[1994-04-15-AJPW-Championship Carnival] Steve Williams vs Kenta Kobashi

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

This was really good in the sense that they got over the struggle. Lots of big moves were half-executed to really sell the difficulty each guy was having putting the other one away. There are also some really good brick wall spots, and they fight like crazy to block each other's big moves. The way this is laid out, whoever can nail their big move cleanly first is going to take the match. Kobashi had a great showing in this tournament. He got a big win over Hansen and Doc just squeaked by him, which nicely sets the stage for their TC match later in the year.

 

The backdrop driver is still the great equalizer though, and it's the one thing Doc has that Kobashi just can't come back from.

[Childs]

Williams-Kobashi always feels like watching the two biggest meathead jocks in your high school class fighting for the attention of a pretty girl. There's always a lot of macho posturing and a sense that they just love being physical in front of an audience. There's never a ton of strategy or attempt to establish contrast in character. They don't hit the heights of Hansen-Kobashi or Kawada-Williams, but it's still a crowd-pleasing show.

[Kevin Ridge]

For me, these two are entertaining to watch against one another. Williams press slams Kobashi and throws him awkwardly over the the ropes to the floor. The announcer gets a good laugh out of that. That didn't fit for AJPW. Lots of Kobashi blocking/avoiding the big moves of Williams. Kobashi gets in his big move the moonsault but Williams kicks out. Big tease for the backdrop with Williams finally pulling it off. Fun match with a story that works for Kobashi/Williams.

[Exposer]

I thought this was tremendous. Each guy struggled to get their big moves and it took a lot out of them each time. Kobashi took some insane bumps in this match and was really excellent in this. Doc was great in this as well. The back drop driver proved it's worth once again in the finish. Terrific match.

[soup23]

Really great match that featured nice long control sections of each and a lot of defense played in with the blocking of moves. I love Childs analogy of the high school jocks and it fits perfectly. Kobashi had two great Carnival matches and it is a shame we didn't get to see a Misawa or Kawada match with him.

[PeteF3]

Yeah, this isn't one for deep storytelling but if you want two guys beating the shit out of each other, but also looking athletically impressive while doing it, this is the match-up for you. Similar story to the '93 match with a similar finish.

 

Count me as another one who's sick of this giggly voiceover guy (I hesitate to call him an "announcer"). Then again this is the same company that saw fit to have its flower girls do commentary on its TV.

[Zenjo]

Last time out was the infamous Backdrop Driver match so you knew full well they'd reference it at some stage. It was pretty cool that they left it until the very end. It was one of those matches that starts off poorly and then gets better and better the longer it goes. Before the bell they were all in each others face and I'm anticipating a hot start. Instead they have a lengthy and tedious test of strength. Add in some goofy no selling and things weren't going so great. Then they started to show why they had such good matches together. They were two bulls with heavy artillery colliding head on. Kobashi had more of the offence and when he hit the moonsault it seemed like another upset could be on the cards. Williams survived and only brought the Dangerous Backdrop into play at the death. That was the only move powerful enough to get the job done. If they're going to use head bumps then that's the way to utilise them. In the end it was a worthy follow up to 8/31/93.