3/29 Nagoya Aichi-ken Taiikukan From AJ Pro Wrestling 30 4/5/98
This is the best in ring feud of all-time. Most wrestlers will never even approach this level, but for Misawa vs. Kawada this appeared to be the second "worst" match they've had together in the 1990's. However, we all know that in a Misawa vs. Kawada match there is rarely anything that doesn't further the match in some way. Only a little more than half of this match aired, so you just have to guess to fill in missing pieces. There's no way of knowing whether you are right or wrong, and the match just isn't the same in this form. This had all the elements that make matches between these two great, and the psychology and build were far stronger than what's unfortunately become the norm in AJ these days. The main reasons I thought this was a little down from normal were that it wasn't quite as intense, the heat was down, and Misawa toned down his offense some because he was banged up.
This match was in a way what it had to be. They were set to meet in the biggest match in the history of the company just over a month later, so that was the important match. The job of their requisite 30:00 draw was to build anticipation for that match. In a way it did, but in a way it also gave you an empty feeling because this wasn't the memorable bout these two have every year in the league portion. Still, you couldn't expect them to put everything into this match because they had to save something for the Tokyo Dome.
Part of the point of this match was to show that they needed a no time limit match at the Tokyo Dome, which would have been an excellent stipulation if it was Kawada vs. Kobashi given their two 60:00 draws in TC matches. However, Misawa & Kawada have never done a 60:00 draw, so why should a fan think they need more than an hour? Anyway, they didn't break as many finishers as they normally would, instead opting for more building. This match showed that these two are so even that they can't even wear each other down enough to execute all their big moves in this amount of time.
"Let's face it, this match was not the typical greatness we are all used to seeing from two of the greatest worker ever. Although this match in itself didn't have the typical work and psychology, it did further the storylines leading to their most important encounter and AJ's biggest show on 5/1. This match may have been below par for these two, but Misawa and Kawada's 'below par' is most workers 'match of a lifetime," wrote Hadi.
Kawada's strategy in this match was excellent. The powerbomb is the only move Kawada has beaten Misawa with, but he knew Misawa would try to avoid that at all costs, so instead he tried to give Misawa a taste of his own medicine. Kawada always loses to Misawa because he gets knocked out, so Kawada tried to knock Misawa out. He focused his attack on Misawa's head, but at the same time all his big potential knockout moves like the jumping high kick and Dangerous backdrop were also furthering the requisite bad neck storyline. This strategy was really the difference in this match and Jun's Carny final with Misawa and his July TC with Kenta. Kawada has the arsenal to back up a head/neck attack, while Jun has no finishers to go to. Thus, as excellent as Jun's all out knee attack was, all the very cool and effective spots to the knee were just somewhat pointless wear down moves that he used before he tried to finish Misawa and Kobashi off by dropping them on their heads with his trusty exploder.
This match basically followed the predictable formula. They began with parity spots. Kawada hit the first big move, not surprisingly showing he wasn't going to pity his injured rival, viciously dropping Misawa on his bad neck with a suichoku rakka shiki no brainbuster. Unlike 6/6/97, he didn't follow with a triangle hold, instead opting to kick Misawa some more.
They jumped to the 17-minute-mark and Misawa was getting pummeled, so you figure
he'd been getting the worse of it for a while. He made his comeback turning
Kawada's deadly powerbomb into his corbata, and began working
Kawada's knee over. This was a strategy from Misawa we hadn't seen in a
while, but it was one of the things, along with the great build, that made this
match reminiscent of their far superior 6/3/94 match. Unfortunately, for no
apparent reason, Misawa left this strategy in the midst. 
Later on Kawada tried his Dangerous backdrop, but Misawa blocked it with elbows. However, Kawada laid Misawa out with his devastating jumping high kick. They put over the toll of the match really well here, which should come as no surprise since this is the two best sellers in the world that we are talking about. Anyway, on a few occasions including after the aforementioned jumping high kick, Kawada lost good opportunities to pin Misawa because he was so spent that by the time he made it over to Misawa, Misawa was just able to kick out.
As always, this was a war and it was stiff as hell. One spot that I can't recall seeing Kawada use on Misawa before was high kicking him over the top rope to the floor. Back in the ring, Misawa & Kawada exchanged blows, but Kawada won by going to the neck with chops and a kakato otoshi. He did his deadly diving kneedrop right to Misawa's neck. Even though it wasn't enough to win Kawada the match, all of this was perfect strategy. Misawa caught Kawada in a German suplex, which was the finish of their 6/6/97 all- time classic, but Kawada kicked out at 1. Even though they were tired, these men always prove they don't know the definition of giving up. In the last minute, Misawa failed to knock Kawada out with his elbows. Kawada hit an explosive jumping high kick at the bell, leaving us with the impression that perhaps he was moments away from the win.
It's too bad that they wasted time that could have been devoted to this great match by airing a match that had Masao Inoue and everyone's favorite wannabe shooter Yoshihiro Takayama. As is always the case with a Misawa vs. Kawada match, it gets better with the repeated viewing. 30:00 (15:54 aired).
4/18/98 Tokyo Nippon Budokan From '98 Champion Carnival Special Highlight Commercial Tape
Even though Misawa belonged on Injured Reserve, the problem with this match had little to do with his health. I mean, obviously Misawa's health hurt the match, but the extent it took the match down is overrated. What really hurt the match is simply that All Japan is such a screwed up promotion. We know the booking sucks, and I'm not going to argue who belonged in this final, but the fact that we'd just seen this match in January, as well as a couple times in mid 1997, really hurt. What hurt a hell of a lot more is that AJ has forgotten what made their matches great. This was basically a spotfest. Since spots rule supreme in AJ these days, and top guys submit less frequently than Hulk Hogan does, you can't build a match like you once could. This whole match was basically cool spot=pop, anything else, especially a submission=silence. The fans actually seemed more into the cool spots themselves than the fact that Jun, who had the best chance he ever had of beating Misawa coming in, was coming close to taking out The King of the Heavyweights.
This
may have been Jun's finest work in that it was the first singles main at Budokan
that he carried. He did as good a job as you could possibly do of masking the
fact that Misawa's health was in the toilet. Obviously, people know how Misawa
wrestles so you can't pull the wool over their head so to speak, but if you
look at the match, Misawa really never shows that he can't do any spots and
rarely looks worse doing a spot than he normally does. Most of his athletic
stuff is done right at the beginning of the match, and it's clear that he's
going for the quick win because of his health, which makes a lot of sense. Once
Jun started destroying Misawa's knee, which Misawa had in a brace,
Misawa did a lot less moving. It made sense within the context of the match
that Misawa wouldn't be doing planchas after Jun destroyed his broken knee cap,
and hurt the "good" knee as well. It was a smart match in this regard,
and with Jun doing the bulk of the work and moving, Misawa mainly just had to
go with the moves and sell.
"This match was important because it gave us a good indication of just how far Jun has come and just how good he is. The setting wasn't good because Misawa was hurt. Thus, Jun was pretty much asked to carry, and he did that well. Jun was absolutely excellent in this match. Not only did he use good psychology, but his move-set and timing were very good. Jun's selling has become one of his best attributes, if not his best. This match turned out well considering the conditions. This was Jun's chance to deliver, and he did just that," wrote Hadi.
For everything that Jun did right, it goes back to what I mentioned earlier about the submissions though. Jun's finisher is the exploder, and he has no big knee spots. Thus, while injuring the knee is certainly a smart thing for him to do, you can't build the match around it. You can't pass off a sasorigatame (scorpion/sharpshooter) or figure 4 as a finisher when you never use those moves before. I know Misawa isn't going to submit to a "common" move. You know Misawa isn't going to submit to a "common" move. Everyone in Budokan knew the same thing. Thus, the match didn't build, and Jun's submission holds that no one has ever submitted to did nothing but transform the hall into a mausoleum.
Jun dominated this match because of Misawa's injury, and the fact that Misawa was going over. He used all his cool high spots again, but to an extent it fell flat here. We'd seen Jun roll out spot after spot in January, but those spots were advancing the match a lot more than they were here because Jun had a finisher he could go to, and the new moves he used/invented could have done the job. In this match, Jun was able to go from point A to B to C, but point D didn't exist. This match couldn't match their January TC because it was more of the same, with worse work, worse crowd reaction, worse selling, and a top star that was in far worse shape after three more months of being put through the buzz cutter. The work was still great, but it was down. The spots were still awesome, but these weren't nearly as innovative. The selling was still great, but Misawa didn't put as much into it as he usually does.
What pisses me off is that all they had to do to make this match better was give Jun a knee submission. There's no reason he can't do a hiza jujigatame. On the way to his 19 points, there's no reason, other than that AJ bookers can't think in advance (that is if they can think at all), he couldn't have beaten a couple of guys with that move. If he came into the match with a hiza jujigatame that was over, the whole knee attack would have worked. Instead, he may as well have continued to attack Misawa's neck like we've seen everyone do for the past year because at least Jun has a number of head dropping spots that could put Misawa away. You probably think I'm going overboard on one point, but it's hard enough for anyone to believe that Misawa is going to lose to the deadliest spot in the world, much less a spot that even a joker like Jun Izumida wouldn't submit to. The AJ fans would still buy submissions if anyone finished with them, but instead we get below piss poor booking and waning fundamentals. You'd think as these guys got older and more banged up, they would make the style easier on themselves. They could make the style far superior to what it is right now in the process. Where the style was a few years ago with Kawada & Misawa pushing psychology to new levels was far superior. Instead the style is regressing. There seems to be a problem with common sense. How else can you explain injured up wrestlers subbing fundamentally sound spots that advance the match for more dangerous head dropping spots that are supposed to get pops but are now almost passe due to overuse?
After Misawa's injured body was put through the meat grinder, he kicked out of Jun's exploder. Misawa stopped the subsequent exploder and used his elbows, a Tiger drop, then as we saw in January, Jun proved the Tigerdriver wasn't enough to beat him anymore. Thus, Misawa KO'd him with a running elbow to win the Carnival for the 2nd time and become the first sitting champion to win since Stan Hansen in 1992. I may be going too hard on these guys because it was a miracle that Misawa could even wrestle a decent match in his condition, but the problems with the match are not caused by poor health, they are what causes poor health. A very good, albeit extremely frustrating final. 22:05. ****
This would have been the tape of the century if it had the six Misawa vs. Kawada Triple Crown matches in unedited form. Instead, the first 1hr 20 minutes of the tape documents their TC matches, showing highlights of the matches and events that set up each one and then showing between 8:00 and 12:30 minutes of highlights from each of the first five Triple Crown matches. The final 40 minutes has their entire 5/1/98 Tokyo Dome match, which I will review in a minute. Due to the way they chose to make the tape, focusing on Kawada and showing all the times Misawa set him back in highlight form then the entire win, leaving things with Kawada on top, this tape would more aptly be titled, "Toshiaki Kawada's Eternal Quest to Dethrone Mitsuharu Misawa As Triple Crown Champion."
This is the best AJ tape I've seen for an AJ beginner because it does an excellent job of detailing the top singles series in the promotion for the past six years. It doesn't cover their excellent Carny League bouts or the Real World Tag Team League matches, but based on what the tape wants to be that footage isn't really necessary for this tape (you should definitely see them if you haven't already). Most of it is somewhat self explanatory, but they obviously aren't going to show footage of Tenryu leaving for SWS or a sick Jumbo Tsuruta, both of which in their own way greatly changed Misawa's & Kawada's careers. My advice is access JDW's Kawada bio. Aside from Misawa defeating Stan Hansen on 8/22/92 to capture the TC for the first time, which has nothing to do with Kawada, it will explain what any of the footage you might not be sure about is, as well as provide a lot more valuable information about Dangerous K.
"Here it was, The Showdown At The Egg. This is what everything between the two rivals had led to. Unfortunately, the conditions weren't what the Babas or anyone else wanted. Misawa was broken, and in no way did I expect this to be the best of their series. Even though nearly every Tom, Dick and Harry in the crowd knew what the end result would be, what this match had was heat and anticipation," wrote Hadi.
Once again, this was disappointing by the high standards of this series. It was too short for the stupid no time limit stipulation, which can be attributed to Misawa's injuries. If you compare this to their first five Triple Crown matches, this wasn't short at all. In fact, it was actually longer than two of the previous five (7/29/93 was 25:53 and 7/24/95 was 24:16). However, this match was very condensed, in that they skipped most of the body work and building to the spots. The match wasn't really toned down at all as far as the spots they used. They just went to the spots quicker, as has been the case in AJ of late, which hurt the match.
"Kawada was really good here, as he played off previous matches with his rival. I think that 28 minutes was somewhat short, but that length was mainly due to Misawa's health. Again this match could probably be the best in a ‘mediocre' wrestlers career, but for Misawa & Kawada it was below the norm, which again shows the greatness of these two workers," wrote Hadi.
The match wasn't as compelling as it should have been, which can be attributed to Misawa's injuries. However, to me it was more that while they did a ton of near falls you could tell none would be the finish. The fact that Kawada was definitely winning, and he was fairly dominant, really had nothing to do with the near falls not working that well for me. However, the fact that these days everyone in AJ wins with the same move or two had everything to do with it.
The stiffness was down, which can be attributed to Misawa's injuries. Misawa didn't hold back at all, not that anyone would expect him to, but he didn't have as much on his elbows as he normally does. The problem was that after seeing these two work incredibly stiff every time they met in singles, it was almost like Kawada was being too nice by not totally killing Misawa. Being nice isn't exactly a characteristic that can exist in Kawada's character, but things that shouldn't be done and don't make sense just keep springing up left and right in this promotion. The other thing was that while he was nice not to attack Misawa's broken kneecap early on, Misawa didn't seem to do enough damage to him to make me buy him changing his mind. I mean, Misawa certainly rocked Kawada with elbows, but 15 minutes into the match, Kawada wasn't in that bad of shape. Certainly he didn't want to let the Triple Crown slip away as it always does when he challenges Misawa. However, if he wasn't just going to attack it initially, I would have preferred for his back to really be against the wall before he changed his mind.
The psychology, and especially the build were down, which is hard to fathom giving Misawa's injuries. You'd think with Misawa falling apart, they'd want to extend the match as much as possible without doing spots, but once again this wasn't the case at all. I'm not talking about these guys locking on The People's Chinlock for two minutes so they could rest and kill time. Misawa & Kawada are very capable of doing strong focused bodywork that advances the match, but they have forsaken it. They did do several teases, but it was tease a dangerous spot then do a different high spot. While that isn't bad wrestling, it's far from the kind of build that made past AJ matches great.
Kawada came into the match in the best shape I've ever seen him in, having really trained hard for the biggest match of his career.(training on ajtv) Misawa was wearing a knee brace again, and it was quickly apparent that if he wasn't in the worst physical condition he'd ever started a match in, he was at least pretty damn close. The figurehead president of President of the Pacific Wrestling Federation (PWF title is one of the belts in the Triple Crown) Lord James Blears, who traditionally read the proclamation before every TC match, was brought back for this special occassion. It was sad watching Blears because injuries, and also age, have really caught up to him to the point he was having a hard time walking and he needed help to get his bumb leg through the ring ropes. There are some wrestlers you'd like to show this tape to and say this is where all your craziness will get you, and Blears wasn't even suicidal, homicidal, and all that other crap they call those spot machines (although some of Blears current condition stems from surfing injuries), but you know for a number of reasons that they wouldn't change one bit anyway.
They teased Kawada dropping Misawa on his bad neck with the suichoku rakka shiki no brainbuster early on. Misawa had two big runs of offense in this match, with the first being early on before Kawada took his already crumbling body apart. Misawa's offense was still very good, but he was somewhat limited in what he could do, and he was laboring to do what he did.
After
the heat killing facelock, they teased Misawa's Tigerdriver. Kawada came back
with a great spin kick that "reinjured"
Misawa's neck. What is so impressive about Kawada's spin kick is that he stops
on a dime in the middle of being Irish whipped, and really in the same motion
spins 180 degrees with the kick to the face. Kawada then went to work on Misawa's
neck. In theory, I think Kawada was going to drop Misawa on his head off the
top rope, but Misawa countered his brainbuster and tried to come back. The thing
was, Misawa was unable to land on his feet on this counter so all his weight came down on his knees. Misawa
tried to comeback, but his knee gave out when he tried to give up, and by the
time he did get up he ate Kawada's high kick. Kawada worked the neck some more,
including hitting the suichoku rakka brainbuster for a long pop. Kawada tried
to put Misawa away with the powerbomb, but Misawa countered it with his corbata.
Kawada was once again able to maintain control by putting Misawa down with a
high kick. Misawa might have overexaggerated this bump a little bit, but the
way he fell back was still effective without
being ridiculous.
Misawa turned it around with elbows. Why they went to this only 11 minutes into the match is beyond me, but I pretty much covered that earlier. Later on, Kawada ducked Misawa's rolling elbow and suplexed him on his head. Misawa popped up and hit a weak running elbow, but Kawada no-sold that and put Misawa down with his jumping giri, which both sold. I've seen them do this sequence many times before, and for a no-sell spot I usually like it, but there just wasn't any zip on it with Misawa in this condition.
Kawada dropped Misawa on his head, but again Misawa came back with elbows. Misawa's comeback here was typically excellent, as he immediately fell to his knee after putting Kawada down with the elbows then was very slow to go to his next spot. After being German suplexed, Kawada pulled a Misawa and escaped to the floor to recover. Misawa dragged Kawada back in the ring, and you could really see how much trouble Misawa's knee was giving him during this. Now that Kawada was in worse shape, Misawa was able to Tigerdriver him for a near fall.
Kawada could see the title slipping away once again, or at least I think that was supposed to be the theory, so he got mean and launched an all out attack on Misawa's bad knee. It was a focused attack with everything done really well, so the how was excellent but the why could have been better. Misawa's selling during this segment was excellent, particularly when Kawada put him in the figure 4 and he was screaming in pain. Misawa's selling is normally far more subtle, so this really worked as far as making you think he was in agony. Kawada was equally excellent during the figure 4 because, as always, his intensity really came across.
Misawa again came back with elbows, and they weren't as stiff as normal. He once again tried for his Tiger suplex, but Kawada was able to stop it until Misawa rocked him with a rolling elbow. Kawada tried to come back with his jumping giri, but Misawa blocked it with his elbow arm. What I really liked about this spot was that Misawa sold the arm. Most other guys would have acted like the move did no damage because it was blocked, but the move has the same amount of impact whether it hits your head or your forearm so it's just stupidity on the part of the guys who don't sell it. Instead of dragging Kawada up, Misawa turned his back on him and walked away, holding his arm and shaking it around, then circled back to where Kawada was and began to mount his offensive.
Kawada's new focus became taking away the elbow arm. Once again, it was a focused attack that Misawa sold well.
"I thought Misawa should've made more of an attempt to get to the ropes when Kawada put him in the jujigatame about 22:00 in because it is supposed to be such a killer hold. I understand that he was selling his ass off, but while most people squirm around until they can get to the ropes, he just laid there. It wasn't like they threw in the jujigatame just for the sake of doing it, so it was especially important that Misawa put it over properly," wrote Michael.
Kawada couldn't damage the arm enough to take it away, so Misawa once again came back with elbows. They went back and forth with big spots, but none of them created the illusion that they might be the finish.
"What I found most disappointing about the match was that toward the end, Misawa never had the opportunity to provide a flurry of credible offense where one could surmise it might be the finish. When the match ended that night, I made the comment that ‘Misawa was never in danger of winning.' I was really looking forward to a couple of nice sequences where Misawa would put together some big moves in combination to tease the finish, perhaps involving his frog splash, diving neckbreaker drop, Tigerdriver, German suplex, elbows, etc., especially since we knew going in that Kawada would be put over. Oh well," wrote Glenn.
Kawada finally caught Misawa with a stiff abisegeri and jumping giri, which must have done wonders for Misawa's neck, for big pops. Kawada was throwing bombs now, including dropping Misawa on his head with a Dangerous released German suplex, and the crowd was really popping.
When Misawa tried to turn it around with an elbow, Kawada abisegeri'd him right back to maintain control. You knew Misawa was in big trouble, since even his most reliable weapon couldn't phase Kawada. Kawada hit a jumping giri followed by a suichoku rakka brainbuster, which probably should have been the finish to the match if they were just about to go home anyway. This was an opportunity to create a new finisher for Kawada that would have been over big for years. It also made sense because the brainbuster played on the neck storyline of the match.
"If the Dangerous moves are really so dangerous, why do they have to fall back on moves like powerbombs or lariats to get pins? If they have to use Dangerous moves, why not makes them seem -really- DANGEROUS! by letting matches like Kawada vs, Misawa end with one? If the Dangerous moves came off as truly Dangerous, could end someone's career type moves, they wouldn't need to use them s as often. The style would be safer and the moves would have more heat on them when they did use them. At this point, they may have taken things to far to reverse the trend though," wrote Miko.
Instead
of a brainbuster finish, we were back to the one move that Kawada has beat Misawa
with, the powerbomb. Kawada struggled for it in his typical fashion, struggling
to summon all the power in his body, and flashing the trademark toothless mouth
in the process. Kawada finally powerbombed Misawa, but Misawa kicked out for
a huge pop. The crowd just continued yelling as Kawada powerbombed Misawa again,
this time leaning over Misawa deep for
the title victory over Misawa he'd been waiting some 5 ½ years for. Kawada captured
the Triple Crown for the 2nd time, becoming the 18th champion overall. The fans
were jumping up and down.
"The one image from the Dome match that really stands out is when they panned the crowd at a wide angle after Kawada had just won and some guy jumped out of his seat and ripped his shirt off in celebration as everyone was going nuts (you have to be paying close attention to see it). That's just something that you don't see enough of anywhere. A spontaneous show of emotion in celebration of a great accomplishment by your favorite wrestler (or one of them)," wrote Michael Smith.
Of course, Kawada, whose rib was broken along the way, sold for a while before the undercarders dragged him up and Masao Inoue lifted Kawada up on his shoulders. The finish was excellent, especially due to the crowd, but in typical AJ fashion, they failed to think beyond this match so it wasn't as good as it could have been.
This was certainly a great match, but we've seen it all done so much better in the past that even though Kawada finally won the title, the match didn't excite me nearly as much as I had hoped and expected. It was obvious that injury hurt the match, but just as obvious that the reason for all the injuries is that the style has changed for the worst. This is not to say that there weren't injuries before because obviously there were several. The matches are even more tolling now though, and it's hurting their quality in more ways than one, while not helping their quality one bit.
The closing minutes were very memorable and the crowd was great, which isn't exactly a trademark for the Dome. Everything they did would have people raving for months if it was anyone but them doing it. This was a great match. It was awesome by the standards of what all but the top dozen or so wrestlers in the world can do, but by their standards, it doesn't match up. It wasn't close to 6/3/94 or 6/6/97, nor was it as great as say 10/21/92 or 3/30/97.
The book on Kawada's quest to defeat Misawa had finally come to an end. The epic struggle between these two had in a sense ended in an unfitting manner when Kawada pinned Misawa in the triangular Champion Carnival final on 4/19/97. This was truly the end though, and it was a fitting conclusion to the incredible series, seeing the perennial bridesmaid's greatest day be in some ways the promotion's greatest day (remember wrestling is first and foremost a business). It always comes back to AJ being on the same road to ruination that AJW was on a few years ago though. It was also a great thing when Akira Hokuto, a bridesmaid of sorts due to being by far the best woman wrestler that never held the WWWA World Singles Title, finally had her day on what was by leaps and bounds the best show ever held at the Tokyo Dome. AJW was only delivering greatness for 10 months after that day, lets hope it's not the same for AJ. 28:05. ****1/2
6/5/98 Sapporo Nakajima Taiiku Center from AJ '98 Super Power Series Commercial Tape
This
was a surprisingly great match. Kawada & Kobashi made it such, excelling
in the areas they normally excel. Taue & Ace were always serviceable, and
occasionally great. Taue seemed more awkward than normal, so perhaps age and
injuries are catching up to him, or maybe it was just that he was working with
Ace. When Kobashi carried Taue, the match was very good. Ace's facials are always
goofy, as unlike Kawada and Kobashi he
just looks so absurd when he's trying to be intense or nasty. Ace does have some cool
spots and does well on double team spots. The match was very good when Kawada
was carrying him, but wasn't that good when he was in with Taue. While this
isn't all that surprising, it was somewhat disappointing because the singles
match that Ace should have won from 10/21/97 Budokan was a very good match.
Luckily, Taue vs. Ace was kept to a minimum, but there was a price to that.
Since Kawada & Kobashi were needed to make keep the quality of the match
up while Ace or Taue respectively were in, they didn't work together all that
much to build to their TC match.
The reason this match was so good was that the body was very strong and solid then they really kicked it into high gear with great spots back and forth for hot near falls. The attacks early on were focused, and the Kawada vs. Kobashi rivalry was heated up even though they didn't log that much time together. The heat was a lot better than you would expect. The fans getting into the match so much once the workers turned it up a notch made this match seem like something special. The match would have been dramatic anyway, but a hot crowd that is reacting to everything adds a lot to the drama.
"Kawada and Kobashi did wonders for this match as usual, and the supporting cast filled their roles very well. Taue worked some very good sequences and he still has good value in AJ, despite his injuries and age. The crowd heat definitely added to the flow of this match, as the pacing seemed to really pick up during the latter parts of this match. Overall a very good tag title match, which has been rare this year in AJ," wrote Hadi.
Kawada and Kobashi started, mainly exchanging stiff blows. Neither man could gain the advantage, and Ace tagged in before the 2:00 mark. They worked over Ace' neck for several minutes. Taue did a couple of lousy guillotine drops during this portion, but Kawada's greatness made it an overall good segment.
Kobashi tagged in a little after 8:00, and no sold Taue's elbows then took control with his high spots. Less than 0:30 into his dominance, he ran over to the opponent's corner and elbowed Kawada off the apron to the floor. When Kobashi tried to pin Taue the first time, Kawada came in and made the save even though there was no threat of Taue not kicking out. Kobashi was pissed. He thought about attacking Kawada, but they wound up just having a stare down. While this was going on, Taue recovered and he blindsided the distracted Kobashi with a kick. Kobashi & Kawada soon worked another stiff segment. Kawada was the one who "won" the segment because he put Kobashi down, but he put over the damage off the stiff blows he withstood, and he had to roll over to his corner to tag Taue.
Kobashi attacked Taue's bad knee with a half crab, so Kawada came in to save him. Kawada unloaded several kicks, but they weren't enough to make Kobashi break. Kawada decided a running start would give him the necessary force to make Kobashi break, and Kobashi did break the hold, but not the way Kawada had envisioned. Kobashi saw Kawada running at him, so he released the hold and put Kawada down with his lariat. They continued attacking Taue's knee, including Kobashi kneebreakering Taue on a table.
Taue finally tagged out a little before 20:00 and Kawada tried his big moves, but Kobashi avoided them and tagged out. The action and crowd really got hot during the segment where Ace did his big spots to Kawada, including finally being able to cobra clutch suplex Kawada. Kawada took a nice bump on this, although he didn't make anyone forget Misawa. When Taue saved Kawada from being pinned by the cobra clutch suplex, he stayed in the ring and nodowa otoshi'd Ace, which bought his partner enough time to make the tag.
Taue came in and nadare shiki no nodowa otoshi'd Ace, but Kobashi saved. Taue tried to do his nodowa otoshis in rapid succession, but Ace countered with a sloppy Ace crusher. Ace then slowly made his way over to the corner to tag Kobashi.
Taue stopped Kobashi's lariats with high kicks, but Kobashi caught him with a rolling chop and Taue stumbled into a guillotine Ace crusher. Kobashi then released Tiger suplexed Taue. Ace took Kawada out, and they did their combination back suplex/Ace crusher spot for a 2 9/10 count. Kobashi continued dominating Taue. He worked toward his moonsault, but when he finally climbed up the ropes to perform it, Kawada cut him off.
Kawada took Ace out with an enzuigiri, and Ace really wasn't involved in the match after this because every time he recovered they just took him right out again. Kobashi finally lariated Taue, but he was too hurt to cover immediately and that cost him because Kawada, who was down in the ring, recovered just in time to make the save.
Kawada dropped Kobashi on his head with a Dangerous backdrop at 27:15, and everyone was down selling at this point. Kawada and Taue did their combination powerbomb/nodowa otoshi to Kobashi, but Ace was able to make the save before they took him out again. Kobashi was able to fend off some of the big spots, but as soon as he avoided one opponent's big spot, the other opponent would catch him with something. Finally, Taue nodowa otoshi'd Kobashi then dragged him up and Dynamic bombed him for the win. 30:26. ****1/4
6/12/98 Tokyo Nippon Budokan from AJ '98 Super Power Series Commercial Tape
Kawada+headlining June Budokan=Very Strong MOTYC. Kobashi+someone to carry him, do most of his thinking, and eliminate most of his goofiness=Very Strong MOTYC. In this match, we had both equations, and we certainly had that result.
This was an awesome performance by Kawada. Kawada can be the best wrestler in the world when he wants to, and he certainly picked his spot here. He singlehandedly made this the best pro style match since Misawa vs. Kobashi 10/21/97. Kawada did a great job of carrying Kenta, or as JDW would put it "leading the blind." This was Kawada's best performance since 1995, which really says something.
What made this match so great was that Kawada brought back all the things that used to make AJ main events great, but have been brushed aside as dangerous spots became the in thing. The build, psychology, drama, set up, timing, and pacing in this match were all excellent because of the way Kawada carried the match. They still did a lot of big spots and the match was still ungodly stiff, but they weren't rolling things out or doing things just to try to get pops. What separates a Kawada masterpiece from the best stuff that almost anyone else can produce is just about everything done has meaning and works. That was the case here.
"This match is an excellent example of just how great a worker Kawada is. Kawada doesn't neccesarily give his all on house shows, but there is no one better when the big show comes around. His performance in this match was probably one of the best by any wrestler in the last few years. Kobashi is at a specific level and stage where someone like Kawada can carry him to greatness, and that's just what Kawada did. The means to Kawada's end was instilling all of what made AJ great from '91-96. What really stood out from the what made AJ great group was the psychology, timing, and near perfect pacing," wrote Hadi
One of the many things that made the match great was that they really worked the holds. This is an aspect that is so often missing these days to the point that it's worth mentioning if the wrestlers do it. However, most people overlook it because they focus on the high spots and disregard that "boring" body work that needs to be done right to properly to bridge to the spots they want to see. The most useless move in all of wrestling is The Rock's chinlock because he just sits there for 2 minutes doing absolutely nothing. The move serves no purpose other than for him to get a rest because his stamina is almost as pitiful as his move set.
"What you said about the WWF guys not putting anything into the submission holds is correct, but at least to The Rock's credit his chinlock doesn't show as much light as the British Bulldog's or Sid's, if that is actually a compliment," wrote Michael.
The
chinlock doesn't advance the match in any way, shape, or form, but when you
come right down to it, nothing he does really advances the match. I mean, take
a look at the 30:00 match he had with Helmsley on 7/26/98, and you'll see it's
just pathetic. Not only do they do nothing to advance the match, but they can't
even develop any semblance of a storyline or really build to anything (a tease
or two in 30 minutes doesn't cut it) in all that time. Pretty much all they
do is a bunch of aimless brawling, mainly punches, and these are not exactly
Benoit or Ultimo blows. These guys' blows don't cut it for the same reason Glacier
and The Cat's kicks don't cut it, they have nothing on them. Even with two People's
chinlocks, both men clearly blew up, which I don't fault them for because it's
bad booking to have two guys with no move sets out there for 4 times as long
as they normally work. In a way, the match was like Hase vs. Akiyama 5/1/98,
except that was 8 great minutes stretched out to a 27 minute match, while this
was 8 great moves stretched out into a 30:00 match. The only thing that kept
the crowd awake was that they ran out a stiff once in a while and had Chyna
interfere. Of course, the most pointless move in all of wrestling, The People's
elbow did get a pop, so I guess that made the match good? The match did heat
up the Degenerates vs. Nation fued, but anyone with half a clue of what good
wrestling is should be able to see the match itself was not good at all. Anyway,
even though there weren't really any high spots in the early portion of Kawada
vs. Kobashi it was excellent because they put everything into each hold. At
the same time, they were teasing or building to the big spots. It sounds funny
in this day and age, but Kawada driving his elbow into Kobashi's back was a
good spot. Kobashi's headlock was also good because it was worked, but more
so because it showed it was too early for Kawada to suplex Kobashi on his head.
Despite the incredible stiffness, Kobashi kept wanting to suck up the pain and comeback with a blow of his own. Kawada had to keep him in check by either selling himself or pounding Kobashi until he didn't comeback. Kobashi also kept wanting to go to his beloved high spots, but Kawada would simply refuse and cut Kobashi off with an ultra stiff blow. Thus, Kobashi was eventually forced to sell.
Due not only to the stiffness, but to the build, when Kawada did his high kick, I felt like I really saw something. If I've seen this spot once I've seen it 1000 times, and they did the exact same no sell then high kick in the tag title match from a week earlier but I didn't even notice that until I was capturing the images for the column, but it really stood out here because they had been going back and forth with stiff blows and Kawada was the first one to sell one like it really hurt him. Just when you thought Kobashi was going to rattle off some high spots, Kawada no sold his chop off the ropes and ran off the ropes for momentum then unleashed his high kick with great wrath and furious anger. Of course, Kawada throws all his kicks like he has dangerous intentions, but they were more pronounced here. Kobashi helped make this look really impressive by getting blown backwards with his mouth open, so it partially looked like he was surprised the move had so much on it and partially looked like he was hit by a truck.
Another spot early on that worked because it was done a little different was Kobashi's short knee. "The knee to the gut spot was interesting because Kawada just collapsed like a balloon deflating. It worked well as a spot because it went just enough against what you expected to make you briefly wonder if it was a real hit," wrote Miko. Kobashi saw Kawada really putting this over, so he was smart enough to immediately attack the stomach.
After working Kobashi over, Kawada tried to drop him on his head at 12:30, but Kobashi still stopped it. Kawada would have to stiff Kobashi some more to wear him down enough to do this spot. Kawada's facials during the series of high kicks he used on Kobashi were excellent. He is just a master of making it look like he is summoning all the power in his body to deliver every big strike. Kawada began kicking Kobashi's knee out, but it was purposely the "better" knee of the two because Kawada wanted to beat Kobashi "fair and square."
At 15:00, after delivering more stiff blows, Kawada again tried to drop Kobashi on his head, but Kobashi still wasn't damaged enough. Kobashi soon came back with a running neckbreaker drop then tried to drop Kawada on his head, but Kawada stopped it with an enzuigiri. At 16:05, after all the teases back and forth, Kobashi avoided Kawada's chop and dropped him on his head with a half nelson German suplex.
Kobashi went for his powerbomb, but Kawada stopped it. However, Kobashi's rolling chop did enough damage that he could hobble over and powerbomb Kawada then released Tiger suplexed him. What made the rolling chop stand out was that Kawada did his patented stagger sell where he slowly goes backwards and down at the same time until he hits the canvas, while at the same time Kobashi went back to putting over his knee. The combination of Kawada's folded over bump and his selling on the Tiger suplex was awesome. Kobashi crawled over and covered Kawada for the first near fall of the match. They teased Kobashi moonsault, which got a big pop. What Kobashi wound up trying was a diving neckbreaker drop, but Kawada caught him in the air with a jumping knee, which both sold.
Kobashi caught Kawada's spin kick, but Kawada enzuigiri'd Kobashi with his free leg and Kobashi collapsed backward like he was KO'd. Kawada dragged Kobashi up and laid in some of the stiffest blows of the match until Kobashi fell back down. Kobashi was out of it, or so Kawada thought. Kawada hoisted Kobashi up for the brainbuster, but Kobashi woke up and shook his legs so he fell on Kawada. Kawada knocked Kobashi into the ropes with an enzui lariat then jumping high kicked him on the rebound. Kobashi was staggered, and he stumbled right into Kawada's Dangerous backdrop. By the time Kawada crawled over to make the cover, Kobashi was able to kick out.
Kawada continued on the offensive, getting
hot near falls from his powerbomb, but
the joint went silent the second he went to the stretch Plum. Kawada really
worked the second stretch Plum of the series, making perfect facials and noises
plus shaking his head up and down. The reality is that, even though Kawada was
putting his heart and soul into the spot, if the fans don't buy the move as
the finish, there's nothing you can do to get heat on it. If someone of note
had actually submitted from the stretch Plum (was Takayama on 3/1/97 the last
"name" to lose from the move itself as opposed to being pinned after
it?) then the move would still get heat, but it's AJ and they have no clue.
After an epic seesaw battle, Kobashi powered out of Kawada's powerbomb, but
Kawada put him down with a high kick. Of course, as soon as he high kicked Kobashi,
Kawada basically collapsed because he had expended so much energy in his failed
attempt to powerbomb Kobashi. Kawada's
selling is so great and Kenta's is so mediocre that it almost looked like
Kawada was in the worse shape of the two when they both sold this.
Kobashi finally came back with a Dragon screw, which Kawada did a great job of selling. Kawada tried to maintain control with a high kick, but Kobashi no sold it and unleashed his lariat, which was the move Kobashi used to score his first career win over Kawada on 3/27/98 in his hometown of Nagaoka. What made this a great near fall was that Kobashi fell down on top of Kawada from the effort it took to deliver the lariat. This got a big reaction and looked like it could have been the finish.
Kobashi again went for his moonsault, but Kawada rolled once toward the center of the ring so he would be out of range. Finally, after two powerbombs, Kobashi hit the moonsault for a hot near fall. Kobashi was feeling it, and he went back to his lariat, but Kawada cut him off three times before he actually hit it. The place was just going nuts. Kawada got up and stumbled around, but he found it in him to jumping high kick Kobashi, and both sold for about 30 seconds before Kobashi slowly crawled over and collapsed on Kawada for a near fall.
Kawada stopped a chop and did a jumping takedown into an udehishigigyakujujigatame. What made this such a great spot was that it was a dramatic three step process. First, Kawada was on his back and had Kobashi's arm. Then he took Kobashi over to his back. Finally, Kawada broke Kobashi's grasp and locked the hold. The fans really reacted to this, which was somewhat shocking because Kawada doesn't win with this on the rare occasions he uses it. We were finally seeing a move that the fans bought as a submission.
"One of the reasons this really worked was that it was not clean and easy. It was not a flash submission. Kawada had to grab the arm in the middle of a flurry, drag Kobashi down with him, then work to get position and get his arm extended. Once again, it was a little against the flow, especially since they had already had spots where they traded until on had to sell. This all made it look more legit to me. The spot also showed that if you set it up properly, AJ fans will still pop big for submission spots. Baba needs to take notice," wrote Miko.
This was the perfect finish because Kawada had not only brought back submissions so you could get heat without doing a dangerous spot, but he brought back the all the aspects that were key to the greatness of AJ past, as well as taking another step toward establishing himself as the new top star and draw. The only problem was that the collective brain power in the AJ front office registers a negative rating, so they totally fucked things up, as always. Kobashi got a rope escape and, even though his arm was injured, soon came back with his lariat, which both sold really well. Kobashi did a good job of putting over the previous damage of the udehishigigyakujujigatame here.
Kawada stopped Kobashi's lariats and hit a jumping high kick that knocked Kobashi silly. Kobashi oversold this in Michaels like fashion. Kawada was just as dizzy as Kobashi, and he walked into a lariat for another hot near fall. Both men were close to dead, but Kobashi sold this a hell of a lot worse because he always "finds adrenaline" somewhere. Kawada couldn't stand anymore, so Kobashi pulled him up and held him by what little hair he has. Kobashi reared back then, with all his might, he lariated Kawada out of his boots to surprisingly make it two in a row over Dangerous K and take the Triple Crown for the second time in his career (19th champion overall).
Sometimes change is a good idea, and everyone knows AJ needs it, but having Kobashi win the title here certainly wasn't the right thing to do. The finish worked for the crowd, but it was a desperate act that probably did irreparable damage to the promotion. Not only did it kill any chance of Kawada ever being the man, well unless he's the last man standing in the rubble of a once great promotion, but it set up another series of main event matches that would be spot, spot, dangerous spot (although surprisingly his TC match against Jun, who's actually become far more spot happy than Kobashi was a theme match rather than a spot fest). The inferior Kobashi style had won out once again, much to the delight of the fans in attendance, but if anything it would go on to hurt attendance. Now the top stars are all one step closer to the wheel chair, and AJ is one step closer to a demise of AJW purportions.
The match itself was tremendous though because Kawada's performance was basically perfect. He did an awesome job of working all the big spots into the match at the right time, which you'll never see from Kobashi, and the execution was just about perfect. Kobashi hobbling out with assistance from his friends was a great job of putting over the toll of the match, but soon the toll of his style will have these guys entering the ring that way, if they can make it there at all. Unfortunately, I don't get paid by the word, but a guy who did once opened his novel "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." I think that's the best summation anyone could come up with for this match. 33:49. *****
"Probably one of the two best matches of 1998. Kawada's effort alone was worth the ***** rating," wrote Hadi.
*This is Hikari's second modeling video. It was very much hit and miss. There was some really hot footage, but the problem was they just didn't have enough different ideas. The shower scenes and the opening the curtains scenes ruled hard. I didn't mind when Hikari did an add for Anaconda at the end of a JWP show, hell, even though the special effects were great that was probably cooler than watching the movie. However, I didn't need to see Hikari dress up to hunt through the jungles of deepest darkest Africa, perhaps in search of Akeem. To try to mask the fact that they didn't have enough ideas, they showed a lot of "making of" footage. I wouldn't have minded that they showed the same scene more than once if the camera angles were about as good, but for the "making of" they basically just left an unmaned camera on a tripod somewhere behind where the regular camera man. It was a great 10 minute video stretched out to 30 minutes. I enjoyed the tape and I wasn't disappointed with it because I figured coming in it wouldn't be Scholar's best work, but it would be very similar to the Motoya video. In fact, even though I think Motoya is far more attractive than Hikari, I think this video was better because the best footage was better and this was almost entirely modeling whereas Motoya's Love Fall Vol. 2 had some wasted time and she didn't model in enough different outfits. In comparison to Hikari's Sunshine & Starlight, I think Hikari looked better in this video and this had the hotter footage, but Sunshine & Starlight was far better made and kept a much better pace. Overall, I'd definitely have to rate Sunshine & Starlight ahead of this.
"They kept replaying the same footage with that retarded ‘behind the scenes' crap interjected to make it look different. Alot of the footage was bizarre or pointless. For instance, the short scene by that stone wall where she is suppossed to be sick or something. Most of the time she looked very hot though. She looked REALLY KILLER in the white underwear in the bedroom, and I actually liked those scenes better than the shower scenes. The Kanako tape was better because the lighting was better and even though she was nervous at least she did more than Hikari. I think it's like the WWF PPV argument. Would you rather pay for one "great" match and a shitty undercard or pay for a very good undercard and maybe a shitty main event (which is usually the case with WCW)? The Hikari tape is like a WWF PPV to me (except that I'd watch this tape 100 times in a row before I'd watch another WWF show, especially if the K-DX thing comes to fruition) in that it's a few great minutes (not that the WWF can say that) and mostly filler while the Kanako tape is more balanced like a WCW show. That's not to say that I regret getting the Hikari tape like I do when I order a WWF PPV because the bedroom and shower scenes are worth more than the $18.00 I spent for the tape, but it was hurt by the severe lack of originality. I've only seen Sunshine and Starlight once (I really have to set aside 30 minutes to rewatch it), but from what I remember it seriously smoked this tape," wrote Michael.
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*This was another excellent ARSION video. It was different than Fukawa's and Omukai's, in some ways it was better and in some ways it was worse. This was the "low budget" video of the bunch in that they didn't go all out looking for great locations or thinking of things to do. Instead, they basically just dropped Candy off at Puerto Princesa Resort and filmed her doing things. Since Candy didn't have the gimmicks to rely on, or at least to set the mood, her personality really came out a lot more than Fukawa's or Omukai's did. It worked because Candy is a real character, and pretty much balanced things off.
"Candy Ocutesu is enough on her own. I'd watch her cutting grass if that's was what the tape was," wrote Chris.
Candy definitely isn't one of the 10 best looking wrestlers in my opinion, which obviously hurts this for me. Looks is just an opinion that varies a great deal from person to person, so it would be stupid for me to take away stars because it's Candy or add stars because it's The Goddess. In any case, Candy looks better on this tape than I ever figured she would. The thing that elevated her looks the most was that she got her teeth fixed. I am not a fan of bleached or dyed hair, but Candy's hair really looks a lot better with the reddish dye. This was a really fun tape. I think this is a notch down from Fukawa's and Omukai's, but half the reason I like this less is that I'm such a mark for the looks of the other two.
"Candy's tape was damn good, and it was made even better by her being genuinely into the modeling and having a good time. I have always loved her ‘half moon' eyes, but her teeth really helped elevate her attractiveness and the dye job looks great on her. I think she looked her best in the scene where she was on the bed even though she had on that pajama top because she was so f'n sexy with the ‘innocent girl next door' look. The only real drawback was that she didn't model in enough different outfits," wrote Michael.
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Special Thanks to Hadi, Michael Smith, Miko Kubota, Glenn Tsunekawa, & Chris Martinez
