In 1990 Jumbo Tsuruta and Mitsuharu Misawa were having arguably the greatest feud in the history of AJPW. Add some more than capable hands into the mix like Kenta Kobashi, Toshiaki Kawada, Akira Taue and Masanobu Fuchi and it is no wonder this match earned Dave Meltzer’s celebrated 5 star rating.
The parts of the first half of the match flow into one another with incredible ease. At one point Kobashi is laying in some overwhelmingly stiff shots and before you know it his partner Kawada finds himself on his back outside of the ring after some equally stiff shots and a slam.
The best portion of this bout is when Tsuruta’s team is able to isolate Kenta. I cannot put a number on the amount of tag team matches I’ve seen in my life, but I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that Kenta may play the best Ricky Morton I’ve ever seen in this match. At roughly the halfway point Jumbo hits Kenta with a neck breaking lariat. When Fuchi is tagged in he takes Kenta to the outside and even uses a chair on him! Kenta soon gets a busted lip and is bleeding hard way all over the place. Before he is saved Kenta takes another obscenely powerful lariat from Jumbo at which point it looks like the match has to be over. The only downside to this performance is that after Kenta finally reaches Misawa and Kawada he gets back in the ring way too quick for a guy who was just selling like crazy, but this all makes sense by the end.
The match wraps up when Kenta gets back into the ring for a concluding assault by Jumbo during which Jumbo hits a third lariat, a powerbomb and the lid on the coffin, a belly-to-back suplex.
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