[1992-03-04-AJPW-Excite Series] Stan Hansen vs Mitsuharu Misawa

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Misawa's last failed shot at the title. Pretty fast, crazy start for a TC match. I understand that both guys work better with Kawada and Kobashi, but this is still a really good match, and the close calls rival those of just about any match you'll ever see. Misawa loses, but goes over strong enough that the point is made that he can win the belt. Hansen got lucky to just hit a lariat at the right moment. Misawa was the dominant one, and the win is just a thud out of nowhere. Really good match setting up a bigger match later in the year.

[Tim Evans]

Hansen took more punishment than I thought he would. OK match and I'm interested how they do later in the year.

[shoe]

I really dug this match and was biting on all the false finishes. Both guys worked their asses off.

[Childs]

I happened to toss this in last night. It's another great testament to the depth of early '90s All Japan. This is not a pimped match at all, and Misawa-Hansen is known as a semi-disappointing series compared to Kawada-Hansen and Kobashi-Hansen. But this was a hell of a match that did exactly what it was supposed to do. It had the hot opening, some brutal, brutal offense from Hansen, great selling of accumulated damage from both guys, frenzy-inducing nearfalls. I particularly liked the finishing sequence, with Misawa barely getting his foot on the rope after the first lariat, staging a rally built on the big elbow and then falling to a pulled-out-the-ass lariat. Watching it, you could have no doubt that Misawa was a future champion, but he wasn't quite there. He was like the 1987 Detroit Pistons. Man, I think Hansen might be my No. 1 if we ever do a GOAT poll again. His performances -- from keeping his own character over with the filthy offense to putting his opponents over to the exact right degree -- were just so on point for so many years. I saw Loss and JDW talking about Misawa-Kawada I in the context of the WWF MOTYs. I thought the same thing about this. If it had happened in WWF, it would have been an instant classic.

[shoe]

Childs you really did a good job describing the bout. You really hit it on the head. Watching this match I didn't understand where the Hansen/Misawa pairing didn't live up to expectations. Excellent match.

[jdw]

I think it might be the case that there are so many of them:

 

07/90 TC: Hansen vs Misawa (decision bout)

04/91 Carnival: Hansen vs. Misawa

03/92 TC: Hansen vs Misawa

04/92 Carnival: Hansen vs Misawa (Final)

08/92 TC: Hansen vs Misawa

03/93 Carnival: Misawa vs Hansen

04/93 Carnival: Misawa vs Hansen (Final)

05/93 TC: Misawa vs Hansen

10/93 TC: Misawa vs Hansen

05/95 TC: Hansen vs Misawa

 

And some of them aren't super hot. The very best of them aren't quite at the level of the Four Corners matches, but are very good. Some are just there... and some like 10/93 & 05/95 feel long of tooth.

 

John

[smkelly]

07/90 TC: Hansen vs Misawa (decision bout)

04/91 Carnival: Hansen vs. Misawa

03/92 TC: Hansen vs Misawa

04/92 Carnival: Hansen vs Misawa (Final)

08/92 TC: Hansen vs Misawa

03/93 Carnival: Misawa vs Hansen

04/93 Carnival: Misawa vs Hansen (Final)

05/93 TC: Misawa vs Hansen

10/93 TC: Misawa vs Hansen

05/95 TC: Hansen vs Misawa

I'm assuming those are the taped matches, no? Still not bad in comparison to modern wrestling - like the WWE and their drawn out feuds, like Cena-Orton.

[jdw]

Taped ones from the time Misawa took the mask off to Stan dropping the TC for the last time to Misawa. 1992-93 eventually felt like overkill: 7 matches in 19 months, 6 of them Big (TC or Carny Final). 5/93 showed they could still pull off a great match. 10/93 showed they weren't imaginative enough to come up with a fully different match after the prior 6 in that period. They really should have just done a 12-15 freaking war beating the shit out of each other.

 

John

[Kevin Ridge]

Good match but can't help comparing it to other AJPW matches from this time period. Actually think it's the weakest of the AJPW singles matches on set so far. These guys just don't seem to mesh that great together. I actually looked at it as Hansen bullying around Misawa though Misawa came back strong at the end. Getting the foot on the ropes after the lariat made Misawa look strong. He got beat with two out of nowhere lariats.

[MikeCampbell]

This was really good stuff. Misawa's dominance and aggression shows that he clearly has the onions to beat Hansen. It helps that Hansen is more than willing to sell his ass off for Misawa, and make him look that much better. The finish looks more like a fluke than anything else, especially with Misawa having already gotten a rope break after Hansen's lariat.

[Zenjo]

Not one for the weak of heart. Send the women and children to bed. It's slobberknocker time. JR commentating on 90's All Japan is an interesting thought.

 

Wasn't pretty or flowing for the build, yet the stiffness made it absorbing. Hard blows to the head from both combatents. It all came together nicely as it progressed. Misawa survived a lot of damage and they teased the title change. He'd have to wait half a year for that to happen. The man in green and white was more than ready.

[WingedEagle]

He's got the wins over Jumbo and with this one Misawa shows he's also a legit threat to the triple crown, which he takes in August. Misawa starts with a series of elbows, and after Hansen is forced to escalate with a DDT on the floor the story becomes the champion slowing things down and keeping the challenger grounded towards that end.

 

Misawa keeps coming back with brutal elbows which just aren't enough to win the titles. The crowd pops big for the facelock and Misawa gets to withstand one lariat with a foot on the ropes for the near fall. The finishing stretch with a flurry of elbows followed by a couple lariats is awesome. Hansen retained but its pretty clear Misawa will be coming back for more.

 

***3/4

[PeteF3]

Misawa managing to withstand the first Lariat seemed to be a deliberate sign that he was the heir apparent, if it wasn't self-evident already. Misawa takes a huge beating before starting a comeback, and the elbows and the facelock are put over in a big way. He just doesn't have it in him to put Hansen down yet. Crowd is SO ready to see Misawa get this victory, and the build to it throughout the year gets white-hot. Sadly I recall the end result being very anticlimactic, but I'm looking forward to see if it holds up better than I remembered.

[xlynwoodx]

This thread added a lot of context to this match for me. Seems like just part of a larger story of Misawa getting the belt and it excels in that respect. It looked like Misawa was on his way to winning the match when Hansen decked him with a lariat. Misawa got a little overconfident there and it cost him the match.

[garretta]

I really liked this, mostly because of Stan. Not that Misawa wasn't great too, but the idea of Stan being focused and hungry for victory enough to actually target a body part (Misawa's neck) really made this one stand out for me. I especially liked his use of the dragon sleeper, which is about the last hold I ever expected to see him use. He's a veteran who knows where he is at all times, as he showed when he countered Misawa's attempt to use leverage for a strike off the turnbuckle with one of the most brutal lariats I've ever seen him throw. There was no way Misawa or anyone else alive could withstand another one, especially after missing off the top like Misawa did. How he got his foot on the rope after the first one I'm still not sure.

 

This match was clearly designed to show that Misawa just wasn't in Stan's class at the moment. The greatest example of this was when he had Stan in the facelock and on the way out, yet instead of holding on for the submission and the title, he decided to go for the cover. Even though he got a couple of close two counts, it definitely seemed like a missed opportunity that someone with more experience would have taken advantage of easily.

 

That said, he showed the abilty to come back from the best shots Stan could dish out and turn the match back in his favor. The best example of that was when he paid Stan back for the DDT on the floor he took earlier with one of his own. I still have trouble with guys getting up from that and continuing the match after Jake gave Steamboat a concussion with it, but such is life, I guess.

 

There's definitely a sense that Stan got away with one here, and that he won't be so lucky next time. When that next time will be, only time will tell.

[dawho5]

I liked the hot start, but Hansen feeding Misawa a rest front facelock seems really out of place. Hansen stiffed Misawa around the right ear pretty early on and it got sold for a while. Hansen showing Misawa enough respect to work over the neck was a nice touch. I loved Hansen's setup for the first lariat. He basically gave Misawa a very common situation he knew the Misawa counter for and anticipated it. Very much a veteran kind of move and I love seeing it in this kind of match. It puts over why Hansen still has Misawa's number at the same time it shows a lot of respect to Misawa. If Misawa was a lesser opponent, Hansen wouldn't have to do that. He'd just kill him with the lariat. Misawa's toughness down the stretch was great. The double pin off the facelock was too much. It's Hansen, once he kicks out of that first try you spent that nickel. Still a lot in the arsenal to attempt before getting desperate to put Hansen away with the facelock no matter how hot the move is.

 

I did like how this match put MIsawa over and my memory of later matches tells me they built off of a lot of the themes here. I still agree with jdw that at least one match of 15 minutes with no attempt to break the other guy down besides beating the fuck out of him up until the finishing stretch would have blown everything else these two did in singles matches out of the water.

[JKWebb]

The best thing ever is Stan Hansen becoming frustrated when the ref tells him Misawa got his foot on the rope, so he just slaps Misawa in the face while Misawa's still laid out. 

[Superstar Sleeze]

AJPW Triple Crown Champion Stan Hansen vs Mitsuharu Misawa - AJPW 3/4/92

Well guys, I pulled a Parv. In my defense, the video on DailyMotion was mislabelled. I intended to watch their 1995 Triple Crown Contest as was described on DailyMotion but the video is mislabelled and it is actually this match. I should have known based on the length of time and there was no clipping. I knew the match was 25 minutes long based on Cagematch and the video on Dailymotion was only 22 minutes. The best part was I thought right up until the end it was the '95 match so when Stan hit the second lariat...I said to myself "Wow Misawa is going to kick out of two lariats! That's insane!" and then was a three count...I have never been so shocked in my life! lol :p

The first 12 minutes of this were pretty tepid. Misawa worked a terrible armbar at one point, but I liked his side headlock. Hansen was trying to get the Dragon Sleeper over. The crowd was very behind Misawa and booed Hansen whenever he did something to Misawa in the ropes. At about the 12 minute mark, Stan turned on a switch and said FUCK IT and just charged at Misawa and bowled him over and like that it was ON! Hansen kicked the shit out of him on the floor. Powerbomb! Insane Back Suplex...scary head drop angle. Misawa would keep on clutching the back of his neck...but I do NOT think he was selling, brutha. As soon as Hansen went to suplex him, I called the slip out the back door, elbow spot. I am getting pretty good at Kings Road. Great Misawa comeback! Another clue that I should have known something was up was that Misawa FACELOOOOOOCCCKKKKKK was wicked over. I even remarked to myself "I cant believe the Facelock is still over in 1995". 

The finish is the best part. They are just struggling and tussling so hard in the corner. You have no clue which way it is going to go and then BANG LARIAT! WOW! Misawa gets the foot on the ropes and Hansen is besides himself. Misawa gets a great nearfall for himself based on his Big Elbow. You can see the power of the Elbow growing. It is not quite the KO punch it would be in August but it is getting there. Hansen blocks the diving elbow. I like the escalation does not work on the ground, lets take it to the air. As Misawa gets back up, He cocks the Elbow and Charges and HANSEN DEMOLISHES HIM WITH THE LARIAT!

It is a ***** ending but the first 12 minutes is such a chore. The Stock Hansen Heat Segment and Stock Misawa comeback get this to the good range, and the finish takes us to very good, but it was too little too late to be great. ***3/4