| Simon Watches AJPW - 1990s; ELBOOOOOOOOWWWWWW | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jul 20 2009, 03:25 AM (6,033 Views) | |
| Big Tuna | Jul 20 2009, 03:25 AM Post #1 |
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The Master and Ruler Of The World
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We left off with Misawa growing more and more into the role of Ace, and pushing Jumbo Tsuruta more and more out of that spot. Mitsuharu Misawa/Toshiaki Kawada/Tsuyuchi Kikuchi vs. Jumbo Tsuruta/Akira Taue/Yoshinari Ogawa, 8/20/1992 Jumbo is returning from some kind of injury, and now has a buzz cut. Misawa is 2 days away from a Triple Crown match against champion Stan Hansen, so he needs to keep the momentum. Kikuchi is actually not the whipping boy of the match, as Ogawa has less experience than him, so we get dominant Kikuchi, at least against Ogawa. We've got the classic Jumbo Kills Kikuchi and Kawada HATES Taue things here, along with Misawa basically deciding that he is now The Man. I turned the volume off and turned on my new Teenage Dirtbag playlist on iTunes instead, which is various covers of "Teenage Dirtbag". It fit the theme of the match, which was either the horrible abuse of Kikuchi or the horrible abuse of Ogawa. It was also very entertaining. Jumbo put Kikuchi in a kneeling Boston Crab that made Jericho look like a massive pussy in comparison. Kawada and Taue EXPLODE~ at one point. Kawada attacks Jumbo's ankle, so I'll assume there's an ankle injury. The end is more of Kikuchi being the best underdog ever. On the floor, Kawada has had enough of Taue's shit and fucking hurls him into the seats on fans, but Jumbo has already pinned Kikuchi. I ended on the All Time Low cover of "Teenage Dirtbag" that Max sent me. Good match. **** Edited by Big Tuna, Oct 11 2012, 03:24 PM.
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| Big Tuna | Jul 21 2009, 01:07 AM Post #2 |
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The Master and Ruler Of The World
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Stan Hansen [c] vs. Mitsuharu Misawa [Triple Crown Championship], 8/22/1992 Misawa tries to ground Hansen and throw in big elbows as well, but he can't mix that too well, and Hansen starts to work the arm. A lot of back and forth arm work and big strikes mixed in for most of the first half of the match, ever the slow start. They have a bunch of super hot nearfalls with Misawa never really getting anything in using the arm until he says "fuck it" and hits a massive elbow strike to win the title for the first time. ***3/4 |
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| Big Tuna | Jul 21 2009, 09:24 PM Post #3 |
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The Master and Ruler Of The World
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Mitsuharu Misawa [c] vs. Toshiaki Kawada [Triple Crown Championship], 10/21/1992 Tag partners and best friends collide for the top title. Misawa starts with a side headlock and Kawada immediately drops him on his fucking head with a Backdrop Driver, as if to say, "Hey. I want your fucking title. We are not friends tonight. Get the fuck up." Kawada then tries to work the arm to counter Misawa's big elbows and we get the idea that Kawada is way more aggressive than usual here when he does shit like kick his best friend right in the face off a break. Misawa fires back in kind like, "Okay, man. You want to play like that, fine." Misawa's control period shows his confidence as he calmly grounds his friend and does it with the attitude of someone who knows he's better than his opponent and doesn't need to go full throttle or whatever. In fact, every time Kawada tries to be extra aggressive to try and show that he's as good as Misawa, it pumps up Misawa and shows in fact that Kawada is not as good as Misawa, at least on a maycabe scale. Kawada gets frustrated at this and blows his load early by hitting his finisher before he could really wear down Misawa enough for it to actually be a finish. Awesome finishing run as you'd expect, and it becomes a theme of slowly figuring out that Kawada doesn't have it in him to defeat Misawa, who only gained strength towards the end, where Kawada had lost his with each big move. The arm work at the beginning was kind of pointless, but it also could fit the theme of Kawada trying to prove himself and being overly aggressive and thus losing his cool and not following through on a potentially effective strategery. Very important match, in the scheme of things. ****1/2 |
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| Big Tuna | Jul 21 2009, 10:40 PM Post #4 |
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The Master and Ruler Of The World
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We're now at the annual end of the year tag tournament, the Real World Tag League. Jumbo and Taue were teaming of course, and Misawa/Kawada vs. Jumbo/Taue was scheduled for the final day's main event. Jumbo went down with injury again, and this one was more severe and forced him from the main event scene forever. Everyone wave bye to Jumbo now. This is unfortunate, since we never got the Misawa/Jumbo blowoff. Anyways, this also leaves Taue without a partner. Promising young rookie with 2 months of experience Jun Akiyama is drafted in as a last resort that very night. Mitsuharu Misawa/Toshiaki Kawada vs. Akira Taue/Jun Akiyama, 12/4/1992 They start slow here, but Misawa's knee becomes a focal point after Taue dodges one of his usual big moves and sweeps the leg Johnny. This eventually turns into a game of beat the shit out of the rookie. The first 2/3rd of the match is pretty dull and mundane, but I'm forgiving since they had to kind of throw this one together and shit. Also, since the last 3rd of the match was super duper fucking awesome. ***1/2-3/4 |
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| Big Tuna | Jul 22 2009, 01:04 AM Post #5 |
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The Master and Ruler Of The World
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Mitsuharu Misawa/Kenta Kobashi/Tsuyuchi Kikuchi vs. Akira Taue/Masanobu Fuchi/Jun Akiyama, 1/8/1993 In a post-Jumbo world, Taue is now the top guy on his side of the roster. Akiyama is a fiery rookie. Kikuchi has his head bandaged up. These are all themes in the match. Also, Kobashi steps up big against Taue here and is all like, "Hey, I can be a top guy too!" This is an alternating game of "Abuse the rookie, Abuse Kikuchi". Taue gets pissed with Kobashi's new fire, and hits the Arm Bomber on the concrete, because Taue is now the top guy in his group, and fuck you. After this, Kobashi is obviously isolated. The Misawa/Taue sections are the best part of this match due to all the really neat counters and shit they have at this point, but the rest is all solid too. This is mostly about putting over Akiyama as a big rising star though, which would soon enough become Misawa's job anyways. ***3/4 |
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| Big Tuna | Jul 22 2009, 03:02 AM Post #6 |
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Mitsuharu Misawa/Toshiaki Kawada vs. Akira Taue/Masanobu Fuchi, 2/25/1993 Misawa vs. Taue for the Triple Crown is in 3 days, so BUILDUP~. A lot of Misawa/Taue stuff early on and it all RUUUUULES. At a point, Kawada holds Taue from the apron and Misawa strikes, but Taue ducks and MISAWA ELBOWS KAWADA! OH FUCK. That, uh...that might lead to something in the future. After Taue hurls Misawa onto a super hard indestructible table in the crowd with an awesome sound, Misawa's back becomes a focal point. When Kawada gets in, Fuchi and Taue focus on his hurt eye to take back over. The one he got when Misawa elbowed him in the face moments before. Every time we think there's a hot tag, Taue and Fuchi cut it off by going to the back or the eye and taking the other man out on the floor. Eventually, Misawa and Kawada do get their shit together and a FACELOOOOOOOCK~/STRETCHU PLUMMMMAHHH~ double submission spot wins them the match. I want to see Misawa/Taue because of this, so job well done. This is the last time Misawa/Kawada teams up in a 2 vs. 2 tag match. ![]() ****1/4 |
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| Big Tuna | Jul 23 2009, 02:03 AM Post #7 |
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The Master and Ruler Of The World
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Mitsuharu Misawa [c] vs. Akira Taue [Triple Crown Championship], 2/28/1993 The usual feeling out process leading to an AWESOME Baba Chops vs. big fucking elbow showdown of strikes, and Taue rocks shit with his big boots. He can't keep Misawa down though despite a Sit-Out Powerbomb on the floor, the Nodawa Otashi in the ring (first time ever kicked out of, I believe), and a TAUE MISSILE DROPKICK HOLY SHIT. Misawa makes the big comeback once Taue has nothing else left to try and 2 Tiger Drivers puts down Taue. Good shit. ****1/4 |
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| Big Tuna | Jul 23 2009, 02:36 AM Post #8 |
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The Master and Ruler Of The World
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Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Toshiaki Kawada, 3/27/1993 This is a part of the Champion's Carnival, the annual singles tournament, and former (?) tag partners face off. Their friendship/relationship is already a bit shaky after the miscommunication in their last tag, and the 10/92 singles match. Kawada again is overly aggressive, and Misawa uses this to quickly hit a Tiger Driver in the first minute. They work a lot of this as them knowing each other's habits and being able to counter/block a lot of shit. Kawada continues to be unnecessarily aggressive towards his best friend, likely spurned on by the fact that in their last match, Misawa proved to everyone that he's better than Kawada, and Kawada has spent his whole life being in Misawa's shadow. Kawada thinks that by being super mega aggressive to start, as opposed to last time, will work better. Unfortunately, it's not, and he again blows his load early with a Powerbomb that Misawa kicks out of. They get into a massive slapfight here, further disintegrating their friendship. They continue to go at it really hard and an awesome finishing run happens. Kawada keeps being overly aggressive, even though he's dead tired. Misawa fucking KO's him with a running elbow, and after the match, he sells his elbow and arm like hell. ****1/2 |
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| Maxwell | Jul 23 2009, 02:39 PM Post #9 |
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Ginger Extraordinare
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The last Misawa/Kawada match you reviewed is my favorite one of the series, based off of what I've seen. |
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| Big Tuna | Jul 24 2009, 11:13 PM Post #10 |
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More stuff not involving Misawa yet that's SUPER FUCKING IMPORTANT: -In a match in April in the tournament, longtime enemies Taue and Kawada went to a 30 minute draw. They then shook hands and said they earned a lot of respect for each other and THEY FORMED A NEW TAG TEAM NAMED THE HOLY DEMON ARMY. -Kawada now split from Misawa's group, and in the first match against them (HDA vs. Kobashi/Kikuchi), they fucking murdered Misawa's boys. -The night before the next match, Kawada and Taue won the AJPW Unified Tag Titles from the MVC on their first attempt. Mitsuharu Misawa [c] vs. Stan Hansen [Triple Crown Championship], 5/21/1993 Hansen pinned Misawa with a Powerbomb in the finals of the Champion's Carnival tournament to win, so not only does he have a title shot, but he has the momentum of pinning the champion. Hansen attacks Misawa during the ring intros, which lights a fire under the champion and he beats the shit out of Hansen for much of the early parts of the match. He particularly kicks the crap out of Hansen, causing Stan to try and attack the knees of Misawa, but a theme develops of Stan not being able to start any kind of strategery because Misawa's too fast for him or has a counter ready for everything. Hansen takes to blatant cheating to attack the arm. Hansen is vicious as hell on the arm, and Misawa is a fantastic seller as always. Hansen continually going for the Powerbomb that won their last match whenever Misawa tries to fight back is a great little touch. Misawa continually pulls his elbow pad up to cover the hurt elbow, and even tries striking with his other arm, but it's not the same. He does survive the Powerbomb this time, and then it moves into a game of DODGE THE LARIAT for him. He locks on Sleepers and FACELOOOOOOOCKS~ like crazy since he can't throw a lot of elbows. When he gets the change he throws a massive Rolling Elbow, again sacrificing the arm for the KO win. Great shit. ****1/4-1/2 |
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| Big Tuna | Jul 25 2009, 12:50 AM Post #11 |
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Holy Demon Army [Toshiaki Kawada/Akira Taue] [c] vs. Mitsuharu Misawa/Kenta Kobashi [AJPW Unified Tag Team Championship], 6/1/1993 The first meeting in the greatest tag team series of all time, probably. The first meeting of Misawa and Kawada since Kawada split and joined Taue. Also, Kobashi wants to prove himself as worthy against Misawa's former tag partner. Kobashi tries to step up, but Kawada keeps shutting him down. The same happens between Misawa and Kawada, just so things are even. Misawa's facials towards Kawada are that of, "Come on, man. Don't be a bitch about this. Fine. I'll kick your ass again then." There's some really nice subtle stuff around the idea that HDA are still getting used to teaming, as Taue doesn't follow up on Kawada's brief attempt at working Misawa's knee. Still, most of the joy and story of this is Kawada treating Kobashi like he's an absolute piece of shit and nothing. Kawada tries to get bitchy with Misawa and slaps him, which brings us PISSED OFF MISAWA. Prime era Misawa pissed off is one of the best forms of any wrestler ever. Misawa also actively tries to get Kobashi the big win, since he's already beaten both Taue and Kawada clean multiple times. Eventually, it becomes clear that KAwada is above Kobashi, just like Misawa is above Kawada. Hot finishing run as you should expect by now. Good stuff, but they've improve much more upon this pairing in future matches. ****1/4 |
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| Big Tuna | Jul 25 2009, 01:24 AM Post #12 |
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Mitsuharu Misawa/Kenta Kobashi/Jun Akiyama vs. Toshiaki Kawada/Akira Taue/Yoshinari Ogawa, 7/2/1993 Buildup for Misawa/Kawada at the end of 7/93! I have never seen this particular trios match before and HOLY SHIT IT RULES. Super mega hot crowd for nearly everything, awesome "Abuse The Rookie" sections with Akiyama's fiery comebacks being awesome. The Misawa/Kawada portions of the match were super fucking great as well with it always seeming very violent and chaotic, and there was a bunch of really well done innovative and unique counters and blocks into different spots from nearly everyone involved here. Go out of your way to see this. ****1/2-3/4 |
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| Big Tuna | Jul 25 2009, 11:47 PM Post #13 |
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Mitsuharu Misawa/Jun Akiyama vs. Toshiaki Kawada/Masanobu Fuchi, 7/19/1993 MORE BUILDUP~! ABUSE THE ROOKIE IS PLAYED! At a point, Kawada responds to Misawa's saving of Akiyama by hauling off and hitting a massive Lariat to the back of his head while Misawa's back is turned, which does not bode well for their friendship. When he recovers, he comes right in and MISAWA AND KAWADA EXPLODE! They full out fucking fight, and Misawa shoves the ref away, and if I said Pissed Off Misawa ruled, then this is SUPER MEGA PISSED MISAWA. Akiyama pulls Misawa back, and he shoved his own partner and KAWADA USES A STRAIGHT RIGHT PUNCH TO THE JAW. The out of control chaotic thing is something that this match does perfectly with them, while also managing to give the same tone of "it didn't have to come to this, guys" that Jacobs/Whitmer had. I use that, because it's the most modern thing I can think of with that tone or feeling. Kawada lays Misawa out with the straight punches, which makes him looks awesome going into the title match in 10 days. Akiyama pins Fuchi with the Northern Lights Suplex. The Akiyama/Fuchi stuff was solid and totally worth seeing, but Jesus, hunt this down for the Misawa/Kawada exchanges. ****1/4 Edited by Big Tuna, Jul 25 2009, 11:48 PM.
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| Big Tuna | Jul 26 2009, 12:44 AM Post #14 |
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Mitsuharu Misawa [c] vs. Toshiaki Kawada [Triple Crown Championship], 7/29/1993 This is one of my favorite matches ever. A good portion of that isn't even due to the wrestling, but due to the facials of both men. Misawa's conflicted face in the back before the match is one of those "a picture tells 1000 words" type things. Misawa's arm briefly is worked over, but again, Kawada's rage makes him not focus and he tries to be tougher and strike harder instead. They go mostly even and there's this AMAZING staredown halfway in the match between the two. Basically the moment when Kawada decides, "FUCK OUR FRIENDSHIP! FUCK OUR TEAM! FUCK YOU! I WANT THE TITLE!" Kawada goes down to a straight right to the jaw after this, and from there, it's never really the same. From there, Misawa keeps racking up big moves and nearfalls and it becomes a matter of time until he just can't kick out anymore. Kawada desperately tackling Misawa at the end and lying on top for a 1 count is one of my favorite things in this match as well. Kawada survives a lot, more than Misawa expected (great facial for this idea as well), but unlike Misawa, he can't pull a big strike or KO blow out of his ass when necessary to stop the offensive attack. Awesome awesome match. 6/3/94 and others might be better as a whole match, but there's a bunch of great little moments in this that make it one of my favorites. ****1/2 |
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| Big Tuna | Jul 30 2009, 01:41 AM Post #15 |
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Mitsuharu Misawa/Tsuyuchi Kikuchi/Jun Akiyama vs. Toshiaki Kawada/Akira Taue/Masanobu Fuchi, 8/20/1993 I am seeing this for the first time. There's a lot of awesome exchanges early on, most notably Misawa/Taue and Misawa/Kawada. It then becomes an alternating game of "ABUSE KIKICHI!" and "ABUSE THE ROOKIE!" for Kawada's team. At the end, Kawada goes apeshit and murders everyone on the opposing team at various points, and pins Kikuchi with a Powerbomb. Kawada is pissed at life. **** |
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| Big Tuna | Jul 30 2009, 02:58 AM Post #16 |
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Mitsuharu Misawa [c] vs. "Dr. Death" Steve Williams [Triple Crown Championship], 9/3/1993 Williams tries to bitch out Misawa with a slap, but Misawa winds up bitching him out instead with harder slaps and an elbow. Misawa is a badass. This is largely focused on Dr. Death being a big nasty bastard to Misawa, and Misawa having to throw brutal elbows and take big risks to fight him off. In that sense, it ruuuuuuuuuuules. Misawa has to amp up the brutality of the elbows down the AWESOME finishing run, which sucks for Steve, but is awesome for anyone watching. He has this outstanding facial before he lands the finishing KO Running Elbow blow, where he's like "Jesus christ, seriously? Fine. One more should do it." This ruled the world. ****1/2 |
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| Chaotic Vision6 | Jul 31 2009, 01:27 PM Post #17 |
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Gabe Sockpuppet
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Ive got that Misawa vs Dr Death match on my best of AJPW DVD set and man that match is so bad ass. Misawa plays the face role down to perfection while Dr Death was such an entertaining bully. Every Misawa match ive watched from that time the crowd heat is just incrediable. |
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| Big Tuna | Aug 1 2009, 12:26 AM Post #18 |
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Mitsuharu Misawa/Kenta Kobashi vs. Steve Williams/Big Bossman, 11/24/1993 BIG BOSSMAN IN ALL JAPAN FUCK YEAH! This is part of the '93 tag league. We're joined in progress with Bossman controlling Kobashi briefly. As expected, we get the Big Bully Americans vs. Fiery Natives theme here. Kobashi's so awesome at being the fiery young babyface in peril that I pump my fist when he manages to make a big comeback and get the hot tag to Misawa, who's Ace-tastic as usual. Bossman looked pretty good here, and had a lot of big brutal strikes. Really really good 13 minute TV match. ***1/2-3/4 |
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| Big Tuna | Aug 4 2009, 01:29 AM Post #19 |
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Mitsuharu Misawa/Kenta Kobashi vs. Stan Hansen/Giant Baba, 11/30/1993 Baba is kind of like a later years Ric Flair. He's a fucking legend and will always get MASSIVE pops and reactions, even if he's not physically at his peak anymore. He also rarely bumps big, which is a big deal when he goes down for Misawa's elbows most every time. Instead of abusing the youngest, the majority of this is spent abusing Big Boss Baba. The ending stretches are pretty fucking epic as well. Lots of awesome crowd heat, GREAT nearfalls, and a superb idea going of experience and anger vs. youth and tenacity. Experience gets desperate and does awesome shit like A STAN HANSEN TOP ROPE FLYING SPLASH. It goes to a 30 minute broadway, but 7 of it are cut out, as we get 23 minutes. Very good stuff here, although you get the issue with later years Baba of his stuff looking pretty bad on occasion. Whatevs. I'm used to it now. **** |
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| Big Tuna | Aug 4 2009, 02:04 AM Post #20 |
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The RWTL FINALS~! Mitsuharu Misawa/Kenta Kobashi vs. Toshiaki Kawada/Akira Taue, 12/3/1993 Same ideas as the 6/1/93 tag, basically. Kobashi wants to prove he's on Kawada's level as a worthy tag partner for Misawa. Kawada wants so badly to beat Misawa. Misawa can basically handle everyone in the match just fine one on one. Kobashi keeps making mistakes against Taue, and targeting Kawada, who in response typically just beats the fuck out of Kobashi and gives him back to Taue. Another one of those moments that show why Kawada is the fucking man happens here. Kobashi wildly swings at Kawada's knee, and it happens to buckle, showing that Kawada has been hiding an injured knee. When he gets up, he realizes that he's shown a big weakness and goes APESHIT on Kobashi with strikes before it can be exploited. Taue tries to stay in to keep the knee safe after Misawa and Kobashi exploit it, but they overwhelm him since Kawada is in bad shape. With Taue near defeat, Kawada HAS to make the tag. Which results in his knee further being destroyed to the point where he literally cannot tag. Misawa and Kobashi, mostly Misawa, murder him with big moves and keeping Taue out. Misawa practically hands Kobashi the big win, but still, Kobashi pins Kawada. Awesome awesome awesome match. ****1/2-3/4 |
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7:03 PM Jul 10