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Misawa/Kobashi vs. Holy Demon Army 12/3/93 Real World Tag League Really fun tag match between four of the best ever. Kobashi is the early face-in-peril. I liked how they established early that Misawa's strikes beat Taue's and Kawada's beat Kobashi's. As the match goes on, Kobashi starts getting the better of Kawada as he is worn down, but Kawada starts with a clear advantage. Both teams get a double submission spot, with Taue's submission of choice the abdominal stretch while dickishly pushing the head down. Have I mentioned how much I love Taue? Kawada's left leg being worked is a real common thing. And he sells it great on things like not being able to powerbomb Kobashi because the leg just gives out. Misawa sets the table for a Kobashi backdrop win over Kawada. Nothing groundbreaking here, but not in any way unhappy that I watched it. Hansen vs. Kobashi 4/10/94 Champions Carnival After a methodical start, they brawl for a bit before Hansen uses outside tactics to get the advantage. Kobashi takes a powerbomb on the floor, but gets out of the way of a Hansen dive, and Hansen rams his ribs right into the guard rail. Kobashi starts working over the ribs on the left side with punches, but misses a splash from the top. Hansen is unable to really get anything going after the miss and has to settle for aborted attempts at brawling while Kobashi punches and kicks him in the ribs. Hansen regains the advantage and hits a few big nearfalls, but makes the mistake of going for a top rope splash only to run his ribs into Kobashi's knees. Kobashi takes full advantage, hitting a moonsault for a nearfall, then a moonsault for the win. Hansen vs. Taue 4/11/94 Champions Carnival Hansen is really protecting those ribs on the left side. Taue being Taue, I think we know how this is going to go. The crowd starts to get behind Hansen as desperately tries to brawl back against Taue's extremely focused assault. He will occasionally go away from the ribs or back, but the next move is always right back on target. Taue misses a top rope elbow drop and immediately sends Taue outside where he uses a chair to try to get some quick damage in. He pulls the top layer of padding and DDTs Taue after, sort of evening things up. Hansen's lariat is interrupted by a kick to the ribs from Taue, followed by a nodowa for a big nearfall. Hansen turns things around and gets a few nearfalls, but Taue ducks the lariat this time and hits a few elbows to the injured ribs before hitting a nodowa for the win. You go back a year or so and neither of these guys were gonna put Hansen away even with the rib injury. Misawa got over on Jumbo first, then cemented it with Hansen. Kawada was (for a while anyway) seen as the secondary guy to Misawa and just a step behind. Kobashi and Taue had improvements to make before they got these particular matches. Once they had these wins under their belt, you could really see a better crowd reaction and more confidence on the part of Kobashi and Taue. I feel like this is the point where they truly have become the Four Pillars. Misawa vs. Kawada 4/11/94 Champions Carnival Speaking of a certain guy always a step behind, Kawada has lots of ground to make up after 7/29/93. Kawada busts out his elbow counter to the Misawa apron elbow for the first time. An early powerbomb nearfall following two teases doesn't put Misawa away. They tease the backdrop as they go into a long finishing sequence. Misawa is taking the heat early, as usual, countering with elbows. They go into the elbow exchange for the transition and Misawa's late match offense kicks in. Kawada backs Misawa into the corner on the tigerdriver -> floatover on the backdrop -> tiger suplex sequence. Misawa backdrops a powerbomb, they tease a tigerdriver. Misawa goes all Ricky Marvin and hits a twisting plancha to the outside (markout moment). Misawa counters the backdrop with a crossbody, Kawada goes behind on a German attempt to do his own throwing German. Spinkicks are exchanged. There is a tigerdriver nearfall late, and we reach the time limit with both laying on the mat. They definitely wanted to put more evenness in this one, and it showed. Really good match with lots of learned counters in the right spots and stopping big moves done too early because of the 30 minute time limit. Hansen vs. Williams 4/14/94 Champions Carnival Williams charges Hansen (who isn't favoring the ribs) with his Stinger splash for an ambush, but Hansen is just too crafty for that. Williams eats 'buckle and ends up outside and a bit out of it. Not a great place to be with Hansen in the match. Hansen peels back the top layer of padding and DDTs Williams before beating the piss out of him on the floor and in the ring. Williams has some hope spots targeting the injured ribs, which get progressively sold more until Williams can make it stick. Williams is freakishly strong and hits a massive spinebuster on Hansen for a nearfall. hanesn's turn to try to brawl back ineffectively. Hansen grabs the corner post to stop the Oklahoma stampede. Williams hits the most massive Dr. bomb ever for a nearfall. Hansen bounces Williams off the ropes with an enzuilariat and hits him on the way back with one of his more impressive lariats. As much because Williams in no way starts falling early, just takes the impact like a fucking MAN. I was debating watching this match as it was between 2 gaijin, but it was an awesome brawl. Hansen's work in the 94 Champions Carnival with the messed up ribs is seriously awesome. Williams' beastly power is on display in spades here also. Williams vs. Kawada 4/16/94 Champions Carnival Finals This is JIP. Seriously? They aired a CC final JIP? Anyone got reasons(s) as to WHY? Williams hits a sweet tiger suplex whip off of a double chickenwing. Kawada grabs the top rope on the Oklahoma stampede. Williams improvises and puts Kawada in the corner and hits a Stinger splash to soften him up for an Oklahoma stampede nearfall. Kawada comes back with his striking, but Williams hits a series of closed fists to cut him off after a stretch plum. Williams hits a gorilla press dropped into Kawada's throat across the top rope (holy shit that was nice!) for a nearfall. Kawada gets a lariat ducked and Willaims hits the backdrop driver. Jesus, Kawada is getting fucked up. He rolls outside, but Williams rolls him back in for a nearfall. Williams hits a Dr. bomb for a nearfall and Kawada looks close to being done. Kawada busts out the neck chop to abisegiri counter to a backdrop that I love to start his comeback. Kawada does some squats to get feeling back in his legs (love this). They blow a gamengiri because of miscommunication after some Kawada nearfalls so they just do the gamengiri again. That's not enough for Kawada, so he hits another one before the powerbomb for 3. A few things stood out here. Kawada plays a great face-in-peril. Kawada took a lot of stuff from Hansen, the use of kicks and elbows/punches from disadvantaged positions, the common sense counters to opponent's big moves, the sheer brutality of his striking. They were really trying to put Williams over as a monster heel who could still be beat, a la Hansen just different in style. Also, building Kawada back up before the nect TC match with Misawa was a good idea after 7/29/93. Holy Demon Army vs. Misawa/Kobashi 5/21/94 This was an awesome tag match. The best one these four have had so far. However, I'm not going to delve into the details of the match overmuch as it had only one purpose. To make me and anyone else watching NEED to see 6/3/94. Misawa vs. Kawada is teased as the opening matchup, but we get Kobashi convincing Misawa to let him go first. The crowd is so huge when they think it will be Misawa vs. Kawada. Kawada knocks Misawa off the apron with a running kick as Kobashi is inches away from tagging. Kawada kicks Misawa off the apron when he is whipped by Kobashi. Misawa is tagged and comes in on fire, destroying Kawada with elbows after a short exchange. Kawada gets dickish with his ground kicks to the back not long after an early tigerdriver nearfall. Kawada beats Misawa down in the corner, Misawa wins an elbow exchange. Kawada hits two late powerbombs that both get broken up by Kobashi. Kobashi wins with a moonsault on taue (who has several amazing kickouts late). We know Misawa can put Kawada away, but this match leaves so many questions. Could Kawada have put away Misawa with either of those late powerbombs? Will Kawada be able to get past Misawa's elbows in the singles match effectively? Can Kawada use his brutality once he does to wear Misawa down enough? Guess we'll have to wait a few weeks to find out. Kawada vs. Misawa 6/3/94 for the Triple Crown This match is THE match to watch so far. Misawa steals Kawada's earlier tactic and hits a backdrop to counter Kawada's sleeper early. He changes up the dive sequence, but still eats a Kawada elbow while airborne. They have enough back and forth to establish an even matchup before Kawada takes charge. Kawada is his usual self, then Misawa attacks the left leg. Misawa gets creative after some of the leg work, hitting a kick to the ribs before going to the legs. He teases an early tigerdriver, but that goes nowhere. They go back and forth with strikes, picking up the intensity level. Kawada almost looks like he's going into his trademark "vs. Misawa early finishing run that isn't really that close" thing. Kawada has a couple of powerbomb teases before another really intense strike exchange that leaves Misawa with a bloody ear. Misawa starts hitting his late match offense before eating a gamengiri to the chest on a diving elbow. Kawada wins a strike exchange with a big lariat. Kawada is tired of trying to fight for the powerbomb, so he hits a dangerous backdrop to set it up for a MASSIVE nearfall. Misawa hits the floor following a throwing German. Kawada sends him back in for an even bigger powerbomb nearfall. Misawa hits an elbow after a few stretch plums, leaving both down. Misawa starts his suplex sequence, hitting a throwing German and a tiger in sequence for a nearfall. Kawada isn't interested in THAT continuing, so he hits the chop/abisegiri counter before a second abisegiri that sends Misawa to the floor. They brawl a bit, Misawa hits a rolling elbow but can't get Kawada up for the tigerdriver. Misawa comes out on top of another strike exchange, then hits the tigerdriver '91 for the emphatic finish. Holy shit that match is all kinds of goodness. Kawada coming out of a strike exchange late and hitting a powerbomb for the win was in no way out of the question. Don't understand why they had to go Misawa -> Williams -> Kawada instead of doing that transfer here as it would have not been out of the context of the match at all. Misawa hitting his finishing run first and getting cut off by Kawada was a really nice change and made things way more even. Kawada's big run late was perfectly timed and that last powerbomb was probably one of the most dramatic kickouts I've ever seen from a storyline and crowd reaction perspective. Kawada finally has Misawa ready to fall, just one big move short before Misawa hits the elbow to put Kawada on his ass. The finish itself was awesome, with Kawada being right on the verge but just short of having enough of an advantage to finally hit the powerbomb or backdrop that was going to put Misawa away.

Ken Shamrock and Tank Abbot had gimmicks that matched their previous job also.

Holy Demon Army vs. Miracle Violence Connection 7/26/93 World Tag Titles Taue and Kawada are scrappy here. They are outstriking the gaijin, who use their power advantage to take control and Taue is face-in-peril. There is a true hot tag to Kawada and he comes in kicking some ass. Taue is once again in peril as Gordy uses a nodowa for a nearfall before Williams and Gordy steal a Kawada/Taue double team spot for another. Kawada and taue turn things around and Kawada puts Gordy away with a powerbomb. This is more establishing Kawada and Taue as major players (again) than anything. Gordy and Williams seem to have that role, along with Hansen. Hansen vs. Kobashi 7/29/93 Hansen stomps a ring boy who is trying to clear streamers. Kobashi is NOT letting that go unpunished. Kobashi is seriously stomping Hansen until he runs his face into Hansen's boot in the corner, literally. That's the black eye you see during and after the match. Hansen hits a floor powerbomb to counteract all of Kobashi's offense. Kobashi's facial expressions after that are priceless. Kobashi is taking a beating from Hansen for a while, finally gets a comeback to stick and has some nice nearfalls. Kobashi gets caught with a shoulderblock, but catches Hansen with a drop toe hold on the lariat. A series of increasingly devastating leg drops onto the back of Hansen's neck ensues for a nearfall. Kobashi again gets caught setting up the moonsault, this time with the famous lariat off the turnbuckle for the win. Misawa vs. Kawada 7/29/93 for the Triple Crown This match makes me unhappy. Kawada has more than enough time on offense. he works over the right arm, which does get sold late. Kawada even hits a few dropkicks to show Misawa up. BUT. The ending is basically Misawa running over Kawada after a few powerbomb nearfalls that don't mean much. Yes, Kawada interrupts between some of the Misawa offense. But it's done in a way that makes it look like he's out on his feet and acting on instinct alone. This match actually set Kawada back in terms of where he was in relation to Misawa compared to the first two singles matches. I really don't get it. Did Kawada piss somebody off? Theres a couple of tag matches with Hansen/Dibiase vs. Taue/Kawada that also make me think he pissed somebody off. Hansen/DiBiase go over in both for the tag titles despite the fact that DiBiase gets zero reaction to 95% of his offense. I mean *crickets* kind of silence for the moves/punches and a little polite clapping on nearfalls. Only thing that gets any reaction is the powerslam. So I'm skipping those. Kawada vs. Kobashi 10/23/93 Kobashi has something to prove in this one. Kobashi works the leg, Kawada has a counter to Kobashi's rolling cradle counter to the stretch plum. The Kobashi vs. Kawada chopping contests are lots of fun. I'm glad I like them, because there are gonna be lots of them. Kobashi has a really stubborn sleeper during the finishing run, which leads to him getting dropped on his head with a dangerous backdrop. Kobashi kicks out of a powerbomb, but ends up passing out in the stretch plum a little later. Edit: Kawada went into his out-on-his-feet routine here as well. Kobashi just didn't have the firepower to put him away yet. There is a good stopping point for now. Will try to get the rest (up to 6/3/94) posted tomorrow. I find I'm enjoying the matches more as I take more general match flow notes and not going play-by-play.

Misawa/Kawada vs. Williams/Gordy 1/30/93 Misawa and Kawada have a little tension between them now. They are, however, on a lot more equal terms with Williams and Gordy. Both have an advantage when striking to offset the power advantage the gaijin bring. Gordy gets isolated first, but the gaijin isolate Kawada not too long after. Misawa tries to even things up, but he's ganged up on while Kawada recovers. Kawada and Misawa have a nice double submission spot during the back and forth finishing run. Chaos ensues and this time the gaijin come out on top. Kawada vs. Hansen 2/28/93 Okay, this match is quickly becoming one of my all time favorites. The Hansen dive to the outside is sick and wrong in all the right ways. Kawada is checking the back of his head after it gets bounced off the guard rail. Hansen's selling of the stretch plum is fucking top notch. That powerbomb is just evil. I think Hansen ends up on the floor after his lariat because he's loopy from the gamengiri he just took. The brutal finish is followed by Hansen staggering away from the ring looking like he just got the shit kicked out of him, which he did despite winning. This match really put Kawada over as a dangerous striker because he could brawl with Hansen and be on pretty even terms for most of the match. Kawada vs. Misawa 3/27/93 Champion Carnival Misawa hits a really early tigerdriver, could have something to do with that really early dangerous backdrop from the last match. Both are really looking to be in charge early in this match. Misawa is a lot more aggressive this time around, using foot chokes on Kawada and returning the stiff kicks to the back as Kawada is on the ground. Kawada hits a few early powerbombs for nearfalls and looks really frustrated. They slap each other around before a THIRD powerbomb nearfall. They are really killing the effectiveness of the powerbomb here while Kawada is trying to put Misawa away within the 30 minute time limit. Misawa's elbows are really great as weardown offense between the beating he's taking. Finally Misawa starts his late match offense with a tigerdriver nearfall, followed by a really big elbow suicida. We all know who wins, and it looks like Kawada just burned himself out trying to powerbomb Misawa into oblivion. This match was brutally stiff and Kawada's selling is starting to pick up. Kawada somehow seemed less credible as a threat with more offense. Didn't care much for that. Misawa vs. Hansen 3/30/93 Champion Carnival? Hansen again goes for weardown holds on Misawa, which Misawa is willing to reciprocate. Hansen takes a cameraman out seemingly on purpose when they are outside the ring as he falls. I've noticed in a few matches that Hansen and Williams like to aim at tiny Japanese cameramen when they go sprawling. They go back and forth on weardown holds, Hansen takes over with some apron legwork. Brawling ensues after a Misawa counter suplex. Misawa hits a callback to his 92 win over Hansen with an elbow nearfall that they make look eerily similar up to the kickout. This time, Hansen wetahers Misawa's offense before hitting the enzui lariat for a nearfall and a lariat for the win. Similar to the Kawada finish but the lariats are reversed. Kobashi vs. Misawa 4/12/93 Champions Carnival This one is JIP, Kobashi is fighting off Misawa bombs. Misawa hits a nice elbow on a second rope Kobashi shoulder attempt. Kobashi kicks out of a couple of tigerdrivers before going down to the tiger suplex. Kobashi's chops are not up to snuff yet, but he's still being put over as a guy who's hard to put away. Kawada vs. Taue 4/13/93 Champion Carnival This is also JIP. Boo. Kawada backdrops Taue out of a powerbomb attempt, but ends up taking one anyway after they go through some learned counters. I like how even Taue's counters work towards the nodowa. Taue starts to look really tired, like gassed kind of tired. Could be him selling Kawada's ooffense, could be him gassed, don't know. At one point, it almost looks like Fuchi is coaching a (admittedly brilliantly timed) nodowa kickout by Kawada at ringside. Kawada is setting up the powerbomb as they come to the time limit. Wish I had more to go on here. Looks like they wanted to make Taue look equal to Kawada. Kobashi vs. Kawada 4/14/93 Champion Carnival Once again, JIP. This match isn't bad, but nor is it great. If I had more of it to watch I might have more to say about it. They seem to be doing the same thing with Kawada/Kobashi as they tried to do with Kawada/Taue. Sick of JIP. Hansen vs. Kobashi 4/16/93 Champions Carnival handheld Kobashi's speed is really played up here, and he is in control for the early part of the match. Hansen brawls his way back into it after having his left arm worked. Kobashi gets a few good nearfalls before Hansen hits one of my favorite lariats I've seen him do. He catches Kobashi coming off the top with a shoulder with the lariat and it looks pretty mean even from a not all that close fancam. If this had been a TV taping that lariat would be the stuff of legend. This is worth watching just for the finish. Hansen vs. Misawa 4/21/93 Champions Carnival Finals They brawl for the early part of this match, with Hansen getting the better of it. There is a cool spot midmatch wherean elbow meets a lariat and it sucks for both. Misawa takes advantage and starts working over the arm (elbow >forearm, makes sense). Hansen eventually makes his comeback and hits the lariat, but Misawa gets a foot on the ropes. A Hansen powerbomb finishes him off. Holy Demon Army vs. Miracle Violence Connection 5/20/93 World Tag Titles Gordy and Williams isolate Taue early, then Kawada and Taue isolate Williams, who becomes the beastly-powerful heel-in-peril. They look like they are going into an early finishing sequence, but it ends up with Kawada getting the shit kicked out of him by Gordy and Williams for a while. Williams and Gordy look like they have Taue where they want him with Kawada recovering on the apron after the tag, but the natives hit that sweet backdrop/nodowa combo for the win. The beginning of this match was all about Kawada and Taue standing up to the more powerful gaijin and showing they were equals. The second half was them overcoming adversity to beat an obviously dominant gaijin tag team who had turned it up a notch. Williams was big in this one. Hansen vs. Misawa 5/21/93 for the Triple Crown Hansen attacks Misawa during intros. Misawa goes to weardown holds, then they brawl back and forth. Hansen is surprisingly agile when he wants to be, but it never in any way looks graceful. Hansen starts working over Misawa's elbow arm outside. Then he yells at the ref to get Misawa in the ring after laying him out. God I love that. Hansen keeps working the elbow arm and forcing Misawa to rely on kicks. Misawa misses a few high risk elbows that hurt him more as Hansen just gets out of the way. Misawa inexplicably goes for a top rope elbow drop with the right elbow. he never uses that move, why NOW of all times? A rolling elbow KOs Hansen for the win, and another post match handshake from Hansen follows. This seemed like a weird Hansen on the opposite end of his own shenanigans match. I've seen more than a few matches where his arm got worked heavily only to hit the lariat anyway for the win. Now it happened to him, some kind of karma there. Misawa/Kobashi vs. Holy Demon Army 6/1/93 It's hard not to be excited to watch these four in the ring. Kobashi is starting to show the fire and the big chops. Sweet. Misawa and Kawada are starting to do the learned counters. Sweeter. Kobashi has a brief face in peril segment. Kobashi uses his rolling cradle to counter a stretch plum. This goes back and forth for a long while, with Kobashi's tendency to abuse the moonsault catching up with him as Misawa is down and out on the floor. Taue hits a super nodowa, Misawa gets in to break it up but is dumped back to the floor. A few moves later Kawada powerbombs Kobashi for the win. Great fucking match! Not up to later standards, but the best they've done so far. Misawa/Kobashi/Akiyama vs. Kawada/Taue/Ogawa 7/2/93 Misawa and Kawada have a great, intense learned counter sequence early. Seriously awesome stuff. Misawa going all lucha libre on Ogawa is pretty surreal. Ogawa's facial expressions while selling are pretty damn good. Kawada and Misawa have a nice strike exchange with Kawada ending it by kicking Misawa while the ref is holding him back. Kobashi (of course) plays the face-in-peril. Ogawa gets beat up by Kobashi but does get a fisherman's suplex nearfall late for his trouble. Kobashi gets the win with a moonsault not too long after. This match really had one purpose. Build to the singles match between Kawada and Misawa. The other stuffm while much of it was worthwhile, was side stuff.

Been a bit since I put anything up, but I have been still on it. Just reached a major point in my watching, so it seemed as good a time as any. Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Toshiaki Kawada 10/24/91 for the Triple Crown Kawada is out-powered from the start, so he starts trying to wear down Jumbo. Jumbo is content to try to beat the shit out of Kawada. Jumbo starts on Kawada's leg, but it doesn't last long. They brawl back and forth for a while and Kawada has finally found the confidence to go right at Jumbo. Kawada is still working the neck submissions pretty heavily late match. Kawada is desperately looking for a comeback when he runs into the big boot that leads to his doom. Jumbo lands a few of his bombs, hits the backdrop for the win. This was Kawada showing he could hang with Jumbo. He was being smart about it and using his weardown holds, but he wasn't afraid to strike with him. Which in the long run got the better of him, but it cements Kawada as a major player because he could do that for longer than most. Misawa/Kawada vs. Hansen/Spivey 11/16/91 This one was just for fun. Kawada gets the crap kicked out of him for the middle portion after eating a big piledriver on the flor from Hansen. Hansen at one point gets in the ring when Spivey has Kawada in a crab and starts stomping Kawada's head. The ref gets rid of him, but he comes right back in with a chair and pastes Kawada in the back of the head with it. Then he throws it at Misawa, nearly taking a few fingers off, which to me Misawa is legit pissed at and bounces the chair across the ring at Hansen as he leaves through the ropes. One of the rare occasions when Misawa shows a whole lot of emotion. The big chaotic ending sequence (you know it had to happen with Hansen) ends with a frog splash. Kawada vs. Kobashi 3/20/92 Champion Carnival Kobashi hits a DDT off the apron early to kickstart his offense. kawada starts working the leg, and we get the first appearance of dickishness in his single leg crab, using a knee in the back to roll Kobashi over. Kobashi goes back to work on the neck, but Kawada shifts gears upwards and starts beating the shit out of Kobashi. The ending sequence is really good, with each ramping up to their bigger stuff. Kawada hits a powerbomb on Kobashi, who kicks out to a really big pop, but the stretch plum puts him away. Hansen vs. Taue 7/31/92 for the Triple Crown Taue and Hansen have a nice brawl, with Hansen really making taue's offense look good and giving him a pretty equal amount of it. Taue could have worked his late match offense a little better, as the nodowa came a bit early. Hansen hits a big lariat for the win. Hansen vs. Misawa 8/22/92 for the Triple Crown Misawa hesitates coming off a rope break and Hansen makes him pay. Hansen is working over the left arm and trying to avoid too much striking as he is showing the elbows a lot of respect. Misawa is avoiding the big stuff, but Hansen is still in control of the match. Misawa finally gets some good offense in following a spinkick. Three things stand out to me about the finishing run. 1. Misawa tries countering a lariat with a crucifix, but Stan dumps him with a modified Samoan drop. 2. Hansen actually tries to make his armwork pay off with a jujigatame that the crowd eats up. 3. Misawa's elbows get put over massively. Misawa gets 3 after an elbow that he was laying down for a while after. Hansen actually gets up and shakes Misawa's hand. If the Jumbo match previously watched had Misawa being a made man afterward, this match established Misawa as THE man. Hansen, the big, scary foreign brawler, didn't want to brawl with Misawa. And Misawa stood up to him in every strike exchange, in the end actually knocking Hansen out with a regular elbow. This is freaking huge and a great example of how good booking can put even a simple move over. Misawa vs. Kawada 10/21/92 for the Triple Crown Kawada immediately counters a headlock into a Dangerous Backdroppppehhh! Misawa is up pretty quickly and threatening with an elbow. Kawada works over the left arm too. Must have been some kind of minor injury or in-ring working of said arm in some unseen match. They go back and forth, Kawada gets the advantage, but Misawa rolls to the floor to shake it off. Kawada looks to get the momentum back on his side, but it goes back to a back and forth battle. kawada is rushing to put Misawa away, hits a powerbomb after an enzuilariat, but it's way too early for that. Kawada gets a few more nearfalls before Misawa turns things around with a German and evens the finisher count up with a tigerdriver that Kawada kicks out of. Kawada threatens with a dragon suplex a bit later, but Misawa really kicks into gear after that, finally putting Kawada away with a tiger suplex. The crowd for this match really wanted it to be closer than it was. To me, it was booked to make Kawada look like a credible threat to Misawa and not a whole lot more. He wasn't overly close to winning before Misawa put the hurting on him with a big sequence to end things. The backdrop and powerbomb came way too early to truly be threats to Misawa, and besides the stretch plum, that's what Kawada was going to try to finish him off with. The other aspect of this match that was interesting was Kawada's early aggression against his then tag partner.

Funny, I have a similar reaction to a lot of New Japan heavyweights. I know that for the style they wrestle they are putting on very good to exceptional matches, yet I can't bring myself to care overmuch. That's part of what got me thinking that New Japan wrestling style just isn't for me.

Misawa in 94 was The Man in AJPW and had been for at least a year and a half. Watch Misawa vs. Jumbo from 90 to see him working from underneath in a big way. Kawada's violent nature, as well as Kobashi's overdramatic style, are (to me, anyway) very much because of Misawa. When they started getting more attention, they were always in Misawa's shadow. ITo me, it's partially their need for a hook to not just be a subpar variation on Misawa and partially an expression of their wrestling personas in reaction to Misawa always being one (at least) up on them. Kawada would do anything and everything to overtake Misawa. There was no obstacle he wouldn't go through to surpass his rival, which from what I've read led to darker aspects of his character coming out later. Kobashi was the fiery, never-say-die alternative to Misawa's always calm, never-say-die ace persona. It didn't hurt that he milked every bit of drama he could out of pretty much everything. There's a reason that Kobashi and Kawada were better at working from underneath than Misawa, they had to do a lot more of it. Personally I think his offense is one of the reasons he works from below so well. I love Misawa's offense and how pared down it could be for large portions of the match. Jumbo put over Misawa's elbows huge. Then when Misawa beat Hansen by effectively KOing him with an elbow in 92 for the Triple Crown, the elbow was pretty well lethal. So for big parts of the match, he will just be hitting elbows in between his opponent's offense and be seen as doing pretty good damage. Then when he gets to his bursts of offense, the other guy isn't unrealistically worn down for them.

So Henry actually had a gimmick completely in line with his previous job then.

Didn't Mark Henry at one point have a world's strongest man gimmick going? Made sense, given he kinda looked like those guys lifting up Volkswagens on ESPN2 reruns. Would that be considered a job?

Looked up 2 of the matches mentioned in the original post on youtube. Match 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evFgVteQPeI Match 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TD7T0GOzcpo Fun stuff in both for sure.

Oh, just let jdw get under Jerry's skin and let Jerry keep letting it happen. It's not like you have to get involved and add unnecessary stress to your day.

Back to the grasping at straws again.... Jushin Liger is based off a Japanese comic book superhero, so does that count? Those masked guys who wore mostly black, did martial artsy-stuff and flippy stuff, could they be considered ninjas? I'm looking at Sasuke and Octagon, but not sure if there have been more.

I'd read somewhere that he made Baba and AJPW management angry in 1996 by publicly saying that All Japan ought to be more willing to work with other companies. If so, that would point to him being very willing to buck whatever the trend was if he didn't agree with it. That can be something that works against you in the opinion of your peers if they all decide to go the opposite direction you do a few too many times. That being said, he deserves much better. The man was a big part of an incredible run of wrestling in All Japan and should be honored for it.

If you put: side headlock -> back into the ropes to send the guy across -> shoulderblock -> (guy who just go shoulderblocked rolls himself 90 degrees to be perpendicular) bounce off the ropes in there before Stan Lane leaps over and bounces off the rope, you have the most basic transition in wrestling.

I started watching wrestling at around 19-20 after ignoring it for my whole life. It can happen. It just sets you back a ways on any kind of understanding of the storytelling aspect of it in my case.

If I hadn't been uneducated enough to be a non-Beatles fan for the first 25 years of my life, I'd wonder how there were actually people who didn't love them. But I agree with that point on both wrestling and the Beatles, no point in trying to win them over if they aren't already there.

So much good stuff here already... I think good or great wrestling is one of the more subjective things anyone can talk about. It's like talking about music or movies or any kind of artform. That being aid, I'll start with my own personal experiences with pro wrestling. I started watching WCW not long after the nWo thing started. Not because of that, was randomly flipping through channels and landed on either the cruiserweights or the Nitro Girls I imagine. Either way, I liked it (the wrestling, obviously) for two reasons. One: the cruiserweights did a lot of cool looking shit. Two: I had no idea why, but I really enjoyed it beyond that. I went from the cruiserweights being my favorite part of the show to guys like Benoit, Eddie and Malenko being my favorites. Sure, the cruiserweights could do all the flippy stuff, but these guys had something else going for them. Benoit brought the intensity, technique and the stiff chops, suplexes and the like. Eddie just had that really awesome heel persona to go along with the combination of smooth high flying and technical wrestling (with a hint of the Benoit snappy suplexes). Dean just had the answer to everything on the mat or in a suplex cinch-up. Hell, watching Dean Malenko vs. Ultimo Dragon, they seemed psychic with how fast they could go hold to counterhold to counterhold on the mat. It wasn't long after that when I started to buy Schneider Comps off DVDVR to see what I was missing. That changed things a bit. Lucha libre was odd, had lots of the cool cruiserweight stuff, as well as a lot of really cool tricked out matwork that they decided not to put in the WCW version. Also, a lot of it was confusing and flat-out weird. I actually thought that added to it. Japanese wrestling was....it was like a light bulb had been switched on inside my head. The wrestling was more intense, the matches more contested rather than seeming like a dance, even a lot of the juniors matches. Eventually I saw a few All Japan matches and, yeah, that was right on the money. I had gone into it thinking along the lines of WCW and expecting similar things. There were some things they seemed to take from it, but a lot of the elements of puroresu really wouldn't play in WCW. I couldn't understand something like that at the time and started wondering why American wrestling didn't use some of the other aspects of Japanese wrestling, especially the heavyweight styles. Joshi blew me away with the sheer intensity and emotion the women brought into it. Feud matches were particularly nasty and I liked that. The more shootstyle stuff was great and it's something I never have a problem watching to this day. Battlarts is some amazing stuff and one day I will own a lot more of it than just the Schneider comp. matches. In the midst of all of this, I got a little tired of seeing my favorite wrestlers always relegated to early matches while the announcers talked about the nWo and whoever they feuded with over the match. WWE was the alternative, but I really never cared for it. My buddy is a huge Rock and Cena fan, and I'll say that out of the WWE main event scene then up until now, beyond Stone Cold (and Daniel Bryan if you think of him that way) I'd say they were the guys you wanted to watch. So I watched my tapes, ordered the "best of" the guys I really liked and contented myself with that. Over that period, I was a big fan (still) of the cruiserweight wrestling style, lucha, juniors, AJPW and Battlarts for sure. I liked a lot of the more "external" parts of all of it, though. The stiffness, the flippy stuff, the weird submissions, whatever it may be. I had an inkling of the story, the psychology, the way certain feuds in WCW evolved, but it really hadn't occurred to me that those things were as important in determining what was happening in the ring (or ought to be). After somewhere over a decade of not watching pro wrestling and throwing out boxes of wrestling tapes....pausing to curse myself here....I came to a little block in my wrestling booking game. I know, playing a booking game when I hadn't bothered to watch a match in years. So I started watching my Schneider Comps again. Damn, I still love this stuff. I watched a big variety of stuff and my tastes had really changed. Battlarts and shootstyle were still great. Juniors wrestling...eh. A few of the nagging things that bothered me about it (the tendency for every second or third move to involve a turnbuckle in the finishing sequences chief among them) really hit me hard. It's still something I like, and I'll watch in limited doses of a match or two. But beyond that things start to seem rushed and often overdone. AJPW is even better as I am starting now to see the element of "why?" added into the stiff brawling and technically sound, snappy suplexes and matwork. Lucha libre I like more as I see things like (former rudo) Blue Panther trying the tombstone on the rudo in the match, Negro Casas, completely turning the crowd around mid-caida, with Casas playing along only to have his boys run in and tune up Panther later in the same caida for a dq and turning the crowd right back around. Stuff like that would have been lost on me before. My All Japan project has been really helpful in helping me look past the moves being used and more at what the match is saying. I am trying to look more at who is in control, why, what they are doing with it, what the other person is doing to counter it, why momentum changes, etc. Also, it is giving me a much broader look at WHY certain things happen. I'd have never thought that a Misawa elbow nearfall on Hansen in 1993 popping the crowd so huge was perfectly reasonable without watching the 1992 match where Misawa won the TC by elbowing Hansen. Or why in the '93 tag match a week after Kawada/Taue won the tag belts, Misawa and Kawada's intense exchange with each avoiding the other's now-signature spots and firing back with their own was so important. So when it comes to NJ juniors wrestling, maybe I have to one day buy myself a comp of important matches from Fujinami to early Liger on through the later 90s important juniors matches to really see the things that I don't care for as what they are meant to be. Also, I have this feeling that things like Flair/Steamboat '89 matches and '80s territories wrestling would have been very off-putting to me in the late '90s-2000s. Now the little bits I have seen make me wish that style was still prevalent here. Sure, they didn't have all the flashy moves and most guys used maybe 10-15 wrestling moves overall. But they still made incredible matches despite what a modern wrestling fan may call limitations. Rest hold is a modern term for a reason I think. What it comes down to for me (now at least) is how I feel watching the wrestling match. Do I care about what is happening in the ring? To a lesser degree, does the crowd? If you can't draw people into your match just based on what it is you are doing, then like any other kind of art, t's probably not very good. For example: I love Stevie Wonder's music. Many people do, I know. But it took one or two songs for his music to hook me. I didn't need to hear an entire history of the music he had made or that style of music to know that I liked it. I could just tell from that first song or two that this guy knew how to make music that I liked. With wrestling it's the same way. If the wrestlers can't make you, me or the crowd care about what they are doing without an outside storyline, they will only be average at best when it comes down to it. Even if they are exceptional technicians (see: Dean Malenko) or brawlers. As an addendum to that, I'll say that a lot of those early and midcard matches are (or originally were meant to be) booked without much story behind them as a result of that. You start out as a jobber. Can you make the crowd feel for you as you get the snot kicked out of you? If so, congratulations, now the midcarders still put the hurt on you but the jobbers end up eating a lot of your offense. Now you have to learn to make the crowd get behind your offense. And it doesn't hurt to show that you can sell moves properly to add to the match. You get good enough at that, you're right about middle of the card. You've got to get better at showing more subtle things in the ring now. Where do you have the advantage? Where are you at a disadvantage? When is a good time for a change in momentum? Can you make it look like a struggle for the other guy to put the hurt on you, making the match look more like a contest? Can you get your character across in your wrestling? You do some of that well enough, you'll probably move up the card to just below the main event guys. Now you have to refine all of those things into an artform, be able to tell different stories in the ring than the basics on a regular basis. You have to be able to take somebody who can't do those things and bring them up to your level. Or at least give the impression in the ring that they are. Once you can do those things, backstage politics notwithstanding, you ought to be a main event guy. Somebody who can draw the fans into your matches even with people who have no business in the ring with you. It seems like a progression similar to learning a martial art to me, beginning with the very basic foundations of the art (the crowd caring about somebody getting the tar kicked out of them) and building up off of that.

I'll never actively hide it, but I also won't advertise it overmuch. This one dude at work always asks me "Do you know what time it is?" when he gives me break. My common response is... *angry, deeper tone* "It's Vader Time!" But I very rarely bring it up in conversation. Not sure how I would respond if my kung fu teacher (who hates pro wres) asked me.

Misawa vs. Tsuruta 4/18/91 Triple Crown Misawa looks a bit bigger here, but we establish pretty quickly that he is still at a big power disadvantage. Jumbo is selling Misawa's elbows huge. Then he hits some of his own and some just-as-big knees and Misawa is in trouble early. Jumbo is beating Misawa down until Misawa hits his second rope lucha headbutt. Misawa works on Jumbo's back with weardown holds, smart move as Jumbo's strikes are really taking it out of him. Jumbo starts on the beatdown again, then just slaps Misawa over and over again before sending him outside. Misawa is whipped into the rail, but rebounds and hits a charging elbow. He translates that to some elbows in the ring, which seems to be working until he switches to slaps. They slap each other a bit, then Jumbo puts a small corner beatdown on Misawa, who tries slapping his way out only to get whipped into the ropes and eat a Jumbo jumping knee. Jumbo sends Misawa outside and hits a knee crusher on the announce table before working over Misawa's knee in the ring. Jumbo puts on a STF, Misawa gets the ropes. Misawa is sent to the ropes and hits a flying elbow. Misawa sells the leg and Jumbo is again making Misawa's elbows look like gold after the fact. Misawa has a short beatdown segment, selling the leg along the way. Misawa tries a crucifix, but Jumbo catches him and does a modified Samoan drop for a nearfall. Misawa counters a backdrop suplex with a crossbody, but next time Jumbo is ready and instead drops Misawa's face into the turnbuckle as he tries that. Misawa reverses a powerbomb to go into another beatdown of Jumbo, then goes up top for a huge flying elbow smash from the top! Misawa is in control a bit longer, but Jumbo catches him rope-running and drapes him throat-first across the top rope. From there we go to the absolutely brutal finish. Really good stuff, with Misawa gaining confidence as the match went on. He starts out not doing as well toe-to-toe with Jumbo, but as he wears the bigger man down, he gets longer sections of the match where he is just elbowing, kneeing and kicking Jumbo, who has no effective response. Jumbo's offense is, of course, big, mean and really hurty looking, as always. Misawa/Kawada/Kobashi vs. Jumbo/Fuchi/Taue 4/20/91 So two days later, this happens. Taue is chosen as the guy to start for his team and the fans want Kawada in there. Kobashi ends up starting, but Taue doesn't give a shit about that and cheapshots Kawada off the apron. Kawada is pissed and has to be restrained by the ref and Kobashi. Taue lariats Kobashi, then immediately lariats Kawada off the apron. God I love Taue. Kawada is down & out for a while afterwards. Misawa and Jumbo are tagged in and Jumbo again sells the elbows big. Jumbo takes over on offense and there are some quick tags with Fuchi. Misawa tags out and Kobashi has some nice offense on Jumbo before getting his left arm worked over by all three members of the opposing team. Kawada has recovered by the time Taue is in there and Taue gets the small beginnings of a receipt. Taue and Kawada brawl while the ref tries his best to separate them and keep the other 4 from getting into it. Kawada gets the advantage and starts headbutting Taue into the ground (for at least 30 seconds). The crowd is eating this shit up. Kawada finally stands up and starts stomping on Taue's face before the ref, Kobashi and Misawa drag him off. Some sort of break happens and Kawada and co. are beating the shit out of Taue for being a complete dick. Kawada is getting chants when he's not the guy in there, crowd must like that rivalry. Kawada gets a nice pop for giving Fuchi the finger when he looks like he's coming into the ring, then tags out to Kobashi. The crowd reverses itself and starts chanting for taue towards the end of his heel-in-peril routine. Fuchi makes shit happen with a low dropkick on Kobashi while he's got an abdominal stretch on. Team Experience starts working over Kobashi's leg with a few hope spots thrown in. Fuchi is so great at being a dick in these kinds of situations. At one point he has an STF on, then lets go of the neck to delay Kobashi's grabbing the ropes, then just tags as he has to break. At some point, Jumbo seems to be trying to stomp all the way through Kobashi's leg to cut off a tag. Kobashi takes two knee crushers onto tables and one onto a chair positioned on the apron (Fuchi) during the heat segment. Or is it the second heat segment, or the real heat segment? Either way, Taue has this awesome spot where he is tagged in and does a top rope elbow drop to Kobashi's leg right into a submission. I seriously love Taue. Fuchi grabs a leg and holds on during a Kobashi hope spot, then tags in Jumbo. Kawada kicks Jumbo off of Kobashi to set up a hot tag, but no dice. Taue and Fuchi both get to torture Kobashi a bit more, but Kobashi gets the HOT (if the crowd is any indication) tag to Kawada. He smacks Fuchi around before tagging to Misawa, who ends up getting decked by Fuchi and set up for Jumbo. Misawa displays spirit (kicks out of a Jumbo powerbomb) and intelligence (Taue comes off the top with a nodowa as Jumbo does a backdrop, Misawa gets a foot on the ropes). Taue kicks out of a tigerdriver and a Kobashi moonsault! Following the moonsault, the finishing sequence gets really chaotic with break-ups and interruptions and holding back tag partners from break-ups, etc. Something they really captured on camera this match was how much the Japanese girls really were WORRIED about face-in-peril Kobashi. The dismay on some of the faces is priceless. Kobashi again comes off big for his fighting spirit. Taue vs. Kawada is advanced again. Misawa vs. Kawada is not as distant in trailing these things here as several times it seems to really take the forefront. Taue really gets put over a lot more in this one than the last. Well-worked match with an odd double heat setup, one for each team. Misawa/Kawada vs. Williams/Gordy 7/24/91 World Tag Titles Gordy sells the left arm really early on after nothing has been done to it. Injury of some sort? The gaijin start out getting the better of it, giving Misawa a bloody nose and then going to work on Kawada's arm. Gordy gets kicked in the head before going to a reverse armbar so Kawada can't kick him. Williams doesn't learn from that and instead gets kicked in the head before finding a better place to be before Kawada's arm hurts enough to stop him from kicking. Misawa is scrappy here as he sends Williams to the floor after a few elbows and bounces his head off a table. Williams hits shoulders to the gut and tags back in the ring. Misawa and Gordy brawl back and forth before Gordy tags in Williams who hits a nice floatover suplex for 2. He tags Gordy in after a few big elbows to Misawa on the ground and Gordy hits a big legdrop. Misawa is in trouble, but comes back with elbows and tags in Kawada. They start working over that left arm of Gordy for a bit. Williams breaks up a submission by Kawada and gets tagged in, Kawada is on the defensive until he gets out of the way of a Williams corner shoulderblock. Misawa is tagged in and he brawls with Williams until Gordy comes in and hits him from behind. The crowd is unhappy, even moreso as Gordy sends Misawa to the floor just as he tags in Kawada. Kawada hits a nice lariat for a nearfall as Misawa is shown nursing his knee on the floor. Kawada takes some double teaming while Misawa gets back to the apron. Misawa gets tagged in and Williams immediately grabs a leg. Misawa elbows him off, then hits his flying lariat, then sells the leg. While Williams is working on the leg, Gordy drags Kawada off the pads and piledrives him. Misawa hits an enzuigiri on Williams and crawls to his corner, reaching for the tag. Too bad Kawada is still crawling on the floor after that piledriver. Williams goes back to work on the leg while Gordy throws Kawada into the crowd and hits him with a chair. Misawa finally gets the hot tag after countering a backdrop suplex with a crossbody. Kawada hits Gordy with a powerbomb, but only gets 2. That starts the finishing sequence, with a little bit of chaos thrown into the match by Williams/Gordy breaking the tag rules frequently. This was a really fun match, with Gordy/Williams getting the better of the young natives early on with a combination of power, technique and isolation. Misawa being scrappy and not backing down from either was fun, he's starting to really get confident. Misawa/Kawada turn it around for a short while, isolating Gordy and the (seemingly injured?) arm. The gaijin then step it up about 4 notches, especially Gordy. The floor piledriver was the kick into overdrive for this match. They try to keep Kawada or Misawa away from the action long enough to put the other away, but these are two tough people. In the end, it degenerates into a scramble for whatever advantage can be gained in order to get the 3. Really starting to enjoy this. The matches keep getting better and more intense as the confidence of Misawa/Kawada/Kobashi/Taue builds. They are not quite to a Jumbo level yet, but they are definitely finding their way.

I still see this tendency to make Triple H out to be the bad guy. Gotta say I don't get it and I will lay out my reasons why. I will admit, I am 99.9% in agreement that Trips is an asshole main eventer who refuses to put young talent over to the point of killing their push. His track record speaks very strongly to that. Having said that, IF Bryan gets put into a feud with Triple H and ends up getting his push killed as a result, it is only partially Hunter's fault. Going with the idea that there is a feud I'll go forward from there. IF Vince or anyone with the seniority in the company to have a say about it truly want Bryan to be a big deal, they would have already said something to Trips about the damaging promos and very likely told him to behave like a professional and put Bryan over. I would say this was especially true of Vince. Son-in-law or not, if Vince wants to see a guy pushed, he's not going to let anyone walk all over them whatever the reason. Also, Vince is a control freak. The WWE is so tightly controlled that it is hard to believe that nobody who makes booking decisions knows what happens to young guys who Triple H gets his hands on. I'd venture to say that it is common knowledge. Therefore, if they truly cared about any young wrestler breaking onto the main event scene and looking good, they would not put him up against Triple H until he was well-established enough that his credibility couldn't be damaged beyond all repair by the feud. So, by virtue of that, if Bryan is put into a feud with Triple H, Vince and the booking team in no way care if he does well. If I was feeling very generous I would call it a very strenuous test. They want to see if Bryan can come out of it at least as over as he was going in to determine his long-term ability to draw. Okay, I think I skimped on the amount of uses of the word "very" in front of generous. Look at some of the people that have already run into that buzzsaw. Jericho was never going to be a big WWE star. He didn't have the look they like in their "big names." Sure he could talk and was good enough in-ring. But they have a certain look they want from their main guys, and Jericho didn't make that cut. Punk was always just a way to draw in the indy/internet smark crowd. If I wanted to be overly cynical, I might say that Bryan is along those same lines. Booker T was getting pretty old by the time he got any heat in WWE. Add to that the fact that his wrestling style relied very heavily on his athleticism and it's pretty hard to see the WWE really seeing him being around for long. That seems like it may have just been a way to put Trips over without sacrificing anybody the front office cared about/had plans for. Sheamus I don't get. He's young, big, can pull off menacing and intense, as well as having some athleticism. Seems like a guy they could use as a big name heel/tweener or at the very least a "gatekeeper" type. Honestly, I can see Vince and the booking team actually using Hunter's natural tendencies to what they perceive as their advantage. Some guy they don't feel is main event material, for whatever reason, gets some momentum going, then they stick him in a program with Hunter. Problem solved, and you don't even have to ask the guy to be a dick about it and not put the other guy over. So in closing: Yes, HHH kills pushes. Is it his fault that a lot of people you or I would have liked to see get pushed more ended up getting thrown his way at just the right time? Very likely not. Just convenient for the WWE booking team they have a perfectly willing foil.

Why not do as a title: Crowds in Different Areas of the U.S. (or something along those lines) And then subtitle it: How They are Different (again, just a general theme)

So I finally read all the way through all the arguments for and against in this thread and there was a connection I Thought got missed. Vince McMahon was a great heel versus Steve Austin. He knew how to put Austin over really well while still threatening him in his promos. So I ask you this. Does Vince not watch his own product? Does he just sit back in his office collecting the money and not notice Triple H burying Bryan week after week? Seems to me Vince is way more hands on than that. Also, lets look at that whole issue of upper midcard or lower level main event guys having their pushes ruined by a program with Triple H. Again, does Vince not pay attention to these things and just continue to throw up-and-coming stars Triple H's way unsuspecting that they will get buried and come out confused as to why said up-and-comer is all of a sudden relegated back to midcard duty? I tend to doubt that. So at the very least, Vince is complicit in all of this happening by his apparent silence and lack of action. And depending on your willingness to throw crazy conspiracy theories out there, you could go a lot further in describing Vince's involvement in it. So as much as I'd like to just throw up my hands and say, "Damn that Triple H for being such a bastard and holding down all the young talent!" I can't. Vince is obviously at least okay with it, and it may be that idea that no one wrestler can be more important than "the brand." And maybe Triple H (this is stretching it right here, I'll admit that, but I have to considered the possibility) married into the role of push-killer.

Yeah, Kobashi looked like the obvious steroid guy in All Japan. Kawada just got thick, Misawa stayed lean and Taue always was tall and ungainly looking.

I went with Casas v. Blue Panther. Really liked the tease they did there.

Hansen vs. Misawa 7/27/90 A month and a half after his big Jumbo match, Misawa is rewarded by having to face Stan Hansen. Sounds like a pretty crappy reward. Misawa isn't taking any chances. He immediately lariats Hansen out of the ring and goes to work on him with the bullrope. He drops that and then starts in with a chair before heading back into the ring and really attacking Hansen's left arm. Misawa is so much better at limb work when he's not in the Tiger Mask costume, no idea why. He's working different holds, following Stan outside and not letting up for an instant on the arm even on the outside. Back in the ring, he's switching up holds and stomping, kicking, elbowing away at the arm. It's like a more focused-attack version of Jumbo vs. Hansen from '89. Hansen keeps trying to brawl his way out, but Misawa is tenacious. Hansen finally brawls his way out of the arm holds and starts punishing Misawa, but he eats a dropkick that ends him outside. Hansen is smart enough to avoid the dive, but Misawa sets him up for a frog splash nearfall inside the ring and hits an enzuigiri that has Stan bailing to the floor again. Misawa misses a dive completely, but Stan's chairshots whiff also as Misawa is smart enough to get the fuck out of Dodge and roll into the ring. Stan starts kicking the crap out of Misawa in the ring and gets a few near-falls, but Misawa ducks a lariat and hits a nice spinkick, following with a senton for a nearfall. Hansen tosses Misawa off the top, hits a mean shoulderblock and follows with the big lariat for the win. Really good match with Misawa showing a lot of presence of mind and fire all at the same time. He knows he's overmatched in a lot of ways, so he tries from the start to tilt things in his favor and keep them there. Hansen is just too much in the end, though, wily enough to avoid enough Misawa high risk stuff and with good enough offense to make up the difference. Misawa looked great in the loss, which, to me, was one of the purposes of the match. Edit: It later occurs to me that Hansen very much had the Misawa "extended comeback" offense going on in spades here. He would get in good shots between Misawa armwork, but Misawa would doggedly get back to it through strikes from Hansen. Hansen never panicked, just kept getting the shots he could in as he went. Misawa/Kawada/Kobashi vs. Tsuruta/Fuchi/Taue 10/19/90 Everybody has their familiar gear here, and Taue vs. Kobashi is heated and intense off the bat. Taue cheapshots Kawada off the apron in an eerily similar spot. The youngsters triple team Taue a bit, then we get the Misawa vs. Jumbo face-off you know the crowd was waiting for. Jumbo really puts over Misawa's elbows before going to work with body elbows of his own. Misawa is the first in a revolving door of mini young guy-in-peril segments that ends when they get a few shots in on Taue, tag, then start to get triple teamed by the more experienced team. Jumbo has a nice single leg crab on Kobashi, and younerg Fuchi has a pretty good dropkick. Taue vs. Kawada always gets a nice pop from the crowd. Taue reverses Kawada's slam on the un-padded floor spot and slams Kawada to start Kawada's mini turn as face in peril. Fuchi uses a nice single leg crab on Kawada. Kawada is animated in his comeback (of course on Taue), drags Taue out to the unpadded floor and suplexes him before kicking him in the back a few times. Kobashi saves Taue the trouble of noselling and rolls him back into the ring. Taue's back gets worked over by the young team, but he hits a nice DDT before selling his back and tagging to Jumbo. Jumbo lariats the crap out of Kobashi, but Kobashi kicks out with no help. Kobashi goes into the full FIP routine now (good casting, by the way) and there is one point where Fuchi is grabbing Kobashi's leg to keep him from crawling while casually tagging in Jumbo, very entertaining. Kobashi eats another lariat and kicks out. Kobashi comes back on...I bet you can't guess. Oh yeah, it's Taue. He tags to the best possible teammate in that situation, Kawada. Kawada and Taue beat the shit out of each other and I love it as much as the crowd does. Taue tags in Tsuruta, but Kawada is fired up and just starts elbowing him as if Taue had never left. Jumbo hits some knees, Kawada ducks a lariat and hits the sweetest running kneelkick of all time. Misawa is tagged in and immediately starts elbowing Jumbo. Jumbo fights back, but gets slammed and eats a Misawa elbow smash from the top as he stands. Jumbo again fights back and tags out, but Misawa DOES NOT CARE! He follows Jumbo out and starts brawling with him on the outside, but Taue (now the legal man) takes advantage of Misawa's distraction and hits a running plancha! Back in the ring, we start the short finishing sequence with Kobashi eating more big stuff from Jumbo and still kicking out! The finish is good and works with what came before it, but was in no way what the match was about. There were three main things going on here. Kawada and Taue have it out for one another. There's gonna be a lot of violence going down between those two. And the crowd loves every second of it. Kobashi will not stay down. He has the FIGHTING SPIRIT! In all reality, this match was his turn to shine taking on Jumbo's biggest bombs and surviving to reach the end of the match. And somehow relegated to third tier, Misawa vs. Jumbo. This match seemed to be about putting over the other 3 of the 4 Pillars, while Misawa and Jumbo teased the fans for their next singles match. Misawa vs. Kobashi 4/5/91 (handheld) First time seeing a Japanese handheld. Not bad quality. This starts out like a NJ juniors match, Kobashi quickly gets Misawa on the floor and does a splash from turnbuckle to a prone Misawa on the floor. Then they get back in the ring and trade armwork before Kobashi starts in on Misawa's neck and has control for a while. Misawa finally gets a few counters to work, hitting a backdrop and then a nice angled side slam that hit neck/shoulders first. Misawa misses a dive, lands on his feet, but is immediately DDTed on the floor by Kobashi. Kobashi hits an apron dropkick before we head back to the ring for a short finishing sequence that sees a Kobashi tiger suplex nearfall, and Kobashi kicking out of a tigerdriver. Misawa follows that with a more angled TD, not quite a '91, for the win. Kinda short, but it played almost like a NJ juniors match for most of it, minus the extended middle section and finishing run. Misawa again had the extended comeback, always finding ways to get a little offense in where he could so he was never out of it. Kobashi continued his display of fighting spirit in kicking out of the TD. So did these guys watch a lot of early NJ juniors stuff and incorporate it into their movesets early? I know Misawa was Tiger Mask, but Kobashi and Kawada really bring the juniors style offense when they are younger. They retain parts of it, but at least 75% of it disappears.