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 feud, 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. Anyway, 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 hold.
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 Sankan Heavykyu Senshuken 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.