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AJPW in the 1980's

TheBean

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I want to have a place to focus on AJPW of the 1980's and provide a good launch pad for people who are interested in checking this decade out. I didn't see a thread in the Microscope so I thought I would start one. 

I've watched a bunch of 1984 & 85 and am working my way through 86. I've seen some matches from the early 80's (80-83) which I will post in this first one. I am also trying to watch my way through the 80's. I plan to update along the way. 

My plan isn't really to put full reviews here so it doesn't get too wordy & bogged down. Click the underlined matches. They are links to the full reviews with pics when applicable 🙂

1980

1981

1982

  • Billy Robinson vs Bruiser Brody - 03/25/82 - Good once Bill made his comeback
  • Dory Funk Jr. vs Bruiser Brody - 04/21/82 - Great, simple yet primal
  • Funk Bros. vs Brody & Snuka - 04/22/82 - Good-Very Good, more of an angle than a match
  • Ric Flair vs Ricky Steamboat - 06/04/82 - Great, athletic bout
  • Tenryu vs Ueda - 07/22/82 - A bloody blast!
  • Terry Funk vs Stan Hansen - 09/11/82 - VG-Great, chaotic w/ a sense of violence throughout
  • Funk Bros vs Ricky Steamboat & Jay Youngblood - 12/02/82 - Near classic, very exciting stuff
  • Giant Baba vs Umanosuke Ueda - 12/07/82 - Fun brawl

 

1983

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1984

Click the underlined matches. They are links to the full reviews with pics when applicable 🙂

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1985

Damn, that's a lot of 1985! I'll put the 2nd half of '85 in a new post so it's easier to locate stuff.

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1985 cont...Click the underlined matches. They are links to the full reviews with pics when applicable 🙂

October '85 - Will just link the month since all below are in the same post. So click the month 🙂

  • Riki Choshu vs Ashura Hara (10/04): Fun, full speed ahead ass kicking. 
  • Dory and Terry Funk v. Road Warriors (10/19): Fun
  • Ric Flair v. Jumbo Tsuruta (10/19): Great, technical and hard hitting 
  • Shoehi Baba/Takashi Ishikawa/Mighty Inoue v. Ashura Hara/Rusher Kimura/Goro Tsurumi (10/21):  Really fun 
  • Kabuki v. Killer Khan (10/21): Good brawl but short
  • Dory and Terry Funk/Tiger Mask v. Billy Robinson/Terry Gordy/Chavo Guerrero (10/21): Fun  
  • Jumbo Tsuruta/Tenyru v. Road Warriors (10/21): VG heavyweight fireworks 
  • Ric Flair v. Rick Martel (10/21): Classic match
  • Dory and Terry Funk v. Terry Gordy/Art Crews (10/22): Good stuff
  • Mil Mascaras v. Norio Honaga (10/22): Quick fun match. 
  • Ric Flair/Rick Martel v. Jumbo Tsuruta/Tenyru (10/22): Great, dream match

November '85

  • Riki Choshu vs Jumbo Tsuruta (11/04) VG - Great looking, long didn't watch in full
  • Stan Hansen/Ted Dibiase v. Dynamite Kid/Davey Boy Smith (11/23): Great, fast paced, all action 
  • Jumbo Tsuruta/Tenyru v. Nick Bockwinkle/Curt Hennig (11/23): Great
  • Shoehi Baba/Dory Funk Jr. v. Harley Race/Jesse Barr (11/27): Long match but a really good one.
  • Tiger Mask v. Dynamite Kid (11/27): VG
  • Jumbo Tsuruta/Tenyru v. Rusher Kimura/Goro Tsurumi (11/27): Good match with a really good final third
  • Stan Hansen v. Ashura Hara (11/27): Good, wish was longer but violent bout
  • Stan Hansen/Ted Dibiase v. Harley Race/Jesse Barr (11/30): VG- Great, fast paced and move heavy. 
  • Dynamite Kid/Davey Boy Smith v. Tiger Mask/Mighty Inoue (11/30): Great all action match.
  • Choshu/Yoshiaki Yatsu vs Jumbo Tsuruta/Genichiro Tenryu (11/30): Classic

December '85

  • Stan Hansen/Ted Dibiase v. Nick Bockwinkle/Curt Hennig (12/07): Very fun, great showing from Curt
  • Jumbo Tsuruta/Tenyru v. Dynamite Kid/Davey Boy Smith (12/07): VG match
  • Harley Race/Jesse Barr v. Dynamite Kid/Davey Boy Smith (12/12):  Great! Perhaps the best Race match of '85 
  • Shoehi Baba/Dory Funk Jr v. Jumbo Tsuruta/Tenyru (12/12): Near classic-classic, excellent pacing and layout 
  • Stan Hansen/Ted DiBiase vs Riki Choshu/Yoshiaki Yatsu (Real World Tag League Finals) (12/12): jip by 14 minutes, great, maybe a classic in full?
  • Rick Martel v. Stan Hansen (AWA Title, 12/29): AWA match but Very good - great match one of the most psychologically strong matches of '85
TheBean Community Regular

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1986

Click the match titles, they're links to my blog posts with more details and pics 👍

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TheBean

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Gonna post the rest of '86 shortly & then start posting '87. 1987 is an interesting year. I've seen most of the "good stuff" but I think there's a couple more I ought to see...

...OK I've got the time so let's get back to the final quarter of 1986:

  • Riki Choshu vs Strong Machine (09/20): Excellent macho type match
  • Genichiro Tenryu/Jumbo Tsuruta vs Yoshiaki Yatsu/Animal Hamaguchi (09/20): Great action packed tag!
  • Funk Bros vs Road Warriors (10/20): Great Warriors match w/ the Funks
  • Haru Sonada, Genichiro Tenryu & Jumbo Tsuruta vs Hiro Saito, Super Strong Machine & Ashura Hara (11/01): Hard hitting intense stuff
  • Tenryu & Tsuruta vs Giant Baba & Tiger Mask (11/28): Near classic tag
  • Stan Hansen vs Terry Funk (12/03): VG, very stiff
  • Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenryu vs Stan Hansen & Ted Dibiase (RWTL Playoff Match 12/12): Awesome stuff
  • Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenryu vs Stan Hansen & Ted Dibiase (RWTL Final 12/12): Heck of a finals especially given how it all played out. Great match!

For more in depth reviews of the last 3 months, check out:

 

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Now we're on to 1987. Change of pace, just going to post the reviews/write ups & pics here. 

Jan-March

01/10/87

Riki Choshu vs. Ashura Hara: Very good stuff with these two water buffalos locking up. Unfortunately not long enough to really develop into something special but with these two you can't go wrong.

Animal Hamaguchi/Yoshiaki Yatsu vs. Jumbo Tsuruta/Genichiro Tenryu : Intense, urgent tag wrestling. This is how it should be done. And don't be confused, this isn't Jumbo & Tenryu carrying anyone. Animal & Yatsu are criminally underrated. Two of the best Japanese tag wrestlers of the 80's. Great match and little more than that to be honest.

03/12/87
Yoshiaki Yatsu/Animal Hamaguchi vs. Terry Gordy/Art Crews: A very good all action tag match! There's lots of rope running and simple but good looking moves. I'm unfamiliar with Art Crews but he keeps the party going so this is a winner of a tag match.

Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenryu vs. The Road Warriors - Great big time tag match! Lots of action and the Warriors actually used some wrestling holds. And sold for Jumbo & Tenryu. This was pretty much what you want with this matchup. 

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03/28/87

Yoshiaki Yatsu vs Pete Roberts: This is one for the real wrestling fans in All Japan. 8 of 9 minutes of these two trading holds & fighting for leverage. Then we get about a minute of big moves to set up the finish. I'm glad that we get to see Pete work a technical match. I think Yatsu is the man to have it. I really am starting to really appreciate him. This is a fast, athletic and competitive bout. Very good stuff, an easy recommendation. I see Pete vs Masa Fuchi get recommended, this is better.

Jumbo Tsuruta & Tiger Mask vs. Tommy Rich & Jerry Oates. - I don't care for this match. There's nothing special about it. Feel free to skip right past it.
 
Genichiro Tenryu & Hiroshi Wajima vs. Stan Hansen & Ted DiBiase. - Wajima was a yokozuna in sumo which makes sense why Baba would have him debut in his late 30's. The focus on the bouts is Stan vs Wajima... which kinda seems like a waste of Tenryu. However, he improves any match with him in it. So he does the bulk of the nuts & bolts work for his team. Wajima wasn't as bad as I remember though. He does very well when he has his moments. I didn't write a rating but I would say this was good to pretty good.
 

  • 2 weeks later...
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April & May

04/02/87  

Stan Hansen & Ted DiBiase vs. Hiroshi Wajima & Takashi Ishikawa - Surprisingly good match! Wajima is limited but Ted & Stan sold it. Ishikawa is the workhorse. He employed slightly more advanced offense and bumped & sold his butt off.

Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Tommy Rich - Good title match but no way was Tommy Rich going to beat Jumbo. Still is was somewhat competitive and entertaining. It's definitely an improvement from their tag match!

Dory Funk, Jr. & Hiroshi Wajima vs. Stan Hansen & Ted DiBiase (04/05/87): Stan starts things off right, nearly crushing Joe Higuchi in the process! He & Ted are THE tag team for 85-87 All Japan. The brawler/wrestler dynamic is good and a change of pace from the Brody/Hansen monster team. This match, Wajima looked really good. He did a few more complicated moves like a back drop suplex & Cobra Twist stretch. This was a pretty darn good tag match. It was fast paced in Stan's style and everything was of good quality. It's funny, Wajima & Dory Funk Jr. aren't that old in '87 but looked like wrestling grandpas here 😋

Note: I thought the Hiroshi Wajima matches were very good overall. I read that he started wrestling to pay off debts. Once he earned enough money, he  stopped wrestling. So, in all he wrestled part of '86, all of 1987 and some of '88. I think this is partially why 1987 AJPW is odd. Anyhow, Wajima was limited but actually a good tag wrestler!

04/23/87 

The Great Kabuki & Tiger Mask vs. Ted DiBiase & Pete Roberts - A very good bout especially with Tiger Mask II in there. He & Pete Roberts even got to work a swanky Greco Roman knuckle lock sequence in there. Kabuki wasn't his normal fiery self but the other three did great. 

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Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenryu vs Yoshiaki Yatsu & Shinichi Nakano: This was a very good all action bout. There wasn't a strong story or a tremendous amount of drama. That's OK since it was more centered on slapping and chopping the other team. Nakano put forth a lot of effort. He was out ranked but, never appeared out of his depth because he was busting his ass. Surprisingly, Yatsu looked strongest in terms of aggression and dictating the pace. He looked to have Jumbo's number. Watch for the powerbomb too!

Giant Baba & John Tenta vs Rusher Kimura & Goro Tsurumi (05/01/87): Goro's afro and mustache is enviable. What an awesome look! Speaking of looks, Tenta is looking really fit & trim here in '87. As always, I'm giving Baba a pass for experience and the effort he puts forth despite his limited capabilities. This is better than the Road Warriors matches by the way. Rusher's overhand chopping Tenta in the throat. The big man looks awesome here...like a champ really. Referee Wada takes the best fucking ref bumps too. This was a fun, fun match. I wish I understood Japanese for Rusher's jokes at the end. Even Baba's laughing!

Genichiro Tenryu vs Yoshiaki Yatsu (05/09/87) ROY TV has last 10 minutes...only half shown. I think those minutes are the best after finding this in full. Lots of fire and energy which tapers off as Yatsu works over Tenryu's knee. Still very good stuff in full though.

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