jdw

He's terrific in the match, and in the post match in how he responds to Kawada after the win. Kawada's strong arm man is a good way to put it. There the point late in the match where Kawada (character rather than worker) is lost over being able to put away Misawa, tag out to Taue having more confidence in him. We all often project character onto performance that's often not there, but Kawada's expression does pretty much say it, as does how he does the tag. On the flip, the cheerleading is there: when Kawada has Misawa on the ropes and looks to put him away, Taue is doing some of the best "on the apron" style stuff you seen in All Japan in that era in rooting / pulling for his teammate to get the job done. 1995 Taue was a big leap. 1996 Taue was at times even better once he won the TC in having a certain air/confidence level in his work. Broken record on this: Baba blew it by having Kobashi win the title. There was just a bit more to be mined from Taue being at this level. * * * * * That said, there were also times where things didn't click. Taue and Kawada had a lot of matches against each other that clicked, be they when they were rivals or teammates, or when Taue was pre-great~! or when Taue got really-great. The 6/96 TC match doesn't quite click, and was wildly disappointing given it was the one time that Budokan was *theirs* to lay it all on the line. Been a while since I've watched it, but it wasn't sharper that most recent time than it was back in 1996. I've always said there's a moment down the stretch where is seemed the plan was suppose to go West, Taue went East, Kawada had a look/pause that said "Uh..." before deferring to East. Considering the length of the match, how it went once they went East, generally what happened up to that point, it always felt like going East came at least 4 minutes early leaving all that West stuff on the cutting room floor.

So if one posted on The Board that Fujiwara was one of the 10 best workers in wrestling history, do you think that the majority of Board posters would agree with that? Not the majority of folks who might respond in the thread, since it's likely that our pals would come running in to support. But the majority of active Board posters if we forced them to vote Yes/No? They really would look at us like we look at the people who think that Shawn Michaels is one of the 10 best workers ever. I suspect that the same would be the case if you asked the question at the highest traffic Japanese language hardcore puroresu website. Not a sub-niche one like ours or DVDVR, or a blog like Phil & Cos. But a broader collection of regular old hardcore puroresu fans, the vast majority of whom are either digging current New Japan, or the New Japan and All Japan of prior generations (in the Wrestling Classics equiv sections), etc. Do you really think there would be agreement with the thought here that Fujiwara is an all-time great Top 10 Japanese worker? I don't think that would be the case. Doubt you do, either. I haven't said we're unique in this. Nor that we don't get new converts when exposing people to him. But it's a subniche of fans.

It wasn't even that insane of a push. He got a title match against Flair. He got pinned. The number of people Flair got "clean" wins over in title matches after his first tour as NWA champ were Steamboat (1982), Kerry (only because it was the title change in 1984) and Wajima. Same series as the Wajima match, Flair couldn't pin Yatsu in a title match. Jumbo hadn't jobbed clean to Ric since 1981. Tenryu did a DQ job in 1984. Kabuki (!?!?) did a DQ job in 1983. Choshu had the DCOR in 1985. He had a series of title matches with Hansen. The only one that had a real finish had Hansen pinning him. He got one Tag Title match, against the Road Warriors. Jumbo & Wajima lost it. A month later Misawa got his first Tag Title match. Jumbo & Misawa won it... with Misawa getting to pin DiDiase. Baba pushed him, but in a more cautious fashion than one would have thought. He didn't get a Goldberg push. He started working full time on the first series of 1987. He got pinned by Flair on the second series. Hansen pinned him on his third series. No one of note was sacrificed to the alter of pushing Wajima. Hard to compare it with the push of Ogawa by New Japan.

Inoki

Maybe Misawa's first run with the TC. People didn't really appreciate it until he was a good ways through, and people even thought someone else was better (check out the 1993 WON WOTY voting... not just who won, but who was 2nd). Folks were just really starting to get it, then the match with Doc ended it. Last season the Dubs ate all that shit about being a jump shooting team, that they didn't have a star big man, that the regular season is just the regular season. They spent the off season having "luck" tossed at them. Hard to tell if this season will end with a 06/03/94 moment (Warriors pushed past the brink but still pull through) or 07/28/94 moment (they get caught with a sudden backdrop driver).

Dandy-Azteca has a funtastic first fall. There are loads of little things that aren't even touched upon in Daniel's response. Example: Dandy at 14:57 (video stamp) blocking two of Azteca's attempts at a head scissors counter by burying his head into Azteca's left leg as it comes up. It's a little thing, flashes by in a couple of seconds, pay attention to something else and it's gone. But if you catch it, you're hitting the remote. If it's the first time that you've seen someone do that, it's a "What did Dandy do there?" moment that you're trying to figure out. If you've seen it elsewhere, you're in "Cool block Dandy!" mode.

I think the idea that you had this set of All American jocks who can beat anyone on their sheer ability alone being harnessed as weapons of an evil cult leader sounds great on paper. It was just not executed as well and/or not utilized properly to get that point across. So yeah what you end up with doesn't work. Yeah, kind of the general point. What's odd is that it kind of worked as a group taking a bunch of misfits and making them a package. Dusty had a certain fondness for Sullivan, but the Devil stuff in Florida was kind of played out. Like Slasher says, he came across more as a cultist twisting the jocks. Rotunda was going nowhere in JCP as a really bland worker that no one cared about other than the folks in the business. Steiner wasn't really going anywhere after splitting off with Sting: he had some flash that everyone could see, but not really a whole package at the time. Toss them together, with Sully as their oddball manager, Mike adding the base of their work as a term, Rick being able to add the flash... it worked. Then they had the goofiness of Mike being the "Captain" and Rick being the total dumb jock. The goofy stuff with Mike winning the TV title, and Steiner being handed the Florida Title that he's do that upside down wearing of. The dynamic worked for a good mid-card team. Doc made a good replacement for Rick when they started the move towards Rick as a face. Same type of thing: not really over with JCP fans, had some positives but not the whole package. The fit with Mike was pretty solid. It's one of those that on some level didn't make a ton of sense (it's wrestling... not a lot does), but "worked" to a degree. I always thought they killed it off before they should have, as neither Doc nor Mike worked well right after they broke them up. Doc didn't really have anything interesting until Gordy showed up, and Mike ended up leaving.

Big Daddy Dink / Humperdink with the Freebirds. Add DDP into the mix as well. You've got Michael Hayes. You don't need a manager. You don't really need *two* of them.

Sure. You just never hear a bad word about that match so I was curious. Nobody had a bad word for the Steamer-Flair Wrestle War match for ages. It was accepted as an all-time classic, and in some circles as *the* all-time classic. Until they did have a bad word for it. It's possible that someone was critical of Wrestle War before Jewett, but he was the first I can recall knocking it down a peg. I don't think he called it a shitty match, but he didn't think it was an all-time classic, and give it one of hit working overs. And I think was met with resistance. I'm sure you've run into that with movies: universal love/praise for something, yet someone (possibly even you) wonders, "WTF?" I think you've misconstrued me. I'm not saying "how could you not like that that match?!", I'm legitimately curious as to why it fell flat. If you don't feel like explaining then it's no matter. I just feel like dissenting opinions are important in appraising a match. This is the point where he would start quoting this post and pointing out that he participated in the DVDVR Best of the 90's poll for NJ, AJ and WCW. To that, I would point out that every since those were posted he's been hedging those statements with the benefit of hindsight as to not be locked into them and to not be able to be quote mined himself in the style he is so accustomed to doing. Actually, I participated in all of the DVDVR 90s polls with the exception of Indy poll since I didn't watch any indy wrestling at the time. I wrote up the two Pimping Posts mostly to get things added to people's ballots that hadn't been discussed, and to point out where folks had wrong info. The rest of the stuff I tossed out was just having fun with it. The three ballots that I wrote up we again mostly for fun and expressing what I thought at the time. They were far less of the big production number than they became over the years after. I'm not entirely sure what you think I've hedged on those five pieces. I've spent nearly 20 years pimping my #1 pick on the New Japan ballot, and when it came up on this board in the Yearbooks, I was talking about it again. I've stated that I liked that I spent time/votes on a number of NJ heavyweight matches at a time when Juniors dominated the results. Saying that the last time I watched the 6/98 Kawada-Kobashi match that it didn't strike me as being as good as I thought it was at the time isn't a hedge. It's an admission that a match I pimped more than just about anyone else doesn't hold up for me. Also that thing things I didn't care about the style as the decade went on were there in the match. I suspect we all have dozens, if not hundreds, of matches where we changed our thoughts on them after further reflection. Same goes for all forms of entertainment. Would I change stuff? Sure. What? Who knows. In any one of those polls it would mean wading back into re-watching massive amounts of stuff. Would I like The Headlock Match as much? Would the fact that both are dead men cast a pall over it for me? Who knows. But I'm 100% certain that if I spend a year re watching everything from AJPW or NJPW from the 90s (or watching for the first time new shit that's come to light), my list would look different. What I'd want to push may be different as well. Was Kawada vs Albright one of the 20 "best" matches of the 90s for AJPW? I didn't really think it was at the time, and suspect that would be the case now. But it deserved attention for being something very different from listing 10 variations of Kawada & Taue vs Misawa & Kobashi/Akiyama. There likely would be something on re-watch that struck me like that which would find it's way onto a list. Which is kind of what this whole GWE 2.0 is all about. As Daniel has pointed out, if the same results get kicked out as last time, if no one thinks about other wrestlers and rethinks their old warhorses, it's a waste of time. It's easy to put together a List. The irony of your contrarian belief is that if I did a list, it would largely be as non-contrarian as Jerome's Top 10 ended up being. It's not like Mark Henry or King Kong Bundy would make my list. I'd also take a powder on all those fun guys in Europe, lucha remains a vast ocean that I've haven't gotten more than ankle deep in, and most of the stuff of the past decade leaves me pretty flat. Boring, non-contrarian, round up the usual suspects list. Much like Daniel in general, I would find my own list boring to toss off in an evening. I would be more interested in seeing Daniel's eclectic list than even the final full results. * * * * * Not doing podcasts isn't because I don't want to be on record. There are nearly 8000 posts here, and I've probably made at least four times that much in various places over the years. It's not hard to sift through here to find what I think, and toss it in my face if people think I shy away from it. It's frankly easier to take the written word and toss it around than having to listen to all those hours of Flair podcasts and try to transcribe the various themes and examples for something to respond to. I don't do podcasts because I think the form is largely a circle jerk. That's not just limited to pro wrestling ones. I've thought that long before it became such a beloved form for wrestling fans. Simmons' podcasts were and are circle jerks. Carolla's were and are. I thought that Meltzer's old Radio Eyada stuff was, and the current thingy never struck me as any different when I slogged through some. Now one could toss back that posting on message boards and newsgroups is a circle jerk, and all of us have been doing it for 20 or so years. I have no defense for that. But it is the circle jerk I prefer: reading what people think rather than listening to them babble about it. * * * * * I get wanting to kick me in the nuts, and everyone associated with me. You could have tossed Yohe in there as well to go for a grand slam. On the other hand, Hoback is about the least contrarian and least elitist wrestling fan there is. He can watch a Tito vs Orndorff match, have a blast, and call it a **** match. We watched Hogan vs Orndorff from the Big Event on Saturday night, and he loved it. In turn, we watched the Sasha Banks vs Bayley title change earlier, and he loved that too. So you have the wrong guy there. Jewett and I might have been (or are... have no idea with Frank anymore) elitist snobs. James is likely further removed from it than any poster I've seen here. He just happened to not like a match that (i) lots of people like, and (ii) he really, really, really wanted to like. Kind of like the folks who are bored by 06/03/94 after it's been pimped for decades. It happens. I suspect we all have one, or a lot, of the Usual Suspects that we don't think a ton of. I'd also say that tossing out "elitist" on this board is more than a bit goofy, especially in the middle of a Greatest Wrestler Ever poll. We've all seen large chunks of this community tosses off in their entirety as elitists. You can go back to Loss having discussions with Bryan Alverez over Shawn Michaels. You can go back to any of us here who have ever been in wider WON Hall of Fame discussions getting tossed off by the "main stream" voters calling us elitists. You can look at how a slew of us were called elitist puro snobs by sheet writers... that is if they used the word puro rather than claiming it was a made up word by us gaijin snobs. Seriously, what does the rest of the hardcore wrestling world think when we all pimp of Fujiwara? They think we're contrarian elitist wackos. Look around: you are in the online center of elitist pro wrestling contrarian thought. Embrace it.

Dan out out a 70+ disc set of 1998 All Japan in 2012 with everything available from NTV’s original network broadcast, NTV’s satellite channel, Samurai TV and bonus discs covering the Dome and other commercial releases. The vast majority of the matches on NTV Satellite & Samurai were complete. You'd get complete versions of a lot of the stuff originally on NTV on the Satellite or Samurai, though very little overlap between Satellite and Samurai as they taped different cards for the most part. The concept is pretty great. The trouble is that the routine tapings in the 1997 and beyond range were "less good" in terms of quality than the stuff in the 1991-94 range. One really wishes *that* stuff got the same deal. Or, at the very least, all those JIP matches from that time period were released in full in a comprehensive Classics concept like New Japan did for large chunks of their early-to-mid 90s television material. Anyway... see Dan. He was just talking to me about possibly doing sets for 1999 & 2000 "to the split". So interest in the 1996 (which is where all that good 1996 Tag League stuff is from) & 1997 & 1998 super tv sets would probably help inspire him that there's still interest out there for this stuff.

I always loved his Simmons: NBA Finals, Game 7 Live Chat:

1993 is the cliche year, but also an easy one to grab Loss' snowflakes from: Toshiaki Kawada vs Kenta Kobashi (AJPW 06/12/98) ****3/4 Kenta Kobashi vs Jun Akiyama (AJPW 07/24/98) ****3/4 Mitsuharu Misawa vs Kenta Kobashi (AJPW 10/31/98) ****3/4 Kenta Kobashi vs Jun Akiyama (AJPW Championship Carnival 04/11/98) ****1/4 Kenta Kobashi vs Akira Taue (AJPW 09/11/98) ****1/4 Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue vs Kenta Kobashi & Johnny Ace (AJPW 06/05/98) **** Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue vs Kenta Kobashi & Johnny Ace (AJPW 06/05/98) **** Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama vs Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue (AJPW 10/11/98) **** Stan Hansen vs Kenta Kobashi (AJPW 07/29/93) ***** Misawa & Kobashi vs Kawada & Taue (AJPW Real World Tag League 12/03/93) ***** Misawa & Kobashi vs Kawada & Taue (AJPW 06/01/93) ****1/2 Steve Williams vs Kenta Kobashi (AJPW 08/31/93) ****1/2 Toshiaki Kawada vs Kenta Kobashi (AJPW 10/23/93) ****1/2 Kobashi & Kikuchi vs Akiyama & Ogawa (AJPW 01/24/93) ****1/4 Misawa & Kobashi & Kikuchi vs Kawada & Taue & Ogawa (AJPW 06/03/93) ****1/4 Misawa & Kobashi & Akiyama vs Kawada & Taue & Ogawa (AJPW 07/02/93) ****1/4 Misawa & Kobashi & Kikuchi vs Kawada & Taue & Fuchi (AJPW 10/02/93) ****1/4 Misawa & Kobashi vs Hansen & Baba (AJPW 11/30/93) ****1/4 Stan Hansen vs Kenta Kobashi (AJPW 04/16/93) **** Toshiaki Kawada vs Kenta Kobashi (AJPW 04/14/93) **** Kenta Kobashi vs Terry Gordy (AJPW 05/29/93) **** Furnas & Kroffat vs Kobashi & Asako (AJPW 08/20/93) **** Misawa & Kobashi vs Williams & Boss Man (AJPW 11/24/93) **** He had another trio that were in the ***1/4 - ***1/2 range. A lot from each year ended up on the cutting room floor. I can't say if a random throw away like Kobashi vs Bossman in 1993 is better than a random throwaway like Kobashi vs. Smith in 1998. My recollection is that the Kobashi-Smith was kind of just there, especially considering how long they'd worked together. The Bossman match is one that I've pointed to often as a fun little match that reflects well on both, and is an easy lock for a Best of Bossman set as one of his good singles matches. Is it "good" on a 1993 All Japan scale meaning *** or so? I don't know. I think it was watchable and good the last time I watched it, and I'm pretty clearly a jaded All Japan Fan who is even critical of old favorites like 06/12/98. On the other hand, the yearbook cut these two out: 01/25/98 World Tag Title: Ace/Kobashi vs. Kawada/Taue 3206 complete 12/02/98 Tag League: Kobashi/Akiyama vs. Kawada/Taue 2140 complete So... I can only say my recollection at the time. When I got to the end of 1993, while I might have thought Kawada was the best worker in the world coming off the Final Match of the Year, I also thought that Kobashi put up the best year I'd ever seen. I didn't get the same vibe in 1998, and don't even think I advocated him for being the best worker in the world. I wasn't nearly as jaded of All Japan style or even Kobashi as I'd become in 1999, but things were bothering me.

I do understand what you're saying. However, if in 1994 you are number 4 of 5 or 6 then he would be maybe at the very best number 13 or 14 in Japan. Wrestling was a much bigger deal in Japan than over now so Taue would as a star would easily be behind Misawa, Kawada, Kobashi, Hansen and Williams for All Japan. Then behind Muto, Chono, Hashimoto, Choshu, Fujinami, Vader and maybe Hase. He'd also be well behind Onita, Tenryu, Maeda, and Takada. There are many others you can argue would be over Taue, but these names were all more impressive and bigger stars during Taue's run. Today the top three guys in New Japan are the top three guys in Japan period. You may be able to reach down and find the forth guy in New Japan and make a case for him (maybe AJ Styles) but it would be a stretch. 1994 wasn't exactly his peak. 1995-96 would be. So where would he rank? Misawa Kawada Hashimoto Mutoh Chono Takada And it starts getting thin after that. Doc was out from 03/05/95 - 03/21/96, and clearly *behind* Taue when he returned. Hansen was behind Taue from April 1995 on. Hase retired in May 1995, and really wasn't a bigger "star" than Taue prior to that in 1995. We just happened to like Hase more. Sasaki... that's tough. He had exactly one IWGP Title challenge in 1995-96: on the first show of 1995. It was a Dome main event, but (i) it was before Taue picked up his game, and (ii) there was nothing after that. He had only one IWGP Tag challege, on 09/20/95 with Hawk after their team had largely fizzled out. Nothing after that. He finished at the bottom of his group in the 1995 G1 and wasn't one of the four to advance to the knockout round. I was in the building for all of his 1996 G1 matches, and people games less of a shit about him than Choshu, Hashimoto, Chono & Mutoh... and Koshinaka & Yamazaki... and Tenzan & Kojima. The only person they cared less about was Junji Hirata, and that was because Sasaki injured him in the first match. I'm not sold that in 1995-96 that Sasaki was a bigger star in Japan. Choshu had a strange 1995-96. He really didn't mean much in 1995, and was off to the side other than helping launch the Tenzan push. He was off to the side for much of 1996, other than the hot run in the G1. It was like he was saving himself for one run when it mattered, and knew that he couldn't sustain much. Smart. Bigger star... sure... kinda... but he didn't really rate in New Japan for most of 1995-96. More like a "special attraction" for a week. Koshinaka was kind of fun, and a reliable guy for New Japan, but he wasn't pushed like Taue was in All Japan. He wasn't as good of a worker either, once Taue picked up his game. Yamazaki got a lower push than Taue. I mean... you didn't see Yamazaki lifting the IWGP from Hash in either 1995 or 1996. Tenzan got a nice push, but he was pulled into Chono's circle as his lesser partner. Not really the same as winning the Triple Crown from arguably the #1 guy in the country. Maeda was a bigger "name", but Rings wasn't really drawing in 1995 or 1996 to any great degree. That's with him getting the big return push in 1995 into 1996. Onita retired somewhere in here. Tenryu was back bombing in his own promotion after his inter-promotional run ran out. He wasn't a bigger star in 1995-96. So you've got roughly six guys that were bigger than Taue in his two peak years: Misawa Kawada Hashimoto Mutoh Chono Takada I'm not sure I would say Chono was pushed harder than Taue, but he was a bit unique in the two companies: the clear lead flat out heel in one company. His accomplishments were pretty limited. He did get the Dome match with Hash at the Weekly Pro card, but it was more a throw away where New Japan just as soon would have rather not been there, they wanted to give nothing away (they were already aiming towards the Hash-Mutoh title change), and a certain Hall of Fame front office person with New Japan flat out copped to a pair of gaijin afterwards that All Japan blew them out of the water on the cards and their own Hash-Chono was pretty so-so. Chono ahead of Taue is a Pavlovian reaction on my part, but how much it holds up if I thought a ton about it beyond Chono's unique position... I'm not sure. And then there's Kobashi. Similar push to Taue's, though Taue's was the *stronger* one. He's the one who went to back-to-back Carny Finals, winning in 1996. Kobashi didn't reach either Final. Taue went to back-to-back Tag League Finals, winning in 1996. Kobashi went to one, taking it in 1995. Taue got to win the Triple Crown from Misawa. Kobashi got to win it from Taue. Taue held the Tag Titles longer. He had more Budokan main event singles matches (5-4) and overall main events (8-7). One could call it a tie. Kobashi was more popular with the fans, and was the won holding the TC at the end of 1996. Taue had more "stuff" in the two years, with it sustained while Kobashi's was pretty choppy such as having almost nothing of interest going on in the first four series of 1996. So Taue is probably in the range of #6 - #8 in 1995-96. Tied with one in Kobashi, and a couple of special circumstances in Chono and Takada. Did he ever reach higher than that? I doubt he ever got into the Top 5. Could be wrong, but would be surprised if we could find a year. Does one want higher than #6 - #8 for a HOFer? That's not an unreasonable thing to ask for. On the other hand, I'm not sure if being #2-3 when the business blows or is at a lower range is better than being #6-8 when business is a good deal better. So all years are not a like. Still, #6-8 isn't super strong in a country with largely two promotions.

Sure. You just never hear a bad word about that match so I was curious. Nobody had a bad word for the Steamer-Flair Wrestle War match for ages. It was accepted as an all-time classic, and in some circles as *the* all-time classic. Until they did have a bad word for it. It's possible that someone was critical of Wrestle War before Jewett, but he was the first I can recall knocking it down a peg. I don't think he called it a shitty match, but he didn't think it was an all-time classic, and give it one of hit working overs. And I think was met with resistance. I'm sure you've run into that with movies: universal love/praise for something, yet someone (possibly even you) wonders, "WTF?"

Because I thought it far more interesting to point out James feeling that the one match he wanted to watch more than anything else that day was flat as all hell. It was without any prompting from me, as I didn't crap on the match the whole time. I also found it was funny that he felt strongly enough about the match that he used it as a response to Mrs. Hoback on what we were up to while she worked. I didn't write in depth about any of the matches. I was quick hitting what we thought were awesome (like the G1 1991 stuff), highlighting a nifty little throw away thing like Murdoch vs Hata that we enjoyed, taking a few shots at Flair looking out of place and goofy on his first trip to All Japan, having fun with a 17 year old futbol match that James repeatedly lost his mind over, and trying to get across how much incredible fun I had watching Godzilla with Caleb as he's always sharing cool stuff with me (like his play this weekend) and this was a chance to share with him something I dug and getting to see him react to it, ask questions, think about it, and pop was flat out one of the great joys that I've had this year (similar to experiencing his father reacting to the United-Pool match). So walking through what I thought about that Lucha match wasn't really the point.

I'd love to see you expand on Kobashi's 1998 campaign in the Supplemental Viewing section of the 1998 Yearbook if it's high end of a year. The Yearbooks look to have just 8 complete matches, and a few other edited one. There's a heck of a lot of his work that didn't make the yearbooks, including everything from the Tag League except for the Final, all of his Carny series except for the Jun match, the entire first two series of the year (including a Tag Title change), the entire Summer Action Series except for the Jun match, the editing of the Dome match, etc. Kobashi 1998 available matches 01/02/98 Tomorrow League: Inoue/Kawada vs. Kobashi/Kanemaru 1601 complete 01/03/98 Akiyama/Ace/Kobashi vs. Skull Von Krush/Albright/Williams 1427 complete 01/10/98 Mossman/Ace/Kobashi vs. Hawkfield/Albright/Williams 1717 complete 01/23/98 Mossman/Misawa/Baba vs. Fuchi/Kobashi/Kawada 2927 complete 01/25/98 World Tag Title: Ace/Kobashi vs. Kawada/Taue 3206 complete 01/26/98 Johnny Ace/Kobashi vs. Johnny Smith/Wolf Hawkfield 1413 of 1740 shown 02/14/98 Mossman/Akiyama/Misawa vs. Smith/Ace/Kobashi 2738 complete 02/15/98 Kobashi/Ace vs. Williams/Hawkfield 1843 complete 02/27/98 Kobashi/Ace/Smith vs. Misawa/Akiyama/Mossman 2129 complete 02/28/98 Akiyama/Kobashi vs. Kakihara/Takayama 1356 complete 03/21/98 Champion Carnival: Kobashi vs. Ace 3000 complete 03/22/98 Champion Carnival: Kobashi vs. Hawkfield 909 complete 03/26/98 Shiga/Mossman/Misawa vs. Kanemaru/Ace/Kobashi 1817 complete 03/29/98 Champion Carnival: Kobashi vs. Omori 1242 complete 04/11/98 Champion Carnival: Kobashi vs. Akiyama 3000 complete 04/12/98 Champion Carnival: Kobashi vs. Izumida 1229 complete 04/18/98 Kobashi/Takayama/Kakihara vs. Albright/Hawkfield/Williams 1420 complete 05/01/98 Kobashi/Ace vs. Hansen/Vader (22:12) 05/23/98 Kawada/Taue/Kikuchi vs. Ace/Kobashi/Asako 2709 complete 05/31/98 Shiga/Taue/Kawada vs. Asako/Ace/Kobashi 2154 complete 06/05/98 World Tag Title: Kawada/Taue vs. Kobashi/Ace 3026 complete 06/12/98 Triple Crown: Kawada vs. Kobashi 3349 complete 07/04/98 Mossman/Honda vs. Kobashi/Shiga 1635 complete 07/05/98 Kobashi vs. Smith 1423 complete 07/15/98 Kenta Kobashi vs. Masahito Kakihara (9:50) 07/18/98 Albright/Takayama/Kakihara vs. Kobashi/Ace/Hase 1928 complete 07/19/98 Akiyama/Hase vs. Kobashi/Mossman 2153 complete 07/24/98 Triple Crown: Kenta Kobashi vs. Jun Akiyama (32:50) 08/22/98 Misawa/Akiyama/Asako vs. Ace/Smith/Kobashi 2036 complete 08/23/98 Taue/Honda vs. Kobashi/Ace 1402 complete 08/29/98 Kawada/Taue vs. Kobashi/Mossman (18:02) 09/11/98 Triple Crown: Kobashi vs. Taue 2539 complete 10/03/98 Hawkfield/Smith/Ace vs. Kobashi/Shiga/Akiyama 2100 complete 10/04/98 Kobashi/Akiyama/Shiga vs. Albright/Takayama/Kakihara 1426 complete 10/11/98 World Tag Title: Kobashi/Akiyama vs. Kawada/Taue (29:51) 10/24/98 Kobashi/Shinzaki vs. Misawa/Omori 1907 complete 10/31/98 Triple Crown: Misawa vs. Kobashi 4329 complete 11/15/98 Tag League: Kobashi/Akiyama vs. Headhunters 1150 complete 11/21/98 Tag League: Hansen/Vader vs. Kobashi/Akiyama 1449 complete 11/23/98 Mossman/Gunn/Ace vs. Kobashi/Akiyama/Shiga 1704 complete 11/30/98 Tag League: Misawa/Ogawa vs. Kobashi/Akiyama 630 of 3000 shown 12/02/98 Tag League: Kobashi/Akiyama vs. Kawada/Taue 2140 complete 12/04/98 Tag League: Kobashi/Akiyama vs. Ace/Gunn 2004 complete 12/05/98 Tag League: Kobashi/Akiyama vs. Vader/Hansen (Final) 1903 complete Yearbook - Complete Yearbook - Edit I might be missing some there as I probably don't have have all the commercial release... maybe. Lot of stuff there. 1998 got tough to cut with all the WWF and WCW stuff, etc. Maybe there are a lot of hidden gems in the 36 matches that didn't air complete.

No one was calling for Kobashi to start working like The Man after winning the TC for the first time in 7/96. Kawada didn't start working like The Man after winning it in 10/94. Taue didn't start working like The Man after winning it in 5/96. Misawa didn't actually work like the Man after lifting it from Hansen in 8/92. What they did show, over a number of years, was interesting character growth. Kawada did when moving opposite of Misawa in 5/93. Taue did when picking up his game in 3/95, and against after winning the TC from Misawa. Misawa evolved over a roughly one year stretch, where by mid-1993 he was a stronger character. Heck, even Jun show interesting growth in 1996 when starting to team with Misawa, and in 1998 when his singles push got stronger. I might not be a massive fan of his work, but his character had grown up. Misawa crying after Jun kicked out of a moonsault, after people had been kicking out of his moonsault for years, is Kobashi still working like an underdog babyface... even against somone who was the massive underdog in the match. People like me at the time weren't calling for him to work like he was Misawa. We were calling for him to put away the crying type of stuff, and realize by 1997 (and into 1998) that he was at a different stage than he had been earlier in his career.