20 AJPW Matches you must see before you die

14. Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama vs. Steve Williams & Johnny Ace - June 7, 1996

Yes, this is an All Japan match involving Johnny Ace, better known as John Laurinaitis. And no, it doesn’t suck. In fact, it was voted the Match of the Year for 1996 by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

Williams and Ace played the role of ‘evil foreigners’ perfectly, getting the audience to cheer their opponents with little effort. Steve Williams, in particular, did an excellent job of being the bully in the match, brutalizing Misawa and constantly fighting dirty against Akiyama.

This match had a much faster pace than most AJPW matches, with transitions, brawls and reversal sequences happening so quickly that it felt like both teams jammed 30 minutes’ worth of moves into just over twenty.

Although all four wrestlers did incredibly well in this match, special credit goes to Jun Akiyama, who had only been wrestling for four years when this match happened and yet did incredibly well in the match. He looked like a natural and knew how to keep the crowd in the palm of his hand when he was in the ring.