Kobashi/Ace vs. Kawada/Taue (AJPW - 6/5/1998)

This was GET's last shot at the tag titles, and they went out with a bang. A 30-minute match with Johnny Ace sounds like a dodgy proposition, but they make it work by limiting his involvement as the legal man. He mainly works the match as an assist character, performing double-teams with Kobashi and running in to make saves and cut off the other team. Anyone who thinks that Taue wasn't legitimately great and was just along for the ride in his classic matches needs to watch this match and compare his performance with Ace's. Make particular note of his attentiveness to the little things like his attempt to prevent Ace from tagging out and his subsequent attempt to shut down Kobashi's hot tag. The work on Taue's leg is a non-factor down the stretch, but he had plenty of time to recover on the apron and Kobashi and Ace never went back to it. I would say that leg work that doesn't factor into the finish is mostly fine in tag matches because tagging out and recovering on the outside provides a plausible out. It's far more problematic in singles matches when a wrestler has to either try to mount a believable comeback while being unable to stand or essentially blow it off. Kawada and Taue show why they're the kings of front-running as they demolish Kobashi in the end while preventing Ace from saving his partner. No team ever slammed the door on their opponents quite like the HDA. Another feather in the cap of the GOAT tag team. And Kobashi virtually single-handedly dragging his team to a match of this caliber is another bullet point in the argument for him as the overall GOAT.