Here's the final post for AJPW 2002. This covers more of the Real World Tag League.

Otani & Tanaka vs Dr. Death & Mike Rotunda (11/27): Half shown but no idea where the other half was clipped out. No matter this was great in this format... absolutely back on track with the quality here. We get tastes of Dr. Death vs Tanaka (Tanaka taking the first real Dangerous Backdrop in a few years for instance). I'm not sure this match would hold up in it's full form since the full match time was long but if you find this in it's shorter format then you will have a absolute blast!

Arashi & Nobutaka Araya vs. John Tenta/Earthquake & Tenryu (11/27): 6 minutes shown but I have no idea where the other 5 minutes are (again!)...it didn't look like this was edited at all. No matter it was the perfect length for these guys. Tenryu beat the crap outta Araya...two insane lariats...Tenta did his thing perfectly... Arashi assisted but stayed out of the way and Araya did his big boy moonsault...yeah 6 minutes of absolute fun.

Mike Awesome & PJ Friedman vs Kea & Kojima (11/28): Oh yeah, this is a super fun match! We get plenty of Awesome vs Kojima which is what I wanted.  Yeah, all 3 dudes who you want to see put on a show and PJ keeps the energy up. 

Tenryu and Tenta vs Otani & Tanaka (11/28): I was going to skip this one and am glad that I didn't! Great match! Otani & Tanaka bump so well and make Tenta & Tenryu look more dynamic than they are. And the sumo team did a great job man handling Emblem and when the Zero One guys fought back, it was electric as a light socket!! We kinda get an 80's finish but it works. Actually shown in full as well.

Arashi & Nobutaka Araya vs Kea & Kojima (12/02? 01?): Great match for what was shown 18 minutes but they said it was longer. Screw it...this is probably the only version available so let's just go with that! And that goes for any of these matches. Kojima vs Arashi is always good because Arashi brings his best stuff. Same goes here! Kea continues to kick ass in the early 2000's. Araya even stepped his game up.

Yoji Anjo & Mitsuya Nagai vs Otani & Tanaka (12/03): Another one where the match shown doesn't match the time but this was really good stuff. Otani & Tanaka are such a charismatic team. Nagai & Anjo bring the shoot style offense and its a nice change of pace. I've become a fan of Yoji Anjo. 

I also have to recommend 12/06/02's Kojima & Taiyo Kea vs. Shinjiro Otani & Masato Tanaka for the RWTL final. Unfortunately Kea gets injured. I reviewed it in an earlier post...here's a snippet: "I do think the closing portion was extremely badass. I mean Kojima vs Tanaka is worth your time and its only about 20 minutes long as Gaora shows a bunch of pre and post match fluff."

I was gonna end things there but going for one more.

Keiji Muto & Road Warrior Animal vs Genichiro Tenryu & John Tenta (12/06): This is here just for fun. I'm hoping everyone brings their "A game" since they are on a big show & facing familiar opponents. Muto & Animal were a RWTL team (this is probably the runners up match) but I felt they probably dogged many of the house show matches. But I'm going to give this a shot....and I am glad that I did! It is a lot of fun. Animal vs Tenta is a lot of this but its the unstoppable force vs the immovable object. Tenryu & Muto are in supporting roles. If you're an 80's- early 90's WWF adult, you'll enjoy this

And that's a good way to end my look into 2002 AJPW. Much of my enjoyment is based on my love of the older wrestlers and seeing many of them giving it their very best, one last time. Then there's a part that sees them interacting with the stars of the 2000's like Kojima, Kea etc. It's been so long since I started that I can't do a proper summary of the year. I did miss Kawada though. WAR vs Muto AJPW was pretty cool but doesn't produce anything earth shattering. 2002 notably does feature the Tenryu vs Kojima matches (which really started pushing Kojima to the top). Kea vs Tenryu similarly. What else? Kawada vs Muto in February was a classic. 2002 AJPW is a lot of fun...it's not always the most ball crushingly brutal wrestling...but it's got it's fair share of very good & great matches. It's got some classics but what it has in abundance is good times. One could probably only get that from watching a bunch of the matches & having a fondness for the wrestlers. If you're a modern wrestling fan, this might not be something you want to start getting into. If you've been watching these guys for a fair portion of your life then, I think you'll be interested in seeing this. Sure some of the guys are long in the tooth but so are you now! I wanted to say, everything I've reviewed is online and on YouTube. The stuff without a Gaora link is part of a block of TV episodes. But search Steve Williams, Kojima, Arashi compilation and you should be able to find what you're looking for.

Thanks for reading!