[1994-03-05-AJPW-Excite Series] Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi vs Stan Hansen & Giant Baba

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

The opening minutes of Hansen and Kobashi rolling around on the mat were awesome. I liked that they got over that they wanted to tear into each other without tearing into each other. They just very aggressively wrestled each other, with Hansen taking it to the mat.

 

Then we get Misawa/Baba. Baba's smirk after taking a Misawa forearm is tremendous. Baba alternates between being a little fun and a little embarrassing. There are some spots he does pull off really well, but between the moves, he's exposed, because it takes so long to set up the spots properly, and it's hard to buy Misawa selling so much for Baba considering how much we all know he can do.

 

Misawa/Hansen and Kobashi/Baba pairings are short-lived for the most part until around the 10-minute mark. Chalk it up to the fact that he is a ridiculously hard worker or whatever else you want, but Kobashi opposite Baba is really solid. Misawa was content to sit in Baba's arm wringers and eat the same takedown half a dozen times, but Kobashi makes Baba work, including a moment late in the match when he shocks the hell out of me by making Baba take a rolling cradle. He's not at full Kobashi speed, but he keeps the stuff he is doing far more interesting and doesn't pull his chops much at all. Yes, a side headlock is fairly basic move by Kobashi standards, but it's also worked well. I also get a kick out of him bumping big for Baba's hiptoss. He actually reminds me of Fuchi in his style here.

 

By this point, Hansen and Kobashi are tired of tempering their animosity and start going after each other pretty aggressively. Brawling leads to fighting on the floor, we get a couple of hot minutes, then it's time for the next pairing.

 

Misawa/Hansen you really want to be better than this, but Misawa is on cruise control for the night. The guy has probably had more great matches than any wrestler in history, so it's hard to fault him too much for taking the occasional night off.

 

Really, at least until the admittedly fun finishing run, this is much more a series of singles pairings with guys who happen to be teaming than it is much of a *tag team* match. Hansen and Baba decide to act like a team briefly 20+ minutes into this and again when we get to the final stretch, but Misawa and Kobashi, the actual established top-drawer team, really don't. It's puzzling.

 

Dual track commentary distractions aside, this was a blast to watch. Not so much even as good match (even though it turned into one in the last 15 minutes) as much as an enjoyable one and something worth seeing for many reasons:

 

* Building my excitement for Hansen/Kobashi at the Carnival

* Comparing what Misawa and Kobashi do with Baba

* Seeing what a Misawa "Bret Hart doesn't really care that this is a Coliseum Video exclusive" performance looks like

[Ditch]

* Seeing what a Misawa "Bret Hart doesn't really care that this is a Coliseum Video exclusive" performance looks like

Huh?

[Loss]

Misawa going through the motions and dogging it. I thought that was a fairly straightforward way to make the point.

[Ditch]

Was Misawa really dogging it? I think he was pretty much doing what he could considering how little athletic ability there was on the other side.

[jdw]

I haven't watched this one in more than a decade, so it's a little fuzzy in the brain.

 

I thought the 11/30/93 match blew this one away, perhaps lacking the "setting" of Budokan, but having its own super hot crowd eating everything up. That match had some of the stuff Loss liked here, including the rolling craddle.

 

Misawa never struck me as being on cruise control in the 11/30/93 match, and actually was quite good. Obviously Hansen was really fired up in that one, with a mindset of thinking he had to carry his team. Baba was as good as he'd looked in ages. Kobashi was 1993 Kobashi, so he was going to be out of his mind anyway. Relative to them Misawa may not have looked off the charts in the 1993 match, but he was smart and good and solid in doing everything he needed to do.

 

Whenever I get around to watching this one again I'll keep an eye on Misawa's performance. I made the comment in the 1994 Carny stuff that Misawa looked off his game, disinterested and just not good in a lot of matches. It also was the series where they worked the injury angle to give him some time off. It's never been well explained *why* he got the time off, but having rewatched his limited matches in Carny, I started to wonder if he was either banged up or worn down and the "injury" was to give him time off to heel up rather than be ground down by the intensive run of singles matches. It's possible that he wasn't in good shape for this match.

 

John

[Ditch]

Agreed on CC '94 Misawa.

[Loss]

Was Misawa really dogging it? I think he was pretty much doing what he could considering how little athletic ability there was on the other side.

Misawa was incredibly talented, so obviously Misawa dogging it is better than quite a few wrestlers working hard. But yes, I really think he was, especially when you see what Kobashi was doing with Baba and Hansen by comparison.

 

I agree that the 11/93 tag is much better than this. I enjoyed watching this, but I wouldn't really call it a good match, if that makes sense.

[Kevin Ridge]

Weird double commentary track that gets in the way. Physically, Baba has no business in the ring with these guys at this point. But I cannot help but watch his matches anyways. He is the ring a lot to start this match. His Boston Crab attempt his not the best. Stan does better. Ha, Kobashi does the rolling cradble on Baba. That was quite the sight. This match ends up going a pretty long time but not in a bad way. Baba follows up Inoki from earlier in the set. That was a surprise.

[Childs]

I didn't think Misawa dogged it at all. I wouldn't roll it out as one of his signature performances, but I loved his determination to keep Hansen from pinning Kobashi after Stan hit the lariat. That was good "Misawa as ace" stuff. He didn't work as hard as Kobashi overall, but fuck, who did? I liked this match a lot. Baba appeared to have a blast and worked hard. Hansen was still great, nasty as fuck on offense and selling really well when appropriate. Kobashi did all of his Kobashi stuff. The crowd ate up all the nearfalls in the last 10 minutes. I'm not sure what else you'd want from this group going 35 minutes.

[Exposer]

Baba has never interest me. Although, Kobashi did bring a lot out of him. In fact, I thought Kobashi was outstanding in this. I never thought of Misawa's performance being cruise control but that's a good explanation as he essentially adds nothing to the match in my book. I was bored for parts of this mainly the Baba-Misawa exchanges but the finishing run was great as is most AJ matches during this time period. Very good match overall and yes Baba's facial expression off of the Misawa forearm was one of the greatest things ever.

[soup23]

I didn't see this as Misawa dogging it as much as his stoic persona really plays worst against Hansen and Baba than any of the other opponents. Baba really needs someone that adds a lot of movement or charisma to his exchanges to counteract the slow movement. Hansen needs someone that is a great underdog that he can pound (Kobashi 1993) or someone to go toe to toe with him in a battle (1993 kawada or 1988 Tenryu). Him versus an ace (misawa now and Jumbo before) where it is 50/50 generally does not result in his best work. The work in this was fine up to the near fall section. I really thought everyone kicked it up a notch in the final 7-8 minutes and Misawa winning really cemented him as the guy. I do wish they would have chopped around 5-8 minutes of down time to make this a classic but overall I though this was very good with interesting themes throughout and is the best All Japan match so far of 1994.

[PeteF3]

This was awesome! In fact by the closing stretch I liked this better than 11/93. There's a 60-minute time limit to this one when the RWTL went 30, and since you know Baba ain't going an hour, the "There Must Be a Winner" vibe is there throughout. Once Kobashi starts getting double-teamed leading to the big Hansen lariat, this turns into one of the better AJPW tag closing stretches of the '90s to this point. Even accepting Baba's limitations and his strikes--he once again pulls out every stop that he can, both offensively and defensively. Historic finish to pay all the long work off.

[...TG]

The double-commentary track was very distracting. I can only imagine how bad it was for Japanese speakers, but for me the worst part was that it drowned out the crowd heat. Heat adds so much to me as a viewer (probably too much) and so took this down more than a bit from the matches in late 93.

[Superstar Sleeze]

All Japan World Tag Team Champions Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi vs Giant Baba & Stan Hansen - AJPW 3/5/94

Not watching for workrate but a pretty important match, Hansen is being transitioned into a legend role and would have a diminished role as the year progressed though he was still used as a transitional champion in 1995. I think teaming with Baba, a legend is a part of Hansen slowing down so to speak. This is at the Budokan and it is pretty big deal that Kobashi is getting to main event with Baba & Hansen. It is a fucking Baba main event in Budokan. It is a generational match. The two biggest stars of the 70s & 80s vs the stars of the 90s. 

The Hansen/Kobashi stuff is typically great, intense dripping with struggle & effort exchanges. So far, I have thought they did a better job hiding Baba's limitations on 11/30/93 here were some very weak strikes have to be sold as death because it is Baba. I did like the opening Misawa/Baba exchange where Misawa hits a flying forearm on Baba and knocks him to his knees. Baba has this great look on his face as if to say "Oh so thats how we are going to play it". A point in Baba's favor, I thought the arm work on Misawa was legitimately great. European Uppercuts under the armpits, armbreakers, armdrags into a cross-armbreaker I would be ecstatic if more wrestler did that. Kobashi went full tilt against Baba it was great. I loved Baba's Fujiwara Armbar takedown of Kobashi! Baba is bringing some great limb work to the table. Towards the end of the first 15 minutes, we see Hansen/Kobashi brawl, neither gets the upper hand but when Hansen THROWS MISAWA DOWN ON THE POWERBOMB! Hansen & Baba take charge! Great big boot by Baba on Misawa. I am bit surprised and not sot surprised that Misawa is doing most of the sell. Surprised because Kobashi is definitively lower on the pecking order, not surprised because thats how Misawa likes to work. So far, so good...but this is a long match, lets see what happens next.    

COWBOY KICK! Exposed Knee! Goes for the Boston Crab, lets Baba do it. Then Hansen comes in and really sits down on it. Kobashi saves to BOOs! Misawa floats over on a suplex attempts and SMOKES Hansen in the back of the head with an elbow. Kobashi is chomping at the bit and DDTs galore! They work over Hansen for the majority of this segment. Misawa gets his FACELOOOOOCCCKKKKK Baba breaks free to save and gets cheered! Usually the Japanese do not cheer saves, Baba can do no wrong! Stereo suplexes on the legends. Hansen trucks Misawa off the apron, dropkick to Kobashi tag to Baba. Baba takes the rapid fire Kobashi chops in the corner and then ROLLING CRADLE~! That was awesome! This has gotten pretty damn good and it has been 25 minutes. It is amazing how All Japan can make 25 minutes feel like 10 minutes. 

The last ten minutes or so of this is INCREDIBLE! They took you on an emotional roller coaster thats just wild. I think that's really the difference between all the American Indies that try so hard to recapture the glory of 90s All Japan is that it feels mechanical and sterile. This match takes you up and down and all around! Just watch the couple in the front row having the time of their life! You can see desperately how all four men want to win! It becomes important to all the fans and to me. I didnt want anyone to lose after how emotionally invested they made me. Once Kobashi goes up for that the first moonsault attempt, this match goes into overdrive. Hansen saves leads to a Baba back suplex and then a stereo Hansen powerbomb on Misawa and Baba PILEDRIVES Kobashi! Let the nuclear chain reaction of nearfalls begin.

My favorite sequence was this. Hansen and Baba take turns feeding Kobashi to one another ending with a LARIAOTOOOOO! Misawa immediately DECKS Hansen with an Elbow to boos. Misawa is desperately trying to drag Kobashi to his corner, but Kobashi is a load. Baba comes over and attacks Misawa. Hansen rolls over and covers Kobashi. 1-2-Foot on the ropes! I popped huge! I figured he kick it out, but for some reason the foot on the ropes instead of the kick out really sold the moment for me. 

From there it was just gangbusters. Hansen was fighting off Misawa who kept trying to save and finally Kobashi built up enough gumption to tag out. I thought Baba going to the abdominal stretch on Misawa was a bad choice because it would quell the fire boy was I wrong. Kobashi trying to save Misawa with chops got NUCLEAR HEEL HEAT! Baba;s big comeback where he took out both of them got over like rover! Baba hitting the neckbreaker lariat was HUGE! Biggest nearfall heat and I just went bonkers for it! The Old Man still got it! They moved into the young bucks pouring it on with back suplexes. We get the big Kobashi nearfall on Baba with a Moonsault. That had me going crazy. Misawa gets a HUGE pin on Baba after a top rope version of Baba's neckbreaker lariat (I noticed he used this against Doc/Ace in July). There were very few feathers left to put in Misawa's cap but a clean pin on Baba in Budokan, wow, just wow!

Definitely watch the whole match, it is really good, but if that last ten minutes doesnt move you, you dont have a soul! Some damn good pro wrestling right there! ****1/4

[Makai Club #1]

An epic Now Generation vs Old Guard match in Budokan Hall. The opening exchanges between Kobashi and Hansen were great. The struggle for the cross elbow tie up before Hansen took Kobashi to the mat and smothered him was a strong way to open the match and the following encounter between Misawa and Baba was cool as well. Misawa oversells for Baba, naturally, but Baba’s facial expressions after the brief strike flurry from Misawa made it all work. Baba smirking might be my favourite thing in wrestling. The match lost steam in the middle of the match with too much repetition with Baba locking Misawa in loose arm-wringers and various submissions. Kobashi putting Baba in the rolling cradle made sure that the middle portion of the match wasn’t a total waste of time, however. The finishing stretch was fun though and finished the match off super strong. Hansen and Baba constantly trying to set up the irish whip into Western Lariat, only to be scuppered by Misawa at every attempt was awesome. Hansen got so pissed off that he pounded Misawa on the apron, sending him flying into the guardrail. Kobashi’s crying face after Baba kicked out of his moonsault was a prime WWE-esc moment. Loved it. ***3/4