All Japan Year in Review: 1988

Ever wonder what was going on in All Japan in 1988? Here I will be reviewing all TV airings from the entire year for All Japan Pro Wrestling. This includes every episode of their weekly one hour television show (with a few exceptions). Instead of rating the disks individually, I will rate and analyze the year as a whole once I have reviewed all the tapings. Individual matches will still be rated, however. Click anywhere in the block of matches to read the review for that disk.

All Japan Pro Wrestling Champions at the Beginning of 1988:

Important note: This Year in Review is done based off what was shown on All Japan TV for 1988. Even though Kobashi debuted in 1988, none of his matches made TV for the entire year as he was doing opening match duty (and losing a whole lot). He was on a few of the Budokan Hall events but never in a big enough match to make TV. I didn't want you to think I was ignoring one of the biggest puroresu stars, he just didn't make an appearance on All Japan TV in his debut year. Nor did Kikuchi for that matter. So that is why they aren't mentioned while other rookies such as Arashi and Taue are since both of them had matches that made TV.

All Japan TV (January 2nd and January 9th, 1988)

- Buddy Landel and Paul Harris vs. Giant Baba and Akira Taue (January 2nd)
- Curt Hennig vs. Tiger Mask (January 2nd)
- Abdullah the Butcher vs. Hiroshi Wajima (January 2nd)
- Genichiro Tenryu and Ashura Hara vs. Jumbo Tsuruta and Yoshiaki Yatsu (January 2nd)
- Battle Royal (January 2nd)
- Giant Baba and John Tenta vs. Rusher Kimura and Goro Tsurumi (January 9th)
- Pete Roberts and Paul Harris vs. Yoshiaki Yatsu and Hiroshi Wajima (January 9th)
- Buddy Landel vs. Jumbo Tsuruta (January 9th)
- Genichiro Tenryu and Ashura Hara vs. Abdullah the Butcher and TNT (January 9th)

All Japan TV (January 16th and January 23rd, 1988)

- Genichiro Tenryu and Ashura Hara vs. Abdullah the Butcher and TNT (January 9th)
- Genichiro Tenryu and Ashura Hara vs. Hiroshi Wajima and Takashi Ishikawa (January 13th)
- Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Abdullah the Butcher (January 13th)
- Great Kabuki and Akira Taue vs. TNT and Pete Roberts (January 23rd)
- Genichiro Tenryu and Toshiaki Kawada vs. Yoshiaki Yatsu and Tiger Mask (January 23rd)
- Abdullah the Butcher and Buddy Landel vs. Jumbo Tsuruta and Hiroshi Wajima (January 23rd)

All Japan TV (January 30th, 1988)

- Buddy Landel vs. Yoshiaki Yatsu (January 24th)
- Abdullah the Butcher and TNT vs. Giant Baba and Isao Takagi (January 24th)
- Genichiro Tenryu and Ashura Hara vs. Jumbo Tsuruta and Hiroshi Wajima (January 24th)