[2002-02-24-AJPW-Excite Series] Keiji Mutoh vs Toshiaki Kawada

[El-P]

For a while, this is everything the Tenryu vs Mutoh match the year before wasn't : actual hatred and intensity, leg work that looked crisp (thank you Kawada for making it seem so) and actually meant something and better selling down the stretch. Kawada is just as terrific as always here, although the regular no-selling comebacks back and forth I know annoyed the old AJ fans back then. Mutoh is also much crisper than during the Tenryu match and demonstrates a lot more heelish attitude too, as he should because he's still the fucking outsider with a title that should not belong to him, which Kawada reminds him in spades by kicking him in the face. The leg work with kneecaps dropkicks gets much more dramatic here as Kawada refuse to let them take him down, meanwhile letting himself open to Shining Wizards, the most copied spot of 2001/2002. This leads to a moonsault when he just can't take it anymore and lays down the mat, but Mutoh hitting his knee on the way down prevents him from covering Kawada immediately. Okay, so now this whole knee business led us somewhere. Some more cool counters incoming, including an attempt at delayed selling by Mutoh who just pops back up after a backdrop driver and runs to ShiningWIzard Kawada again. Well, if Kobashi can do it, why not Mutoh ? He doesn't do it as well (and by that I mean, he just pops out barely even registering the move he just took), but whatever. You gotta wonder what the hell happened toward the end though. I vote on Mutoh trolling Kawada by not going for the powerbomb then doing a miserable failed attempt at... something. Well, he ended up on his head, so no luck for him. Well, the match is great for enough time, despite this awful botch at the end. So, quite the terrific match with its share of Mutoh goofiness which is acceptable or not depending on your personal tolerance for Mutoh goofiness. Mine is high, so I really loved most of this match. Kawada was the glue, of course.

[fxnj]

These two guys had a great trilogy of matches 2001-2003. They all kind of blend together for me with them all involving fantastic bodypart work and Kawada serving as a great foil for Mutoh's trademark explosiveness. The ending is actually what makes this one stand out to me. I'm pretty sure it was Kawada intentionally doing the ganso bomb and wasn't a botch at all.

[Jetlag]

If it wasn't for the constant no selling this would have been a close to great match. Plenty of struggle and I kind of liked Mutohs „I'm held together with glue and rubber band so I gotta be extra careful not to blow out my knees“ selling. Still seeing guys constantly jump up after receiving moves makes me zone out of a match fast.

[Superstar Sleeze]

I am surprised you all liked this match as you did. This seemed to get praised at the time as part of the Mutoh 2001 Renaissance, but I thought the 2001 match was much, much better. This match was filled with so many odd, odd choices. This felt like one of those Cena/Owens matches where it was just my turn, your turn but just with more pop up to it. Oh and Mutoh didnt fuck Kawada over. I could tell they were going for the Ganso Bomb and I think Mutoh had a mini-freak out. He is NOT Misawa and wanted to take it more safely. Then the second attempt he did the Ganso Bomb, but it was a safer version than the famous Misawa one. Of course, it didnt finish. It was a normal powerbomb that finished. 

AJPW Triple Crown Champion Keiji Mutoh vs Toshiaki Kawada - AJPW 2/24/02

Mutoh 2001 loves to work the knee. Kawada loves to sell the knee. This should be easy. At minimum it should be great and their ceiling is match of the decade. Somehow, they deliver something that is just peculiar. I hesitate to call it bad, but it is not great that's for sure. They did have a classic in 2001 so they have it in them I have seen it, but this match was not it. This reminded me of the Kawada vs Hashimoto match which I wanted to love so badly, but was just weird at times. This was just plain bizarre. 

The match was riddled with pop-up no-selling. I don't mean like I am nitpicking like for a good twenty minutes they just do pop-up no-selling. I mean you could just call that a no-sell was coming. It felt like Cena vs Owens at times in how they would use one wrestler's offense to create another's offense. Mutoh just got done hitting his standard 90s offense Back Handspring Elbow and Power Elbow. Then he can just sits. I am like ok. Kawada suplexes him. Mutoh pops up and Shining Wizard so that Kawada can do the All Japan fall out of the ring sell. That's just a microcosm of the match. They pretty much do this style for the next twenty minutes. It is just bizarre. I don't know what they were trying to accomplish.  It being 2001 Mutoh there are 8 million dropkicks to the leg and dragon leg whips, which I love. I know it bothers a ton of people because it is so repetitive. It is actually the repetition that I like. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Then when the pattern breaks it becomes interesting. So I approve. I did think that's best part of the match. Kawada's selling in the moment was great per usual. However, he would keep no-selling and then he would be running around and kicking Mutoh in the head. The other thing is there were way too many Shining Wizards. I love that the idea behind the knee psychology is that the opponent struggles to get back to his feet and BANG SHINING WIZARD! But that should be a knockout blow not constantly blown off. I loved that Mutoh who is usually terrible at selling decided he was going to sell his own figure-4 (Kawada did reverse the pressure for a while). I am like neither one of you want to sell, but now you decided you are going to sell something that no one sells besides Flair in the 80s. The match was so bizarre. The cardinal sin of the match is not the weird pop-up no-selling head kicks and Shining Wizards, it was when Kawada did his glassy eye sell of the Shining Wizards. He died and it made it so that I couldnt believe in his comeback. I bit on the Moonsault because it seemed like the logical conclusion after a barrage of Shining Wizards because it was one level up. but when he kicked out. I knew Kawada was winning. It was so lame. Mutoh hits another Shining Wizard and Kawada sorta blocks it, but Mutoh sells like he is hurt. It was an incredibly lame transition. Then Kawada did a bunch of powerbombs including a Ganso Bomb. On the first attempt, Mutoh had some second thoughts and deadweights him. Mutoh is NOT Misawa and wanted to take the move safely. He hits the Ganso Bomb but it is safer than the Misawa one and of course just like in the Misawa match it is not the finish. Powerbomb wins the match for Kawada and he wins the Triple Crown for the fourth time. The curse of Kawada continues as he gets injured a month into his reign and is forced to vacate it. 

This match defies rating. It is utterly bizarre. 

 

 

[ohtani's jacket]

I really like matches between these two. It doesn't matter how good the matches are. There was pretty much nothing good in Japanese men's wrestling at this point, at least these guys found a way to make their matches compelling. I usually dislike Mutoh, but his injuries forced him into a minimalist approach and I admire his commitment towards that style. His selling may be spotty, but you can't accuse him of half-arsing it, which is a worse crime than no selling. Personally, I'd much rather watch 00s Kawada work this type of minimalist style than try to recapture the glories of the past. People raved about Mutoh's matches at the time because they were starved for anything good. Then people came along and shat on the matches because they didn't live up to what had come before. If you go back and watch the matches in context, it's plain to see that they really were bright spots in a shitty time for wrestling. 

[Calvin]

Well, this is definitely unique in its attempt to blend the minimalist, martial arts style of New Japan with the drama of a King's Road match, and I respect the ambition, but it ends up transforming into a parody of itself in the process. 

**3/4

 

[fxnj]

First time I watched this ~10 years ago I marked out huge for this match and thought it was MOTY. Since then it's diminished with every subsequent viewing and I started to fall in line with the consensus on this as a spotfest with lots of blown off selling. Rewatched it last night and suddenly I have no idea how I ever fell out of love with this. Fantastic match that both guys should be proud of. 

Awesome opening amateur wrestling inspired matwork. I love how explosive both guys are with their escapes/transitions. It's amazing to watch and it adds a layer of realism. The matwork is also great at foreshadowing the dueling legwork story. Muto's bad knees become a factor early with him having difficulty defending against Kawada's takedowns, and Kawada takes that as a signal to transition into a targeted attack. Muto briefly attacks Kawada's arms, I assume to try to draw Kawada's attention away from the knees, but it doesn't work and Kawada remained undeterred. Admittedly, I was groaning when I saw Kawada go for the standard awful 50/50 leglock spot like you'd see in NJPW, but my expectations were happily subverted when, at the point where I expected Muto to grab onto his own leglock, he just panics and squirms his way to the ropes. If anyone doubts the psychological genius of Muto, I point to that spot. Of course, then Kawada then proceeds to kick and stomp the shit out of his head for that.

The next thing that stuck out to me was the sheer emotion behind Kawada's performance. A leglock being followed by a head-focused striking assault normally wouldn't seem that great of a transition, but in that moment I could feel Kawada's emotions bubbling over in wanting to bring the belts back to AJPW. The rest of his performance was basically pure fire with him switching between unloading on Muto with kicks that didn't look pulled in the slightest and fighting against his own body to get up from Muto's counterassault on Kawada's knees. Kawada's leg selling, by the way is incredible and loaded with nice details. Every time he needs to get back up after going to the mat he makes it look like a herculean effort, often having to hold onto Muto or the ring ropes to do so. Another nice touch is also how he repeatedly looks at Baba's portrait throughout the match, as if drawing inspiration from it to push him just a little farther to land a big move.

As for the pop-ups, I'd actually argue them to be a point of genius in the match. Modern stuff has conditioned us to view pop-ups as little more than a cheap shortcut to pop the crowd, but there was a lot of strategy driving the pop-ups here. Both guys have signature moves that rely on the other guy being in certain positions, so it's logical that they'd both let themselves eat moves from their opponents if it means a set-up opportunity for their own move. Exhibit A for this is the point about 8 minutes in when Muto eats a brainbuster from Kawada and immediately follows up with a Shining Wizard as his first big bit of offense in the match. The angle that Muto landed on in that brainbuster really didn't look that bad, while the Shining Wizard he landed on Kawada looked like a straight knee to his temple, and Kawada accordingly sold it as devastating. A big thing to pay attention with the pop-ups or moments of seemingly blown off selling is how they often come following moves that either didn't land cleanly or were partially blocked. That sort of thing normally isn't a factor in match psychology, but it is here. An obvious exception to this is Muto's late-match pop up after a nasty Kawada backdrop, leading to a double down. I give that a pass because 1. It's a late match desperation move after he'd had significant time to recover following Kawada's failed powerbomb and 2. Kawada's backdrop is a lower ranked move than his powerbomb, so there's some drama in him being forced to settle for a less damaging move and it backfiring.

Admittedly, there was a point lasting about a minute or so where I started to feel things get a little repetitive with the Muto Shining Wizards and Kawada head kicks. That immediately ended when Kawada laid himself near the turnbuckle to bait Muto into hitting a moonsault, who obliged but hurt the shit out of his own knees in the process. Brilliant psychology of them finding themselves at a stalemate but one guy doing something to break the rhythm. Muto's offense, though mainly relying on bread and butter Shining Wizards and dropkicks aimed square at the knees, had some other cool break the rhythm type moments of his own. He landed an amazing Frankensteiner when Kawada was running at him off the ropes and a stiff knee to Kawada's head when Kawada went for a takedown late in the match. 

The whole situation surrounding Kawada's powerbombs was utterly captivating to me and worth a closer look. The first one he hits is just your standard late match Kawada powerbomb for a hot near fall. After some more hard struggle, he gets Muto's feet off the ground but can't bring him up all the way. I can kind of see why this might look like a botch, but I thought it was intentional as a continuation of Muto's leg attack sapping Kawada's strength. The camera shot of Baba's portrait looking on during the power bomb attempt and Kawada drawing inspiration from it to push forward was maybe a little cheesy, but it worked for me in making Kawada's attempt and his subsequent failure feel huge for the match. After that failed attempt, there's visible hesitation from Kawada as he backs away and uses the ring ropes to hold himself up whilst contemplating what simpler moves he should go for instead. Again, this is awesomely creative work that stands as a testament to the smarts of the workers involved. After a few more minutes of stuff, including the aforementioned Muto backdrop pop-up, we get to the big ganso bomb. For me, it looked 100% intentional and it works awesome as the cherry on top to add weight to Kawada's win. Seeing him unseal that move after 3 years to take back the belts from this invader is a lot like Misawa unsealing the Tiger Driver '91 against Kawada on 6/3/94. Kind of weird that it wasn't the finish, and I don't think we were supposed to notice Muto talking to Kawada and the ref mid-pin, but it kind of works to keep him looking badass given he goes down like a minute later anyway.