[1992-01-15-AJPW-New Year's Giant Series] Toshiaki Kawada & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs Masanobu Fuchi & Yoshinari Ogawa

[dawho5]

This was booked as a match for Kawada to debut the abdominal stretch version of the stretch plum. Kawada and Fuchi make the body of the match awesome, but for me the finish fell flat because of how all the momentum Fuchi and Kawada had built up was wasted. The first 3/4 or so of the match I saw after the clip was great. Ogawa and Kikuchi had a nice, heated exchange during that time as well.

[Tim Cooke]

About the reason for booking, where did you hear that?

[dawho5]

Didn't hear it, just seemed like the only reason the finish would be worked the way it was. It doesn't make sense with the way the match built to wanting to see Fuchi vs. Kawada only to have Ogawa end up in there for the majority of the finish. If Fuchi was above Kawada in the pecking order it might, but Fuchi has already lost to Kawada in a singles match. Only way the finish makes any sense to me is that it was booked as a way to debut Kawada's new big submission (his third in under six months). Not much later he puts Kroffat and then Kobashi away with it before he starts using it on guys like Fuchi or Jumbo. It's not dissimilar to how the bodyscissors sleeper and it's odd camel clutch-looking cousin were built up.

[garretta]

YouTube this, please!