“Dr. Death” Steve Williams, Johnny Ace, & Rob Van Dam vs Super Generation Army (Mitsuharu Misawa, Kenta Kobashi, & Jun Akiyama)
02/17/1995
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan
(reviewed 05/06/2024) Having been brought over for this Excite Series tour the last two years, a young pre-ECW Rob Van Dam finally earns his way into a prominent position and therefore finally appears in this review series. I’m not particularly a fan of the guy but he’s an interesting figure at this point in his career. Not yet as flashy as Midwestern counterparts like Jerry Lynn or the Lightning Kid, he actually reminds me of a young Scott Steiner-cito by way of Kevin Von Erich, using his athletic ability alongside simple fundamentals to target an opponent’s limb and wear them down. That’s a fancy way of saying he wears a singlet and no shoes but either way I think his work at this time is a far cry from what we’d see later in the decade and as a result he fits in just fine on the AJPW roster.
Mostly RVD’s here to eat the pin for his partners, who are wild-eyed and ready for their next shot at the tag team titles. Mitsuharu Misawa is, as you can imagine, pretty indifferent about it but Kenta Kobashi won’t back down from a challenge and it makes for a hot little tour-opener main event. I still don’t like his facial expressions but Kobashi is so, so, so much better in this role as a fiery babyface taking on all comers than he is in the passion play leading role he’s started casting himself in for almost every major match. It’s not just that I think one approach is inherently superior to the other but that his skillset—his boundless enthusiasm and combination of power offense and straightforward highflying—makes for a better high energy heavyweight than it does a sympathetic underdog, not least of which is because he’s too physically blessed to be a convincing Ricky Morton. If you ignore the Holy Demon Army tags which I largely dislike, his best matches in this era are the All Asia classics and his singles with Steve Williams and Stan Hansen; it’s worth noting he’s not exactly turning on the waterworks for those, at least not to nearly the same degree as he is now.
Johnny Ace, like I’ve been saying in his tag title matches, is a little out of his depth as a ferocious foreigner but thankfully Doc has more than enough physical intensity for them both. Ace works best against old and future pal Kobashi, with a brief control segment on Misawa ensuring that this match feels fresher than most early- to mid-tour main events we get and that Kobashi has plenty of time to shine in this all-too-rare role. Love to see the guy pull out a victory roll when Doc’s attempt at a Doomsday Device goes awry, a simple, effective babyface move he’d do well to use more. Also love to see Doc using some technique to turn the tide against Misawa instead of just barreling right through him, getting some separation with a dragon screw legwhip and judo throw in order to hit a big spinebuster. RVD and Jun Akiyama have some fun sequences early in this match and right at the end, highlighted by a sick jumping knee from the super rookie that’d make Jumbo Tsuruta proud. Wish those two interacted more during RVD’s time here. Also salivating at the thought of Akiyama in ECW, especially if NOAH-era Akiyama somehow faced 1995 Mikey Whipwreck. What could have been if only time travel were invented yet. Akiyama picks up the win over Battle Creek’s favorite son with a uranage.
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