[2000-06-09-AJPW] Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue vs Yoshihiro Takyama & Takao Omori

[soup23]

Another great match between these teams. After their dominating win in January, No Fear ahem has no fear and goes right after HDA. Taue has his shoulder taped up and they really pounce on that. This was really good action and Taue was awesome in selling the damage as the wounded warrior that was refusing to give up. However, Kawada got tagged in and is a man possessed. I am watching this match a little out of chronological order but between this and the forthcoming 7/1 Fuchi match, Kawada certainly has a fire under his ass and is back to a near peak level. He unloads a ferocious attack on No Fear here that culminates in him locking on a great sleeper/pin combo on Omori that felt like a pissed off choke out. This also follows the plight of Omori as being able to take the big guns to the brink, but not getting that big win besides the surprise 7 second Akiyama victory. **** (7.9)

[ohtani's jacket]

The end of an era. Pretty decent match albeit in a formulaic All Japan way. A hurt Taue gave an impassioned performance while Kawada took care of business in the ring. The finish was weird, especially by All Japan standards.

[Laney]

A great showing by Kawada and Taue here as they seem to carry this one. Taue does an excellent job selling and Kawada is his usual vicious self. I never really saw anything in Omori and he seems like a failed AJPW experiment as he has been heavily pushed in 2000. Very strange finish here as Kawada locks in a sleeper with Omori in the ropes and then simply pins him.

 

All in all this is a very good match, but it is clear who the superior workers are in this one.

 

****

[Calvin]

Great performances from Taue and Kawada here; Taue, nearly mummified in athletic tape, seems like he's one bad bump away from needing a nursing home placement, but then he does some bizarrely springy Taue shit that make you question the biophysics of a man with a 95-year-old exterior and the wiry finesse of a 14-year-old ballerina. As for Kawada, it feels insulting to the other three guys in the ring to say he hard carried this one ... but he kind of hard carried this one. He was the highlight in damn near every great moment this match had, and still very clearly one of the best wrestlers in the world even in his post-prime. NO FEAR deserve some credit on their end for being good foils to the old guard: calculated in their aggression and strategic in the way they isolate Taue and Kawada from each other.

***1/2

[Ma Stump Puller]

44 minutes ago, Calvin said:

Great performances from Taue and Kawada here; Taue, nearly mummified in athletic tape, seems like he's one bad bump away from needing a nursing home placement, but then he does some bizarrely springy Taue shit that make you question the biophysics of a man with a 95-year-old exterior and the wiry finesse of a 14-year-old ballerina. As for Kawada, it feels insulting to the other three guys in the ring to say he hard carried this one ... but he kind of hard carried this one. He was the highlight in damn near every great moment this match had, and still very clearly one of the best wrestlers in the world even in his post-prime. NO FEAR deserve some credit on their end for being good foils to the old guard: calculated in their aggression and strategic in the way they isolate Taue and Kawada from each other.

***1/2

Would definitely agree, and this becomes more prevalent when you check out the earlier tag matches on the card. Ogawa and Misawa have a really kinda bleh chemistry with Omori and co and it results in a pretty flat match beyond some decent spots while Movement v Kawada and Taue is great despite Taue being out for most of it lol. 

When it comes to tag structures like these, I can easily say that Kawada provides the best quality when it comes to making them a lot better than they have any right to be. This is noticeable even in the (mostly) filler tag matches. His ability to add color to stuff like this is sensational.