A kind of by the numbers AJPW tag but still some good stuff to bite into. Mainly seeing Kobashi and Hansen revive their rivalry and go after each other with a ton of vigor. This match also provided a good look into Johnny Smith. He seems like a good mechanic but also someone that doesn't really move the needle for me one way or another. Akiyama is made to look strong as he was heading into the big Misawa singles match and overall this was mostly used as a Burning showcase. ***1/4

I liked this more for giving us an idea of what a Hansen vs Kobashi singles match would have been like in 2000 (pretty good, actually) than as a match on its own. Johnny Smith doesn't do much of anything for me even though he's fine as a worker, and Akiyama looked good (as he has all month), but this never seemed to all come together as a match. I think it's because there's nothing interesting about Johnny Smith other than that he is a competent (and even good at times) wrestler. Imagine an even more watered down Lance Storm. I'm probably being a little tough on this match, as it's pretty decent and Hansen-Akiyama is a fresh matchup that I don't think All Japan ever really ran that much. But it did nothing to excite me at all, which is a tough sell when a match goes 20+ minutes. I still like Kobashi, and I don't even blame him for this considering the number he'd done on his body by this time, but it's clear by this time that he had become a bit ... establishment ... in his thinking about how hard he should work on smaller shows. I don't think his body could support being a night after night guy anymore, so he had to pick his spots. But more than that, the mentality of trying to make even rudimentary matches feel special, which wasn't always a daredevil physical approach, wasn't there in quite the same way anymore. In picking his spots, he probably prolonged his career a few years though, so good for him.

Slow paced but really fun match. The obvious constraint of Hansen forced them to build a smart and simple match. By the finishing stretch they built to a few good nearfalls.

 

I have a ton of time for this type of All Japan. No excess just simple hard work wrestling.

Good back and forth match. Even though he is overweight and doesn't move as well, Hansen still possesses the spirit necessary to make his exchanges interesting. Smith plays his role competently. He is overmatched by his competition, but he can hold his own enough to get a powerslam or some other move to keep the fight going.

This was pretty much the Johnny Smith show. I find him interesting as he's not exciting but works well and usually take the fall. Hansen is shot but still has a presence about him and his lockups with Kobashi are nice. Fun small show match.

Really enjoyed this match. Particularly due to Hansen.

A pretty dry tag all in all, even if the individual work was good. Hansen was limited as hell by this point but he still knew exactly when to interject himself, time his spots and inject them all with enough energy to spark things into life briefly. Kobashi put in a pretty subdued performance so the bulk likes on Smith and Akiyama. I'll always enjoy just about everything Akiyama does but this really felt like a showcase for Smith who was given a lot of offence, chances to bump and sell and some near-falls toward the end. Despite all that, I'm not sure he ever rose above "decent" in those departments and I actually enjoyed him a lot more down the stretch where he was striking and working at a quicker pace. Though, I guess you need the matwork and build to make those moments count. Maybe it's a better match than my initial thoughts but I'm not sure it warranted 20 minutes.