Was putting off this one for a long time because of its length... Well, uni exams are over and summer vacation is here, so here goes. Kawada and Taue have both recently lost to Misawa challenging for the Triple Crown. However, they have found that preventing Misawa from chaining together long offensive combos, they can deal with him better. The last encounter between these four was a win for the Holy Demon Army.

Misawa receives the Nodowa Otoshi from the apron to the ringside floor very early on in the match, taking him out of action for the first half of this bout. Kobashi resists valiantly, but Kawada and Taue end up working on him quite a bit. During this time, the Holy Demon Army go out of their way to keep Misawa out of the match as long as possible, dealing more damage to him whenever he shows up in the ring to save Kobashi. Eventually he does make his comeback and lands big bombs, but the punishment he has taken allows Holy Demon Army to retake control. In the middle section of this match, limb work starts becoming a theme. Holy Demon Army are particularly nasty when working over Kobashi's arm (that's new, it's usually the knees that are his weak point), Kawada gets his come-upens when his knee and shin become a target. Towards the end of the match all four wrestlers are exhausted, The bombs they drop don't seem to have the same effect they would have otherwise, as fatigue and the damage they all have sustained begin to set in. Akira Taue resembles a stubborn mule when kicking out of everything Misawa and Kobashi throw at him, but they eventually all get their turn to be on the receiving end of signature offense. In the end, the match ends as a time limit draw in one hour.

This one's a bit different than your typical All-Japan match of this era. Normally you'd expect a hot opening -> mat work / slow paced middle section -> big bombs and finish, but this one keeps a slow-but-steady pace throughout with a few high-impact moves sprinkled in for flavour. It feels very old school in a way. I quite enjoyed the start and the middle part of this match, the wrestlers took their time, told their story well, I was surprised by how not boring it was. But the finishing stretch I thought meandered a bit, I felt like big moves were dished out without purpose, in anticipation of the final bell ring. Maybe it was because they shoot didn't have anything left in the tank by that point. The lack of a climax at the end left me starving for more drama, I'd say that their other encounters were more enjoyable. Still, this is a very good match. I really enjoyed Holy Demon Army's nastiness and urgency in cutting off Misawa and I loved it when Misawa performed his comebacks. This was no elbow symphony, he employed a wide array of offense and had great fire. He also took a lot of nasty suplexes on his head, seemingly on purpose, to make his opponents look stronger (or make himself look even more invincible!). Watch it if you have an hour to spare and don't want to watch a movie or something, it's (maybe?) worth it.