[1991-04-18-AJPW-Championship Carnival] Kenta Kobashi vs Dan Kroffat

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

I really liked this match as a midcard workrate match, but it felt like a popcorn match after Flair/Pillman. Both guys worked really hard and had lots of really nice looking offense, but it didn't seem like anything was really at stake.

[Childs]

I didn't have strong feelings about this, but as an athletic showcase to prime the palate for a great top of the card, it was quite good.

[shoe]

I thought it was a good work rate match. I loved in true Canadian form Kroffat told the ref to watch the elbow ehh.

[jdw]

I like that this made the set. My guess would be that if Dustin & Austin had this match on a Clash, or Shawn & Bret had this match on SNME, folks would remember it as a classic of those two promotions. With Kobashi and Kroffat, it's just a good workrate match. Which... isn't inaccurate, but also shows that expectations for AJPW are pretty skewed.

 

John

[PeteF3]

Yeah, if this is like the 3rd or 4th best match on a card, that's one hell of a card. Kobashi picks up yet another decent-sized win.

[Kevin Ridge]

I thought it was good as both guys were trying hard out there. They did the right type of match for their place on the card and the crowd were into it. Good win for Kobashi too.

[soup23]

I thought this was a really good fiery junior match. Kobashi has had some solid performances so far in singles matches in 1991 in some pretty distinctive matches.

 

One thing I do disagree on is the senitment that this would be remembered as a classic if it happened on a Clash or SNME. Maybe it if was two real loverboys like Shawn'/Bret but I don't think this match is near as good as Tito/Perfect and Austin/Steamboat from the Clash and those two matches are more, "oh yeah that match was good" instead of the usual contenders when talking about great matches from around that era.

[Superstar Sleeze]

Wow, I was surprisingly underwhelmed by this match. This was one of the best two-person male gymnastics routines even the Canadian judge would have a hard time disagreeing. This was way too cooperative for my tastes. From the beginning the fluid headlock to headscissors ending in a stalemate seemed more at home in the American Indies circa 2007. The strikes were surprisingly weak and the whole match felt heatless. The cartwheel escape into a clothesline sequence by Kroffat would be perfect for ROH. The transitions were perfunctory and the spots aimless. It was weird that punches were used so liberally in a AJPW match. In this match, Kroffat does not bother to sell and at least Kobashi at least displays anguish on his face after Kroffat's moves. Kroffat was a gymnastic robot. An example of the hyper-back and forth was Kroffat hits a huge dive and Kobashi immediately counters into a rolling cradle; Kroffat rolling senton->eats knees on splash->Back drop driver. There was just no sense of struggle. The one interesting takeaway was why didn't Kobashi keep the double-arm DDT in his arsenal. It was the only thing that looked wicked and it is a relatively safe head-drop. This is a great exhibition of wrestling spots, but it misses all the glue that makes wrestling good.

 

I agree with Soup, I think Perfect/Tito is pretty definitively better than this.

[garretta]

I agree with the prevailing sentiment here; this is the kind of filler match that would air on Prime Time in the States. which is to say an interesting, spirited bout that ultimately means nothing to the forward momentum of each man's career. It was a nice showcase for the abilities of both men, and I agree with Superstar that Kenta's double-arm DDT looked lethal (which it was here for Kroffat).

 

I've never seen top rope moves so often and effectively countered as they were here. High fliers or not, you'd think these guys would have been more leery of going to the top after each man had countered one of their opponents' aerial maneuvers earlier.

[JKWebb]

I thought this was pretty fun. It had it's moments. I enjoyed the killer looking shoulder block Kobashi laid into Kroffat, and when Kroffat went off with some fiery punches. For it's spot on the card, this was a really enjoyable contest... not seeking greatness, but meant to be entertaining and fun. I think they accomplished that with the crowd (and with me).

[dawho5]

Good for what it was supposed to be. If you're going to warm up a crowd, this is one of the better ways to do it.

[Jetlag]

I really liked the parts where they slapped each other like they meant it. Kroffat is still rocking the pajama pants and makes Kobashi eat some nasty kicks right under the chin. Some of the parts where they trying to push the other guy to he ropes and hit him felt like them doing UWF inspired work, in that slightly wonky AJPW way. The junior hybrid parts were fine and I like this kind of short energetic match over a drawn out epic.

[cactus]

Kroffat lands that rolling wheel kick that doesn't land, but Kobashi sells it anyways. I think that's the only hokey spot you can find in 90's AJPW! Aside from that, this was a lot of fun. Kroffat's the cocky and brass gaijin who starts nail Kobashi with some illegal closed-fist punches, which riles the crowd up and adds fuel to Kobashi's comeback. A fun spirit that has more in common with junior wrestling than what you would expect for AJPW heavyweights.

★★★½