NJ World Pro Wrestling 1/4/98 FINAL POWER HALL IN Tokyo Dome taped 1/4
IWGP Jr. Title: Shinjiro Otani vs. Ultimo Dragon. ****1/4
Riki Road Final Message 5: A) Choshu vs. Kazuyuki Fujita
B) Choshu vs. Yutaka Yoshie
C) Choshu vs. Takaiwa
D) Choshu vs. Iizuka
E) Choshu vs. Liger
Frye vs. Ogawa. **
Hashimoto vs. Dennis Lane. DUD
Koshinaka vs. Chono. **1/2
IWGP World Heavyweight Title: Sasaki vs. Muto. *3/4
AJ Pro Wrestling 30 1/4/98 taped 1/2 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Kobashi & Kanemaru vs. Kawada & Inoue. Crowd was into Kanemaru trying to pin Inoue. Kanemaru did pretty well for himself, but it was clear he was just a spot wrestling at this point. Kawada & Kobashi were stiff, but didn’t work all that hard. **3/4
Heavyweight Battle Royal. Hideously awful. Most of the guys just stood around and did nothing. -*
AJW TV 1/10/98 taped 1/3 & 1/4 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
1/3 Korakuen
Emi Motokawa & Sachie Nishbori (IWA Japan) vs. Manami Toyota & Momoe Nakanishi. Toyota has a new red outfit to start the year, but she looked much better in the old black one. Exciting match with a lot of glamourous spots, but this was far from the smoothest match you’ll ever see and the youngsters looked green in points. ***
All Pacific Title Decision Match: Takako Inoue vs. Tomoko Watanabe. Good work and a lot of spots, but the pacing was very even. ***
Handicap Match: Eagle Sawai & Michiko Nagashima & Sayori Okino (Heisei GUREN-tai, LLPW team) vs. Yumiko Hotta & Kumiko Maekawa. Really one-sided with the LLPW team mainly using heel tactics. *3/4
Once Upon A Time: Akira Hokuto vs. Shinobu Kandori 4/2/93 Yokohama Arena. A ***** match unedited, but here they show about 9 minutes
1/4 Korakuen
Momoe Nakanishi & Emi Motokawa vs. Pork Warrior (Watanabe) & Akira Hokuto (Free). Too much comedy for my taste. Watanabe does a good job of immitating a below average wrestler, Hokuto’s husband Power Warrior Kensuke Sasaki. Last couple minutes were damn good, but overall nothing special. **
AJTV World Pro Wrestling 1/11 taped 1/2 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Asunaro Cup Tag League Bout: Akira Taue & Kentaro Shiga vs Tamon Honda & Jun Izumida. Bad match with no heat. 1/4*
Misawa & Akiyama & Maunakea Mossman vs Steve Williams & Gary Albright & Ricky Santana. The point of this match was to showcase Mossman vs. Santana, but Santana isn’t good and these two didn’t work well together. Match was best w/ Doc vs. either Misawa or Jun. *1/2
AJ Pro Wrestling 30 1/18 '98 New Year’s Giant Series taped 1/10 Hakata Star Lanes
Asunaro Cup League Bout: Akiyama & Takao Omori vs. Taue & Shiga. Less than one third aired, but it looked good.
Kobashi & Ace & Mossman vs. Williams & Albright & Hawkfield. Boring match with no one stepping up or looking good. Had some stiffness, but nothing beyond that. Mossman and Wolf tried, but Mossman is a lot better than Wolf so he was the best of the 6 just because he put forth some effort. *1/4
NJTV 1/24 POWER HALL FOREVER...
Clips of Choshu’s career highlights.
AJ Pro Wrestling 30 1/25 '98 New Years Giant Series taped 1/10 Hakata Starlane
Giant Kimala vs. Skull Von Crush
Kawada & Inoue vs. Misawa & Asako
AJ Pro Wrestling 30 2/1 '98 New Years Giant Series taped 1/26 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan
Triple Crown: Misawa vs. Akiyama. Reviewed in Quebrada #40. ****1/2
AJ Pro Wrestling 30 2/8 '98 New Years Giant Series taped 1/26 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan
Kobashi & Ace vs. Wolf Hawkfield & Johnny Smith
Kobashi & Ace vs. Kawada & Taue
Baba & Misawa & Mossman vs. Kawada & Kobashi & Fuchi
AJ Pro Wrestling 30 2/8 '98 New Year’s Giant Series taped 1/26 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan
Kobashi & Ace vs. Hawkfield & Smith. Hot crowd with fans really pulling for the upset. Smith & Kobashi made the match. Strong work and nice spots. ***3/4
Kobashi & Ace vs. Kawada & Taue. Looked very good, but only 5:02 of 32:06 aired.
Giant Baba 60th Birthday Memorial Fight: Baba & Misawa & Mossman vs Kawada & Kobashi & Fuchi. Baba worked most of what was shown since the big deal was him working against serious wrestlers. Decent because of the heat. Kawada wrecked Baba. Good for what it was. Probably good overall because the third they showed was almost all Baba’s "work."
Jd' on GAORA #22 2/7/98 STIR THE BLOOD ’97 taped 12/7 Osaka Bayside Jenny
Kazuko Fujiwara vs. Masami Iizuka. Lowlights.
Kosugi vs. Sakai. Reviewed in Quebrada #39. ***
Esther Moreno & Abe vs. Yuki Lee & Yabushita. Highlights.
Jaguar Yokota vs. Fang Suzuki. Jaguar went out of her way to put Fang over, but Fang brought nothing to the table. Fang proved incapable of looking good. *3/4
TWF World Tag Title League: Chikako Shiratori & Michiko Omukai vs The Bloody & Sayori Okino. Reviewed in Quebada #39. *** range
TWF World Tag Title League: Cooga & Miyuki Sogabe vs. Lioness & Ryuna. Sogabe was as bad as usual. Cooga was fine when in with Lioness. Lioness was solid and good, but didn’t go all out or even close. Sogabe had trouble blading. Match went too long. *1/2
AJ Pro Wrestling 30 2/15 '98 Excite Series taped 2/14 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Asako & Inoue vs. Hiroyoshi Kotsubo & Kamikaze (Wrestle Yume Factory). Fair match that was rather uneventful. Asako is and was the best of the 4. Outsiders weren’t really any bigger than Asako. Kamikaze’s tornado was awesome, but of course it wasn’t debuted in AJ as a finisher because AJ undercarders, unless they are rookies or a step up, can’t lose to outsiders. No heat. *1/4
Misawa & Akiyama & Mossman vs. Kobashi & Ace & Smith. Akiyama vs. Kobashi was the highlight of the match even though Ace vs. Misawa was the important part due to their upcoming TC match. Ace sky high Ace crushered Misawa, but instead of having him pin Misawa to prove he was capable of doing it and add the slightest bit of doubt to the result of their TC, they had him cobra clutch suplex Akiyama for the win. **3/4
AJW TV 2/15/98 taped 2/11 Tokyo Fuji TV Studio
Manami Toyota vs. Tomoko Watanabe. Only the last three minutes are on this tape.
Chiharu vs. Noriko Toyoda. Short rookie match. Chiharu’s finisher, the Chiharu special, is a version of the cross arm German suplex. That is a cool move, but it was the only highlight of this poor match. 1/4*
Force-4 Scramble Bout Zenjo Special: Ito & Emi Motokawa (IWA Japan) & Miyuki Fujii & Sachie Nishibori vs. Yumiko Hotta & Kumiko Maekawa & Miho Wakizawa & Kayo Noumi. This was a series of singles bouts with a five minute time limit. A draw eliminates both wrestlers. The losing team is the one who has no wrestlers left. Noumi was eliminated by Ito in 43 seconds. I know there isn’t much time to score a pin, but why even have someone in need of credibility like Noumi be in the match if you are going to have her job this quickly? Ito vs. Hotta was, not surprisingly, the best segment. Emi vs. Maekawa was quite good though, with near falls back and forth. A good match, but everything was rushed due to the time limit. **3/4
Eagle Sawai & Sayori Okino (LLPW team) vs. Takako Inoue & Momoe Nakanishi. Fast-paced match. Michiko Nagashima interfered at will. Very pro-AJW crowd. Momoe was by far the best in the match. Momoe juiced.
Toshiyo Yamada (GAEA) vs. Kyoko Inoue (Neo Ladies). Why this was headlining an AJW TV taping in 1998 is anyone’s guess. Unfortunately, they couldn’t flashback to 1993. Decent match, but probably the worst they ever had together that saw the light of day. **
AJ Pro Wrestling 30 2/22 '98 Excite Series taped 2/14 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Jado & Gedo vs. Ogawa & Kanemaru. Kanemaru was the only excitement in the match, and he didn’t hit all his spots. Jado & Gedo didn’t try anything or do anything to get over in their first AJ match. *1/4
Kawada & Honda vs. Hansen & Duncum Jr. Only highlight was that it ended quickly. Fans popped pig for old man Stan pinning Kawada. Kawada had a great shocked look on his face after he was pinned. 1/2*
Omori & Taue vs. Williams & Albright. Nothing special. Williams vs. Taue wasn’t bad, but wasn’t good either. Williams pinned Taue, so we had two surprise finishes in a row. *3/4
NJ TV 2/28/98 taped 2/8 Sapporo Nakajima Sports Center & 2/15 Tokyo Nippon Budokan (fuzzy picture)
2/3 Falls: Muto & Chono & Norton & Titan & NWO Sting & Tenzan vs. Sasaki & Hashimoto & Kojima & Nishimura & Nakanishi & Yasuda. Believe it or not, Titan tried to Frankensteiner Yasuda. Do I need to tell you how badly this was blown? Hashimoto was good, but most of the other clowns sucked it up. Too chaotic with so many guys involved and, of course, brawling at once. *1/4
Liger & Samurai & Ka Shin vs. Otani & Kanemoto & Takaiwa. The typical excellent work. A ton of great spots with great execution. ***3/4
Naoya Ogawa vs Don Frye. Frye did all of his heel tactics, and they worked as this had a lot of heat. Match was still mediocre because Ogawa is horrible and never improves, and Frye isn’t much either. Not exactly making people forget Kiyoshi Tamura. *3/4
Jd' on GAORA #23 3/1 STIR THE BLOOD ’97 taped 12/28 from Korakuen Hall
*Reviewed in Quebrada #39*
Esther Moreno vs. Kazuko Fujiwara. Highlights.
Abe vs. Fang Suzuki. Highlights.
TWF Tag League Bout: Yuki Lee & Yabushita vs The Bloody & Sayori Okino (LLPW). Highlights.
The Goddess Shiratori vs. Kurenai (LLPW). *3/4
TWF Tag League Bout: Sakai & Kyoko Inoue (Neo) vs. Lioness Asuka & Ryuna. ***
TWF Tag League Bout: Cooga & Leoga vs. Jaguar Yokota & Kosugi. Jaguar & Kosugi win tag league and thus become first ever TWF tag champs. *1/2
AJ Pro Wrestling 30 3/1 '98 Excite Series taped 2/28 Tokyo Nippon Budokan
Triple Crown: Misawa vs. Johnny Ace. Ace’s first TC shot. Reviewed in Quebrada #40. ***1/2
3/4/98 ’98 New Years Giant Series taped 1/25/98 Yokohama Bunka Taiikukan
Tamon Honda vs. Masao Inoue
PWF Jr. Title Maunakea Mossman vs. Ricky Santana
Mitsuharu Misawa & Takao Omori vs. Steve Williams & Gary Albright
3/14/98 ’98 New Years Giant Series taped 1/25/98 Yokohama Bunka Taiikukan
Yoshinari Ogawa & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Satoru Asako & Kentaro Shiga
Giant Kimala & Jun Izumida vs. Wolf Hawkfield & Skull Von Crush
Jun Akiyama vs. Johnny Smith
World Tag Titles: Kenta Kobashi & Johnny Ace vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue
NJ World Pro Wrestling 3/7 FIGHTING SPIRIT ’98taped 2/15 Tokyo Nippon Budokan
*All matches from NWO JAPAN SINGLE COMBAT 7 series*
Highlights of Nakanishi vs. Tenzan, Nishimura vs. NWO Sting, & Kojima vs. Hennig
Keiji Muto vs. Yamazaki. Muto attacked Kazuo’s knee including refusing to break his figure 4 when Yamazaki made it to the ropes. Yamazaki’s selling was very realistic. Yamazaki attacked Muto’s bad knee and they had a doctor at ringside to tease they would stop the match. Strong performance by both with Muto adapting to Yamazaki’s realistic style well. ***1/4
Hashimoto vs. Big Titan. Hashimoto worked really stiff, but Titan was just bad in every way. Hashimoto tried, but what can you do with a poor clueless worker? *1/4
Koshinaka vs. Chono. Good match. Both men worked hard, but neither were in top form. Chono did a tope. Koshinaka scores a surprise win with a low impact (because Chono had a bad back) powerbomb to make clinch the series for NJ. ***
Norton vs Sasaki. Norton was awful here; sucky bumps, hideous selling, etc. Sasaki tried to carry him, but he can’t because he’s Sasaki. This was stiff, but had nothing else going for it. *1/4
AJ Pro Wrestling 30 3/8 '98 Excite Series taped 2/28 Tokyo Nippon Budokan
Jado & Gedo vs. Shiga & Ogawa. Solid match, but not that exciting. It was going along ok, but then it just abruptly ended. *3/4
World Tag Titles: Kawada & Taue vs. Williams & Albright. Pretty lame for a tag title match. Kawada tried, but it was nothing more than an average sprint with 3 oversized goofs and one great wrestler. **
NJ World Pro Wrestling 3/14/98 HYPER BATTLE ’98 taped 3/6 Niigata-shi Taiikukan
El Samurai vs. Ka Shin. This was good for a few minutes, but fell apart when they blew the finish. **
Otani & Kanemoto vs. Liger & Dr. Wagner Jr. Great match. Excellent work and one great spot after another. Otani’s mannerisms were great. Strong showing by Wagner, especially in the charisma department. Looked like it could have been ****1/2, but only 1/3 aired so who knows. ****
Nakanishi & Kojima & Nishimura vs. Koshinaka & Gotoh & Ohara. Very good match when Shiro was in, especially when he was opposing Kojima. Nishimura also had a strong showing here. Exciting sprint with a hot crowd. Way better than it sounds on paper. ***3/4
Sasaki & Yamazaki & Hirata vs. NWO Sting & Muto & Tenzan. **
Fujinami & Hashimoto vs. Chono & Wallstreet. Good when Hashimoto was in, but boring the rest of the time. Fujinami pins Chono, which makes him look stronger going into his title match at the Dome. *1/2
AJ Pro Wrestling 30 3/15/98 '98 Excite Series taped 2/28 Tokyo Nippon Budokan
Omori & Izumida vs Hansen & Duncum Jr. Good psychology with Hansen injuring Omori’s shoulder then continually working it over, but the match was just boring. Izumida finally made the hot tag and his big offense is headbutts so it was so lame. 1/2*
Kakihara & Takayama vs Akiyama & Kobashi. Match was good when Kakihara was in. Kobashi was nothing special since he was working with shooters, but Akiyama looked good. Closing minutes were really heated. Kakihara does the job, which is mystifying, at best. **
AJW TV 3/21/98 taped 3/1 Tokyo Korakuen Hall and 3/21 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
*Reviewed in Quebrada #43*
3/1
Kayo Noumi vs Manami Toyota. **1/2
Maekawa vs Nakanishi. ***1/2
Hotta & Takako vs ZAP I (Ito) & ZAP T (Watanabe). *3/4
3/21 LLPW at Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Double Title Match, WWWA World Singles Title vs. LLPW Singles Title: Hotta vs Kandori. Kandori wins WWWA title. **1/2
AJ World Pro Wrestling 3/22/98 taped 3/21 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Champion Carnival League Bout: Kawada vs Izumida. Izumida tried to be serious, but he doesn’t have the offense to be able to challenge Dangerous K. Basically a short squash that was decent while it lasted. *1/4
Champion Carnival League Bout: Kobashi vs Ace. Slow paced because they were going so long. No heat. Some awesome spots, but a lot of dead time. Good psychology with Ace working over Kobashi’s bad knee and Kobashi putting that over big, but the fans didn’t take to it. This could have been a very good match if it was about half as long. **1/2
From AJ TV 7/4/93 taped 7/2
Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue & Yoshinari Ogawa
AJ Pro Wrestling 30 10/25/95 '95 Giant Series taped 10/25 Tokyo Nippon Budokan
Triple Crown: Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Kenta Kobashi
AJ on FIGHTING TV SAMURAI! ’98 Champion Carnival 3/26/98 Chiba Koen Taiikukan
’98 Champion Carnival League Bout: Stan Hansen vs. Jun Izumida
’98 Champion Carnival League Bout: Toshiaki Kawada vs. Jun Akiyama
NJ World Pro Wrestling 3/28/98 THE FINAL INOKI TOURNAMENT taped 3/22 Nagoya Aichi-ken Taiikukan
THE FINAL INOKI TOURNAMENT Ikkaisen: Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Igor Meindert. 1/2*
THE FINAL INOKI TOURNAMENT Ikkaisen: Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Brian Johnston. 1/4*
THE FINAL INOKI TOURNAMENT Ikkaisen: Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Don Frye. Yamazaki did a good job of carrying Frye, and Frye's simple heel tactics always work because fans "expect" sportsmanship in this style of match. The match was too short to really amount to much though. *3/4
THE FINAL INOKI TOURNAMENT Ikkaisen: Naoya Ogawa vs. Dave Beneteau. 1/2*
Sparring: Antonio Inoki vs. Nobuaki Tsunoda
AJ Pro Wrestling 30 3/29/98 '98 Champion Carnival taped 3/21 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
'98 Champion Carnival Koshikisen: Akira Taue vs. Giant Kimala. 1/4*
Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama & Satoru Asako vs. Steve Williams & Wolf Hawkfield & Johnny Smith. The last 6 minutes aired. Wolf was not good at all, but Akiyama, Smith, and Misawa were and that was enough to make it enjoyable.
'98 Champion Carnival Koshikisen: Stan Hansen vs. Gary Albright. -1/2*
NJ 4/4/98 Antonio Inoki Retirement Show taped 4/4 Tokyo Dome
Clips of first round of Inoki Final Tournament
Antonio Inoki sparring with Nobuaki Kikuta of K-1
Inoki Final Tournament semifinal: Naoya Ogawa vs. Brian Johnston. Really short. Johnson has a lot of potential in worked shoots, but Ogawa never improves. 1/2*
Inoki Final Tournament semifinal: Don Frye vs. Igor Meindert. Bad match. Only thing of note was Frye’s pull apart with Meindert’s second Gerard Gordeau. 1/4*
Inoki Final Tournament final: Naoya Ogawa vs. Don Frye. Frye once again got heat, but that was the only plus. Frye’s punches were way too pulled. Sayama threw in the towel, but Frye kept punching Ogawa anyway. 1/2*
NJ 4/11/98 taped 3/21 Amagasaki & 3/22 Nagoya
3/21
Hashimoto & Nishimura vs. NWO Sting & Michael Wallstreet. Hashimoto was good, as always, but no one else did anything special. *1/2
Fujinami & Kojima vs. Chono & Tenzan. Seemed like a good match due to Tenzan working with Kojima for almost the entire portion that aired.
3/22
Liger & Samurai & Dr. Wagner Jr. vs. Kanemoto & Takaiwa & La Fiera. Only 2:40 aired, but it was everything you’d expect from these guys.
Ka Shin vs. Otani. Again less than 3 minutes air, but it was very good while it lasted.
Hashimoto & Kojima vs. Muta & Wallstreet. Everyone came to wrestle. Hashimoto vs. Muta was real good. Muta eggs on and attacks Nishimura, and eventually Nishimura winds up interfering. This was to build heat for the tag title match at the Tokyo Dome. ***
Fujinami & Sasaki vs. Chono & Titan. Fujinami & Chono did nothing wrong, but they are boring and the other two were bad. In another angle to build heat for the Dome, Sasaki walked out after the match and let NWO/Aristrist beat on Fujinami, but Fujinami made a comeback and ran them off. *1/2
AJ 4/5/98 '98 Champion Carnival Taped 3/29 Nagoya Aichi-ken Taiikukan
Akiyama & Inoue vs. Takayama & Kakihara. *1/2
Champion Carnival League Bout: Misawa vs. Kawada. Read Review ****1/4
*Reviewed in Quebrada #43*
Yuki Lee & Kazuko Fujiwara vs. Angie & Ryuna. 1/2*
Megumi Yabushita & Sumie Sakai vs. Momoe Nakanishi & Nanae Takahashi (AJW team). **
Cooga vs. Emi Motokawa (IWA Japan). *3/4
Sachie Abe & Miyuki Sogabe vs. Fang Suzuki & Shark Tsuchiya (FMW). 1/4*
Mima Shimoda (Neo Ladies) vs. The Goddess Chikako Shiratori. DUD
TWF Tag Titles: Jaguar Yokota & Yuko Kosugi vs. Lioness Asuka & The Bloody. ***1/4
AJ 4/5/98 '98 Champion Carnival Taped 3/29 Nagoya Aichi-ken Taiikukan
Akiyama & Inoue vs. Takayama & Kakihara. *1/2
Champion Carnival League Bout: Misawa vs. Kawada. Read Review.****1/4
3/29/98 Nagoya Aichi-ken Taiikukan & 4/18/98 Tokyo Nippon Budokan
’98 Champion Carnival League Bout: Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Toshiaki Kawada. ****1/4
Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue vs. Johnny Ace & Johnny Smith
4/11/98 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
’98 Champion Carnival League Bout: Johnny Ace vs. Wolf Hawkfield
’98 Champion Carnival League Bout: Kenta Kobashi vs. Jun Akiyama
NJ 4/18/98 Antonio Inoki Retirement Show taped 4/4 Tokyo Dome
Antonio Inoki Retirement Match: Inoki vs. Frye. DUD
IWGP Heavyweight Title: Sasaki vs. Fujinami. Fujinami wins IWGP title. More nostalgia than anything else. Fujinami tried his best and was the better of the two, but a 44-year-old man can only play Inoki’s youthful understudy so well. Fujinami revived and teased some of his old spots. Technically sound, but somewhat dull. **1/4
AJ 4/19 '98 Champion Carnival taped 4/18 Tokyo Nippon Budokan
Champion Carnival Final: Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Jun Akiyama. Misawa wins Carny. Read Review.****
NJ 4/18/98 Antonio Inoki Retirement Show taped 4/4 Tokyo Dome
Antonio Inoki Retirement Match: Inoki vs. Frye. DUD
IWGP Heavyweight Title: Sasaki vs. Fujinami. Fujinami wins IWGP title. More nostalgia than anything else. Fujinami tried his best and was the better of the two, but a 44-year-old man can only play Inoki’s youthful understudy so well. Fujinami revived and teased some of his old spots. Technically sound, but somewhat dull. **1/4
NJ 4/25/98 Antonio Inoki Retirement Show taped 4/4 Tokyo Dome
IWGP Jr. Title: Liger vs. Ka Shin. Typical Ka Shin style match. Stiff match. Liger’s selling was generally excellent, but his offense wasn’t much and these two didn’t seem to be on the same page at points. Overall, disappointing even considering you expect worse due to the Dome. ***
Takaiwa vs. Kanemoto. Clip
Otani vs. Yasuraoka. Clip
IWGP Tag Titles: Muta & Chono vs. Hashimoto & Nishimura. Really hot crowd. Nishimura got pounded, but kept coming back. A couple of Nishimura’s finishers were actually seen as very credible. Hashimoto was good and Muto actually put some effort in for once. The match would have been very good, but Muto hit his head on the canvas accidentally doing a Frankensteiner and he had to tag Chono. Chono and Nishimura had to improvise from there and they showed what kind of workers they really are by blowing some spots. ***1/4
AJ 4/12 '98 Champion Carnival
Champion Carnival League Bout: Kobashi vs. Omori. Omori’s best singles match in quite some time, though pretty much all due to Kobashi doing a good job carrying him. Stiff early portion and Omori got his spots in before jobbing. ***1/2
Champion Carnival League Bout: Williams vs. Hansen. Hansen is so slow these days that Doc looks like a speed demon in comparison. Slow paced with no heat until the end. Stiffness is all these two can supply. *1/2
Jun Izumida & Maunakea Mossman & Satoru Asako vs. Yoshinari Ogawa &
Tsuyoshi Kikuchi
& Masao Inoue. *3/4
Johnny Ace & Johnny Smith vs. Steve Williams & Gary Albright. *
'98 Champion Carnival League Match: Kenta Kobashi vs. Wolf Hawkfield. **3/4
'98 Champion Carnival League Match: Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Akira Taue. ***1/2
NJ 4/25/98 Antonio Inoki Intai aped 4/4 Tokyo Dome
IWGP Jr. Title: Liger vs. Ka Shin. Typical Ka Shin style match. Stiff match. Liger’s selling was generally excellent, but his offense wasn’t much and these two didn’t seem to be on the same page at points. Overall, disappointing even considering you expect worse due to the Dome. ***
Takaiwa vs. Kanemoto. Clip
Otani vs. Yasuraoka. Clip
IWGP Tag Titles: Muta & Chono vs. Hashimoto & Nishimura. Really hot crowd. Nishimura got pounded, but kept coming back. A couple of Nishimura’s finishers were actually seen as very credible. Hashimoto was good and Muto actually put some effort in for once. The match would have been very good, but Muto hit his head on the canvas accidentally doing a Frankensteiner and he had to tag Chono. Chono and Nishimura had to improvise from there and they showed what kind of workers they really are by blowing some spots. ***1/4
AJ 4/26 '98 Champion Carnival taped 4/18 Tokyo Nippon Budokan
Kawada & Taue vs. Ace & Smith. Smith was the best here. The match was build around Smith, and he showed he belonged in top matches before jobbing in the end. Kawada was nothing special, but still was considerably better than Taue and Ace. **1/2
Kobashi & Takayama & Kakihara vs. Williams & Albright & Hawkfield. Takayama gets dropped on his head at a terrible angle accidentally by a Gary suplex. He was very lucky that he wasn’t seriously hurt here. Kakihara has a strong performance that really stands out here, but no one else is very good. *1/2
NJ 5/2 taped 4/14 Kagoshima
Liger & Ka Shin vs Otani & Takaiwa. Ka Shin was lagging behing, but the other three looked great. Otani vs. Liger was the highlight of the match. More blown or partially screwed up spots than normal. ****
Hiro & Tenzan vs Sasaki & Nakanishi. Sprint. Sasaki was the hot worker, so obviously it wasn’t that great. Hiro scored the big upset, pinning Sasaki with his diving senton. **1/4
Hashimoto & Yasuda vs Chono & Titan. Titan was horrible and only Hashimoto was good. Heated, but otherwise it was crap. *
Tenryu & Koshinaka vs Fujinami & Kojima. Kojima takes a tremendous beating here as they purposely broke his nose. The fans got behind him as he was getting pulverized. Kojima eventually made a hot comeback, though he didn’t get as much offense in as I expected and he still wound up getting pinned in the end. Still, the great show of fighting spirit helps him get over. Brutal match. ****
NJ 5/9 BATTLE RISE taped 4/21 Ube
Liger & Samurai & Ka Shin vs. Kanemoto & Otani & Takaiwa. Exciting match with great work and near perfect execution, but certainly not a match of the year. Basically just a spotfest with no real selling or psychology. ****1/4
clips of Honaga’s retirement matches
Hashimoto & Kojima vs. Kimura & Goto. Kimura & Goto just suck. *3/4
Fujinami & Nishimura vs. Sasaki & Hirata. Sprint. Stiff match. **3/4
Chono & Tenzan & Saito vs. Koshinaka & Tenryu & Ohara. Fast-paced with great heat. Very stiff match. Strong showing by Tenryu. ***1/4
AJ 4/19 '98 Champion Carnival taped 4/18 Tokyo Nippon Budokan
Champion Carnival Final: Misawa vs. Akiyama. Misawa wins Carny. ****
*reviewed in Quebrada #48*
Highlights of all the Carnival matches from 3/21 & 3/22 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, 3/26 Chiba Kooen Taiikukan, 3/29 Nagoya Aichi-ken Taiikukan, 4/11 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, & 4/12 Sendai Miyagi-ken Sports Center
Champion Carvival Final: Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Jun Akiyama. Read Review.****
AJ 4/26 '98 Champion Carnival taped 4/18 Tokyo Nippon Budokan
Kawada & Taue vs. Ace & Smith. Smith was the best here. The match was build around Smith, and he showed he belonged in top matches before jobbing in the end. Kawada was nothing special, but still was considerably better than Taue and Ace. **1/2
Kobashi & Takayama & Kakihara vs. Williams & Albright & Hawkfield. Takayama gets dropped on his head at a terrible angle accidentally by a Gary suplex. He was very lucky that he wasn’t seriously hurt here. Kakihara has a strong performance that really stands out here, but no one else is very good. *1/2
AJ 5/4 Showdown at the Egg taped 5/1 Tokyo Dome
Triple Crown: Misawa vs. Kawada. Reviewed in Quebrada #48. ****1/2
Kobashi & Ace vs. Hansen & Vader. Kobashi is by far the best here. Vader not surprisingly works his ass off, but he’s not in shape for this kind of match and it really shows. Stan also works incredibly hard, but the tank has long been on E. Ace doesn’t look good once again. The match worked though, especially since the fans were really into Kobashi vs. Vader. Unfortunately each had a teammate to take the match down. ***1/2
AJ 5/10 Showdown at the Egg taped 5/1 Tokyo Dome
Akiyama vs. Hase. Bad AJ booking at it’s worst having Hase out there this long in 1998. Too many submissions that weren’t advancing the match that could have been eliminated if this was the proper length. **
Super tape! Highlights the first five great Triple Crown matches between Misawa & Kawada (10/21/92, 7/29/93, 6/3/94, 7/24/95, 6/6/97 all from Nippon Budokan) as well as what led up to each of Kawada’s challenge. Read Overview.
5/1/98 Tokyo Dome: Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Toshiaki Kawada. Kawada finally takes the TC from Misawa. Read Review. ****1/2
AJ 5/10 Showdown at the Egg taped 5/1 Tokyo Dome
Akiyama vs. Hase. Bad AJ booking at it’s worst having Hase out there this long in 1998. Too many submissions that weren’t advancing the match that could have been eliminated if this was the proper length. **
Jd' #25 5/11/98 taped 3/8 Yokohama Bunka Taiikukan
*Reviewed in Quebrada #39
The Next Tournament Round 1
Sumie Sakai & Momoe Nakanishi (AJW) vs. Hiromi Kato (Gaea) & Nanae Takahashi (AJW)
Yuko Kosugi & Kanako Motoya (JWP) vs. Sachie Abe & Miho Watabe (LLPW)
The Next Tournament Semifinals
Sakai & Nakanishi vs. Miyuki Sogabe & Emi Motokawa (IWA Japan)
Kosugi & Motoya vs. Fang Suzuki & Misa Okoda (SPWF)
Vale Tudo Rules: Yoko Takahashi vs. Megumi Yabushita
Kumiko Maekawa (AJW) vs. Yuki Lee. **
The Next Tournament Final: Sakai & Nakanishi vs. Kosugi & Motoya. ***1/4
Jaguar Yokota vs Cooga. ***1/2
Mima Shimoda & Etsuko Mita & Saya Endo (Neo Ladies trio) & The Goddess Chikako Shiratori vs. Lioness Asuka & Shark Tsuchiya (free) & The Bloody & Ryuna. *1/4
AJ TV aired 5/17 taped 5/1 from the Tokyo Dome
Wolf Hawkfield & Johnny Smith vs. Jado & Gedo (Fuyuki Promotion). Everyone worked hard. Smith was by far the best here, and he basically saved the match. Jado & Gedo looked good in points. Wolf was annoying and mediocre. Gedo flashed back to his WAR days, pulling out a plancha and his Orihara moonsault off the 2nd. **1/2
Maunakea Mossman vs Daisuke Ikeda (Battlarts). Ikeda did a good job of carrying this and looked sharp. Mossman did all his spots, but he still has problems. A little shaky early, but turned into a good match. ***
NJ World Pro Wrestling 5/23/98 BEST OF THE SUPER Jr. V taped 5/16 Matsudo
Super Junior V League Bout: Kaz Hayashi vs. Felino. They did some really fast Lucha sequences. Match had some great spots, but the pacing seemed off. Selling wasn’t all that good. ***1/4
Super Junior V League Bout: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Tatsuhito Takaiwa. Match continued the story between the two, picking up right where they left off in their last singles match. The spots were hard to come by here. Takaiwa had nothing to bridge to his high spots though. Still, the Teases and counters of the big spots were excellent. Everything was so well planned and it seemed like each spot put them in perfect position to do the next spot, so there was no wasted motion. Liger worked stiff. ***3/4
Shiro Koshinaka & Tatsutoshi Goto & Michiyoshi Ohara vs. Masa Chono & Big Titan & Hiroyoshi Tenzan. Bad sprint with too much punching and kicking. Koshinaka looked pretty good, but Goto, Titan, & Ohara all sucked. 3/4*
Tatsumi Fujinami & Kensuke Sasaki vs. Shinya Hashimoto & Osamu Nishimura. Sasaki & Nishimura sucked, blowing spots and everything. Fujinami was destroyed by Hashimoto to make it look like Hashimoto would easily defeat him in their 6/5 title match. Hashimoto had Fujinami in an udehishigigyakujujigatame on the floor after the match and didn’t want to release it. *1/4
AJ Pro Wrestling 30 5/24/98 taped 5/1 Tokyo Dome
Giant Baba & Hayabusa & Kentaro Shiga vs. Jinsei Shinzaki & Giant Kimala & Jun Izumida. Shinzaki looked good doing his spots to Baba and Hayabusa & Shinzaki worked well together. Kimala & Izumida dragged the match down. Baba did too, but to a much lesser extent since the fans were obviously popping when Jinsei was doing his spots to Baba. **
Jumbo Tsuruta & Rusher Kimura & Mitsuo Momota vs. Masa Fuchi & Haruka Eigen & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi. Not as horrible as usual due to Kikuchi & Jumbo working some passable serious sequences. Eigen teasing a tope then chickening out was actually somewhat funny. 1/4*
AJ World Pro Wrestling 5/31/98 taped 5/1 Tokyo Dome & 5/23 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
5/1: Taue & Omori & Inoue vs. Gladiator & Kuroda & Hosaka. Started out hot with Gladiator and Taue, and had a few other moments along the way, but pretty much died from there. Too many stiffs taking away from what would have been at least interesting, Taue vs. Gladiator. *1/4
5/23: Kobashi & Ace & Asako vs. Kawada & Taue & Kikuchi. Last 4:30 of 27:09 aired.
Jd' #26 6/3/98 taped 4/26 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
*Reviewed in Quebrada #47*
Fang Suzuki vs. Kazuko Fujiwara. Clip
The Goddess Chikako Shiratori vs. Sachie Abe.
Ryuna vs. Yuki Lee. Clip
Cooga vs. Leoga. Clip
The Bloody vs. Saya Endo (Neo Ladies). **1/2
TWF World Tag Title: Jaguar Yokota & Yuko Kosugi vs. Megumi Yabushita & Sumie Sakai. ***
TWF Sekai Single Senshukenjiai: Lioness Asuka vs. Kyoko Inoue. ****1/2
Triple Crown: Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Toshiaki Kawada. Kawada wins TC. ****1/2
Jun Akiyama vs. Hiroshi Hase
Akira Taue & Takao Omori & Masao Inoue vs. The Gladiator & Tetsuhiro Kuroda & Hideki Hosaka (FMW team)
Tamon Honda & Shigeo Okumura (Shin Tokyo Puroresu) vs. The Headhunters. 4 minutes shown
Satoru Asako vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru
Kenta Kobashi & Johnny Ace vs. Stan Hansen & Vader
Giant Baba & Hayabusa & Kentaro Shiga vs. Giant Kimala & Jinsei Shinzaki (Michinoku Pro) & Jun Izumida
Yoshihiro Takayama & Masahito Kakihara vs. Steve Williams & Gary Albright
Wolf Hawkfield & Johnny Smith vs. Jado & Gedo
Jumbo Tsuruta & Rusher Kimura & Mitsuo Momota vs. Masa Fuchi & Haruka Eigen & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi. Digest
Maunakea Mossman vs. Daisuke Ikeda. Digest
Yoshinari Ogawa & Kentaro Shiga vs. Jado & Gedo
Masa Fuchi & Haruka Eigen & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Giant Baba & Rusher Kimura & Mitsuo Momota
'98 Champion Carnival League Match: Stan Hanson vs. Giant Kimala
'98 Champion Carnival League Match: Jun Akiyama vs. Johnny Ace
'98 Champion Carnival League Match: Toshiaki Kawada vs. Akira Taue
AJ Pro Wrestling 30 6/7/98 taped 6/5 Sapporo Nakajima Taiiku Center & 5/1 Tokyo Dome
6/5 World Tag Titles: Kawada & Taue vs Kobashi & Ace. Clip
5/1: Williams & Albright vs Yoshihiro Takayama & Masahito Kakihara. Williams was good here carrying the match. Takayama was taking really lame bumps and sucked as always. Kakihara was fine, but didn’t come close to saving this. *3/4
5/1: Headhunters A & B vs Tamon Honda & Shigeo Okumura. Hunters dominated this won. A few good spots by the Hunters, but not much beyond that. *1/2
World Pro Wrestling 6/13 IWGP Tag Title Tournament taped 6/3 Osaka Shi Nakajima Taiikukan
IWGP Tag Tournament 1st Round: Nakanishi & Kojima vs. Goto & Ohara. As always, Kojima’s charisma was incredible and Goto & Ohara weren’t good. Fans were really into this, but the match sucked other than Kojima, whose offense wasn’t even that great due to lack of stiffness. *1/2
IWGP Tag Tournament 1st Round: Sasaki & Yamazaki vs. Wallstreet & Big Titan. Match had no beauty to it. It was just a slugfest that lacked stiffness, if that makes any sense. Yamazaki was the best of the four, but he couldn’t come close to dragging this one out of the gutter. 1/2*
IWGP Tag Tournament Semifinal: Tenryu & Koshinaka vs. Nakanishi & Kojima. Kojima was more fiery than ever before. Tenryu hit Kojima and Nakanishi with ridiculously stiff punches. Fans really pulled for Nakanishi & Kojima. Nakanishi was by far the worst as he got lost sometimes and wrestled rather robotically. Very good match, but finish could have been better. ***1/2
IWGP Tag Tournament Semifinal: Sasaki & Yamazaki vs. Chono & Tenzan. They didn’t blow anything, but the match was pretty dull. Sasaki accidentally KO’d Yamazaki on the floor with a lariat then Chono put Yamazaki in the STF and Tenzan tried to make Sasaki submit. Sasaki didn’t submit, but his leg was badly damaged, and his partner was "out" on the floor. *1/2
AJ Pro Wrestling 30 6/14 '98 Super Power Series
6/5 Sapporo Nakajima Taiiku Center: Satoru Asako & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Super Delfin & Gran Naniwa (Michinoku Pro team). Kanemaru made fun of Naniwa’s mannerisms. They did a lot of nice things, but the execution wasn’t perfect and it just kind of fell flat. ** range
6/12 Tokyo Nippon Budokan World Junior Heavyweight Title: Mossman vs. Asako. Not as good as their 9/15/97 match, mainly because the execution was down. They tried really hard and Mossman’s spots looked good, but it just didn’t come together. **1/2
Mighty Inoue Retirement Ceremony
AJ Pro Wrestling 30 6/28 '98 Super Power Series taped 6/12 Tokyo Nippon Budokan
Baba & Kimura & Momota vs. Fuchi & Eigen & Izumida. Lowlights.
Omori & Masao Inoue vs. Steve Williams & Wolf Hawkfield. Even worse than expected. No one else did much. 3/4*
AJ Pro Wrestling 30 6/21/98 taped 6/12 Tokyo Nippon Budokan
Triple Crown: Kawada vs. Kobashi. Kobashi wins TC.
NJ World Pro Wrestling 6/27/98
Chono & Tenzan vs. Tenryu & Koshinaka
Hashimoto vs. Fujinami
AJ Pro Wrestling 30 6/28/98
Baba & Rusher Kimura & Momota vs. Fuchi & Eigen & Izumida
Omori & Inoue vs. Williams & Hawkfield
AJW TV 6/28/98 The History of the WWWA Sekai Single Senshuken
Another choice show filled with historical footage of all the WWWA champion, and several stars of the past who never held the title (or in some cases even contended as Numacchi, Hozumi, ASARI, etc make the show). There's even a good segment on the various weapons that have been used in AJW (with names written in romanji).
6/12 Tokyo Nippon Budokan Triple Crown: Toshiaki Kawada vs. Kenta Kobashi. Unless Tamura vs. Kousaka is better, this is the Match of the Year. Kawada is just awesome here. He’s responsible for about 90% of the greatness here. Kawada totally leads Kobashi through this, and it’s the style that AJ is so famous for, excellent build and selling and ungodly stiffness, not just a bunch of meaningless head dropping like we’ve seen of late. Kobashi wins TC. Read Review. *****
Mighty Inoue retirement ceremony
5/31 Funabashi AJ Tag Titles: Wolf Hawkfield & Johnny Smith vs. Takao Omori & Tamon Honda. Highlights
6/5 Sapporo Nakajima Taiiku Center: Jun Akiyama vs. Steve Williams. Highlights
World Tag Title: Kawada & Akira Taue vs. Kobashi & Johnny Ace. Read Review. ****1/4
6/12 World Junior Heavyweight Title: Maunakea Mossman vs. Satoru Asako. Highlights
6/5: Super Delfin & Gran Naniwa vs. Satoru Asako & Yoshinobu Kanemaru. Highlights
AJ Pro Wrestling 30 7/5 '98 Super Power Series & ’98 Summer Action Series
6/12 Tokyo Nippon Budokan: Gary Albright & Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Jun Akiyama & Tamon Honda. Akiyama looked like a god next to these guys, and he wasn’t even going full force. Honda vs. Takayama was terrible. Gary did nice suplexes, but can’t do anything beyond them. Still, he was the second best in this one. *1/4
7/4 Toda Shi Sports Center Sports Center: Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue & Masao Inoue vs. Gary Albright & Yoshihiro Takayama & Masahito Kakihara. Kawada made Takayama look good. Match fell apart when Inoue was in. Kakihara didn’t really work during the 1/4 that aired.
7/4 Toda Shi Sports Center Sports Center: Akira Taue vs. Bobby Duncum Jr. Too short to help Duncum at all even if he had shown anything, which he didn’t. Only thing this had to offer was Duncum trying a Gladiator like dive over the top to the floor, but he came up way too short and had to have gotten hurt some. 1/4*
AJ Pro Wrestling 30 7/19 '98 Summer Action Series
7/15 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan World Tag Titles: Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue vs. Gary Albright & Yoshihiro Takayama. Not much of a match as Taue doesn’t work well in this environment, and the opposition doesn’t work well, period. Kawada was good, the only good of this match. If only Kakihara was in the title match instead of one of the other ex-UFW-I guys. *1/2
7/19 Niigata Shi Taiikukan: Jun Akiyama & Hiroshi Hase vs. Kenta Kobashi & Maunakea Mossman. Jun showed no mercy by destroying Kobashi’s knee. Hase helped him out a bit in that regard, but he had to stay out of the spotlight because the match was building to Akiyama vs. Kobashi TC. Akiyama was the standout here. *** range
AJ Pro Wrestling 30 7/26 '98 Summer Action Seriestaped 7/24 Tokyo Nippon Budokan
Triple Crown: Kenta Kobashi vs. Jun Akiyama. ****1/4
AJ Pro Wrestling 30 8/2 '98 Summer Action Seriestaped 7/15 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan
Kenta Kobashi vs. Masahito Kakihara. ***
Kawada & Omori vs. Hase & Mossman. **3/4
AJ Pro Wrestling 30 8/9 '98 Summer Action Seriestaped 7/19 Niigata Shi Taiikukan
Kawada & Taue vs. Takayama & Kakihara. Sub Kakihara for Albright and you have 3 of the 4 guys who were in the title match, but suddenly it’s a good match. Kawada & Kakihara were killing each other. Taue once again wasn’t good, and his offense looked like shit next to Kakihara’s. Taue really reduced the match. ***
World Junior Heavyweight Title League Final: Satoro Asako vs. Yoshinari Ogawa. Highlights. Ogawa takes the title.
NJ World Pro Wrestling 7/25 SUMMER STRUGGLE ’98 taped 7/14 Sapporo Nakajima Taiiku Center
Manabu Nakanishi & Satoshi Kojima vs. Keiji Muto & NWO Sting. This was Muto’s first back match from knee surgery. Even though he clearly wasn’t in top form, he tried to carry his team because Sting sucks. Unfortunately, Muto wasn’t able to carry this. The match had no heat and no one looked very good. *
Jushin Thunder Liger & El Samurai vs. Koji Kanemoto & Shinjiro Otani. The same goodness as always. Heat was a lot better than the Muto match. Unfortunately, only 1/3 aired. ***1/2 range.
Genichiru Tenryu & Shiro Koshinaka vs. Shinya Hashimoto & Tadao Yasuda. Tenryu & Hashimoto blasted each other back and forth with stiff chops to set up the style of their G1 match. This wasn’t as stiff as AJ, but Tenryu’s chest was welted up from the accumulation of the blows. When Koshinaka came in, Hashimoto blew him away with kicks. Tenryu seemed to burn out in the midst as he began working really slow, and he barely has any athleticism left. ***
IWGP World Title: Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan. Match was 20 years out of date. It didn’t work on any level. It was boring as hell with no heat, and mainly a bunch of rest holds submissions, kicks, and punches. A joke of a Japanese world title match. *
AJ Pro Wrestling 30 7/26 '98 Summer Action Seriestaped 7/24 Tokyo Nippon Budokan
Triple Crown: Kenta Kobashi vs. Jun Akiyama. ****1/4
7/24 Tokyo Nippon Budokan
Triple Crown: Kenta Kobashi vs. Jun Akiyama. Obviously really stiff with great execution. Suprisingly a story match, with Akiyama debilitating Kobashi’s knee, rather than a spotfest. Akiyama carried the match, and was clearly the better of the two. ****1/4
Toshiaki Kawada & Masao Inoue vs. Hiroshi Hase & Maunakea Mossman. A good match, marred by hideous booking as Hase was pinned by Kawada. Yeah, that’s right, with Mossman & Omori in the match and Hase having never faced Kawada in a singles match, they had Kawada pin Hase. Kawada was the man here, as he instilled the story and was the best worker. Hase didn’t have stamina or fire of his heyday, but his work with Kawada was very good. Mossman wasn’t much here and Omori wrestled like a robot. **3/4
7/19 Niigata Shi Taiikukan
World Junior Heavyweight Title League Final: Satoro Asako vs. Yoshinari Ogawa. Highlights. Asako was clearly the better of the two even though Ogawa wound up being the one getting the slot as Misawa’s #2. Ogawa takes the title.
7/15 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan
Asia Tag Titles: Wolf Hawkfield & Johnny Smith vs. The Headhunters. Highlights
World Tag Titles: Kawada & Taue vs. Gary Albright & Yoshihiro Takayama. Highlights
Kobashi vs. Masahito Kakihara. Another booking debacle as Kakihara wasn’t anywhere near the respect his work or his push in other leagues warrants. Kakihara carried the match which was a quasi-shoot, and it was good despite Kobashi not excelling in this style. Kakihara attacked Kobashi’s bad knee, which worked for him a lot better than for Akiyama because he has the submissions to back it up, although they didn’t get the heat they would have because no one submits in AJ.
7/5 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Super Delfin & Naohiro Hoshikawa vs. Kentaro Shiga & Makoto Hashi. Highlights
AJ Pro Wrestling 30 8/16 '98 Summer Action Series taped 7/24 Tokyo Nippon Budokan & 7/5 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
7/24 Tokyo Nippon Budokan: Johnny Ace & Wolf Hawkfield & Johnny Smith vs. Giant Kimala & The Headhunters A & B. Hunters worked hard, but don’t have it anymore. Smith was good, but beyond that this sucked. 1/2*
7/24 Tokyo Nippon Budokan: Akira Taue & Jun Izumida vs. Gary Albright & Yoshihiro Takayama. Surprisingly heated as fans were into seeing Izumida try to pin Takayama, and vice versa. *1/4
7/5 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Kobashi vs. Johnny Smith. As feared, this had absolutely no heat as the fans gave Smith no chance in hell of winning this. Smith worked over Kobashi’s knee, but his knee spots were very dull. *3/4
AJ Pro Wrestling 30 8/23 '98 Summer Action Series II taped 8/22 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Misawa & Akiyama & Asako vs. Kobashi & Ace & Smith. Misawa’s return from injury after missing two series. Misawa showed he still had his athleticism early to get the crowd into it, but the evil Ace soon kneecap dropkicked the bad knee. Misawa looked great here considering he wasn’t close to 100% and had to be a little rusty. Akiyama was still the best in the match though. Smith was quite good. Match lacked intensity. ***1/4
Maunakea Mossman vs. Akira Taue. Stiff match. No heat. They didn’t work incredibly well together. Mossman didn’t get enough offense in, as the match wasn’t even all that competitive. **
AJ Pro Wrestling 30 8/30 '98 Summer Action Series II taped 8/23 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Taue & Honda vs. Kobashi & Ace. Kobashi & Taue worked together a lot to build to their TC, with Taue being pretty fired up. Ace’s turn was corny, but the announcer did a great job of putting it over. Akiyama made the save, but Smith and Wolf sided with Ace, so it put the natives and gaijins at odds.
Kawada & Inoue vs. Hansen & Duncum Jr. Fans were into Inoue pushing Hansen, but it was a poor match with slow, unathletic spots. *1/4
Omori & Honda & Izumida vs. Albright & Takayama & Kakihara. Highlights.
AJ Pro Wrestling 30 9/6 '98 Summer Action Series II taped 8/29 Tokushima
Kawada & Taue vs. Kobashi & Mossman. Good work. Kobashi was into this one. ***
Misawa & Akiyama & Asako vs. Albright & Takayama & Kakihara. Match was alright, but kind of dull. Kakihara looked good, but his partners didn’t. **
AJ Pro Wrestling 30 8/30 '98 Summer Action Series II taped 8/23 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Taue & Honda vs. Kobashi & Ace. Kobashi & Taue worked together a lot to build to their TC, with Taue being pretty fired up. Ace’s turn was corny, but the announcer did a great job of putting it over. Akiyama made the save, but Smith and Wolf sided with Ace, so it put the natives and gaijins at odds.
Kawada & Inoue vs. Hansen & Duncum Jr. Fans were into Inoue pushing Hansen, but it was a poor match with slow, unathletic spots. *1/4
Omori & Honda & Izumida vs. Albright & Takayama & Kakihara. Highlights.
Jd' on GAORA #29 9/5/98 DEPARTURE~Summer Presents 1st~taped 7/5 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Fujiwara vs. Iizuka. Highlights.
Lee vs. The Goddess Shiratori. This didn’t look too good. ½ the match aired and it looked to be *1/2 or perhaps a little worse.
Judo Jacked Match: Fang Suzuki vs. Megumi Yabushita. This must have been booked by chimps because Yabushita was on the national Judo team, yet she couldn’t beat a colorless and talentless vampire wannabe in her own style match. Thus, it was declared a draw after 15:00 plus a 5:00 overtime.
Cooga & Abe vs. Ryuna & Hechicera (Yuki Miyazaki). 1/3 aired. Miyazaki is still really skinny, and appeared to be the best of the four.
Sakai vs. Hiromi Yagi. Yagi’s re-debut. Yagi had clearly trained really hard for this, but she was obviously rusty as she hadn’t wrestled in 14 months. Still, she almost seemed like an alien because she was so much better and more advanced than everyone who worked on this card before her. A really cool battle of the Judo girls, with Sakai also having a good performance and probably topping her best ever singles match once again. It was a little sloppy, but it looked like it was one of the best Jd’ matches of the year. Unfortunately, only 1/3 aired. ***1/2 range
TWF Tag Titles: Jaguar & Kosugi vs. Lioness & The Bloody. This was a very good match, but they edited so much out (18:21 of 60:00 aired) it was hard to tell just how good it was. The matches in this fued just get better and better because Kosugi & The Bloody continue to improve. Kosugi & Bloody used to need to be carried by Jaguar & Lioness, but now they work quite well together. This appeared to start slow, but everyone wrestled with a sense of urgency once they were deep into the match. Work was really strong. Jaguar’s selling was really good. Best Jd’ tag match?
NJ World Pro Wrestling 9/5
8/2 Ryogoku Kokugikan Jr. Tag League: Kanemoto & Wagner Jr. vs Ka Shin & Yasuraoka
8/2 Ryogoku Kokugikan Jr. Tag League: Liger & Samurai vs Otani & Takaiwa
8/8 Osaka Dome Jr. Tag League Final: Kanemoto & Wagner Jr. vs Otani & Takaiwa
AJ Pro Wrestling 30 9/6 taped Tokuyama
Kawada/Taue vs Kobashi/Mossman
Misawa/Akiyama/Asako vs Albright/Takayama/Kakihara
NJ World Pro Wrestling 9/12 RISING THE NEXT GENERATIONS in Osaka Dome taped 8/8 Osaka Dome
Nagata & Fujita vs Nakanishi & Kojima
Koshinaka vs. Tenzan
Liger vs. Great Sasuke
Great Kabuki & Great Muta vs. Goto & Ohara
AJ Pro Wrestling 30 TV 9/13 taped 9/11 Nippon Budokan
Triple Crown: Kenta Kobashi vs. Akira Taue. ****
NJ World Pro Wrestling 9/19 taped 9/10 Omiya Shi Min Taiikukan
Liger vs. Great Sasuke
Otani & Takaiwa vs. Kanemoto & Ka Shin
Hashimoto & Hirata vs. Bryan Adams & NWO Sting
Chono & Tenzan vs. Norton & Wallstreet
Sasaki & Nagata vs. Muto & Hiro Saito
AJ Pro Wrestling 30 9/20 '98 Summer Action Series II taped 9/11 Nippon Budokan
Akiyama vs Ogawa
8/23/98 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Kenta Kobashi & Johnny Ace vs. Akira Taue & Tamon Honda. Ace turns on Kobashi. Digest.
9/11/98 Tokyo Nippon Budokan Sankan Heavykyu Senshuken: Kenta Kobashi vs. Akira Taue. ****
8/22/98 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama & Satoru Asako vs. Kenta Kobashi & Johnny Ace & Johnny Smith. Misawa's return from injury
9/11/98 Tokyo Nippon Budokan: Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Maunakea Mossman
8/23/98 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama & Satoru Asako vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Takao Omori & Yoshinari Ogawa. Digest.
9/11/98 Tokyo Nippon Budokan: Jun Akiyama vs. Yoshinari Ogawa
9/11/98 Tokyo Nippon Budokan: Toshiaki Kawada vs. Masahito Kakihara
NJ World Pro Wrestling 9/26 taped 9/19 Nagoya
Liger & Samurai vs. Otani & Takaiwa
Fujinami & Hirata & Nakanishi vs. Norton & Muto & NWO Sting
Sasaki & Nagata vs. Tenryu & Koshinaka
Hashimoto & Yamazaki vs. Chono & Tenzan
AJ Pro Wrestling 30 10/4
Misawa & Ogawa vs. Taue & Honda
Hansen & Duncum Jr & Smith vs. Albright & Takayama & Kakihara
10/24/98 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Misawa & Takao Omori vs. Kobashi & Jinsei Shinzaki. Main point is Kobashi pins Misawa with his new inverted Death Valley bomb.
10/31/98 Tokyo Nippon Budokan Triple Crown: Kenta Kobashi vs. Mitsuharu Misawa. The best thing about Kobashi not being Misawa’s partner, is that they totally have their stuff working opposite each other down pat. They delivered the best men’s heavyweight match of 1996 on 3/31, the best men’s heavyweight match of 1997 on 1/20, the 3rd best men’s heavyweight match of 1997 on 10/21, and now, even with Misawa clearly not at 100%, they produced another awesome match which is probably the third best match of 1998. Most of the credit, as usual, goes to Misawa as he laid out a tremendous match that was more too the style of 1/20/97 than 10/21, which was a plus, IMO. Misawa’s psychology was the best it’s been this year. Kobashi is still a great worker, and overall he was at his 1998 best here, following Misawa’s lead without getting goofy. Match followed the typical storyline of Misawa getting destroyed most of the match. It developed slowly because they were going so long, but the build and utilization of the spots was excellent. Kobashi attacks the neck, as a key is obviously whether he can deliver the inverted Death Valley bomb. Misawa’s new Tigerdriver off the apron to the floor was the highlight.
10/11 Nagoya Aichii-ken Taiikukan World Tag Titles: Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue vs. Kobashi & Jun Akiyama. Probably the best AJ tag match of the year. An excellent slow building AJ style long tag match. They did the little things right, the timing was excellent, and the match had great ebb and flow. Kobashi & Akiyama did little to distinguish themselves as a great team, but individually they are excellent, as is Kawada, but his teamwork with Taue after all these years is obviously light years ahead of the new team. Kawada was also, not surprisingly the best seller and most responsible for the psych. What’s funny is that the early portion of this match has strikes back and forth as stiff as as Tenryu/Hashimoto 8/1, but it’s just taken for granted because it’s AJ and the main eventers work stiff and "realistic" there. The second half where things really picked up was mainly what was responsible for the excellence, as the first 10 minutes was more we have time so we’ll stiff each other to wear down before we start playing our cards.
10/11 Nagoya Aichii-ken Taiikukan: Misawa vs. Jinsei Shinzaki. Even against Misawa, Shinzaki was still Shinlazy. The first 10 minutes of this match were almost a complete waste, but they picked it up in the second half and Misawa got a good match out of Shinzaki. This was mainly a work and spot match because that’s all Shinzaki has to offer, although Misawa handled the praying powerbomb spot in an interesting way. Shinzaki did a swandive plancha over the guard rail which was choice. The main aspect where the match failed was that you never believed for a second that Shinlazy had even the remotest chance of winning.
AJ Pro Wrestling 30 10/25/98 '98 Giant Series
10/24 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Mitsuharu Misawa & Takao Omori vs. Kenta Kobashi & Jinsei Shinzaki
10/5 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama & Kentaro Shiga vs. Gary Albright & Yoshihiro Takayama & Masahito Kakihara
AJ Pro Wrestling 30 '98 Real World Tag Team League taped 11/14 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
'98 Real World Tag Team League: Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Stan Hansen & Vader
'98 Real World Tag Team League: Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue vs. Headhunters
NJ World Pro Wrestling 10/31/98 nWo typhoon taped 10/18 Kobe World Kinen Hall
Akitoshi Saito vs. Don Frye
Koji Kanemoto vs. SASUKE
Jushin Thunder Liger & Kendo Ka Shin vs. Shinjiro Otani & Tatsuhito Takaiwa
Manabu Nakanishi & Satoshi Kojima vs. Takashi Iizuka & Yuji Nagata
IWGP Tag Titles: Genichiru Tenryu & Shiro Koshinaka vs. Keiji Muto & Hiroyoshi Tenzan
AJ Pro Wrestling 30 11/1/98'98 Giant Series taped 10/31 Tokyo Nippon Budokan
Triple Crown: Kenta Kobashi vs. Mitsuharu Misawa. Misawa wins TC.
AJ Pro Wrestling 30 11/8/98 ’98 Giant Series taped 10/31 Tokyo Nippon Budokan
Giant Baba & Jinsei Shinzaki & Masamichi Marufuji vs. Jado & Gedo & Yoshinobu Kanemaru
Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue vs. Yoshihiro Takayama & Masahito Kakihara
AJ Pro Wrestling 30 11/15/98 ’98 Real World Tag Team League taped 11/14 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Tag League Match: Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Stan Hansen & Vader
Tag League Match: Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue vs. The Headhunters
11/15 Korakuen Hall Tag League Match: Johnny Ace & Bart Gunn vs. Takao Omori & Yoshihiro Takayama
AJ Pro Wrestling 30 11/22/98 ’98 Real World Tag Team League taped 11/21 Hiroshima Sun Plaza
Tag League Match: Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama vs. Stan Hansen & Vader
Tag League Match: Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Johnny Ace & Bart Gunn
AJ Pro Wrestling 30 11/29/98 ’98 Real World Tag Team League taped 11/27 Morioka Iwate-ken ? Taiikukan
Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa & Tamon Honda vs. Stan Hansen & Vader & Maunakea Mossman
Tag League Match: Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue vs. Johnny Ace & Bart Gunn
Jd #31 11/20/98 taped 8/24 Tokyo Kitazawa Town Hall
Obacchi Iizuka vs. Kazuko Fujiwara. Obacchi actually looked a lot better, but her gimmick is way too goofy and some of her spots can only be described as bad comedy. Her new spot in this match was jumping off the top rope with a plastic bag filled with powder in her hands and popping it in midair, so it would get in Fujiwara’s eyes. A basic match that was totally dominated by Iizuka. The match wasn’t any good, but it wasn’t as bad as expected either.
Fang Suzuki vs. Hechisera. Fang is just awful. Miyazaki tried, but it was quickly apparent that the only thing you can do with Fang is brawl. They did that, but still it wasn’t any good. Fang dominated the match with her bad and boring offense. She didn’t really make any mistakes, but she didn’t try anything either. 1/2*
Megumi Yabushita vs. Yuki Lee. Yabushita’s technique was good, but Lee killed the match, as she was missing her mark as usual. The match wasn’t as fluid as it needed to be.
Yuko Kosugi & Sachie Abe vs. Miho Wakizawa & Noriko Toyoda. You can’t be putting Kosugi in this kind of match if you wan’t people to take her seriously as a star. Wakizawa showed potential here, but she made a few mistakes. Toyoda has no offense and hurt the match, but logging too many minutes during the portion that aired. Kosugi didn’t work enough and Abe was kind of a non factor. Not much of a match due to blown and mistimed spots to go along with the fact that Abe & Toyoda aren’t much to begin with. *
Jd’ Junior Title: The Bloody vs. Sumie Sakai. This was the first time on a TV taping that these two were "the show," and they made it worth tuning in. These are two of the most improved wrestlers for 1998, Bloody coming out of nowhere, and Sakai growing as she gained experience. The work was good and they weren’t exposed by being out there so long. Neither of these two are on the level where they can carry a long match yet, but they did a good enough job of working their spots in to get by. One thing I liked was that they worked all the undercarders into the match. Certainly, the heels have helped Bloody before, but the faces in turn helping Sakai out was a nice touch because it showed that the matches with faces and heels under Jaguar and Lioness are important these days. Both women’s move sets could be improved, as Bloody relies too heavily on suplexes to not do any dangerous ones. She has expanded her senton offense to include a senton off the apron and a diving senton through a table though, which along with Sakai’s plancha, were the highlights of the match. Bloody showed more mat skills than she had in the past, but she needs to tighten her locks so it’s not so obvious that she’s not applying much pressure. The match was hurt by some blown spots, most notably Sakai overshooting a moonsault and Bloody missing Sakai with a chair she threw at her. At points things looked too acted or didn’t flow as well as they should have, but all things considered it was really a strong match given that they are up and coming wrestlers who are still learning their craft. Their finish showed their inexperience as Bloody got her feet up for Sakai’s moonsault then went to the top, but Sakai recovered quick enough to run over and Frankensteiner her off the top. It was a quick comeback and it required a second to give Bloody an extra boost to take the bump. The fact that Bloody kicked out of Sakai’s grip before 3, but didn’t get her shoulders gave her an out for losing the title. ***1/4
AJ Pro Wrestling 30 12/6/98 '98 Real World Tag Team League taped 12/5 Tokyo Nippon Budokan
'98 Real World Tag Team League Final: Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama vs. Stan Hansen & Vader. Kobashi & Akiyama win tag league.
Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa & Masahito Kakihara vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue & Yoshihiro Takayama
AJ Pro Wrestling 30 12/6/98 '98 Real World Tag Team League taped 12/5 Tokyo Nippon Budokan
'98 Real World Tag Team League Final: Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama vs. Stan Hansen & Vader. They delivered all you could ask for. Vader gives an excellent performance carrying his team and Hansen doesn't screw it up. Obviously the problem with the match, with any match involving a monster team, is it's completely one-sided. Vader & Hansen really don't take any legitimate bumps, but you knew that coming in. The crowd was going nuts anytime Kobashi & Akiyama did anything, which granted wasn't too often but shows the monster gimmick worked. In particular, they were exploding when Vader's knee was injured. The '95 final was way better in every other regard, but this at least felt like a tag final due to the fans. Kobashi & Akiyama gave regular performances, both very good but I would not say either were that impressive. The gaijins stepped it up a lot more than the natives, though obviously they were still the weak link, Vader is the only one that really impressed me in all he did to carry his team. One wicked spot where Akiyama tries to use his northern lights suplex on Vader, but Vader uses his weight to drive Akiyama straight down into the canvas nose first with Vader coming down on top. Finish was improbably but basically all they could do given the result and the limitations of those involved. ***1/2
Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa & Masahito Kakihara vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue & Yoshihiro Takayama
AJ Pro Wrestling 30 12/13/98 '98 Real World Tag Team League taped Sendai Miyagi-ken Sports Center
Stan Hansen & Vader vs. Johnny Ace & Bart Gunn
Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama
AJTV aired 12/20
'98 Real World Tag Team League digest
12/11/77 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan: Dory Funk Jr. & Terry Funk vs. Abdullah The Butcher & The Sheik. Dory gave a typically strong performance, but couldn't save the match with such unskilled opposition. Butcher & Sheik bled, but that was all they could do. *1/4
12/13/81 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan: Dory Funk Jr. & Terry Funk vs. Bruiser Brody & Jimmy Snuka 21:41. Dory was typically excellent here, and brought the best out of Snuka. Their stuff was quite good, with Snuka utilizing his athleticism including a swandive body press and Dory making him really work to keep his headlock. Brody was on offense most of the time he was in, though he found a way to bleed. Terry was alright, but really pales compared to Dory. He did a plancha, but he did one of his completely ridiculous oversells, a 360 degree spin after Brody kicked him. Funks worked the knee setting up the key spot where they had spinning toe holds, but Brody shot Terry to the floor and whipped him at Hansen, who took him out with the western lariat. Dory continued on his own, persistent on the knee, but Snuka was able to tag while in a subsequent spinning toe hold. Dory attacked after the bell, but Hansen beat him up then Baba & Jumbo jumped in and fought Hansen, who juiced. ****
12/13/83 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan: Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiru Tenryu vs. Stan Hansen & Bruiser Brody 17:43. Jumbo & Tenryu were good at having action oriented match with the gaijins, making up for their technical deficiencies by keeping things moving and doing a number of good well executed simple spots. Though Hansen & Brody aren't exactly limited and are capable of a deeper match, this is certainly the kind of match they can excel in, especially since their moves are so over. Even though I prefer the other style, it's nice seeing a double dropkick from Hansen and Brody every once in a while. Surprisingly Tenryu carried things for his side, allowing Jumbo to eventually make the hot tag. Once this occurred the match really picked up; great action in the final three minutes. ****
11/30/85 Kanagawa Yokohama Bunka Taiikukan: Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiru Tenryu vs. Riki Choshu & Yoshiaki Yatsu 30:00. One of those matches where it was obvious they were going long. Started slow and the pace never seemed to pick up, continuing to be technical in the boring wear the opponent down with rest holds kind of way. The crowd didn't react that much until Jumbo tagged in at 27:30 and used some finishers. It was a solid match, but what makes Choshu good is fire and intensity and for the most part that was sorely lacking here. ***
11/24/89 Hokkaido Sapporo Nakajima Taiiku Center: Genichiru Tenryu & Stan Hansen vs. Giant Baba & Rusher Kimura. Well thought out match that told a good story. If Baba & Rusher weren't so disgraceful on offense it might have been a great match, but man their offense is just terrible! As Baba was about to enter the ring Tenryu caught him with a tope, causing the match to begin without ring announcements. Tenryu & Hansen were nasty, and the match was quality as long as they stayed on offense. They beat Rusher up for 8 minutes while Baba was selling on the floor, causing him to juice a gusher. Baba eventually came in and cleaned house, but he has about 2 minutes worth of stamina and Rusher was still on the floor recovering. Soon the tide turned when Hansen chaired Baba in the stomach. ***
12/9/95 Tokyo Nippon Budokan, '95 Sekai Saikyo Tag Kettei League Yushoketteisen: Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue 27:00. Overshadowed because they had so many great matches in such a short period of time. This may have been the worst, and a half dozen in one year is too much, but these are the two greatest teams ever and 1995 was a peak year for all. Everything that made the other matches great except for crowd heat was present here, the big difference to me is the best stuff came early. Kawada stalled the start to incite Kobashi then when Kobashi finally got him in a headlock Kawada exploded with a backdrop driver, high kick to Misawa, and jumping high kick. Taue worked on Misawa while Kawada and Kobashi were legal, with Kawada assisting every time Kobashi was down. This led to the dynamic duo taking Misawa out with an elevated nodowa otoshi on the floor at 5:00. Kobashi's left arm was injured when Taue pulled him off the apron into the security rail, and they worked it over for several minutes while Misawa was out of it on the floor. When Misawa would make it back to the apron they would knock him off, which elicited some boos. Eventually Misawa got back in the match when Kobashi blocked Kawada's udehishigigyakujujigatame so Taue came in and broke his clasp, turning it into a double. Misawa did enough damage that Kobashi was able to make the hot tag at 13. The first half was tremendous, but they either used up their story points too early or didn't capitalize on them quite enough during the second half. The final half contained most of their top moves, but the fans didn't react as they should. For instance, at one point Kawada turns Kobashi's lariat into an udehishigigyakujujigatame and even though they'd worked over Kobashi's arm for all that time, the fans didn't buy it. It would have helped if Kobashi didn't rope escape so quickly, but Kawada didn't even get too negative a reaction for refusing to release. The tide turned when Misawa blocked Kawada's powerbomb on the floor and took him out with a Tigerdriver. Taue was getting the better of Kobashi in the ring, but finally Misawa's team was able to do some double teaming. *spoilers* Given they were beaten on almost the entire match, it was not very credible that they were able to put Taue away within two minutes. ****1/2
12/5/98 Tokyo Nippon Budokan, '98 Sekai Saikyo Tag Kettei League Yushoketteisen: Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama vs. Vader & Stan Hansen 18:58. They delivered all you could ask for. Vader gives an excellent performance carrying his team and Hansen doesn't screw it up. Obviously the problem with the match, with any match involving a monster team, is it's completely one-sided. Vader & Hansen really don't take any legitimate bumps, but you knew that coming in. The crowd was going nuts anytime Kobashi & Akiyama did anything, which granted wasn't too often but shows the monster gimmick worked. In particular, they were exploding when Vader's knee was injured. The '95 final was way better in every other regard, but this at least felt like a tag final due to the fans. Kobashi & Akiyama gave regular performances, both very good but I would not say either were that impressive. The gaijins stepped it up a lot more than the natives, though obviously they were still the weak link, Vader is the only one that really impressed me in all he did to carry his team. One wicked spot where Akiyama tries to use his northern lights suplex on Vader, but Vader uses his weight to drive Akiyama straight down into the canvas nose first with Vader coming down on top. Finish was improbably but basically all they could do given the result and the limitations of those involved. ***1/2
NJ World Pro Wrestling 12/19/98 SG TAG LEAGUE VIII taped 12/4 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan (1st match) & 12/6 Nagoya Aichi-ken Taiikukan
Yuji Nagata vs. Don Frye
SG TAG LEAGUE VIII Semifinal: Genichiru Tenryu & Koshinaka vs. Keiji Muto & Satoshi Kojima
SG TAG LEAGUE VIII Semifinal: Tatsumi Fujinami & Shinya Hashimoto vs. Kensuke Sasaki & Kazuo Yamazaki
SG TAG LEAGUE VIII Final: Tatsumi Fujinami & Shinya Hashimoto vs. Keiji Muto & Satoshi Kojima
AJTV aired 12/20
Real World Tag Team League highlights
NJ Tokon V Special Vol. 45 NWO vs. Muga
3/8/98 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Keiji Muto & Masa Chono & Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Big Titan vs. Kensuke Sasaki & Shinya Hashimoto & Kazuo Yamazaki & Osamu Nishimura
3/9/98 Kyoto Furitsu Taiikukan: Keiji Muto & Masa Chono vs. Tatsumi Fujinami & Osamu Nishimura
3/13/98 Mito Shi Min Taiikukan: NWO Sting vs. Osamu Nishimura
4/16/98 Kumamoto Shi Min Taiikukan: Shinya Hashimoto vs. Osamu Nishimura
4/17/98 Nagasaki-ken Itsu Taiikukan: Masa Chono & Big Titan vs. Tatsumi Fujinami & Osamu Nishimura
4/19/98 Beppu Peekon (?) Plaza: Masa Chono & Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Shinya Hashimoto & Osamu Nishimura
AJ Memorial Fight Collection 1998
Year in review tape with highlights from the world tag title and TC matches.