New Japan Year in Review: 1988

Ever wonder what was going on in New Japan in 1988? Here I will be reviewing all TV airings from the entire year for New Japan Pro Wrestling. I will also be reviewing a few handhelds and commercial tapes from 1988 to give the year as complete an analysis as possible. Also, I have a few additional matches of Antonio Inoki I will be reviewing as well. 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.

New Japan Pro Wrestling Champions at the Beginning of 1988:

Important note: This Year in Review is done mostly based off what was shown on New Japan TV for 1988. Even though Kensuke Sasaki, Osamu Matsuda (El Samurai), Takashi Iizuka, and Minoru Suzuki debuted in 1987 or 1988, none of their matches made TV for the entire year as they were doing opening match duty. That is why many of the younger stars are not listed anywhere, back then the promotions only had a small amount of television time and used it to promote their main storylines and major wrestlers. Most matches are clipped as they only had a two hour block to show a lot of wrestling. The dates are in reference to the date the matches took place. If a match is shown incomplete it will be noted in the review.

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January 4th at Korakuen Hall:
- Antonio Inoki vs. Big Van Vader
- 1988 Top of the Super Jr. League: Shiro Koshinaka vs. Tatsutoshi Goto
- 1988 Top of the Super Jr. League: Nobuhiko Takada vs. Kuniaki Kobayashi
- 1988 Top of the Super Jr. League: Hiroshi Hase vs. Owen Hart
- Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Masa Saito

January 5th at Korakuen Hall:
- Shiro Koshinaka and Antonio Inoki vs. Hiroshi Hase and Riki Choshu

January 11th at Kumatani City Gymnasium:
- 1988 Top of the Super Jr. League: Keiichi Yamada vs. Masakatsu Funaki
- 1988 Top of the Super Jr. League: Shiro Koshinaka vs. Kazuo Yamazaki
- Kengo Kimura and Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Big Van Vader and Masa Saito
- Riki Choshu vs. Buzz Sawyer
- Nobuhiko Takada and Antonio Inoki vs. Owen Hart and Steve Williams

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January 18th at Tokuyama City Gymnasium:
- 1988 Top of the Super Jr. League: Hiro Saito vs. Kuniaki Kobayashi
- 1988 Top of the Super Jr. League: Hiroshi Hase vs. Tony St. Clair
- 1988 Top of the Super Jr. League: Owen Hart vs. Shiro Koshinaka
- Big Van Vader and Masa Saito vs. Nobuhiko Takada and Antonio Inoki
- Steve Williams vs. Super Strong Machine
- IWGP Tag Championship: Kazuo Yamazaki and Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Kimura and Fujinami

January 25th at The Gifu Industrial Mansion:
- 1988 Top of the Super Jr. League: Keiichi Yamada vs. Shiro Koshinaka
- 1988 Top of the Super Jr. League: Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Nobuhiko Takada
- Big Van Vader vs. George Takano and Kantaro Hoshino
- Bob Orton vs. Tatsumi Fujinami
- Hiroshi Hase, Riki Choshu, and Masa Saito vs. Owen Hart, Buzz Sawyer, and Steve Williams

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February 1st at Soka City Sport Healthy City Commemoration Gymnasium:
- 1988 Top of the Super Jr. League: Hiroshi Hase vs. Shiro Koshinaka
- Bob Orton vs. Riki Choshu
- Kengo Kimura and Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Owen Hart and Buzz Sawyer
- Big Van Vader and Masa Saito vs. Seiji Sakaguchi and Antonio Inokibr />

February 4th at The Osaka Prefectural Physical Education Hall:
- 1988 Top of the Super Jr. League: Hiroshi Hase vs. Keiichi Yamada
- Handicap Match: Vader and Masa Saito vs. Yamazaki, Osamu Kido, and Yoshiaki Fujiwara
- IWGP Heavyweight Championship: Antonio Inoki vs. Riki Choshu