[2000-02-20-AJPW] Stan Hansen & Johnny Smith vs Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue

[soup23]

HDA returns to the drawing board. This was a perfectly fine match but it suffered from me watching the tag title match first. This didn't seem to have the urgency or the stiffness and even things I typically enjoy like Smith's nip up didn't come off as well here. Taue wins which was surprising to me as Hansen and Kawada brawled on the outside. **3/4

[Loss]

This had a tough act to follow but even without that, it was really a just there tag. The Kawada-Taue story has been told effectively at this point and I'm not really much of a fan of Johnny Smith. Not much heat either, and this is probably the first time reality has set in that Stan Hansen has gotten older. Impressive it took this long.

[Tim Evans]

This just felt so slow. It's like they are trying but everyone besides Kawada looked like they were going at half speed. Hansen looked old but Taue wrestled even older. The Kawada/Smith parts were fine as smith was carriable. Just a sad match from All Japan.

[Moonsault Marvin]

This one lacked energy, especially after watching WIlliams & Vader vs Kobashi & Akiyama. Smith isn't exciting, but he continues to be a good hand in these matches. Average match.