MOTW 114: Hayabusa & Shinzaki vs Holy Demon Army

"M.O.T.W. #114: Hayabusa & Jinsei Shinzaki vs. The Holy Demon Army (Akira Taue & Toshiaki Kawada)" - ink & digital illustration

We're up to the 114th edition of our Chris Things Art 'Match of the Week' illustration series & this week we travel to 1997 & one of my very favourite cities in Japan, Sendai for some All Japan tag team action!

This totally wonderful 'indie outsiders dream team' vs. 'best of the best' home team boys tag bout took place on November 23rd, 1997, on Day 7 of the AJPW Real World Tag League at the Miyagi Prefectural Sports Center.

Oh dude! This match rocks so hard!! So this was a match that I'd had on my hard drive for what feels like forever. Pretty sure I most likely had seen it before but if so, it was so long ago that I forgot just how amazing it is!

I absolutely love that all four guys in this look fantastic in their own right but ultimately it's all about the teams working together. As a first time ever (& last time ever as far as I am aware) dream match, it is kinda mind blowing how great the chemistry is here.

I am always such a sucker for that "defending home turf against the outsiders" vibe & you rarely see it done as well as this. The Holy Demon Army duo are just the absolute best home town surly bullies defending the honour of the Kings Road against the 'lesser than' indie sleaze super team. And what better surly bully than 'Dangerous K'?! But man the real magic here really is in how Hayabusa & Shinzaki take that as fuel to just put on the showing of a lifetime & win over the Sendai All Japan fans in the process. Both are just absolute magic in a bottle from start to finish. But if I had to pick, I think the Hayabusa/Kawada moments were my favourite.

This is just such a perfect tag team match & really captures so much of what I love about tag team wrestling! HIGHLY recommended!!

ENJOY!

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