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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.

Battlarts is indeed what you are looking for. And the prickish guy you mention should probably be Daisuke Ikeda. He's great at making Ishikawa and Otsuka's headbutts seem completely and totally warranted, despite their brutality.

Williams/Ace vs. Misawa/Akiyama 6/7/96 for the World Tag Titles Williams decides to get in Akiyama's face early, then when he's bodyslamming him really hard starts talking shit to Misawa about it. Ace is tagged and Misawa is in the ring to take on both Ace and Doc. Misawa is tagged and trying for a very early tiger suplex on Ace, but Williams comes in and hits a tiger suplex on Misawa instead. Nice touch there. We then clip to Misawa finally making the tag to Akiyama. Akiyama misses a jumping elbow on Ace, who tags Williams and the gaijin start going to town on Akiyama. Misawa comes in and cleans house again, and this time puts exclamation points on it with a Ricky Marvin plancha to one gaijin and an elbow suicida to the other. Misawa gets tagged in and hits a tigerdriver on Ace for a nearfall. Ace breaks up a pin after a Misawa Geran, then hits a doctor bomb. Akiyama breaks up a Doc attempt at a backdrop driver and Misawa tags him in. Akiyama wants an exploder, but instead takes a backdrop driver. Misawa has to cover for the youngster and fight off both, then rolls Akiyama to the apron. Akiyama rolls outside while the gaijin use numbers to get the advantage and hit a doomsday device on Misawa. Williams rolls Akiyama in for an immediate nearfall by Ace. Things get really chaotic with pin breakups and interference on big moves. Misawa hits a floor tigerdriver on Doc. Then he hits the ring and hits a tiger suplex on Ace when it looks like Williams might recover before Akiyama puts Ace away. Akiyama finishes the job with 3 exploders. Another really good tag with Misawa/Akiyama. Akiyama is awesome as the spirited youngster who can take and dish out a beating. Misawa as the big brother, protecting Akiyama from the bully gaijin even at his own expense was pretty great too. Williams was great as usual as the monster heel gaijin. Ace didn't fuck things up at all and actually came out of this looking really good. Apparently this got MOTY, but I honestly thought 5/23 was a better match. This was definitely a great wrestling match though. Kawada vs. Taue 6/7/96 for the Triple Crown Kawada does his stretching, kicks Taue in the leg, then Taue...does Kawada's stretching! Awesome. Kawada starts the kicks to the face. Taue hits a big German and Kawada is bailing. That leads to a rail guillotine whip. Taue lays in the usual offense, then they tease the nodowa. Kawada's not having it, they end up working to the Kawada wakigatame takedown. He turns that to a jujigatame when Taue rolls through and won't give it up when Taue reaches the ropes. The armwork continues for a bit until Kawada goes back to kicking Taue in the face. Taue blocks a gamengiri, which hurts his arm and leaves him open for a gamengiri. Kawada gets a few 2 counts that nobody in the building believes are going to put Taue away. They go to the floor again and Kawada ends up kicking Taue off the apron, which Taue had done to him earlier. Kawada teases a powerbomb, hits an enzuilariat off the backdrop and hits a halfway-lift powerbomb that everybody also knew Taue would kick out of. Taue hits a neckbreaker drop off an exchange that gets a completely dead 2 count. An apron nodowa is teased, Kawada goes back on offense. Taue pops up after an enzuigiri and hits a nodowa. Dynamic bomb follows for the first 2 count anyone was buying. Taue hits a nodowa, Kawada's not staying down long enough to pin, another nodowa after a short exchange finishes it. This dragged really badly in the middle. There were certainly good parts. Kawada hitting the most awesome jumping high kick ever was nice. I get Kawada working the left arm to fuck with people blocking his gamengiri. Makes sense. Kawada in his early nearfall section did a backdrop that was actually almost flat in the landing. Don't know if that killed the crowd (he's obviously not too interested in winning if he's taking it easy with the backdrop) or not. Even the powerbomb, his last (and I would guess it was supposed to be his "big" nearfall) got no reaction at all when Taue kicked out. I really didn't mind the match even with the lull in the middle. The crowd wasn't that into it though. Kawada is Taue's weakest match-up so far anyway. The really good matches can get up there with Misawa and Kobashi matches, but the rest lag well behind them.

They were all at Wrestlemania? I could see that....

Benoit/Sullivan was all well and good except for Sullivan being miles away from any damage to himself while kicking the crap out of Benoit. Benoit is taking all the stiff bumps while Sullivan will use any wrestler trick in the book to not hit his head on anything hard.

Kawada vs. Kobashi 5/24/96 Kawada gets a 3 count with Kobashi's foot on the ropes early off an enzuigiri. Then he beats Kobashi down mercilessly until he starts fighting back. Once that happens, Kawada ends up with a dangerous backdrop instead of just kicking Kobashi in the face. Kobashi pops up and lariats Kawada. Really? The backdrop has been a finisher and is still used right before the powerbomb from time to time to soften the opponent up. And Kobashi, who has already taken a decent amount of punishment uses THAT as his cue to transition back to offense? Anyway, Kobashi returns the Kawada chops, adding his own touch to when Kawada won't let himself be pulled up. Then he goes on offense for a bit, some of which is very, very good. He teases the powerbomb as well, which adds to the symmetry with Kawada's earlier offense. Kobashi hits a jackknife powerbomb for 2. They tease the Kobashi dragon suplex leading to Kawada using the Kimura takedown that Sakuraba used to break Renzo Gracie's arm. Kawada does some arm work, then Kobashi reverse with the same takedown and does some arm work. They forget all about that as soon as it's done. Kobashi gets his dragon suplex for a nearfall. Kawada gets his powerbomb for a nearfall. He's favoring that same shin he injured against Akiyama last match. Kobashi does a sleeper into a neckbreaker drop for 2, and the crowd doesn't care. So he does it again and the crowd pops for him. Kawada does 2 gamengiris and gets the 3 after selling the shin. I'm all about Kawada vs. Kobashi, but this is nowhere near their best. There are a few times where it drags even though it is just over 19 minutes. The armwork in the middle was filler, pure and simple. No effort was made to make it anything else. They went through their nearfalls well enough, but that neckbreaker drop stuff at the end bothered me. I'd take their 95 CC draw over this in a heartbeat. Misawa vs. Taue 5/24/95 for the Triple Crown Right away we establish that Taue has to do better than crown chops against Misawa's elbows. Then we show that Taue knows Misawa's tricks and can counter them. Taue goes way too early for an apron nodowa, even if he did just pull up the mats and DDT Misawa. Misawa hits 4 high flying spots in a row on Taue after a flying lariat. Juniory . They go back and forth on learned counters with Taue coming out on top. Misawa frankensteiners out of a powerbomb, but eats two MASSIVE German suplexes from Taue. It's right HERE that this match gets interesting. The crowd starts believing that Taue might actually beat Misawa. Then Taue makes them believe it more with a dynamic bomb for a big nearfall. Misawa hits a weak elbow, but fights off a nodowa. Taue DDTs him instead and hits the nodowa (really well, too) for another, bigger nearfall. Misawa elbows Taue then rolls to the floor. Taue gets backdropped out of a floor powerbomb. Misawa can't make a tigerdriver or a tiger suplex stick, so they have a short exchange and Misawa hits his own big German. He is quick to follow it up with a tigerdriver for a molten nearfall. Misawa tries the same running elbow twice in a row and Taue rushes it, countering with a neckbreaker drop for a nearfall on par with the nodowa. Taue has upgraded to headbutts in response to elbows. Taue shoves Misawa into the corner and tries the corner nodowa only to get armdragged. Misawa hits a rolling elbow for another incredible nearfall. Misawa gets a few rolling elbows ducked and has to fight off nodowa attempts. Running elbow! Misawa goes for the diving neckbreaker drop that won against both Kobashi and Taue in the CC and has it turned into a nodowa for the 3!!! Taue is the champion! The crowd chants his name, Misawa can't believe it. I thought this match was far, far better than the previous. Taue has always been, despite being very power move heavy, a very intelligent wrestler. The way he beats Misawa is not by overpowering him or being better throughout the whole match. He outsmarts Misawa by being a move ahead at the right times, including the nodowa that gets the 3. It's not at all about him being lucky or not booked strongly. It's playing to the character of Akira Taue. He's got his limitations as a wrestler, he knows it, and he's smart enough to work around them and work very focused. This match plays to all of that very, very well. Also, the nearfalls are absolutely incredible in how they are built. After the two Taue Germans, the nearfalls do not come rapid fire, but they are absolutely awesome in how they build all the way up to the end. I'd rank this below their CC Final of last year, but not by a whole lot. This match was 100% about Taue and who Taue the wrestler was. Misawa played his part really well also, but that is to be expected.

Count me in this group. Once I'm finished with 90s AJPW, I'll probably be putting a lot of time into 80s wrestling both stateside and Japan as well as the 2000-2009 puro project Ditch is doing. From there I have about 5 different directions I could easily go wrestling-wise and I'll probably eventually get to all of them. Not to mention that from what I've seen of current WWE I'll be vastly more entertained by all of the above. Not saying it's awful or anything, just don't dig the wrestling style even if it is loads better than any WWE product I've watched in a long time as far as in-ring goes.

Misawa/Akiyama vs. Holy Demon Army 5/23/96 for the World Tag Titles More Akiyama. Oh, and there's the other 3. Akiyama opens vs. Taue and hits an early exploder. The faces really work over Taue early. The heels turn it around and try the same on Misawa. Akiyama is tagged in and ends up doing a number on both Kawada and Taue in turn. Taue takes another small dose of being in peril. Just as Taue seems to be turning things around on Akiyama, it's Misawa to the rescue. Until Kawada kicks him in the face. For reference, Akiyama has been slapping both heels in the face quite a bit. That is pertinent because Kawada and Taue take several minutes to slap Akiyama in the face as hard as they can. Then pull him off the mat and do it again. Then when he's not moving anymore Taue just stands over him, slapping him across the face. Then Kawada comes back in, kicks Akiyama around a bit and gets in mount to, yes you guessed it, slap him repeatedly across the face. The heels stop with the slaps and just beat the crap out of Akiyama for a while. Poor bastard, even if he sorta goaded them into it. The apron nodowa is teased, but Misawa fights through being kicked in the face by Kawada to save his partner a lot of pain (and probably saves him from eventually taking the fall as well). The faces turn things around and start working on Taue again for a short time. Kawada lariats Misawa as he tries to hit a tigerdriver on Taue. The heels get some nice nearfalls on Misawa before he frankensteiners out of a powerbomb, hits a rolling elbow and tags. Akiyama comes in and gets one nearfall before Kawada turns things around with a gamengiri. Kawada is looking a bit gimpy after throwing that gamengiri. Misawa hits his Ricky Marvin plancha on Taue after a scuffle in the ring. Kawada still gets a massive nearfall on Akiyama even after a long delay on the pinfall attempt, Misawa ends up having to break it up AFTER his plancha. Akiyama attacks the leg with a dragon screw and hits a nice German for a nearfall, with Taue breaking it up. Taue knocks Akiyama into Misawa, but Akiyama counters a backdrop with a crossbody. Misawa holds off Taue as Akiyama hits not one, not two, but THREE exploders in sequence to put Kawada away. Kawada was on his feet too quickly to pin after the first 2. That was freaking awesome. Akiyama makes his mark in this match, first holding off both members of the Holy Demon Army before taking a massive beating, then delivers late when Misawa hands him the spotlight. Misawa is his usual awesome self, putting over the heels while getting his own offense in. Taue and Kawada are great as foils for the youngster Akiyama, no-selling just enough to not kill what he's doing, then selling it more as Akiyama turns up the heat. The tag strategy was solid, too. Misawa and Akiyama target Taue and really try to focus on him a lot. Kawada and Taue try to take Misawa out of it early and really work Akiyama over once the chance comes up. In fact, they get too overzealous (and a bit cocky) in working the kid over and that really is what swings momentum back to Misawa/Akiyama when they really have Akiyama on the ropes. At that point Misawa is still not recovered from the earlier offense fully and Akiyama is damn near dead. Without that section of offense for Misawa, this is a completely different finishing run. Also, Akiyama pinning Kawada is poetic justice after Kawada's disrespecting Akiyama in the earlier tags.

@Ditch: It happens less there than here in the States. I have to guess that a lot of the holes in that Southeastern footage that goc is doing write-ups about exist somewhere deep in the vaults of an obscure TV station somewhere. That or they used to until somebody found them and figured they were useless and trashed them. Would people like to see that Misawa vs. Kawada match because they enjoyed the rest? Sure, if they knew about it. How many would really be chomping at the bit for the network to air it though? Like jdw says, this board is a niche of a niche of a niche. We are a very small percentage of wrestling fans, so stuff like this that drives us nuts really doesn't affect enough people for the networks to care. However, there is one thing about that particular Kawada vs. Misawa match that intrigues me about the build. Misawa is in charge at the end, hitting big stuff, but barely able to stand after blocking a Kawada kick. Most of their draws had Kawada really pressing to put on one of his big moves, sort of a "what if?" ending. So Kawada had to have done some real damage in the preceding 28 or so minutes for that ending. Oh well, I don't hold much hope for that. Kawada/Albright/Ace vs. Misawa/Kobashi/Akiyama 4/20/96 Two of these things are not like the others...but hey, Taue is busy in the next match on this show, so we get this random tag. Ace is pretty awful, completely blowing his moonsault and really not adding anything to the match. Albright is...mixed. Some of his stuff with Akiyama is actually pretty good. The rest is forgettable besides his big suplexes towards the end. The natives are pretty great, though. Misawa is Misawa, as usual. Kawada and Kobashi have some really awesome MATWORK! And as always, nice strike exchanges. I could go on for about 3 or 4 paragraphs as to why Kawada vs. Kobashi matwork is absolutely incredible. I won't though. Kawada and Akiyama are great too. At one point after a strike exchange, Kawada slaps Akiyama across the face full force. Akiyama takes a moment, gets in Kawada's face, then proceeds to get himself kicked, bodyslammed, then kicked in the back so hard it hurts me watching. Akiyama gets up and gets in Kawada's face, but Kawada is bored with kicking his ass and tags Albright. Akiyama hits the sweetest exploder setup ever on Albright, smoothly hitting it as Albright bounces off the ropes from a jumping knee. Kobashi bounces Kawada 3 or 4 inches at least off the mat with a powerbomb. It's fucking sweet. The finishing stretch is 6-man chaos and the finish itself is not what you expect. Ace was supposed to be put over by hitting Misawa with big stuff at the beginning of the finishing run, but he blew half of it. Taue vs. Williams 4/20/96 CC Final Odd matchup, but they get right into it and the crowd and I are both liking it. Really great corner break struggle to start, followed by another tie-up and a few shoving matches after the rope break. Williams works a nice sleeper, but the second time sees him get backdropped out of it. Williams backdrops out of a powerbomb to go back on offense. Williams stays on offense a while, hitting a HUGE spinebuster and powerslamming Taue in from the apron during this stretch. Taue hits a big German and teases an apron nodowa, but that just ends up letting Williams back on offense. Somewhere in this match Williams started bleeding from above his right eye. Taue hits a neckbreaker drop to turn things around and manages to get the apron nodowa. The bump Williams takes is understandably not that bad looking. Williams manages a backdrop driver after that nearfall and both men are on the mat wondering if anyone got the license number of the bus that just hit them. Wiliiams follows up big though. The doctor bomb he hits on Taue is ridiculously huge. He throws him up high enough that Taue pauses in midair momentarily while Williams adjusts his grip before the powerbomb part. That is so badass. taue hits a Dynamic bomb for a nearfall. Then he CRUSHES WILLIAMS' FACE with a jumping kick that I'm still not sure came from Akira Taue. The nodowa that follows for the 3 is nice too, but that kick is fucking ridiculous kids of stiff for Taue. Also, nice to see the nodowa getting some love after it almost seemed to be just a nearfall since the dynamic bomb came into being. This was not a great wrestling match. It had good subtle things at the beginning, extremely impressive power stuff from Williams throughout, and some really great Taue offense at the end. The story went: Taue usually doesn't have trouble overpowering people, let's see how he handles a monster like Williams. And it did work, just not on the level of a lot of 4 Pillars matches.

Woo! 1996 Champions Carnival time! Taue vs. Kawada 3/31/96 CC One of the things I love about these guys is they pull no punches even when facing each other. The opening exchange is great, capped off by a Taue nodowa. He immediately decides it's time for the apron nodowa, but gets an enzuigiri off the apron for his troubles. Taue is still up first and hits a tope that could have been a lariat to the floor. taue gets backdropped out of a floor powerbomb. Kawada ducks a lariat and Taue's left arm nails the post, which sets up the Kawada offense for the next while. Taue finds himself in the same position on the outside a while later and backdrops out of a powerbomb. He does one of those nodowa pushes into the railing, then hits a nodowa after peeling up the mats. Kawada is staying as far from the center of the ring as possible, which leads to a fight over an apron nodowa. Taue settles for a running big boot off the apron. Kawada hits a desperation gamengiri and there are Kawada chants going. Taue sells a stretch plum big. Kawada turns a scissors sleeper into a choke (on his tag partner!) for a nearfall. Kawada teases a powerbomb, then a German, Taue goes on offense and after a bit...does the same. Taue isn't letting Kawada off the hook though and hits the German to massive reaction and a big nearfall after a failed Kawada nosell. Taue tries another German, but Kawada hits the spinning neck chop and hits his own German for a big nearfall. Kawada hits a massive powerbomb nearfall. Taue gets an equally massive nearfall off of....wait for it.....this will probably surprise you....a neckbreaker drop. You know the wrestlers involved in a match are doing their job when a running neckbreaker drop is that massive of a nearfall. Taue hits a dynamic bomb but starts falling over just before the 2 and can't keep Kawada down. Don't know if that was planned or not but it was great. Taue is setting up a nodowa when the bell rings. If you are going to go to a draw, that is the way to do it. This is up there with the Kawada/Kobashi CC draw from last year in terms of greatness. Misawa vs. Kobashi 3/31/96 CC You know, going in I'm worried after that last Kobashi vs. Misawa match. But I'm proven wrong pretty quickly. Misawa counters out of two very early sleeper attempts differently. The chop is clearly given lower priority than the elbow early. They do one of their realy good counter sequences into an early Misawa German. Kobashi rolls outside only to get elbowed in the face by a flying Misawa. I like how Misawa is the one going big early this time. Misawa overplays his hand when he (very predictably) goes for the diving elbow after rolling Kobashi in and gets dropkicked. Kobashi works some good headlock sequences, then hits a vertical suplex where Misawa's momentum from jumping runs out before he gets 90 degrees to Kobashi. So Kobashi just deadlifts him the rest of the way. That was god damn awesome. Kobashi runs through a lot of mid-match submissions and moves for 2 counts (suplex, side legsweep) instead of blowing his wad so early. Kobashi hits a really nice short neckbreaker drop to cut off a Misawa comeback. They go through an exchange where they both hit a big German coming off of a strike exchange and the other guy nosells, hits a big strike and falls over. Misawa frankensteiners out of a floor powerbomb only to get Kobashi's shoulder to the face. Then they go into the finishing sequence. Yeah, you have to see this to really appreciate how awesome it is. Kobashi has a real shocker in there. As does Misawa. This match was so much better than the TC match 5 months earlier. But it would have never happened without it, so I understand. So 3/31/96 was a loaded show with those two matches on it. Crowd was ROCKING by the end of both. Also, they really put the German suplex over as a big weapon for every one of the 4 Pillars. Not only that, Kobashi and Kawada are doing the awesome midmatch matwork again. Taue and Kobashi working shoulderblock exchanges with Kawada and Misawa rocked too. Great stuff. Misawa vs. Kawada 4/14/96 CC So this is the last 2:50 of the match. Kawada hits a huge powerbomb on Misawa that the crowd is going nuts for. During the recovery, the camera shows Misawa with blood smeared across the right side of his chin. Misawa fights off a dangerous backdrop and hits a tigerdriver to massive crowd reaction for a nearfall. Misawa hits a massive running elbow to set up a tiger suplex for another hot nearfall. Kawada has an abisegiri blocked, but Misawa stumbles into the corner. Bell. Okay, WHY was there blood on Misawa's chin and you didn't show us what caused it? If the crowd is that hot for the nearfalls, I want to see how this got built. Sadly, will likely never happen.

Misawa/Kobashi vs. Holy Demon Army 12/10/95 RWTL Finals The heels employ the same strategy as the last match these two teams had, taking Misawa out early. This time with the Doomsday Device style nodowa on the freaking floor! Big moves have been flowing from the get-go here, just like the Kobashi vs. Misawa match. It plays a little better in this setting for me. Kawada and Taue start working over Kobashi's left arm. Kobashi powerbombs Kawada out of a triangle, but Misawa gets kicked off the apron and the Holy Demon Army is still in control. The work to a double armbar before Misawa comes in and does his Misawa thing. Misawa gets the tag and starts working over Kawada. Taue uses the worked-on arm to break a Kobashi seeper and get Misawa out of a stepover facelock. taue gets the tag and looks for the corner nodowa, but Misawa elbows out into a missile dropkick. Taue hits a nodowa to stop a tigerdriver attempt and the heels go on another long stretch of offense. Kawada hits a powerbomb for the first true nearfall of the match, as the crowd didn't buy anything before it. We are just shy of 20 minutes in. Don't really know why they are going for pins on all that early stuff despite it being "big". We know they aren't going under 25. Kobashi makes the rescue, fighting off both Taue and Kawada to allow Misawa the chance to tag. Kobashi immediately loses control and Misawa has to break up an apron nodowa attempt. We're 22 or so minutes into the match and Misawa/Kobashi have maybe 5 minutes not getting the worst of it. The finishing run is really, really good, with a few teases of things going the opposite direction that they eventually do. I really liked this match, it seemed to highlight Kobashi and Taue quite a bit. Early on, Misawa and Kawada are the big hitters for their teams, but as the match progresses Taue and Kobashi get their chances to shine. We get a bit more of the overdone early offense, which I have this feeling will be creeping more and more into the matches. Even so, great tag match. Kobashi/Akiyama vs. Holy Demon Army 3/2/96 for the World Tag Titles Akiyama is ready to go, giving Taue a little shove on a rope break. Okay, maybe a bit too cocky there as he spends the rest of the first part of the match being the Holy Demon Army's bitch. He armdrags out of a corner nodowa, but Taue's not letting him tag. Kawada is tagged and Akiyama starts fighting back. Kawada offers Akiyama the left side of his chin after a few elbows. Akiyama hits a few more, takes a bit more damage and hits a lariat to finally tag Kobashi. Kawada backs away from Kobashi and tags Taue. Kobashi is taking cheap shots at Kawada on the apron. Kawada gets tagged in and hits a few leg kicks while they work towards a knuckle lock. Then they do the awesome Kobashi/Kawada MATWORK! They make everything look like a struggle and it's absolutely incredible. Kawada slaps Akiyama on the apron, Akiyama responds but much harder. Kobashi tags Akiyama and Kawada does some more matwork, but this is a bit more junior-y and fast, where Kawada/Kobashi was a lot more gritty. Akiyama slaps Kawada again. Kawada stretches. Akiyama eats Kawada's knees and tosses him over with a release northern lights. Explodahhh! Here comes Taue, but Akiyama is going toe-to-toe with him before ducking a few slaps and hitting an exploder. Kawada is back in the ring thanks to Kobashi and fighting off a second exploder. Akiyama turns it into a German and the crowd is rocking. Kobashi is tagged in and uses several signature Kawada chop-related spots. Kobashi hits a moonsault and Taue has to break up the pin. A moonsault misses and Taue is tagged in. He hits a nodowa that nobody in the building thinks is going to put Kobashi away. The apron nodowa is broken up by Akiyama, who is then tagged in. He tries the same exploder -> German trick with Taue, but that's not happening. Akiyama kicks out of the nodowa/backdrop combo, then is saved by Kobashi from the dynamic bomb just before 3. Kawada locks on a stretch plum and Taue hits the dynamic bomb for the win. All four were spot on here. Kobashi and Akiyama as varying levels of underdog made this match a lot of fun. There were a few spots where it looked like they may pull off an upset, but the Holy Demon Army weren't having it. Alright, so 95 is done. There was a lot to like about this year. The Champions Carnival was incredible. Misawa vs. the rest of the Pillars was good to great depending on the match. There were some incredible tag matches and a very watchable 60 minute draw between Kawada and Kobashi. Taue finally brought his offense up to the level it needed to be at. He was always good at the little stuff, now he has the big bombs. Kobashi started making strides towards being more competitive with Kawada and Taue. All 3 were a lot more of a threat to Misawa. Then there is the bad. Hansen had an awful year. The two big TC matches were really disappointing. The style as a whole started taking the turn for the worse. Things were booked too long for the wrestlers involved. The last few matches involving Kobashi had beginnings of some of the problems with some matches I've seen from later. And really, to me, they all stem from Misawa being booked so strong for such a long time that Kobashi, Taue and Kawada had to do ungodly amounts of damage for it to even register. If they had stopped that sort of thing when they established those 3 on more equal footing, I think it would have worked just as well. Really looking forward to the excessive head drops, let me tell you.