Jumbo Tsuruta & Akira Taue

[Grimmas]

Discus here.

[Grimmas]

I love these two as a team and especially watching their development from a strong bad ass team to cheating heels.

Their double teaming is top notch. The fact they can be so dominant, yet feel like they are showing a lot of ass is also great. So many amazing matches against Misawa & ??? too. They may make my list.

[Timbo Slice]

The Kikuchi/Kobashi tag is a strong feather in their caps, but I'm not sure if they have enough to make a list like this in the end, and I LOVE both of these guys. The one thing they have going for them is that they're a really strong heel team in an era that wasn't big on native heel teams, which made them unique. They'll be on the edge, but I'll consider them.

[JerryvonKramer]

I have a hard time thinking of AJ combinations as proper tag teams. I mean you could just as easily put Jumbo and Fuchi.

[Timbo Slice]

That's more how they were booked, though. At that time, being a part of a tag team was just something you did. It wasn't really specialized. It's a little bit less like that right now, obviously, but one of the reasons they booked the way they did was that you could do a lot more by having featured tag teams on top to build to the big singles matches.

[JerryvonKramer]

Yeah but in the same promotion and at the same time you have teams like Doc and Gordy or Kroffat and Furnas who were "proper" tag teams, not two guys who happen to be buddies.

 

Counting Jumbo and Taue is a bit like counting Hogan and Beefcake or Hogan and JYD. Okay, they might have tagged together with a bit more regularity, but it's the same principle.

[Grimmas]

Yeah but in the same promotion and at the same time you have teams like Doc and Gordy or Kroffat and Furnas who were "proper" tag teams, not two guys who happen to be buddies.

 

Counting Jumbo and Taue is a bit like counting Hogan and Beefcake or Hogan and JYD. Okay, they might have tagged together with a bit more regularity, but it's the same principle.

Didn't you nominate Andre and DiBiase?

[JerryvonKramer]

To be fair that was a joke.

[jdw]

All Japan tag teams aren't terribly complicated. Here's Jumbo partners for major things (Tag Title matches and the Tag League) during the Jumbo & Co. vs Misawa & Co feud:

 

07/19/90 World Tag Titles: Terry Gordy & Steve Williams vs Jumbo Tsuruta & The Great Kabuki

1990 Tag League: Jumbo Tsuruta & Akira Taue

03/04/91 World Tag Titles: Terry Gordy & Steve Williams vs Jumbo Tsuruta & Akira Taue

06/01/91 World Tag Titles: Stan Hansen & Danny Spivey vs Jumbo Tsuruta & Akira Taue

09/04/91 World Tag Titles: Mitsuharu Misawa & Toshiaki Kawada vs Jumbo Tsuruta & Akira Taue

1991 Tag League: Jumbo Tsuruta & Akira Taue

03/04/92 World Tag Titles: Terry Gordy & Steve Williams vs Jumbo Tsuruta & Akira Taue

06/05/92 World Tag Titles: Jumbo Tsuruta & Akira Taue vs Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi

10/07/92 World Tag Titles: Jumbo Tsuruta & Akira Taue vs Terry Gordy & Steve Williams

1992 Tag League: Jumbo Tsuruta & Akira Taue (Jumbo pulled out and was replaced by Akiyama)

 

Fuchi didn't have a World Tag Title match in the period, let alone partnering with Jumbo. Fuchi didn't even get a slot in the Tag League in those three years.

 

Taue was Jumbo's lead partner after Kabuki (thank god) jumped to SWS. Fuchi was part of Jumbo's group, and the Jr. Champ.

 

Not complicated. Everyone following the promotion at the time got it, and I can't recall anyone being confused by it since. Those things up above tend to make it clear.

[JerryvonKramer]

Nice to see you've cheered up in your time away John.

[jdw]

The post was neither cheerful or uncheerful. Just fact-based.

[JerryvonKramer]

That's right, talking with you is always a bit like engaging with Johnny Five with his personality chip removed and sitting on the top of a very very tall mountain to ensure that no one makes any mistake that you are "talking down" at all times. Anyway, nice to see you around.

[jdw]

Two posts, two shots.

[elliott]

I love Jumbo and Taue. But there's definitely a chance they won't make my list. Of the major Japanese teams they definitely rank behind Kawada/Taue, Misawa/Kobashi, Jumbo/Tenryu, Choshu/Yatsu, and Footloose, at a minimum. I could see myself putting Kroffat/Furnas ahead of Jumbo/Taue. And that's without even getting into the 80s US Tag Scene.

 

I was curious, since a lot of fans like us grew up digging heels, does anyone out there prefer Jumbo and Taue to Misawa and Kawada as a team?

[jdw]

When rewatching in the past 15 or so years, I probably have enjoyed Jumbo & Taue more than Misawa & Kawada when the teams faced each other, largely due to Jumbo.

 

The tricky part is when they faced Gordy & Williams and Hansen & Spivey, where it's a little hit and miss for both native teams.

[Childs]

I also prefer Jumbo/Taue to Misawa/Kawada. I never felt Misawa and Kawada developed a clear identity as a team the way both guys did with other partners. They were very, very good, because both guys were world-class talents. But I remember their matches more for the rivalries with Jumbo and Taue, respectively, than because of their interplay as partners. Jumbo was the only one of the four who had established himself as a real master of tag team wrestling at that point.

[dawho5]

I'd have to agree with that. Jumbo was the only real polished wrestler of the bunch besides Fuchi in 91-92. Everybody else was still filling in a lot of the details on who they were and what that meant. You also have to take into consideration that Kawada was getting his push towards being a contender for the Triple Crown about the middle of 1991. It's not like being Misawa's tag partner was really his priority at the time. As far as the point about Doc/Gordy and Hansen/Spivey goes, I think that Doc/Gordy caused a lot of problems for the natives in 91 during matches by taking way too much offense and killing any heat/momentum that either native team might hope to build too early. Haven't seen enough of them in 92 to know if they changed or not. And for whatever reason Hansen/Jumbo and Hansen/Misawa matchups always seemed to fall short of expectations. Taue vs. Hansen never really set the world on fire either. So it's no big surprise that the chemistry wasn't there with the big two native teams at the time.

[JerryvonKramer]

I'd put Jumbo and Taue above Misawa and Kawada as a team and it's not even really close.

 

But I don't think Jumbo and Taue will make my top 25 tag teams list. Too short-lived. And like I was getting it, I preferred the Jumbo-Fuchi combination working like the Japanese Andersons. Proper dick heels. Jumbo is awesome.

[jdw]

You also have to take into consideration that Kawada was getting his push towards being a contender for the Triple Crown about the middle of 1991. It's not like being Misawa's tag partner was really his priority at the time.

 

The tag titles were his priority at the time:

 

02/26/91 World Tag Titles: Terry Gordy & Steve Williams vs Mitsuharu Misawa & Toshiaki Kawada

06/07/91 World Tag Titles: Stan Hansen & Danny Spivey vs Mitsuharu Misawa & Toshiaki Kawada

07/24/91 World Tag Titles: Terry Gordy & Steve Williams vs Mitsuharu Misawa & Toshiaki Kawada ∆

09/04/91 World Tag Titles: Mitsuharu Misawa & Toshiaki Kawada vs Jumbo Tsuruta & Akira Taue

10/24/91 Triple Crown: Jumbo Tsuruta vs Toshiaki Kawada

12/06/91 RWSTL Final Match / WTTitles: Mitsuharu Misawa & Toshiaki Kawada vs Terry Gordy & Steve Williams ∆

 

The Triple Crown was more the isolated, one-series thing. The two times he was in a Budokan main event / co-main event (9/4 & 12/6) were with the Tag Titles on the line. The match with Jumbo was in a series without a Budokan.

 

One could argue that the quest for the tag titles was his story for the year: getting it on the third try, then withstanding Jumbo's team gunning for them (with Misawa banged up at the time), then chasing the Tag League which neither Misawa or Kawada had won at that point.

 

At the time, we thought the Kawada challenge of the TC was cool, but it was also something of a throw away because he had no chance of winning it even before you start plotting out the booking ramifications (which is what you worked through when Misawa challenged).

[JerryvonKramer]

While I agree that Kawada was mostly a tag worker in the timeframe, how much emphasis would you say there was on his feud with Taue?

[jdw]

I also prefer Jumbo/Taue to Misawa/Kawada. I never felt Misawa and Kawada developed a clear identity as a team the way both guys did with other partners. They were very, very good, because both guys were world-class talents. But I remember their matches more for the rivalries with Jumbo and Taue, respectively, than because of their interplay as partners. Jumbo was the only one of the four who had established himself as a real master of tag team wrestling at that point.

 

I found that to be the vibe with all of Misawa's teams in the 90s: they were more two individuals teaming together than some Midnight Express type of team. It wasn't totally uncommon for big teams in Japan, so it never really bugged me. They were partners together, they were trying to "win", they did their stuff, etc.

 

Kawada & Taue initially had a similar vibe, despite the efforts to do double team spots (which Misawa's teams did as well). They just eventually "fit" together, perhaps due to longevity, perhaps do to their odd couple look, probably largely because they were Not Misawa & Kobashi/Akiyama i.e. the standard top face team. They became old show comfortable.

 

As far as tag team work, Kawada knew how to work tag throughout the time with Misawa, coming off his time with Fuyuki. He had to do a lot of the dirty work, and Misawa got to shine more given the slotting. Kawada was a great hot tag wrestler, but a chunk of that went to his partner. As a team, they felt a bit opposite of Misawa & Kobashi because Kenta was a force of nature in whatever he did, and Misawa was slowly slipping into a mode of being more than willing to let his partners shine and picking his spots to add to the match, often wisely (more so with Jun, but plenty of times with Kenta such as 12/03/93).

 

I also don't think Misawa was as good of a worker in from 5/90 - 1/93 when he did the bulk of his teaming with Kawada (Carny came after, then they split). He seemed banged up through big chunks of it, and sloppy, and feeling his way through being the #2 guy in the company and how to work in that role. With Jumbo out, he really picked up his game in 1993 becoming the Ace. Kawada didn't get the benefit of teaming with *that* guy. In turn, Kawada kicked it up another notch moving into the #2 roll opposite of Misawa, but you could already see that before the split in the 2/93 match with Hansen and his performances in the Carny.

[jdw]

While I agree that Kawada was mostly a tag worker in the timeframe, how much emphasis would you say there was on his feud with Taue?

 

Plenty of emphasis in 1991. More regular focus over the course of the year than Kawada being set up to challenge Jumbo. The last of their four singles match of the year was four days before Misawa & Kawada won the tag titles. So it's going on while Misawa & Kawada are chasing the tag titles, and the two of them certainly knew how to get across the hate.

[elliott]

I'll be honest I haven't seriously thought about Jumbo/Taue and Misawa/Kawada as teams in like 10 years. I just wanted to get this back on track. I haven't reached early 90s AJ on my list of things to revisit for this project. Thinking about them more today, I feel like when I get around to it, Jumbo and Taue will probably stand out for me because grumpy old Jumbo was one of my absolute favorites when I watched all this stuff back in the day. So I was probably too quick to say they might not make my list.

 

Childs made a really interesting point about Misawa/Kawada being great individual talents but not ever really establishing a clear identity (they're the OKC Thunder of Wrestling?) and that's something I'll be on the lookout for when I finish up the 80s and move onto the 90s stuff. Jumbo/Taue do have a built in identity advantage with the teacher/student dynamic.

 

Parv mentioned they probably won't make his Top 25 because they were too short lived. That got me wondering what people generally see as too short of a run to consider for their list? Jumbo and Taue were regular partners for 2 1/2ish years.

 

Another question I wanted to toss out, who do people view as the best working Mentor/Student tag teams?