[1980-03-31-IWE Japan] Haruka Eigen & Kengo Kimura vs Animal Hamaguchi & Mighty Inoue

[Jetlag]

Pretty much a 1980s MOVEZ~! match as this was basically all 4 guys running in to hit their stuff, tag out, and repeat. I liked the stiff dropkicks, nasty piledriver and graceful arm whips so I'll take it over today's thigh slap happy MOVEZ~! Matches. There was a cool moment where Mighty and Kimura slapped the shit out of eachother and then Kimura annihilates Hamaguchi with a ruthless dive. Animal is down and out and I was thinking this match actually had some drama going now but seconds later a lousy DQ happens. Well, this had awesome heat and I now wanna see more Haruka Eigen matches lurking amidst the the sea of IWE, so a rematch may be somewhere down there.

[SAMS]

1980-03-31
IWE
Animal Hamaguchi & Mighty Inoue (c) vs. Haruka Eigen & Kengo Kimura
IWA World Tag Team Title Match
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan
Card
★★★

This was a 10 minute sprint. The pace never let up and all 4 men really stepped to the plate and delivered. I have no idea what the background for the match was, and while I’ve seen most of these guys in random matches before, I was still trying to keep up with who was who for the most part, but damn it was a lot of fun. If this is just the midcard, have I been sleeping on IWE so far?!? 
Kimura laid a plancha on Hamaguchi and I can’t tell if it was a shoot or real, but he was knocked out. Inoue came over and hauled him into the ring to avoid the count out, but he kind of just dumped him on the mat then headed back to his corner. At this point Hamaguchi’s lifeless body was just lying on the apron allowing Kimura and Eiken to just start stomping away. Eventually Inoue was forced to again come back over and this time he dragged Hamaguchi towards the middle of the ring. I repeat, he was not moving. He didn’t stir. He might have been dead for all intents and purposes. Finally we got the wrestlers from outside getting involved, the ref came over and got clocked by Eiken and there’s the grounds for a DQ. The chaos and indecision from everyone involved lead me to think that this definitely wasn’t planned, but it certainly was memorable. If they had just 3-5 more minutes to build on the foundation they had laid in order to deliver a more satisfying ending I could be pushed to go higher on this 100%.