dawho5

Oh, and while I'm here. I can't find Taue vs. Kawada 4/8/95 on youtube. Is it linked off of some other match, or just not on there? if this goes against that copyrighted footage thingy, go ahead and delete it.

Hansen vs. Kawada 3/4/95 for the TC Going in I was excited. This match promises to have an actual pinfall to end it. After 2 hours of not seeing one, I kinda miss them. Don't get me wrong, I think the 60 minute draws are great wrestling matches, just...don't need every match to be that long or not have a real ending. Speaking of not needing matches to be long, Kawada vs. Hansen on 2/28/93 clocked in around 24 minutes and is still one of the most brutally stiff, violent wrestling matches in terms of striking I have ever seen. Unfortunately, this match suffered from the booking trend in 95 of longer matches. Hansen starts out hot with his shoulderblock to the floor, which I had no problem with. Hansen gets one leg submission in, gets kicked in the head to end it and never goes back to it. Kawada works a leg for a few minutes then just goes back to brawling. Hansen gets one of the few nearfalls in the match the crowd cares about with a powerbomb hold after a gigantic powerbomb whip. Seriously, for all but I think 3 of the pin attempts (one being the lariat at the end), the crowd didn't count along or react other than polite applause. How Hansen and Kawada didn't HEAR what was happening (or in this case what wasn't) and do something different is beyond me. Kawada hits a gamengiri, ducks a lariat and hits another gamengiri for a nearfall. I think this was the other nearfall with any kind of crowd, and it makes sense given it takes a sequence from 2/28/93 (gamengiri/lariat, the one Hansen ends up on the floor after) and builds on it. My feeling is that referencing that match within this one is a mistake. Kawada has a nice corner beatdown. Hansen gets the lariat kicked and Kawada works on the left arm for a little bit. Then he goes into a stretch plum, which is one of his two (yes, 2) true threats to win the match. And counting this stretch plum is a bit of a stretch, but damn. Hansen counters a suplex with his snap suplex that he already did thrice. Kawada makes the arm work count by forcing Hansen to block on that side with his kicks. Hansen hits a weak lariat, then an elbow drop for a (sort of) nearfall. The big lariat comes next, Hansen sells the arm and covers for the win. It was a nice lariat, I'll give it that. Okay, so. I have no problem with Kawada jobbing the TC to Hansen. What I have problems with are many of the "how" aspects of it. Why extend the match beyond 30 minutes when you know damn well a 20 minute sprint with them beating the holy hell out of one another would do? Why have the aborted, pointless leg work? Why keep working the match the crowd doesn't seem to care much about when it's pretty obvious? Why did the champ have only two meaningful nearfalls in a 30 minute match and not truly come close to winning? They teased Kawada powerbomb and backdrop a few times each, but no payoff late. Both these guys are in my top 5 all time, but this match was really disappointing in the execution. I imagine some of that falls on the booking and other parts on the workers.

Holy Demon Army vs. Misawa/Kobashi 1/24/95 for the World Tag Titles So we start out with the same pairing as last match, and they get into it right away. Really intense exchange with Kawada coming out a bit better. Both tag at the same time and Misawa busts out the lucha libre on Taue, who seems a little thrown off. Kawada hits probably his biggest sounding spinkick yet on Kobashi. This is a long match so I'm gonna go pretty sparse on play by play. Taue and Kobashi have little in-peril segments at first, then Kawada followed by Misawa have more extended segments where the other team is beating them down. Kawada's left leg is still a target and Misawa goes for it really early. The beginning of Misawa's beatdown has Taue holding off both members of the opposing team for a few minutes after Kawada tags him. Also, some nice revenge for the earlier trouble Misawa gave him. Taue starts getting into it with Kobashi after Kobashi breaks up a submission on Misawa. Right away he gives him a "I'll deal with you later" look, but Taue gets tired of Kobashi's planned interference pretty quickly after that. Kobashi takes the tag from Misawa and really brings the fire attacking taue, even using Taue's dickish abdominal stretch variation on him. Now it's Kobashi's turn to get pissedabout Kawada interfering. Taue has another mini in-peril segment and eventually gets the tag after an intense exchange with Kobashi. Kawada and Kobashi both get fired up, but a throat chop puts Kobashi down. Kawada wins a suplex fight with Kobashi for once. He starts kicking at Kobashi's leg and avoids the dropkick aimed at his own leg before Kawada and Taue really start working over Kobashi's leg. Taue is such a vicious fucker, he always tries to make every submission he does the most evil thing it can be. Taue stomps on Kobashi's face while Kawada has him in a figure 4, so Misawa decides he's had enough and starts stomping the shit out of Kawada's face. Kobashi looks like he's gonna make the tag when Kawada drags him backwards. Misawa and Kawada get into it with Misawa ending up on the floor after a gamengiri. Misawa eats a Kawada lariat as he gets to the apron just as Kobashi backdrops Taue out of a powerbomb and stumbles towards his corner. The heels continue their working over of Kobashi, switching up to the neck/upper back. Misawa gets back into the ring only to have another exchange with Kawada that leaves him on the floor. kawada powerbombs Kobashi in the ring, says "fuck the cover" and goes outside to powerbomb Misawa on the floor. The cover on Kobashi after Kawada comes back in results in one of those ridiculously close nearfalls. Kobashi does an awesome job of stalling the heels, but falls victim to a dangerous backdrop, then a powerbomb. Misawa is just in time with the breakup of the cover. Misawa has to fight his way past Taue to break up a stretch plum. Misawa is now officially on fire. He takes a closed fist from Kawada and doesn't care, knocking him down with an elbow. After he is tagged, Misawa starts unloading on Kawada with grounded elbows, then has to fight off both heels. He looks like he's going to be overwhelmed for a bit, but he comes roaring back with a few rolling elbows. Kawada evades a plancha from Kobashi while Taue is locked in the stepover facelock, but Misawa has that covered and hits the dive on Kawada before resuming his submission on Taue. The faces hit a lot of their late match offense, Taue and Kawada have their hope spots. The highlight is when Misawa hits an unbelievable top turnbuckle rolling elbow on Kawada that Taue breaks up the cover after. Taue knocks Misawa out of tigerdriver position just before time expires. Two 60 minute draws in one day. And for Kawada and Kobashi, 2 in five days. Yikes. Lots of awesome stuff here, I tried to include most of it above. The Kobashi extended in-peril sequence and Misawa one man army comeback were incredible. The Kawada vs. Misawa exchanges were awesome. Kobashi's exchanges with either of the other team members were awesome. Taue's small version of the Misawa one on two dominance was pretty sweet too. It didn't seem like it ever dragged, which is pretty amazing for a 60 minute match.

Kobashi vs. Kawada 1/19/95 for the Triple Crown Kobashi hits an early lariat during a strike sequence to gain a short advantage. He's been using it a little differently than the burning lariat for a bit, but it's starting to look good. Kawada attacks the taped leg to gain the advantage after a series of early back-and-forth exchanges to establish equality. Kobashi elbows his way out of a knee crusher and goes to work on Kawada's neck, selling the leg enough for the small portion of the match it was worked. Kobashi goes for an early sleeper and gets slammed into the corner a few times to break it. Now comes the beginning of the really fun subtext of the match. Kobashi gives the ringpost smashes right back to Kawada after he takes them. Kawada gives Kobashi his chops -> whip to the ropes -> chop right back. A throat chop allows Kawada to take control and he starts heavily working over the ribs and back before using a Kobashi style sleeper, then turning it into his scissors sleeper. There is a powerbomb wher Kawada kinda lost control and almost set Kobashi down, so they just go back to Kawada on offense. He hits the dangerous backdrop, but ends up getting dumped out of the ring on a powerbomb attempt. A lariat to Kobashi on the apron keeps Kawada in control for a bit longer, but Kawada injures his left knee kicking Kobashi out of his second rope shoulderblock. Kobashi takes full advantage (to pay back the earlier leg work and show off his awesome mat skills). He puts on a wrong leg figure four that they have this brilliant sequence of pulling themselves back and forth during. Then Kobashi takes the long term revenge and STEPS ON KAWADA'S HEAD IN A SINGLE LEG CRAB! I was marking out so much for this. Kawada kicks Kobashi in the knee to get some breathing room and does his chop/kick to the back on a seated opponent deal for the first time I've seen. YES! The short neck chops follow, and Kawada tries twice to powerbomb Kobashi to no avail. Strikes are exchanged and Kobashi hits another nice lariat to come back. He hits the SAME short neck chops that Kawada uses, then hits a powerbomb whip on Kawada. Fucking sweet revenge spot there. Kawada is on the ropes now, Kobashi hits a backdrop, but the second is countered with elbows to the head. Kobashi dropkicks Kawada to cut off any kind of comeback and eventually misses a moonsault as Kawada rolls all the way out to the floor. They exchange chops for the first time In the match, Kawada again goes to the throat chop to win. Kawada hits a powerbomb for a nearfall (Kobashi did a great job on the kickout). A dangerous backdrop follows and Kobashi rolls to get closer to the ropes. Kawada hooks the closest leg to the ropes, making Kobashi have to kick out (barely). Kobashi fights off a stretch plum, but Kawada kicks him in the bad knee and puts it on anyway. Kobashi keeps forcing Kawada to attack the knee to keep the advantage. Kobashi comes back with a running elbow, but Kawada is still fighting the backdrop tooth and nail. Kawada tries to turn it into a stretch plum, but Kobashi counters with the most massive rolling cradle ever for a nearfall. Kobashi hits a jackknife powerbomb for a nearfall, then hits the moonsault for another. Kawada moves on a second rope legdrop, but Kobashi is back up first and teasing a dragon suplex. Kawada forces the arms down, then hits the chop/abisegiri counter followed by an abisegiri nearfall (this one was great as Kobashi was leaning forward and looked like he took it back of the neck). Kawada hits the dragon suplex after Kobashi teased it twice and gets a nearfall. Kawada tries the dangerous backdrop but gets a Kobashi crossbody instead, but neither can do much after. Kobashi hits a German for a nearfall off a really nice counter sequence (50 minutes in, no less). Kawada hits two brutal release German suplexes that have Kobashi crawling around the ropes to avoid any more damage after both. Kawada catches up after the second and can't get Kobashi up with the powerbomb as time expires. WOW! I knew it ended in a draw, but a lot of those nearfalls had me going anyway. After the early feeling out, both really made it look like it was a war. The throwing the same or similar spots back in the other guy's face parts were gold. They even teased a similar setup to a singles match they had in 93. In that one, Kawada was ripe for the picking but Kobashi couldn't put him away, leading to a win for Kawada. Kobashi has more in the tank this time, and even though he lets Kawada off the hook, he still ends up going the full 60. You can see the strides Kobashi has made in this match, even a year ago he wouldn't have lasted the full 60 with Kawada. Also, both guys and the crowd were HUGE in this. I've read that this is widely thought of as the best 60 minute draw ever, and now that I've seen it I understand why. edit: Kawada shaking Kobashi's hand and Kobashi raising Kawada's arm after the match was pretty sweet too. edit #2: These guys dragged every bit of drama out of getting to the ropes on submissions. That shit was intense.

To me it doesn't have to be anything major to make it matter on body part selling. It can be worked over early and not play a big role late as long as it is never completely forgotten and progressively sold in such a way as to suggest that it was worked earlier but is feeling better now. Also, the wrestler(s) who worked over said bodypart can always go back to the well if they are in trouble late, just to get the advantage back. That and taking a few moments after a big move to sell, perhaps costing yourself the 3 on the following cover are two of my favorite ways to see it used late-match in a more subtle manner.

Holy Demon Army vs. Misawa/Kobashi 11/25/94 Real World Tag League I had my suspicions going into this about how it would end. It's JIP and Taue is taking offense from both members of the other team. He turns things around and now it's Kobashi's turn. Kobashi has great exchanges with Taue early in this match. Kobashi tags to Misawa, who starts out hot but ends up getting the same treatment as Taue and Kobashi did before him. JIP probably cut an early Kawada mini in-peril segment after the fairly even opening stretch. That seems to be a pretty common theme in the last few tags. Misawa gets control back with a second rope back elbow and tags Kobashi. He has some really intense exchanges with both Kawada and Taue, leading to another short Kobashi-in-peril segment. Misawa gets tagged and comes in on fire. Kawada and Misawa have a short elbow contest when Kawada breaks up a submission, but Misawa is fired up and gets the best of both Taue and Kawada. Kawada gets his own version of the Misawa "fighting off tw guys" segment following that. Finishing sequence starts with Taue and Kawada isolating Misawa and using the now obligatory stretch plum/abdominal stretch spot. Misawa turns things around on Taue and tags. Taue and Kobashi have another great exchange. Taue is head and shoulders above anyone else I've seen at selling those Kobashi rapid corner chops. Taue is now being isolated and another of the small things he does is highlighted. He is seriously amazing at those last possible instant kickouts. A double tag sets up Misawa vs. Kawada. Kawada ducks part 2 of the spinkick, but Misawa is able to rana out of the powerbomb for a nearfall. Kobashi is tagged and hits a moonsault for a nearfall. You'd think he'd learn to not try so many, but he never seems to. Taue nodowas him off the top of the second attempt, then drags Kawada into the cover for 2. At some point in here, the faces get their obligatory double submission spot as well. Misawa breaks up the cover on a nodowa/powerbomb combo. Misawa gets a great nearfall on Taue off a missile dropkick. Kawada is tagged and hits two quick dangerous backdrops, but Kobashi breaks up the cover just before time runs out. Yeah, went about the way I figured. Just not enough time for naybody to be worn down enough to get put away. They did lots of great stuff before the disappointing ending, though. Kobashi's intensity was on display in spades. Taue was really getting into it with him after that last tag match. It's not just that all four were great workers. Kobashi had great chemistry working against both Kawada and Taue for the intensity they brought to their strike exchanges. Misawa just had that "it factor" going for him. I can't really put my finger on it, but for whatever reason, despite his lacking the intensity of Kawada and Kobashi and the sheer ruthlessness of Taue, you care about what he's doing. Then when he does bring the intensity (usually directed at Kawada), it's a completely different level. Kawada also got a lot more equality with Misawa in this one, getting his own housecleaning segment to counter Misawa's. Not in the league of 6/9/95, but it says all the right things and does so well enough. Holy Demon Army vs. Hansen/Baba 12/17/94 RWTL Finals The Taue vs. baba stuff is actually pretty cool. Taue is as merciless as ever, and Baba doesn't seem to mind at all. Half of Kawada's offense vs. Baba is cringe-inducing in how little Kawada is putting into it. I LOVE how the crowd is shouting "HEEYAH!" along with Hansen on his elbow drops. That is so freaking awesome. Kawada and Taue target the injured ribs of Hansen for a while, I thought that was a nice touch. Taue coming in as the illegal man just to beat on Baba some more is great. Taue takes a nasty Hansen shoulder from the ring to the floor after interfering. Taue dragging Kawada on top of Hansen is awesome, even if it's just a nearfall. Kawada takes a really brutal lariat to give Hansen and Baba the win. No surprise, but he stood in there and TOOK that lariat. Not a great match, but there were certainly parts I'm glad I didn't miss by not watching it.

I can see both sides of this. If Misawa loses here, the story of Misawa vs. Kawada is much less dramatic. 6/9/95 is nothing near the same and probably nowhere near as good. But at the same time, they had to realize that they needed a secondary ace to let Misawa get some rest. Perhaps Baba's original intention was for 6/3/94 to be the tease of Kawada going over, 6/9/95 to be the match where Kawada did get Misawa, albeit in a tag, then Misawa gets his win back for the TC later that year. And then, as suggested by jdw, 96 was going to be Kawada's year to take the TC off of Misawa after a long chase. I'm sure he had to understand that he was in jeopardy of killing Kawada's chances of every truly reaching Misawa's level in the eyes of the fans if he took too long getting him there. But then Kawada made public comments about the need for All Japan to work with other promotions in 96. Baba got pissed, and despite knowing this might kill Kawada long term, put Taue over Misawa instead. It's possible there is another explanation as well, but this fits. Either way, it sucks that Kawada may have been screwed over by his own poor timing.

Oh, you could certainly do that. But it would end up being just a really small portion of what you could do. If you purpose was only to rebook that then you'd be getting the wrong game yes.

I had read at one point that he had a statue of himself built with money his promotion made. Was that just a made-up rumor or something real?

They are. Just with real world mods they get a bit odd. I haven't played 2010, but in 2013, no matter what setup you play with everyone has a "destiny roll". Everyone gets caps put on all their stats that build, including popularity and psychology. Which means, you could start a WCW game and have a guy who was really young at the time who ended up being nothing with ridiculously high stat caps. And at the same time, you could get somebody who went on to be majorly over with zero chance of ever being more than a midcarder. Same goes for stuff like psychology, brawling, whatever. On top of that, stats are based on what the mod maker believes about the wrestlers. So if you don't keep a tremendously open mind, you tend to ruin real world mod games for yourself. At this point I point directly at myself to indicate how I learned that. However, IF you can get around that. You basically try to keep finances where your company is making money while putting on shows that increase your popularity, based on how you define your wrestling product. You decide the percentages of your shows and PPVs (separately) that are matches and angles. Then you try to book matches and angles that rate highly, keep your workers over and advance your angles. It takes a ton of planning ahead and organizational skill. Little things like more than four matches between the same competitors over too short a time causing match ratings to plummet make it even more demanding. That and competitors always trying to sign away your big stars and starting bidding wars, etc. Yeah, it's a fun and very involving game.

Oh wow, I missed that part of it. I hadn't even looked at it from that angle, but yeah I hadn't seen Kobashi pin Taue to that point. And yes, in 93-94, Kobashi really did come into his own. His intensity, the emotion he started bringing into the matches, the stiffer chops. It seemed to me like that was when he really started to come together. That's why I'm not just taking notes and being happy with that. This sort of outside input when I miss things helps me more than just doing that ever could. Thanks to all who have contributed on that. Misawa vs. Williams 7/28/94 for the Triple Crown Three things stand out to me about the early build of the match. Misawa's elbows beat any strike Williams is going to throw. Williams is capable of manhandling Misawa with his brute power. Misawa has to be careful not to get too aggressive with his rope-running and high flying or Williams is going to catch him and throw him halfway across the ring/drive him to the mat. Williams hits a brutal looking Oklahoma stampede on the floor using the ringpost twice before dumping Misawa. Misawa grabs the ropes on an Oklahoma stampede. Williams teases the backdrop, Misawa scrambles to get out, but Williams keeps the momentum. Williams hits a brutal tope through the ropes. Misawa counters the next backdrop attempt with a side legsweep and works up to a tigerdriver nearfall. Williams ducks a rolling elbow and hits the backdrop driver! Misawa sells it like he just got shot. Misawa is on the floor, gets rolled in and still barely gets the shoulder up. He elbows his way out of another backdrop attempt and both are down. Williams is smelling blood now, another attempt at the backdrop before settling for the Oklahoma stampede for a nearfall. Misawa lands an elbow, but he's dead on his feet and Williams hits a second backdrop driver for the win. They really put Williams' backdrop over here. Misawa selling it like he did means it's over once he hits it from now on. Also, Williams is a beast and I love him as a monster gaijin. This match did put him over the top, after watching the CC match with Hansen and the Finals of the CC. Hansen vs. Akiyama 9/24/94 Akiyama ambushes Hansen before the bell and takes it to him for a short time. Then he misses a plancha. Once again, down and out on the floor with Hansen is a very bad place to be. Hansen uses his floor tactics to brutalize the youngster before beating the piss out of him for a while in the ring. Akiyama hits a really nice northern lights suplex for a nearfall. His elbows and jump knees look great. But, we all know where this one is going. Hansen has to fight a little bit, but he hits the lariat for 3. In Akiyama's favor, he did take the lariat pretty well. I was considering skipping this match, but I always liked Akiyama and it's interesting to see where he is in relation to different people when the match is on a disc I have. Kawada vs. Williams 10/22/94 for the Triple Crown Kawada starts the match out trying to wrestle Williams in what looks like pseudo-amateur style wrestling. He's not doing too badly, but decides instead to start beating the crap out of Williams leg after a while. This is going pretty well for him when he transitions a STF into a ground headlock and has to fight off a backdrop attempt when Williams stands up. Williams dumps Kawada upper back/neck first with a released tiger suplex. Kawada tries the fighting spirit nosell, but instead falls through the ropes to the floor. Williams starts working over Kawada's upper back and neck heavily. For quite a while. Kawada tries brawling his way to a comeback, but Williams hits a brutal dropkick followed by one of the best corner dropkicks I have ever seen. Kawada's leg work pays off as Williams knee gives out right before he can slam Kawada down to finish the Oklahoma stampede. Kawada takes control, can't get Williams up for the powerbomb so settles for his high angle backdrop for a nearfall. Williams suffers through two stretch plums before rolling to the floor. Williams counters a second powerbomb attempt with a spinebuster to go back on offense. He hits the backdrop driver (or dangerous backdrop if I'm following the announcer, I thought Kawada's was called that?) and Kawada scrambles to reach the floor as Williams sells the leg. Much like the last match, Kawada gets tossed back in and still barely gets the shoulder up. Kawada turns things around with a beautiful abisegiri and barely hits the powerbomb on Williams for a nearfall. Williams backdrops Kawada out of another attempt and attempts another backdrop driver/dangerous backdrop. Kawada gets a few of his big kicks blocked, but Williams is too loopy to do anything. Gamengiri! Enzuilariat! Gamengiri! And that gets the 3! I admit it, I'm a Kawada mark. I liked a lot about this match. Kawada going right after Williams with Williams' own strength seemed like a nice, ballsy way of attacking the match. Williams strikes were looked at as relatively equal, which is a step up from previous matches. Williams still has the massive power advantage, which forces Kawada to chop him down by the left leg. When the match gets past the first two stages, we come to the question of whether Kawada can powerbomb Williams. It takes a lot of work, but he eventually does, which gets a seriously huge reaction from the crowd. Williams continuously looking for his backdrop and the FEAR it inspires in both Misawa and Kawada is freaking awesome. I'd say 93 and 94 were both great years. Kawada, Kobashi, Taue and Williams have all made strides from where they were in 92. It makes things a lot more fun when you have six guys up at the top who can go.

Orton is ranked higher than I would have thought. Cesaro, although I have only seen 3 matches, seems really good. Is that a new development?

TEW2013 you can get real world mods from 94, 96, 99 as far as I know. Seems like a lot of folks like running those.

I watched the full tag match. Kobashi and Taue performed admirably, and the match was almost like a precursor to their 6/9/95 classic. Just saw it from a booking perspective of using it to tease the singles match two weeks later. The match itself was up there as far as the matches I've seen so far. I'm trying to look at the matches more in terms of the what they mean in the grand scheme of things as part of my project, rather than only as a wrestling match on that particular night.

I know selling has been mentioned already, but I had a thought on what makes the brawls I really like good or great in comparison to the ones that I do not. The right balance of selling and no-selling. Enough no-selling to show fighting spirit or competitive fire, whatever you care to call it. But not so much as to make the other guy's offense look bad. And the selling can't be "death" for everything. To me, it has to be more nuanced, sort of build as the match does. As you progress into a brawl, then selling becomes more the norm than no-selling. That doesn't mean there can't be back and forth. Wrestler A hits a big punch/kick/chop, but because of the abuse they've taken so far they have to pause. This gives wrestler B time to recover enough to land his own equally (hopefully) big strike. Then both are down/leaning on the ropes, whatever. And I think selling also applies to "hulking up" type situations or exchanges as well. Just because you hulked up, doesn't mean you can't move a little slower to sell a leg or put your hand to your head and wince after knocking a guy on his ass. And I think Misawa/Kawada/Kobashi did strike exchanges right. They very rarely (if ever) completely nosold. It was always more of an absorb -> react to the pain then get intense -> return type of thing.

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.