There was a time when I would have said that this was not only a great match, not only one of the very best matches of this year, but a near-masterpiece and one of the best matches of all time, full stop.
Upon revisitation, it is decidedly not that.
I think there’s a fair argument to be made that this isn’t even the best Super Generation/Tsuruta-gun six-man tag of the year, and certainly not the peak of this rivalry from a quality standpoint. With the added context of all the other matches in this feud up to this point as well as a broader understanding of the year at large, you can see the flaws much more clearly; for one, the match takes on a feel of formlessness throughout the first half, with a lot of back and forth action that remains thrilling due to the guys involved but doesn’t push a certain concept or narrative for a watcher to pick up on. For two, there’s a faint sense of redundancy to the bout that’ hard to shake off, as if this doesn’t really progress or advance the rivalry the way you’d hope a match of this magnitude would.
With all that being said, this still fucking rules.
Misawa remains a little distant and reserved compared to the rest, but technically he is still a marvel to watch. He has such a great sense of timing to all his offensive flurries, his comebacks, and pinfall saves, and gorgeous execution on all of his moves as well. He is downright frenetic at points, like when he unloads on Jumbo in the corner with his elbows, and it’s that confident kineticism that keeps him feeling like such an integral part of an otherwise hateful and violent feud. He isn’t asked to do as much as his two partners here, but he feels at all times like an unflappable and at times unstoppable presence that can turn the tide of the battle at any moment; he damn near just runs straight through all of Taue’s attempts to stifle him.
On the flip side, while this isn’t the most venomous Jumbo performance of the lot, but he still packs a monstrous punch when he wants to, just blasting the likes of Kobashi and Kawada with lariats and those trademark elbows to the bodywhile his opponent’s on the ropes. And, ever one to press an advantage when given to him, he even changes it up and lands those elbows to the small of Kawada’s back after his partners worked it over. He is again electric whenever he’s in Misawa’s vicinity, but he is downright vicious when targeting Kobashi, immediately sniffing him out as the weakest link in Super Generation and responding appropriately by trying to break his face.
While Jumbo is cruel here, though, it’s once again Fuchi who’s the most sadistic of the Tsuruta-gun team. Tsuruta might have started the attack on Kobashi’s face, but it’s Fuchi who really seals the deal by slamming that face into the guardrail and then blasting Kobashi with an unhinged chair shot. The glee with which he holds Kobashi’s head up just to punch him directly in his broken, bleeding nose is just as palpable through the screen as it is to the fans in attendance, which only helps the crowd rally around the young face in peril more.
Meanwhile, Kawada and Taue are arguably the best pairing in the entire match. They maintain the heated friction of their interactions in the September tag, even calling back to that match through Kawada attempting to suplex Taue onto the exposed Korakuen Hall pavement only for Taue to reverse it on his former partner. Even when they aren’t both the legal men you can feel the hate between the two, exemplified by when Taue cheap shots Kawada off the apron early or when Kawada tees off on Taue with kicks to the back of his head before exacting revenge and suplexing him on that hard pavement he was familiarized with earlier.
Even beyond that pairing, though, this is one of the best Taue performances to date. He does occassionally take his eye off the ball a moment or two which gives his opponents unneccessary chances, but he stands out as surprisingly sharp and aware in this match, rushing his opponents as they tag in so they can’t build any immediate momentum. He capitalizes on just a few seconds of distraction on Kawada’s part when he pushes the referee off him, nailing him down with a lariat, and even after Misawa is unfazed by Taue’s quick instincts he just about wallops a running Kobashi with a lariat off a hot tag. Additionally, he takes to his partners’ malicious energy quite well, targeting Kobashi’s hurt face with cruel boot rakes and driving him nose-first into the mat with a running bulldog.
Kenta Kobashi, arguably the lowest man on the totem pole in this match, also makes the greatest impression. He does not have the clinical precision of Misawa, the brains of Taue, the fire and rage of Kawada, the viciousness of Jumbo or the sadism that defines Fuchi’s brand of wrestling, but Kobashi stands out here by how much heart he shows in the face of villainy. It’s his sections of agony and suffering that provide this match the sense of purpose that it felt like it was lacking early on, and for as good as the guys giving the punishment are in that aspect, Kobashi is every bit as great conveying the pain.
Kobashi is fucking tremendous in this match in the face-in-peril role, eating so much shit but refusing to not fight back whenever he gets a chance to. There’s a moment where he’s clawing his way to his corner before the inevitable cutoff that kind of shocked me in how perfectly he manages to capture that babyface essence without going overboard with it. The Korakuen crowd is hot throughout the entire match, but it’s in these sections with the loud “KO-BA-SHI” chants that it felt like they were the most invested, seeing the underdog kick and scratch his way out of this immense attack, fighting his way out of one of Jumbo’s killer backdrop drivers to reverse it into a crossbody and a nearfall. The match works, the finishing stretch works, because of how well Kobashi works as the proverbial weak link here, to the point that by the time he eats the final backdrop driver for the three count, it still feels like he proved something in defeat.
These matches can and will improve beyond how great they already are. As it stands, though, it’s still some of the best, most engaging wrestling from anyone all year, another piece of evidence to point to this being the best feud anywhere in wrestling in all of 1990, and a reminder of just how unstoppable All Japan felt at this moment in time.
Rating: ****1/4
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