dawho5

I'm doubtful on the whole idea of the buffer match needing to be lower card guys, but I definitely feel like there should be a buffer between emotionally charged matches. For me, watching something like 6/3/94 or 12/6/96, etc. is a very emotionally invested experience. The wrestlers involved in those matches had big feuds going on and even if you hadn't followed those, the way the match was worked draws me (and a lot of people, as I understand it) in as the match progresses. And that tends to make the matches a bit...heavier for lack of a better word. It takes more energy from me, the wrestling fan, to watch those matches than, say, one of the lead-in 6 man tags. So if there is need of a "buffer match", it's more something like a 15-20 minute tag or 6-man with big names that will be having a big match next major show. You're not sticking jobbers in there, but you're allowing the crowd and people watching the whole show to get a little of the mental energy that goes into watching a great wrestling match back.

Holy Demon Army vs. Kobashi/Ace 10/11/97 Slow start, then Kobashi's heavily taped leg comes into play. Well, even without the tape there's a 95% chance of legwork in a Kawada vs. Kobashi match of any sort. Once there is an injury involved it is for sure. They play up the Ace vs. Taue match in the finishing run, which is pretty good on it's own. Taue vs. Ace 10/21/97 15 minute match, but well-worked. Taue gets the lion's share of the early offense. Good exchanges throughout and both hit big stuff, with Taue doing (I think) the reverse nodowa with the opponent landing on his face for the first time. Given it's similarity to an Ace crusher in the impact, it's pretty cool that Taue used that after Ace hit his finisher. Really liking Ace's post-1995 work. Once he started teaming with Doc it seemed like he picked it up more than a few notches.

I would agree with that 100%. They had themselves trapped in a corner where Misawa would either have to cease being the ace and have a level playing field with the other 3 until others could be groomed, or what happened would have to happen. Which leads me to: Misawa vs. Akiyama 9/6/97for the Triple Crown Akiyama gets 2 minutes or so longer than the previous match to wrestle Misawa. He does a bit more damage, works the leg early and goes to it late to slow Misawa down. It doesn't work, the crowd still loves the plucky kid for trying even though they knew (just like anyone else would looking at the names) who was winning. It seemed like a minor step up for Akiyama, and if Misawa comes across as a little too harsh, well, he is superman now. A mere mortal like Akiyama can't get too close or that doesn't work. Misawa/Kawada/Hase vs. Kobashi/Taue/Akiyama This is another match like Kobashi vs. Hase. No real big stories being furthered here besides the Kobashi vs. Kawada and Akiyama vs. Kawada (which was awesome) stuff. You get lots of fun wrestling from matchups you don't see too often. And some nifty double teams from Misawa/Kawada and Kobashi/Taue. This was incredibly enjoyable and some of the stuff was absolutely awesome.

Kobashi/Smith/Ace vs. Misawa/Akiyama/Asako 8/22/97 Fun 8 minutes of chaos on the tail end of a 6 man. Akiyama looks golden. Asako, as always, brings the can-do attitude against bigger opponents. Ace holds his own again. After a certain point he got really good. Kobashi and Akiyama have some damn good exchanges. Kobashi vs. Hase 8/25/97 This match did not have a big history of competition between the two. Nor was it part of a major story. It was just a really well-worked, fun to watch wrestling match. And I loved it. Hase starts on Kobashi's arm, moves to the leg and never lets it get too stale. Kobashi and Hase do some excellent matwork. The chop exchanges are great and tend to favor Kobashi. Giant swing contest! Hase keeps going back to the leg for near-fall submissions and cut-offs late. Hase hits some awesome suplexes. Kobashi hits some of his big stuff. Really, really fun match and well worth watching. Misawa/Akiyama vs. Williams/Albright 8/25/97 World Tag Titles So have I mentioned at all that Williams and Albright are big and like to toss people around a lot? Because that's pretty much how this goes. It's all kinds of fun to watch Misawa and Akiyama try to slay not one, but two monsters. They don't, but the effort was really, really worth the watch.

Misawa vs. Kawada 6/6/97 for the Triple Crown This match was incredible in the opening and middle parts. Great exchanges (I think these two do the best job of keeping them intense but not overdone) and Kawada working over the right arm after Misawa hurt it blocking a gamengiri were the highlights. The finishing sequence is intense, but Kawada does 4 dangerous backdrops in a short time, follows them with a brainbuster and puts on a variation of a triangle hold. That's death right there. Anyway, Misawa gets out of that, takes another dangerous backdrop that he nosells and goes back on offense. That's fucking ridiculous. I did like the change n strategy by kawada, choosing not to pin but attack the neck via submission to put Misawa away. Then they screw up the finish with the ref stopping his 3 count even though it doesn't look like Kawada moves after an elbow. So Misawa uses a German for a 3 right away. Put a good ending on it, that's a classic. As it is, it's great in parts and excessive in others. Misawa vs. Taue 7/25/97 for the Triple Crown Taue dominates this from the start. So much so that I'm not sure Misawa did enough at the end to put him away. Also, the sheer amount of punishment Misawa takes is pretty brutal. Taue looks great here. Okay, so, is Misawa booked a tad too strong? No, at this point it's gone beyond that. But I suppose he had to be brought up to a point well above the other 3 to stay ace. Either way, bleh.

Akiyama vs. Misawa 5/27/97 Akiyama gets quite a few nice nearfalls on Misawa. There are a few times where he really has him on the ropes. Misawa comes back, but Misawa is still scrappy even kicking out of a tigerdriver. A second puts him away. Good stuff from both, and the crowd is really behind Akiyama. Akiyama does nosell a German towards the end, but I'll ignore it mostly. Holy Demon Army vs. Kobashi/Ace 5/27/97 for the World Tag Titles This is JIP to the finishing stretch. It's good back-and-forth with all four delivering. Ace vs. Taue is highlighted. The crowd is really, really hot. Finish is good, but I could use less of the Kobashi double fist "spirit" crap.

Kawada/Taue/Omori vs. Kobashi/Ace/Patriot 5/18/97 This match seemed to have two purposes. First was to give the idea that Ace and Taue don't like one another. Second was to give Patriot, Ace and Omori a chance to show their stuff in a fairly high profile matchup. Omori isn't much in his first stretch in the match but brings his game up as he goes. Ace and Patriot deliver up until patriot leaves the cover early on the 3 count. Dude, really? Fun tag match, did what it was supposed to do.

Fairly famous trifecta here. Misawa vs. Kobashi 4/19/97 CC Final #1 Misawa, Kobashi and Kawada tied, and Kawada got the lucky draw. I liked how this match went, with Kobashi getting aggressive early to try and put the ace away. He teases a few big moves before Misawa sends him to the floor after an elbow to cut off a flying shoulder and hits a Ricky Marvin plancha. This match had Misawa throwing every rope-variation I have seen him do besides that second turnbuckle 360 kick. Kobashi goes back on offense and after several great nearfalls and a very well-placed sleeper that kills Misawa, Kobashi hits a....Russian legsweep and covers. I don't think he gets that you have to build the nearfalls UP to keep the momentum of the match moving forward. Misawa is back in control and hits more of his high flying stuff. Kobashi goes back on offense after a missed diving elbow from Misawa. Misawa elbows a lariat after some hot nearfalls. Misawa looks like he's going to put this one to bed, but Kobashi hits a lariat to a charging Misawa to bring things back his way. Kobashi has a powerbomb nearfall that the fans sort of react to, seems like the jig is up. In a stroke of genius, an orange crush is fought over, then hit for a really big nearfall. And then Kobashi goes for a cover after a...dropkick. Look, I get the idea of desperation pinning attempts towards time limit. But this is Misawa and you're trying to pin him after a dropkick? Zero reaction. Misawa blocks a lariat and Kobashi goes for the pin again. This one makes far more sense than the dropkick, but that finish could have been far, far better. Misawa vs. Kawada 4/19/97 CC Final #2 Boy does Misawa get his ass handed to him here. He gets in some elbows and makes Kawada work a bit for it, but it ends up going powerbomb, stretch plum, powerbomb, stretch plum, powerbomb, 3. Kawada looks like he just swallowed the most bitter pill anyone ever had to swallow afterwards. I guess if the first time I pinned my archrival in a singles match came under those circumstances, I'd probably feel about the same. Kobashi vs. Kawada 4/19/97 CC Final #3 Oh man, words cannot describe how awesome this match is. Kawada goes back after the right arm of Kobashi that Misawa hurt. Kobashi goes after Kawada's left leg. Wouldn't be Kawada vs. Kobashi without some leg work. Kawada, fresh off his own battle with his own pride, punches Kobashi in the face while he's trying to put on a figure four. This is impressive as psychology given the character of Kenta Kobashi. That was a fucking CHALLENGE motherfucker! Kobashi wins the strike exchange, but forgets the leg, which comes into play later. Kobashi tries an early powerbomb and Kawada goes right back to the arm. Kobashi hits a lariat and momentarily looks to be going to the leg until Kawada starts kicking him in the face. That motherfucker wants to play again, this time Kawada gets dumped on his head with a German but again the leg is forgotten. Kobashi hits some very big nearfalls, misses a lariat and hits an enzuilariat. He wants the lariat but Kawada hits a gamengiri! They are both down for a bit, Kawada hits a dangerous backdrop that Kobashi tries to fight through but eats another gamengiri. Bet he's regretting not working the leg earlier. Kawada puts on the most brutal stretch plum I've seen. Kawada works up to a powerbomb...see how that works Kobashi, he worked UP to his big nearfall instead of hitting it, then going back to a suplex. Back to the match, Kawada has this great "are you shitting me?" look on his face after the powerbomb kickout. The crowd is nuclear also. Kawada hits an abisegiri, Kobashi won't go down. Another abisegiri, still not going down. Gamengiri!!! 3! I love how Kawada played into Kobashi's pride (especially after not pinning Misawa in match 1) to keep the leg fresh for later, all while keeping pressure up on the arm to throw Kobashi's game off. Then in the end, Kobashi refusing to fall over (in addition to the earlier lack of legwork) ends up getting him kicked in the head enough for the 3. Great, great stuff.

Misawa vs. Kawada 4/2/97 CC Fucking wow. This match ruled on so many levels. They didn't work it like a 30 minute draw at any point during the match despite the 90%+ chance that it was going that direction due to it being a 30 minute time limit. At one point during the big Misawa nearfall section near the end, I really got this feeling that Kawada was going to put together something big for the end. I knew from the match length he wasn't, but the way they worked the match had me looking for the big Kawada run that put Misawa away for the first time. The last 8 minutes of the match are absolutely amazing. Every time I think All Japan has found a way to work a draw that can't be topped, they manage to do it. I think one aspect of the Misawa comeback that I, at the very least, have been sleeping on so far is the way he times his counters (frankensteiner to powerbomb attempt, etc.). He always seems to do this RIGHT where the opponent has this massive wave of momentum and if this bomb doesn't put him away, the next one is sure to. It gives him just enough time to regroup and take a few big bombs before landing a few elbows to give him the necessary breathing room.

Williams/Ace/Kea vs. Misawa/Akiyama/Asako This had some fun parts. Ace, Akiyama and Asako all contributed as much or more then you would expect. This match was a lead-in to Misawa vs. Williams. The few times there was interaction, it was good. Kea was pretty...there I guess? Not much that he did seemed like it mattered. Asako at least, when he's in these 6 mans, brings this attitude of "I'm gonna hang with the big name guys!" He even hits this sweet looking front flip into what seems like a proto-emerald frosion off the top for a nearfall in this one. Ace brings it too, there is this great spot where Misawa goes for his tigerdriver -> backdrop -> tiger suplex on Williams and Ace sees it coming. Misawa eats a lariat as Williams ducks. Great teaser for a big match right there and puts Ace over as a smart wrestler. Finishing run is a bit too chaotic for some of the people in the match and they seem lost. Akiyama vs. Taue CC 97 Handheld and Akiyama looks like he may catch Taue with another surprise exploder, but Taue gets the shoulder up this time. Taue is so great at putting Akiyama over, even if Akiyama doesn't always need the help. Taue makes sure Akiyama stays down with a really brutal run of moves to finish the match. Kobashi vs. Akiyama CC 97 Twenty minutes of awesome here. They do a little matwork along with some intense exchanges early and it's all very good. There is this Kobashi spinning back chop in the middle where Akiyama takes it on the upper part of the cheek near the eye. Ouch. The finishing run is great for more than one reason. The lack of unnecessary head drops and nosells is good, as is the sense of struggle for every big move that leads to a nearfall. Nothing is easily gotten and the big momentum change was well done. Akiyama busts out the blue thunder! I love how the bump can make a simple DDT look ridiculously evil. Also, Kobashi going glassy-eyed after a big nearfall was pretty sweet. A late exploder tease sets up the big finish.

Akiyama vs. Taue 1/20/97 Short, 5 minutes. Great stuff packed into that 5 minutes though. The expression on Taue's face post-match is fucking great. Kobashi vs. Misawa 1/20/97 for the Triple Crown This was great. Opening 15 minutes were really good, heated exchanges, momentum swings, a few tigerdriver teases, and a Misawa DDT bump that fucking rocks. Kobashi working the ribs for a while is pretty good, Misawa sells it well. Misawa hits a ridiculous 360 degree second rope sidekick to the chest. I love how he has all this high-flying offense he busts out on occasion. Misawa runs his elbow into the guard rail on a dive and the meaty part starts. Kobashi gets some seriously sweet arm offense in and the crowd is popping for submissions like nearfalls. Misawa elbows a lariat and now we got two guys with arms that aren't doing so hot. The finishing stretch is awesome and really, really well-worked with a minimum of no-selling. There is downtime, but the punishment that is dished out in this match warrants it.

It's more a must-see for the historic factor. That match put Misawa in the main event solidly. The Hansen match later on seemed like it made him "the man". Neither were Misawa's best matches in-ring, but they are a big part of the history. I will agree on Steamboat vs. Macho from WM3. It was definitely a great match, but I've seen a lot better out of Steamboat.

Damn, I have yet to watch that Joe vs. Kobashi match, and now I really don't want to...

I thought the early match was pretty incredible as far as setting up the late match. Akiyama yet again shows up Kawada and Taue by merely hanging with them right away. So when they get their first big shot at him, they ruthlessly beat him down. Not playing with him or slapping him, walking away when he wants to fight, but just beating on him. Even after he got the pin on Kawada, they still had yet to really get serious on Akiyama from the beginning of the match, that is until this one. There's so much good stuff in the opening part, too. Kawada, during the Akiyama beatdown, giving Misawa the "stay out of it" look right before putting the seated sleeper on Akiyama. Taue standing between Kawada putting the sleeper on Akiyama and Misawa. The Akiyama/Misawa offense that looks like they are going to have a repeat of the taped RWTL is pretty essential to this match. That and the subtext of Taue vs. Misawa in comparison to Kawada vs. Misawa in terms of WHY Kawada has so much trouble with Misawa. Kawada has always tried to beat Misawa at Misawa's game. He'll go strike for strike, bomb for bomb, won't back down from anything but the occasional rolling elbow. His pride forces him to TAKE whatever Misawa is gonna dish out that won't put him away and get through it like Misawa does to him. Taue has no such delusions. He's going to do what he thinks will beat Misawa. If that's getting out of the way of a flying clothesline and tossing Misawa down on his face, fine. Ducking a running elbow, sure. This really helps him vs. Misawa as far as stopping the big momentum Misawa gets when Kawada or Kobashi try to go strike for strike with him and Misawa wins and hits a few big moves as follow-ups. It also keeps Taue from overextending himself and getting into bad spots. How many times does Misawa catch Kobashi or Kawada after a big whiff during a strike exchange and suplex them over, or at the very least use that to his advantage to swing momentum his way? How many times does he do that to Taue? That's the kind of stuff that really stands out to me in the way they wrestle these matches. How their personality really has a lot to do with their strengths and weaknesses, and what it allows them to exploit in each other.

Misawa/Akiyama vs. Holy Demon Army 12/6/96 RWTL Finals As with 6/9/95 I'm not going to do any kind of play-by play or anything on this. It's something that if you haven't seen, you should. And if you have, watch it again real soon. Loved the brutality towards Akiyama after the big apron nodowa at 23 minutes. Anytime he showed any sign of life at all, Kawada and/or Taue would end him...again. Misawa's valiant struggle against the inevitable was epic and awesome and incredible, along with any other superlatives you may want to throw into that list that I didn't. Not forgetting at all that the build up to that point was great, but that final 8-10 minutes was absolutely jaw-dropping. All four guys really brought their A+ game to this match. When you look at the participants, that should tell you how great this actually is. So 1996 is done, and it was another really good year. Kobashi was still good at all the things he was before 96, he just started adding or accentuating a lot of his more annoying habits. Kawada had a lot of fun matches opposite Misawa and Akiyama that really, really, really made you love all 3. Taue had a good year as well, winning both the Champions Carnival in his first headlining match as the only native and beating Misawa for the Triple Crown in what I thought was a definitive Taue performance. The TC match with Kobashi was pretty damn good too. And Jun Akiyama had a Hell of a year for a guy who debuted in September of 92. Roughly 3 and a half years in and he's working big matches with Kawada and Taue as his foils. The thing that gets me is that he plays his role to perfection and more than holds up his end of any match he is in. His 96 has to be one of the better years anyone has had in wrestling at 3-4 years in the business. Oh, have I mentioned that the RWTL in 96 was fucking amazing? Because it was. Some of the head-drop and noselling nonsense that gets out of control in later 90s All Japan is rearing it's ugly head, but I'm doing my best to not highlight that any more than I have to. Except for days when I am a tad more grumpy than normal.

Holy Demon Army vs. Misawa/Akiyama 11/29/96 RWTL Everything I've watched from this year's RWTL with these two teams has been really, really good. Let's hope this is no different. Taue and Akiyama start out with Akiyama goading Taue into a brawling match. The faces work Taue's leg before shit hits the fan. Akiyama takes a floor nodowa while Kawada and Misawa fight around the other side. Misawa (the legal man) takes a doomsday device style floor nodowa with Taue coming from the apron. Then Kawada hits him with a floor powerbomb not too much later. Holy Demon Army is in firm control of this match even when Misawa tags Akiyama. Misawa and Akiyama scramble like mad to get any kind of offense together, but when they do it's awesome to watch. Crowd is popping like mad for almost the whole finishing sequence. Incredible match. One thing that stood out to me was Taue chucking Akiyama at Misawa as he came in to get Akiyama out of a nodowa. The second time Taue tried it, Misawa caught Akiyama and started the big comeback. REALLY looking forward to 12/6! Misawa/Akiyama vs. Williams/Ace 11/30/96 RWTL Guessing they tied and this is for the shot at winning the tag league, as they already had a great match in the tag league this year. Oh yeah, MORE ACE! Not something I would have expected myself to be happy about, but I am. Akiyama starts things out by charging Williams and soon eats a backdrop driver. That's gonna leave a mark. Ace and Williams work over Misawa for a few minutes. During this time Williams comes off the top rope to meet a Misawa elbow. Ouch. Akiyama saves Misawa and takes the tag. They work over Ace and hold off Williams, but Ace is kicking out of everything and still fighting back. Misawa hits a tigerdriver, rolls out and hits another for 3 at..7 minutes? Who cares, the match was still awesome. Great sprint, but given who was involved that is no surprise. One more match left in 96. You know the one. I'm looking forward to it, hopefully work goes by fast tomorrow.

Maybe he forgot his mask and they improvised.

Holy Demon Army vs. Williams/Ace 11/18/96 RWTL Things start slow and stay that way until Williams catches a Kawada kick and the gaijin work over Kawada's leg. There's some good hold/counterhold stuff and matwork in that early match. Kawada is in pain after hitting a spinkick but tags anyway. Inexplicably, Taue tags Kawada not too long after only to have Williams go to work on him again, this time with power moves. Kawada comes back with a huge German on Williams. He works his way to possibly the most impressive powerbomb to date for a nearfall with Ace breaking it up. Kawada hits an abisegiri and a gamengiri to finish. Odd structure to the match, but the finishing stretch with Williams and Kawada hitting their big stuff was great. Also, Johnny Ace brought his A game yet again. Loving Ace in the 96 RWTL. Misawa/Akiyama vs. Kobashi/Patriot 11/22/96 RWTL Kobashi and Akiyama have probably the most heated knucklelock exchange I've ever seen. Awesome stuff. Akiyama is, of course, the first in peril. Patriot holds up his end in this match really, really well. Akiyama hits a hiptoss to tag Misawa. Kobashi hits a half nelson suplex on Misawa and Misawa/Akiyama look to be in real trouble. Akiyama gets tagged in shortly after and runs into a Kobashi short neckbreaker drop. Patriot puts some really good nearfalls on Akiyama. Akiyama hits a northern lights suplex as a counter and Misawa/Akiyama do this sweet double team where they both do German suplexes out of the corner after an Akiyama jump knee to the back of Patriot's head. It's really, really sweet. Akiyama hits an exploder. Patriot kicks out and the place explodes. Exploder again! 1! 2! 3!!! Damn that finish was fucking awesome. The way they built to it was so good. You keep thinking that Misawa/Akiyama are going to have to fight their way to a draw if they can ever get on offense, BUT they hit this massive barrage of stuff on Patriot while keeping Kobashi away from the ring. It's really, really incredible to watch.

All Japan had it right on Akiyama not being enough. Look how his NOAH run went. It wasn't even Akiyama's fault, he just never had a foil besides Kawada and Taue. I realize I'm talking about it in terms of how it looks in comparison to other things they've done versus what they had to do to keep people in the seats (how they looked at it). Just frustrating to see it go down that road and I am a grumpy bastard sometimes. Williams/Ace vs. Misawa/Akiyama 11/16/96 RWTL Okay, last two times this matchup was done, Ace kicked some major ass and the match was really, really good. Crossing my fingers. Early stretch is both teams looking for any kind of real advantage. Akiyama takes the first beating. Misawa has to take a few cracks at the gaijin to give Akiyama the chance to tag. A short Ace in peril segment is stopped by Williams. Misawa doesn't take too much damage before Akiyama is back in. He makes a real good effort at brawling with Williams but ends up on the wrong end of a backdrop driver. The crowd knows that things just got turned up a notch. Akiyama takes his beating like a champ, Misawa is sent packing after trying to help his buddy out. Ace hits a guillotine Ace crusher for a nearfall Misawa breaks up. Misawa takes care of Ace but ends up taking a backdrop driver as he's dragging Akiyama to his corner. That's really, really not good. Williams drags Ace over to his corner and tags in. Williams tries another backdrop driver but Akiyama kicks off the turnbuckle, only to have Williams get a close nearfall anyway. Ace is tagged and the doomsday device connects! Misawa gets back in the ring just in time to make the save!! The crowd is seriously psyched as am I. Akiyama hits an exploder after making a moonsault miss. Misawa is tagged and there's the frog splash. HUGE nearfall. Tigerdriver, bigger nearfall, tiger suplex, holy shit, he kicked out again?!? There's the bell and THAT is how you do a 30 minute draw. That was incredible stuff. I want Johnny Ace to only do tags against Akiyama and Misawa ever. Not really, but I'm half serious on that.

Lots of energy today so I'm throwing myself into more All Japan. And I would need every bit of it by the end of two matches. Williams/Ace vs. Kobashi/Patriot 10/12/96 for the World Tag Titles Normally I'm closer to the viewing and have much more recollection of things. The match after this kinda screws that up. Things start pretty slow even with Williams getting into it with the Patriot from the introductions. Ace gets a in peril segment, Patriot gets one, they do a Kobashi/Patriot run of nearfalls, go back to back and forth and then Williams and Ace get serious and start putting the nails in the coffin. Williams attacks Patriot after the match and has to be held back by all the ring boys. Ace was the weak link early, Patriot in the middle to late part. Both picked it up for the nearfalls towards the end, which were pretty damn good. The first 12-15 minutes or so were kinda just there instead of being all that good. Kobashi vs. Kawada 10/18/96 for the Triple Crown Oh boy, 59 minutes. Wonder what that could mean given that Kawada's defense against Kobashi went to a 60 minute draw. They work to where they are hitting the crescendo of a finishing sequence just past the 20 minute mark, which corresponds to a lot of the recent singles stuff between the 4 Pillars. That's actually pretty smart. Also, Kawada works over Kobashi's ear after popping it. That was pretty sweet. And that portion of the match was not too bad with the exception of Kobashi noselling a German completely and blowing the sleeper way too damn early for a 60 minute draw. Kobashi catches a kick and goes to work on the left leg. Kawada stops that with the common Kobashi counter to Kawada legwork, the elbows to cut of a knee crusher. Nice touch there. Kobashi hits a few things then a moonsault for a gargantuan nearfall. The crowd seriously eats those moonsault nearfalls up. Kawada has a string of nearfalls capped off by two huge powerbombs that get the crowd thinking we're going to a finish again....BUT Kobashi hurts his right arm on a lariat. Kawada leaves that alone for now and hits a dangerous backdrop, but Kobashi isn't having the powerbomb. Probably good because that would have been awful to have a third powerbomb kickout so soon. Kobashi goes back on offense and hits not one but two dangerous backdrops. Okay, I'll just mentally skip over that. Kawada attacks the arm like we expect him to and Kobashi makes it look good, but drags out the jujigatame going to the ropes bit too long. Kawada goes to the left arm (different) with a wakigatame that he cranks like a motherfucker. Kobashi decides to nosell a running high kick off the apron into the guard rail and go back on offense. Yeah, I think he's losing it. Kobashi this a lefty lariat and doesn't sell anything about it. Brilliant. Then Kawada nosells a German only to run into a Kobashi chest bump where Kobashi swings both arms forward like he's lariating with them. That was fucking weird and looked really bad. Kawada tries to make the nearfall look good but nobody's buying. Then Kobashi goes to the sleeper again, which ignores the arm work and is so poorly done that it gets zero reaction. Following that he hits an Ace crusher...what the fuck? Then he decides to tease the moonsault again, which is just...I guess it's better than an Ace crusher. They have a surprisingly good exchange with Kawada landing the top turnbuckle flying knee drop of DOOM! THAT was a markout moment and a half and almost worth the last 5 minutes of the match. Kawada hits a dragon suplex and Kobashi fails to nosell it. Kobashi gets back on offense and hits a northern lights suplex for a nearfall. He's seriously all over the place in this last 10-12 minutes. There is a backslide nearfall by Kobashi and we have the bell. Alright, there was good stuff in there. Actually a lot more than I mentioned. The bad stuff is part of a growing tendency towards too many head drops and too much noselling. Which is gonna start to irk me. A lot. I want to make it all the way to 2000, but I have this feeling it may stall at points. Also, I think the head drops made Kobashi a little loopy and Kawada either couldn't or didn't reel him in. Not taking anything away from the superhuman effort this had to take. It just got away from them and they never got it back. Edit: You know what kills me about stuff like this? They had a perfectly good example of "doing more with less" working beautifully sitting in their tape vaults. Misawa vs. Kawada 6/3/94 was absolutely incredible for how much was done with relatively very few different wrestling moves. There were enough head drops to have an impact but not kill the idea that it ought to hurt. The no-selling made sense and didn't go too far. Yet Baba must have felt that they could somehow surpass that by taking those things that worked and turning the volume up past double on them. He seemed like a guy who understood the less-is-more approach and it's surprising that he let his product go this direction.

Yeah, given Benoit's brain injuries and all that, probably best to protect the ol' noodle instead of make it look good.

Super Delfin comes to mind. Shark Boy was an indy guy at one point or am I thinking of some fictional thing? Lioness Asuka may or may not count. Wasn't there a luchador named Fishman? That's all I got off the top of my head.

I realize now that the last Kobashi vs. Taue match is Kobashi's first singles win against Taue that I've seen. If it actually is his first, that's huge that it came in a Triple Crown match. Misawa/Akiyama vs. Williams/Ace 9/5/96 for the World Tag Titles Rematch of a surprisingly good match. Akiyama and Ace have a pretty good opening counter sequence. Williams and Misawa elbow each other in the head right after takedowns. Misawa hits a powerslam on Dr. Death! Things start going south for the faces when Misawa gets a rolling elbow ducked and ends up taking a backdrop driver for it. Akiyama tries to cover for him and seems to be doing okay for a bit. Akiyama in peril section is followed by an actual hot tag to Misawa. The momentum runs out and he has to tag Akiyama back in after taking some punishment. Akiyama again runs into trouble against the gaijin, but this time they get a little smarter. Doomsday devices for both natives just to make sure Misawa can't help his little buddy. They methodically finish off Akiyama, who puts up a pretty good fight before going down. This was another really, really good tag match. The continuing story of Akiyama growing up in front of us while Misawa tries to keep him out of trouble is great. Ace brings his A- game here, not quite up to 6/7 levels but still really good. Williams as the monster gaijin is great as always. Kawada/Taue/Ogawa vs. Misawa/Akiyama/Asako 9/28/96 This match was pretty damn fun. Asako as the plucky underdog junior who just won't give up despite being completely overwhelmed is pretty fun. He's even ballsy enough to try a nodowa on Taue, and eventually gets it done with help from Akiyama. Ogawa as Misawa's bitch is always fun to watch. Misawa didn't bring the lucha libre offense on him this match, but he did suplex him around with some rare (for Misawa) suplex variations. Kawada brings the HEAT with both Akiyama and Misawa when they are paired off. Taue doesn't add a ton to this one besides being a good foil/base for Asako to do his out of place juniory stuff. He has some decent to good stuff with Akiyama too, but he's a background player. Misawa, as is the case in most of these six mans, steps back and lets everybody else have a lot of the spotlight.

Holy Demon Army vs. Misawa/Akiyama 7/9/96 for the World Tag Titles Been waiting for this one since I watched 5/23. And early match looks like Kawada and Taue have also. Misawa and Akiyama get their shots in, but the heels dominate early and really take it to both. 80% of this match is Taue and Kawada destroying one or the other of the faces. Akiyama gets some nice stuff in the match, skinning the cat to avoid a floor beating from Taue, saving Misawa a few times late and getting in some nice spurts of offense during the face offense portion of the match. He even ends up clearing both Taue and Kawada out of the ring twice. Misawa is awesome in the finishing stretch. He doesn't set the table for Akiyama, Taue and Kawada have done way too much damage for that. He just destroys Taue with a great barrage of offense at the finish. Taue has a few miraculous late kickouts when Kawada can't save him and uses some offense he hasn't been putting to use as much since early 95. Kawada kicks the crap out of Akiyama and Misawa as if he were...well Toshiaki Kawada. It all works fucking great and the match is a step up from the earlier match with the psychology reflecting what happened. Taue vs. Kobashi 7/24/96 for the Triple Crown They start off with a really good tie-up sequence, which leads to an increasingly heated exchange. There's a lot of and forth with Taue ahead when we go to the finishing sequence at...11 minutes. Kobashi hits a neckbreaker out of a sleeper then a powerbomb, the neckbreaker is a good nearfallnd...wait, you have to guess what comes afterwards. Yes, you probably got it right, a powerbomb. They immediately tease Taue going for the dynamic bomb and they really, really knock it out of the park with this finishing run. By the time the three count happens the crowd is fucking molten hot. This match was only marred by the no-selling of German suplexes by both at points and Kobashi noselling a nodowa. Kobashi's noselling and dramatic fighting spirit screaming are starting to become an issue. Kobashi's glassy-eyed look when he's taking a beating is still awesome. He seems to be less compelling working submissions now though. Taue really did well in this match, again varying up the offense in ways that he didn't in the year's worth of matches before. Loving that. Overall, I'd say this was a great match. It doesn't compare to some of the more prominent All Japan singles matches, but it's absolutely incredible for what it is.

I know, just being a smartass. Not a huge Trips fan myself.