The problem with having so many epic matches with the same opponent is you eventually reach the point where people feel like they've seen it all before. The good thing is there's so much history between these two that the match can take on a new life because so many spots and sequences remind us of one or more of their previous matches. Misawa giving Kawada a German suplex is more dramatic because he beat him with it on 6/6/97. Even though I don't expect Misawa to ever beat Kawada with a German suplex again, and at the point it was used in this match it would have been a letdown if it was the actual finish, there's that part of you that says this actually could be it. The trick is making the later work for them and the former not work against them, and that's the one area where this match "failed" because you never felt like they turned up the heat enough to match their previous classics.

The biggest problems for me were that there wasn't enough build and the pacing was too even. They showed strong offense from the beginning, with most of their strikes being displayed and Misawa's upper chest turning an ugly red. The early highlight was, after Misawa had hit his elbow suicida, Kawada stopping Misawa's diving elbow in midair with a wicked ganmengiri. Kawada sold his foot like he'd injured it on Misawa's face, which was credible due to the impact of the kick, while Misawa rolled to the floor to gather himself. When Misawa made it back to the apron, Kawada blew him away with a running kenka kick, sending Misawa flying back into the security rail. Kawada then followed Misawa to the floor and knocked Misawa over the security rail with the same kick. All the moves were nice, but you didn't get as much of a feeling that they were mounting as you'd expect. The selling was in the vicinity of what you'd expect from them, but the other aspects didn't enhance it as much as they used to. The lack of focus on one method of winning resulted in about an equal amount of time for selling each time they were down rather than the peaks and valleys we are used to from them.

Gabe: That's exactly my biggest complaint about the match. The big moves didn't look big, which really held back the crowd from getting into it. Even the headfirst moves that almost always kickstart the momentum for the most part didn't help. And the one time it did work, it was not capitalized on as much as it could have been. Instead of one guy throwing out a barrage of big moves to try to take the win before/after slowing the match down a little, it was just like Mike said: the pacing was too even. Instead of a roller coaster that takes you up the hill in anticipation of the explosion, we get a Ferris wheel.

The only area that was really focused upon was Misawa's bad knee. Kawada used a spinning low kick to the knee, which I haven't seen from him before, but that doesn't change the fact that he doesn't have any knee finishers. He tried a figure four leg lock, but nobody bought that or any of the other submissions since there's almost no such thing as getting a submission in All Japan. Kawada didn't overly try to beat Misawa by taking out his leg, and that goes back to the lack of build. This was definitely a match where the loser was going to be the guy who couldn't take anymore.

Misawa really shows his age when he's walking to and from the ring. Actually, him and Kobashi show an age far beyond their years. Inside the ring though, Misawa can still do all the moves he used to. He's not quite as smooth and precise as he used to be, but execution is never a problem in a Misawa match.

Kawada's physical condition is what made the quality of this match amazing. Unfortunately, this isn't one of those 60:00 draws where I could brag about his stamina. There was a deadly sequence just after the eight-minute mark where Misawa elbowed out of Kawada's German suplex, so Kawada hit Misawa in the back of the head with a discus forearm. I'm not sure what part Kawada intended to hit Misawa with, but the wrist/lower forearm is not the place a person normally selects because it's the skinniest part of the arm and you can't shape it like a fist or an elbow. Kawada hit Misawa so hard that he broke his own forearm and wrist. This had every right to ruin the match, that's assuming Kawada didn't just call it a day and head for the hospital, but it hardly affected the quality of the match even though they still had 16 minutes to go.

Gabe: If I had not known beforehand that Kawada broke his arm in this match, there's a good chance that I would have just shaken off this incident as good selling on Kawada's part. Because I knew that it was real, it made me cringe every time Kawada used his arm in the match after he broke it. I don't even want to imagine how it must have felt for him to pick up Misawa for those brainbusters. Simply amazing.

Kawada's offense is based around kicks that appear to be as brutal as any you'll see in a real fight. He spoils me so much with the brutal kicks that there are only a few other guys that I can watch kick without being disappointed. He can do these kicks just as well whether he has a usable wrist or not. I don't know how much it hurt him to do so, but he still did all his suplexes and bombs. The only noticeable difference was he hardly used his right arm to strike.

Misawa didn't attack Kawada's right arm because the injury was legit. Misawa & Kawada are such experts at working us with their selling, but this was the main reason people would notice the injury was legit. You'd never see Kawada have to constantly go back to his bad arm to get Misawa to go after it; Misawa would pick something like this up right away and beat the hell out of it. I can't say Kawada's injury prevented Misawa from focusing his attack because there were plenty of at least semi healthy parts Misawa could have attacked. It seemed weird seeing a shark like Misawa constantly pass up a weak part, but it was more than understandable.

They didn't break any new ground, but there were still a lot of nice touches. For instance, Misawa wasn't able to go for the pin when he finally hit his Tigerdriver because his knee was so screwed up from Kawada's attacks that he couldn't get up right away.

Along with Kawada's injury, the match will be remembered for a killer new spot that had everyone talking. This also falls into the nice touch category because it was set up early in the match when Misawa turned Kawada's powerbomb into a huracanrana. They came back to the same counter just after the twenty two-minute mark, but this time when Misawa was upside down and parallel to Kawada, Kawada jumped up and slammed Misawa straight down onto his head with a ganso powerbomb. We know how deadly a simple Ligerbomb can be, but this was like an unprotected jumping brainbuster from something of a powerbomb position. Just sick!

Gabe: In my opinion, this should have been either the climax or the end. I remember them teasing this same spot in a later match, but imagine how much cooler that tease would have been if this move ended the match. This move dropped the jaw of everyone in the audience, but was not even the stepping stone to a red-hot "beginning of the end" sequence. Of course, it's possible they were restricted by Kawada's arm or possibly the headache Misawa may have gotten from this move.

Kawada was winning the match and there was no way he was going to do something to top this, so it's hard to imagine why they didn't have the killer new move be the finisher. The only thing I can think of is that if Kawada won with the move people would expect to see it again, and they have enough problems without one of their top guys having to retire early due to brain damage. Still, it was ridiculous enough that Misawa kicked out without seeing him get right up and try to come back with his elbow. Kawada never let Misawa come back with the elbow. He always put him right down with a big kick, often to the head. One could say that the head was Kawada's second point of attack because he did several nasty kicks to the face, but it didn't come off that way. Misawa acted injured, but he didn't do so in a way that specifically made us believe his head was weaker than other parts. Kawada dropped him on his head with his suichoku rakka shiki no brainbuster to win the match.

The fans were really into the later minutes, except when a submission hold was applied because they know the score. Overall, the heat was not incredible though, and in spite of his incredibly gutsy performance, Kawada didn't get much of a reaction for winning the titles. Kawada wasn't in much of a mood to celebrate the win. That's not surprising since he'd be out long enough that he'd have to vacate them anyway. They gave him an ice pack and made a "splint" to hold his arm up and the ice pack against it, but he left the ring fairly quickly after being presented with the belts and trophy and was soon taken to the hospital in an ambulance.

Misawa & Kawada were on such a high level, almost off the charts, that they could fall off a few notches and still have an excellent match. This match was two notches down from their previous two, which didn't approach the level of their 6/6/97 match that was their second best, but that's understandable given the circumstances. There was nothing dramatically wrong with it, but it wasn't quite as good as their other matches in any regard. It was particularly down in the mental aspects, and that certainly can't be blamed on Kawada's injury. Still, given they would have to fight 2/3 of the match with one performer sporting a broken arm, there may not be a wrestler in the world that would complain if you penciled them in for an excellent match. 24:15. ****

Vanes: So many people embraced All Japan and puroresu because of one move; it changed their perspective on both North American wrestling and Japanese wrestling as a whole. Certainly, they knew wrestling was a tough sport where people exchange moves that could severely injure an untrained "normal" person at any time, but this was something else. Two men trying to put on a match, a worked match, risking their necks even more than in anything that had been seen before. Sure, Mick Foley put on several "one man stunt shows" like the various cell matches where he destroyed his body, but this wasn't about people jumping off 25 feet cages or being piledriven onto thousands of thumbtacks. This was a mix of stiffness and creativity, with a love for the art of wrestling and a touch of madness. This move has been repeated on other occasions, with varying degrees of success, but it never had the impact this move had on so many people. Bret Hart once said that the best wrestler is he who can protect his opponent even doing the most difficult and dangerous move, and that the art of wrestling is not trying to hurt people, but instead trying to be as realistic as possible without injuring anybody. Mitsuharu Misawa and Toshiaki Kawada went beyond this concept. They killed their bodies and in the process, produced some of the most incredible performances wrestling has ever seen. They wrestled injured, and in this case, even continued wrestling after an injury, whereas in any other situation (and any other company, save a few exceptions) the match would have been stopped. This isn't mathematics: change the two factors, and the result will likely change. If instead of Kawada ganso bombing Misawa it were Kevin Nash doing the same thing on Jeff Jarrett, we would probably see Double J walking with the help of a wheel chair. The fact that they were able to do such a move without having any permanent damage or even added injury is amazing in itself.

It's not surprising that a major injury occurred in a match that contained on of the deadliest moves of all-time. What's ironic is that injury occurred when a performer known for his striking tried a standard (albeit not easy to pull off) kickboxing move for the first time. This match, as much as any, shows the danger of pro-wrestling; sometimes you push the boundaries of sanity and in doing so attain a new level of high art, but sometimes you regret trying to expand your field of expertise.

Vanes: The Misawa-Kawada series, considered by many to be the best series of matches ever, can be considered like a great TV series. It could be called as a wrestling version of the Sopranos. Every match, like every episode of the aforementioned series, contains things that you find every time, moves or even little touches that make you remember their past encounters. This not only improves the connection between the workers and the fans, but also keeps a liaison between matches. It makes a series of matches like a collection of chapters in a book. Similarly, a TV series is a collection of episodes. The thing that makes you appreciate these two great wrestlers even more is that in every match something new and different from their previous matches occurs. In this case, it was a new move. Every match, like a TV episode, has recurring themes. It may focus on one particular thing, an injury for example. If so, the match is psychologically built around it. On top of that, a move that didn't succeed in their previous match may work this time or vice versa. These little things, added to the usual quality performance from both workers, make it a great and awesome display of the art of wrestling.

Like a TV series, we question the progression as it goes along. It's weird when you look back at the series and think how much the matches have been defined by a particular move. It's weird because, even though some of the matches have occurred when All Japan was at its spottiest, the series has never been about moves. That said, the 6/3/94 match was defined by a finish we though might be the pinnacle of brutality. This, in a way, paved the way for Williams brief title reign, most remembered for the bone-crunching backdrop Kobashi took in their great 9/3/94 match. During this time period, Misawa & Kawada were taking psychology to new levels though, and subsequent title win by Kawada was much less brutal. In keeping psychology over big moves, Misawa essentially lowered the bar by not using his Tigerdriver '91 in their subsequent 7/95 title match, and instead beating him with the much safer elbow. Jump ahead years later, and with All Japan being defined by spots rather than psychology, the new most brutal move isn't even enough to keep Misawa from attempting an immediate comeback. We loved the Tigerdriver '91 finish, but the other two examples weren't well received at the time. I've grown to like the 7/95 finish a lot more and the 1/99 non-finish a lot less as time has past, but that's not surprising given how they relate to my likes. They all had a major effect one way or another, one that people may always disagree about.

Vanes: In a series of matches, like in a TV series, there will be high and lows. You can't always be in top form, and everything doesn't always click together. The amazing thing is that the Misawa-Kawada "lows" are better than most of the other series' "highs" because, after all, we're talking about two of the best wrestlers of all time. This isn't one of their best matches, for one reason or the another. It could have been due to the injury or the fact that, like a lot of All Japan after the early 90s, there's a lot of neck-crunching, head-dropping, daredevil moves, and the wrestlers sometimes don't sell it enough or make it matter in the end. This was probably one of those cases. Anywhere else, this incredible, amazing and extremely dangerous ganso bomb would be the finish, but Misawa got up. Not only did he come back; he tried to hit Kawada just seconds after receiving what was arguably the most dangerous move ever. This hurt many things, including credibility, suspension of disbelief, and psychology. While it's amazing to see these two wrestlers fighting spirit, it makes you think that this is more like two Supermen fighting instead of a wrestling match.

Vanes: Like with movies, there are masterpieces that don't repeat themselves, that become legendary and won't probably be topped. I'm thinking about things like Tamura vs. Kosaka and the Thunder Queen Battle. These are once in a lifetime wrestling events that won't happen again due to changes in the landscape. RINGS is all shoot now, and the women are scatted around 6-7 leagues. Those matches are like
one-time masterpieces, such as Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange" or Fellini's "8 ½." Unless a miracle happens, those won't repeat themselves in quality.

These are great movies to be certain, but I don't like them as examples of masterpieces that can't be repeated. Kubrick & Fellini are two of the monster film directors with many great movies, and even their most devout fans can't agree which of their films was the best. Greatness that can't be repeated to me is like High Noon, the cynical western classic that came out during Senator Joseph McCarthy's rein of terror and was penned by Carl Foreman, who was soon blacklisted. Another example would be Michael Powell's voyeuristic masterpiece Peeping Tom. It killed the career of the extremely talented director who had been successful for the previous two decades because the critics and audience alike weren't ready for a film that used a psychotic sex murderer killer to call them on enjoying watching other people's lives. It wasn't a scathing commentary on the evils of society or anything either, as Powell himself was a known movie addict. It was designed to open people's eyes to what they were doing, which wasn't bad but also wasn't something they wanted to admit to since it's acceptable to watch (what the other movies allowed us to do) but not to "peep."

Greatness doesn't always have to repeat itself in the traditional sense. While Powell couldn't get notable directors gigs anymore, his body of work inspired some of the next generations great directors like Martin Scorsese and Nicolas Roeg. Ironically and sadly, Roeg's career was also largely derailed by a misunderstood movie, Eureka, although that was mainly the studio's fault because they shelved it for around 4 years before giving it a minimal release.

"Seventy years ago there were men like D.W. Griffith and seventy years later - now - there are not many men like Martin Scorsese. But so long as there is one there will be others, and the art of the cinema will survive," - Michael Powell.

Vanes: In a great series, it's obvious there will be the better and the worse. The only problem, and it's not really a problem, is that with so much talent involved and such off the charts performances, even their worst matches will be a must see. This is an excellent match that for certain reasons doesn't touch their best encounters, but it's still something you need to see as sort of a continuation of their story.

Special thanks to: Gabe Bautista & Vanes Naldi - PERFECTO

24:15