[1995-09-12-AJPW] Gary Albright vs Tamon Honda

[GOTNW]

Such a neat match. They're both former amateur wrestlers and that's what the match is focused on, you see a lot of mirror spots and one-upmanship. Mostly it's Albright throwing Honda around, since he's the bigger man, but Honda gets some stuff in too and the crowd goes wild when he does, and it's beliavable enough since he's a pretty big man himself and they didn't go all the way with it. Honda would try to German Supley Albright, but instead be forced to go for a takedown or switch it into another Suplex since it was just too ambitious. Albright's Suplexes (and offencein general) are beautiful, but it's really Honda who carries the match-milking the most out of submissions and giving everything urgency. The way he desperately fights off a Dragon Suplex and tries to roll out of the ring are reminiscent of the classic he had with Kobashi. There is some repetition, in that they go for Armbars a lot, and Honda relies on the Headbutt, but both of those are given satisfying pay-offs, akin to a long headlock in a Thesz match-there's something special about going "really, another Armbar? I think they're going overboard" and just as you're processing that thought Albright escapes the hold and punches Honda straight in the face. ***3/4

[superkix]

Two dudes with amateur backgrounds chasing armbars and throwing suplexes. They tease Albright's German suplex throughout the match, up to the finish, and while he tosses Honda around early on with a couple of belly-to-belly suplexes, Honda got in quite a bit of offense against the bigger Albright. After a few suplexes of his own, he tries to put Albright to sleep, hanging on to the hold as Gary tries to counter out of it. He's able to get to the ropes when Albright tries for the dragon suplex so Albright palm thrusts him in the face, slams him down and goes back tot he armbar, which results in a little dosey-doe of armbar attempts until Albright punches him in the face. Then Albright hits a cool front suplex, a German suplex, and Honda tries rolling away from Albright toward the ropes but Albright scoops him up and hits the German suplex hold for the pin. Fun match.