Sammy
The danger of any movie series that spans several sequels is that you've got a lot of backstory to catch people up on who might not have seen or remembered what happened in the previous outings. For instance, what happened in the first five Karate Warrior movies? This dude acquired a super powered punch that allowed him to beat up a cow. What now? Clearly, we have a lot of catching up to do with Karate Warrior Anthony!
Conny Parker
Fabrizio De Angelis leaves it all on the sweat-stained mat at the strip-mall karate studio that hosted the bone-crushing, senses-shattering, kickpocalypse between arch rivals Kevin and Jeff! The final battle would have been pretty lame (well, lamer than it was) if it hadn't been built toward with an unceasing increase in tension as Kevin and Jeff clashed in competitions where the stakes only got higher and higher and even freaking higher! Why, by the time that Kevin had bested Jeff in the race through the Tunnel of Death (neither of them died making the tunnel's name an unfortunate misnomer), I was thinking that surely nothing could top that! Well, nothing but a training montage!