10 Best Wrestling Tag Team Matches Ever

1. Kenta Kobashi & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Can-Am Express (AJPW Super Power Series - 25 May 1992)

Let's get this out of the way early: the crowd here is ridiculous. You couldn't invent a hotter audience. They were on their feet chanting for hometown boy Kikuchi at eardrum-rupturing volumes before the bout was even underway and roared themselves hoarse whenever the babyface team so much as lifted a finger. "Molten" doesn't even cover it: this was a top-five crowd ever.

Dan Kroffat and Doug Furnas were a couple of big, muscled-up North American bullies flown in to inflict torture on Kikuchi, and torture him they did. The bout's second act is all about them ripping him to pieces. That's when the big brother/little brother dynamic between Kikuchi and Kobashi kicks in: when Kikuchi gets military pressed onto a table that bends rather than breaks, Kenta is straight out of the ring, willing his partner to his feet. This was a constant theme throughout. Kobashi would let Kickuchi take his beatings but only when they were fair, knowing that the Can-Am Express were focused on dismantling the younger man.

A hybrid of the classic southern and Japanese tag styles, this white-hot all-timer builds intensity through Furnas and Kroffat's agonising heat spot, Kikuchi's grit and fortitude, and Kobashi's hot tags, culminating in the heels' gameplan falling apart before their eyes.

It's flawless.

And, indeed, the greatest tag team match of all time.