Maeda was an a$$hole but in this case, Andre was sent to teach him a lesson so Maeda had to shoot on him to not get fukked up. Now, Andre was a drunken mess so unless Akira was just standing there, I doubt the big fella could've done anything to him anyways.
That kick to Choshu

so many good things came out of that. Maeda might have been the biggest piece of shyt on the planet, but the guy helped puroresu - and hell, wrestling in general - evolve tremendously due to his antics and actions.