Super Generation Army (Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama) vs “Dr. Death” Steve Williams & Johnny Ace
Real World Tag League 1996 Match
11/30/1996
Miyagi Sports Center, Sendai, Japan
(reviewed 05/16/2024) Lovely little sprint. Super Generation Army have to win out to have any chance at making the finals so they’re jumping their opponents before the bell. The Americans aren’t far ahead of them in points so they instantly equal this energy and start unloading signature offense, with Steve Williams hitting one of his better-looking backdrop drivers in a while not ten seconds into the match. Soon everybody’s doing finishers and we’ve got ourselves a bombfest the likes of which we almost never see in this tournament. It’s not all great but something like Doc’s sheer enthusiasm, gesturing alongside Johnny Ace’s DDT, goes a long way toward making this novelty mean something. They’re also smart to have Mitsuharu Misawa take the brunt of this offense and indeed where this match falters is in allowing SGA to do too much, turning this into a truncated, entirely-too-even title match instead of a desperate shootout. Doesn’t help that our heroes are lacking in firepower; Jun Akiyama’s still only got two or three moves at most whereas Misawa’s started doing this silly little repeating Tiger Driver—fumbling through a clunky neck roll after hitting the first to set himself up for the second—that doesn’t feel nearly big enough to finish a match like this. Still, glad to see another short little sprint to change things up. More of this, Giant Baba, I beg of you.
Brock Hates Wrestling 