[1997-11-15-AJPW] Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama vs Kenta Kobashi & Johnny Ace

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

This was always threatening to be a great match, but never quite got there. I really loved the Kobashi/Akiyama exchanges enough to want a match between them in the future. Check out Akiyama's amazing selling of the Kobashi DDT, which Val Venis totally stole in the WWF. The Misawa/Kobashi interactions don't feel nearly as special as Misawa/Kawada interactions typically do in tag matches. Very exciting last few minutes with lots of time killing before that. Between Kobashi/Akiyama and Misawa/Ace, which sees Misawa give Ace some surprising kickouts and has Ace doing an awesome block to Misawa's elbow, this is a match with pairings that are really good that you wouldn't necessarily expect to be really good.

[Kevin Ridge]

Kobashi’s half nelson suplex looks so dangerous. Ace’s cobra clutch suplex looks so much better against the likes of Misawa. Some nice action in the last few minutes.

[soup23]

I thought Misawa kicked out of one hold too many during his stretch run in peril but the build to escape the draw was really enthralling. Kobashi and Akiyama have really good exchanges against each other and it made me anticipate Akiyama's rise to the top of the card in 1998. I don't think this match reached the great level either but it was a very good affair.

[PeteF3]

No problem calling this great on this end--I wasn't even expecting much from the description here, and I also had this pegged as a draw from practically the start. But the work was so dynamic, particularly when it was Akiyama vs. Kobashi, and the stretch run so well-done that it drew me in big-time, and the SWERVE finish was perfectly timed. You had the sense that if Misawa could just nail that tiger driver or one more big move, that Ace was done for--especially once Kobashi ate the guardrail outside. Akiyama seemed like the star worker of the match, but Misawa takes some absolutely incredible bumps here off suplexes, and does some awesome sells for the Ace Crushers also. Without going back through everything else, I'm not sure this isn't the best AJPW tag of 1997 so far.

[Zenjo]

It had a decent opening before the ad break. About 7m was then clipped out. When they got back it felt like a draw all the way. Akiyama and then Misawa took beatdowns. All Japan by the numbers you could say, but the wrestling was good and it was a pleasant way to pass the time. Plus there was a shock twist as Misawa pinned Ace at 29:50. I liked how they'd do that just occasionally without ever overdoing the idea. Keep the audience on their toes. There were some minor issues with Johnny's moveset. Aside from that strong showings all around.