Akira Taue & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Kenta Kobashi & Mitsuharu Misawa

[9.0] "Another great Pillars tag, but by this point they've booked this match so many times, that it starts to feel less special. Also, hard to live up to one of the best matches of all time, which they had just 6 months prior. Still telling of the insane chemistry though, given that this was a great match regardless. A lot more of a trainwreck than their other matches, not necessarily in a bad way. Guys just kept coming in and beating the shit out of whoever was in the ring, and the tags didn't matter as much. Misawa yet again took a chokeslam to the floor, poor guy must've set a record in '95. There was some arm work on Kobashi, but it didn't amount to much. There was a cool callback to Misawa's orbital injury as well. Finally, SGA manage to isolate Taue and put him away for a feel-good win to close out the year. ****1/4"

[8.0] "This is the final meeting of these two teams before Misawa and Kobashi are assigned new tag partners, and it has to be said that the audience is clearly ready for some variety - Budokan is still sold out, but the bell-to-bell fever pitch of their previous encounters is well and truly gone. Despite the decision to disband SGA's top tandem, Baba sees fit to give them the nod over the beleaguered (soon to be ex-) tag champs here. This is a scrappy affair with loads of illegal interventions from the guys on the apron. The opening five minutes sees them going all out with potential finishers, before they settle down into the usual workover segments on Kobashi and Taue. From there, Misawa and Kobashi really just plough on to claim their third RWTL on the bounce with very little bother ***3/4"

[8.0] "This is a match that is kinda slept on by people, it's the last match ever between the pillars, under the classic line-up of Taue/Kawada vs Misawa/Kobashi. The Holy Demon Army had some pretty big victories recently against Misawa and Kobashi, like the immortal match in June, and a victory inside this RWTL, and we also had two 60 minute time-limit draws, totaling four matches and no victories for SGA so far in 1995, so they were obviously hungry and trying at all cost to end this drought. Like I've said, this was for the RWTL finals, but no title was involved, meaning that HDA wouldn't lose the belts, even if they lost, but pride was the most important thing here, alongside with winning the tournament, of course. This match didn't had the thrill of some previous bouts between them, it was extremely well wrestled, super logical, and very enjoyable to watch, but lacked the emotion and crazy unpredictability that the pillars style always bring. Kawada's selling here was incredible, and they've focused on isolating Kobashi, so when Misawa did the hot tag was a cool moment. The ending was basically about survival for Taue and Kawada, because their opponents were amazing and showed that they were one step ahead the entire time, felt like it was a matter of time, and they did in fact won it, avenging the previous losses and closing the year on a high note. Even though this wasn't their best match, they're absolutely unable to work a match that isn't excellent, so this was very exciting to watch, the structure was simple, but we can't point many flaws in here at all - {****}"

[8.0] "By normal wrestlers standards this was great but for these four I came away a little underwhelmed. It went for a clear logical story of HDA isolating Kobashi in the the ring and Misawa outside with vicious attacks. As a result it never quite got to the level you hope and Misawas hot tag in particular was underwhelming as he tagged in after he had already taken down Kawada and Taue."

[7.0] "The 4 Pillars' final match greatly struggled to recapture the magic of their previous efforts. This felt like a "greatest hits", which is basically code for "a jumbled mix of their previous matches in a rather uncreative manner", but it was still really good because it had 4 of the best tag wrestlers ever. The start was very promising as Kawada immediately went for big bombs, getting me excited to think that the 4 Pillars' final hurrah would be a big celebration of brutal strikes and power moves. Those opening few mins were sadly probably the most exciting section though, as they then took a more psychological and storytelling approach by having Kawada and Taue striving to isolate Misawa on the outside and work Kobashi over. Kobashi displayed very strong babyface-selling as he went 1-vs-2 in his face-in-peril segment. Kawada and Taue's corresponding control segment looked gruelling as they methodically targeted Kobashi's arm and generally beat him down. Kobashi's selling and displays of passion became greater the longer his face-in-peril segment went on, and Kawada and Taue always came off as dastardly heels whenever they knocked Misawa down to prevent a tag, or whenever they double-teamed Kobashi to undercut his attempted comebacks. Kobashi's arm-selling was great, with him selling it consistently for the entirety of the match, and with the clear pain he showed adding a lot to his struggle. I expected there to be bigger build-up to Misawa's eventual tag in, but instead it was treated rather casually, since his 'hot tag' technically came right before when he ran in to clear house and save Kobashi, so that was a weird structure that resulted in his attacks after his actual tag-in feeling a bit underwhelming. Misawa's dominance was short-lived anyways, as Kawada and Taue's double-team tactics soon allowed them to start dominating Misawa in similar fashion to how they dominated Kobashi. It was then Kobashi's turn to be the one knocked down off the apron, isolated from Misawa inside the ring, and having to make the exciting run-ins to save Misawa whenever his beating became too threatening. While the storytelling and psychology were very good, there weren't any *truly* exciting moments in the form of especially captivating selling segments, meaningful story moments, or especially explosive or stiff exchanges or spots. This was actually one of the safer and more 'tame' Four Pillars tag matches I've seen, and I hate to act like they needed to drop each other on their heads in order to make this great... but I just didn't feel the same sort of hatred, special rivalry, or generally amazing spectacle without them laying in their moves as they were used to doing. It more so just felt like they were constantly going through heat segments and hot comebacks in rather repetitive ways and only ever peaking at a 'really good' level without ever delving into anything adventurous to try make this more memorable. ***1/2"

[9.0] "Man the crowd didn't want to pop for anything besides big bumps in this one. They had plenty of big bumps, but the crowd never seemed invested, which is a shame since this was the last big match of the 4 Pillars. And it also makes me a little bit sad how the crowd never boos for cheating anymore. Earlier in the decade, the crowd would've turned on Misawa and Kobashi for cheating to get both of their tags (yes they only had 2 tags as a team the entire match), but now the crowd only seems interested in head drops. A Tiger Driver on the concrete put Kawada out of commission to allow Misawa and Kobashi to single out Taue to get the win. I felt like Kawada and Taue should've gone over since they would remain in the tag title picture, while Jun Akiyama would replace Kobashi as Misawa's main tag partner in 1996. ****1/2"

[10.0] "Wow. One of the bests tag team matches I have ever seen. AJPW's 1990's tag matches are incredible, and this one is maybe the most incredible. Everyone had so good exchanges, if I want to say a highlight I would say everything we had, the intensity they put, from the very beginning to the final Moonsault of Kenta Kobashi on Toshiaki Kawada, is incredible. The Suplexes, the Larriats, everything was sooo impactful. Misawa's Tiger Drivers on Taue were insane, like always. A great storytelling, the team with the biggest confidence between each other wins, on how it's presented in the match. A true war, 30 minutes of incredible wrestling. *****1/2"

[7.0] "This was a middle of the row match in the series between the four pillars. Nothing super memorable, but with the talent in the ring it's always going to be entertaining."

[6.0] "Last time I watched this, I had written around 53 words, explaining my thoughts about the match and it was perfectly acceptable as that's how the match was. It wasn'st filled with the great details of the matches I've previously praised to such a high degree. This was a simple, well-worked version of their other matches. The run-time drags somewhat, the work comes across as familiar, in a tedious way. They hit their usual notes of HDA attacking the arm of Kobashi, Kawada getting in shots against Misawa and Taue throwing people left and right. It had its moments but ultimately, I was left flat. ***"

[6.0] "I found this match to be a huge disappointment, because whilst it was good, these teams are capable of doing so much better. And they've done so much better. For me, the heel-style work greatly hurt the match quality."

[8.0] "I gave this match ****. This is the weakest match I have seen between these 4 guys, and yet it still gets ****. For me it finished just as it was starting to really heat up"

[10.0] "It's not even the best tag match these four had, and it's STILL a match of the year candidate. I love how hot they start, Kawada throwing hugs bombs from the word go before the match settles down into the more typical pattern, which also equals awesome. Kawada steals the show in general, but everyone does an awesome job. Great addition to the series between the four pillars."