[1993-02-19-AJPW-Excite Series] Toshiaki Kawada & Kenta Kobashi vs Stan Hansen & Rob Van Dam

[dawho5]

This is a lead-in tag to the singles match in the same month. All the Hansen vs. Kawada teasing you'd expect is there and it is done really well. As a bonus you get Kobashi vs. Hansen. Take into consideration this is just before Kawada jumps over to team with Taue and it's one of the last tours you're going to see this team together (and it's against one of their best opponents in Hansen.) Kobashi is in the middle of his big singles push and Kawada has been steadily rising for a while, so it makes their Hansen interactions very interesting. Oh, and there's some fun with a chair in the ring and a dance around anyone hitting a legal man with it. AND (I saved the best part for last) Kawada "welcomes RVD to All Japan." In, of course, frighteningly evil ways.

[garretta]

RVD is sort of the sacrificial lamb here, as Kawada stretch plums him to death twice, only to break it off to take care of Hansen, then powerbombs him for the pin. The version I saw on YouTube was clipped down to the last twelve minutes, so I didn't see much of the teasing Who spoke of. RVD doesn't seem too far out of place here, though he's obviously green, and Hansen is Hansen, even though Kawada takes care of him much more convincingly than I've seen Stan taken care of in a long time; he ends the match flat on his face on the floor.

 

This one was interesting because of the Hansen/RVD pairing, but otherwise unremarkable.