"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 titles win over Misawa continue to remain ellusive, but if he wasn't just going to attack the knee 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. 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 heavyweight title is one of the three belts that comprises the Sankan Heavykyu Senshuken) Lord James Blears, who traditionally read the proclamation before every match for the Sankan Heavykyu Senshuken, 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 shiki no 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 more like 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 hold, 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 udehishikgigyakujujigatame 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 udehishigigyakujujigatame 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 shiki no 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, using his
energy to summon all the power and might 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 Sankan Heavykyu Senshuken 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 worse. This is not to say that there weren't injuries before, 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 Sekai Single Senshuken, 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
