This was for Taue and Kawada’s AJPW World Tag Team Titles.
On paper, it’s a day before Taue’s shot at the Triple Crown after winning the Champion Carnival the month before. On paper, it’s an obvious build up match. Everyone knows about Misawa and Taue at this point. They’ve been fighting for almost six years since Taue betrayed his generation. Taue is smarter than everyone else but Misawa always has the big elbow to bail him out no matter how much Taue seems to see him coming in an offensive sense, while also having a deeper arsenal to pull from and never needing to rely on one thing in the way Taue sometimes seemed to in the past. It’s a great story and one still with a lot of road to run on, but it’s not a new one. Most importantly, it’s one better saved for the next night.
Thankfully, one of the best things about 1990s All Japan is that they rarely ever treat tag matches, Tag Title matches especially, as just exercises in the purely obvious. Instead of going to that old well, this one is way more about Jun Akiyama. Two and a half months earlier, Jun challenged with big brother Kobashi as his partner, and did really well. Unfortunately, Kobashi wasn’t ever really able to make a stop and get in there himself, so Akiyama got stuck alone and was slowly just run down until the end came.
In this match, Jun Akiyama learns from the failure in March and comes not only more prepared, but with a much better tag team partner.
Just having Misawa doesn’t make it immediately easier though, and I really really appreciate that, and how they approached this.
First off, mechanically (as can often get lost when discussing these stories and approaches they take to tell them), this is lovely once again. Kawada is obviously pristine, but everyone else does so well. Akiyama walks the line perfectly between being sympathetic but having the energy and force needed to bring it when the match asks for him to do that as well. Taue and Misawa aren’t asked to do quite as much, but each does it so well. Taue portrays an indignation at Akiyama’s survival that pairs perfectly with Kawada’s anger. Misawa is in his element, asked only to dish out offense and serve as a measuring stick for everyone else. His offense rocks, he’s fiery and energetic, and the quiet calm has a way of naturally highlighting how everyone else in the match is not like that at all, each for their own wildly different and interesting reasons.
In March, Akiyama humiliated Kawada. He still got pinned by Taue in the end, but it was a harder win for the HDA than it should have been given the inexperience and failings of the Kobashi/Akiyama duo. It’s the sort of thing that nobody REALLY remembers given the ending, but that a maniac like Kawada has clearly been thinking about non-stop since then. Every time he’s in the ring with Jun Akiyama, Kawada is out not only for blood, but also out to put the entire process on display. It’s not only kicking and slapping around Akiyama whenever possible to try and punish the kid for having a breakout at his expense, but wanting to put it in front of the world and being a little showier than usual. Kawada isn’t usually the sort of wrestler to make such a show of things, but he is here, and it is a DELIGHT.
The great part about the performance isn’t just how angry and mean it is, but also in how it doesn’t actually matter much as a result of a.) how good Akiyama is & b.) the different that Misawa makes.
Early on, Kawada tries to get Akiyama into his kind of a match, but instead of slapping and kicking with Kawada when pressed, he steals both from Misawa’s playbook against Kawada and Kawada’s playbook against everyone else by hauling off and just punching Kawada as hard as he can right in the jaw. Poor Toshiaki just CRUMBLES down, and gets out of there, once again humiliated against Akiyama. Similarly, Taue tries to get in on the act like he did in March to help his buddy out, only for Akiyama to almost immediately beat him in the same way he almost got Kawada at the start in March. When they take control of the kid, it’s very obviously the work of guys who have felt deeply emasculated by this rookie, and it’s such a different display from the kind of quiet confidence and more assured aggression they’ve displayed for the last three years. It’s also the kind of work that opens them up much moreso than they’d been before, and allows these pockets for Akiyama.
Had that not happened though, one still gets the sense that Misawa would have opened them up anyways.
As soon as Misawa makes his first saves and runs in the match, it’s very clear that he’s a better partner for Akiyama in this moment than Kobashi was. Beyond that he has a greater stopping power than Kobashi did, he’s also infinitely better about separating Taue and Kawada. He removes the double team that Akiyama was constantly faced with in March, and also gives him much more room to breathe when saving. Without even mentioning the hot tags and how they’re both effective and exciting, he’s just a much better helper.
Even when they can shut down Misawa and bring it back to Akiyama, it takes them so much more of an effort to do that, and it makes all the difference in the world.
Akiyama goes to Kawada’s historically bad knee to open him up at the end. In these moments, with Kawada already hindered, Misawa can help set Akiyama up for the big win in the exact same ways that he did it for Kobashi in the famous 1993 Real World Tag League final under very similar circumstances. Taue and Misawa cancel each other out, and with Misawa softening him up and a hurt knee, Kawada gets humiliated yet again. Akiyama drops two Exploders in a row on him, the famous big knee, and with a third Exploder, Akiyama not only wins his first major title, but gives Kawada one of the more humiliating moments of his career in the process.
It’s a beautiful end to the story, not only getting Akiyama this major win, but making it feel as good as possible and as legitimate as possible without going overboard. This match displays a perfect kind of balance, making it not only feel great as Akiyama gets revenge for the bullying all match, but also uses all of that to craft the big win in a way that feels genuine. Kawada and Taue make the mistake of trying to make a show of it. It’s not Akiyama’s win alone, but when the idea of “Akiyama’s win” is still such a big deal, that doesn’t matter much at all.
An incredible match, and improvement on the match from March in every way.
HANDWERK 