[1994-03-24-AJPW-Championship Carnival] Toshiaki Kawada vs Stan Hansen

[PeteF3]

Nothing fancy here--just two guys stiffing the shit out of each other in gritty, gritty fashion. Kawada seems to have an answer for what most of Hansen tries, and has some cool counters to the Lariat. But eventually Hansen catches him with it. Kawada has seemingly been lost in the wilderness since losing the Tag Titles--he desperately, desperately needs a signature win or three. As it stands at the moment, no one could possibly expect that he "should have gone over" on 6/3.

[Zenjo]

Much as I love this rivalry I just wish they'd stop working so damn light with each other. The strike exchanges were like watching The Rock vs Marty Jannetty.

 

Back to reality, and there was no messing around as the blows came hard and often. The early momentum switched back and forth. The longer it went the more Stan looked the likely victor. It could've done with a livelier crowd to give it that spark and make it more than a good match. Occasionally I do ponder how Hansen got away with using such a common move as his finisher? Then time after time it looks brutiful. There was a ton of Carnival matches on the Yearbook, but even that couldn't contain all the goodness.