“Dr. Death” Steve Williams & Johnny Ace vs Super Generation Army (Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi)
Real World Tag League 1994 Match
12/10/1994
Nippon Budokan, Tokyo, Japan
(reviewed 05/05/2024) Doctor Death does it again. This one starts hot with Mitsuharu Misawa seeking revenge on the man who took his titles, trading slaps and elbows with Steve Williams until referee Joe Higuchi has to separate them with the help of their partners. Kenta Kobashi tries to follow suit but, dare I say it, he can’t equal Misawa’s energy????? Signs and wonders, y’all. Doc brings the best out of this dude. In any case the Americans mostly manage to match that fire as they isolate Misawa and unload all the familiar double teams and submission holds, quietly embarking on the longest control segment of this review series. Most of this match (~14 minutes of a 25 minute runtime) sees Misawa fighting from underneath and while I’m not exactly running through the streets singing its praises by the end, that sort of solid structure is a godsend in the amorphous All Japan tag team division. Doc is especially good here. I love his anguished outbursts after a flying shoulderblock nearfall (something Johnny Ace emulates later on) and the vindictive German suplex he delivers when Kobashi tries to stop him from interfering; he brings the sort of heel performance I’ve been missing in the relatively muted matches of the Holy Demon Army of late, notching another tag I like more than any SGA/HDA meeting so far aside from the ‘93 RWTL de facto finals. Best of all Doc’s backdrop driver once again feels like a huge move, all the more so for how he and Ace have to fight for it. Misawa’s comebacks aren’t so good as in the Triple Crown title switch and that holds this back some but Kobashi, somehow, makes up for that. His theatrics are best used in short bursts on the back end of a long control segment and that’s just what we get here, the young guy too busy unloading chops and meaty lariats to scrunch up his face too much. Love to see Ace use Kobashi’s moonsault against him though sadly Ace’s overall lack of offensive firepower is once again one of the reasons why this doesn’t peak the way that it should, along with the breakdown of that aforementioned structure. Misawa also doesn’t bother selling the fact that he was on his ass for over half the match and that never helps. Adding insult to injury, he picks up the win with the piddly Tiger Driver which is barely even a finisher anymore. I’d say Johnny Ace deserves better but recent lawsuits might indicate otherwise.
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