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NWA International Junior Heavyweight
Title Match: Kuniaki Kobayashi vs. Tiger Mask (Misawa) 6/21/85 Tokyo |
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Matches that are purely good because of the spots rarely age well, and this was no exception. In the days when people would regularly brag about a guys dropkick if it was good, Misawa doing somersault kicks and no touch tope con hilos was out of this world. Today, Rob Van Dam can do all this and more within the context of yet another goofy, contrived *1/2 star match. The match got off to an excellent start with Kobayashi hitting his second kneel kick from a standing position then taking Tiger to the floor where he appears to be ready to establish his heel technique. Tiger took out the guard rail when Kobayashi whipped him into it, but Kobayashi let him off the hook, teasing a plancha. Kobayashi teasing a dive was one of the only spots that was built to. Unfortunately, Kobayashi never delivered, so it was pretty pointless. I'm not saying that you should always hit the moves you tease later in the match by any stretch of the imagination, but if you are only going to tease one or two moves then you should at least deliver them at some point. Otherwise, it's the equivalent of teasing nothing. When Tiger reentered the ring, Kobayashi was no longer heelish or intense. Instead, for whatever reason, he fought "scientifically" for the rest of the match. Misawa quickly came back with a nice dropkick and displayed impressive athleticism in between a series of put the audience to sleepers. The match would have been worlds better without the submissions because they were the dullest no danger, no pressure submissions you'll ever see outside of the WWF and on top of that they went absolutely nowhere. Since Misawa did an awesome 360 flip over Kobayashi (Kobayashi did the drop down when they were running the ropes) and a few other impressive athletic moves, people excused the lack of anything interesting once the submissions were applied. Well, that's part of it. Since most matches didn't have that much action at the time and sitting in holds was commonplace, at the time you'd mainly consider what happened when they weren't sitting in holds, and that was far more exciting than the vast majority of matches from the time period. I expected a lot more from Kobayashi here. Tiger's job was basically to awe the fans with his athletic spots, and he certainly did that. The problem was that Kobayashi didn't fill in the other portions like he did so well in his matches with Shodai Tiger Mask. Kobayashi never had much offense, but he usually made up for that with smarts and dickishness. On this day, he was almost never heelish and didn't order the spots in a manner where they'd have any real meaning. Tiger's spots were worth the awe factor, no more and no less. Kobayashi doesn't have that kind of athleticism, and didn't really do anything with his offense, so it basically just filled the time between Misawa's flying. He moved really well on the mat, but once the transitions were over and he had his move, it wasn't very interesting watching him stick with it. However, it was technical in that Kobayashi would be working for positioning and to keep optimal pressure on. His matwork in this match had pretty much the same strengths and weaknesses as Ricky Steamboat's. The one downside of Misawa was that the Tiger Mask gimmick forced him to do some Sayama spots that I really doubt he would have done otherwise. The Sayama spots are great if you can do them like Sayama, but no one could do them like Sayama, so you wind up with some spots being inferior and others being blown. Inferior to Sayama could still be great, but blown always makes you look bad. At least there weren't any ingrates yelling "You fucked up" when Misawa couldn't do moves like the backflip from the corner quite right. The final series that had all the big moves started 9:30 with Tiger getting a near fall with an ultra Tiger drop (somersault leg attack off the top), but Kobayashi came back with a backdrop. Kobayashi knocked Tiger to the floor with a kneel kick, but Tiger dropkicked Kobayashi when he went to the floor after faking a dive then did an incredible no touch ultra Tiger drop. They put this move over pretty big since it was one of the best moves of it's time, somewhat teasing a double count out. Tiger did a nice missile kick for a near fall then tried to beat Kobayashi with his own fisherman suplex, but Kobayashi blocked it and did his own fisherman suplex. It was not a big deal that Tiger kicked out of this because 1) Tiger was pretty fresh having been in control for most of the past few minutes and 2) Kobayashi was unable to lock his hands while he was trying to pin Misawa. Kobayashi immediately did the move again and that was it. Although Kobayashi always wins with the fisherman suplex, it's more of a pinning move than something that does damage. With that in mind, it didn't come off well here because Tiger was in good shape. Although he lost, the match probably showed the best Misawa had to offer at the time. The problem was the match was far from the best Kobayashi even though he was carrying the match. The original Tiger Mask had much more to offer on the mat, which is generally one of Kobayashi's stronger points, but the match wasn't long enough for the lack of strong matwork to be that big of a factor. It was more of a Tiger star vehicle except Tiger lost in the end, which is something that rarely happened to him but this was a title match. Although it's a joke to call this Match Of The Year and the fundamentals were weak in a time when fundamentals were fairly important for the real wrestlers (meaning not Hogan, Dusty, etc.), for it's time it was great for a short match. By today's standards, it was really nothing special. It had a few great spots, but so does an Esse Rios match. The work was better than most matches then and now, which at the time said a lot of it because the level of difficulty was very high then, but today the juniors and some of the bigger guys take far bigger risks on a far more frequent basis. Without even taking the hype into account, I found it disappointing simply because Kobayashi didn't wrestle to his potential and didn't even try to turn it into something that had much merit beyond his opponent's high spots. Jerome: This match may be considered as legendary, but I have some problems with it. Even though I admit my knowledge of this time period in All Japan is very limited, I don't get why this match is seen as great. Unless it went way over my head, I don't see any semblance of psychology. Why is Kobayashi all aggressive at the beginning, then acts normally for the rest of the match? If he wanted to work as a heel, maybe the match would have been more interesting, but that only lasted about 30 seconds. The first part is basically a bunch of matwork leading nowhere, interrupted a few times by some quick sequences of fast-paced action. Kobayashi goes from one body part to another without reason, and none of his work has anything to do with any of his (relatively) big spots. The final minutes are way more exciting as both men exchange some great shots, especially Tiger Mask with a spectacular somersault body attack and an awesome (even by today's standards) tope con hilo. Sadly, it only lasts a few minutes before Kobayashi blocks a fisherman suplex attempt and hits two of his own to get the victory. This abrupt finish from nowhere is another disappointment in what is supposed to be a great match. Now I don't want to sound all negative because the work was good all along and Tiger's spots were unbelievable for the time. However, the total lack of efficient build or psychology, Kobayashi's rather weak offense and nonsensical matwork crowned by a lame finish don't make me all that enthusiastic about this match. A simple yet good story could have turned it into a great match because the quality of work and great spots are there, but as it is it doesn't do a lot for me. Certainly a very good match. Hardly excellent. Much less a classic. Special thanks to: Jerome Denis 11:28
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