[2000-02-17-AJPW] Steve Williams vs Kenta Kobashi

[soup23]

Dr. Death looks game again on the outside slamming Kobashi down and getting a big throw from the top rope. Kobashi makes his big comeback and they give Doc a pretty big moment kicking out of the moonsault. Doc then fires off a flash Dragon Suplex that looks excellent. I really don’t know where this Doc has been since the Nigata Nightmare. The Backdrop Driver gets teased and Kobashi avoids that and hits a running lariat. That spells doom for Doc as Kobashi is able to hit another Burning Lariat and put him away. This match went nearly 25 minutes and I would really like to see it in full. Doc was a great gatekeeper. NR

[Childs]

Dr. Death looks game again on the outside slamming Kobashi down and getting a big throw from the top rope. Kobashi makes his big comeback and they give Doc a pretty big moment kicking out of the moonsault. Doc then fires off a flash Dragon Suplex that looks excellent. I really dont know where this Doc has been since the Nigata Nightmare. The Backdrop Driver gets teased and Kobashi avoids that and hits a running lariat. That spells doom for Doc as Kobashi is able to hit another Burning Lariat and put him away. This match went nearly 25 minutes and I would really like to see it in full. Doc was a great gatekeeper. NR

How clipped was this Chad? I have that comm tape but don't think I've ever watched it.

[Loss]

It's under 6 minutes.

[Loss]

I think this was the first time we got Kobashi pinning Doc in a singles match on tape if you can believe that. He beat him before this, but it wasn't recorded. Something about All Japan brings out the best in Doc because he has looked better in 2000 than he has looked in ages against both Misawa (in a previous tag) and Kobashi here. I wish we had this in full. It doesn't appear to rise to the level of 1993, but I wouldn't expect that anyway. It does seem to be a respectable addition to the series, though.

[Tim Evans]

Doc looks massive here. Definitely bigger than he was in WWF or WCW in 99. This was a fine match. Doc is just reckless with Kobashi. First throwing him face first into the rail and that suplex where Kobashi landed on his head. Not quite 1993 level for Doc but he was impressive as was Kobashi. If this was in full it might have told a better story than the 6-minute version but I liked what I saw.

[Moonsault Marvin]

This was super clipped, but looked really good. It started off with a gorilla press dropped into the guard rail, and then Williams continued with bomb after bomb on Kobashi. Kobashi finally made a comeback and ended it with an awesome clothesline. Williams has been impressive in his return to Japan after looking so bad in WWF and WCW.

[fxnj]

Full match is available on the 2000 Excite Series commercial tape. It was several years ago, but I remember watching it on YouTube once and being pretty disappointed by their work before the last few minutes.