[1986-06-05-AJPW] Jumbo Tsuruta, Genichiro Tenryu, Tiger Mask II vs Riki Choshu, Yoshiaki Yatsu, Kuniaki Kobayashi

[Clayton Jones]

Watched this on a whim today and it did not disappoint. Starts off with the usual pairings you'd expect and Misawa actually looks really comfortable in the TMII role. He has excellent chemistry with Kobayashi here. The heavyweights bring the heat and this gets really chippy at times. There was some stuff with Killer Khan on the outside, possibly building to a match with Yatsu? Thankfully it doesn't come into play very much. It's interesting to me that Jumbo and Tenryu worked so heelish against Choshu and Yatsu throughout much of their feud, even though I always got the impression they were positioned in opposite roles booking wise. The crowd always seems to love them some Chosu/Yatsu regardless so it works. The last few minutes of this build to a beautiful climax of reversals, nasty lariats, big bumps, and a classic 80s nothing finish. Kind of over before it really gets going but still lots of fun.

[strobogo]

Yeah it's pretty good. Has a lot more energy than Choshu tags had had in quite a while up to that point. As for Killer Khan, the next match is Road Warriors vs Takano/Machine but LOD attacks and bloodies Takano before the match, so Khan comes back out and replaces him in his street gear. After that match, a long post match brawl happens and eventually Choshu comes out to not really do anything but hold a bloodied up Khan in the corner while LOD continues to beat up young boys and officials. Khan then turns on Choshu and double teams him with Super Strong Machine and unofficially joins the Calgary Hurricanes for the next 3 months before forming a team with Terry Gordy for the last quarter of the year and then going to the WWF.