Mike Reviews – All Japan Pro Wrestling TV (16/03/1985)

Hello You!

This week we’ve got some more action featuring the Road Warriors, as they take on Giant Baba, whilst Bruiser Brody is wrestling in the Main Event. What’s not to like?

Thanks to Roy Lucier over on that there YouTube for uploading these

This week’s matches were taped for Himeji, Hyogo on the 11^th of March 1985 and then aired on the 16^th of March 1985. If you’d like to watch along with me then you can do so by clicking right HERE.

Opening Match
NWA International Junior Heavyweight Title
Champ: Mighty Inoue Vs Chavo Guerrero Sr

Chavo showed up last week and is the father of former WCW and WWE wrestler Chavo Jr, as well as being brother to Eddie. They trade submission attempts in the early going, with Inoue trying the Indian Deathlock whilst Chavo tries the Rita Romero Special, neither of which causes the other to cry uncle. The wrestling is decent enough, if a little bit scrappy in places. In one way that’s good as it gives the match a feeling of being an actual fight between two people, but it also means the match lacks some polish.

Chavo throws fists and goes to the eyes a few times, settling himself into more of a heel role. He does get the first dive though, with a body press to the floor on Inoue. Inoue replies with an atomic drop out there though, and they quickly take it home back inside, where Inoue rolls through on an O’Connor Roll to end up on top for the three count to retain.

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: MIGHTY INOUE
RATING: **

Nothing actively wrong with it, but it was hardly a non-stop thrill ride either

Chavo is nice enough to shake Inoue’s hand following that.

Match Two
The Road Warriors w/ Paul Ellering Vs Giant Baba and Masanobu Fuchi

Fuchi is almost certainly just here to get creamed by The Roadies, and indeed the match is a brawl right from the off as The Warriors storm the ring. This leads to Fuchi getting battered in their corner for a bit, selling everything really well. The crowd views The Warriors with a mixture of excitement, awe and outright fear, and they love it when Baba comes in and actually gets to beat them up for a bit. Baba knows he has to sell for the new monster foreigners though, even going up for a body slam from Hawk at one stage.

The Warriors don’t so much sell as register the offence of their opponents, with Hawk sandbagging poor Fuchi on a slam at one stage, only for Fuchi to be able to muscle him up anyway in an impressive showing of strength. Hawk immediately shrugs it off though and tags in Animal for a lariat, which is enough for three.

WINNERS: THE ROAD WARRIORS
RATING: N/A

Too short to rate. The Japanese lads got just enough offence that I won’t call it a Squash, but it was verging on that at points

Baba helps Fuchi up following that as we get some replays.

Match Three
Rusher Kimura and Goro Tsurumi Vs Riki Choshu and Yoshiaki Yatsu

Choshu continues to get the monster pop every time his music hits, as he remains the beating heart of this territories hot streak right now. This one starts as a wild brawl as well, with everyone fighting outside the ring and Goro even attacking Choshu with a chair. That leads to the heat on Choshu back inside, with Kimura and Tsurumi regularly double teaming and cheating away in a manner most improper. Choshu sells the heat pretty well actually, although he doesn’t really make the dramatic hot tag to Yatsu in as much that he gets punched into his corner and scrambles to tag out.

Yatsu is quickly on the defensive too, as they’ve been putting the heels over pretty strong in this one thus far. Tsurumi even grabs an international object out of his trunks and hits Yatsu with it at one stage, as they’re just running through a cheating heel tag team checklist at the moment, and doing an entertaining job at it too. Yatsu eventually manages to catch Tsurumi with a suplex and its hot tag Choshu, who comes in with a spiked piledriver and a back body drop, and the crowd loves it.

Choshu flings Tsurumi and demands that Kimura tag in, which does indeed happen, which leads to Choshu felling him with a lariat and then going to The Scorpion Deathlock. This brings in Tsurumi to break it up and leads to the heels regaining control momentarily. Choshu keeps coming though and puts Tsurumi down with a lariat for three.

WINNERS: CHOSHU & YATSU
RATING: ***

Good formula tag stuff there, as the heels were jerks and eventually Choshu set them straight somewhat. Kimura didn’t eat the pin though, so they can still come back to that if they want

Kimura is NOT happy following that, so it looks like this issue will continue.

Main Event
Jumbo Tsuruta and Genichiro Tenryu Vs Bruiser Brody and Killer Brooks

This is your standard All Japan back and forth tag team match from this era, with both teams trading the momentum and no real defined shine, cut off or comeback. The wrestling on offer is good, more so when Brooks is in as he’s much more willing to trade holds with and sell for the Japanese opposition, whilst Brody is more interesting in being his usual wild marauding self, which means he spends more time throwing strikes and not really selling the attempts of the Japanese to wrestle him.

It’s a solid match for the most part, with Jumbo spending some time getting worked over for a bit and selling it well. Brody actually does the WWF No Mercy hanging piledriver at one stage, which is cool to see in real life. Things eventually break down, with all four guys going at it. Jumbo brawls outside the ring with Brody and that allows Tenryu to get a top rope elbow drop on Brooks back inside for the three count.

WINNERS: JUMBO & TENRYU
RATING: **1/2

This was fine, but it dragged a bit for me at points

Surprisingly Brody just storms to the back following that rather than charging to the ring for some vengeance.

In Conclusion

Nothing bad on the show this week and most of the action was solid, but it also kind of felt like one of the more middling shows we’ve had so far. It speaks volumes that even a “meh” week of the show is still this strong though