[2011-06-19 AJPW Pro Wrestling LOVE in Ryogoku Vol. 12] Daisuke Sekimoto & Yuji Okabayashi vs Seiya Sanada & Manabu Soya

[BigVanCrush]

This series was very highly regarded by people watching All Japan in 2011, and for good reason. This was Strong BJ in the early stages of them branching out to whatever promotion wanted to book them and being booked like two little roid monsters against whoever they were put in the ring with. It rules, mostly because the stuff they do matches up super well with Manabu Soya. You wanna do braindead shoulder blocks? He's got you. You wanna throw elbows? He can do it. You wanna wing lariats? Bro, it's what he does. Sanada, on the other hand, doesn't necessarily 'fit' with what the other three do, but it also makes him the most interesting part of the match. His baby Muto-ism is such a stark contrast from the two meatheads he's in the ring with. You get some staples of Strong BJ matches, like the duelling torture rack spot and the double German suplex spot (seriously who the fuck told them that spot is a good idea?), but the All Japan team's fire and willingness to fight through the Big Japan team's big bombs really makes this match. They cut a good pace, the match is structured very well, it doesn't include anything really needless or excessive which is impressive given what I tend to associate with late 2010s Sekimoto and Okabayashi. I need to rewatch the others to see where they fall exactly, but this is one of the best tag matches you're going to find anywhere in 2011 and one of the best tags of the first half of the decade. It's on equal footing with the main event as far as MOTN on a legitimate show of the decade contender. ****1/2