[1994-03-24-AJPW-Championship Carnival] Kenta Kobashi vs Akira Taue

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

I love that all that really happens in this match is that Taue works over Kobashi's neck, Kobashi makes a big comeback to eat up the crowd, then Taue takes him down again and does the same thing. It's just that over and over followed by a lot of 2.9's in the closing stretch, and it works. The reason it works is because Taue has so many ways to work over Kobashi's neck and Kobashi has so many ways to keep coming back, so they're able to make it seem like they're changing up what they're doing when they're really just doing the same general thing over and over. There are a few lapses from each of them. Taue loses focus and just randomly grabs a half crab for a minute when it has nothing to do with anything, and Kobashi grabs a side headlock after building a big crescendo for a comeback which they work inexplicably for a minute or two mid-match. It's all to set up Taue's big release belly-to-back so they can go back to working Kobashi's neck, but it was an odd way to get there. All that aside, this was really fun. Empty compared to the better All Japan matches, and I've seen better from these two against each other, but I liked their general approach here.

[Kevin Ridge]

Thought it was a lot of fun with some very believable close pin fall attempts. The time limit hits me out of nowhere as I wasn't really focused on the length of the match. Good start for the Carnival as glad to finally get some AJPW singles matches. I've seen very little from this tournament outside the final so looking forward to it.

[Exposer]

The DDT on the floor set up the neck targeting. That was really good. The chokeslam near falls were great in this. Kobashi's comeback was excellent and I loved his vicious chops in the corner. There were a couple of things I disliked. The random half crab and side headlock take down were mind boggling and served no purpose in the match. Plus, I hated that they did two double clothesline spots. I can't complain too much though because everything else was your typical great AJ 90s singles match.

[soup23]

The least of the 4 corners match ups but always a good match nonetheless. I liked the buildup in this match and Taue worked a great varied attack to get it interesting. Kobashi really played the emotional heart strings well here too with timed comebacks and his facial expressions. I thought the match sort of faltered after the Kobashi moonsault and I was not crazy about Kobashi kicking out of three nodawas. Taue's clotheslines had a certain crispness to them that seemed different also.

[PeteF3]

Of all the other 4 Corners Matches, you can immediately point to a signature match or series of matches. Kawada/Misawa is obvious. Kawada/Taue had their epic early '90s bouts. Kawada/Kobashi has the two hour draws. Misawa/Taue has the broken-face match. I couldn't begin to tell you what the "signature" Kobashi/Taue match is. This is a good one, but it's really sort of a "filler" match after they'd been building a rivalry between the two in the various tags before this. Almost a total American-style layout, with Taue as the dominant heel and Kobashi as the plucky underdog. That even extends to the moves they do, from the double-clothesline spots (that I'm pretty sure I've never, ever seen in AJPW before this) to Kobashi doing all the flash-pin type stuff. The criticisms here are all valid, as this sort of peters to the draw with Taue having run out of things to do. And I was secretly hoping for something a little more epic or heated given what these two had done against each other recently. But it's a really solid bout in any case and a particularly good performance from Taue.

[Zenjo]

Kobashi and Taue had really good singles matches on 7/24/96 and 9/11/98, although you wouldn't regard them as classics. They may have had a better encounter that I've forgotten about. 21:30 of the draw was shown here. I'd be surprised if the JIPpage was beneficial. The execution was sound. The move selection was generally good apart from a few weird choices that people have pointed out. The structure was the biggest problem with the draw being heavily telegraphed. They never fully grabbed my attention. Taue worked over his opponent for a while before Kobashi came back. There was only one convincing near fall down the stretch. Pretty good, but I wouldn't be surprised if it misses out on my top 100 for the year.