Fuchi Friday - Masa Fuchi/Jumbo Tsuruta/Akira Taue v. Mitsuhara Misawa/Toshiaki Kawada/Kenta Kobashi 4/20/91

After watching an old man tag from 2014 All Japan I decided I wanted to watch some more Fuchi. It would be kind of crazy to do a Complete and Accurate on a guy with that long of a televised career, but he isn't often brought up as an all time great, and it feels like he belongs in that discussion.

I haven't revisited 90's All Japan in years, so it was fun to revisit guys the old Four Pillars and Jumbo and Fuchi. I cut my teeth on Kawada and Taue as a tag team, so it was pretty novel to watch them as vicious enemies, the first part of the match was built around Taue cheapshotting Kawada, until Kawada flips out and jumps him until they have to be pulled apart. It wasn't a shoot angle, but it got across the idea that this wasn't going to be a sporting contest, it felt a little ragged the way inter promotional matches often feel like WAR v. NJ with everyone in the same fed.

This was a 50 minute match which didn't lose me, I am fully in the camp now of 14-18 minutes being the perfect time for a match, and I really have little desire to watch anything this long, but this didn't drag at all. There were so many little moments which were cool, along with the big story. Taue gets kicked in the ribs by Kobashi and just slumps in pain like he cracked a rib, Kobashi gets rocket launched to the floor. There is a moment where Kobashi puts Taue in a Boston Crab and Jumbo comes in to smash him, like Tenryu always would, but instead of holding the submission and getting cracked, Kobashi wastes Jumbo with a lariat.

Of course this is Fuchi Friday so I need to talk about that old bastard.  Kobashi gets his knee smashed, and the end run is built around working that over, and no one plays sadistic Japanese prison guard better then Fuchi. He is the wrestling version of Colonel Saito from Bridge Over the River Kwai. When he sees a limping Kobashi he pounces on him ripping and stretching  the hell out of his knee while smirking and taunting Misawa and Kawada, such a dick head.

This is often considered the best All Japan trios of the 90's, although I am going to check out a bunch more. Certainly in the discussion as all six guys were at the peak of their power.