10/10/96: Super Delfin, Gran Hamada, Gran Naniwa, Tiger Mask IV & Masato Yakushiji vs Dick Togo, Men's Teioh, Taka Michinoku, Shiryu & Shoichi Funaki

This is the greatest cruiserweight style match I have ever seen. Not much in the way of sophisticated psychology, but a well laid-out, well paced match with the timing of most spots making sense. The great thing about this long match is that everyone had so many spots that the match never grew dull. Wrestlers mainly paired off against one another in the opening minutes. The heels were really entertaining in their double-team, triple-team, and even "quintuple-team" offense. Yakushiji went for a baseball slide at Teioh, but instead locked his head in his legs, and spun around for a spinning headscissors takedown on the floor. Hamada was amazingly athletic for a 46 year old, taking a backdrop attempt, spinning in the air in spectacular fashion, and landing on his feet. Much of the first 18 minutes was a spotfest, but a really entertaining one at that. Also, nearly every move in the match had flawless execution. The tempo turned up when Togo, Teioh & Shiryu hit a triple suicide dive through the ropes. Funaki followed with a springboard plancha, and Taka then executed this absolutely beyond-breathtaking springboard super-quebrada, flying over ten feet above the floor and landing about eight feet from the ring. Most of the faces did dives as well. The last seven minutes saw lots of near falls, including a Delfin top rope elbow and a Hamada top rope huracanrana. Dick Togo won the match for his team when he pinned Delfin in 32:07 after a top rope senton. This match was so great that it could have been my all time best match if there had been some All Japan-like psychology mixed in. *****

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