[1997-01-20-AJPW-New Year's Giant Series] Jun Akiyama vs Akira Taue

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Not anything particularly memorable, but they definitely went all out for the 4:48 this match lasted. Akiyama pins Taue in a big upset.

[soup23]

This was a lot better and complete match than I remembered. This was my second puro tape I ever watched so the psyche was a little off for me as I was like man, All Japan has some cool upset short matches. Taue was still strong here and just won the tag titles for his team 3 days earlier so Akiyama beating him in this fashion while still looking a little fluky was a big moment.

[Kevin Ridge]

Nice start with Jun catching the ropes and blocking the snake eyes and then Taue avoiding a dropkick. Taue just launches Akiyama with a release German suplex. Wow, that finish came fast. Heck of a short match and always nice with AJPW mixes things up. Big win for Jun.

[PeteF3]

Jun's biggest singles win to date, and some great booking as AJPW probably needed, at this point, to train their fans not to expect every big match to go 20 minutes and wait until then to really get invested. This was a match Riki Choshu could have booked. I marked out hard for the sudden finish and this had the feel of a great TV sprint.

[Superstar Sleeze]

Totally agree with Pete this some excellent usage of Choshu booking.

 

Akira TAUE vs Jun Akiyama - AJPW 1/20/97

 

Neat upset sprint! Noting spectacular in the ring but from a booking perspective just perfection. You get the double curveball of a 5 minute match and Akiyama's win. Akiyama goes all out and has come to play. TAUE realizes he is in a fight and starts busting out his big weapons, Akiyama catches hot shot but after big kicks and a wicked German it looked like TAUE has this in order. Akiyama might have started off too hot, high risk high reward strategy and it is backfiring against him. Until TAUE gets greedy and goes for Nodowa off apron which is high risk high reward. Love Akiyama half-dive/half-collapse into Taue's midsection and rolls back into the ring. The high knee/Exploder finish was wicked hot. Crowd popped huge on surprise three and Akiyama celebrated the big victory with gusto. TAUE kicked out right after three and kept his heat. Better booking than a match but a fun watch. ***

[Jordan]

This match popped into my head for some reason after watching the Survivor Series main (even though this match is nearly five times as long ) so I decided to give it a rewatch and this was great. That they fit in huge move teases along with struggles for control and still manage to have a greatly structured match in under five minutes is awesome. I like how you can think of this as a nice little post-credits scene to the whole Misawa/Akiyama vs. Kawada/Taue feud from 1996 with Akiyama getting the huge singles win.

[GOTNW]

A fun little match, but one I can't really include on my ongoing list of best ***

[KB8]

This wasn't Ikeda/Ono, but as far as four and a half minute matches go it was pretty choice. They got their stuff in, hit a few big bombs, teased a few bigger ones, made Akiyama look like someone who could potentially hang at the top level in singles matches (with Taue coming off the Tag League final and the tag titles win a few days earlier), and it all came in under five minutes. Sure it was a massive upset, at least in the sense that nine times out of ten even if Akiyama does win it'll take longer than five minutes, but still, All Japan's stodgy booking needed more little fresheners like this. Plus it maybe ever so slightly cast into doubt the length of the upcoming main event...