Riki Choshu & Yoshiaki Yatsu vs. Genichiro Tenryu & Jumbo Tsuruta (January 28, 1986)

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1. Jumbo Tsuruta is one of the greatest wrestlers of all time, and I feel he’s been somewhat forgotten, mostly by fans in the West who haven’t been able to watch some of his classics.

   The background to this 5 star classic is Riki Choshu, the Revolutionary Warrior himself, left NJPW due to constantly being overshadowed by Antonio Inoki and Tatsumi Fujinami, despite being massively popular with the audience. He formed his own stable Ishin Gundan (Revolution Army), and also formed his own promotion, JPW (Japan Pro Wrestling). Choshu then invaded AJPW and brought massive heat and ticket sales to the promotion.

   Standing in Choshu’s way was AJPW Ace Jumbo Tsuruta, and tag partner Mr. Puroresu himself, Genichiro Tenryu. Choshu and Tenryu in particular would brutalize each other whenever sharing the ring with stiff shots and strong holds, leading to a decades long rivalry between the two, spanning multiple promotions.

   Here, Choshu had his own long-term tag partner Yoshiaki Yatsu backing him up against the AJPW defenders. Yatsu is in the breed of wrestler who never made it to the top, but remained a great tag team specialist and loved by fans (much like Masanobu Fuchi, Yoshinari Ogawa, and Takashi Iizuka.

   These matches really were the beginnings of the heavyweight style of wrestling transitions form mostly long grapple exchanges to fast paced action, with emphasis more on strikes and more athleticism, and was also the first signs of what would become Kings Road style wrestling in the 90’s.