[1992-04-04-AJPW-Champion Carnival] Abdullah The Butcher vs. Yoshinari Ogawa

[Ma Stump Puller]

This is insanely short and only really built around Ogawa jobbing out to Butcher to build up his rep for the tag with him and Kimala. That said, it's a surprisingly good 5 minute bloodfest as Ogawa makes the mistake of attacking Abdullah before he even gets to the ring and ends up gushing with blood. I'm dead serious, he's just pouring with the stuff and it quickly makes his entire face look like a tomato, nasty stuff. Ogawa hurls and bumps all over for the bigger guy to get the crowd behind him, selling a table being dumped on his prone body like he'd just been burnt with hot coals. 

Abby plays well with the cameras and the crowd throughout by stabbing and poking at his bloody face, making sure everyone gets a good view of the whole thing in his trademark manner. Ogawa tries for some big comebacks with punches and even raking the face himself in a proto-Ratboy move, but ultimately gets overpowered and pinned with a running elbow. I really liked how they milked that elbow for everything it was worth, with Abby taking a especially long pause to tease the audience that Ogawa (might) dodge or escape, but that obviously doesn't happen and he eats the job.

The long staredown he gives Baba in the audience afterwards was really well done and tense: Abby just kneels there for nearly a minute just staring at the guy without blinking, so even if you don't know the history between the two, you definitely get their general vibe just off this interaction. Afterwards he attacks the ref and answers with extra elbow drops. This should be pretty samey as a Abdullah squash match but Ogawa even as early on as this adds a lot to this with his bumping and selling, absolutely getting over the threat of his opponent while making sure to squeeze in some hope spots at just the right points to get the crowd reengaged. It's a solid example of a basic match with a lot of small, smart elements that make it much better than it has any right to be in the first place, something Ogawa naturally will excel at.