[2000-01-31-AJPW-Baba Memorial 1st Anniversary] Takao Omori & Stan Hansen & Akira Taue vs Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama & Kenta Kobashi

[soup23]

A lot to unpack here with this special Baba memorial six man. Taue comes out wearing a Baba esque robe, Omori gets a big marquee spot, we get a rare appearance of Hansen at this point, and Misawa is teaming with Burning! After a little table setting with Omori in there, he tags out to Hansen and Hansen and Kobashi going after each other and it is great. Kobashi isn’t really the young punk that Hansen loved bullying around for so long so it was refreshing to see this strike exchange with Kobashi now being easily higher on the overall hierarchy in the promotion. Omori continues to be the person that is toughest to figure out in the promotion. They clearly have big plans for him and he doesn’t look awful when is without Takayama but in this match he did stick out to me as pretty obviously having the least amount of heat. I did like him taking the aggression to Jun on the outside to really hone in the focus on Akiyama for his squad. Omori gets worked over for a while and nothing much of note happens until Kobashi takes him to the outside and there is a spirited exchange with Hansen coming over for the save. This leads to the ending run with everything being ramped up a bit and Taue and Akiyama having a good closing sequence vs. each other. Misawa in January is an interesting figure as he has been kind of an overload that is prominent but hasn’t really made his move yet for the year. This match exemplifies that as Burning does the vast majority of the work. Omori looks good in closing stretch with his missile dropkick and dragon suplex. Kobashi catches him in a great half suplex and the Exploder, Tiger Mask and Burning lariat combo put Omori away. Fun for a novelty aspect but the action here was pretty pedestrian for All Japan standards. ***

[Loss]

Kind of the perfect tribute show main event. Not aiming to be great, but super fun with everyone getting a chance to come in and do their thing and a really pumped up crowd. Hansen and Kobashi definitely looks different than it did in '93, but I continue to be surprised by how good Hansen looks so late, just as I was in 1996. And 1998. And 1999. Omori has also surprised me here by how much he's improved even since 1999. I thought it was cool at the finish that he got a nice kickout off the half nelson suplex before being put away for good, so he was protected in losing. I'm not sure what has happened, but he is wrestling with more confidence. He's not there with the other guys and it shows, but he has the enthusiasm for sure. Pretty awesome seeing old man Hansen fight so desperately against both Misawa and Kobashi at the same time until the numbers just catch up to him. Something also stuck with me about Taue's character in how much he showed his true friendship and loyalty for Kawada in that No Fear tag, so it made me feel all warm and fuzzy when the crowd popped so huge when he came into this match. Not a great match and not something I'll ever watch again, but I'm glad I saw this, because it's an interesting glimpse at everyone, and it's definitely the feel-good match of the winter. ***

[Moonsault Marvin]

Good match. Old Stan had gained some pounds and maybe lost a step, but he still had the effort and the crowd showed him love. His exchanges with Kobashi were the highlights of the match. Even though you knew from the beginning Omori was going to eat the pinfall, Omori put on a good performance and didn't look out of place with the top guys.