90s AJPW is my favorite era of wrestling, flaws and all. I'm fine with admitting that I have a strong bias towards AJPW, as long as it's understood that I feel this way because of personal attachment to the product and not because it's what a "true" wrestling fan/smark is supposed to enjoy. This match was during the Jumbo vs Misawa feud, a month after the match where Jumbo got his singles revenge against Misawa. Being part of an excellent feud filled with top notch matches already gives this match a good aura about it. The match would live up to it.
Kobashi and Taue start it off. Taue kicks innocent Kawada in the corner, which would set off their hatred that builds throughout the match. Moving forward, Kawada tries to suplex Taue on the floor, but he ends up being the one suplexed. This causes Team Jumbo to target Kawada's back until Kawada is able to pull off some kicks and tag in Misawa. Kawada gets his revenge by dragging Taue off and suplexing him on the floor as well, still selling the back a bit. This match had body part targeting and great selling all around. I love moments when Kobashi and Kawada get the uppper hand on Jumbo. There's always a good pop from the crowd when that happens. The crowd in general is wonderful and very into the match. Fuchi contributes nicely here. He's determined to bust Kobashi's face up to prove himself among the bigger wrestlers and ends up making Kobashi's nose bleed. I showed a non-fan this match and he said that Fuchi reminded him of a feisty high school gym teacher determined to assert himself against a student. Perfect characterization.
Kobashi, being by far the least experienced and established of Misawa's crew, finds himself in trouble and desperately needing to make a tag. The crowd is eager for him to succeed and there's some teasing and nearfalls along the way. He finally gets a backdrop on Taue and tags in Kawada. Kawada's pissed and kicks away! Soon after, Misawa and Jumbo meet as the legal men. Misawa's sole purpose in life is to elbow the hell out of Jumbo! From there on we get a few tags from Jumbo's team and Kobashi in for the rest of the match. It's also to the point where the men who aren't legal are fighting and trying to prevent a big move or pinfall against their team. Kobashi gets a good amount of offense in against Fuchi and Jumbo with the crowd loving every second of it, but eventually gets finished off by a Jumbo backdrop. Kobashi is made to look like a million bucks. Everyone looked amazing in their roles. Kobashi and Taue had amazingly debuted only a couple years before this match.
Everything in this match was well-executed and exciting. The pace, to me, is near perfect for this type of match. It moves fast enough to the point it stays exciting the entire time without becoming convoluted. That's one problem I have with multi-man matches sometimes, after a certain point it doesn't matter who is on which team, it's all about moves and spots. This match never had that problem. It has a ton of focus on individual feuds and there's always drama lurking around the corner because of this. There's also a feeling of excitement when a wrestler gets tagged in and gets to take it to his rival. There is no tournament win or title on the line here, but instead the continuation of a great feud with tons of mini-stories and other forms of goodness running throughout to make it a meaningful classic. Such is life in early 90s All Japan
RATING: 9.5 out of 10
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