Vader vs. Jun Akiyama (AJPW - 1/23/2000)

One of my favorite things about Vader is the way he forced his opponents to wrestle with an increased sense of urgency. You have to take it to him right away because he’ll run you over if you try to start things with a slow feeling-out process. I loved Vader taking control with a chokeslam through a table followed by a powerbomb on the floor. Him barking “Count him out!” at the referee after the powerbomb was especially awesome. He runs through his offense rather methodically while working over Akiyama, but it hardly ever drags, which is especially impressive because Vader looks even heavier than usual. Down the stretch, we see the Vader standbys of a powerslam catching an opponent coming off the top and a release German. We also see Vader’s penchant for sloppy covers coming back to bite him again, as Akiyama is able to reverse a pin into a cross armbreaker. This seems to be about how far Akiyama can push Vader rather than creating any genuine doubt about the outcome, which limits the ceiling. Still, Vader gives enough to Akiyama to make him look like a million bucks. If there are any other classic Vader singles matches after this one, I haven’t seen them.