[1997-11-23-AJPW] Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue vs Hayabusa & Jinsei Shinzaki

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

This is a HOT crowd before they even lock up. I am excited to see the Hayabusa/Shinzaki All Japan tags. I love that both Kawada and Taue will have none of Shinzaki's rope walking armbar. Hayabusa is having a fun time working the All Japan style and does a much better job of adapting to it than his partner. Shinzaki is a bit too showy for All Japan and that works against him, but it's a factor in the match at the same time. It's cool how they not only work it into the match, but how Taue keeps cutting off the crowd pleasing gestures to get heat. Solid match if only for the incredibly hot crowd and Kawada/Taue being annoyed by the gimmicky nonsense of Shinzaki's act. The crowd LOVES the FMW team.

[Kevin Ridge]

Taue gets big jeers for cutting off Shinzaki’s rope walk. Where did this crowd come from? Audiences have been very silent for the most part but this one is way into the match. This is pretty good match overall. I'm impressed with Hayabusa adapting to Kobashi and Taue/Kawada. Team didn't have much of a showing in the tournament but did tie for points with Bradshaw/Windham! I'm curious to see Bradshaw and Hansen going at it. Not on the match listing though.

[soup23]

We have seen some declines in All japan in 1997 but this match represented something different and can only be described in one word for me, fun. I loved the work Hayabusa did with Kawada looking good in spurts and taking a whipping when needed. Taue was putting up with any of Jinsei's bullshit. Really good stuff.

[PeteF3]

Awesome match! A JACKED crowd really pulling for the outsiders (though not the Outsiders), which seems to get louder every time Jinsei's ropewalk gets cut off. Shinzaki and Hayabusa pull out some terrific double-teams here and all of their unique, crowd-pleasing transition spots work great. This is almost a throwback to the '90-'92 era with a much clearer heel/babyface divide than you normally see in the late '90s. It may not be the second-best AJPW match to date in '97 but it may well be my second-favorite. See, Baba? It doesn't hurt for your company to step out of the bubble once in awhile.

[Zenjo]

The Zen Nihon fans were really excited about a rare interpromotional battle. Such a fresh and different feel to it. As well as that there was an underdog dynamic with the differences in both size and status. The outsiders brought high flying and spectacular moves to the table. The AJ stars indulged their opponents and let them shine. Hayabusa was FIP for a while before the FMW/MPRO combo turned it around and came surprisingly close to the upset. I have to say there were a few dodgy moments along the way. But this was such a blast that the flaws were a small price to pay. Left a smile on my face.

[The Thread Killer]

How the hell have I never seen this match until today?  I am a big Hayabusa/FMW fan, and I love 90's AJPW.  For some reason, I had a major gap in my viewing and never sought out this match.  I guess it was never included on any compilation I purchased from Tabe back in the day, nor did I add it when asking Mr. JL to create custom AJPW comps for me later on. What a glaring oversight on my part.

What a fun match.  Not an all time classic, but worth seeing based on the novelty of seeing Hayabusa and Shinsake in AJPW alone.  Not to mention, the two teams worked very well together.  Very hot crowd, which is surprisingly amped for Team FMW.  I loved the facial expressions of Taue and Kawada during the intros.  Sometimes you don't need to speak Japanese to pick up on the message.  Taue looks incredibly unimpressed and Kawada has an expression of mild distaste/disgust at the strangely costumed interlopers.  I loved Taue heeling it up by refusing to allow Jinsei to do his shtick.  The Holy Demon army did enough selling to make this a fair contest, and the FMW guys got their big spots in.  Excellent selling by Kawada as always.

The only thing about this match that was a downer...it made me realize how Hayabusa probably could have extended his career (and in doing so, his life) had he not had to wrestle such a high risk style and have all the pressure on his shoulders being the ace of FMW.  Despite his flashy look and unorthodox style which didn't necessarily fit in with AJPW at that time, this match showed that FMW guys were not all "garbage wrestlers" and could hang with their contemporaries in the bigger organizations.  If only Hayabusa had been in AJPW, maybe things would have worked out differently for him.  Then again...the AJPW style was hardly low risk either, it was just a different type of risk, I guess.

Hot crowd, very novel match-up, great work by all four and a really nicely paced home stretch.  Very good match, bordering on great.

[cactus]

The crowd is intrigued by the FMW team and they want to see them hit their high-flying stuff that they've heard so much about. The Holy Demon Army keeps cutting them off and this pisses off the crowd.  Kawada and Taue are salty as hell that the fans could be so fickle and cheer for these flippy outsiders when they've been busting their asses for them for over a decade. Hayabusa is isolated and he's worked over and it gave this match a very Southern flavor. Shinzaki looks like he might have a chance of besting Kawada after he kicks out of a brutal flurry, but one Soulful Powerbomb later and he's sent packing. This was looked interesting on paper and it more than delivered and it's one of the better matches AJPW put out during the later part of the 90's. ★★★★¾