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[1998-01-26-AJPW-New Year's Giant Series] Mitsuharu Misawa vs Jun Akiyama


Loss

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  • 1 month later...

Honestly don't know if I have ever seen this which is weird since it is probably the biggest high profile match from the 90's I havent. I always remember JDW saying he would rather get gang raped than vote for this match in the DVDVR pimpin post so I skipped it.

 

Akiyama starts off early and they do what they can to get him over as a threat. He sends Misawa to the outside and fires right through the first elbow smash by clothes lining him down. Misawa still has that trusty elbow and is able to weather the storm with AKiyama coming off the top rope. Just as I expected Misawa to be on top for a long while, Akiyama hits an exploder and Misawa does his roll to the outside. Akiyama stalks after him like he should and tombstones him right on the floor. That gets a nearfall and then Akiyama takes firm control with a headscissors. Not the most exciting sequence in the world, but still good at establishing Akiyama as a main guy. Akiyama remains focused on the neck with a swinging neckbreaker and a chinlock. Akiyama ratchets up the intensity with some forearms and a tiger driver! Misawa says, slow down boy and takes over with elbow strikes and his twisting clothesline.

 

Akiyama after taking about five minutes of damage is able to take back over with a northern lights suplex and a pedigree. An elbow smash from the top leads to two germans and a gutwrench powerbomb for a nearfall. This match definitely has a tone to it that it wont go the 30+ minutes most TC matches by this point went. Akiyama looks for the Exploder but Misawa thwarts that and hits his elbow suicida evening up the odds. Misawa slams Akiyama on the outside, hits a senton, and then a splash on the floor. Sometimes the stoicism of Misawa can make it tough when frustration is appropriate in the narrative of the match. Instead, context clues like him doing those moves on the outside or just general more dickishness show that he is getting flustered with this young upstart. Inside, he even hits a belly to belly for a nearfall. These two are still tag partners but you get a sense that even Misawa is slightly alarmed at the resiliency of his partner.

 

A dragon screw leg whip and awkward pyramid bomb type move again gives Akiyama an opening. He powerbombs Misawa right on the top rope, hits a german, elbow smash, and exploder for a superb nearfall that had the Osaka crowd biting on it. Another exploder gets another nearfall and Akiyama is left a little awe struck that Misawa kicked out of that onslaught. A brainbuster earns Akiyama two more nearfalls and we are starting to get to the cliff of Misawa taking too much believable damage. Sure enough, he blocks the next Exploder attempt awkwardly and hits his elbow smash. Akiyama runs right into a back elbow and then a sidewalk slam gets Misawa a two count. Tiger driver gets him another closer two count and both men are down on the mat. Akiyama has the audacity to get into a strike exchange and does a roaring clothesline. Misawa returns with a running elbow that I bit on the nearfall of. He then busts out the Emerald Flowsion for I believe the first time and wins the match.

 

Misawa won the match but Akiyama looked like an upstart and I thought it was very smart of them to keep this relatively condensed to what else was going on. I also didn't see an egregious amount of no-selling from these two. I enjoyed the September 1997 match a lot, and thought this eclipsed that. (****)

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  • 2 weeks later...

So, I'm not sure I'd ever seen an AJPW 90s main event in full before this. Is this representative of the style? Much of it felt like a product of the worst excesses of 90s wrestling. There was a tombstone on the floor two minutes in and a tiger bomb that got a one count.

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There were a number of themes going on. Partners colliding, youth vs establishment, Aki trying to improve upon his unsuccessful effort from September. I was having to remember these things however, as they weren't telling much of a story in the ring. It just felt like two guys having a big main event. If you judge it like that then it was a good match, but there's a lot they could have done better. The crowd were that uniquely Japanese mix of crazed excitement and pin drop silence. Down the stretch Jun had an offensive flurry which had the fans believing. Once Misawa had survived that then the result was inevitable. He busts out the Emerald Frosion to retain. I'm not sure when he dubuted that particular move?

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This was a borderline great match but was also on the uneven side. I really enjoyed it overall more for what they were aiming for (slow building classic) than what they actually did (match with long periods of dullness broken up by a few moments of excitement), but there was some really good stuff in this. Akiyama probably gives what I'd call his best singles performance to this point in his career. Misawa really slowed the pace down, which on its own isn't a bad thing, but it made this match feel small at times. I hope these two have a match that fully reaches the potential of the matchup at some point, but this was a major improvement over their 1997 matches for me.

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I liked the opening of this a lot, with Jun showing he had strong answers for all of Misawa's C-level shit. The match sagged a bit in the middle, with a so-so control section by Jun and some spotty selling by Misawa. But they got back on track for the finish, setting up Jun's first big nearfall really well and hooking the crowd, even though there was no real question who was winning. Misawa's climactic counter elbows are always great and were here as well. He looked a little awkward on the Emerald Flowsion but nothing terrible. This felt like an appropriate match for where Jun stood in the pecking order. Certainly not a classic for the promotion but a solid Triple Crown match.

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  • 2 months later...
  • 11 months later...

I'd completely forgotten about John's preference for the gang rape. If I had the choice, I'd probably prefer voting for this match. :)

 

Akiyama throws everything at Misawa that he can think of, but Misawa comes back to win. That's not unusual in the least, that pretty much sums up the latter portion of Misawa's career. But, this is a case where it works, because Akiyama brings a ton of offense with him, and Misawa adds a bunch of little touches that make the whole thing come together pretty well. There are tons of better Misawa performances to be sure, but, this is still a serious step up for Akiyama.

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  • 6 months later...

Akiyama was really good here. Staying in control in the beginning, lots of counters, always on top of what Misawa was going, pulling out a lot of big offense, really felt like a guy prepared to put up the fight of his life for the title. Misawa was still clearly the stronger guy here, Akiyama had much more offense during the match but even after strings of huge moves from Akiyama Misawa could make a comeback with relative ease and do a lot more damage with a couple moves than Akiyama had done with a lot. Plenty of good stuff here, I especially liked Misawa rolling through an exploder and following up with a rolling elbow. Not an AJPW classic but really good.

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What I liked about Akiyama here was the sheer *number* of brand new movez he threw at Misawa in an all-out attempt to get the upset win. We get exploders and high knees and blue thunder bombs and your usual Akiyama shit, but we also get some different suplexes, a brain buster, a tombstone on the floor, and some other unique offense I can barely even describe. Misawa's control segment was fairly restholdy and dragged this down quite a bit, but they picked this up again with a darn good closing stretch. Intentional or not, I liked the touch of Akiyama busting out "new" offense all throughout the match only for Misawa to respond with a new move of his own to seal the win. I wouldn't vote for it for an AJPW Best of the '90s list either but I enjoyed this way, way more than a number of pimped '97 matches.

 

Post-match, hype for the big first AJPW Tokyo Dome show is officially on. Don't know if Kawada was named as the challenger yet but it doesn't sound like his name was mentioned.

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  • 1 month later...

I went in thinking I had previously liked this, but if that is the case, I have no idea what was wrong with me. One of the weakest AJPW mains I've ever seen. Disjointed, slow. It's like the strong style version of Ospreay/Ricochet, but in super-slow motion.

 

RATING: My son was mad because the "green guy" won.

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  • 3 months later...

AJPW Triple Crown Champion Mitsuharu Misawa vs Jun Akiyama - AJPW 1/26/98

 

Pretty standard Misawa fare here, but I did think Akiyama gave an urgent performance. This was the biggest match of his career up until that point and he wrestled like it was . Given that he was a young challenger you expected a hot opening flurry and that's what you see. He blitzes Misawa with a wicked high knee. He wants the Exploder immediately. Misawa uses the elbow to create space, but Akiyama dropkicks him off the top rope and hits a tombstone on the outside. Hey is this where Okada got it from. I will say as much as I don't like Okada, he does a better job using these spots as transitions and letting them have weight. Akiyama settles into a neck control segment, which is usually his bread and butter, but it is kinda boring. Misawa hits a wicked spinning back elbow that is just an inch or two higher would have hit Akiyama in the Adam's Apple. I thought Misawa's kicks looked a lot better than they usually do. Akiyama's transition is a pretty weak modified slam. It is gets very 1998 round this part with Akiyama throwing out all sorts of suplexes, Pedigrees, Rolling Germans, Misawa dumps him over the top. Hits a beautiful diving elbow. Then in a moment when I realized how much I missed Misawa, he does his characteristic wipe the sweat from his brow with one finger like a windshield wiper. I remember how much I like him and missed him being in my life. He then hits a senton and a wicked plancha on Akiyama still laying prone on outside. I love when people use their body weight as a weapon. Best sequence of the match. Misawa is totally in cruise control. Akiyama grabs a dragon leg screw. Here come the headrops and the finish stretch. I will say the reverse powerbomb where Misawa catches the turnbuckle was a very nasty spot and that with awesome high knee and Exploders felt very exciting. Akiyama sold it well as his big moment. He does the Angle climb the ropes and suplex him off the top. This is avant-garde for the time since most of the wrestlers that rip him off hadn't done it at the time, but feels played out in 2016. Brainbuster is his big hope spot. I really like Misawa going a cartwheel on his elbows to avoid an Exploder and ROARING ELBOW~! Probably should have been the finish, but it is All Japan. Some really fierce elbows that really, really should have been the finish. Emerald Flowsion finishes it.

 

Definitely not a match that was befitting of an Emerald Flowsion finish. Standard Misawa is at least very good and Akiyama did make the beginning and end feel very important. Not even close to their 2000 classic. Disappointing for these two, great for anyone else. ***3/4

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  • 1 year later...

The opening of this match is great – unpredictable, and set the tone for the match. But after Akiyama hits the tombstone on the floor, the whole thing just falls off of a cliff. Akiyama is doing everything he can possibly do to keep control and put Misawa away, but it doesn't work. Misawa kicks out of his own move at 1 and no sells back to offense. By all logic Misawa should have lost this. As a result of the choppy put together structure they keep losing the crowd. In the end Akiyama looks like a wuss because none of his killer moves could get the job done, and Misawa ended up on top through the power of booking. A perfect example of how a match between two great wrestlers can screw itself over through bad layout.


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  • GSR changed the title to [1998-01-26-AJPW-New Year's Giant Series] Mitsuharu Misawa vs Jun Akiyama

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