My Eyes May Grow Dim, But Shinya Hashimoto is My Gibraltar I am Trusting in Him

Shinya Hashimoto/Masa Saito vs. Vader/Great Kokina NJPW 1/31/90-GREAT

ER: This is juuuuuust about too much hoss to be contained by one ring. It's sad that one month ago we could have bemoaned the fact that half the participants had passed. And now? Well, at least these four larger than lifers crossed paths several times. What a fun tag with great contributions from everyone. Vader in Japan was such a great before the bell shit stirrer, really setting up hot tags before introductions had even been done. And I love how Hashimoto took it to Vader, catching him in the gut with a kick on an overzealous charge, hitting a big vertical suplex right away, tossing him with a judo throw (and I loved Vader blocking that throw a couple times) and going after his arm. You knew it wouldn't last, but I liked that early aggression. Vader pays him back later by standing on Hashimoto's face until Hashimoto gets up with a bloody nose. I really loved Kokina here, a nice size complement to Vader, but quick in different ways and with a very different big man arsenal. I liked fired up babyface Masa Saito. We get a lot of stoic badass Saito, because arguably nobody in wrestling history reads visually as more of a badass that Masa Saito, who looks like he could take a baseball bat to the sternum and not blink. Kokina has a bunch of fun heavy offense and moves real quick, and I loved him punching down Saito leading to a classic babyface comeback. Kokina was moving around a ton, throwing headbutts (standing and falling), nice strikes, big bumps (I always love his banana peel slip bump), and both monsters were great at getting the monsters-to-most-men openings, Vader especially made every opening look like a gift. At one point Vader swung so low on a clothesline that Hashimoto ducked, that Hashimoto's counter attack came with the relief of narrowly avoiding a car accident. Saito gets smooshed a bunch, but it makes his redemption more fun, including a big lariat that Vader generously bumps to the floor. There was next to no chance I was going to be disappointed with this lineup.

PAS:  This match was basically a hybrid monster movie and western, Mothra and Godzilla invade a town and the two biggest swaggering badasses come in and take them down. Is there a cooler tag team in wrestling history then Shinya Hashimoto and Masa Saito, two charismatic dudes built like bourbon barrels who are smoother then a rapids stone. I loved Masa Saito getting himself amped up to slam Kokina, he tries once, fails, lands some big chops, tries again, fails, pumps up the crowd, and finally finishes the job. If the Intrepid challenge ended with Masa Saito slamming Yokozuna I might have actually watched the footage the Network put up. I did think the finish was a bit easy for such a monumental task, and this was more a fun crowd pleasing tag, then epic orgy of violence, but it certainly pleased the crowd.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE SHINYA HASHIMOTO