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all japan pro wrestling

Mike Reviews – All Japan Pro Wrestling at the Tokyo Dome (1st May 1998)

25th May 2022 by Michael Fitzgerald

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

Today we’re going to be looking at some matches from All Japan’s big show at the Tokyo Dome in May of 1998. I’ve had a peruse on YouTube and managed to find five of them, so that’s what we’ll be watching today. I’m not sure if the full card ever made it to TV or not. I could have probably found more but these five matches are enough to fill close to two hours and that’s more than enough for the Wednesday review slot.

All Japan had stayed away from running the Dome due to Giant Baba having a previous bad experience back in 1990 when he’d promoted a show also featuring stars from New Japan and the WWF. All Japan was probably past its peak by the time 1998 rolled around from the insane hot streak it had experienced since switching to clean finishes in big matches at the end of the 80’s, but they still had a big moment of Toshiaki Kawada finally getting his big singles Title win over Mitsuharu Misawa, along with Vader coming in from the WWF to work the semi-main.

Being that it was All Japan, they eschewed a lot of the bells and whistle that companies like New Japan put on whenever they ran a big show in a venue like this, and instead just presented a match focused All Japan show in front of a near 60,000 crowd.

The playlist for these matches can be viewed by clicking HERE

In a quick aside, according to the Wrestling Observer from this time period Paul Heyman was trying to arrange some ECW involvement to help All Japan fill out the card. He was basically happy for ECW guys to be booked and used in any way All Japan pleased in exchange for getting an ECW Title match between Shane Douglas and Hiroshi Hase where Hase would put Douglas over. Heyman’s thought process was that Hase would be fine with doing a job because he was basically semi-retired at this stage and he’d also be able to carry Douglas to a great match, thus allowing Paul to show the match on ECW television in order to make ECW look important. Sadly that deal never went through though and there’s no ECW involvement on this show as a result.

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Mike Reviews – All Japan Pro Wrestling TV (30/03/1985)

31st March 2021 by Michael Fitzgerald

Hello You!

Yup, it’s time for some more mid-80’s All Japan goodness courtesy of that there YouTube machine. Thanks as always to Roy Lucier for uploading this stuff!

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Mike Reviews – All Japan Pro Wrestling TV (23/03/1985)

24th March 2021 by Michael Fitzgerald

Hello You!

More All Japan goodness courtesy of that fine uploader Roy Lucier over on that there YouTube!

I also recently reviewed WrestleMania III and you can read my thoughts on that historic event by clicking HERE (Spoiler, I liked it)

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

17th March 2021 by Michael Fitzgerald

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

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Mike Reviews – All Japan Pro Wrestling TV plus All Japan Pro Wrestling Special (09/03/1985)

10th March 2021 by Michael Fitzgerald

Hello You!

The Road Warriors are in the Main Event this week after many weeks of hype, so I’m suitably jazzed!

Cheers to Roy Lucier as always for uploading this to his YouTube channel.

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Mike Reviews – All Japan Pro Wrestling TV (02/03/1985)

3rd March 2021 by Michael Fitzgerald

Hello You!

More from All Japan courtesy of Roy Lucier over on YouTube.

Next week is due to be an extended special episode of the show due to the company having a big show in Tokyo that day, so this week would kind of be the go-home show in that case.

The Main Event this week is more of the Riki Choshu and his pals Vs All Japan storyline, with a certain chap known as Bruiser Brody returning for the second match.

So yeah, lots of interesting stuff this week, so let’s get our collective teeth into it!

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Mike Reviews – All Japan Pro Wrestling TV (23/02/1985)

24th February 2021 by Michael Fitzgerald

Hello You!

More from the All Japan vaults, courtesy of Roy Lucier over on a little place called YouTube.

Last week we had a great tag match featuring Riki Choshu and Genichiro Tenryu that had an atrocious non-finish but was hot sauce up to that point, followed by a less than stellar Main Event that featured a rare clean finish when Giant Baba submitted Tiger Jeet Singh. However, both feuds are continuing and there’s also the small factor of BRUISER BRODY being on the show this week.

So yeah, that’s going to happen. How’s about we watch some chuffing wrestling?

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Mike Reviews – All Japan Pro Wrestling TV (16/02/1985)

17th February 2021 by Michael Fitzgerald

Hello You!

Back again with some All Japan TV, courtesy of Roy Lucier over on the Tube of You.

Last week was the usual All Japan show from 1985, in that we got some good wrestling and some strong storyline advancement, but we also got some terrible finishes to go along with them.

This week we have a singles match between Giant Baba and Tiger Jeet Singh as the Main Event, which has potential to be absolutely horrible. Who knows though, maybe we’ll get lucky and the match might be watchable?

Let’s watch on and find out!

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Mike Reviews – All Japan Pro Wrestling TV (09/02/1985)

10th February 2021 by Michael Fitzgerald

Hello You!

Last week we had a really fun Main Event with a lousy finish (Yup, sounds like All Japan from the mid-80’s alright) and ended the show with a tease for The Road Warriors, so we can look forward to seeing them sometime, likely in March.

This week we’ve got a rare singles match between Tiger Mask II and Kuniaki Kobayashi, as well as more of the Choshu Vs Tenryu feud, so let’s waste no further time and watch some chuffing wrestling!

As always, I need to send a big shout out over to Roy Lucier on YouTube for uploading this stuff. Give him and one of his many channels some likes!

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Mike Reviews – All Japan Pro Wrestling TV (02/02/1985)

3rd February 2021 by Michael Fitzgerald

Hello You!

Time for some more All Japan from 1985!

Last week, Genichiro Tenryu had to sit out a six man tag involving Riki Choshu due to an injury, which led to Choshu heading out of the ring following his victory in a quest to cause some bother. Tenryu is back for this week’s Main Event though, so I’m sure we’re going to enjoy ourselves one heck of a fight as a result!

As usual, thanks to Roy Lucier over on YouTube for uploading this great stuff.

Let’s watch some chuffing wrestling!

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Mike Reviews – All Japan Pro Wrestling TV (26/01/1985)

27th January 2021 by Michael Fitzgerald

Hello You!

Back with some more All Japan TV from 1985, once again courtesy of Roy Lucier over on YouTube. Give Roy some likes and some subs you filthy animals!

The feud between Genichiro Tenryu and Riki Choshu has been all kinds of fun in the past couple of weeks, although all the non-finishes in their matches has started to get a tad tiresome. Still, I’m pumped whenever I get a chance to see them go at it, so the booking is doing its job I guess.

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Mike Reviews – All Japan Pro Wrestling TV (19/01/1985)

20th January 2021 by Michael Fitzgerald

Hello You!

Back with some more All Japan TV from 1985, once again courtesy of Roy Lucier over on YouTube.

Last week the Main Event between Riki Choshu’s crew and the All Japan guys ended in a wild pull apart brawl, so let’s see if that gets followed up during this week’s show.

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Mike Reviews – All Japan Pro Wrestling TV (12/01/1985)

13th January 2021 by Michael Fitzgerald

Hello You!

Back with some more All Japan TV from 1985, once again courtesy of Roy Lucier over on YouTube.

Last week, we had some heated conflict between Riki Choshu and Genichiro Tenryu, and wouldn’t you know it they’re butting heads again this week in 6 man tag team action!

I certainly know I’m pumped for that, so let’s quit this jibber-jabbering and watch some chuffing wrestling!!

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Mike Reviews – All Japan Pro Wrestling TV (05/01/1985)

6th January 2021 by Michael Fitzgerald

Hello You!

Let’s try these for a while and see if people enjoy them

Big thanks to Roy Lucier over on the YouTube machine for uploading these. Head over and give him some likes if you haven’t already!

I’ve seen some decent chunks of AJPW from the 90’s due to my love of Misawa, Kobashi, Akiyama and Taue (Kawada is a great worker, but I never had the same emotional connection to him as I do the other four) but 80’s All Japan is something I haven’t spent much time watching. To me, All Japan really started with Misawa beating Jumbo in 1990, with everything before that being a mysterious avenue that I haven’t ventured down.

With Hardcore TV now in the bag, I decided to travel back to the mid-80’s to see what was going on in All Japan Pro Wrestling. Lets’ watch some chuffing wrestling!

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Mike Reviews: Ring of Honour – “Japan’s Finest” – Disc One

12th October 2019 by Michael Fitzgerald

Hello You!

Back with something else in my “to watch” pile, as we take a look at a compilation DVD that ROH put out covering some of the best matches from the company’s history that featured Japanese wrestlers.

Obviously ROH isn’t what it once was, but throughout the years the company has featured some truly excellent wrestling and one of the reasons why was because they were able to bring in wrestlers from major Japanese companies like All Japan, New Japan, NOAH and Dragon Gate to compete on their events.

The main reason I picked this one up is because it features the excellent main event from the first Supercard of Honour Show (An event I did have on DVD but sadly lost during a house move back in the day) as well as some cool sounding matches that I’d never seen before. We’ll just do Disc One today and I’ll try to get to Disc Two when I can (There’s a lot of matches on this here collection)

You actually can still buy this DVD on eBay, but golly gosh is it pricey! Still, if you like the sound of these matches then the option is there (Although it might be better possibly just to cherry pick the individual shows as that will probably set you back less in the long run)

And yes, I spell “Honour” with a “U”. I also drive on the left hand side of the road, drink copious amounts of tea and have terrible teeth. Deal with it!

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Mike’s Mini Review: Mitsuharu Misawa Vs Toshiaki Kawada – 03 06 1994

3rd June 2019 by Michael Fitzgerald

Hello You!

For those not aware, 25 years ago today a very notorious bout took place in All Japan Pro Wrestling between Mitusharu Misawa and Toshiaki Kawada. In case you don’t recognise the names, both Misawa and Kawada were the top two stars of All Japan at the time and this was a much anticipated collision between the two.

Both men had actually been tag team partners and allies in the not too distant past prior to this contest, but by the time 1994 rolled around both men had become heated rivals, both on and off screen. Thankfully it led to magic between the two and they often produced an epic chemistry together, one that helped make All Japan incredibly successful during the 90’s.

The two hadn’t met in a match for the famed All Japan Triple Crown of Titles for nearly two years, so this match had a lot of hype going into it and was the talk of the internet wrestling world following its conclusion due to how great a match it ended up being.

Seeing as today is the anniversary of the match, I thought I’d review it seeing as I haven’t watched it in a while and the milestone deserved some recognition. So without further ado, let’s say the way back machine to Budokan Hall for some Retro Wrestle action!

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All Japan TV – 20th of March 1994

24th July 2018 by Michael Fitzgerald

First off, I’d like to thank Scott for giving me a chance to produce some content for the blog. I stumbled across the YouTube page of Roy Lucier, who has uploaded a tonne of classic All Japan Pro Wrestling episodes, so I thought I’d go a write up for one at random due to the fact they’re little more than 40 minutes long and would probably feature some good wrestling as well considering AJPW was killing it in the 90’s.

All of these matches are from the 1994 Champion Carnival, which is like All Japan’s version of the G1, so it seemed somewhat apt to review seeing as we are currently smack dab in the middle of G1 season.

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