Giant Baba & Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Michael Hayes & Terry Gordy

[5.0] "This is Baba and Jumbo's first defense of the year for their (AJPW) NWA International Tag Team titles. I'm sorry if my lack of exposure to the Freebirds' work causes me to have unfair expectations, but I thought they dropped the ball here. The Jumbo/Gordy stuff is decent, and I do think it's interesting to put Southern heels against the top native team on paper. But while some of Hayes' wild energy worked a bit for me, I thought that the Freebirds' mode of operation was so dependent on heat-building tactics that they didn't know how to adapt to a Japanese crowd. We end in double countout, and it feels less like this is meant to put the Freebirds over for a later match down the line and more like it's so they can save face and return to Texas. **1/2, but just barely."