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Tiger Mask & Naohiro Hoshikawa
vs. TAKA Michinoku & Shoichi Funaki 12/14/95 Hakata Starlane |
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A much better match than I expected. Hoshikawa probably gave his best performance up to that point in time, which really made the match because we knew TAKA vs. Tiger was going to be excellent, but the expected sizable dropoff when Hoshikawa tagged in wasn't there. Hoshikawa was so fired up and energetic for this match. He seemed kind of hyper, but in a good way because he was doing all his moves really fast. I was impressed by just how stiff this match was, and Hoshikawa was definitely a key to that. This aspect really added a lot to the match because the work was more than glamorous. When TAKA tagged in the first time, he let Hoshikawa off the hook because he was more worried about kicking Tiger's ass than about getting a quick win. This worked against him because Tiger wound up getting the best of TAKA, whereas Hoshikawa was already somewhat weakened, so TAKA theoretically would have dominated him. At one point TAKA rolled through to alleviate the pressure of an arm bar, so Tiger gave him a stiff kick to the back. TAKA popped up like he was pissed and slapped Tiger in the face then dropkicked him to the floor. The first half of this match was solid, but not that spectacular. Slowly they began wearing each other out with one big move after the other. One of the highlights once it got going was Tiger & Hoshikawa doing simultaneous tope suicidas. Tiger also did an incredible diving headbutt and was ready to follow with his Tiger suplex hold. TAKA made the save with a forearm, but was leveled with a lariat for his trouble. TAKA elbowed his way out of Hoshikawa's German suplex, but Hoshikawa kicked him in the stomach and did the fastest northern lights suplex hold ever. Tiger then missile kicked TAKA and Hoshikawa went into a German suplex hold for a near fall. Tiger took Funaki out with a plancha, but Sho had fisherman bustered Hoshikawa, so TAKA picked up where Sho left off and pinned Hoshikawa with his Michinoku driver II. The last 5 1/2 minutes were really what made the match. I've certainly seen better in Michinoku, but rarely in a regular four person tag match. TAKA was one of the most underrated by fans at this point, as he was already a great tag wrestler that was capable of excellent singles matches, but most people didn't really pick up on this until they saw the Skydiving-J. 16:45
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