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[1991-01-15-AJPW-New Year Giant Series] Toshiaki Kawada vs Akira Taue


Loss

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Brother Kawada, get rid of these theme quick. But never mind that, we got a wild match. The brawls on the outside was something I never expected. Taue gets busted open, Kawada hurts his knee. And they do a great job of matching that intensity when they get into the ring. Taue is the king of the most simplest of offence, using chokes, sumo slaps and throwing heads into the floors, as well as the work on the leg. He was awesome in the match. Kawada’s selling was pretty great. Both in the match and post match. He made Taue look like a killer in this too. ****

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  • 8 months later...

Now this is a fight! The pro Kawada crowd does nothing to faze Taue as he rushes Kawada before the bell and this bombfest is underway. Taue is bloodied, but it sets him off and he goes after Kawada's leg. This doesn't feel like any other AJPW match for it's era. It feels like it would of fit right in with the Hansen/Funk AJPW brawls from a decade earlier. 

★★★¾

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  • 1 year later...

Akira Taue vs Toshiaki Kawada - AJPW 1/15/91

It has been a while since I did one of these; lets see if I can still do it. In the context of watching nothing but 2021-2022 wrestling since Mid-November, this comes off so awesome!

Apparently, there was some build to all this hate besides this being a battle of the second bananas in the Misawa vs Jumbo feud. There was a very languid, tepid battle royale going on while Taue and Kawada had a ferocious brawl in the stands. You could tell there was some bad blood. They were out to settle it here. Taue immediately bullrushes Kawada knocks him off the apron hard onto the railing. That spot sets the tone for the rest of match: Total War. I loved how relentless Taue was in this match forcing Kawada to work the entire match from underneath and put on one of his gritty, scrappy performances to best the larger, ferocious Taue. Also, the fact the crowd was right top of the action added to that claustrophobic feel. Taue was suffocating Kawada as he right on top of him never letting up on offense. Great use of Taue to put over this relentless full court press. Kawada comes out hobbled from Taue just ramming a chair into his knee in the crowd. This is nuts!  Kawada in desperation was able to grab his leg at one point and ram his head into the railing busting him open. This was such an explosive fury from Kawada! However, Taue catches one of Kawada's kick and in one fluid motion whips that leg into the guardrail. I popped huge for that. Taue zeroes on that knee with fierce tenacity: wicked kneecrusher onto table, wrapping it around the post, chairshots to it. I love that Taue sort of realizes in a leg lace or a toehold Kawada is able to kick him in the head really hard so he tries the figure-4, which will tie up that free leg. Excellent psychology, I also like one time when Kawada was wailing on Taue trying to get out of a hold, so Taue just mounted him and reigned down heavy blows. One of my favorite moments, is when the camera zooms in on Taue trying to pick up Kawada and all of sudden you just see a flash of yellow connect with Taue's head. Kawada is just fucking tremendous from underneath with all these kicks. I love how they work in Taue's size as he is able to reverse a press slam off the top and a powerbomb by just landing on top of Kawada. If you want to see a really good, heated, intense strike exchange watch these two pop and react to each other. None of this silly macho stand around shit. They just lay into each other with elbows, slaps and headbutts and try to knock the other the fuck out. I actually bit on the powerbomb reversal finish as Taue really crashes down on top of him. If Kawada has kicks, Misawa elbows and Kobashi chops, then Taue should have kept the headbutts as they look way better than any of his punches or forearms. He did have some great elbows in this match. Kawada's out of nowhere Axe Bomber for the finish was the perfect end to this war. Taue unleashed his entire arsenal and Kawada had to hit that sudden bomb to secure the victory. I will echo all the other comments; All Japan could have added a lot of variety by sprinkling some short 10-15 minute brawls with the 30+ epics. Kawada and Taue brought the hate in this match and this is one of the all-time best blood feud brawls. I had seen this before, but loved it all over again on rewatch and just wanted to spruce up my original review. Dont sleep on this one! ****1/2

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What a bloody brawl! From start to finish this match is very scrappy with Kawada and Taue not slowing down at all really having a great sprint with both men using hard hitting strikes trying to take the other out. Kawada showing why he is called "Dangerous K" as he fights through Taue's attacks on his knee and Taue was great adjusting to the ways he attacked Kawada's knee. Couple that with the usage of blood that was rare at this time in big All Japan matches and a finishing stretch that is as intense as the rest of the match before it and you have one of the best non-Hansen brawls in All Japan.

****1/2

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