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NWA Sekai Junior Heavykyu
Senshuken Jiai The Cobra vs. Kuniaki Kobayashi From NJ Tadakai no Wonderland Anchor Showa Hen #156 10/29/99 Taped 2/9/84 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan |
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This match accomplished it's goal of heating up the rivalry between these two, and setting up a rematch. Kobayashi did his typically strong job of playing heel here. He carried the match, but it didn't have a real finish, so the build and timing seemed a bit awkward. The match had an excellent start and finishing sequence (aside from it being a screw job), but meandered a bit in between. The prematch was classic, with Kobayashi making Cobra pay for his showboating. When Cobra backflipped off the top rope into the ring, Kobayashi knocked him to the floor with a spinning middle kick and followed with a tope suicida. Kobayashi ripped Cobra's suit off and threw it. Kobayashi calmed down for the ring intros, but then jumped Cobra before the bell to get off to a fast start. Kobayashi was a very good, solid worker. His heel tactics, while simple, were very effective, but he also had enough good enough moves to do the junior style matches of his day. He actually found a way to make his rest holds add to tis match, as he used some of them as a back drop to his unmasking storyline. The teases in this match were effective because they did enough early on to make you believe that they might be ready to go to the moves they were saving for later. Cobra was a fairly spectacular wrestler. His problem is that he came after Tiger Mask Sayama, and he wasn't nearly THAT spectacular. Sayama was simply a far superior athlete. Cobra seemed to try too hard to be Sayama because Sayama was rightfully a hero to most. Even ignoring the fact that he wasn't that great at performing Sayama's moves, he definitely should have tried to carve his own niche because he had the talent. Cobra did some cool flying moves, including a space flying Tiger drop that he came dangerously close to not being caught on, but he always seemed a little too ambitious in the moves he tried. Cobra was very over here, so I guess it worked for him, although Kobayashi's heel tactics certainly helped Cobra get a positive reaction. The last few minutes were really heated with near falls back and forth. Eventually both men tumbled to the floor trying to keep reversing the cobra twist. Cobra suplexed Kobayashi on the floor, but both were worn down. Kobayashi was able to get up and grab Cobra around the waist before Cobra could reenter the ring. Kobayashi proceeded to suplex Cobra over the security rail, but Kobayashi wound up tumbling over as well and both men were counted out. They continued fighting in the crowd, including Kobayashi using a chair
and both men hitting each other with some kind of sign. The match came
full circle,as it finished with Kobayashi ripping Cobra's mask off and
tossing it out of the ring. All the seconds jumped in to protect Cobra's
identity and get Kobayashi away from him. In light of all this, we definitely
needed to see these two have a rematch. 14:29
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