Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Stan Hansen & Vader

[7.0] "Vader went from jobbing to Marc Mero to pinning Misawa, as he returned to Japan to prove he's still a monster worth fearing. Good storytelling, fine action, as good as you can do with the time this match went for."

[6.0] "A fairly short match, the team of Hansen and Vader is truly monstrous, and the beginning of the match where they beat up Misawa is a scene that really stuck in my mind. Ogawa tries but is helpless against the two monsters, and Misawa alone can't counter Hansen and Vader. Very nice match. 3.25 stars."

[7.0] "When you consider that Vader's last televised match anywhere in the world was a four minute loss to Marc Mero in WWF, this seems like art in comparison. It's still far from the quality that Vader would find later that year, and that's mostly due to Hansen being largely immobile at this point. But Ogawa and Misawa do their best to get both me over as monsters, and Vader gives Ogawa a brutal beating early on that firmly recaptures his spirit. A completely fine TV match. Having Misawa wait for the hot tag while Vader berated him is a touch that obviously would set up a lot for the company down the line. Aside from the hope spot of Misawa's tag, this is a prolonged squash, as it really should have been. I was about to give this a six, but afterwards Vader went out into the crowd and started throwing audience chairs while nearby smiling Japanese salary men stood up and applauded, and that is one of the most incredible images I've seen in a while, so I'm giving it a bump to a 7."

[5.0] "This match establishes the monster heel run of Hansen/Vader in the Real World Tag League and it's more than adequate for that purpose. It doesn't stand on its own, but it's a great mood setter for going through other marquee matches of RWTL '98."

[2.0] "This is a tough watch. Way too much time devoted to a well past it Hansen. Vader still hadn't shaken off the rust of his WWF malaise, Ogawa simply can't slow down to work at their pace and Misawa spends most of the match on the ropes waiting to be tagged in."

[7.0] "Shown in full for TV. Hansen's far from where he used to be but Vader is a HUGE get for him as he's a lot more capable and can do the big power spots. Both of them rush the others before the bell and the match immediately goes into a brawl. Misawa tries to fight back but gets overwhelmed. There's pockets of resistance from Misawa and co but ultimately fruitless, with Ogawa being the whipping boy this time around by both men. This is also used to showcase Vader as he's recently back from his rather infamously shoddy WWF run, and while he's not the most dynamic compared to Misawa and co, he can still deliver a beating, stiffing the fuck out of Ogawa and giving him welts with hammer blows. The crowd is terrified by how violent he is and openly yell at points at the worst of times. Hansen consistently gets in sneaky offence, choking Ogawa with his boot when the ref isn't looking or helping Vader by dragging Ogawa out for even more beatings. Misawa takes over in the hot tag with a strong blast of strikes but with Ogawa wasted outside, the numbers quickly turn the tide, and Vader beats Misawa clean with a double team powerbomb and a big body splash for the huge win. Ogawa plays a great babyface here as he gets his butt kicked, selling and ragdolling all over the place for the Gaijin pair, but they also do give him space to work his usual spots so it's not a complete one-sided bout. Misawa doesn't do very much beyond elbows and a top rope move: understandable as he was pretty battered by this point and likely wanted to preserve any future faceoffs for later. Short and easy to get into, a fun start to the Tag League."