[1996-11-21-AJPW-Real World Tag League] Kenta Kobashi & The Patriot vs Gary Albright & Sabu

[PeteF3]

A favorite of Dynamic A. There's not much reason for this to work considering the variety of styles, but it does. More 'fun' than 'great'.

 

[PeteF3]

Sabu in AJPW is an utterly bizarre sight. Teaming with Albright is more bizarre yet. And him working spots with the Patriot isn't something you see every day, either. This has a very tentative beginning with a lot of resets and tag-outs and it's definitely one of those matches that's best viewed as JIP, but it builds into a pretty hot closing stretch with some fun spots along the way. Tables and springing off chairs is a non-starter, it seems, so Sabu improvises by using Albright as a springboard, as they do the Hardyz' Poetry in Motion a full 4 years beforehand. Sabu & Albright mesh surprisingly well as a team with some other cool double-teams that make use of both guys' disparate styles. Patriot is working with one arm here which brings a bit of psychological focus to this--I don't know if it's a legit injury or not, but he does a primo job of acting like it is. Albright pins Kobashi in a shocker of a result. Not sure I'm crazy about your Triple Crown champ jobbing to somebody on Gary's level, but the double-round-robin format allowed for a bunch more upsets than you're used to seeing in the RWTL. Fun little bout that constantly threatens to run off the rails, but it holds together.