[2001-01-10-AJPW] Masahito Kakihara & Mitsuya Nagai & Mohammed Yone & Taiyo Kea vs Masanobu Fuchi & Nobutaka Araya & Shigeo Okumura & Toshiaki Kawada

[soup23]

Weird set up as they announce everyone and then exchange a sheet of paper. We then cut forward to a tag match involving Araya/Fuchi vs Yone/Nagai. Good little tag match actually with Araya showing something and Fuchi being a prick like usual. I guess its just once you are out, it is next man up as it’s the same tag teams in the next match with Kakihara replacing Yone. Kaki disposes of Araya and we get another entry into the Fuchi torture dungeon. He has a swift exchange against Kakihara and then is vicious against Nagai. Grinding his fist into his nose and sending him to the outside for Araya to do more damage. Araya’s highspots are impressive as he hits a spinning back kick that lands on Nagai. Fuchi locks on a leg submission but Kakihara has had enough and breaks that up. Kakihara also gets beat up a bit by Fuchi.  That leads to an awesome finishing sequence of Nagai and Kakihara teaming up and trying multiple submissions on Fuchi.  They keep Araya at bay and then end up submitting Fuchi in the end. Pretty awesome. Okumura is fresh and comes rushing in with a flurry. This is a short 4 minute tag with a ton of striking exchanges. Nagai and Araya are battling at the end and Araya has taken too much damage and goes down to a German. Kawada comes out as he head to break as the match is really weighted on his shoulders now. Kakihara wants a piece of Kawada but will take it out on Okumura instead. Nagai/Kakihara are dominating now and really grooving as a team. They work over Okumura big time and even cheap shot Kawada on the apron.  Kawada is having to break up pins.  Then Okumura is able to get a back suplex, make a tag and the fight is on. Kakihara and Kawada have a bad ass stand of. Nagai comes in and its more of the same. Everything is even until Okumura hits a missile dropkick. That allows Nagai to be in big trouble. He barely escapes a stretch plum attempt but Kawada kicks him right in the head and locks it in again and Nagai is gone. Kea is the last man to enter the match and he locks it up with Okumura right away. Final tag is about whether Okumura can survive. He gets beat up on relentlessly and is finally able to make a hot tag to Kawada. Kawada is back with another quick flurry but that is short lived and Kea is able to secure the victory for his team.  Overall, a really strong match that helped increase the notoriety of Kakihara/Kea and Nagai, Fuchi was the master in the beginning of the match, Kawada felt like the ace and Okumura showed some toughness. I think if it would have been a drawn out Elimination match with a bit more time and Kea getting a big win over Kawada, we could reach really great match territory but with what we had, it was super enjoyable. ***3/4 (7.6)