AJPW World Tag Team Title Match: Holy Demon Army (Akira Taue & Toshiaki Kawada) (c) vs. Super Generation Army (Jun Akiyama & Mitsuharu Misawa) - AJPW Super Power Series 1996 Day 5 23/05/1996
This was an excellent Akiyama performance topped off by him getting the result. He and Misawa worked well a team initially but then once HDA were in control, he had some good success in countering both Taue and Kawada’s offence for a short bit. And then Akiyama was the one who regained the advantage and put the finishing touches on Kawada, who was really good in his own right. He was very petty and measured with his offence, opting to play with Akiyama and Misawa rather than actually destroy them like he'd do normally. It was a character driven performance and he was excellent at it. Taue and Misawa were strong in their roles, teasing some of what's to come while keeping the match narrative in focus. Great tag team match. ****
Triple Crown Title #1 Contendership Match: Toshiaki Kawada vs. Kenta Kobashi - AJPW Super Power Series 1996 Day 6 24/05/1996
This is a rocking match with some pretty neat and unique ideas, such as the opening where Kawada got a three count a minute into the bout but Kobashi had his feet in the ropes. Kawada’s seconds are up in arms and Kobashi is now in a state of panic. Kawada kept his cool and picked Kobashi apart, eventually knocking Kobashi out with a brutal gamengiri. Kobashi is very impassioned and does some pretty great counters. Kobashi even at one point punches Kawada in the jaw (twice) and hit a Tiger Suplex, not even waiting for him to recover from the illegal strike. That was an awesome moment that was out of character for him. Kobashi’s selling for the final kick was sublime as well. ***1/2
Triple Crown Title Match: Mitsuharu Misawa (c) vs. Akira Taue - AJPW Super Power Series 1996 Day 6 24/05/1996
Great finish aside, this wasn't quite the moment that you'd really want. Maybe the title win was a year too late in order to get that moment but the crowd was still into the result and the match. This was worked at a brisk pace with the action being pretty heavy. Even Misawa locking on the face lock had a nice sense of urgency to it. The closing stretch with the counter wrestling, leading to Nodowa off the top rope was high quality stuff. ***1/2
AJPW World Tag Team Title Match: Super Generation Army (Jun Akiyama & Mitsuharu Misawa) (c) vs. Johnny Ace & Steve Williams - AJPW Super Power Series 1996 Day 15 07/06/1996
Really fun tag team match. Akiyama continues getting a big push, first pinning Toshiaki Kawada, who's challenging for the Triple Crown Title on this show, and now pinning Johnny Ace who was put over strong in this match when against Misawa. Ace and Doc were great as a duo, picking Akiyama and Misawa apart with their superior team work while Misawa opted to keep Williams out of Akiyama’s way when Akiyama looked to end the match. The clipping hurts it a little but this was certainly a great match without it. WON Match of the year? Probably not. ***3/4
Triple Crown Title Match: Akira Taue (c) vs. Toshiaki Kawada - AJPW Super Power Series 1996 Day 15 07/06/1996
It's rare that I'm underwhelmed by the match involving Toshiaki Kawada. Even if the match isn't that good, he's usually a delight to watch. And he was fine in parts, same as Taue, they just didn't connect with me. Now they didn't do anything particularly different to their usual work - there was a lot of kicks, submissions and Taue attempting the Nodowa. The energy just didn't match it. ***
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