[1994-01-20-AJPW-New Year's Giant Series] Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama vs Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue & Takao Omori

[PeteF3]

I think I've seen Takao twice in my life--the 1996 Royal Rumble where he didn't do anything, and the 2000 Carny match with Jun...not a whole lot to extrapolate from that marathon. Omori is full of pep and energy in his first big showcase match. Unfortunately for him Team Misawa sees to it that his hopes and dreams are swiftly and efficiently crushed, leaving undoubtedly a bitter cynical shell of a man. Omori gets the absolute snot beaten out of him--even Akiyama gets to act like a grizzled old veteran stiffing the shit out of some young snot. Omori is in peril for a LONG time, and we must go about 15 minutes before Kawada tags in. He's doubtless still working hurt, but when he tags in for the first time it's with Misawa down and vulnerable, and having milked the big showdown for quite awhile the crowd is suitably amped for it. The other running subplot from this and other recent matches is the budding rivalry between Kobashi and Taue--every exchange they've had recently has been stiff and exciting and full of hate. Anxious to see a singles match between the two now, and that's probably the least notable of the Four Corners match-ups. After being on a big hot streak, by the end of this Kobashi is back to being the gutsy overmatched underdog having to hang on for dear life--not necessarily because he's outranked but because the numbers game overwhelms him. Taue eventually puts him away with a nodowa to put more heat on that matchup. I guess this is it for Omori's major involvement in these stable wars, and honestly it's kind of hard to evaluate how he'd place in future matches--he looked promising but he really didn't do a lot besides act as a punching bag.

[jdw]

What I wrote in the pimping process

 

 

jdw, on 25 July 2011 - 09:51 PM, said:

 

jdw, on Jul 25 2011, 04:12 PM, said:

 

I'd also add, with TV dates:

 

01/30/94 Misawa & Kobashi & Akiyama vs. Kawada & Taue & Omori

 

This is the one time to see what potentially could have been the six-man tag. Not an off the charts six-man, but good and Jun & Omori worked pretty well together at the time.

 

Just watched this for the first time in 17 years. This 100% *must* go on the set. About 26:50 of a 27:03 match aired, which makes you wonder why they bothered JIP'ing it.

 

Let me put it this way:

 

* this isn't the best six-man of the era

 

* if this was on Raw tonight with the WWE equivs of these six guys (beats the shit out of me who they are), and they put on this match (i.e. did their equiv of the spots at this pacing, selling, and drama), people would give it ***** and call it one of the greatest TV matches of all-time, if not the greatest TV match of all-time

 

I'm not shitting on the second point.

 

That's the level these guys were working at: they could fall out of bed, have a match that isn't even one of the best in this genre they mastered (tv taping six-man tags) and it was at a level way up there in the sky. And we fucking took/take it for granted.

 

Seriously... as you watch this match image the 1994 WWF equivs in here. Bret & Razor & 1-2-3 Kid vs Shawn & Diesel & Owen. Admitting that Owen is above the level of Akiyama and Omori, but what the heck... I can't think of another lower ranked 1994 WWF guy who can work a bit to slip in there. Then imagine them doing their 100% best possible in a straight, non-gimmicked match where your exchanging things the AJPW six do for things the WWF six did regularly... on the best level they could do it at where things are clicking... it would be an amazing match especially if the fans stuck with it, got into the beat down section (which is amazing since in this one it was the young *heel* getting beat down), then were losing their shit (and I mean LOSING THEIR FUCKING SHIT) down the stretch. People would cream over it.

 

This is an amazing match, but just one of many so we take it for granted.

 

The reason it needs to go on if for what I said in the earlier post, and have talked about many times. This is the clearest glimpse at what could have been. Omori hangs. He more than hangs: he fits in. He works well with Jun. He takes a monster sized ass kicking from Kobashi and Misawa, who seem to be channeling their Jumbo to payback Kawada & Taue for all the ass stomping they did of Jun the year before. Taue, Misawa, Kobashi and Kawada are as good as you would expect, with Misawa and especially Kobashi being roughter than you'd expect... and that Misawa-Kawada magic dynamic that was so regularly there early in their rivalry. What's great as they don't take away from the fact that Omori is in there and a big part of the story... but inturn, Omori doesn't take away from the fact that this is Four Corners with their junior parterns involved. Things just naturally fit together.

 

Pretty simple structure:

 

9 minutes of standard spots to suck the crowd in

9 minutes of kicking then shit out of Omori

9 minute ride to the finish

 

If you've watched enough All Japan six mans from this era, as you will have by the time you get this (thanks to the 1992 and 1993 and probably 1991 sets), you know that there's about an 80% chance that one of two people is eating the pin in this one. Bonus points in this one: the obvious two don't eat the pin. One of the Four Corners does, and the folks pinning him kick the living hell out of him to finally put him down. This is one of those where if you didn't know the finish you'd be thinking they set up for the finish right before* the very final run:

 

"Well, X is back in. He'll probably look good, then get cut off and they'll let him kick out of a few things before pinning him."

 

[jump ahead]

 

"Well... he's out... maybe Y? Or are they going to cycle through back to him."

 

[couple seconds later]

 

"Wait... they're really kicking the shit out of C... could it be?"

 

Real good match. In no way pimping it as a MOTYC since AJPW produced any number of better matches in the year. The six-man on the closing night of the series is the famous one, which Ditch rightly pimped earlier. But holy shit... better than I remember and better than I expected when popping it in. If something like this took place on WCW Saturday Night, people now would be thinking they found the Holy Grail of Lost Matches.

 

The loss of 60 minutes of AJPW TV a week was a tragedy because we stopped getting "****1/4" matches like this. Omori getting sent over to be Hansen's partner was a tragedy: the first of many bad booking decisions by the Babas after the Four Corners starts.

 

#1 Misawa & #4 Kobashi & #5 Akiyama & #8 Asako
#2 Kawada & #3 Taue & #6 Omori & #7 Ogawa

 

World Tag: Misawa & Kobashi vs Kawada & Taue vs Doc & Ace
All Asia: Can-Ams vs Akiyama & Asako vs Omori & Ogawa

 

Yeah... that wouldn't have sucked in 1994. I don't know about anyone else, but I also certainly could have done a better job of using the 20+ minutes a week of TV to showcase that talent. Fewer tapings, getting the crap off TV time, getting the All Asia matches onto TV, and doing a better job of using commercial tapes.

 

Can we blame this one on Baba's cancer?

 

Make sure to get the Akiyama vs Omori Cup final from the same series, then the Kawada & Omori vs Kobashi & Asako to start the next series.

 

John

 

[Tawren]

Yeah this match is lots of fun. Crazy to think how this is a run of the mill 1990s AJPW match. I agree with everything JDW says above, of course without the depth of AJPW knowledge but it all clicks.

 

It's something I've never understood: why more promotions don't make broader use of six and eight man tags. Modern NJPW undercards are all multiman tags, and lucha of course is born on it, but the 1990's AJPW six man structure really stands out as a booking style that makes the promotion special and the big tags and singles matches extra special. Modern NJPW and WWE could stand to use a lot more TV taping main event six man tags that half-matter.

 

Anyways this match is strong - Misawa especially stands out as looking extra strong. Kawada and Kobashi gets huge pops and the finishing stretch with Taue and Kawada vs Kobashi is lots of fun. Well worth watching.