[2000-01-31-AJPW 1st Anniversary Of Giant Baba's Death] Akira Taue, Stan Hansen & Takao Omori vs Jun Akiyama, Kenta Kobashi & Mitsuharu Misawa

[Ma Stump Puller]

Shown in full. A fun six-man that helps to establish the big players as of now, as well as some of the up and coming. Crowd are mixed going in as Omori and Akiyama have a amateur wrestling stand-off before Kobashi gets in and gets a sneaky elbow smash after Omori doesn't clean break, leading to him staggering and knocking down the big man. Hansen is really good for 51 here, even if it's mostly because he's in with guys like Kobashi who he can just feed off for days, the lads have a great strike exchange. Also appreciate that Kobashi is so above him here that Hansen needs to cheat with eye rakes and illegal headlock punches to get the advantage: he can't just power through his offence like prior years, he has to actively pull out some cheap antics; this is a dynamic they've established for years by now, but it's still cool to see in action.

We also get Taue working over Kobashi until a Misawa tag, which leads into a cool spot that has Taue lift up Misawa from a front headlock to the top rope, allowing Hansen and co to hold him down for Omori to start beating him up. Him and Misawa exchange strikes, but it's obvious that his elbow is way more effective, knocking him down after a few big shots. Akiyama tries to follow that up but eventually gets overwhelmed by some outside brawling, leading to the trio working over him for the second half. Akiyama naturally does a good job selling for everyone before countering a Omori dropkick, leading with a Kobashi hot tag. Omori gets some time to show off his resiliency as he shakes off some big chops, but eventually gets floored. It's interesting seeing him being placed in the underdog role as he has to endure getting worked over by the trio, chopped over a table on the outside, and basically rely on Hansen and co to at least even the score a bit: he's good, but he's not quite top tier yet. He's certainly more over than you'd expect throughout and he leads into a nice Hansen hot tag. There's some clever work on his behalf as he cuts off the more agile offence from Misawa before getting double teamed by the latter and Kobashi, which gets the crowd very much behind him as a result.

It's also cool to see Taue at the end land multiple Baba signature moves as a solid tribute before leading into the usual road to the finish, with Omori noticeably getting well protected by having everyone have to get Kobashi out of a big Dragon Suplex counter at the very last minute for a crisp near fall. He lands a top rope knee but a Hansen assisted Axe Bomber is countered into a Half-Nelson, leading into a Tiger Suplex and Burning Lariat for the win. This is mostly business as usual for a starting year show but Omori is very noticeably being bumped up to be someone who can brawl with the top guys, even if he's not winning against them anytime soon: one wonders had Misawa and co stayed if that would've resulted in a significant push of any sort. Hansen puts in a inspirited performance, probably one of his last truly solid showings before his drastic breaking down and unplanned retirement later this year: this alongside the Tenryu singles are the last watchable matches I'd recommend looking at. Everyone else puts in a fairly par the course routine, with Kobashi and Akiyama impressing more generally. Good action paired with a steady pace that doesn't tire, these definitely get missed more and more as I went though the state of AJPW in 2000.