NJPW Battle Line Kyushu 1990
Different Style Match: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Masashi Aoyagi - NJPW Battle Line Kyushu 1990 Day 1 12/06/1990
There were great escalation in the match, I thought. The mat wrestling at the start, growing and growing into Aoyagi removing the mask and causing Liger to lose his shit and busts him open. The blood stained gi is a great visual. Liger showed great aggressive facial expressions and all the brawling at the end was great. ***3/4
IWGP Heavyweight Title Match: Big Van Vader (c) vs. Stan Hansen - NJPW Battle Line Kyushu 1990 Day 1 12/06/1990
Their other match had Hasen knocking Vader’s eyeball out of his head, so I expected a ton of heat from that to carry over. This is a much more fleshed out version of their Dome match which is both good and bad for reasons I’ll explain. Tons more violence with Hasne bringing out a chair, Vader and Hansen stiffing and running at each other, etc. Vader doing the dragon suplex looked cool and it was a great seeing the size of Vader’s arm wrenching Hansen’s head backwards. Vader bled heavily as well which always looks great. Because this was more fleshed out, it went longer and in this case, too long. And the finish sucked. Oh well. ***3/4
NJPW New Kokugikan Densetsu ~ New Japan Pro Wrestling Explosion ~
Animal Hamaguchi, Super Strong Machine Masanobu Kurisu & Blond Outlaws (Hiro Saito & Tatsutoshi Goto) vs. Sekigun (Riki Choshu, Kantaro Hoshino, Kensuke Sasaki, Kuniaki Kobayashi, & Shiro Koshinaka) - NJPW New Kokugikan Densetsu ~ New Japan Pro Wrestling Explosion ~ 26/06/1990
The energy and pacing was off the charts. Hoshino was fantastic in this match. By far the smallest on the roster but the spunk he brought to the match, the fiery punches he’d let off, everything he did was tremendous. His bumping for the heel team was great as well. Koshinaka was great as the face in peril, taking the brunt of the punishment and selling great. Him against Kurisu was particularly outstanding. His butt attacks were done to great effect. Hamaguchi was a rugged beast in this as well. Running down everyone he could see, except for Choshu who was a total star in this with his bursts of explosive offence. Everyone got tons of shine in some way. The pins are really well done with the added touch of everyone running in to either stop the pin or the other team from doing so. Tremendous match. ****1/2
NJPW Battle Hall Week
Shinya Hashimoto vs. Masanobu Kurisu - NJPW Battle Hall Week - Day 3 03/08/1990
Fun stuff. Kurisu is a right grump. His offence is stuff as fuck. And he rules. Hashimoto is fun in response. Not a ton of meat to it but worth watching. ***
NJPW 19/08/1990
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Jushin Thunder Liger (c) vs. Pegasus Kid - NJPW 19/08/1990
My version cuts half the match out but what we do get is okay. Some neat WOS grappling early on but then it just ends soon after. **1/2
IWGP Heavyweight Title Match: Big Van Vader (c) vs. Riki Choshu - NJPW 19/08/1990
After Riki Choshu’s great year going against the Blond Outlaws and Animal Hamaguchi, it’s time to put it all to the test against the IWGP Heavyweight champion, Big Van Vader. Choshu performs big her, going for Vader’s eye, which was famously knocked out of its socket by Hansen in their February Dome match. Choshu had great bursts of energy as usual. Vader did the usual stuff. He wasn’t outstanding but that wasn’t his job. A nice, quick decisive win for CHOSHUUUUU!. ***1/4
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