[1993-08-20-AJPW-Summer Action Series] Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue & Masa Fuchi

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Fuchi seems to get a unique joy out of stretching Akiyama in '93. He bends his leg in a way the leg is just not supposed to bend, which opens the door for Kawada and Taue to do their own holds on him too. Great moment when Kikuchi tries to save Misawa by clubbering Kawada, and Kawada responds by casually slugging him once and knocking him off his feet, which he sells for minutes afterwards. Misawa takes a crazy headdrop bump, one of few I've seen all year actually, which decommissions him. Never a quitter, Kikuchi once again attempts a save -- this time on Akiyama -- but meets the same fate. Finally, Kawada pins Akiyama with a powerbomb to secure the win for his team. It looks like Kawada was being rebuilt at this point. Not that he was in a bad position, but Misawa and Kawada exchanges didn't have nearly as much heat in this match as they did before the TC match. Very good match, not one of the elite All Japan matches on the set for me, but a lot of positives. Misawa getting all the medical attention post-match after a bad head bump is a little close for comfort.

[Kevin Ridge]

They did dial it back with Misawa/Kawada on the heat between them. It seemed a bit too civil at times. Favorite parts of match was Kikuchi getting smashed in the face two separate times when trying to break up a pinning attempt by Kawada. Kikuchi drew some big boos from the fans as they wanted to see Kawada versus Misawa. So they probably enjoyed seemed getting rocked with the shot from Kawada.

[PeteF3]

Good match, but not quite as enjoyable as the previous tag. This is almost entirely a vehicle to put Kawada over--at the end he singlehandedly lays waste to all three opponents, one after the other.

[soup23]

Really, really good six man. I love seeing Fuchi mix it up as he always brings something unique to the table and he delivered here. The Misawa and friends side still is gelling well and this made great opportunity of showing them having cohesion but still not being able to take out Kawada who was rehabbed here. ***1/2

[AstroBoy]

I may have liked this more than most. I dug the Akiyama-Fuchi portions a lot with Akiyama hanging a little better on the mat this time around. Also want to note that Kawada's lariat on Akiyama may have been one of the hardest I have ever seen.

[garretta]

This was as close to a squash as I've seen in one of these six-mans. Misawa's side was never really in the match; Misawa was himself until he got knocked to the outside, but he had no backup at all. Akiyama looked good mixing it up on the mat with Fuchi, but was otherwise guzzled, and Kikuchi gets more and more useless every time he's in one of these matches. A couple of years ago, they showed him as able to hang with Jumbo and Taue even in defeat; now he's just cannon fodder. It's time to move him down a peg and find another prospect for the end of the bench, as it were.

 

I've never seen a submission hold applied the way Fuchi applied his hold on Akiyama's leg. It looked like he was trying to force Jun's leg up over his own head, which is excruciating to even think about. That's the kind of thing Fuchi brings to these matches that no one else does, not even elite workers like Jumbo used to be and Misawa now is. (I'm not suggesting that Fuchi himself isn't great, but he's not quite on the level of those two.)

 

They kept the Misawa-Kawada stuff to a minimum, probably because it wouldn't do for Kawada to blow right through Misawa the way he did Kikuchi and Akiyama. Taue looked like a world beater as well, and when the Kawada issue inevitably cools off Misawa could have his hands full with Taue next.

 

I didn't see the bump Misawa took to the outside, but they really shouldn't have used chest compressions to bring him around. I'm not sure how many fans saw that going on, but surely Baba didn't want anyone to think that Kawada had hit Misawa hard enough to kill him. What's the matter with splashing water on him instead?