This really has all the hallmarks of your classic 90s All Japan. You get the intertwining story threads, the primary and secondary (and I guess tertiary) feuds delivering the business, the heat and hate and all that good stuff everybody and their granny has talked about for the last twenty-odd years. This is one of the more special All Japan six-mans as well in that you get that extra hook to separate it somewhat from the crowd. Kobashi is 23 here and clearly the runt of the litter, so Fuchi decides to be a disgraceful old fuck and break his nose. It leads to a spell of Kobashi having his face stomped and kicked and punched by the three bastards while he crawls around bloody-nosed. Fuchi jabbing him in the nose with the edge of a chair looked as brutal as that spot can look, then he'd just stand on his face like he was putting out a cigarette. It didn't last as long as I remembered, but it was an awesome segment and has always stood out to me from this period, probably because it was one of the very first matches from Japan I ever watched. Kawada and Taue were only really starting to hate each other to death at this point but their exchanges were great. Taue instigated it by booting Kawada off the apron unprompted, and you could see that need to retaliate just bubbling in Kawada. They went after each other repeatedly, slammed and suplexed each other in amongst the crowd, threw cheapshots from the apron, it all ruled. Some of the Jumbo/Kobashi stuff was awesome as well. There was a great bit in the first half where Jumbo tried to break up a Kobashi half crab on Fuchi, but Kobashi wiped him out with a lariat instead (to an amazing crowd reaction). You knew Jumbo would pay him back for that tenfold and he about decapitated him later when he had the chance to. Jumbo/Misawa was still red hot, every match-up brought the goods, the finishing run was one of the more epic for the time...this was a Jumbo v Misawa six-man and all that entails.
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