AJPW 4/18/1991
I went into this thinking I’d probably watch a few matches here and there across a variety of events, but no. This card is stacked and I’m going to watch all that is available to me at this moment.
Danny Kroffat vs Kenta Kobashi
A fun little time, they’re not quite on the same page, but there’s still a spark and the crowd’s into it, because both of these guys have several large muscles.
!DIRTY DEEDS/PARADIGM SHIFT for the win from KenKob, to solidify his status as Top Hunk. **1/2
Akira Taue vs Toshiaki Kawada
Their match in January was heated, bloody and just a good time all around. Kawada may have won it, but since then Taue has picked up the pinfall over Kawada in a tag match. What will happen!?
Well, Taue bleeds again. He also had the crowd behind him for the most part – people love the big goof. I particularly love how abruptly he elevates the violence when he gets the chance. Kawada may want to take it slow, do a tie-up, maybe a headlock, some armbars – not so much for Taue. He kicks Kawada in the face every chance he gets and really gets things moving. After Kawada crawls out of the ring to escape a Scorpion Deathlock, Taue immediately follows him and hits a HEAVY powerbomb on the floor. The crowd loves it, Kawada seems like he might be in trouble. This was a Big Move~.
HOWEVER, I am going to criticize Toshiaki Kawada. I hate it and it hurts, but here goes.
Kawada’s back in the ring by the count of 5 and counters a charging Taue with a beautiful jumping high kick to the face. They’re both down briefly, Kawada makes it to his feet first, they move on. It was all fine, but I can’t help but think that if he’d stayed down a bit longer before returning to the ring, that big kick to the face would’ve been a lot Bigger. Oh well, he’ll get there. And what do I know?
Taue survives Kawada’s powerbomb due to a referee Wada Kyohei unintentionally taking a shot to the face. Kawada exposes the bare floor outside the ring and looks to hit him with another one out there, but Taue counters and hits his little chokeslam thing (Nodawa Otoshi?) which OBLITERATES Kawada. The ref rings the bell before he can even count to five, Taue wins via ref stoppage, and Kawada needs to be carried out by about a dozen of his colleagues. Ooooohh, boy. I don’t know if this was legit or not, but I’m sold either way. MORE WRASSLE, PLEASE. ***½
World Tag Team Titles – Terry Gordy & Steve Williams (C) vs Stan Hansen & Danny Spivey
“Hot” Danny Spivey is precisely this excited about getting the hot tag:
A wounded Stan Hansen fighting from behind to carry his out-matched team to a title win, ya love to see it. Stan bled and fought and bled and fought until, finally, the heels’ dirty referee – distracting tactics ended up costing them their belts.
Real fun. Look at Danny. ***1/2
Triple Crown Championship – Jumbo Tsuruta © vs Mitsuharu Misawa
Aw man. I never heard a whole hell of a lot about this one, which I assumed meant it wasn’t the all-timer that their two matches from 1990 were – and it wasn’t. But it was still very good!
Pretty standard sort of build to the home stretch, which had a bunch of great nearfalls. Misawa was able to fight back a bit between Jumbo Backdrops at the end, but Jumbo knows not to take him too lightly. It’s a hell of a battle and one that ends with an emphatic, decisive ending. Jumbo still reigns. ****
