Stan Hansen, Johnny Ace, & Barry Horowitz vs Mitsuharu Misawa, Toshiaki Kawada, & Kenta Kobashi – AJPW Summer Action Series 1992 Day 1 (07/04/1992)

Stan Hansen, Johnny Ace, & Barry Horowitz vs Super Generation Army (Mitsuharu Misawa, Toshiaki Kawada, & Kenta Kobashi)
taped 07/04/1992, aired 07/05/1992
Yokosuka City General Gymnasium, Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan

(reviewed 04/16/2024) Whaddya know, Barry Horowitz is here. This is the first of a few tours he does for AJPW (I thiiiiiink he’s here with some other guys on loan from Herb Abrams’ UWF but don’t quote me on that) and contrary to what you might think he works perfectly fine in this sacred bastion of puroresu, selling well and sticking to short bursts of action. He’s certainly better at playing the role of a gruff, unlikable heel than the dopey and affable Johnny Ace, who’s sporting one of the most disgusting goatees I have ever seen. While some sparks fly between Ace and old partner Kenta Kobashi, this tour-opener is all about the Stan Hansen vs Mitsuharu Misawa title match at the end of next month. Jumbo Tsuruta—whose “ankle injury” has him on the shelf for this entire tour—being out of the equation results in more build-up tags between these two than we otherwise might get, though Akira Taue getting a shot at the Triple Crown first means some Tsuruta-gun vs gaikokujin tags help carry the load. Either way we’ve seen a lot of Misawa vs Hansen to this point and this match doesn’t have me excited for more. They’re just so sedate together most of the time, less than the sum of their parts. A guy like Hansen dragging an opponent out into the crowd should get me excited for what he might do but against Misawa it’s nothing more than a single soft chairshot to the back, real 2020s WWE heel work. Next he’ll be busting out kendo sticks. Said chairshot results in another half-hearted control segment on the soon-to-be ace of All Japan, who naturally turns the tide all on his own; a brawl breaks out between all four other wrestlers, leaving Misawa to avoid a top rope legdrop from Horowitz before applying his facelock for the win. Even all the way on the other side of the world the man can’t catch a break.