[1997-10-11-AJPW] Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue vs Kenta Kobashi & Johnny Ace

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Kobashi has his right leg taped up and Kawada and Taue target it methodically. The work is solid and the last 10 minutes of nearfalls bring it up a notch. Good basic wrestling match with a hot finishing stretch. Ace pins Taue to set up their match in 10 days.

[Kevin Ridge]

Having your thigh wrapped up due to injury might be the worst part of body going up against Kawada. Ace has a Flair type haircut. Thought good portion of match was on the dull side. Ace’s cobra clutch suplex doesn’t look right on a guy like Taue.

[soup23]

This started out methodical but interesting with the basic arm work on Ace and of course the leg work on Kobashi. The final sequence was hot and I thought Ace especially looked very competent hanging with the other three and being fiery with Taue. Little touches like some punches to the stomach and other things make the match a good one to a very good one. Finish set up the big show well.

[PeteF3]

Slow build as the Demon Army methodically tear away at Kobashi's bad knee, but it builds well to a hot closing stretch where Kobashi successfully neutralizes Kawada after a pretty awesome exchange of kicks and lariats. That leaves a wounded Taue against Ace--I'm assuming this is the biggest pin of Ace's career to this point, as I don't recall him getting a direct pin over one of the Corners before. A fun match that had me guessing a few different times as to what would happen next.

[Zenjo]

I liked the restrained beginning as both teams worked their way up to speed. The middle stages featured a Kobashi FIP segment with his pre-injured leg. Ace coming in like a house o' fire after the hot tag had me marking out. Johnny is the fucking man. My enthusiasm was not shared by a really tough crowd. They held it back from being anything more than a good match. It was an occasion when less would've been more down the stretch. Most of what Taue vs Ace did was sloppy. The American scored the minor upset victory.

[Richeyedwards]

GET are tag champs at this point having won the belts in an untelevised match 7 days prior but this is non-title.

Kobahsi comes into this match with his right leg heavily taped up and as you would expect that plays a large part in the match as the army and in particular Kawada attack it at every opportunity.

The nearly ten minutes that are devoted to Kobashis leg being worked over is the best stuff in the match as both Kawada and taue twist him up and stomp and kick at his leg in a painful looking section. Ace takes the position of hot tag and he does it very well, flying around recklessly.

The crowd were dead for much of the match which was a problem but they eventually got into the finish with ace going up against Taue after Kobashi took himself and Kawada out with a massive lariat. The finish sets up a match on the upcoming budokan show and keeps Kobashi unbeaten but looking a little vulnerable going into his 25th anniversary match vs Misawa. ***3/4