New Year Giant Series 1998

NEW YEAR GIANT SERIES 1998

This tape has a couple of really good matches and it’s not that long so I figured I would fire off another review.

MITSUHARU MISAWA vs JUN AKIYAMA (Triple Crown)

They start out with a feel out process that leads no where. Akiyama goes for a diving elbow but Misawa clocks him with an elbow smash in mid air. Dang… that’s got to hurt. Misawa charges in for a running elbow smash but Akiyama ducks and hits a quick Exploder suplex! Misawa sells the awesome power of the Exploder by rolling out to the floor and slowly dying. The young punk Akiyama has none of this resting though and hits Misawa with a tombstone piledriver on the floor. Ugh… that wasn’t pretty. Back in the ring and Akiyama hits a gorgeous flying forearm for 2 and Ѕ. Akiyama looks to have a firm focus on the neck. Lots of chinlocks and front facelocks. See? It’s cool when they use rest holds like this if they SERVE A PURPOSE! Akiyama manages to pull out a couple of sweet locomotion swinging neckbreakers (credit Super Nova 1998). Irish whip into the corner but Misawa blocks. He goes for an elbow smash but Akiyama ducks and hits Misawa with the Tiger Driver. Misawa instantly kicks out. OOOHHH, you’re going to pay for that you disrespectful prick! They go back and forth exchanging elbow smashes with Misawa getting the better end of it (obviously). Misawa lays in some beats with the elbows and kicks. Ugh… Misawa doesn’t look to be trying to hard in this one. Irish whip into the corner is reversed but the charging Akiyama eats boot. Misawa comes in for a running elbow smash but Akiyama catches him in a capture suplex. NICE!!! Akiyama hits a Northern Lights suplex for 2 and Ѕ. He fires off a beautiful double underhook piledriver for 2 and Ѕ. Akiyama hits the Rolling German suplexes but on the third one hits THE BLUE THUNDER for 2 and 9/10. Misawa is in A LOT of trouble. THIS CROWD IS HOT! Akiyama goes for the EXPLOIDAAAH but Misawa blocks and clocks Akiyama with an elbow. Akiyama to the outside and Misawa fires of an elbow suicida. Misawa climbs into the ring and hits a SLINGSHOT SPLASH TO THE FLOOR! EEEWWW! Back in the ring and Misawa hits an overhead belly to belly suplex for 2 and Ѕ. Misawa hits a German suplex for 2 and Ѕ. Misawa goes for a roundhouse kick but Akiyama grabs the leg and hits a dragon screw leg whip. Akiyama pulls of a disgusting overhead powerbomb to the top turnbuckle (you have to see it to fully understand). He follows up with a released German suplex and then hits a running knee smash. Akiyama hits the EXPLOIDAAAAH! 1…. 2…. 2.99999! He hits a second Exploder for 2 and 9/10. Holy shit, the rumble from the stomping feet of the crowd is something akin to thunder. Akiyama puts Misawa on the top and goes for a SUPER EXPLOIDAAAAH! Misawa manages to block and elbow Akiyama off. He jumps right back up and hits a super double underhook suplex followed up with a BRUTAL brainbuster! 1…. 2…. 2.99999! Dear god… that was close. Akiyama goes for yet another EXPLOIDAAAAH but Misawa rolls through and clocks Akiyama with rolling elbow. Misawa hits a side salto for 2 and ѕ. Misawa hits THE TIGER DRIVER for 2 and 9/10. He goes for another but Akiyama blocks and hits an overhead belly to belly suplex. Akiyama hits a discus clothesline but Misawa no sells and fires of an elbow. Misawa gets set… waiting… waiting… BOOM! RUNNING ELBOOOOW! 1… 2… 2.99999! Misawa is so desperate he is forced to pull out THE EMERALD FROSION and that finally gets the three count. The match rocked (no surprise) but was almost completely carried by Akiyama until the very end where Misawa finally decided to put in a decent effort. The real problem laid in the question of whether ANYONE in his or her right mind really thought that Akiyama was going to go over in this match? Obviously that’s not happening. It’s the friggin beginning of 1998, Akiyama didn’t have enough build to win this match. That’s not to say he didn’t give it all he could though. Some people may rate it higher but with Misawa not bringing his good work boots I can only give it ****1/2

KENTA KOBASHI & JOHNNY ACE vs AKIRA TAUE & TOSHIAKI KAWADA

WOO HOO! The Unholy Army led by General Dangerous K and seconded by Captain Dynamic T rides again. I don’t really like Johnny Ace too much but then again I didn’t much like any of the gaijin in the former AJPW aside from early nineties Dr. Death and the always kick ass Vader. I’ll make things simple for everyone; the first half of this match is BOOOORING! Nothing to do with resting or anything like that, it just seemed like both teams weren’t in the mood to work well until the mid way point where Ace is tagged in after Kobashi took a shit kicking to his leg. Ace hits a flying lariat on Taue for a two count. Kobashi and Ace hit Taue with a double powerbomb but Kawada makes the save at two. Ace goes for the Cobra clutch suplex but Taue blocks and hits a hotshot. Tag to Kawada who literally kicks Ace around for a while. He goes for a roundhouse kick but Ace catches him and hits an Ace Crusher. Tag to Kobashi who hits a German suplex for 2 and Ѕ. Kobashi and Ace hit the Doomsday Powerbomb for 2 and 9/10. Kobashi goes for a German suplex but Kawada blocks and hits an overhead giri. Tag to Taue who gets into a chopfest with Kobashi. Kobashi gets the better of it and goes for a clothesline but they end up doing a double clothesline spot. They both roll to the apron and Taue hits the NODOWA OSOSHI FROM THE APRON TO THE FLOOR! Shit… KOBASHI IS DEAD! Taue rolls Kobashi back into the ring but only gets 2 and 9/10. Taue hits another Nodowa Ososhi but Ace makes the save and 2 and Ѕ. Kawada runs in and knocks Ace out of the ring. Kawada and Taue hits a BRUTAL double running giri on Kobashi followed up with a Chokeslam Powerbomb but Ace again makes the save. Kobashi finally makes the tag but it doesn’t matter because Ace is going to die anyway. Taue hits the former Dynamic Dude with The Dynamic Bomb for 2 and 99/100. Taue heads to the top and comes off with a SUPER DYNAMICK KICK for the three count. Well… uh… the match looked great with a wide variety of moves but it was just missing that special something. As it was, it was very good, just not great. ***1/2

BABA/MOSSMAN/MISAWA vs KOBASHI/FUCHI/KAWADA

This match is just a highlight package so I’m just going to yap a bit if you don’t mind. If you’re looking for some great matches in the six-man tag formula, I recommend tracking down someone with a decent collection of early nineties AJPW like Jeff Lynch and getting a compilation. Look for just about anything from the Tseruta & Co. vs Misawa & Co. feud. This feud, in my humble opinion, is what elevated the former “four lords of heaven” into the main event of AJPW from 1993 – present. Trust me, you won’t disappointed. As for this match… reviewing a clipfest is a waste of your time and mine. The finish has Baba hitting a hart attack clothesline on Masa Fuchi for the three count. No rating.

HIROSHI HASE vs TSUYOSHI KIKUCHI

This was all on the ground. Now I can appreciate a good ground battle but I think the key to keeping fan interest is to keep it quick, lots of transitions in order to keep the interest of the viewer. Now when I watch shoot stuff it’s a different story. Obviously a shoot fighter isn’t going to be switching his offense all the time. Most times shoot fights can be considered boring, but it’s more like a chess match. However, this is not shoot fighting and the expectations of many (myself included) would be for a little more excitement. Ah well… can’t win them all. As it is, I can’t fault the guys too much, as they put on a nice match, just nothing overly interesting. **

Final Analysis: I’ll level with you, I purchased this tape for one reason; Akiyama vs Misawa. I had downloaded lots of little movie clips of this match. I saw all of the cool moves that Akiyama was pulling off and thought “all Misawa has to do is pull his weight and this match will rock.” As it was, the Misawa vs Akiyama match fell short of my expectations. Not even the kick ass Dangerous K could help this poor commercial release out. As a result, I can see no stand out reason to get this tape unless you absolutely must have every AJPW commercial release.

Justin Baisden

Rolling Germans Wrestling