Twentieth anniversary of the greatest match of all time.

[Tainted Eclipse]

June is quite a month in AJPW history and we might as well add to the string of AJPW anniversary threads with the big one: 6/9/95


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALyg-EhxbgI

[Spedizzo]

Misawa/Kawada Triple Crown was probably my favorite... but this is the best as far as 2 on 2 matches go.

[Hero!]

Can we get a mod to merge all these or something? These are essential viewing for anyone who wants to get into Puro.

[DDT]

This match is the match I show every ass-hole who is all, "Akira Taue was just a lanky fucker who got lucky by association; he didn't DESERVE to be counted among the Four Kings!" Fucker, LOOK at that evil man; attacking Misawa's broken face, attacking Kobashi's bum leg, throwing Misawa face-first ONTO Kobashi's bum- leg. Whatever he lacked in raw athletic ability, the man more then made up for by an understanding of ring psychology and crowd manipulation that frankly puts him above even his three contemporaries.


Oh yeah, and the other three were pretty amazing, too.

[Spedizzo]

Who are the four kings considered? Misawa, Kawada, Kobashi, xxx?

I always looked at the elite (not a hardcore puro fan, I used to watch all the big matches back in 2005-2006, haven't really watched since) being: Misawa, Kawada, Kobashi, Chono, Muta, Tenyru, Taue, Akiyama, Nagata

[Tainted Eclipse]

This match is the match I show every ass-hole who is all, "Akira Taue was just a lanky fucker who got lucky by association; he didn't DESERVE to be counted among the Four Kings!" Fucker, LOOK at that evil man; attacking Misawa's broken face, attacking Kobashi's bum leg, throwing Misawa face-first ONTO Kobashi's bum- leg. Whatever he lacked in raw athletic ability, the man more then made up for by an understanding of ring psychology and crowd manipulation that frankly puts him above even his three contemporaries.


Oh yeah, and the other three were pretty amazing, too.

Taue is absolutely an all time great. How many people have been in as many all time great matches as him? He's not as spectacular in his style as Kawada, Misawa or Kobashi but he's not too far behind them and bring a lot of different things to the table than they do. He even had a great singles match with Marufuji in 2006! Taue for me would be top 30 of all time or very close to it, no lower than top 40.

[Ringo]

...and Taue, Spedizzo.

I love Taue. Has his fair share of great singles matches but the role he played in the big tags with Kawada (and before as part of Team Jumbo, and later on in NOAH) is one of my favourite threads in wrestling.