Genichiro Tenryu & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Jumbo Tsuruta & Yoshiaki Yatsu

[9.0] "Holy shit! A tag-team match which, despite its constant chaos and violence, remains highly technical. A young Kawada who isn't afraid of his elders and is already impressive. Tsuruta and Tenryu, meanwhile, are doing their own thing at the expense of the others. A masterclass in storytelling, top-notch in-ring action and a crowd going wild. The perfect ingredients for a cracking time!"

[7.0] "I appreciated Jumbo & Yatsu's disdain for Tenryu here. It definitely slows down towards the middle, and I wasn't really impressed by the finish, to be honest. I just don't see as a 10/10 match that the 30 of you claim this is. Not in the year 2025."

[9.0] "Sleeper classic, really really good, aside from a slight lull at the very end. The champs try to bully Kawada and taunt Tenryu and draw him into a mistake - Tenryu looks heartbroken whenever Kawada is stuck in some nasty Yatsu submission, and a few times Yatsu is openly taunting Tenryu. The problem for this plan is that Kawada just doesn't quit. He turns out to be nearly as dangerous as Tenryu, getting very-nearfalls on Jumbo early on with a springboard back crossbody and a stiff lariat. He plays with the big boys and works stiff with the champs. He even draws blood from Jumbo - you basically see it happen live, too, after the strike lands! There's a nice series where Jumbo and Tenryu break up pins, then a bit later Yatsu does - and then, almost belatedly, Kawada does. Kawada is learning. He's not intimidated. Eventually the champs work on Kawada and Jumbo blocks the interference, so the champs retain - but Tenryu lifts Kawada's hands to a chanting crowd who has loved him the whole match. Low-key career-defining appearance, perhaps. 4.5/5"

[8.0] "Kawada and Tenryu really steal the show in this pretty exciting and good tag match with their speed and intensity. Love him but I think Jumbo was the least impressive here tbh."

[7.0] "Surprisingly its a young Kawada that brings this down for me. I did not like how fast he came in and no selled after getting his legs worked on for awhile by Tsuruta and Yatsu. He's still got that greatness but does make these mistakes in this match. Other than that, its a very solid match."

[9.0] "Entertaining and powerful tag team match. Tsuruta and Yatsu as a duo definitely showed a lot of dominance towards Kawada and they trained the young greenie well in that ring. Kawada was tenacious and with Tenryu's backup altogether they managed to do impressive perform. ****1/2"

[10.0] "Truly a fun match! Yatsu & Tsuruta just terrorizing young Kawada, with Tenryu jumping in and giving big slaps all over the place. Yatsu hit a couple of really nice looking bulldogs, but Kawada managed to stop Yatsu. Tenryu and Tsuruta gave each other a good beating and started brawling ringside. Really enjoyable tag team work and the fantastic crowd made everything better. *****."

[10.0] "What a fight! You really get the sense that these men can't stand the sight of each other and can barely contain their rage. Even early in the match there is this great little spot where Tenryu grabs Yatsu's hair from the apron and smacks him in the mouth just because he was within arm's reach. I could honestly just go through the entire match listing every moment as something that I loved. It isn't even just because of the physicality, either - there are so many great character and story details, too. Everybody has a role to play and they are all completely believable. This is a brutal, violent, emotional war, and if you haven't seen it before then I highly recommend changing that fact as soon as possible."

[10.0] "I love that fleeting moment early on when Tsuruta tries to calm things down & focus on using his technical prowess to subdue Kawada. Naturally, cooler heads don't prevail at all & the Jumbo-Tenryu hate soon spills over into a relentlessly violent & chaotic war in which the young Kawada looks right at home. For me this is the best All Japan tag match up to this point ****3/4"

[9.0] "Jesus H Christ, this is great stuff in front of a molten hot crowd. Jumbo and Tenryu are as good as ever in every little thing they do and Kawada is on top form as the fiery young babyface with the crowd behind him every step of the way. This does let up for a single second. ****1/2"

[10.0] "This one had a double meaning for my own pleasure : watching some stuff of Kawada during his young punk years while I have to say that Yatsu's pairing with Tsuruta is way more natural than the one with Choshu. For the fight itself, it's that type of epic bout happening in a packed Korakuen Hall and damn, that delivered. That clearly cimented Kawada as the young punk who was rising at the top. His sensei Tenryu offered him the chance to shine and for sure, he took. Without any hesitation, the lad jumped on the Ace and a pretty skilled fighter and he didn't looked below them. That's the great point about that bout. Tenryu's hot tags were great, nobody fucks around Tenryu-san, I really like his hidden brutality. That was brutal, that was emotionnal, Tenryu and Tsuruta at their primes while Yatsu had another great showcase here. The man is so underated. He was just here to mess everybody up and he was doing it pretty well. Jumbo was the man to absolutely and Tenryu and especially Kawada displayed that willingness. For Tenryu, it was a way to finally rise upon the shadow of the figurehead of All Japan. A gem during this time span of AJPW, this bout had surely an impact of the career of every lad involved."

[10.0] "When Kawada replaced Hara, you figured these matches would get better. I like Hara, but he is undoubtedly limited, and Kawada is one of the greatest of all time. For the first two matches between these four, things just felt off. The crowd wasn't completely buying in, the chemistry wasn't there, and it didn't feel as big of a deal as the tags that had Hara in them. First of all, the Korakuen crowd here has completely bought into Kawada and are molten hot. It think it helps that most of Kawada's greatest matches to this point took place in this arena. Secondly, at this point, Kawada has developed great chemistry with both Yatsu and Tsuruta. The chemistry Yatsu and Kawada have here is unreal and I think it ends up being the most impressive that Yatsu has looked since the 1985 RWTL final. As for Kawada and Tsuruta, they continue the dynamic of Tsuruta bullying the smaller and younger Kawada. Kawada plays the underdog babyface against Jumbo perfectly, but Jumbo eventually puts him away again with another backdrop driver. To have all of this going on without mentioning Tenryu at all, just shows how great this match is. Amazing storytelling all around, great action, and an amazing crowd. Better than any of the Hara tags and better than all Choshu/Yatsu tags in All Japan with exception of the classic 28/1/86 match. This is an absolute must-watch classic."

[8.0] "The 90s era actually started in 1989 & these tag matches were how it did. This is as exhilarating as hell & manages to further the Tenryu Jumbo feud in the best ways possible. There are strikes here which seem straight out of a MMA fight, it's brutal."

[10.0] "What an incredible tag team match. Jumbo and Tenryu, always amazing together. Young Kawada, not even in his colors yet, but fighting the towering Jumbo like a man possessed. Everyone did great, astoundingly great match."

[10.0] "I need a cigarette after watching this, wow. This is excellence all around from all four guys, with all the high notes you expect from the best All Japan matches of this era in front of a molten hot Korakeun crowd. It builds on the incredibly heated Tenryu vs. Jumbo tag matches of the past year, most of which were great, but the addition of Kawada gives the storytelling a new edge that is so well utilised here. I love Yatsu repeatedly slapping Kawada while applying holds as a way to get to Tenryu, and the little details in Jumbo's selling that conveys the levels between himself and Kawada, while still showing the progress Kawada is making. Jumbo and Yatsu seem like unsinkable battleships here and it's perfect."

[9.0] "This match was all finding out an answer to the question 'Who is stronger? ' between these two teams. It wasn't about high-spots, or getting big crowd reactions, or making someone look good, it was just as competitive pro-wrestling match can be. Kawada wasn't as big of a deal as he became later on, but he belonged in this match."

[9.0] "This match is just as good as it sounds, easily surpassing previous Jumbo/Tenryu tags now that Kawada has replaced Hara. Absolutely brutal match right from the go, with Tsuruta and Yatsu beating the hell out of Kawada and Tenryu fighting back incredibly. The second best match in the title's history to this point. 4. 5"

[10.0] "This is a defense of the Olympians' AJPW World Tag Team title, which they won from Hansen and Gordy three weeks earlier in Kansas City. It... is also one of the greatest and most underrated AJPW matches of the decade. As far as this era is concerned, this match is IMO one of the biggest omissions of the pre-open submission era of the Cagematch matchguide. At least to this point, this is the best Jumbo vs Tenryu tag, overtaking even the astonishing 8/30/1988 match with Hara in Kawada's place. Speaking of Kawada, he's as great here as he was in the 1988 RWTL final. Absolutely perfect pacing and an excellent story come together to make this one of my new favorite matches of the era. An essential match for all involved. Korakuen Hall got one hell of a treat on this night. Screw it, I'm going all the way. *****"