AJPW has always been one of those companies I've wanted to watch ever since I first played Virtual Pro Wrestling 2 for the Nintendo 64. AKI being a Japanese company based a lot of their design choices around promotions like AJPW and NJPW and that has always influenced how I've seen wrestling and what my ideal Pro Wrestling company is. However I've never really known where to start or even how to acquire it without spending 100s on tapes or watching the odd match here or there.

Thankfully now YouTube has been a god-send and the Roy Lucier All Japan channel has a bunch of tapes chronicling the old stuff. I've just dived into 1989 with Jumbo Tsuruta and his tag partner former Olympian Yoshiaki Yatsu teaming up to take on the big American hosses like Dan Spivey, Brian Adams and Mike Miller.

I was just wondering if I could get a lay of the land so to speak. As far as I know, Stan Hansen is the Pacific Wrestling Federation champion which was the original AJPW championship which would later become unified with a couple of NWA titles to become the Triple Crown. There's Tsuruta, Tenryu and Kawada appears to be getting pushed asthe rookie prospect. I have no idea who Shunki Takano or Shiniichi Nakano are. Oh of course there's also Tiger Mask aka Misawa and every now and then he's getting moments to shine, although in a match against the Bulldogs it seemed to take an eternity for him to get tagged in - Nakano was taking up all the spotlight.

The biggest impression it's made on me so far is the selling and rhythm of the match. They really don't milk anything over in AJPW, they'll hit a move but they won't stop to pose or anything like that it's usually break-neck stuff and I kind of like it. It's go-go-go but they're not afraid to lock in a hold or really bump for a big move when it warrants it. it's not like shoulder tackle, now stay down while I pose and kiss my bicep. Nothing wrong with the latter, but watching AJPW I can appreciate the faster style when it's done correctly.

Emperor did you ever end up finishing your project? Or is there still a ton of AJPW you want to catch up on (eventually).

Roy Lucier is still around? That's great, he was one of my sources for matches when I was doing my AJPW project.

Just popped back into that thread and I started my chronicles at the beginning of 1994. That's quite a distance ahead of where you're at. I got to the start of 1995. Last post in that thread: January 5th 2019. Three years. That's depressing. Not sure if I could find the time to go back to it though, I'd have to trim down my match reviews because the writing took more time than the watching.

Heading into the 90s, Tenryu will soon leave the company. That leaves Tsuruta as the top dog of the native wrestlers, his only competition being gaijins like Stan Hansen and Terry Gordy. Among the Japanese wrestlers, there's not much star power below Tsuruta. This led booker Giant Baba to make a shocking decision concerning the largely unremarkable Tiger Mask II in an attempt to create a new star. I assume you know that story already.

The rise of the young wrestlers in the early 90s gives birth to a faster-paced wrestling style. Remarkably, the sole survivor of the old guard Jumbo Tsuruta is one of the trailblazers of this style, working much faster compared to his famed epics with the likes of Tenryu and Hansen to stay ahead of his young challengers. This is something that Tsuruta doesn't get enough credit for, and especially the way he puts over Misawa in those years. A true passing of the torch.

A shame that AJPW doesn't have a streaming service.

Awesome series, thanks for sharing.

jumbomask A few years back I started a project where I watched and reviewed AJPW matches.

pwcom.proboards.com/thread/278/ajpw-golden-years

The thread chronicles 1994 through to early 1995 before I inexplicably abandoned the project. I promise myself I will return to it one day. Feel free to take a look if you're interested.

I'm not the type to record videos, although that would admittedly be cool. I like writing more, although it is a lot of work, particularly with how in-depth I go with describing the AJPW matches. If I return to that project I might write less, give my overall thoughts rather than a play-by-play.