimura, Masa Fuchi vs. Genichiro Tenryu, Toshiaki Kawada & Samson Fuyuki 9/15/89: Classic example of a diamond in the rough 6 man for this period. Baba & Rusher stunk by 1989 so, Fuchi in essence has to do the lion share of the wrestling for his team. Footloose as Tenryu's underlings are fantastic.

 

Genichiro Tenryu, Toshiaki Kawada & Samson Fuyuki vs. Kenta Kobashi, Great Kabuki & Jumbo Tsuruta 10/14/89: High energy, multi-near fall type match with simple moves that elevates it to something maybe not entirely memorable from a "highspots" standpoint but, something absolutely excellent.

 

Footloose faced the Can-Am team of Kroffat & Furnas to excellent results best exemplified by their 6/5/89 match. They also had some very fine meetings with the Malenkos, Bulldogs, Jumbo/Yatsu/Kabuki, Rock n Roll Express, and others. Some of these are jip but, I've yet to see a Footloose match that disappointed...usually around the ***1/2-***3/4 range.