BRM Reviews AJPW Real World Tag League 1998: Day 16

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Big Red Machine
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BRM Reviews AJPW Real World Tag League 1998: Day 16

Post by Big Red Machine » Dec 5th, '21, 00:23

AJPW Real World Tag League 1998: Day 16 (12/5/1998)- Tokyo, Japan


Welcome back to BRM’s Monthly “This Day in Wrestling History” Review Series! After the abomination that was last month’s Survivor Series 1992.I needed to get as far away from the slow and cartoonish 1992 WWF as possible. Some of you might remember that the last time I had this issue, I went to early EVOLVE. Today I’ve chosen something equally different in style and presentation, but I’ve traded a chunk of the temporal distance away for some geographic distance. This month we’re going all the way to Budokan Hall in Tokyo for All Japan’s Real World Tag League 1998: Day 16.


MAKOTO HASHI & YOSHINOBU KANEMARU vs. NAOMICHI MARUFUJI & SATORU ASAKO- 6.75/10
Everyone looked good. Even at this early stage of his career, Marufuji had a palpable charisma about him. We missed the finish because we were watching Marufuji dive onto Kanemaru, but other than that, this was a fun opener.

KENTARO SHIGA & MASAO INOUE vs. THE HEADHUNTERS- 5.75/10
Good big-men vs. little-men stuff, and they definitely ended at the peak with one of the giant Headhunters hitting a moonsault.

GIANT BABA, RUSHER KIMURA, & MITSUO MOMOTA vs. HARUKA EIGEN, MASANOBU FUCHI, & TSUYOSHI KIKUCHI- 4.5/10
Lots of gaga and old men doing okay wrestling. This match went on for SIXTEEN MINUTES, which is about twice as long as it should have gone. This would turn out to be Giant Baba’s final match, as he would die of stomach cancer early the next year. Momoa cut a promo after the match.

GARY ALBRIGHT & GIANT KIMALA vs. TAMON HONDA & JUN IZUMIDA- 6/10
Honda’s back got worked over, including taking a bump on the exposed floor. Izumida got the hot tag for a short comeback, but he tapped out to Albright in relatively short order.

MAUNAKEA MOSSMAN & TAKAO OMORI vs. MOVEMENT (Bart Gunn & Johnny Ace)- 7/10
Good action with a finish that looked absolutely tremendous.

MASAHITO KAKIHARA, YOSHINARI OGAWA, & MITSUHARU MISAWA vs. YOSHIHIRO TAKAYAMA & THE HOLY DEMON ARMY (Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue)- 7.5/10
Kakihara’s shoulder was taped up. Misawa and Kawada had tremendous chemistry here. Shocking, I know. Everyone else looked good, too, but those two were… well… those two. Misawa pinned Takayama, and Kakihara had some words for Takayama after the match. Based on his body language and the fact that they started teaming together the next month, my guess is that he asked Takayama to be his new tag team partner.

REAL WORLD TAG LEAGUE FINAL: Stan Hansen & Vader vs. Burning (Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama)- 6.75/10
Vader looks a lot less intimidating without his mask on.
They did a really cool spot where Kobashi countered a Hansen Powerbomb by essentially jumping with the move and sending Hansen falling backwards with Kobashi on top of him, landing in a what was essentially a somersault senton. Kobashi also gave Vader the biggest, most impactful, Russian Leg Sweep I’ve ever seen.
This was disappointing. I probably shouldn’t have expected so much out of Stan Hansen in 1998, but I figured that him and Vader just wailing on two excellent babyfaces like Kobashi and Akiyama would make for some good drama, but it just didn’t work here. It just didn’t click. Then we got the comeback, which was pretty darn short for a situation where these two monsters had been pounding on and squishing the babyfaces for what felt like fifteen minutes.


This was a very disappointing show from All Japan. Hell, I’ll even go so far as to say bad, given how big of show this was and the fact that the main event didn’t deliver. Another in the long list of misses I’ve come up with in this series…and I’m not optimistic about next month’s selection, either.
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

Upcoming Reviews:
FIP in 2005
ROH Validation
PWG All-Star Weekend V: Night 2
DGUSA Open the Ultimate Gate 2013
ROH/CMLL Global Wars Espectacular: Day 3

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