Kenta Kobashi, Kentaro Shiga & Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Lacrosse, Richard Slinger & Steve Williams

[6.0] "A quite nice confrontation between Kobashi and Williams, pissing him off to the point of destroying the little yankee in the end."

[6.0] "A complete version of this match is available if you know where to look. It was nothing must-see but still alright, especially when you have Kobashi, Misawa, and Williams, but even the lesser stars here actually worked quite hard. Slinger and Shiga did some fine work early on before Kobashi tagged in to give us something more interesting in the form of his some of his usual low-level signature moves -- namely his blistering chops -- while also showing his trademark babyface intensity. Misawa would likewise impress with his signature elbows strikes and his switch between calm stoicism and his own displays of babyface fire. Lacrosse had some decent power and energy when going against both Kobashi and Misawa, but Williams was obviously the real spectacle on the gaijin side because of what a rampage he'd go into with his big strikes and power moves, though I do wish we got more of those than we actually got. The match always became far less interesting whenever any of Kobashi, Misawa, or Williams were tagged in, and it naturally always became about 10x more interesting whenever we got a pairing of Kobashi or Misawa facing off with Williams. Williams tanking a lot of Kobashi's offence made him come off like an impressive badass, and him military-pressing Kobashi over his head 3 times was likewise impressive. Kobashi was sympathetic as he suffered through Williams' powerful beatdown, plus all the cheap gang-ups from Slinger and Lacrosse, showing good energy in his fire-ups plus in his eventual return to the ring after tagging back in. Misawa got a hot tag once Kobashi finally escaped his opponents' control, but Misawa then immediately just took Kobashi's position and started being dominated by his 3 opponents, and again in quite convincing fashion. Shiga had actually been quite fun as the gnat occasionally flying around and throwing the gaijin team off at key points to try help his heavyweight partners, and he was enjoyably energetic when he tagged in and began running around all guns blazing. threatening to put Slinger away by himself. Slinger had likewise been fun as the similarly speedy junior on the other side. The finish perhaps felt a bit rushed, though it did make sense that it happened so quickly, given Misawa and Shiga had gone about holding Williams and Lacrosse at bay on the outside, allowing Kobashi to easily put Slinger away since he was then finally allowed to go 1-on-1 with him, which is completely logical. Again, nothing you definitely need to see, but enjoyable enough. ***"

[6.0] "It feels a bit anachronistic to have Kobashi and Misawa on the same team, but hey, logic can't always fill the cards. A JIP of the last 11 minutes, this is basically what I've come to expect from an All Japan native vs. gaijin six-man; decent if unspectacular. Shiga (who's just the lankiest thing I've seen in an AJPW ring) and Lacrosse are weak links, but the Pillars here do good work, Dr. Death shows why he's the best gaijin All Japan had after Hansen's age caught up with him, and Slinger is serviceable in his role. Kobashi gets the pinfall with an Orange Crush to Slinger."