From: hekunze@jeeves.uwaterloo.ca (Herb Kunze)
Subject: Old Japanese Videos - review
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1992 16:24:54 GMT

This is the second installment in a series of reviews of videos
I'm watching these days.  Here we go: (ratings out of *****)

- Terry Funk vs. Stan Hansen from 1982
    Wild brawling.  This followed on the heels of the AJ Tag Tourney
  final match that I mentioned last time.  In that match, Hansen
  debuted in All Japan and clotheslined Terry.  Here, early in 1982,
  the two of them met in the ring.  Ron Bass interfered on behalf of
  Stan Hansen and the two heels brutalized Funk until Jumbo Tsuruta
  and Giant Baba made the save. ****

- Antonio Inoki & Tatsumi Fujinami & Cobra
    vs. Dynamite Kid & Davey Boy Smith & David Shults from 07/01/84
    Another great match since Shults and Inoki weren't in for long.
  Cobra was amazing.  Gary Will has since informed me that Cobra was
  George Takano, which freaks me out because he really does nothing
  in matches from the late 80s.  This was just after Dynamite & Davey
  Boy started teaming as the British Bulldogs.  Dynamite and Cobra
  were great.  It went to a DQ when the heels went crazy beating up
  everybody and lost control. ****1/2

- Dynamite Kid vs. Davey Boy Smith for the WWF Jr. Heavyweight Title
    from 07/20/84
    You'd expect this to be super, wouldn't you?  It was pretty darn
  good, with Davey Boy doing moves he probably dreams of doing now.
  Dynamite was probably twice as fast as Smith in executing everything
  and this made Smith look a little lame.  Dynamite retained the title.
  ***3/4

- Cobra vs. Davey Boy Smith for the NWA Jr. Title from 07/26/84
    Cobra was great.  Watching this match is strange since, as I
  mentioned, I can't imagine George Takano doing these moves these
  days and we'll all admit that Davey Boy is too musclebound to do
  anything that requires any speed and agility.  ****

- Cobra vs. Kuniaki Kobayashi for the NWA Jr. Title from 08/02/84
    This one was wild.  There were some crazy dives and some great
  wrestling.  Somebody did a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker.  The match
  ended outside the ring, when Kobayashi suplexed Cobra over the
  guard rail into the ringside benches, with fans scurrying to get
  out of the way. ****1/2

- Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Akira Maeda from 06/12/86
    This was part of the UWF vs. New Japan tournament.  The original
  UWF closed up shop after Satoru Sayama left them and the UWF wrestlers
  returned to New Japan, with the pretense being that they were shooters
  and that they would kill the pro-style wrestlers.  There were several
  matches from the tourney on the tape, but this one had the most heat
  because of who was in it.  Fujinami gushed and the crowd went wild.
  Maeda didn't look like he broke a sweat when the match was stopped.
  The crowd was really intense. ****

- Dump Matsumoto vs. Bull Nakano from 1986
    Dump is awesome.  She just brawls like a madwoman.  This match
  involved kendo sticks, nunchakus and chairs.  Both wrestlers juiced
  and the crowd was rabid.  ****1/4

- Jushin Riger vs. Pegasus Kid for the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title from 08/19/90
    Yeah, I know.  This one is on the video I made for the newsgroup.  But
  this was raw footage of the whole match.  New Japan only broadcasted the
  last ten minutes or so, while this match went about 17 minutes.  It
  was neat to watch it without the tight camera shots and all the
  different camera angles.  Definitely a great match.  ****3/4

- Naoki Sano vs. Biff Wellington
    A little lackluster.  This was raw footage from an SWS show in mid-to-late
  1990.  I only mention it because of an insane dive that Sano did on Biff.
  Sano basically tried to do Riger's somersault dive over the top rope,
  but he misjudged it, or Biff was out of position, and it looked like
  Biff did nothing to break Sano's fall onto the thin mats at ringside.
  I was pretty amazed that Sano even got up.  ***1/4

- Chigusa Nagayo & Yumiko Hotta & Mika Suzuki & Yachigo Hirata
    & Mika Takahashi & ? vs. Lioness Asuka & Mika Komatsu & Mitsuko Nishiwaki
    & Kazue Nagahori & Etsuko Mita & Sachiko Makamura from 12/05/87
    An All Japan Women 12 woman tag match should contain more action than
  one can describe.  It did.  There were numerous pinfalls through the match
  which went about 15 minutes.  There was so much happening and lots of
  great wrestling and dives.  It was unbelievable.  *****

- Kuniaki Kobayashi vs. Hiro Hase for the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title from 1988
    Hase had just left Calgary Stampede and I believe this was his first
  match ever in a Japanese wrestling ring.  Kobayashi was super too (He
  seems to have his ups and downs).  Hase did all kinds of suplexes on
  Kobayashi and the match had a great mix of technical wrestling and
  high spots.  It went 20 minutes.  In the end, Hase did a Northern Lights
  suplex and got the pin, winning the title.  ****3/4

- Curt Hennig vs. Tiger Mask for the AWA Title from 1988
    Not as good as you might expect.  Hennig took a couple of great bumps
  and Tiger Mask was very good.  They worked a slow match until Tiger Mask
  cut loose and did some dives onto Hennig and got a countout win.  ***1/4

- Owen Hart vs. Shiro Koshinaka for the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title
    from 06/24/88
    This was during Owen's short run as IWGP Jr. champ.  The story,
  according to Jeff Bowdren, was that Owen was supposed to win the match,
  but showed up to the building saying that he would be going to the WWF
  in the near future so they switched the ending.  The match went back
  and forth a little, but Owen seemed in control for the most part.
  Out of nowhere, Koshinaka did a roll-up where he hooked his feet under
  Owen's arms from behind, rolled him back, and bridged, winning the
  title. ****1/4

- Antonio Inoki vs. Big Van Vader
    This seemed to be from a tourney in 1988, with the apparent prize being
  the IWGP Title.  There was a lot of heat for this match.  Vader's matches
  throughout the tourney (against Fujinami, Choshu, Kengo Kimura, Masa Saito)
  were all *** or better.  Late in the match, which went 20+ minutes,
  Vader had a metal rod outside the ring and was going to whack Inoki's
  head.  Inoki disarmed him and whack Vader's arm a few times.  He had
  already been working on Vader's arm throughout the match.  Vader juiced
  a gusher from the arm and Inoki kept on him once they were back in the
  ring.  Vader sold the arm well, holding it in an awkward position and
  never moving it.  Finally, Inoki got him down and put an armbar on him,
  getting Vader to submit.  ***1/2

That's all for now.  I've still got lots of tapes to watch.  

                                                             Herb...