ALL JAPAN ON NTV

January 14, 1990 (taped 1/11/90)

Akira Taue . . . puts on a better in-ring performance than the Dynamite Kid.

Yoshiaki Yatsu . . . provides pretty much the only watchable parts of what had to to be an early contender for WMOTY.

Genichiro Tenryu . . . decides that Kabuki’s face is still far too visible, even with the paint, so he adds to it with blood!

DYNAMITE KID/DAVEY BOY SMITH vs. AKIRA TAUE/ISAO TAKAGI

The sight of Taue and Arashi teaming immediately invokes thoughts of Gilbert Gottfried losing his mind and screaming: “It’s Taue! And it’s Arashi! And they’re a tag team! It’s the world’s lumpiest tag team!” This is decidedly mediocre, with Taue being the best looking of the bunch. The Bulldogs get a quick run of offense against Takagi, although none of it looks very good, and Takagi doesn’t do anything to help make it any better. Taue gets a hot tag and looks like Ricky Morton; he comes in all fired up and working at an almost shockingly quick pace. Taue even tries to break out an elbow off the top. Yes, Taue off the top! The elbow misses and leads to Taue tagging out and another run of mediocrity from Takagi. Taue gets back and busts out a couple of suplexes on Davey before DK intervenes and roughs him up with a headbutt and some stomps and forearms which allows Davey to do the powerslam and DK to hit the diving headbutt. DK showed a bit more there than he did the previous week against Fuchi and Misawa, but this was another case where he did very little and still took the winning pin. However, it’s Taue’s performance that stands out more than anything else.

YOSHIAKI YATSU/SHUNJI TAKANO vs. ABDULLAH THE BUTCHER/IVAN KOLOFF

Holy Hell was this terrible. One wonders why Yatsu and Takano were wasted for this match, when Kabuki and Takagi were both right there. This is almost tolerable when the natives are working over Koloff’s leg. Uncle Ivan sells rather well, and it’s fun to watch him try and fend off Yatsu and Takano. Other than that, Abby and Koloff work this like a studio squash circa 1983 only much, much longer, complete with Abby twisting Yatsu’s ears, or whatever the hell it was that he was supposed to be doing. Yatsu and Takano double team Abby while Uncle Ivan yells at the ref, who does nothing about it, and then he goes after Yatsu to conveniently get them out of the way so that Abby and Takano can work the finish. Yeah, this makes the Tenryu/Koloff match look like a damn masterpiece.

JUMBO TSURUTA/THE GREAT KABUKI/TIGER MASK vs. GENICHIRO TENRYU/TOSHIAKI KAWADA/SAMSON FUYUKI

Despite there being no shortage of hate and stiffness, and quite a few appreciable moments to enjoy, this never feels like it gets out of first gear. It’s clearly not a bad match, but it never goes anywhere, even when the chance presents itself. An example of this is Kabuki’s gusher. The first big scrum with all six leads to Jumbo trying to bring in a chair and the ref taking it away and admonishing him for it. Tenryu takes the opportunity to steal the chair and level Kabuki to open up his forehead. Tenryu and Kawada both work over the cut for a bit, but he manages to break free and tag out, and he’s never in real trouble. The same thing happens with Misawa’s shoulder, he comes into the match with it taped up and the Revolution gets a chance to work it over, but it’s also dropped before long. Jumbo’s group gets a chance to work over Kawada afterward, but he makes his own tag to Tenryu without ever being in any great danger of losing the match.

At the end of the day, the only things to really take away from the match as a whole are the hate involved between the groups, and the fact that the finish demonstrates exactly how far below his partners that Fuyuki ranks. Jumbo is poised to finish off Fuyuki after he hits the jumping knee and the boot to the face and calls for the backdrop. Tenryu intervenes with a slap and Jumbo tags in Misawa before going after Tenryu and brawling on the floor. Misawa hits a single kick to the back and then pins Fuyuki after a Tiger driver. Even with the opening from Tenryu and the chance for a breather while Jumbo tagged out, Fuyuki was still finished off in short order. It’s not even like Jumbo gifts Misawa the win. He lets the suplex go and basically tells Misawa to handle it, and Misawa does so with ease. The hate between the teams is enough to make this a fun viewing experience, but it’s hard to appreciate this with the knowledge that All Japan would set new standards for trios matches during the decade.

Conclusion: Well, this was certainly a step down from the previous week’s TV show.