Assorted All Japan Oddities (1995/2000)

[Ma Stump Puller]

Introduction

These are a collection of write-ups/reviews of matches within AJPW that I found to be interesting/obscure enough to be worth examining in further detail, namely due to the fact that a lot of them go pretty under the radar to the usual main event material. The company goes through a lot of changes in the 90s; arguably in doing so it makes a lot more exciting for a viewer than the relatively stable decades prior.

Oddities #1: 1995

Johnny Ace & Steve Williams vs. Jun Akiyama & Takao Omori (24.01.1995)

Spoiler

This is cut as apart of a AJPW hour special, so this only gets a few minutes of action, it's still solid for a sprint though. This starts off wild with a Akiyama knee and Omori German getting a near fall on Ace before Doc Death demolishes Akiyama with a big powerbomb to the outside to clearly isolate him away from his partner. The pair run over Omori with some good offence (Williams even gets on the top rope to do stuff, which was becoming less and less common as the decade went by) and Omori tries in vain to defend himself but he's able to hold out until Akiyama comes in to break up a Oklahoma Stampede-assisted pin. Eventually the lads get Omori up for the second rope powerslam, and with Akiyama blasted back with a great dropkick to the outside by Ace, all hope seems lost.... until Omori kicks out! Love the pair's small bit of silence after the fact, almost failing to comprehend how this kid keeps powering out of stuff. At this point ANYTHING could pin Omori but Williams choses to hit the biggest of bombs via a Dangerous Backdrop just to be a prick about it, which naturally gets the three count very easily. This lead to the finish was done incredibly well with some big spots thrown alongside some fairly sharp counters, underdog spots by Omori and co, and a very well done last-second cutoff by Akiyama to break up that Stampede pin. I'm actually kinda gutted we don't see more, because the audience was incredibly hot for this throughout to the end. Good showing from two big prospects, Ace and Williams work well with them enough that we see the clear picture ahead despite them taking a definitive loss.

Giant Baba, Kenta Kobashi & Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Johnny Ace, Johnny Smith & Steve Williams (29.01.1995)

Spoiler

A entire episode of AJPW TV is dedicated to showing this in full, no cuts involved. Williams quickly takes over with big scoop slams, shit-talking Baba and co, and even hitting a great dropkick meanwhile. Eventually everyone gets involved as stuff gets heated, even Baba tries to step in to beat Williams's ass. When Baba does get in, he's able to take him down with a school-boy before raking the eyes lol. As expected, the less established guys like Smith take a good blunt of the actual dominant ring work here, I have to give him some credit for making Baba's wimpy chops look actually convincing for once. Seeing Ace and Williams fly around the ring for his lackadaisical stuff as well was bizarre but very awesome at the same time, especially since Williams is a surprisingly spritely bumper for his size. This falls into a fairly predictable formula: the Gaijin lads hold a majority of the action here, with the other team being able to squeeze out small pockets of resistance, albeit the bigger fish eventually take back control. Kobashi spends most of the middle selling for the trio and while some of the action is compelling, a lot of it is just kinda middling at the end of the day: if it isn't Williams angrily chopping his ass or Ace being a stiff dickhead with his chops you really blank out of this quite easy. Ace does hit a picture perfect moonsault so I can't really diss this all that much though. We get a few hot tag teases before Kobashi finally tags in Misawa to a good reaction at first but quickly simmers down as Williams take control again after dodging a spinning elbow into a big spinebuster. Eventually we get a big brawl after Smith lands his dropkick/kip up spot and it leaves him vs Baba. As you can expect Baba beats him up pretty much one-sided, but his DDT pin attempt gets broken up. Kobashi gets in a powerbomb assist as well, allowing Baba just enough time to land his signature neckbreaker for the win. Post-match brawl has Williams and Ace go out on top with a Doomsday Device onto Kobashi to build their dominance further. All in all, this is obviously used to get Ace and Williams over as a new tag threat for the Super Gen Army going forward yet still shines as a match by its components despite slightly simmering out around about the middle half. Some of the fat could've been trimmed off here. Baba is a obvious liability: he's still ungodly over, sure, by this point he was far beyond even carryable in terms of ring work, tending to drag this down whenever he shows up due to being particularly limited. The other guys work around him masterfully but you can still tell he's quite fragile, only taking body slams as a actual bump. Everyone else puts in a standard performance: Williams makes this a lot better with his colourful antics and Ace is definitely getting better in this format. Kobashi and Misawa put in a pretty B-show performance and don't do much beyond bump and sell: they still have great timing and whatnot but this is definitely a lull in terms of match quality. Smith is.... here, basically. Don't expect anything incredible or anything. 

Akira Taue & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Danny Kroffat & Stan Hansen (17.02.1995) 

Spoiler

Not sure why they kept trying to make Kroffat/Hansen a thing but the experiment continues regardless in the buildup to Hansen's challenge for the Triple Crown. Kawada and Hansen start with a predictively explosive sequence which has Kawada actually take Hansen off his feet with a big clothesline, highlighting how far he's gotten in a few years by comparison to being nothing more than a pest earlier on his career. Kroffat tries to get cute with a cross armbreaker but Kawada eventually just gets pissed off and drags the guy (standing up, mind you) to the corner to tag in Taue. It's not quite as good as the infamous "Gotch carrying Inoki" spot despite being still reasonably awesome to watch. Taue takes over with his typical big man moves until Kroffat counters an attempt at grappling by attacking the legs which leads into Hansen continuing said leg work. This goes on for a bit during the middle section of the match until they just kinda drop it and Taue wiggles out to tag in Kawada. The real beef of this match comes from Kawada and Hansen's interactions: as you can expect, these are done pretty well and Hansen portrays a rare sense of vulnerability against the older, stronger and meaner Kawada, who's able to rock him with stiff kicks. Hansen is still Hansen through and can take the advantage with his endurance and experience, allowing him to hold out long enough to get in loose strikes and blows to take Kawada off his game and back into messy brawling. There's a great spot where Kawada counters a Irish Whip into his signature spin kick, which Hansen sells like complete death: even when Taue gets in and tries to do stuff, Hansen's just out like a light. This leads the pair to get him leaning on the ropes so Kawada can freely kick him while Taue's got him in a front choke in a real old-school Southern-style heat spot. Hansen tries to fight back with his punches but Kawada isn't having any of that, leading to a extended kick sequence where he just blows him away with big shots. Even when the ref is counting him down, he refuses to relent on kneeing the guy in the face. Hansen's selling is also fantastic here: he gets fired up and angry but at the same time his pain is all so clear at the same time, and it REALLY gets the crowd going in the later halves when he's almost crying at points, trying to push though to keep on scrapping. The road to the finish has Kawada try to put Hansen down with multiple Gamengiri shots, but Hansen just about throws a Western Lariat at the last second to survive. Both men are exhausted through and bow out, leading to Taue quickly putting away Kroffat with two chokeslams. A really solid semi-main event that has Hansen direct all of the traffic here despite his age. Kawada is at his meanest against him with some great strikes while equally also putting over Hansen's overall sturdiness that allows him to ride the waves just long enough to get comebacks; while he's strong enough to rock Hansen, he's not yet good enough to truly take him down, sowing seeds of doubt about his chances. Taue and Kroffat are fine enough here but noticeably play a backing role, not really getting a lot to shine (though this is clearly on purpose).

Johnny Ace vs. Stan Hansen (30.03.1995)

Spoiler

Clipped by about 7 minutes or so. This isn't as good as the brawl they'd have in 97 but Ace and co can always be relied upon to have a good old fashioned Southern-style punch/kick scrap between them. Hansen mostly focuses in on the legs to keep Ace down and grounded: as I've said before Hansen isn't the best at working limbs to anything very compelling but I think he somewhat gets this dynamic over. Ace gets some room to breathe at points with some big shots but can't keep any semblance of control without Hansen knocking him back down again. The tables turn when Hansen misses a shoulder charge and falls to the outside, which while he recovers fairly fast, it gives enough time for Ace to recover before a powerbomb attempt, countering it into a nasty senton onto Hansen's face. Hansen recovers after countering a suplex attempt and motions for the Western Lariat, but Ace gets a last second Ace Crusher, which probably would've gotten him the pin had his leg prevented him from covering before Hansen rolls to the ropes which is a nice way of protecting both men. Ace tries for a moonsault but his bad leg keeps him away from hitting it in time before getting interrupted. He tries again for it and succeeds..... however Hansen dodges out of the way. Ace's shitty leg gets even worse and forces him to be stuck kneeling, allowing Hansen to hit a weird, modified, Sliding-D style Western Lariat instead in a awesome desperation spot. This, naturally, gets him the pin. Good short bout that gets both men established: Ace is the younger, more bombastic lad but Hansen is the smart vet that plays the long game and ultimately wins because of it. Both guys worked well here with no real downtime, and I was impressed by Ace's agility and versatility at points, pulling out some stuff you wouldn't expect from a man his size. The limb work ACTUALLY plays into the match in a major way, shocker! All in all, a fun CC-style match that shows off Ace's slow climb in quality from his rougher starting 80s stint.

Jun Akiyama vs. Stan Hansen (13.04.1995)

Spoiler

Shown in full. Akiyama is still just a few years in the business while clearly starting to get a bit of a name for himself (this year in particular would be the start of him slowly being thrown into bigger matches) but he's against Triple Crown Hansen, so he's not going to get much of anywhere here. Akiyama decides to follow the main strategy for handling the wild cowboy: namely working his lariat arm. I usually groan at such a thing because it's so overused and such a bad clutch that causes Hansen matches to drag a lot, but I think Akiyama does a lot better at limb targeting than most who have attempted it in the past, focusing on fancy key locks and cross armbreakers. He's focused enough on the target that he gets away with this than many (even Misawa, someone who is quite guilty of just chilling at working limbs without a endgame) Hansen in turn manages to give the kid a lot of room here, tangibly making him more of a threat progressively as his best weapon (I. E. his strikes) are progressively drained away from him. At the start, for instance, he can easily slap away Akiyama with a few good chops and punches like he's nothing: as time goes on he needs to get more and more radical because that advantage is stripped away, needing him to chain more blows to get the same effect. Akiyama escalates by slamming Hansen's arm into the barrier and turnbuckle pole, so Hansen has to fire back with a nasty DDT on the outside. Akiyama almost dies from a sheer-drop powerbomb but just kicks out. Hansen tries to maintain momentum but Akiyama lands a awesome jumping knee counter, following it up with a running one that knocks his opponent out of the ring, hitting a plancha to the outside as well. He then goes for a good looking apron elbow to the face just for good measure. When Hansen tries to get in and roughhouse Akiyama, he gets pissed and starts just hurling elbows in a fury, ending in a thunderous top rope knee for a near fall. He tries for a Northern Lights but Hansen gets a last second neckbreaker. The last minute is just a mess of explosive moves, namely Hansen almost ending Akiyama with a vicious back suplex. Despite Akiyama getting in one last jumping knee Hansen is able to no sell it just long enough to land his Western Lariat for the pin. VERY well done for a 10 minute sprint as we get some huge bombs in-between some good limb work. Very enjoyable all in all and Akiyama was really starting to get a groove in terms of offence, incredibly over as well as he struggles against the far tougher man. Hansen for his credit gets some good brawling in but also puts over Akiyama's guts, putting himself in danger in a few areas while never losing face; he comes out of this looking just as dangerous as ever. A masterclass sprint by one of the smartest in the game.

Akira Taue vs. Johnny Ace (13.04.1995)

Spoiler

For what's remaining, this is a really good hoss sprint match as Ace and Taue basically just beat the crap out of each other with big bombs and strikes. Taue always seemed to get the best matches out of Ace possible: maybe that's because both men have the same qualities in being kinda awkward, lanky heavyweights that know how to throw out big bombs whenever they can but also sell whenever they are on the backend of one themselves. Sure, this isn't as crazy good as the main event, but people definitely don't give this the credit it deserves, especially some of the creative counters Ace had here (the last second DDT counter to the Nodowa Otoshi chokeslam was great! ) and while he wasn't as good as he would be in the late 90's, credit has to be given to him for coming out and putting on a fairly good shot. Definitely worth a watch for the pair.

Johnny Ace vs. Patriot (24.07.1995

Spoiler

This is a pretty fun outing that has the two tag buddies just go at each other for a title shot opportunity. Patriot is the neutral face here, helped by Ace taking the lead with some good offence and solid cut-off spots throughout to make him the de-facto guy to be against here. Patriot keeps in the game long enough to land a backdrop counter and Ace bumps huge after a dropkick, falling to the outside. Patriot also lands a real stiff lariat at one point for a near fall, which was pretty awesome looking. Other than that his offence is pretty meh and nothing really that interesting, in my opinion; I'm generally down on Patriot as a worker here and this didn't change anything about those views. I do like the underlying narrative of both of them knowing the other well enough to counter and dodge each other a ton: we get some inventive counters to finishers (like Ace springs off the ropes Bret style to escape a potential Full Nelson Slam attempt, or him countering a running lariat into a Boss Man Slam out of nowhere) as well as just general smart work at times to get the advantage, and these are done really well to convey changes in momentum as well as teasing near falls. There's a few too many of them near the end when they just keep landing bombs and not hitting the mark in classic AJPW fashion. That said, seeing Patriot land a vicious powerbomb, or Ace hitting a mid-air dropkick to Patriot diving off the top rope are epic spots that get the drama building well here. Ace hits a Ace Crusher: near fall. He hits a moonsault: near fall. He hits a fancy running corner Ace Crusher: near fall again! I can get why this was here but this was bordering on parody at that point. Eventually Ace wins with a Pedigree (they call it a Tiger Driver but it's nothing close to looking like it) which was pretty funny. Either way, this was a solid outing that had the two really throw out the bag and a half in terms of counters and bombs. Patriot is definitely the weaker of the two here given his more limited work and wonky selling (the dropkick I mentioned before, he gets up before Ace does there and acts like nothing happened, which for a spot as cool as that is quite senseless) and I liked the chop sequences but they never went anywhere either. I still enjoyed this at the end of the day but it definitely has major flaws. 

Danny Kroffat vs. Yoshinari Ogawa (10.09.1995)

Spoiler

There are clipped versions of this in circulation but the one I've seen isn't so take that for what you will. What's clipped is mostly inconsequential; a lot of starting work to define the babyface and heel, as well as some generic arm work that doesn't really pass into anything else. This marks a pretty big turning point for Ogawa as he grabs his first title in AJPW after 10 years of wrestling, and against someone that he's never been able to handle in singles competition prior to this outing. The match itself is predictively solid: these two work quite well together and this is by far their best outing together Kroffat plays his usual cocky self alongside a strongly played babyface proto-Ratboy Ogawa, who ends up on the backend of this a lot and needs to pull out some of his usual antics to try to get the advantage namely flash pins and quick counters. Kroffat pulls out non-clean breaks and low blows in response, as well as wearing him down with working holds and whatnot. Between this you get his signature playing to the crowd and insults which was a lot of fun. Ogawa's work is mostly chaining combinations of moves to try to take the bigger guy down, and while his punches are a bit too open-hand and loose for my liking most of what he pulls out looks perfectly decent. The pair also know each other well enough to work around the threat of each other's big finishes so we get a lot of dodges and flash pin counters to work here on top, adding a good layer of strategy to the whole thing. Ogawa smartly works the crowd more and more with his near falls, going from flash in the pan counter-pins that they don't really bite for into outright overpowering near-fall bombs, such as a Tiger Driver and backdrop pin, building up the sense of mounting fatigue between the two. Eventually the finish has Kroffat come off the top rope for a sunset but Ogawa rolls through into a front pin for the conclusive pin with big fanfare. This isn't a particularly classic outing (nor is it anything incredible) but functions just fine as a solid Jr outing, which was a godsend for a very much abandoned function of the company (which reflects even here given Ogawa's subsequent title defences were mostly unaired). They don't really go all out with any part of it, but Ogawa's tricky counters were done really well and Kroffat was a solid cocky heel here making sure not to take too much shine from his opponent while being a tangible threat with his own work. Not bad at all albeit sadly about as good as you are going to get from AJPW's Jr division with Fuchi taking a backseat.

Jun Akiyama, Masao Inoue & Satoru Asako vs. Ryukaku Izumida, Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Yoshinari Ogawa (25.10.1995)

Spoiler

This is a messy rookie 6-man with the main vets holding things together. The action is fine enough, built around Asako bumping around the place and Akiyama being the big threat to knock around the lower-card lads. Izumida is decent as the big ex-sumo powerhouse, already doing the headbutt gimmick way better than Honda was at the time, sorry Honda fans. Some of the more inexperienced guys like Inoue and whatnot don't get much room to breathe beyond some spots (that aren't fantastic but get the job done) but Ogawa practically vanishes after a dodgy head-bump Exploder from Akiyama, making me think he was hurt given how long he was out for: they don't have a storyline reason for having the guy just sell on the apron for years, even during the finish (which famously almost always includes everyone getting their shit in) so definitely something was up there. Akiyama misses a clothesline and hits Inoue by accident, leading to him getting chased out and Kikuchi lands a flush German suplex for the pin, with Asako taken out after a smooth diving apron headbutt from Izumida. The guys check up on Ogawa afterwards and he just seems out of it from what's shown, probably concussed. He'd be gone until late next month; which does back up that theory pretty well. Match itself is as per standard, but I enjoyed a early viewing of Izumida in action, and he looked fairly decent here. Everyone else is of varying quality but Kikuchi and Akiyama show their stuff the best here from what's available and hold the fort pacing-wise.

Abdullah The Butcher & Giant Kimala vs. Dory Funk Jr. & Mighty Inoue (25.10.1995)

Spoiler

 I really liked Dory's standoff with Abdullah while his entrance was going on, and the dude just throwing his shirt at the guy for sheer pettiness was great. He starts off with Kimala and just doesn't even bother trying to engage with him, instead staring daggers into Abby; him teasing running in before backing off was a fun little bit as well and showcased their obvious history together. Dory is obviously limited given his age but his ability to emote the aggression upon seeing one of the few guys that actually did piss him off enough to get a reaction out of him back in the day means he's all energised here, throwing big shots to Kimala early with outright closed fists and stiff uppercuts. Abby only gets in when Dory loses that advantage so he can pick away at him with his usual fancy slaps and chops before tagging out. They do some leg work to Dory that isn't particularly interesting but is mixed well with them just being big heels, choking and just putting the guy in uncomfortable positions to get the heat going. Seeing them work a shoulder claw in 1995 was a bit much in terms of believability but it leads up to more stiff shots and a BIG suplex to Kimala during Funk's comeback spot which got the crowd pretty engaged. Inoue isn't very good considering how late on this was into his retirement but he works some Baba-Family style spots, stamping Kimala's bare feet and trying for a monkey flip which inevitably fails and gets countered almost instantly. Dory helps Inoue out of some pinfalls before Abby drags him out resulting in Inoue getting quickly squashed with a splash for the pin. Nothing great and it's a bit of a shame that Dory and Abby don't get a proper brawl to themselves given the well-done work during the match around those two. That said, wasn't terrible for a old lad match, with some fun spots here and there and a pace that doesn't drag too long. 

Johnny Smith & Rob Van Dam vs. Kenta Kobashi & Mitsuharu Misawa (18.11.1995)

 

Spoiler

Smith and RVD are a pretty cool tag thrown together  but against a tag team like this? They were never going to get very far. Smith lands a top rope superplex on Misawa after interference from RVD to stop Kobashi and we get a decent Smith hot tag and bombs against Misawa as he's able to counter his kicks and elbows for a big German suplex near fall. He tries for a powerbomb but Misawa counters into a arm drag, leading into him against Kobashi, who predictively gets on the backend after a top rope flying kick into standing moonsault by RVD. He gets over his signature stuff (including his spilt-legged moonsault, which was his finish before the Frog Splash became a thing) before Kobashi counters a second one with his not-yet bionic knees and we get a amazing sell by Rob after taking a Burning Lariat, where he just kinda crumbles after a flip-bump. Smith saves his partner, but eventually we get a powerbomb/Tiger Driver joint combo on both men for the definitive pin. This was a enjoyable bout however there's no real tension here at all given the powerhouses of the company are facing against low-card foreign guys. That said, enjoyable romp for what it's worth and RVD is always great at these short "highlight reel" style matches. Everyone looks fine but this is very clearly a day 1 bout, so no one is pulling from their A-game.

 

Gary Albright & Stan Hansen vs. Kenta Kobashi & Mitsuharu Misawa (29.11.1995)

Spoiler

This is the big match of the entire tournament par the finals: both teams are fighting for a definitive spot to get in the latter (which will obviously be the Demon Army) so there's good tension. Hansen vs Kobashi is always a good dynamic, and having them scrap for every bit of advantage (including Hansen punching Kobashi mid-air when he tries for a double axe-handle only to sell his own hand afterwards because of the awkward shot; just a great little bit in general iirc). As expected Kobashi does most of the selling and bumping as the beefy duo work on Kobashi on the mat, slapping on holds and wearing him down. Albright hammering him with elbows to the ribs looked fairly nasty. They work over his back with bombs alongside that, with Hansen hitting his signature stiff kicks, elbows, and back suplexes. This is noticeably utilising a fair bit of technical work: something Kings Road in particular had introduced around this time within the style to add longevity to the workers.

Through it wouldn't be as noticeable as it would be in 1997-2000, seeing Kobashi grab on submission holds and shoot around with Albright a bit (which would've been utterly unheard of if we were talking 1990/1993 Kobashi) shows that it was starting to leak in alongside the UWF arrivals. Kobashi and Hansen do their usual routine of the latter beating him down while Kobashi tries pulling out comebacks, but just can't get the big shot in long enough to reliably tag in his partner. After a somewhat messy powerbomb reversal where he ends up nearly falling on Hansen's face, we get the Misawa hot tag, which was solid, especially given him and Hansen have bad chemistry. They work here better as equals until a DDT clears the field for Albright to hurl the guy around into a cross armbreaker. Albright's teasing of the Dragon Suplex after the rope break is solid, as is Misawa's comeback using his agility to land multiple solid kicks into a Burning Lariat tag-in.

There's a fantastic bit in the second half where Albright dodges a spinning chop to grab on a German suplex, of which Kobashi literally crawls his way to the corner to escape any pin attempts. Kobashi holding on to Hansen with the last of his energy just long enough to allow Misawa to strike the both with elbows was also a good little bit that got over their dynamic. Albright keeps hunting for the one big hold to finish the match, but Kobashi manages to grab on a miracle sleeper: without Hansen to interrupt, he eventually gets Albright subdued to the point that he can go for the last-ditch pin for the win. This does feel slow in places and the inclusion of Albright means that we see some uncharacteristic grappling mostly from Kobashi who historically was never a strong sort for that kind of methodical work. That said, I think this is still a nice outing that showcases the two teams in terms of dynamics well, even if it isn't anything out of the blue. It's full of small solid sections that build to a rather unconventional ending, but the parts still come together quite well in the end to get over the Hansen/Albright duo. 

 

 

Oddities #2: 1996

Tamon Honda vs. Toshiaki Kawada (12.01.1996)

Spoiler

One of Honda's first real tests in AJPW in singles. He's obviously not got much of a chance of actually winning, mind you, but this is a good try to see how much Kawada can fool the audience otherwise Honda amazingly dominates the early portions of this with his technical work, consistently getting Kawada down to the mat, which he's a fish out of water in as he grabs the ropes at every occasion, not even trying to outmanoeuvre him. He does eventually grab on a rest hold, but this ends with Honda recovering on the ropes and nailing him with a huge German Suplex. This beginning is great, getting over Honda's technical skills and how dangerous he actually can be when not stuck doing headbutts, and it's a great sign of the worker he'd become in NOAH with more refinement to this act, it's fascinating seeing such a thing here just starting off. 

The middle part has Kawada eventually recover after dodging a headbutt and use his own advantages in, well, his kicks. He even does some grappling before just kicking him some more. Honda is helpless until Kawada takes a bit too much time gloating and Honda gets in a modified Dragon Screw, only he holds on to the leg after the initial move, looked super nasty. After this, it's a simple story of Kawada's leg being wrecked and Honda knowing this and pursuing it as hard as he can. Kawada makes the mistake of kicking with it on instinct on occasions, which messes it up even more. Obviously Kawada is a great seller so he makes the limb work seem exciting and legitimately painful, making sure to not let Honda work it over: he even goes to the ground to keep him neutralised and away from it, and uses his other leg to bat Honda away like a wounded animal.

The second half goes into more of a traditional fighting spirit section with Honda and Kawada trading kicks and headbutts: Honda does some nice work finding ways to get the former down with some agility and resilience, with him even pulling out some of his own kicks when he's working the leg of Kawada again. The finish has Honda get tripped up when attempting to work Kawada's bad leg again and being wrapped in a less than convincing toe hold for the rather deflating win. This is actually pretty solid: Honda bothers to do more than just the occasional headbutt here and Kawada's selling makes this a lot engaging than most Honda bouts. That being said, this is pretty simplistic in structure, the finish makes Honda look like a complete pushover, and Kawada doesn't do much beyond kicks and ground work: we don't see any actual big moves from him. I get this was another Kawada/shoot style flirtation, but it didn't land well here. 

Johnny Ace, Lacrosse, Patriot & The Eagle vs. Kenta Kobashi, Kentaro Shiga, Mitsuharu Misawa & Satoru Asako  (22.01.1996)

Spoiler

If you can find this random fancam filmed mostly on a wonky side-view; please give it a watch, it's legitimately a great house-show match that somehow goes 50+ minutes long while not feeling like that at all. I'm not about to write about a 50+ minute match as I still want to be able to use my fingers, just trust me on this one. 

Gary Albright vs. Jun Akiyama (31.03.1996)

Spoiler

Cut by about a minute for TV. Akiyama goes up against the suplex monster in singles. Akiyama is still standard rookie status albeit he's starting to get a groove into his style and presentation, showcasing those signature knee strikes that would become a stable of his offence in years to come. The match goes like you'd expect: Akiyama is the fiery upstart while Albright is the established beefy monster, dominating with suplexes and solid ground game. Akiyama works Albright's leg to keep him off his game, using his speed to also catch him unawares with low dropkicks. Again, it's a nice look into the surgical side of Akiyama that viciously picks apart his opponent: something which again, would become more and more of a thing in latter years. This works until Albright catches him in the middle of a Exploder and nails a armbar, a belly to belly, and a vicious German suplex which scores Albright the win. Not a ton worth discussing, basic enough match. Albright isn't a particularly good seller but he knows when to turn up the heat when necessary and Akiyama is already pretty good. Decent CC-paced match. 

Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Toshiaki Kawada (14.04.1996)

Spoiler

The tragedy of a Misawa vs Kawada match being clipped down to six minutes of a 30 minute match is just indescribable. These guys probably didn't go super all out but like, this is completely lost: the remaining 20+ minutes of footage have never been showcased to the public, even in commercial tape. Even if those missing minutes were just the two in a headlock its still a big shame. We still have the explosive finishing stretch: Kawada hits a powerbomb for a near fall, tries for a backdrop, but Misawa hammers him with elbows until he drops, nails a Tiger Driver for ANOTHER near fall. Misawa tries the top rope elbow that took him out in the past, but Kawada, even battered and barely conscious, is smart enough to see it coming and rolls out of range. Misawa hits a Tiger Suplex, but that doesn't seal the deal. Kawada springs to life after Misawa tries for another finish, and hits a rolling kick that, while it does stun Misawa, he blocks it enough with his arms for Kawada to be incapable of capitalising, and the bell sounds for the draw. We simply don't have enough footage to judge the entire stretch as it is. It's a bunch of big bombs until a possible comeback that never comes. Maybe this was fantastic, maybe it wasn't, the point is that we simply don't know how good this actually was, and that's a crime. 

Giant Baba, Kentaro Shiga & Satoru Asako vs. Masanobu Fuchi, Masao Inoue & Yoshinari Ogawa (20.04.1996)

Spoiler

Clipped to 7 minutes from the crazy, almost 30 minute mark original match. Seriously, I don't want to watch a 30 minute Baba/Shiga match, that sounds rather painful. Fuchi can still work that "vicious vet" role great, and Shiga is a perfect target for him to vent his frustrations. It's also great to see Baba just beat his butt afterwards when Shiga gets the hot tag in and see him play the opposite role. Asako and Inoue have good chemistry: he nails a great powerslam variant on him while getting a bridge at the same time and Asako nails a Frankensteiner on him which gets countered smoothly into a series of pins, then Asako nails a drop toe hold into another fancy rollup. It's all very smooth, very effective ring work that never seems too fake or contrived. The last minute or so of this match turns into a bit of a scrap: Shiga lands a big springboard dive, Baba hits a huge piledriver, Asako and Shiga nail a double dropkick, etc etc. Shiga tries to beat Ogawa with a tornado DDT and another springboard, but Ogawa gets out of the way at the last second and nails a neckbreaker for the near fall. Ultimately, Ogawa rolls up Shiga after a crossbody to get the sneaky win after Inoue deals with Asako's interference. This is hard to judge because of how much is clipped off, but from what we did see, this was a pretty solid albeit hindered by the likes of Fuchi and Baba, who can only do so much with their limited ring work. Shiga is alright this time and while Asako and Inoue were never the amazing next generation talent AJPW management perhaps envisioned for them, they can still work very smoothly for what this required. Good all round sleeper match. 

Gary Albright & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Giant Kimala & Kenta Kobashi (03.06.1996)

Spoiler

Unaired but a fancam has the full thing in good quality. You can kinda tell this is a house show just by the fact of these teams looking as they do. Albright and Kawada make some sense as rivals turned partners, but Kimala and Kobashi......yeah I don't see it, lol. Kobashi and Kawada start off with some pseudo-shoot style work as K gets in a cross armbreaker and a double wrist lock. Kobashi responds by sitting in half guard for a bit before turning the guy over for a Cloverleaf submission. We get some standard Kimala stuff as he screams after getting hit while landing wild brain chops and the like. Both Albright and Kawada work on the guy for a bit until he gets out. Kobashi and Albright work more shootish style as Kobashi throws out some half-decent arm work but it's short lived. Kobashi has his strikes but his opponent can just default to his kicks if he's in any issue. I do like Kobashi slowly struggling through a suplex attempt to land his own, as well as Kimala's hot tag with a top rope slap to the back, splashes, and a stomach claw of all things.

Kimala lands some shoulder slaps before Kawada gets right pissed off and lands some good low kicks to knock the guy over. The two work on Kimala for the next few minutes with some outside brawling and arm work: all fine and all. Kimala surprisingly gets the crowd on his side with his selling as Kawada just beats on him with kicks to the bad arm and head, though I'm not sure if that's more the latter getting him that appeal instead, especially when he starts landing vicious leaping knee drops onto his exposed arm. Albright adds work in with submissions, with him managing to slap on a armbar into back mount. Kobashi finally gets in when he tries for a back choke. We get a good combo as Kobashi dropkicks Albright out of a Dragon Suplex and Kimala follows up with a nice neckbreaker. Good hot tag to Kobashi as he runs down the other two with lariats and chops until a cross armbreaker gets thrown on by Albright; Kimala comes in to land a leg drop, which the crowd explode for.

Kawada boots Kobashi in the head for about half a minute for the mad lad just to no sell and go into chop exchanges. Great back and forths for the last few minutes until the finish has Albright belly to belly Kimala into a armbreaker for the win. This was a pretty good match bar the slow beginning: Kawada just brings so much to these usually drab B-show matches with his intensity and striking that it's unreal. Kobashi steps up and we get a lot of fun work between the pair. Albright got to show his stuff with his usual suplexes and big man work: while he's a bit slow at points when he's on, he's really snug, able to get a crowd going with nothing more than a belly to belly. Kimala really got to show his stuff here and looked really motivated to do so, getting the crowd exploding for his comebacks and being a good underdog. It's unironically one of his best performances, no joke.

Brian Dyette & Kenta Kobashi vs. Jun Akiyama & Mitsuharu Misawa (29.06.1996)

Spoiler

Covered this already here. Fun watch, good to show Akiyama's progression and ability to carry against someone who was unbelievably green as grass.

Gary Albright vs. Masanobu Fuchi (22.08.1996)

Spoiler

 Actually not half bad, shockingly enough. Fuchi is obviously not near his best but he can work a really refined technical style and plays his bratty vet role that he occupied back in Tsuruta-gun, albeit he obviously can't bully the experienced Albright like he did with the Super Generation guys: and he very much knows it. Fuchi gets in multiple cheap shots before running out to avoid Albright's wrath, slapping his head and dodging around his sprawl attempts. He doesn't break clean, he consistently messes around, and gets in any opening he can to avoid even attempting to grapple with him. These eventually pay off as Fuchi targets his leg with sharp kicks, managing to bring him down to the mat for a heel hook and also ties his foot around the ropes to do even more damage to it. This continues with multiple holds until Albright counters a ankle lock into a cross armbreaker, which then also gets countered into Fuchi grinding his elbow into his face. Fuchi attempts to bring Albright down with some big Enzuigiri's but gets blocked and completely demolished with a huge belly to belly, leaving him prone for a grounded sleeper for the submission win. Short but sweet, and a very well disguised squash for Albright, who basically wrecks Fuchi with just a few moves, but you wouldn't know this by the pacing of the match itself, which does give a lot of credit to Fuchi's capabilities. Quite entertaining and I actually would've liked to see both men go a bit longer, solid stuff all round. It's about as close as you are going to get to grumpy uncle Fuchi actually working shoot-style.

Gary Albright vs. Takao Omori (05.09.1996)

Spoiler

Shown in full for TV airing. Albright gloats Omori into unleashing some fairly big bombs on him early on, but takes control with his own offence, including a earth-shattering German Suplex. A lot of this is just Albright punishing the younger and less experienced opponent every time he misses his mark but eventually Omori overcomes with a ton of agility, namely with huge dropkicks, and even scores his own German Suplex on Albright which was pretty nuts. He tries to knock down Albright with some Axe Bombers, but fails and gets a huge belly to belly in turn. Albright dominates with a huge shoulder tackle and a disgusting head bouncing Dragon Suplex for the definitive win. Perfectly reasonable as a undercard sprint match with some great fire from Omori and huge impact with the moves they pulled out here. Albright is still a bit clumsy in the ring (he doesn't really understand the concept of rope breaks, he'll try to pin guys right on the ropes willy nilly) but he's a great monster heel with a unique gimmick, definitely looks the best in matches like these where he gets to be a big old bully.

Danny Kroffat, Johnny Ace & Steve Williams vs. Giant Kimala, Kenta Kobashi & Patriot (28.09.1996)
 

Spoiler

There's some noticeable weak links here (Kroffat and Kimala aren't particularly A-list material, and Patriot is so-so) but they do fine enough and get some pretty decent ring work in for what it's worth. Most of this is decent but middling ring action, only really getting fiery when Kobashi or Williams are in play. The former in particular gets some great, varied offence here, even doing a bow and arrow submission of all things! Kroffat plays a good third wheel in these matchups, getting interference and boos from the crowd for his consistent breaking up of pins as the little shit of the Gaijin trio. We get Williams swearing hard after a huge military press to Kobashi, which looked pretty damn great. As you can expect, the middle part of this match is Kobashi being the natural underdog and getting worked over, Kroffat working over his legs while the bigger guys run him over. He's such a slimy heel as well, smiling to a booing crowd while cranking on a headlock, lovely stuff.

Kobashi gets in pockets of resistance but the big lads just work over those bad legs more, making the guy scream in pain and drop whatever he's trying. He eventually tags in Patriot, but he can't hold out against all three for long. This is probably the only match I've watched where the crowd chants for fucking Giant Kimala, of all people, as the supreme underdog babyface. He does deserve it, namely because of a great rolling senton and top rope splash. Kobashi gets into a scrap with Ace near the end that amazingly ends with Ace on top and with a near fall, however this doesn't amount to much after a assisted powerbomb by him and Patriot, and a fantastic Burning Lariat finishes Ace off for the pin. Not perhaps as amazing as older and more well known 6-man affairs around the same time but hey, this is fairly above average for a non-Pillar orientated format at the time. Kroffat gets legit heat, Ace and Williams are fairly ready to bump around and hit hard and Kimala and Patriot, while not super dynamic performers, really pull their weight here. Kobashi is the MVP: super good selling and really got some great comeback spots here, leading to the big finish when he finally gets his shots in on the team that bullied him for most of this. Definitely a Kobashi paced match, however it's all the better for it.

Gary Albright vs. Toshiaki Kawada (12.10.1996)

Spoiler

Albright and Kawada work pretty well together: both men had a barnstormer a year back, and had another solid match just a few months ago, but this is definitely the weakest of these encounters. Kawada acts like a dick with his kicks and gets his shit pushed in right at the start with a huge belly to belly and both men scramble on the mat for a few minutes, seeing a pretty rare application of a cross armbreaker as a actual shoot match ender, with both men blocking any attempts for it to be even applied properly, rather than a regular rest hold. Albright continues to dominate with suplexes, with a great German that has Kawada literally hanging on for dear life on the bottom rope, excellent selling as usual. Albright does a good job in keeping the pressure up as well, getting in a side headlock and a Full Nelson while kneeling to weaken Kawada further.

Kawada tries escaping to the outside to recover, but Albright drags him back in and keeps up the pressure, eventually nailing a disgusting second German that has Kawada sell limp for the whole thing, his head suspended on the mat afterwards. Kawada claws himself back using some big kicks and the Gamengiri, a known weakness of Albright. He hammers him with a knee smash and a final Gamengiri for the pin. As stated, this is probably the weakest of the matches these two had together, albeit it's still pretty good. Both men get some blows in and Kawada is able to make Albright's somewhat awkward style go a mile here with his selling and mat work. We get some vicious blows here and it REALLY feels like these two men are actually fighting for dear life with how desperate they grab on holds and struggle for domination. Really understated for a sprint and definitely one you need to check out if you haven't already; it's a neat side-piece to the other shoot-hybrid showings Dangerous K was in. 

Johnny Ace & Steve Williams vs. Kenta Kobashi & Patriot (same day)  

Spoiler

This is a fairly B-show title match, namely focusing around Kobashi getting worked over by the pair, namely Kobashi selling the leg like mad after a military press from Williams tweaks his leg on the way down. Not sure if this is 100% just selling or if Kobashi was legitimately hurt, because it did look pretty nasty. Either way, there's some good heat here involving limb work and just him getting beat down in places. Patriot is still fairly basic in terms of what he can do but he'd dynamic enough in his style that the crowd easily get behind him when he's running wild, and he wrestles pretty safe in general. We don't get a lot of legitimate tag team action if that makes any sense: Ace and Williams mostly stick to just breaking up pins or attacking the other team when necessary, with Kobashi and Patriot having a few double team moves like a crossbody/suplex combination or a assisted powerbomb for close near falls.

There's a really great bit where Williams rushes in to take out a weakened Kobashi, and he only has the strength to shamble around when he tries to pick him up, which gives Patriot the time to recover and attack before he could do anything. The ending stretch (the last 5 minutes) is pretty solid and full of really close near fall instances, namely a top rope backdrop by Williams, a Doctor Bomb and a assisted powerslam. Ultimately Ace manages to get Kobashi away from the ring long enough for Williams to nail a Tiger Suplex of all things for the finish, retaining the tag belts. While the start was a bit eh, this really picked up after a bit and the crowd were hot as anything for Kobashi and Patriot, both men getting respective moments to shine and chants of their own. Ace and Williams played good foils, consistently isolating the other duo and throwing out some big bombs. Ace was the weaker of both men: I'd be lying if I said I didn't believe that Gordy was a better partner for Williams overall: but he holds his own fine enough here. Kobashi was REALLY over by this point, needless to say. Decent title defence but it's clear that Williams is starting to slow down (like, a lot here, he needs to shout on Ace to kick out of stuff at times because he can't get in the ring fast enough) and Ace will get better with the advent of GET and Movement, but he's not there yet. Still, this was quite fun. 

Danny Kroffat & Rob Van Dam vs. Kimala II & Ryukaku Izumida (18.10.1996)

Spoiler

Kroffat and RVD play really good stooges to the more established Kimala/Izumida pairing, with Kroffat quickly tagging out after encountering Kimala and RVD getting belly smashed by him in the corner. This is more of a match played for laughs than actual ring work but there's still some fascinating stuff here like RVD trying for a railing leg drop and missing by a mile and Kimala throwing himself up and around the ring like he's Ric Flair all of a sudden. This still has the trappings of a AJPW undercard match but manages to squeeze out some good work, especially a diving leg drop/splash combination from RVD and Kroffat that looked fantastic.

RVD is a super solid talent for short burst matches like these and always gets a lot out of the crowd. However, they can only do so much to the far stronger pair, and eventually Kimala wins with a particularly stiff looking rolling senton to Kroffat for the three. Not much special but the comedy was fine enough and there's some decent spots for what it's worth. Not a bad showing by any means, especially for AJPW. 

Akira Taue, Dory Funk Jr. & Giant Baba vs. Jumbo Tsuruta, Jun Akiyama & Mitsuharu Misawa (same day)

Spoiler

Shown in full via DVD, abet entrances are cut and there's dubbing for Taue's theme at the end. Bit weird having sworn enemies in Misawa and Tsuruta tagging along, but hey, this isn't exactly high-stakes. Tsuruta does just fine in his role of basically popping the crowd with the usual signature offence, but shows surprisingly half-decent technical work despite some ring rust even if it is mostly rest holds to make sure he doesn't overstrain himself. Dory is.... very limited by this point, but he makes sure to get over Akiyama by staggering to the corner and backing off after a single elbow shot, as well as doing the same with Misawa. Sure, you can say these were just him stalling for the sake of it, but it works in this context as both men are pretty heavy hitters by this point. He's still got the best uppercuts in the game, through, as he nails Misawa with some solid ones. He doesn't have a lot beyond that, but he definitely doesn't bring things down a lot given the slow pace already.

Baba is even more limited, but he's experienced and over enough to get around that with some neat bending of the rules. Misawa is, well, not going to be 100% here either, but he does a really good looking springboard headbutt (crossbody, really, but his head hits Taue more-so than anything else) and hits some nice elbows, as well as having great chemistry with Taue. Akiyama gets some shine as he's able to take the fight to the vets but ultimately can't do a lot. Second half has Taue get knocked around by everyone while his tag partners try their best to keep him in the game: this ultimately pays off as he finally gets a second wind and defeats Tsuruta with a chokeslam while everyone else is occupied. This is a fine enough 6-man match, but not a lot worth checking this out for. This is mostly interesting when guys like Taue, Misawa, or Akiyama are in the ring: everyone else is either too old to work properly anymore, or in the case of Tsuruta, incapable. Not to say that the old guys have some charm in Baba's frequent rule-breaking and humor, or Dory Funk's uppercuts, but this is all they can do, and it shows in their very limited performances. Tsuruta tries to work the best he can but it's obvious he's just not where he used to be, botching stuff like his Scissors Drop, a move he's done for decades. Would say this is probably one of his better bouts during his post-prime run though, even if that's not saying a lot.

Gary Albright & Sabu vs. Stan Hansen & Takao Omori (22.11.1996)

Spoiler

I love and hate Sabu being here: he's a fantastic spot monkey and has some amazing athleticism in him, but at the other end, he's so diametrically opposed to Kings Road as a whole in terms of principle that everyone else kinda has to tip-toe around him and change things up. Albright and Sabu work over the rookie Omori while Hansen mostly stays out of actively being in the match: not a shocker considering his age by this point: but he can still work short, stiff sequences. He manages to fight off Albright for a bit, but Sabu gets a big flying kick off a chair to stun him, which looked pretty good. Outside of that, Sabu basically just sells for whoever he's with, he can't really do proper offence like everyone else can. We also get some great selling from Omori after a German from Albright, swinging in the air for a quick tag but failing to get his balance and falling right back down.

Albright gets his ass beat for most of the second half, with Hansen and Omori brutalising him, namely Omori smashing him with a chair so hard it sounded like a gun shot. Hansen also throws him into a table as well just for the sake of it. Albright finally wakes up with a belly to belly and a hot tag, and we get Sabu doing some decent high-flying, albeit it looks a bit sloppy. Omori tries to get some shots in with some European Uppercuts and a diving elbow, but he gets double teamed and finished off with a pretty awesome looking triple jump springboard moonsault, namely Sabu using Albright's body in replacement of a chair, nails it perfectly for the concluding pin. This is pretty alright: a obvious downgrade in comparison to both matches later in the night, but pretty fun for what its worth, with some early signs of the wild persona Omori would take on and Hansen getting some nice brawling work done. Albright is a bit eh (he can't really "sell" in the conventional way, he's either out of it or back up to his feet, he can't truly articulate pain or exhaustion) but has some nice big moves as the assigned tank of the four and Sabu doesn't doesn't botch at all. Alongside this, the Burning match against these two is also definitely worth checking out. 

Masanobu Fuchi & Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Satoru Asako & Tamon Honda (29.11.1996)

Spoiler

This is the closest we ever get to a Honda/Fujiwara match, and guess what? Their stuff is pretty good. This is a really rare glance into Fujiwara's work in AJPW: usually reserved for the odd show or two while he was freelancing. Even by this point he's clearly not in his prime and looks far older than he actually is (only in his mid to late 40's) but can still wrestle solidly enough, and paired with the still very talented Fuchi you get a pair of grumpy vets who want to stretch the younger guys just for stepping to them. Fujiwara and Honda have a pretty decent technical exchange between the two but it's sadly just a lead in for both men to tag out to their inferior partners. Asako wrestles more of a traditional house-style if that makes sense, not really going for any technical work and more opting for being thrown around by the older pair, namely some tight suplexes and some pretty brutal working holds, namely a double team submission of Fuchi hitting a sleeper + Fujiwara grabbing on a Achilles. There's some weird miscommunication at times; Honda tries to go for a lariat but Fuchi just drops to the floor before he can even hit anything; but mostly this is mostly just relatively heatless action until the finish, which has Asako tapping to the classic Fujiwara Armbar after he counters a flying.... something from the second rope for the win. Pretty boring undercard action for the most part, albeit this gets better when Fujiwara and Honda are together as they click fairly well. It's a shame the two will never meet again proper (outside of a mostly filler 6-man on a Legend card) because FUTEN/NOAH Honda vs Fujiwara could've been a treat. Asako is just beyond plain here and Fuchi mostly plays second fiddle to his partner so we don't get a lot from him. Not nearly as solid as a lot of other matches but a ok look at a potential great matchup that never came to be. 

Giant Kimala & Sabu vs. Maunakea Mossman & Yoshinari Ogawa (06.12.1996)  

Spoiler

There's some weird combinations here in terms of tag teams but I think it works, having Ogawa and Mossman be the native lads trying to handle two very unpredictable opponents in Sabu and Kimala. For some reason Baba and co liked slotting Sabu with big lads. Obviously things slow down a lot when Kimala is working but we also get some pretty amazing spots from Sabu early on with a huge dive from Kimala's back to the outside and a running Poetry in Motion to Ogawa. There's a awesome spot where Sabu deliberately botches a second dive to the outside using Kimala's back by falling onto the ropes, and Mossman uses Kimala as a springboard to hit a rope-hung lariat to Sabu while he's still there, legit one of the most underrated spots I've seen tbh. This is basically the narrative of the match as everyone basically reverts to flipping all over the place with some rest bits in-between of just regular work. Sabu outside of the flips just does rest spots or sells.

He might do something else, like a punch or a actual move, but he's basically on flip mode beyond that. Mossman is still pretty green and beyond the kicks, doesn't really do a lot beyond some risky moves or the basics. Sabu destroys Mossman with a springboard Frankensteiner while he's hung on the ropes and later nails a springboard variation of the same move from the top rope to get the win. This is basically the Sabu show for the most part, which is fine because his spots make for good change of pace from what we usually see. Mossman and Ogawa work fine but nothing amazing, just how you'd expect them to be at this point, with Ogawa still being quite flavourless at this point and time with competent but middling work. Kimala slows things down a ton but gets some decent work in albeit not anything spectacular, Sabu amazingly didn't botch this entire match and was consistently very exciting to check out here. Not a great match but a solid enough showcase for the crazed chair fanatic doing what he does best.

 

Oddities #3: 1997

Akira Taue, Jun Izumida & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Bobby Duncum Jr., Johnny Ace & Steve Williams (02.01.1997)

Spoiler

Clipped by about 3 minutes, basically the starting few minutes are cut here. Duncum shockingly actually does some decent ring work for once, working over Kawada's leg after Williams had softened him up. It's nothing great, but it's stuff he can actually not botch so it's a godsend quite frankly. Ace continues the domination of Kawada using a rope Ace Crusher to keep him stunned, and we get some nice, stiff exchanges between Kawada and Williams in the time afterwards. This is basically Kawada getting dominated for the first half or so, and it's pretty good: everyone gets some nice work done and Kawada's selling as usual is very solid, able to showcase him struggling through but failing to break their offence, as well having the Gaijins talk complete shit in the meantime (Williams cussing out the other team and Ace giving Duncum suggestions on how to make his SDL more painful mid move are small but very good heel gestures) helps to add to the narrative. Izu tries for a hot tag, but gets overwhelmed into a double team by Ace and Williams, who throw in a little diss by stealing Kawada and Taue's chokeslam/backdrop combination for a near fall. Taue eventually gets in there and starts wrecking house, and the match goes into speedrun mode as Taue quickly runs through Duncum with his signature spots before Kawada assists with their own chokeslam/backdrop and Izumida lands a awesome Meteorite for the three, we get some scrapping with Taue and Ace after the bell. This is a perfectly fine six-man for TV, albeit the ending is pretty abrupt. This is also the best Duncum has looked out of everything I've reviewed of him: everything was basic but well-timed and didn't look bad, which is a goodsend because he was atrocious in most of his matches. Everyone else puts in a good but not especially exciting performance, you get what you expect out of them here and the likes of Kawada and Taue are taking it a bit slower. Decent but standard for AJPW cards.

Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Tamon Honda (17.01.1997)

Spoiler

Honda really doesn't have much of a chance of winning but this is a rare occasion to see what he's got to bring to the table against the Ace himself. This starts off with some fairly nothing arm work from Misawa that doesn't really go anywhere before he blindsides Honda with a few elbows from a seemingly clean break, showcasing a rare heelish side to him. This unfortunately seems to be a extended callback to Misawa's days as Tiger Mask II as he throws on a LOT of rest holds here: I get the idea was to get sympathy for Honda by having Misawa dominate in a dynamic manner however this really drags on for a good while, only broken apart by Misawa occasionally throwing out a few elbows. Honda gets some ok work back to even things out, but naturally Misawa overcomes with more strikes, his elbow going over Honda's headbutts. Probably the only spot worth of note is Misawa viciously overshooting for Honda's German suplex and landing right on his head: when people bring up the point of "unnecessary head trauma" in terms of Misawa in particular, this I feel is a prime example This is a no stakes singles bout that isn't really going anywhere yet Misawa regardless feels the need to do such a thing to get the crowd going in what can only really be described as a culture of awful crowd conditioning. 

In all fairness, it actually works: the crowd is woken up and Honda's dynamic jumping knee drop to him afterwards adds to this well. Honda picks things up with some diving headbutts, but gets in a nice powerbomb attempt for a near fall. Eventually he tries his luck too much when he goes for another German, which Misawa is well scouted for by this point. He uses some rough back elbows before trying to end things quick with a Tiger Driver for the three.... which gets a 2. 9. The crowd is ecstatic for Honda at this point, chanting his name, but ultimately a final running elbow is enough to take him out for the three. Man, this would've been so much better if you had NOAH Honda than AJPW Honda, who's a lot more.....well, not shitty. Misawa tries (and succeeds) in getting Honda to be cheered for with his selling and by doing the heavy lifting, but this is such a boring match for the first 8 minutes that this is very hard to recommend to a casual viewer. Honda is really meh at this point and time and his offence mostly isn't particularly convincing next to Misawa's picture-perfect elbows, so his big comeback sequences beyond the aforementioned spots don't get much of a reaction at all. He lacks any sort of substantial base wherein he can really build to his headbutts, so he typically just spams them because he's only really comfortable doing that at this point and time. The finish was good, but the structure of this is way too rest holdy for my liking, so this is getting bumped down. Outside of Kawada/Misawa comparisons to how they chose to work against Honda (Misawa's pacing was more boring but had a better finishing stretch, Kawada had a more interesting premise but the finish sucked) this is just a very so-so matchup.  

Kenta Kobashi & Masao Inoue vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi (16.02.1997)

Spoiler

This is usual Kings Road structuring here as Kobashi and Kawada collide with lower card wrestlers backing them up. This also follows a similar hierarchy as Kobashi dominates Kikuchi while he does his "little engine that could" routine while Inoue and Kikuchi are more equal and vice versa. Kobashi and Kawada have some heated exchanges of strikes, with both men having to rely on their weaker teammates to keep the momentum up: which they usually don't. Kawada in particular is brutal here, kicking and slamming Inoue stiff as anything, but he keeps getting up and getting put down harder every time. Inoue will get spots of advantage here and there after Kobashi assists, but any sustained attempts end in a boot to the face. The lesser moments of the match are, naturally, the ones with Kikuchi and Inoue in the ring: both aren't particularly very good, Kikuchi is pretty banged up and Inoue is, well, Inoue. He does manage to hit a top rope Spider Belly to Belly to Inoue, which was pretty cool. Ultimately Kawada neutralises Kobashi, leaving the younger Inoue to be beat by a Tombstone Piledriver for the pin. This is pretty good when Kawada and Kobashi are in together but is sadly limited by the need for them to babysit their weaker partners, who aren't nearly as engaging. Inoue is dry and Kikuchi is limited for his size and doesn't do a lot worth talking about here. Fine enough for TV but this definitely could've been better.

Akira Taue & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Gary Albright & Yoshihiro Takayama (01.03.1997)

Spoiler

This is the first televised appearance of Yoshihiro Takayama, a former UWF lumbering giant of a man. This is certainly one way to debut: through he was shown in hype packages in the weeks before this, the first time people got to see him in action in a AJPW ring was in a big title match, and the crowd react strongly to him doing his now iconic top rope lean in to the ring. Naturally the match is paced around him in turn, with him completely destroying Kawada with a huge kick to the head after some knees. Not to be outdone, Kawada smacks him across the back when he tries to apply his signature cross armbreaker, which does rattle the AJPW rookie a bit. Albright tries to grapple with Taue but he has none of it after a bit and lands a huge Enziguri to shake things up. This doesn't stop Albright from wrecking him with a belly to belly, however. We also get some heel work from Takayama as he refuses to let go of a leg when Taue reaches the ropes, and gives some stiff slaps. A good portion of the match is the Demon Army just trying to suss out this giant threat, who's taller than Taue and has the striking power to overwhelm them both. We do get some good offence as Taue lands a huge German into a big boot, which is enough for Takayama to tag out again to Albright to recover.

Albright does well, landing a great German of his own on Kawada and a rear naked choke, with Takayama following that up with his own, through he rakes the face more with his and even tries to attack the ref when he tries to break it up. A good bit of the middle section is Taue being down and out, namely because of Takayama's raw power, leaving Kawada to sell a one man show against two beefy foes. Even when Taue gets back in, he's weakened, meaning Kawada has to do some pretty great daring escapes to save him from pins and whatnot. Kawada and Takayama also have a fantastic solo exchange near the end, with the former relying on heavy strikes and the latter using his UWF skills to mangle him into a submission. Takayama is put over strong here, with him kicking out of multiple Gamengiri shots and surviving a horrific Dangerous Backdrop. Ultimately, with Albright occupied and Kawada's ruthless offence, he's able to apply a Stretch Plum for the win. This is a pretty great title match, with very little downtime and a LOT of close shaves and big bombs that you'd expect from both pairs. Takayama is a bit sloppy at points and hasn't quite figured out the steps that he'd have mastered in a few years but he's quite good. Albright isn't quite as versatile but he's fine enough at what he does. Demon Army are great as always, through Taue and Takayama have some noticeable chunkiness between each other. Kawada is amazing, a solid seller, puts over Takayama amazingly just in the first few minutes, and his offence was very solid all-round. Definitely suggest checking this out if you can. 

Gary Albright vs. Mitsuharu Misawa (22.03.1997)

Spoiler

Much like every other match here, this was clipped down for a extended airing of Joe Higuchi's interview and highlights after retiring. However, this is probably the only match where there's enough intact to be actually judged. This is basically a smaller, compact version of the title match both men had last year: Misawa takes sick bumps for Albright, who also tries to ground and pound him into a submission. Misawa has to use the ropes but also some good grappling technique to get out of them, but mainly relies on his elbow strikes to really do the damage needed for bigger bombs down the line. Ultimately this gives him the win after a brutal series of spinning back elbows to finish him off after a Jumbo-killer facelock. Not really much to discuss, but the strikes were very solid and Albright is given just enough leeway to do his ground work that it doesn't seem boring or overly extended, so this was pretty good for a TV bout. 

Johnny Ace vs. Stan Hansen (30.03.1997)

Spoiler

This is a good showcase for Ace to get some headroom against Hansen, but has to endure a brawl with him before he can take the reins. Hansen gets the usual hits in with his wild cowboy style of big and simple blows, and while it isn't as snappy as his younger years, he's still got that charm that manages to make this unique and paced well. Ace is also not the smoothest wrestler around but shows that he can go toe to toe with Hansen with some pretty solid surprise spots out of nowhere, in particular a top rope DDT that gets a near fall, as well as a Ace Crusher from nowhere. Hansen's legendary endurance gets past this and he nails a Western Lariat after pushing through multiple big boots, getting the pin. There's some good action here when both men focus their offence a bit more beyond mindless outside brawling, and Hansen shows that through he's a lot slower, he can still turn up the pace when needed. Pretty damn good for a brawl and real compact on top.

Hayabusa & The Tornado vs. Kentaro Shiga & Maunakea Mossman (02.04.1997)

Spoiler

This is a huge deal for AJPW, as FMW star Hayabusa stars in his televised debut match for the company, working alongside Tornado (a poorly masked Richard Slinger, a minor undercard Gaijin) against Shiga and Mossman. You basically get a regular Hayabusa performance here: some nothing ground work and some good high-flying, with the native pair trying to handle him and failing. For this match, we get a great springboard bulldog, a huge springboard flying kick and a 450 splash for the finish. Most of the middle section of this match is Slinger getting worked over by the pair, which is pretty fine enough but completely heatless, no one cares about the guy or the nothing ground work both men do. It's not like it's bad or anything, Mossman gets some good strikes in and whatnot, it's just kinda nothing.

Not to say that Hayabusa gets off scot free as well, because Shiga lands some spots, namely a top rope dropkick and Tornado DDT, which always looks limp to me. Slinger's mostly not much to talk about but he definitely shows some nice agility to keep up with Hayabusa (or at least try, anyway) and he plays a fine enough second hand here. There's also a really good spot where Shiga almost wins with a rollup after countering a Falcon Arrow, and I'm telling you, the count is so close to three that it's borderline micro-seconds away. Hayabusa later recovers and nails a big brainbuster into 450 for the obvious win. This was a fine enough tune-up match for Hayabusa, through far from his prime in the company and is dragged down a fair bit by everyone else here. Not that Slinger or Mossman are bad, but they are obviously nowhere near his level of talent. I don't like Shiga in general but he did fine enough here. A good debut overall. 

Gary Albright vs. Toshiaki Kawada (same day)

Spoiler

Clipped by about 4 minutes, but this is a short match anyway. This starts from near the finish with a second cut later on, as Kawada no sells a German suplex (the same one that initially had him near death before, but Kings Road philosophy means that he's now adjusted for the move) but a second one is enough to achieve the same effect. Kawada uses his striking to keep Albright away from trying for a third one and hits multiple Gamengiri shots to get a near fall, as well as staggering him in general. Albright tries to fight back with elbows but Kawada cleverly reverses them into a triangle armbar, which forces Albright to tap out at once. This is obviously not a lot to judge, but this was a perfectly fine sprint with both men landing bombs, but Kawada just having that edge of experience to hold out against his foe. Albright gets put over a fair bit here given how much he takes, and Kawada's legendary selling means that this is only enhanced as he grabs the ropes for dear life to avoid his opponent's destructive tendencies. Not nearly as good as their longer matches, but still reasonably solid as a extension of those, a super explosive sprint.

Hayabusa & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Kentaro Shiga & Yoshinari Ogawa (19.04.1997)

Spoiler

This is a pretty good showcase of Hayabusa once more, albeit with the addition of Ogawa and a very green Yoshinobu Kanemaru: not even a year into his wrestling career at this point. It would be unfair to say he's bad here, but he's definitely the weakest in the whole match, given his rookie status and whatnot, which means you get a lot of wrestling for the most part; albeit he does some pretty crazy agile spots off given his lack of muscle mass and height, doing a full 360 on a backdrop and landing on his feet perfectly, so there's definitely signs of the talent he'd be later down the line. Shiga works with him fine and manages to get a good rise out of the crowd by playing more of a heelish role here, not breaking clean and taking pot shots. Ogawa naturally joins in with this by raking the eyes or whatnot as he typically does. This does help the pacing more as it gives more life to Hayabusa's big spots when he does manage to get around these two. Most of his stuff is good: there's a spot or two here that's not the best done but for the most part, it's very solid. Kanemaru's leg gets worked over hard by the duo in the latter half of this, with Kanemaru selling well and some great, dickish action by Ogawa, making Kanemaru reach over to Hayabusa for the hot tag before kicking his arm away.

Both Ogawa and co have some pretty innovative spots to work over the leg as well, rather than just slapping on holds the whole time, making this seem fresh. Eventually Kanemaru makes the big tag to Hayabusa, who runs wild with agile stuff before the duo gang up on him. My only complaint would be that Shiga does a weird flying back kick from the corner that almost misses the target completely, but makes it up with a double Tornado DDT: one from the corner, one from a springboard position. Kanemaru also nails a great springboard moonsault, albeit he needs to grab the ropes to make sure he doesn't overshoot. Probably the highlight of the match in terms of spots was Kanemaru jumping off Hayabusa holding up Shiga to a prone Ogawa on the ground, which reminded me of a crazy mid-2000's TNA X-Division spot. Ultimately Ogawa no sells that after about 10 seconds and nails a backdrop pin for the win while Hayabusa was busy. There's a great bit where Kanemaru is still curled up after the backdrop selling and Ogawa just boots him away lol. This was a pretty great match, a very early sign of the NOAH Jr heavyweight style we would see in the future. Even Kanemaru and Shiga, both not great at this point and time, really step things up here to give some great looking spots while mixing in some timeless "underdog vs heel" narrative and good limb work. If you can, check this out, definitely a highlight for everyone involved and a sleeper hit.

Daisuke Ikeda, Giant Baba & Rusher Kimura vs. Haruka Eigen, Masanobu Fuchi & Masao Inoue (18.05.1997)

Spoiler

The usual Baba six-man including Kimura, Fuchi, Eigen....Ikeda? This is the big AJPW debut of Daisuke Ikeda, believe it or not, known best for his Battlarts work, which was also hyped up on prior shows. He'd only work part-time (and I'm being generous with the term, he barely showed up beyond a few tours here and there despite being a personally huge fan of AJPW) but regardless, this is a big deal to be tag teaming with Baba and co in Korakuen, of all places. This is basically a match of two halves: the regular comedy routines we see from the likes of Eigen, Kimura and whatnot, and then Ikeda just coming in and wrecking people whenever he has the chance. Naturally they have Inoue come in and stink the place up with consistent eye raking and refusing to give Ikeda any space to do his big kicks.

They don't even try to make it out like Inoue could take this guy in a actual fight as he almost taps out the poor guy after he tries for a cross armbreaker, and his blows reel him hard. Fuchi also gets his shots in with some solid technical holds but doesn't get a ton of action against him. It's funny seeing Baba run through the other team while they struggle to handle him, and even Eigen gets his moment to no sell Ikeda's big kicks for a bit before getting put back into place, as well as getting a Giant Swing for like two seconds. Eventually Baba hits a assisted big boot and Russian Leg Sweep to win the match. As stated, this is a bit of a awkward match in that it's half comedy spots and half actual wrestling. Ikeda is really charismatic here and has some great strikes, but his foes aren't really much of a equal to him: Inoue isn't very good and Fuchi doesn't get enough time to really set anything up. It's still perfectly fine but a bit disjointed, and the actual wrestling here isn't particularly amazing either as you'd expect. 

Hayabusa & Jun Akiyama vs. Kentaro Shiga & Takao Omori (06.06.1997)

Spoiler

Shown in full minus entrances. The start of this is mega hot as Omori and Shiga smartly lure Hayabusa into a trap by having him face away from Shiga hitting a top rope dropkick from their corner: the camera isn't focused on him when he does it so we get surprised as well! Lovely bit of trickery there. They both double team him until he nails a springboard moonsault for the big counter. Middle portion of the match cools down afterwards with a lot of technical work but some agile spots as well when Hayabusa gets back in. There's a good bit that has Akiyama just completely destroy Shiga when he tries to outstrike the guy with a boot to the face, and he just snaps: a critical part of his development in general was the idea that under the surface of his usual self was a vicious and aggressive part of him who just beats the shit out of his opponent. Here, we get a small look into that as he completely wrecks Shiga with a slap to the face before slamming him onto the mat outside and boots him hard.

He also beats up Omori with elbows when he tries to get involved. It's great for not only getting over that dangerous part of him that would become more and more prominent over time, but also how far he's come. The visual of Shiga's bloody mouth afterwards is a great touch. Shiga spends the next while getting worked over by the pair until Shiga dodges a spinning kick from Hayabusa that hits his partner, allowing for the hot tag. Shiga takes control in a pretty decent control spot with Omori before he dropkicks Shiga mid top rope dive, taking the advantage. He's more or less out after a Phoenix Splash but Omori saves him at the last second. It's all for nothing through as Akiyama nails a Exploder on Shiga for the win after Omori gets knocked back with a dropkick. Perfectly fine as a TV match but I wasn't too interested in this for the most part. There's a lot of downtime and Omori and Shiga just aren't reasonable threats for the other pair despite their best attempts. Omori also isn't great yet and honestly doesn't add a lot here outside of some nice spots. Not a bad match but I just wasn't feeling this one much beyond Hayabusa and co

Daisuke Ikeda & Takeshi Ono vs. Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Yoshinari Ogawa (29.06.1997)

Spoiler

Shown in full minus entrances. This is a nice Battlarts vs AJPW matchup here, with a interesting clash of styles. Kikuchi at this point isn't the same as he was at the start of the 90's but he's still a decent hand. This is another AJPW attempt at testing the waters by adding in more shoot style into their matches: something which becomes apparent with the addition of so many UWF lads over the next few years. Ikeda is good enough but Ono is a bit meh as he can really only do strikes and sprawls. Ogawa takes control over the latter and uses some sneaky techniques to keep his headlock maintained, mainly holding on to Ono's hair. This devolves into a bit of a brawl before settling back down again. Ikeda and Ogawa don't really click in the ring and there's some noticeably weird pacing moments where both men can't really figure out what to do lol, it's very awkward in general until they go into a strange front headlock after a messy sprawl.

Kikuchi gets some pretty solid offence in but Ikeda is able to recover and take him on with big kicks, but Kikuchi shows some good resilience in being able to take them on just fine. Him and Ono have decent grappling exchange with leg holds until him and Ikeda beat him down with strikes. The pair hit a stiff looking Doomsday Device and Ono gets on a Octopus Stretch, but Ogawa is able to break it up. A attempt to tag him in fails but Kikuchi ducks a clothesline from Ikeda, which is more than enough for Ogawa to drag his dazed self out of the ring while he lands a German suplex combo on Ono for the pin. This could have been a lot better if it wasn't for the plodding start and miscommunications: Ikeda is solid but Ono is noticeably not as well adjusted to a non-pure shoot style and struggles to make his exchanges look convincing. Kikuchi and Ogawa put in a decent enough performance, especially the latter end where Kikuchi is taking tons of abuse and firing back as best as he can, but there's nothing much here that really astounds workrate wise from the pair. Good enough for TV but ultimately not particularly fantastic beyond the ending stretch, which is mostly because Kikuchi is solid at his usual shtick. 

Gary Albright & Steve Williams vs. Johnny Ace & Kenta Kobashi (25.07.1997)

Spoiler

This is a pretty awesome match that sadly gets massively overshadowed by a really good Misawa/Taue bout, which is a big shame because this definitely didn't deserve that. Williams and Kobashi have always had a really great chemistry between each other and we see that in full display here as they go into stiff exchanges, both selling hard for the other in places and really getting a lot out of each other in terms of fire and emotion, and the running narrative of Williams acting like he's hot shit but needing Albright to consistently get involved when Kobashi starts to stir proper and get the advantage is typical, but quite well done here. Speaking of him, Albright is good, albeit his style never really works well for tags: outside of some really good suplexes and double team moves he isn't very dynamic in the ring, especially in his short control sequences, mostly just sitting in holds. Kobashi has his usual big chops and incredible selling: he even makes the rest holds look like world ending attacks when it matters, getting the crowd fired up for a grounded sleeper. His power moves on the pair were seriously impressive: nailing big powerbombs and Germans on these two is extremely hard, regardless of them helping you or not.

Ace is by far the weakest here: while he's fine enough working with Kobashi and his consistent badgering of Williams is quite funny, he's still a very awkward wrestler that can at times look great, but mostly seems to misstep or make his offence look just plain weird looking at times. Thankfully they play to his strengths by having him be consistently having to fight from underneath from the pair instead of leading, which he does far worse at in general. As you can imagine, Kobashi and co basically spend most of the match getting thrown around by the other guys involved, and the comebacks they pull out are inventive and really get the crowd invested in the bout near the end, especially with the false finishes: there's a pretty big one near the end with a last second rescue by Ace that was amazingly well timed. The ending is particularly brutal as Kobashi gets a top rope powerbomb for his troubles for the big pin. While one could say that the guys here weren't "in their prime" like Dr Death or Kobashi (you can tell the pace had slowed since their early 90's stuff) they still pulled out a really great, meaty bout where everyone got some huge shots in, as well as some nice double team stuff throughout. It's definitely not a ground-breaking match or anything but this was really fun.

Tamon Honda & Toshiaki Kawada vs. The Lacrosse & Yoshihiro Takayama (same day)

Spoiler

This is a good buildup match for Takayama v Kawada for a few months away, especially considering they have a strong history with each other as Kawada tapped him out in his debut showing. Let's just face it, no one really cares about Lacrosse and Honda here, they play very much secondary characters to the main beef here, Honda has his moments with the headbutting gimmick but Lacrosse is basically here to do most of the selling and working under to build up Takayama. There's just great interaction between Kawada and Takayama here as he tries to do his usual slow knees to beatdown Kawada like before, but he just SNAPS and starts kneeing and slapping the shit out of him in a fury, so much so that the ref needs to step in and get him back, even hitting a great looking big boot before nonchalantly tagging in Honda right after so Takayama can't even get his own offence in. Takayama beats up Honda because he's not Kawada, but he can still interfere and help out when things get tricky.

A lot of the Lacrosse/Honda stuff is pretty basic but there's a nice spot where he has Honda in a armbar and Honda reaches for the ropes, only for Takayama to knee the dude right in the face multiple times, needing Kawada to help out again. Honda tries to step up to Takayama and a German manages to weaken him enough for Kawada to tease using a Stretch Plum for the tap out again, but Lacrosse gets in the way. The finish has a bit of a brawl before Kawada is able to survive Lacrosse's power moves to catch him in his own Stretch Plum, but not before taking out Takayama with a Gamengiri to stun him into a sleeper by Honda allowing Kawada to get the submission win on Lacrosse. This works fine enough as a stepping stone to Takayama finally getting his hands on Kawada and there's some great, stiff exchanges here between the two of them, some real intensity as well. Lacrosse and Honda are obvious weak links but they step on the gas a bit here and I was pleasantly surprised by how they did here, nothing great but definitely stepped up to the mark. Solid tag bout overall. 

Gary Albright & Steve Williams vs. Jun Akiyama & Mitsuharu Misawa (26.08.1997)

Spoiler

Nine minutes for a Misawa/Akiyama tag sounds like a bad joke but erm, that's what this was lol. It's just a nasty, mean sprint with Albright and Williams running though the two and with spirited resistance from the native side, but ultimately the immense power is just way, way too much to handle. Lovely sub-10 showing. 

Akira Taue, Jun Akiyama & Kenta Kobashi vs. Hiroshi Hase, Mitsuharu Misawa & Toshiaki Kawada (15.09.1997)

Spoiler

For obvious reasons, I can't go over a 60 minute match reliably in detail so this'll be just a generalised overview. Obviously most of the people involved can't really do the big epics to the quality of their early 90's six man shows anymore (especially Misawa, whom while still obviously great, was noticeably starting to pace himself far slower) but this was VERY good, as you'd imagine. Hase being here really shakes things up in terms of interactions: he's a solid hand as well so it helps to have someone who's not as fatigued; seeing him swing Taue like he's nothing is pretty nuts, and having Taue be so dazed afterwards that he goes to the wrong tag corner and gets socked by Kawada is a awesome little spot: him and Kobashi have some really solid exchanges as well, with him selling top notch for his offence. Akiyama is also quite good, being nearly there in terms of hanging with the main guys but not quite hitting the mark: he can go toe to toe with them but he can't properly reel his opponents enough that he can get any proper advantage, namely only getting big shots when his opponent is softened up by someone else or he's stealing their offence, once again enforcing the clear Kings Road hierarchy that AJPW does so well.

Taue positions himself as the big bully as per usual but he gets his ass kicked a lot here when he tries to push his luck, especially against Kawada and Misawa whom are able to get past his offence and really beat him down despite throwing virtually everything at them. Here's a bit maybe 20 minutes in where I think Kawada was legitimately KO'd after a very stiff brainbuster: the guy goes completely limp and everyone else has to cover hard for him, delaying everything. Even when Kobashi tries to throw him in the railing outside, the guy can't even move any, he just falls over. Maybe that's just him selling amazingly well, but it was pretty scary to see regardless, even if they do make it into a great angle by having him try to survive everyone's attempts to finish him off and him doing anything he can to stop such a thing happening. Oh yeah, Kobashi is really great here, either being the big leader and heading up the heavyweights in big strike exchanges, or saving guys like Akiyama from Kawada and the rest of his team by himself. You really get the impression that he's a big deal here with how much he's able to pull out: him and Taue doing a Doomsday Device-lite assisted top rope chokeslam? Throwing Misawa around for a huge and super rare Orange Crush? Fantastic shit in general. The second half with everyone hitting double team moves was also pretty awesome to see, albeit it does turn into a bit of a finish-spamming sequence with everyone hitting big moves over and over until the time limit. In short, don't go into this expecting a perfect match: while this is still extremely solid, it lulls in places and definitely isn't perfect. It's still 60 minutes of some of the best of this era wrestling though.....you can't really moan about it too much. 

Daisuke Ikeda, Satoru Asako & Tamon Honda vs. Giant Kimala, Rex King & Sean Morgan (27.09.1997)

Spoiler

Wasn't featured on regular AJPW TV but shows up as a full match on extended specials. This is also a very rare appearance from Sean Morgan (as apart of the short lived Strike Hard team alongside Rex King, infamous WWF jobber Timothy Well) better known as the infamous Val Venis in the WWF, and I got to say while he's not a big wrestling maestro or anything, he can definitely turn up the gas when he wants to as shown here. Him and Honda have a pretty explosive start that has the crowd responding well to Morgan's big offence: I got to wonder where this guy went, because he definitely wasn't as good here as he was later. Rex King does what he does best: sell and get his ass kicked, namely from Asako and Ikeda, but he does get in some fairly decent stuff on the rare occasion when this isn't the case. Kimala is one of the MVP's when it comes to match formats like these, guy comes in, sells with his usual crazy screams and undervalued mobility, screams his name a good bit and gets a small chant, then leaves. Simple but very effective in these undercard bouts. Ikeda tries to nab the submission win on Kimala but he's just too strong to keep down, and he lands a big top rope splash for the win: yep that's right, Ikeda jobbed to Kimala lol. Not amazing but a reasonable match where everyone had their time to shine. Even Honda manages to look good here, which is a rarity at this point. 

Jun Akiyama & Kentaro Shiga vs. Takao Omori & Yoshinobu Kanemaru (21.10.1997)

Spoiler

Actually not half bad for a undercard! Kanemaru is naturally pretty green still and sticks to his rookie spots but he can move well and he's very fast for his size, with that speed being used to outsmart Akiyama and co at the start which was pretty cool. Speaking of, Akiyama is a pretty brutal guy here, beating down Kanemaru with no respect, even nailing a variation of his arm-clutch Exploder into a backbreaker, which was awesome. Shiga is less impressive, acting more as a lackey that follows Akiyama's orders and gets in with his Kanemaru bullying and isolation tactics, but both of them as a unit get some really solid work done in working him over. There's a great narrative here in that Akiyama continually goes for the pin after almost every single move on Kanemaru: scoop slam? Gotta go for a pin. Double team? Pin again.

His need to consistently underestimate Kanemaru's capabilities despite the fact that the guy keeps kicking out is ultimately what fucks over his advantage as Kanemaru eventually counters and leads Omori to hit him with two Axe Bomber shots, leaving Shiga alone to be worked over for a good bit before Akiyama can recover. Ultimately Shiga takes the pin on Kanemaru after a springboard splash and Tornado DDT. Pretty basic structure but solid stuff from everyone. Omori really doesn't do a lot but his hot tag and attempts to claw back the match afterwards were decent enough. Kanemaru does shine particularly here being presented as a outmatched but gusty rookie that gets some nice high-flying done. All in all, definitely a match worth checking out, and a real interesting look at what will be the future Sternness in action.

Barry Windham & Justin Bradshaw vs. Johnny Ace & Kenta Kobashi (15.11.1997)

Spoiler

 This features the New Blackjacks from their VERY rare excursion to Japan and while they aren't particularly great (through Bradshaw had a awesome Clothesline From Hell even here, he's also a pretty awesome stiff worker when he's allowed to unload on Ace and co) they function fine as foils for the bigger lads to nail the win on. They get over the duo by having Ace be worked over for a minute or so while also having Bradshaw just be a huge problem for Kobashi as he is able to go chop for chop and then some. Windham is.....less dynamic, to put it bluntly. He's past it by a fair bit now and while his stuff isn't bad, it's a lot of downtime in headlocks or basic dirty work. This is paced like a basic Southern tag in that Kobashi is the one in danger for most of this while the heels isolate and do traditionally heel antics, like having feet on the rope, punches, etc. Not everything clicks and there's a fair bit of bad sandbagging on both sides. Ace and Bradshaw have a suprisingly robust exchange near the end that I really quite enjoyed, surprisingly. Bradshaw tries to bring down Kobashi with a bunch of big bombs, but fails and gets a big brainbuster in the process. A Ace Crusher/backdrop combo and a extra Ace Crusher from the rope into a Burning Lariat is enough to put down him for the count while Windham is held up outside. A bit excessive for a finish, sure, but still pretty awesome to see in action. Match is fine enough, but not really anything remarkable, especially for first day action when this is going to be when wrestlers are conserving their energy for later, longer bouts, but this was definitely some of the best action the New Blackjacks EVER had, and it wasn't even in the WWF. Bradshaw actually looked good here.

Giant Kimala & Jun Izumida vs. Hayabusa & Jinsei Shinzaki (15.11.1997)

Spoiler

While this isn't the infamous bloodfest we'll get in 1999, this was still a strong outing by the (fairly underrated) Kimala/Izumida duo. I managed to find a 100% intact version of this from a AJPW compilation of Hayabusa matches shortly after writing this up, funnily enough. For the match itself, it's fairly good: Kimala and Izumida are a sturdy big-man pairing and have a surprising amount of double team action they can throw out that's varied and entertaining. They work more of a heelish role here in shutting down Shinzaki: nothing really special here when they are on top, the usual work you'd expect from the pair is on full display here as they mostly focus on squishing their opponents. Hayabusa comes in for some spots and all of them are as well done as you'd expect from the guy: they also build up Shinzaki's stuff quite well when he's not being worked over by the pair, his rope walk as always looking awesome.

Eventually the more agile pair overwhelm with their agility and focus in on Izumida with some big blows, including a 450 from Hayabusa. Hayabusa lands a big dive to the outside, Shinzaki hits a dragon screw and three flying headbutts on Izumida for the big win. As stated, this is a good start to the Tag League, through it's obvious that this is definitely everyone wrestling in their B-show form, which makes sense given how much more they'd have in store after this. Kimala and Izumida are a perfectly competent mid-card duo and really shine in their heel work: Kimala gets the chance to show off his underrated mobility at times as well. Obviously they are completely overtaken by the other pair's sensational high flying spot work but I don't really think many could match them at this time in general in terms of pure crazy spot work. Good enough watch, especially for people curious about their AJPW stints.

Giant Kimala & Jun Izumida vs. Jun Akiyama & Mitsuharu Misawa (16.11.1997)

Spoiler

Kimala and Izumida can't really have a chance of winning this, but they convince the crowd that they (could) grasp a win, especially given how they performed against a somewhat similar team last time. The match is actually pretty good, with Akiyama cocky against the lower card duo until he underestimates Izumida's strength and gets sent flying around the place. Kimala is obviously not great but Akiyama gets a good reaction out of him heelishly stomping his exposed feet and Kimala's consistent rope work to choke or just lean on the guy while screaming crap is always a joy to watch. It's also weird seeing Misawa legitimately be on the backend of these two but he gets in his obvious comebacks, and he's always one elbow away from getting any lead back. The narrative focuses around Izumida being the weaker of the two, with him consistently losing the lead while Kimala is the clear leader of the duo, landing big shots and using his goofy unpredictability to get the better of the duo multiple times. Despite Kimala being a undercard act played for laughs, Akiyama and co legitimately can't get a read on the lad.

He gets a lot of airtime against the two and he's really on the ball here, with a lot of momentum switching sequences and some fast paced stuff from a guy of his size. He lands like a jumping facebuster at one point when Akiyama has him in a hold and it looks pretty damn rough, but in a good way. There's nothing sensationally workratey about this but it's just a lot of well-done, solidly paced wrestling, which the audience very much buy into at some points. Highlights have to be Izu's nasty Meteorite to Akiyama's head, as well as the duo doing a awesome bearhug/top rope neckbreaker combo. Izumida hits some spirited comebacks but is ultimately overwhelmed and nearly pinned with a top rope dropkick to the back of his head by Akiyama, which was brutal and perfect for a lower-stake finish. This is easily a career highlight of the underdog duo, helped by Misawa and Akiyama being very generous about their bumping and selling. A VERY underrated outing and pretty damn great when it gets going proper.

Barry Windham, Gary Albright & Steve Williams vs. Bobby Duncum Jr., Stan Hansen & Takao Omori (05.12.1997)

Spoiler

 I actually kinda dig Windham tagging with these guys: he fits the M. O. quite well and his insanely stiff slaps to Duncum's face while he's bullying him are incredibly vicious, and he can mix things up with some agility as well with a good looking dropkick. If he wasn't in the Blackjacks already doing fuck all in the WWF, I'd definitely consider having him around on the roster as a reliable lower card act. As you can imagine, Duncum spends a decent bit of this match being thrown around and beat up by the Triangle Albright/Williams duo while his partners try to bail him out whenever they can. They eventually take control by focusing on Windham's arm, giving him a bone for offence, as well as Omori when he gets his usual stuff in as well. Albright gets in with him and very almost takes the guy down with a huge Butterfly Suplex and cross armbreaker but Hansen smoothly rolls in to rake Albright's eyes while he's got the hold on, giving him the time to tag in Duncum again for a relatively good looking top rope shoulder charge: he didn't botch it that time either!

Williams gets in for the finish and basically just wastes Duncum until Hansen can get in again, with a big brawl afterwards. He tries for another top rope move but gets caught into a very smooth powerslam and Doctor Bomb for a near fall: looked great and was very much the highlight of the match. Eventually the interference goes all wrong as Hansen mistimes a Western Lariat and hits Windham instead of Williams, allowing him to take out everyone else and land a backdrop on Duncum for the pin. Very much average all round but some decent action and chemistry makes this better than it would be otherwise, despite the fact that the weakest wrestler here was in for the majority (you know which one) it's smartly worked around so that he's mostly selling for other people. Not bad at all. 

(other years to be added)