Johnny Ace

[Grimmas]

Discuss here.

[Ma Stump Puller]

Welp, guess I've gotta stake something here. I'm not gonna act like big Johnny was a consistent workrate machine but I do think people underestimate him in terms of how essential he was to the AJPW scene, especially in the mid to late 90's. Ace goes from being mostly a third party figure who is mostly known for refining a early Kobashi with some title gold to having three successful pairings: one with Williams, the other with Kobashi collectively in GET before breaking up and creating Movement, of which has him get Bart Gunn to some of his best tag work since...ever, really. Through he was never the big singles star that I think they were grooming him to be, Ace pulls out some, well, ace work as a tag specialist that had tremendous success, especially for a guy who's best known work is arguably outside of his prime. Watching daily AJPW content, this becomes really apparent as he's mostly involved in some form of high-card match doing his thing. He's almost omniscient in how he almost always has something to do.

Sure, was there some carrying involved? 100%. Did he get some of his initial success from backstage bias? Yep. The fact is that Ace got REALLY fucking over, and you see that a ton in his high-stakes bouts, especially when pairing with Kobashi. Both men are incredibly well regarded by the crowd and everyone loses their shit whenever Ace gets his signature comeback sequence from a hot tag, or nailing his big moves. Obviously the guy has his negatives: he's a complete goof in terms of promos, his look is pretty shoddy, and he has no real measure of success outside of the AJPW bubble despite multiple attempts. That being said, while I probably wouldn't have him particularly low on my list, he's definitely one to consider in terms of consistently being pretty solid workrate wise and being able to adapt to a changing wrestling climate, namely AJPW moving away from more brawl-orientated scraps to more athletic displays. If you can appreciate that, then perhaps he can fit in on a top 100.

 

 

Some (late game) Ace you should be watching (bolded are particular highlights)

Akira Taue & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Johnny Ace & Mike Barton (09.06.2000)

Johnny Ace & Mike Barton vs Jun Akiyama and Mossman (15.04.2000)

Bart Gunn & Johnny Ace vs. Takao Omori & Yoshihiro Takayama (23.07.1999)

Johnny Ace & Mike Barton vs. Jun Akiyama & Kenta Kobashi (09.06.1999)

Bart Gunn & Johnny Ace vs. Jun Akiyama & Kenta Kobashi (04.12.1998)

Akira Taue & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Bart Gunn & Johnny Ace (27.11.1998)

Bart Gunn & Johnny Ace vs. Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa (21.11.1998)

Akira Taue & Tamon Honda vs. Johnny Ace & Kenta Kobashi (23.08.1998) 

Akira Taue & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Johnny Ace & Kenta Kobashi (05.06.1998)

Johnny Ace & Kenta Kobashi vs. Stan Hansen & Vader (01.05.1998)

Johnny Ace vs. Mitsuharu Misawa (28.02.1998)

Johnny Ace vs. Kenta Kobashi (21.03.1998, through I wouldn't recommend this personally I've heard others say it was good, albeit their 1995 encounter is better)

Johnny Ace & Kenta Kobashi vs. Jun Akiyama & Mitsuharu Misawa (23.11.1997)

Akira Taue vs. Johnny Ace (21.10.1997)

Gary Albright & Steve Williams vs. Johnny Ace & Kenta Kobashi (25.07.1997)

Akira Taue & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Johnny Ace & Kenta Kobashi (27.05.1997)

Johnny Ace vs. Stan Hansen (30.03.1997) 

Johnny Ace & Steve Williams vs. Jun Akiyama & Mitsuharu Misawa (30.11.1996)

Akira Taue & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Johnny Ace & Steve Williams (22.11.1996)

Johnny Ace & Steve Williams vs. Jun Akiyama & Mitsuharu Misawa (16.11.1996)

Johnny Ace & Steve Williams vs. Kenta Kobashi & The Patriot (12.10.1996)

Danny Kroffat, Johnny Ace & Steve Williams vs. Giant Kimala, Kenta Kobashi & Patriot (28.09.1996)

Johnny Ace & Steve Williams vs. Jun Akiyama & Mitsuharu Misawa (05.09.1996)

Johnny Ace & Steve Williams vs. Jun Akiyama & Mitsuharu Misawa (07.06.1996)

Johnny Ace, Lacrosse, Patriot & The Eagle vs. Kenta Kobashi, Kentaro Shiga, Mitsuharu Misawa & Satoru Asako (This one is very fun) (22.01.1996)

Johnny Ace vs. The Patriot (24.07.1995)

Johnny Ace vs. Kenta Kobashi (26.05.1995)

Akira Taue vs. Johnny Ace (13.04.1995)

Akira Taue, Johnny Ace & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Kenta Kobashi, Mitsuharu Misawa & Stan Hansen (02.04.1995)

Johnny Ace & Steve Williams vs. Kenta Kobashi & Mitsuharu Misawa (04.03.1995)

Johnny Ace & Steve Williams vs. Kenta Kobashi & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi (02.01.1995)

 

 

 

 

[BigBadMick]

I appreciate your write ups, but can you provide specific dates on match recommendations please? 

[Ma Stump Puller]

5 minutes ago, BigBadMick said:

I appreciate your write ups, but can you provide specific dates on match recommendations please? 

Sure, I just get a bit lazy sometimes with these lol. I'll edit them in, give me a sec.