Great Muta vs. Hiroshi Hase - NJPW Explosion Tour 1990 - Day 6 14/09/1990
Excellent stuff. The Great Muta gimmick can be hit and miss with me here but Muta was in full swing with his mannerisms, the difference in style and offence he did compared to his Keiji Muto matches. All was a big hit with me. Him kicking Hase’s ass, causing Hase to bleed heavily. Him throwing some great offence like his chops and back fists was great to see. Hase was a great contrast to Muta. Very straight laced, super babyface here - he great at rallying the crowd behind him, mounting fiery comebacks, along with the face soaked look he had half the match. Hase even was selling when on offence, occasionally stumbling around and upping the urgency of his offence to end the match. Muta getting DQ’d at the end was a perfectly fine finish as well. Protects both guys at this stage. ****1/2
IWGP Tag Team Title Match: Keiji Muto & Masahiro Chono (c) vs. Hiroshi Hase & Kensuke Sasaki - NJPW Dream Tour 1990 Day 4 01/11/1990
This was high octane stuff. There was some great mat wrestling exchanges between Chono and Hase early on with the two struggle for holds. Add Muto to the mix as well, even if he isn’t known as a particularly great mat wrestler, he was pretty good here. Sasaki was excellent as the rabid dog that got unleashed every time he got in the ring. Even when Chono would school him with the STF, he still brought that scrappiness to the match. The back stretch of the match was superb. Very heated. Tons of nearfalls that were impossible not to get sucked into. Loved the brief heel psychology in the match with Muto attacking Hase, while illegal, when he had a scorpion deathlock on. A total breezy ride. ****1/2
Different Style Fight: Shinya Hashimoto vs. Tony Halme - NJPW King Of Kings 26/12/1990
Great match. Hashimoto and Halme threw some big shots at each other. The match was intense and heavy. The round set up seemed to be winded in perfectly which it not really disrupting the flow, like it’s prone to do. Big surprise on that front. ***3/4
IWGP Heavyweight Title Match; Riki Choshu (c) vs. Tatsumi Fujinami - NJPW King Of Kings 26/12/1990
Not a great match but it was high energy wrestling with Choshu and Fujinami exploding with offence and charisma. A pretty good match and an end to the year. Sad to see Choshu lose the title so quickly though. ***1/4
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