Uncle Jun and his band of misfits have another great tag match with the ALL OUT boys. This was a nice escalation of the tag from TV SHOW and has got me incredibly invested in the eventual Takeshita vs. Akiyama singles match. I loved that this match felt much more petty and tense than their previous encounters. The way each group went about breaking up tags went past the simple tap on the back we get so often elsewhere in wrestling. Towards the end of the match, stablemates would dogpile on potential pinfalls with stomps to the back. Such a simple touch that helps to sell the urgency and tension between these teams.
On top of that, there’s the efficiency of the layout such that everyone got the correct amount of shine. Despite being the most inexperienced, Okatani gets to show a little fire and take some shots that he really shouldn’t be going for. He gets thoroughly punished for it but the intention is what counts in encounters like this.
Of course the highlights come from Uncle Jun and Soup duking it out. They tease us a bit by opening the match with a really great struggle over an abdominal stretch. Staggering how much they got out of such a simple spot, not anything you’d ever get from a similar tag match in New Japan. They get to really go at it towards the finishing stretch too with all the big hits that you’d want from a fast paced tag like this one. It’s a small gift of this hell year that Jun Akiyama gets to have such a strong year and in this pit of misery that is 2020, I’ll take small pleasures where I can get them.
