The year 1990 was a hot start for what would end up becoming arguably the greatest decade in pro wrestling history…

Joshi puroresu entered a new phase with workers like Akira Hokuto and Manami Toyota of AJW, and workers like Harley Saito and Itsuki Yamazaki of JWP showing that the greatness achieved in the 1980s could be upgraded further. Hokuto and Yamazaki could lead, think and achieve at a fast pace while uplifting everyone around them. Toyota showed she was a reliable super worker. On 7/19/90, Harley Saito carried Shinobu Kandori to the best women’s singles match in history up until that point in time, which was basically a quasi-shoot-style match.

NJPW’s heavyweight division was never that interesting, but their junior heavyweight division got a fresh new member in Canadian wrestler Pegasus Kid, who wrestled for Stu Hart’s Stampede Wrestling during the second half of the 1980s. He proved to be Jushin Thunder Liger’s greatest rival. This was perfect timing, as Liger had upgraded from Jushin Liger to Jushin Thunder Liger and stepped up his game as a worker himself. Their 8/19/90 match is one of the greatest junior heavyweight title bouts in history.

Universal, a really cool league founded by Gran Hamada debuted on 3/1/90. It was the first successful attempt at having a full-fledged Mexican lucha libre league in Japan.

In Minnesota, Lightning Kid and Jerry Lynn had an excellent match that was unlike anything seen in the United States before. They were clearly two talented wrestlers worthy of keeping an eye on.

For more information about 1990, please read the following reviews and lists that will give you more in-depth info about the first year of the 1990s…

Please note: This project wasn't an attempt to rewatch every single good match that took place in 1990, but rather more of a nostalgic effort aimed at giving the feel of the year by revisiting the wrestlers and matches I remembered enjoying, while also checking out some things I'd never gotten around to. Thus, some lesser matches are included below, partly because reviews were already written for other projects, and some better matches probably fell through the cracks.

ACASA 1990 Juarez Gimnasio Municipal: Negro Casas & Blue Panther vs. Eddy Guerrero & Hijo del Santo 23:05 (10:10, 5:27, 7:28). This match possibly took place in the month of January or February of 1990, but this is simply a guess on my part. Some sources say 1987, but that doesn’t feel right. There was another match these two teams had against each other in Juarez, but that one took place in November 1989 prior to Eddy Guerrero defeating Negro Casas in a hair vs. hair match at some point around December 1989 or January 1990. Either way, I’m pretty sure this particular tag match I’m reviewing here took place prior to Negro Casas’ Universal tour in March 1990. This match started off nicely with Eddy Guerrero and Blue Panther displaying some good mat wrestling. Panther was a particularly smooth mat wrestler, but Guerrero certainly held up his own during the counter wrestling sequences. Once Negro Casas and Hijo del Santo were tagged in, they displayed arguably even better mat wrestling, especially because they put over the struggle more, as opposed to mostly just focusing on smoothly executed moves. Eddy had only been in the business for a couple of years at this point, but this second-generation wrestler clearly showed tons of potential already back in 1989/1990. Eddy’s father (Gori Guerrero) and Santo’s father (El Santo) used to be a legendary tag team known as La Pareja Atomica. When Eddy was in the ring with Casas, the pace quickened and there was less mat wrestling. Santo got to show some of his athletic ability, and it was the technico team of Guerrero & Santo that won the first fall. In the second fall, we got to see a bit more of the great Casas vs. Santo feud, and they showed a lot of resistance and struggle, really selling the idea that these two were in a competitive feud with one another. In particular, Casas really made Santo try harder to apply a hold on him. The rudos eventually won the second fall. Eddy threw some well-placed kicks, which is something he wouldn’t really show much going forward in his career, as he seemingly would end up preferring to stomp his opponents instead. Some nice suplexes were being thrown. Guerrero went for a double-arm underhook suplex, but Casas made Eddy work hard for it, and Eddy eventually executed the move. Near the end of the match, Santo hit a tremendous tope suicida, and Eddy Guerrero hit a tremendous tope over the top rope to the floor. The wrestling displayed here was truly excellent lucha. Everything they did was done in such a smooth and well-executed manner. What probably kept this from potentially turning into a great match was the fact that the match had a relatively short finishing stretch, which also started kind of abruptly. This made it feel like the match had two parts, with the majority of the match featuring high-level wrestling that didn’t feel like it necessarily really led to anything, and the short finishing stretch that served as a climax of sorts. Excellent match. ****   

AJPW 1/14/90 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Dynamite Kid & Davey Boy Smith vs. Tommy Rogers & Bobby Fulton 19:23. By this point in their respective careers, Dynamite Kid and Davey Boy Smith were solely relying on the All Japan tours because Stampede Wrestling had closed down. The British Bulldogs stepped up their game a bit because in this match they gave that extra little bit of effort they weren’t able to give in most other matches on this tour. The Fantastics were quite fantastic, especially Tommy Rogers, who was trying to get everyone to work harder in this match. Dynamite and Bobby Fulton did some cool reversals on the mat. In the end, it was Dynamite who pinned Rogers after a flying headbutt. If this was the Bulldogs from a year earlier, it probably would have been better. Good match. ***

AJPW 1/27/90 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Dynamite Kid & Davey Boy Smith & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Tommy Rogers & Bobby Fulton & Masa Fuchi 25:45. It was interesting seeing Tsuyoshi Kikuchi team up with his idol, Dynamite Kid. It really felt like Kikuchi was a third member of The British Bulldogs. In an alternate universe, they could have been a dominating trios team in Mexico. Anyway, let’s go back to Korakuen Hall in 1990, as the fans got their money’s worth here. It was a worthwhile six-man tag team match featuring plenty of action. The match was quite long, but the tags were frequent enough to keep things interesting. Tommy Rogers, one of the most underrated American pro wrestlers ever, was an explosive athlete, and he was one of the most outstanding workers of the match, along with Kikuchi, who was on top of his game back in the early 90s. Bobby Fulton was a strong tag team partner for Rogers. Dynamite Kid did Dynamite Kid things, which was good to see, but it was obvious that this was from past his physical prime. The overly roided Davey Boy Smith was okay, but he and Masa Fuchi were just kinda there. Fuchi was mainly selling and being thrown around. All in all, this wasn’t one of the most outstanding matches of 1990 by any means, but it also wasn’t something you would want to skip, as it was entertaining enough. The match ended when Rogers pinned Kikuchi. Good match. ***¼ 

AJPW 1/28/90 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Dynamite Kid & Davey Boy Smith & Tiger Mask II vs. Jumbo Tsuruta & Yoshiaki Yatsu & Masa Fuchi 11:00 shown. It’s interesting that Tiger Mask II teamed with the British Bulldogs here. I guess it shows that in this Tsuruta vs. Misawa feud at the time, Misawa would rather team with the gaijin team that had been beating him up like a jobber than team with his arch rival Tsuruta. Misawa was a bit more motivated here than he usually was during this Tiger Mask II run because he knew working this feud against Tsuruta was going to be good for his future, and it was Tsuruta who brought out the best of Misawa during Misawa’s Tiger Mask II days. This match was fun to watch, and the fact that Tsuruta was in it made this obviously a more high profile match than if he wouldn’t be in it. They kept the action going throughout the match. Masa Fuchi was truly in his element here, as he excelled in the six-man tags during the Tsuruta vs. Misawa feud. Yoshiaki Yatsu, who was a couple years past his prime, was the one who stood out the least in this match. Dynamite was decent, and made an impact whenever he was in the match. He was past his prime as well, and quite broken down, but he tried, and since this was a six-man tag, it allowed him to rest on the apron in between the times he made his in-ring contribution. Davey Boy did some power moves, and he was kinda what you’d expect from 1990 Davey Boy Smith. His work was nothing fancy, but he made some contributions to the match. Misawa hit a nice pescado on Fuchi when Fuchi was on the floor. Tsuruta and Misawa only briefly worked against each other, just enough for people to keep wishing for more in the future. After Davey Boy hit a powerslam on Fuchi, Dynamite went for a diving headbutt, but Tsuruta & Yatsu saved Fuchi by pulling Fuchi away. Dynamite hit a superplex on Fuchi, but Fuchi kicked out at two. The crowd was really into this match. Dynamite lifted Fuchi on Davey Boy’s shoulders, who then hit a powerslam off the second rope for the win while Dynamite tackled Yatsu, who tried to break the pin attempt. This was probably the last good match Dynamite ever was involved in, and it was also the very last time that Dynamite & Davey Boy were in the same match. This is particularly significant when you realize that literally almost half of Dynamite’s matches ever were matches that had Davey Boy Smith in it, either as tag team partner or as an opponent. ***¼ 

NJPW 1/30/90 Gifu Taiikukan, IWGP Junior Next Challenger Decision League Match: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Owen Hart 12:28. I think I enjoyed the 9/14/87 Owen vs. Yamada the most of the matches they had together, but this first Liger vs. Owen is definitely a very good match. ***¾

NJPW 1/31/90 Osaka Prefectural Gym, IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title: Naoki Sano vs. Jushin Thunder Liger 20:00. Jushin Liger had recently upgraded to Jushin Thunder Liger. These two had been involved in a groundbreaking feud, and here they presented a match in yet another style. While this featured once again some of their more typical fast-paced high-flying moves, this 4th match was more of a grudge match, as this featured quite the relentless beating. Naoki Sano partially ripped Liger’s mask and started beating up Liger on the floor. Sano viciously rammed Liger’s head into every object around him. Sano seemed more interested in destroying Liger than beating him in a fairly contested wrestling match. This gave the feeling that this feud had become personal. Liger juiced, and his blood was soon all over the place. Sano had a sadistic grin on his face and was clearly enjoying the vicious beating he was giving the masked superhero. Liger, was not very masked anymore (as his ripped mask started falling apart), but he was still every bit the superhero, as he fought back and hit a somersault plancha over the top rope that saw him land over the guardrail while hitting Sano with the move. Sano continued his beatdown of Liger with a sign of pleasure on his face. Liger was hanging on for dear life. Sano tried to pin Liger with a dragon suplex, but Liger kicked out. Sano, who had been quite pleased for most of the duration of the bout, was now slowly getting a bit more frustrated, since his plan of destroying and beating Liger didn’t seem to work as well as he’d imagined. Sano hit a somersault off the top and landed on his feet. Sano tried to avoid Liger’s koppo kick, which only partially worked. Sano hit a plancha off the top to the floor. Liger’s mask had fallen off so much that his face was now visible, and the commentators were remarking that it was Keiichi Yamada, one of the junior heavyweight greats of the second half of the 1980s, who was the man under the mask. In the end, it was Liger who scored the pinfall after hitting a beautiful shooting star press. ****¾ 

Universal 3/1/90 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Gran Hamada & Lizmark vs. Perro Aguayo & Jose Luis Feliciano 4:50, 2:50, 8:30. This was the main event of the first ever Universal Pro-Wrestling event. Gran Hamada was the co-founder of this new league, and he truly embodied the blend of Japanese puroresu and Mexican lucha libre, since he excelled at both. It was good to see Hamada back again in full-time pro wrestling action, since it appears there's basically no footage available of his work in the second half of the 1980s. Like the true rudo that he was, Perro Aguayo destroyed the bouquet of flowers he received over the head of Hamada. Aguayo's offense wasn't too spectacular, as always, but he played his role as main event rudo quite well. Aguayo's tag team partner, Jose Luis Feliciano, was an adequate luchador who didn't stand out, but also didn't take away from the match too much. Lizmark showed some good high flying skills, but Gran Hamada was the one who stole the show with his speed and agility. Of course, he did his signature spot where he landed on his feet after a back body drop attempt by Aguayo. The second fall was brief and wasn't that special because it had the rudos in control a bit more, but at least Lizmark was able to hit some cool-looking offense. Things got a little chaotic in the third fall, and Aguayo even resorted to using a table as a weapon. The match started losing the momentum it had built up in the first fall even more now, and probably a big reason was the lack of interesting offense shown by the rudos. Luckily, Hamada decided to hit a tope suicida to wake everyone up again. Hamada was definitely the worker of the match, because the energy and enthusiasm he showed made his work stand out most. The other three were good in their respective roles and did well when you consider the difference in expectations you'd have from them. The finish was disappointing, as we got a lame count-out win for the rudos. Still, this was a pretty good way to main event the first show of this new league. Good match. *** 

Universal 3/2/90 Nagoya Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium: Negro Casas vs. Yoshihiro Asai 11:42. This was the semi-main event of the show (the main event was a good Gran Hamada vs. Perro Aguayo match, which wasn’t as good as the very good Gran Hamada vs. Perro Aguayo match from 3/5/90). Negro Casas and Yoshihiro Asai started this match off by two working several good lucha sequences together. Then there was a lot of random back-and-forth stuff that didn’t seem to necessarily lead to anything in particular. Things picked up again with the more spectacular lucha sequences a bit on later in the match. Basically any time they went to the mat, it felt more like they were killing time and/or just doing stuff for the sake of it. Things got a bit more heated when they engaged in a short but fired-up slap exchange. At least the pace was always consistently moderately fast, which ensured the match never felt dull, as there was always at least something happening at a more than acceptable pace. After Casas was knocked to the floor, Asai launched himself and hit a tope over the top rope onto Casas on the floor. After the action went back into the ring, Casas hit a cool-looking jumping spin kick. Casas also hit a cool-looking plancha off the top rope onto Asai on the floor. Once back into the ring, Asai was determined to take Casas out, as Casas was starting to get a bit too much of the upper hand in this bout. Asai hit a quebrada and was soon after able to beat Casas with a bridging German suplex. This was a solid match that really started taking off during the final minute or two. While it was enjoyable for what it was, it was at the same time also slightly disappointing when you consider these were on paper two of the best junior heavyweight workers in the world at the time. Luckily they would have a better match on 6/7/90. Good match. ***¼ 

Universal 3/2/90 Nagoya Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium: Gran Hamada vs. Perro Aguayo 8:05, 6:38. Despite Perro Aguayo's offense being passable at best, his viciousness helped him put over as a worthy main event rudo here. Gran Hamada played the role of sympathetic top babyface quite well, which really helped when trying to take Aguayo's offense somewhat seriously. The first fall had a lot of action, including brawling on the outside of the ring and a ref bump. The finish of the first fall was lame, because the referee disqualified Hamada after thinking that Hamada had attacked him on purpose, while it was more a case of the ref being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The next fall dragged on initially because of Aguayo being on offense quite a bit. However, when Hamada fought back briefly, it seemed the action started picking up again. In the end, it was Aguayo who won. While this was pretty good overall, it was definitely not their best match against each other. Good match. ***

AJPW 3/2/90 Nagoya Tsuyuhashi Sports Center, Asia Tag Title: Toshiaki Kawada & Samson Fuyuki vs. Doug Furnas & Danny Kroffat. Toshiaki Kawada and Danny Kroffat really did a great job of putting over the heated rivalry between the two. Their respective tag team partners, Samson Fuyuki and Doug Furnas, realized that you gotta keep ‘em separated. Things started to calm down when Fuyuki and Furnas wrestled each other. Furnas showed his amazing athletic ability. There was some tagging in and out, but the match gradually started to lose steam. There were some cool moments here and there, but for the most part, it was just all kinda meandering. Eventually, Kawada threw some good kicks, showed more intensity and hit a powerful flying dropkick. The match ended when Kroffat pinned Fuyuki with a cool-looking sunset flip pinning combination after leaping off the second ropes. Good match. ***¼   

Universal 3/5/90 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Negro Casas & Espanto Jr. vs. Super Astro & Lizmark 9:31. This match was a lot of fun. It was a Mexican lucha match in Japan in Gran Hamada’s lucharesu league Federacion Universal de Lucha Libre (Universal). Super Astro gave a strong showing here, displaying his tremendous high flying skills. Near the end of the match, Casas took a big bump to the floor and then got hit with a tremendous tope suicida by Super Astro. It feels like this match would have benefitted from a few more minutes of match time, but what we got here was certainly fun to watch. Everyone worked well here, but Super Astro was the true superstar here. Good match. ***¼ 

Universal 3/5/90 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, UWA World Light Heavyweight Title: Gran Hamada vs. Perro Aguayo 6:54, 4:39, 7:54. These two were very familiar with each other, as they had been feuding since 1979. Perro Aguayo's brutality and primitive instincts made his aggressive offense quite effective. Gran Hamada's selling and countering helped make Aguayo's work look even better. Hamada won the first fall purely because he was a better wrestler technically, as he was able to survive Aguayo's onslaught. Aguayo's usefulness can't be denied, since this was actually a very good match, and Aguayo's performance was surprisingly good. In the third fall, Aguayo really started getting confident that this was going to be a victory for him, since Hamada was having a tough time. However, when Hamada fought back, we got to see some of the most spectacular moments of the match, including a torpedo-esque tope suicida by Hamada. Despite his short stature, Hamada comes across as powerful, and a big part in that is because of his intensity. A good example would be the way he executes a headbutt, which he makes look like he's putting all force behind it. Hamada successfully managed to defend his championship in this very good match that saw Hamada give one of his stronger singles match performances. Very good match. ***½

NJPW 3/19/90 Hiroshima, IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Pegasus Kid 15:21. This was Pegasus Kid’s first big title shot in New Japan Pro-Wrestling. This was also his first big televised singles match in NJPW. At this time, Pegasus certainly wasn’t the extremely smooth and extremely intense worker he would eventually become. However, this match was important and fascinating, as it was arguably the first time Pegasus had to really push himself to try to be as resourceful as possible and step up his game significantly in order to show that the potential he had shown up until then was indeed resulting in something truly worth recommending. Jushin Thunder Liger had been pushing the boundaries of what the NJPW junior heavyweight division and pro wrestling in general could look like at the time. Just like Pegasus, Liger was also inspired by the legendary Dynamite Kid, and this inspiration had translated into Liger delivering all-time great work in his feud against Naoki Sano in 1989-1990. Here in his next feud against Pegasus, Liger kept showing that he wasn’t just a flash in the pan but indeed a wrestler who was going to take junior heavyweight wrestling to new heights in the 1990s. The match featured well-executed wrestling and gradually became more exciting, as you could almost feel the tension thanks to the great build towards the finish. After a very interesting finishing stretch, Liger scored the pin to retain the title. This 3/19/90 match was instrumental in setting things up and naturally taking us to the totally amazing 8/19/90 match between these two. Excellent match. ****  

Ffederasiwn Reslo Cymru Reslo TV 4/6/90 Caernarfon, Wales: Rollerball Rocco vs. Danny Collins. Danny Boy Collins still showed flashes of excellence, and he was still capable of being a fiery babyface. However, Mark Rocco was an experienced worker who could still lead a match quite well. In spite of British wrestling no longer being at its peak, when guys like Rocco and Collins met, there was still the chance to see wrestling that was overall better than a lot of the wrestling happening in the rest of the world at the time. Rocco was, of course, a great veteran, and Collins was incorporating some spectacular moves that weren’t seen every day at the time. Collins was particularly inspired on this day, working hard hard and busting out some really cool moves, while Rocco was very focused and did a really good job dictating the pace and allowing Collins to make comebacks at the right time in order for this match to succeed as much as possible. Very good match. ***½  

Ffederasiwn Reslo Cymru Reslo TV 4/7/90 Corwen, Wales: Rollerball Rocco vs. Tony St. Clair. The effort was good, but both men were in the later stages of their career at this point. What made this match enjoyable was that they tried to work sequences as fast as they could, keeping things exciting with only an occasional short opportunity to catch a breather in between the excitement. They definitely were able to put over the idea that they were making each other struggle and pushing each other to the limit. Good match. ***

Newborn UWF 4/15/90 Hakata Starlanes: Minoru Suzuki vs. Masakatsu Funaki 8:53. Though Funaki & Suzuki are arguably the most inextricably linked of the UWF alumni, being the stars of PWFG and then breaking away to form the quasi MMA promotion Pancrase, they almost never actually fought each other. This was their first ever singles match, they had 0 in PWFG, 1 in Pancrase on 10/15/94, and then finally 3 in AJPW from 2009-2010. It's a shame because this was one of the best of the Newborn UWF matches. Excellent match. ****

WWA 1990 Gran Hamada & Yoshihiro Asai & El Hijo del Santo vs. Negro Casas & Blue Panther & Fuerza Guerrera 7:20, 3:16, 3:45. This match presumably took place in WWA in the year 1990, as all sources simply say this took place in 1990. This match possibly took place in the month of April or May 1990, but this is simply a guess on my part. It was nice to see a Gran Hamada match from Mexico featuring other workers who could go in the ring. Hamada was able to work super fast lucha sequences with everyone, and showed that he was able to be an excellent in-ring performer in both Mexico and Japan at the time. The Mexican luchadores Hamada got to work with in this match were a lot more advanced than most of the luchadores he had to work with in the 1980s (at least, based on the matches that were available of Hamada's '80s work). We have to keep in mind that there's very little footage available of Hamada's work in Mexico from before the 1990s. Yoshihiro Asai and Blue Panther executed some beautiful fast-paced exchanges to start this match off in an excellent way.  Negro Casas and El Hijo del Santo stole the show in the first fall with their fast-paced lucha counters. One of the coolest spots in the match happened when Santo had Casas in La Tapatia (a.k.a. Romero Special), and Hamada jumped over them to execute a sunset flip on Fuerza Guerrera. Santo worked nice sequences with Fuerza. Of course, those two were pretty much arch-enemies. At some point in the match, Hamada and Casas worked at a lightning fast pace together. They didn't just show speed, they also showed intensity, and Hamada's headbutt on Casas certainly looked vicious. Overall, this was a lucha libre match featuring six of the top names of 1990s lucha and everyone gave an excellent showing here. Excellent match. ****1/2

JWP 5/25/90 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Itsuki Yamazaki vs. Plum Mariko 14:09. What stood out early on was that Itsuki Yamazaki wanted to keep the pace high. What also stood out early on was that Plum Mariko really came across as someone who was having a tough time against the veteran. However, at some point, she was on a roll with all kinds of fast-paced offense. The work was quite good, but it felt a bit like they were taking turns, as opposed to really winning out in any sort of struggling interactions. Still, this was a very memorable match, as it was super spectacular for the time, and the overall execution was excellent. Great match. ****½ 

AJPW 5/26/90 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Kenta Kobashi & Mitsuharu Misawa & Akira Taue vs. Jumbo Tsuruta & Great Kabuki & Masa Fuchi 23:10. This was basically the start of the big Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Mitsuharu Misawa feud. Tsuruta showed lots of energy and intensity in this match. One could definitely say he was the man in All Japan back then. He was great in his role of the grumpy veteran who wanted to teach the younger generation a lesson. Great Kabuki’s strikes looked pretty cool, as they were well placed and had quite a bit of intensity behind them. It felt a bit like he was the mercenary of the team. Masa Fuchi was easily the least impressive one in this match. His work was very basic, as always, but he was good at being a bit of an annoying jerk, which works perfectly in heated trios matches like these. He would pretty much only want to come into the ring to take advantage of a vulnerable Kobashi after Tsuruta and Kabuki had done all the hard work. Misawa really gave a strong performance in this match, as he carried himself like the leader of a faction and executed all the key moments of the match excellently. His tag team partners backed him up quite well. Kobashi was good in his role as a sympathetic young babyface who was mainly on the receiving-end of a lot of punishment from the veterans. When he was on offense, it looked good. He threw a neat dropkick off the top rope at one point. Akira Taue didn’t really stand out in this match, but he didn’t do anything that took anything away from the match either. He definitely showed enough passion and energy to contribute sufficiently. Excellent match. ****¼   

Universal 6/1/90 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, UWA World Light Heavyweight Title: Gran Hamada vs. Perro Aguayo 11:39. Perro Aguayo clearly tried to show as much intensity as he could in his attack on Gran Hamada in the early stages of the match, and Hamada sold it well. The first five minutes were solid, but action started really picking up after Hamada hit a nice plancha off the top rope to the floor onto Aguayo. Hamada hit a nice tope suicida. The good thing about this match was that Hamada was on offense more than Aguayo was. Whenever Aguayo was on offense, Hamada's selling helped a lot in putting over Aguayo's offense as lethal. Hamada landed on his feet after a back body drop attempt, after which Hamada took a big bump to the floor after a successful back body drop attempt by Aguayo, and Aguayo surprisingly followed this up with a tope suicida. Instead of hitting Hamada, Aguayo hit one of the workers at ringside, because Hamada was still down. The match got gradually more exciting after a solid start, but this was not quite as good as their 4/17/84 match. Very good match. ***½ 

Universal 6/7/90 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Gran Hamada & Perro Aguayo & Kendo vs. Texano & El Signo & Negro Navarro 9:18, 6:47, 4:40 of 6:55. This two-out-of-three falls match featuring some very well-known luchadores is a match true lucha aficionados will probably appreciate very much. Los Misioneros de la Muerte worked very well together, since they had been teaming together for a decade now. El Texano was easily the most impressive of the three, because the moves he did required more athleticism and talent. The other two were quite solid and good in their role as tag team partners of Texano though. On the other side, we had Gran Hamada teaming with arch-enemy Perro Aguayo. It seems these two had enough respect for each other after their battles that they decided to join forces and fight a strong unit. The Japanese crowd loved these workers, and it seemed this love inspired the workers to work even harder than they normally would. Kendo was an athletic talent who wasted some of his time trying to be a comedy wrestler, but his skills were good enough, and he kept the comedy to a minimum. Hamada worked really hard and was the best worker in the match, which says a lot about his excellence, because at this point, Hamada was a 39-year old man with 18 years of pro wrestling experience who was the top star of this league he co-founded. Despite not really having to prove himself anymore at this stage of his career, he decided to work super hard to not only challenge himself, but also to encourage the other workers to give the best they could at a big Korakuen Hall show like this with enthusiastic fans in attendance. In the second fall, Texano took a huge Jerry Estrada-esque bump to the floor after a back body drop by Aguayo. Kendo and Signo slowed the pace down a bit by playing to the crowd, but Kendo made up for it with his display of athleticism. In the third fall, we got the joy of witnessing Hamada and Texano battling it out for a few minutes. Hamada and Texano certainly stole the show. Very good match. ***¾  

Universal 6/7/90 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, UWA World Middleweight Title: Yoshihiro Asai vs. Negro Casas 15:59. This was a more intense version of their 3/2/90 match. No matter whether they were on the mat or not, there was a certain sense of struggle, and things felt less random than in their previous match. The matwork here was title match-worthy. They were constantly trying to keep the upper hand and constantly trying to avoid letting the other get any real momentum. All the sequences looked smooth, and the execution generally was very good. At some point, Asai hit a nice tope over the top rope to the floor. A bit later on, Asai went for a quebrada, but Casas stepped aside. Casas was in control for the next few minutes and hit a plancha off the top to the floor onto Asai. Once back in the ring, the action started culminating into several near-fall sequences. Eventually, Asai hit a quebrada and pinned Casas via a bridging German suplex to win the match. Very good match. ***¾  

AJPW 6/8/90 Tokyo Nippon Budokan: Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Mitsuharu Misawa 24:06. Arguably the most important match of Mitsuharu Misawa’s career, scoring the upset that put him on the map and transitioned AJPW away from Jumbo vs. Genichiro Tenryu, who had now departed to start SWS, to Jumbo & co. vs. Misawa & co. Excellent match. ****

AJW 6/17/90: Akira Hokuto vs. Manami Toyota 8:32. 1990 was an interesting transitional year for AJW. We still hear the typical 80s-esque school girls cheering in the background, yet we also see an increase in middle aged businessmen, who would overtake the school girls as the number one fans of joshi puroresu (which had a lot to do with the retirement of the Crush Gals and a change in TV scheduling). This was well on its way to become a great match until Akira Hokuto banged her knee into the guardrail when she went for a dive. Hokuto was legitimately hurt, and the match had to end. Luckily, they would get chances in the future to show their greatness against each other. Hokuto was supposed to win, but her bad luck resulted in Toyota's 1st JGP and WWWA Title challenge against Bull Nakano the following month. Good match. ***¼ 

NJPW 6/18/90 Kumamoto Prefectural Gymnasium: Pegasus Kid vs. Jushin Thunder Liger 19:47. After proving that he was a worthy challenger on 3/19/90, Pegasus Kid still had to prove that he had what it took to beat the champ. Now that he was more familiar working against Jushin Thunder Liger, Pegasus looked and moved around with more confidence than before. Pegasus wrestled like someone who wanted to impress and win this important bout. Liger was still the man here, but Pegasus was clearly able to back up everyone’s confidence in his ability. What was so perfect about this match is that it really put over the idea that Pegasus was more ready than before, and now more than ever a serious threat to Liger’s IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title, even scoring the win here in this non title match. Still, this match had that similar feeling the 3/19/90 match had in the sense that they were feeling each other out. It wasn’t until the outstanding 8/19/90 match that they really took things to a whole new level. Excellent match. ****¼

NJPW 6/26/90 Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan: Pegasus Kid vs. Owen Hart 12:10. This was a very interesting match-up between two of Alberta’s greatest wrestlers. Pegasus Kid didn’t waste any time and attacked Owen Hart while the referee was still going over the rules. Pegasus dumped Owen to the floor and beat him up quite a bit on the floor. Pegasus kept taking it to Owen, but once Owen had a chance to fight back, he did so in a very graceful manner. His beautiful high flying skills were put on display, as he hit a missile dropkick and a tope suicida. After these first exciting few minutes, it looked like things were going to slow down, but they kept the action going with some more of their smooth work. Owen gave a particularly strong performance, really managing to wow the crowd with his tremendous athleticism. Pegasus tried to keep Owen on the mat, but it felt like he wasn’t quite willing and/or able to do anything really interesting while on the mat. Owen tried to at least go for some cool-looking escapes and counters on the mat. Owen mainly focused on flashy offense in this match. He gave Pegasus more than enough opportunities to outdo him, and occasionally Pegasus showed some spectacular stuff that rivaled Owen’s coolest moves. Pegasus hit a vicious backdrop suplex and quite an amazing plancha as well. Owen’s movements were a bit slicker, though, and this included his offense but also his bumping and selling. Owen hit a graceful looking moonsault for a near fall. In the end, Pegasus won via a backdrop off the top rope. This victory certainly strengthened Pegasus’ position as the #1 contender for Jushin Thunder Liger’s IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title. These two former Stampede Wrestling workers continued the legacy of Stampede, as they gave the NJPW junior heavyweight division quite a boost with their Dynamite Kid-inspired work. It felt like the match could have used a few more minutes, but at least it didn’t overstay its welcome. Excellent match. ****

NJPW 6/30/90 Pegasus Kid & Steve Williams vs. Owen Hart & Bam Bam Bigelow. Owen Hart was such a smooth worker. His bumping and selling really made his powerful opponents look even more powerful. Owen definitely carried the match. Pegasus Kid hadn't quite reached greatness yet, but his interactions with Owen were very enjoyable. Very good match. ***½ 

JWP 7/19/90 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Harley Saito vs. Shinobu Kandori 18:54. This was from the original JWP before the LLPW split. Harely Saito was on top of her game here, and Shinobu Kandori showed she can deliver high-quality performances when needed. This wasn’t a shoot-style match per se, but they certainly did a great job of working in quite a realistic manner (relatively speaking). This was an exceptional match that really stood out during these in-between days of Japanese joshi puroresu (women’s wrestling), just after the Crush Gals era and just before the big inter-promotional era. All-time great match. *****

AJW 7/21/90, WWWA World Title: Bull Nakano vs. Manami Toyota 9:06. This was before Manami Toyota really became a true superstar. In fact, this match probably wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for Akira Hokuto getting injured in her match against Toyota in June. However, she had already been impressive enough to earn a title shot against the big champion. Bull Nakano had a big size and strength advantage, as well as an advantage in experience. Toyota played the role of the underdog well, and she did some cool moves and took some awesome bumps. Bull played the role of the dominant champion very well. The execution was rough at times, but that kinda added to the idea that this was not an evenly matched contest. Good match. ***¼ 

NJPW 7/22/90 Sapporo Tsukisamu Green Dome: Pegasus Kid vs. Biff Wellington 12:08. This wasn’t a televised match (as far as I know), so we just have the hand-held footage of this bout. Things slowed down considerably when Wellington was on offense. Wellington was a good worker, but he was a bit less flashy than Pegasus and focused a bit more on powerhouse-like offense. The matwork in this match was done slowly and methodically, as they were always carefully trying to get to a position that would improve the situation they were in. Whenever they weren’t on the mat, they were willing to take a bit more risk and propel themselves at their opponents more directly and more effectively. This didn’t seem to stop Pegasus Kid from going all out against fellow Stampede Wrestling alumnus Biff Wellington. This isn’t meant as a negative statement by any means, but the best way to describe Wellington would be describing him as a poor man’s Pegasus Kid. Of course, Pegasus was one of the best five wrestlers in the world at the time, so that statement definitely wasn’t meant as an insult. The match ended when Pegasus scored the expected pinfall win. Very good match. ***½ 

FMW 8/4/90, Street Fight: Megumi Kudo vs. Combat Toyoda 10:15. This was the first singles match between these two. This was a pretty wild brawl. Megumi Kudo wasn’t quite as good of a worker as she would become in later years, though. Good match. ***

AJW 8/19/90 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Akira Hokuto vs. Manami Toyota 30:00. Akira Hokuto had made Manami Toyota submit to a half Boston in a tag match on 3/18/90. Hokuto suffered a knee injury in their 6/17/90 match, which meant that match had to be awarded to Toyota. This 8/19/90 match featured a lot of struggle and a display of passion between two of the fastest rising stars in the pro wrestling business. It was clear both women tried their best to be the better woman that night. If one of them was going to go down, they weren’t going down without a fight. After briefly getting the upper hand again at some point, Toyota hit a tremendous torpedo-like tope suicida. Hokuto was the worker of the match, but she couldn’t have had this match with just anyone. Toyota’s tremendous athleticism in combination with her great display of desire made her the perfect opponent for this match. One of the 100 greatest matches ever. ****¾ 

NJPW 8/19/90 Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan, IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Pegasus Kid 15:02. This was arguably the best Keiichi Yamada match ever. By this point in his career, he had upgraded from Jushin Liger to Jushin Thunder Liger. It is the best example of what a truly great junior heavyweight wrestling match from the early 1990s looked like. Though greatly influenced by the Tiger Mask vs. Dynamite Kid series, it basically took the reckless desire concept of 7/13/89 Liger vs. Naoki Sano and took it to even greater heights due to the fine-tuning of the precision and crisp execution. This match also put Canadian wrestler Pegasus Kid (who would later become known as Wild Pegasus and The Crippler) on the map as a great international worker, after he had shown a lot of potential previously, but hadn’t quite reached a level that made people mention him in conversations about great matches and wrestlers as much as from 8/19/90 onwards. At the time this took place, it was really a match that pushed the boundaries further, as it was a step above the aforementioned feud between Liger and Sano. It was a shockingly great match that was arguably more spectacular and exciting than any other match in 1990. This was an extremely spectacular match with great execution. Liger really did a great job of stepping up his game and also enabling Pegasus to shine at the same time. Liger and Pegasus had wrestled each other before, but this was something on another level. Pegasus winning the title really put him up there as one of the top international junior heavyweight stars and a worker who was now expected to deliver highly recommendable matches more often than before. All-time great match. *****

AJPW 8/31/90 Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium: Danny Kroffat & Scotty The Body vs. Tommy Rogers & Bobby Fulton 11:57. You may know Scotty The Body as Scott Flamingo/Johnny Polo/Raven. He really tried his best here, and he managed to contribute as well as possible. He did feel slightly out of place in this match, though, but it was lots of fun seeing him in this match. Bobby Fulton felt more at home here, but he was arguably the least interesting worker of this match. Tommy Rogers was truly spectacular back then, and he was definitely one of the top 15 workers in the world at the time. Yoshihiro Asai may have been more spectacular, and Blue Panther may have been surrounded by better workers, but Rogers was better than them because Rogers truly excelled at what he did, and he knew what to do at the right time so well. Dan Kroffat was really good, but he didn’t stand out in this particular match. Kroffat was the most high-profile AJPW worker in this match, so maybe he felt that since he was surrounded by ‘midcarders’ that he could take it easy here. Very good match. ***½

AJPW 8/31/90 Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium: Kenta Kobashi vs. Jumbo Tsuruta 17:53. Young Kenta Kobashi played it safe against the top guy in the league and tried to hang on to headlocks and facelocks as long as possible. Of course, it was inevitable that it wouldn’t take Jumbo Tsuruta too long to turn things around. Tsuruta was quite good in his role as the grumpy veteran who found enjoyment in beating up the youngster. At this point in his career, Kobashi was becoming more and more capable of standing up for himself, so this definitely wasn’t a squash match. Kobashi hit a tremendous plancha off the top to the floor onto Tsuruta. Whenever Tsuruta wasn’t showing flurries of grumpiness, he didn’t seem to be in much of a hurry to beat his opponent. Kobashi did what he could, since, of course, all the odds were stacked against him in this non-title bout against the top guy in the league. In the end, Tsuruta scored the expected pinfall victory. Good match. ***¼

AJPW 9/1/90 Tokyo Nippon Budokan, Asia Tag Champion Decision League Match: Tommy Rogers & Bobby Fulton vs. Joe Malenko & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi 11:05 of 16:59. Since I don’t know when I’ll be talking about Joe Malenko again, I’d like to give you some more information about this often overlooked wrestler here. Jody Simon (Joe Malenko) was born on 6/4/56 and grew up in New Jersey. His first time in Florida was in 1962 or 1963, and that’s when he met Karl Gotch for the first time. He moved with his family to Tampa, Florida at the age of 12 in 1968 or 1969. His father was wrestler and trainer Boris Malenko, and his brother is wrestler Dean Malenko. Joe had his first pro wrestling match when he was around the age of 19 years old in the mid 1970s, most likely in Florida. Joe never truly was a full-time wrestler during his career, as he wanted to have something to fall back on, and that’s why he always focused on his career as a pharmacist. He also spent a lot of time at the Malenko wrestling school, working out and teaching a bit. He toured for LLI (UWA) in Mexico in 1978. Joe started wrestling in Japan for U.W.F. in the mid 1980s thanks to Karl Gotch. Joe also wrestled for AJPW, PWFG, NJPW, UWF-I and Battlarts in Japan. This AJPW All Asia Tag Team Title match from 9/1/90 was excellent. Everyone worked hard, and there were several spectacular moments in this match. You could really tell they went all out to present something memorable. This was when Tsuyoshi Kikuchi still had the energy (and health) to deliver a really good performance. The Fantastics are arguably the most underrated American tag team in pro wrestling history, and this is one of their most memorable matches. Excellent match. ****

AJPW 9/30/90: Jumbo Tsuruta & Akira Taue vs. Mitsuharu Misawa & Toshiaki Kawada 45:00. Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Mitsuharu Misawa was the main rivalry in AJPW at the time. There was a lot of heat whenever those two displayed their intensity against one another. Toshiaki Kawada was upgraded to being Misawa’s #2 and now had the iconic black and yellow tights. His days of being Samson Fuyuki’s Footloose tag team partner were now over. What this match accomplished very well was to really put over the rivalry between these factions. A lot of hard-hitting and intense action was executed in a manner that made it easy for the viewer to get drawn into the action. They all wrestled like it mattered. Akira Taue was bleeding from the forehead. The main issue with the match is its length. The middle portion of the match could have easily been kept shorter, since it was mostly just them trying to stay in control and the urgency was dialed down for a bit. Luckily, there were still plenty of memorable moments during the middle portion. For instance, Kawada started hitting Tsuruta with a flurry of elbows until Tsuruta showed Kawada who was #1 in AJPW at the time (at least in terms of the pecking order). The execution of the moves was great all the way throughout. The way they hit and the way they sold made it all somewhat believable, for pro wrestling standards. Misawa had enough of standing on the apron, and made it known to Kawada that he wanted in. Misawa beat up Tsuruta for a bit. Misawa’s offense looked a lot less convincing than that of the others. In fact, Misawa was probably the least performer of the four in this particular match, since even Taue showed more fire than Misawa did. Kawada was the best performer in the match, as he was the one carrying his team. Tsuruta took a cool bump off the apron onto the guardrail when Misawa hit him with an elbow. The match continued, and ended up lasting a long time, but the storytelling was certainly great in this match. After they had lost most of the momentum they had built up and were struggling to keep things going, they all of a sudden started showing urgency again during the final few minutes, since the ring announcer was letting them know the time limit was about to expire. However, it was too late, as in the end, they went to a 45-minute time limit draw. The match probably would have been at least a quarter or a half star better if it was a 25-minute match instead of a 45-minute one. Good match. ***¼    

NJPW 10/7/90 Pegasus Kid & Villano V vs. Owen Hart & Jushin Thunder Liger. Villano V, the only worker in this match who wasn't part of the Stampede Wrestling alumni, was definitely the weak link of the match. Some of the sequences involving Villano V looked rough, and there was especially some miscommunication between him and Owen Hart. You could tell Pegasus Kid and Jushin Thunder Liger had become very comfortable working with each other, which should be no surprise since on 8/19/90, they had wrestled what at the time was one of the 15 best matches in pro wrestling history. Pegasus and Owen worked some really nice sequences together, and these two Canadians from Alberta were obviously familiar with each other. This match had fun sequences, but the middle part was relatively slow and seemed to serve merely as a little break without offering anything really intriguing. In spite of the match mainly being memorable for the fun sequences, and in spite of some execution issues here and there, this was quite a good match overall. ***¼ 

AJPW 10/19/90: Jumbo Tsuruta & Akira Taue & Masa Fuchi vs. Mitsuharu Misawa & Toshiaki Kawada & Kenta Kobashi 25:25. Mitsuharu Misawa executed some graceful-looking offense. Jumbo Tsuruta hit a couple of stiff elbow smashes to Misawa to slow him down. Masa Fuchi’s offense looked quite weak compared to everyone else’s hard-hitting offense. After some intense first few minutes, the match started slowing down, and Toshiaki Kawada spent some time selling for Tsuruta’s team. Then it was Taue’s turn to sell for Misawa’s team. The match started losing momentum with nobody really showing any long-lasting urgency. We did get a bunch of interesting bits and pieces, though. Fuchi hit Kobashi with a chair, and Kobashi was in trouble, which led to the crowd starting a “Ko-ba-shi!”chant. Taue hit an interesting tope suicida that was done in a manner that made it clear he only did it to take the opponent out, not to show off. During the final few minutes, everyone decided to show more enthusiasm again. Tsuruta hit an awesome-looking backdrop suplex for the win. This definitely was a match worth watching, but it seems that, just like with the overly long 9/30/90 match, this match was simply a bit too long. You’d think that with two added participants and 20 minutes less to worry about they’d have a better match than on 9/30/90, but this was not the case. This match felt merely like a relatively unimportant chapter in the story of the Tsuruta vs. Misawa feud. Good match. ***¼   

WCW Halloween Havoc 10/27/90 Chicago, IL UIC Pavilion, NWA United States Tag Team Title: Scott Steiner & Rick Steiner vs. Brian Knobbs & Jerry Sags 15:24. They were throwing each other around like crazy. They lost momentum with a bear hug segment, but other than that, this was a pretty rough and tough type of match that was fun to watch. Here in October ‘90, the Nasties wrestled a lost nastier than they would be in later years. Good match. ***¼ 

NJPW 10/29/90 Yokkaichi Civic Gymnasium: Pegasus Kid & Hiro Saito vs. Jushin Thunder Liger & Takayuki Iizuka 11:41. This was quite the exciting and action-packed tag team bout that took place three days prior to the big rematch between Pegasus Kid and Jushin Thunder Liger, who had an amazing all-time great match on 8/19/90 in which Pegasus had beaten Liger for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title. Pegasus showed tremendous intensity from the start, throwing Jushin Thunder Liger in the guardrail so hard that the guardrail almost came unhinged. Hiro Saito was still somewhat in his "prime", and he joined in on the fun and showed quite a bit of aggression. Once Liger was able to fight back, he did so in spectacular fashion. When he hit a tope suicida, he used his body as a torpedo-esque weapon that came at Hiro Saito in full force. The match felt like it was a really good companion to the Pegasus vs. Liger singles matches. This tag match wasn’t on the same level as the singles matches, but they functioned as an extension of the in-ring feud. It’s not necessarily an essential match, but it’s definitely recommended for fans who are into this Pegasus vs. Liger feud and want to get a more complete picture of what was happening in the NJPW junior heavyweight division during this very interesting time period. Pegasus, the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion, maintained the momentum he had been having at the time, as he managed to score the pinfall after a flying headbutt on Iizuka. Very good match. ***¾ 

NJPW 11/1/90 Tokyo Nippon Budokan, IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title: Pegasus Kid vs. Jushin Thunder Liger 12:32. The work was pretty much on the same level as their awesome 8/19/90 match. This match was just a little bit shorter. Pegasus Kid showed a bit more confidence now that he was the champion and had recently worked an all-time great match. The story was that Liger was initially a bit overwhelmed by the strong gaijin champ, but that the Japanese superhero eventually started getting more of a grip on the match. Pegasus missed the flying legdrop, which was the move he won the title with, and Liger followed up with the shooting star press. This was definitely a spectacular match, especially for the year 1990. One of the 100 best matches ever. ****¾ 

Universal 11/13/90 Gunma: Gran Hamada vs. Blue Panther 14:57. For this super interesting match-up, Gran Hamada had Yoshihiro Asai in his corner, and Blue Panther had Brazo de Oro in his corner. Panther enjoyed mat wrestling, and this made Hamada focus a little bit more on technical wrestling than he normally would. Panther displayed his knowledge of different holds. Hamada knew he couldn't match Panther on the mat, so he started displaying his high flying skills in order to get the upper hand in this match. This gave Hamada a chance to start trying to get the upper hand on the mat. However, Panther was able to counter Hamada's holds, which meant Panther had the upper hand again. Hamada was now challenged to try to counter some of Panther's holds, which he was able to do at times. As excellent as Hamada was, Panther's work was arguably even slightly more impressive in this particular match than Hamada's work was. Later in the match, Hamada executed a twisting middle-rope somersault plancha to the floor (which kinda looked like a twisting somersault variation of the Asai moonsault), which showed he was now desperate, as he realized Panther was going to be tough to beat. Panther decided to show some aerial skills himself, but he missed an attempted moonsault when Hamada rolled out of the way. Hamada hit a powerful dropkick off the top rope to show how the high flying is done. Panther wanted to put Hamada away and almost pinned Hamada with a powerbomb. Hamada knew he had to act quickly to get a victory, and he managed to escape a double underhook suplex attempt and hit a German suplex for the win. This was a very enjoyable display of excellent wrestling by both men, and it was one of Hamada's best singles matches of his career. Excellent match. **** 

AJW Wrestlemarinepiad 11/14/90 Yokohama Bunka Gymnasium, 4 vs. 4 Elimination Match Lucha Libre Rule: Noriyo Tateno & Xochilt Hamada & Esther Moreno & Takako Inoue vs. Hyper Cat & La Diabolica & Miori Kamiya & Mayumi Yamamoto. Hyper Cat was Yumi Ogura 11:52. This was a fun and fast-paced match. All of these wrestlers were pretty much midcarders at the time, but that didn’t stop them from giving a strong effort. Noriyo Tateno, the former Jumping Bomb Angel, arguably the biggest star, best worker and most experienced worker of the match, did the job to the young up-and-coming Miori Kamiya (the future Cooga). Good match. ***¼ 

AJW Wrestlemarinepiad 11/14/90 Yokohama Bunka Gymnasium: Gran Hamada & Yoshihiro Asai & Kendo vs. Brazo de Oro & Brazo de Plata & El Brazo 14:19. Universal would occasionally have joshi puroresu matches on their cards, but here we got the opposite, a Universal match at a joshi puroresu show. All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling was the biggest women's league in the world, and Universal was arguably one of the most entertaining men's puroresu leagues in the world at the time, so it was interesting to see a Universal match at AJW's Wrestlemarinepiad, which was a major show main evented by Bull Nakano defending her Red Belt in a steel cage against up-and-coming legend Aja Kong. Yoshihiro Asai's speed and agility was amazing in this match. Los Brazos aren't my favorites by any means, but in this match they kinda found a decent balance between being fun to watch and trying to be funny. A lot of their comedy stuff didn't get as big of a reaction as it would have gotten at a Universal show though. Gran Hamada showed flashes of greatness whenever he was in. He was one of the two best workers in this match, along with Asai. Kendo was just kinda there for the most part, but he hit an incredible tope suicida to redeem himself. Several other dives followed, including Asai's Asai moonsault and a surprisingly well-executed tope suicida by "Super Porky" Brazo de Plata. This was a pretty good match, but Los Brazos kinda made some parts of this match seem like they were just dragging on. However, the performances by Hamada and Asai made this worth watching. Good match. ***

AJW Wrestlemarinepiad 11/14/90: Akira Hokuto & Suzuka Minami vs. Manami Toyota & Kyoko Inoue 22:46. The work was very good, but this match lacked urgency. This match felt showy and not-so-sincere compared to the great 8/19/90 Akira Hokuto vs. Manami Toyota singles match. Kyoko Inoue pinned Hokuto to win the first fall, even though Hokuto’s shoulders were barely down for a full second. Suzuka Minami’s gear looked really cool, and it was Minami who got the pin over Toyota to score the equalizer in the short second fall. The third fall never managed to rank the quality of the match up. Still, this was more interesting than the overrated main event between Bull Nakano and Aja Kong. Good match. ***¼  

Universal 11/17/90 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Manami Toyota & Mika Takahashi & Kaoru Maeda & Mariko Yoshida & Esther Moreno vs. Bison Kimura & Aja Kong & La Diabolica & Xochitl Hamada & Madusa 25:32. The match was really fast paced, as they took advantage of having ten workers. The invincible yet defeatable Madusa was clearly the weakest worker, but she didn’t have enough opportunities to ruin the match with her overacting. Manami Toyota was consistently awesome and reliable all the way through. Mika Takahashi, one half of the Honey Wings (w/ Kaoru Maeda) is one of the more underrated workers in AJW history. Nice dive by Esther Moreno on Madusa. This is probably the day that Kaoru’s affinity with weapons started, as she enjoyed using Aja Kong’s trash can. Moreno eliminated Xochitl Hamada (Ayako Hamada’s older sister), La Diabolica eliminated Moreno, Mariko Yoshida eliminated Diabolica, Toyota pinned Madusa (Hell yeah!), Takahashi pinned Bison Kimura, Aja Kong pinned Yoshida, and Aja Kong pinned both Honey Wings to win the match. This was overall a really fun match featuring high workrate and a strong effort from all involved. Excellent match. ****

Newborn UWF 12/1/90 Matsumoto Undo Koen Sogo Taiikukan: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Masahito Kakihara 14:58. This was Kiyoshi Tamura's first match back since getting injured by Akira Maeda on 10/25/89. His opponent was Masahito Kakihara, a promising young talent who only worked three pro wrestling matches previously, as he had made his debut in August. Both workers started off with kicks. Tamura swept Kakihara off his feet with one of his strikes. Tamura seemed calmer and more sure of what he was doing. Kakihara definitely gave Tamura a run for his money though. Ever enthusiastic Kakihara fought in what would become his signature head-on manner, Tamura would be able to push through more and do more damage. A high kick by Tamura sent Kakihara down, but Kakihara got back up in time. Kakihara hit a tremendous spin kick that knocked Tamura down for a nine count. A dropkick was then immediately executed by Kakihara. Tamura fought back with a series of kicks, which sent Kakihara down. Soon after that, Kakihara got knocked down again. Tamura was now trying to finish Kakihara off on the mat, but Kakihara's swift reactions prohibited Tamura from going for a killer submission hold. Tamura executed a nice suplex, but he once again wasn't able to finish Kakihara off on the mat. Kakihara executed an armbar, but Tamura went for a rope break. The match certainly had become quite competitive. Both workers ended up having only one down left, and the time limit was about to expire. Just two seconds before the time limit expired, Kakihara went for a rope escape one time too many times, and it cost him the match. Tamura was the victor. Good match. ***¼  

JWP 12/7/90: Mayumi Ozaki & Rumi Kazama vs. Plum Mariko & Cuty Suzuki. Good match. ***

AJPW 12/7/90 Tokyo Nippon Budokan, ’90 Sekai Saikyo Tag Decision League Match: Jumbo Tsuruta & Akira Taue vs. Mitsuharu Misawa & Toshiaki Kawada 22:54. Toshiaki Kawada showed tons of fire when he started kicking Taue’s leg over and over. Jumbo Tsuruta came in and took Kawada down to show him who’s the man in All Japan. Mitsuharu Misawa showed some spectacular offense on Tsuruta. Kawada spent some time selling for his opponents while Misawa stood on the apron. Kawada applied a scorpion deathlock. Tsuruta came to save Taue, but Kawada knocked Tsuruta to the floor. Misawa then hit Tsuruta with an elbow. At some point in the match, Taue hit one of his awesome no-nonsense tope suicidas. Once again, this group of workers were able to tell a great in-ring story. The final minutes were definitely quite exciting. Kawada pinned Taue to win the match. Very good match. ***¾ 

PWA 12/17/90 Minnesota: Lightning Kid vs. Jerry Lynn. There are sources that say this match is from June, but apparently this was from December. The action was raw and super intense. The workrate was high, and they made this look like they really wanted to beat the crap out of each other. This was a lot more exciting and spectacular than anything else from the United States that year. Excellent match. ****¼ 

NJPW 12/26/90 Hamamatsu Arena. IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Negro Casas 16:37. Casas started off with a bang, immediately attacking Liger with great urgency. Casas for some inexplicable reason was wearing the gear of his brother Felino. Speaking of unusual gear, this was the first time Liger wore black and gold gear. The match never really developed much beyond the initial urgency shown. Casas did hit a tremendous tope suicida though. This was wrestled like it was a lucha de apuestas match, with a lot of focus on selling and the feeling of this being a grudge match. However, this was in fact Negro Casas’ first appearance in NJPW. He came in with such a big reputation that he was allowed to challenge for Liger’s IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title (which was still quite a prestigious title back then) in his NJPW debut. On one hand, I love that Liger sold so much for Casas to make Casas look strong in his NJPW debut, but on the other hand, Liger could have pushed for a bit more of a dynamic match instead of this sort of straight-forward ‘my turn, your turn’ approach. The upside to this approach was that when Liger fought back, the fans went nuts (although the crowd was probably just particularly rabid to begin with that night). When Liger was on offense, this match was a lot more exciting, and this makes sense, since Casas at the time was stronger when there were lucha sequences that had him act more like a rudo base for a tecnico’s offense. This was kind of a unique and odd match, unlike most of the junior heavyweight matches in NJPW at the time. While it was disappointing considering the fact this was arguably a battle between the best Japanese wrestler and the best Mexican wrestler in the world at the time, the work was never less than good. And it was this oddness and unpredictability of this match that made it stand out in its own right. At times, the action was very good. However, it seemed the match rarely reached the excellence you’d hope for in this battle between these two international top stars. Still, there was enough sense of struggle to warrant viewing this match as more than just quite good. It’s not a pretty match, but what it lacks in prettiness, it makes up for in the grudge match aspect. Again, it’s odd that it felt like a grudge match when it was the first time they wrestled each other. However, this fits perfectly with the big introduction Casas got into NJPW by being presented like a top international star worthy of being a threat to Liger’s coveted title. Casas gave a good showing in his NJPW debut here, but it was Liger who truly stood out, as he adapted so well to Casas’ lucha style, understanding that he would have to approach this match in a different way than most of his previous big battles against guys like Naoki Sano and Pegasus Kid. This further emphasizes the fact that Liger was a really strong candidate for Wrestler of the Year in 1990. By the way, watch the hand-held version if you want to see the complete version of this Liger vs. Casas match. Very good match. ***½  

1. Jushin Thunder Liger. He worked three great matches in 1990, two of which are among the 100 greatest matches ever. His ability to get the best out of his talented opponents and have dramatic matches with them is something he was better at than anyone else that year.

2. Akira Hokuto. She really stepped up her game in 1990. Her most memorable performance was guiding Manami Toyota to have a great match with her on 8/19/90.

3. Pegasus Kid. Out of nowhere, Pegasus Kid became one of the best wrestlers in the world. A big reason for this was obviously the fact that he had the opportunity to work with the best in the world, Jushin Thunder Liger, who helped Pegasus reach greater heights.

4. Itsuki Yamazaki. She was a consistent and reliable worker in JWP. She was great at carrying workers. This was arguably her best solo year.

5. Harley Saito. If she had the opportunity to have more great matches like she did with Shinobu Kandori on 7/19/90, which is an all-time quasi-shoot-style classic, she would have been even higher on the list. What a great worker!

6. Owen Hart. He was a smooth and spectacular performer. He definitely added some more excitement to the NJPW junior heavyweight division whenever he showed up.

7. Manami Toyota. This was the year that she showed the world she had the potential of being one of the biggest names in joshi puroresu one day. The great Akira Hokuto guided her to a truly great match on 8/19/90, and Toyota’s energy and excitement made AJW more fun to watch than it would have been otherwise.

8. Jerry Lynn. This man deserves a lot of credit for doing what he did. He was doing things nobody else was doing in the United States at the time. His feud with Lightning Kid definitely opened people’s eyes on the American indy scene.

9. Lightning Kid. This guy was reckless and super spectacular. It’s not a surprise that he eventually ended up being one of the more well-known names in American pro wrestling.

10. Minoru Suzuki. He was the best shoot-style worker of 1990, and he was bridging the gap between 1980s and 1990s shoot-style puroresu.

11. Gran Hamada. Gran Hamada showed why he was indeed the father of lucharesu, as he was very successful at blending lucha libre Mexicana with Nihon no puroresu.

12. Negro Casas. He was the best Mexican wrestler of 1990. His bumping, selling and timing were excellent.

13. Fuerza Guerrera. Fuerza was able to elevate the level of performance of his opponents to the point that having Fuerza in a match would almost automatically guarantee at least a decent match.

14. Tommy Rogers. A very underrated and overlooked American pro wrestler who was so good at what he did.

15. Yoshihiro Asai. He was very spectacular and a top-level athlete.

Honorable mention:

16. Blue Panther. He was one of the best Mexican wrestlers of 1990 and a true maestro of the technical wrestling style.

17. Shinobu Kandori. She deserves credit for being in the second-best match of the year (and one of the 100 greatest matches ever).

1. NJPW 8/19/90 Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan, IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Pegasus Kid 15:02. *****

2. JWP 7/19/90 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Harley Saito vs. Shinobu Kandori 18:54. *****

3. AJW 8/19/90 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Akira Hokuto vs. Manami Toyota 30:00. ****¾ 

4. NJPW 11/1/90 Tokyo Nippon Budokan, IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title: Pegasus Kid vs. Jushin Thunder Liger 12:32. ****¾ 

5. NJPW 1/31/90 Osaka Prefectural Gym, IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title: Naoki Sano vs. Jushin Thunder Liger 20:00. ****¾  

6. WWA 1990: Gran Hamada & Yoshihiro Asai & El Hijo del Santo vs. Negro Casas & Blue Panther & Fuerza Guerrera 7:20, 3:16, 3:45. ****1/2

7. JWP 5/25/90 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Itsuki Yamazaki vs. Plum Mariko 14:09. ****½

8. PWA 12/17/90 Minnesota: Lightning Kid vs. Jerry Lynn. ****¼

9. NJPW 6/18/90 Kumamoto Prefectural Gymnasium: Pegasus Kid vs. Jushin Thunder Liger 19:47. ****¼

10. AJPW 5/26/90 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Kenta Kobashi & Mitsuharu Misawa & Akira Taue vs. Jumbo Tsuruta & Great Kabuki & Masa Fuchi 23:10. ****¼ 

11. NJPW 6/26/90 Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan: Pegasus Kid vs. Owen Hart 12:10. ****

12. ACASA 1990 Juarez Gimnasio Municipal: Negro Casas & Blue Panther vs. Eddy Guerrero & Hijo del Santo 23:05 (10:10, 5:27, 7:28). ****

13. Universal 11/17/90 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Manami Toyota & Mika Takahashi & Kaoru Maeda & Mariko Yoshida & Esther Moreno vs. Bison Kimura & Aja Kong & La Diabolica & Xochitl Hamada & Madusa. ****

14. Newborn UWF 4/15/90 Hakata Starlanes: Minoru Suzuki vs. Masakatsu Funaki 8:53. ****

15. NJPW 3/19/90 Hiroshima, IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Pegasus Kid 15:21. ****

16. Universal 11/13/90 Gunma: Gran Hamada vs. Blue Panther 14:57. ****

17. AJPW 9/1/90 Tokyo Nippon Budokan, Asia Tag Champion Decision League Match: Tommy Rogers & Bobby Fulton vs. Joe Malenko & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi 11:05 of 16:59. ****

18. AJPW 6/8/90 Tokyo Nippon Budokan: Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Mitsuharu Misawa 24:06. ****

1. JWP. This was the league that was top-to-bottom the most enjoyable overall. If you would have to watch entire shows of leagues from 1990, JWP would be the best choice.

2. AJW. Their main eventers Bull Nakano and Aja Kong were entertaining but a bit overrated. That being said, Akira Hokuto and Manami Toyota made sure AJW was still a high-level (joshi) puroresu league.

3. Universal. Gran Hamada’s Universal was so much fun to watch. This was a league featuring very good-quality Mexican lucha libre in Japan.

4. NJPW. Their heavyweight division was dull for the most part. However, their junior heavyweight division had some of the most memorable matches of the ‘90s, especially when Jushin Liger Liger, Pegasus Kid or Owen Hart were involved.

5. AJPW. This league presented the best men’s heavyweight pro wrestling of the year 1990.