Misawa & Kawada vs. Jumbo & Fuchi (AJPW 8/19/1990)

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On one hand, I think it's really sad how many top tier AJPW tags have been lost to time due to happening on unrecorded house shows. At the same time, I look at a match like this and I see a match with psychology that works as well as it does precisely because it's an (officially) unrecorded house show. House shows are generally thought of as being the point where guys just take it easy and work more holds than they would when the cameras are rolling, and that's exactly what happens here for the first few minutes. It's when Jumbo finds himself across the ring from Misawa that things escalate into a striking match and Misawa's team is forced to reciprocate. That gives way to a section where Misawa and Kawada work over Fuchi with some kicks, which we miss about a minute of due to the camera guy seemingly needing to switch batteries. We come back to Misawa doing the same lucha submission I mentioned when reviewing the 3/3/91 6-man, which left me irrationally sad at missing out on a likely wonderfully slow and awkward setup for said move.

Anyway, watching Fuchi getting worked over just pisses off Jumbo and things really pick up after Fuchi tags out. Jumbo brutalizes Kawada on the outside and we get an awesome FIP section with him getting bloodied and firing himself up while Jumbo unloads on him. I love how Jumbo subtly treats the Kawada beatdown as an extension of his confrontation with Misawa, doing things like carefully angling his abdominal stretch so Misawa can get a full view of it. Fuchi is awesome as expected in being a sleezy dick working over the cut. Honestly, it's really weird seeing Kawada basically playing the role that Kobashi would later play, but it works in the context of this match.

Kawada eventually makes the hot tag and things progress for a bit like they "should" until Jumbo just loses control of himself and knocks Misawa off the top rope before destroying him with a chair shot. Can't decide if I love or hate how the camera completely misses Jumbo's beatdown and all we hear is the ominous sound of a chair. The camera catches things again when they come back to the ring and the next few minutes see the match reaching some incredible heights with Jumbo unloading on Misawa with stiff blows and a nasty backdrop. Kawada even does the spot from 6/9/95 over covering Misawa with his body to stop the beatdown and Fuchi has to step in. This feels like the point where Walter White became Heisenberg Jumbo became Grumpy Jumbo. It's no longer about honorably winning matches to prove he's the best in a line of sportsmen going back to Thesz and Rikidozan, for Jumbo has cracked under the pressure and his insecurities are on full display. When things finally settle down with Kawada and Fuchi as the legal man, the ghost of Jumbo's beatdown still lingers over the match with the last few minutes seeing Misawa still dazed and unable to stand in his corner. Fuchi and Kawada work a pretty good finishing sequence, but it all feels like an afterthought compared to what happened before that.