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[1997-06-06-AJPW] Mitsuharu Misawa vs Toshiaki Kawada


Loss

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There was a point about a third of the way through this match where I thought it was going to be really good. Kawada was going after Misawa's arm on the outside with real brutality. The second time he ran him into the railing it looked like the railing actually bent. Alas, it went nowhere and as they moved to the final third of the match, the arm work was forgotten and Misawa wins with the elbow anyway.

 

It was a good and pretty exciting match, it's just not as good as either Misawa vs Kobashi match from 97 or most of Misawa's matches with Kawada either.

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  • 2 months later...

fxnj, I am not against the selling of the three backdrop drivers or Misawa being checked on the doctor that's not doing anything. It is that Misawa launches a comeback after being on the outside being checked on by the doctor AND on the FOURTH BACKDROP DRIVER Misawa makes a comeback. It is just that Drivers feel meaningless. In a lot of ways I feel the match and the wrestlers lose credibility. Misawa does not look as resilient as Kawada looks like a choke, but you could argue that is his gimmick. The match becomes instead of organic just wrestlers forcing more headdrops in there. There are ways they could have better transitions. Kawada kicking Misawa in the face coming off the top is a way BETTER transition than somebody getting dropped on his head and just saying well now it is my turn. Missed moves and taking advantage of high risk moves.

 

 

AJPW Triple Crown Champion Mitsuharu Misawa vs Toshiaki Kawada - AJPW 6/6/97

 

Pretty morbid match given what happened to Misawa. Outside some BatBat maybe, this is by far the most brutal match I think I have ever watched. I had never seen this before, but I knew its rep for not being that good. Actually through the first half, even with some suspect stuff, I was a little perplexed about the criticism. Shit like Misawa hitting the Tiger Driver on the outside, doing nothing and Kawada just coming in and taking over was stupid. Pretty indefensible for two of the greatest wrestlers of all time. Once Kawada takes charge, he goes after the arm with gusto. This is totally in line with Kawada's strategy from previous battles using the cross armbreaker (it has been a while since I have watched the other matches, but I think this is a new weapon), really liked the stuff outside of the ring, railing shots and that axe kick. He goes back to the cross armbreaker, but Misawa quickly rolls through and knees him in the face brutally. Elbows and then a ridiculous Head Drop German. Like no arms to protect himself, Kawada took it right on his head. Cringe. Kawada fires up and kicks the bad arm and elbows Misawa. At least, he went after the elbow. The Kappo Kick to Misawa's neck is fucking vicious. Kawada brutalizes Misawa, we get the Misawa-rana on the powerbomb before Kawada hits the powerbomb. I would say at about this point match was salvageable and was going well (some poor transitions to get Kawada back in offense withstanding); then it went off the rails. Kawada hits a backdrop driver and Misawa rolls out leading to a powerbomb on the floor. I like the doctors checking on Misawa adds to the drama, but I don't really care for Misawa just firing up and working his way through Kawada slaps and kicking Kawada in the head. To me none of these moves and sequences have consequence.

 

FOUR RIDICULOUS BACKDROP DRIVERS!!! Kawada gets stretch plum and an armbreaker/headscissors combo in between this. It is just ridiculous juxtaposed with all these headrops. I get that you have double up, triple up your offense in AJPW, but this is ridiculous and the fourth one has Misawa hitting a big elbow. This feels like a more violent, brutal WWE main event style match without the kickouts. So it makes it better than your WWE main event finish->kick out->lie around->finish->kick out repeat, but the flaws are so annoying. TWO TIGER SUPLEXES & THREE GERMANS (Kawada decides not take one on his head because fuck that)! Kawada collapses before the blowaway elbow. Kawada of course puts up token resistance before being demolished by elbows.

 

No progression in the match, Kawada goes after the elbow. Once the doctors checked on Misawa, the match went way overkill. Doctor stoppage would have been interesting. Insane number of headdrops. The headrops just mean nothing now. They don't turn the tide. They don't win matches. They just pop, pop, pop the crowd. I enjoy brutal stiffness, but I like it to mean something and to be used sparingly. I hate that wrestlers put this selves through this and then I don't even enjoy it. It was not horrible, but it was not great. ***

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Had this in mind as a rewatch because of how it disappointed me and I......think I like it now? I'm not entirely sure? It's just so frustrating because I think there's stuff here that's top level, stuff that conceptually kinda works and stuff that is just...bad.

 

I loved the opening exchange especially the corner strikeoff where Misawa blocks Kawada's reversal attempt and then back elbows him. I think this kicks into high gear after the early tiger driver on the floor, which lead to Kawada kinda strolling around the ring and regrouping (I actually liked this tactic - no reason to rush back in there if Misawa's not looking to come get you). What comes after is him gaining an opening off Misawa hurting his arm and you get a really gritty segment of the match where Kawada's destroying his arm and trying armbars and throwing him at guardrails. This section sorta gets forgotten as the match moves on and I wonder if attacking Misawa's arm was just a built-in continuous narrative that was going to happen regardless because Taue did it in his TC match against Misawa as well.

 

Ultimately I think the problem is an issue of doubling up on ideas. There's a section of Kawada working the arm (again, conceptually it's not a bad idea considering how Kobashi destroyed it at 1/97 and Taue tries it himself after this), and a section of Kawada working the neck and going for two major sub attempts (stretch plum and the triangle). If you cut the armwork, cut the stretch plum sub attempt section, and just leave the idea being Kawada going for Misawa's neck this feels more complete since you don't have to remember that they more or less move away from some brutal armwork early. And for the sub just leaving the triangle then doesn't momentarily confuse the crowd and they probably buy the spot even more than they already did. Plus cutting the stretch plum segment cuts out two backdrops leaving us at "only" three for the match.

 

So I dunno, I loved the amount of hate that was coming through in this match, I really don't think they had a match where Misawa seemed as pissed off at Kawada as he did here. And '97/'98 shoot-style/njpw influenced Kawada continues to be something I wish had materialized better in AJPW around this time, so I enjoy the bombs+sub idea that seems more in line with a finish Hashimoto would go for. However ultimately the match just has a feeling of being excessive to it that understandably turns people off. But I think this is the best singles match between them post-7/95 other than 1/99.

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Rewatched this first time in years and I don't know, I liked it. Nowhere near their best but really good. An excellent selling performance by Kawada, truly great. His determination and fire were also great. Also liked the finish: after all of that overkill and violence, he gets pinned by a simple German suplex that wasn't even executed properly. *** 1/2

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  • 1 month later...

The Elbow of Death goes over in the first exchange, so Kawada goes about neutralising the weapon. Yeah good luck with that. Tosh just never learns as he goes head to head, blow for blow against his nemesis once more. This added little to the rivalry. The only different aspect was the volume of throwaway headbumps. Not a positive development. The structure was a long way away from your traditional beginning, middle and end format. There wasn't any escalation and hence little excitement. The headbumps were only there to pop the crowd and try to paper over how lacking this was fundamentally. I would've said low end top 100 before the miscommunication between wrestlers and referee on the final pin.

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  • 1 year later...

I re watched this for the first time in a few years and really i though that a lot of it was great. It goes 31:something and for over 20 minutes maybe 25 minutes of it i legit think it is great, no to the level of their bouts in 94 and 95 but still on to be a near classic. But then the backdrops, not the first one where Misawa roles to the outside, not the second and third i thought these were fine they were sold very well by Misawa as they happened and in the time afterwards. The nearfalls in this section and off these moves were very good for me. Then comes the fourth backdrop and Misawa pops up and elbows Kawada before falling down. Why??? the backdrops had all been brutal and Misawa had sold them like death but this one he just pops up.

After this Misawa makes a comeback with Germans and tiger suplexes before winning with an elbow and German which I am sure was a botch by Wadda. The sequence of moves themselves is not bad but it feels too easy especially from the brutality that Misawa had taken before this.

I love the stiffness and brutality of the match the crowd is good and it is Misawa vs Kawada of course they have excellent chemistry but the last 6 minutes of this match really let this down for me. I both love it and am massively dissapointed. I have no idea what to rate it ****??? This match left me confused and unsure and for a match featuring the two guys who I consider to be the two best workers ever that is a big negative.

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  • GSR changed the title to [1997-06-06-AJPW] Mitsuharu Misawa vs Toshiaki Kawada
  • 6 months later...

Probably one of the more weaker additions to the feud but still a great match. The start is fine enough. The limb work is a bit paint by numbers and it's not all that interesting early on but the strikes and bombs are where their bread & butter lies so it's not a big surprise, and it doesn't lead to much. Kawada is in control for most of the match and does a hell of a job doing it. He is vicious and nasty with his strikes, constantly using the gamengiri to cut off a Misawa comeback. There are a few no sells spots that are very well done by Misawa (and Kawada - nice of him to show off his pearly white teeth; all two of them). The finishing stretch was really good but it was sort of hard to buy into the Tiger Drives and powerbombs until the end. Like I said. Great match but lacking somewhat. ****1/4

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