[1990-06-08-AJPW-Super Power Series] Mitsuharu Misawa vs Jumbo Tsuruta

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[NintendoLogic]

I defy anyone to name a single thing wrong with this match.

[jdw]

I suspect that I could.

 

John

[Ditch]

I last watched it 5 years ago. Loved the finish, and much more appreciated how credible Misawa looked in replacing Tenryu as #2 native; I enjoyed it more than I had in previous viewings. However...

 

"I still feel like the very end is awkwardly done, as if tacked on. While the opening is good in establishing the contrast between them, the middle wanders way too much."

 

Great, but not *perfection*.

[Childs]

My general experience watching All-Japan for the yearbooks has been that the matches are as good as or even better than I recalled based on past viewings. That was not the case here. My thoughts lined up closely to what Ditch said. They did a great job establishing their stylistic differences at the beginning, and the finish was a great moment. But the body of the match meandered quite a bit and certainly lacked the intensity we saw from both guys in the 5/26 six-man. It's still a great match and seminal moment in the history of the promotion. But just based on the wrestling, I don't think it's a top-50 All-Japan match from the decade.

[ohtani's jacket]

The last time I watched All Japan for Ditch's poll I thought all of the Jumbo vs. young guy matches were on the weak side. I much preferred the six mans from this era.

[Loss]

I still think this was a great match. The moment can't help but propel it. But I agree with what is being said as well. It does feel like a big batch of solid but bland sandwiched between a great opening and great ending. What they're doing in the middle is fundamentally sound, but not really all that interesting. I thought to myself that this would likely be the MOTY going in, but it's not even the match of the month. The six-man was much better than this, not to mention Dandy/Azteca.

 

All of that out of the way, the moment really is special. It's always fun seeing a star being born in wrestling, and Misawa's rise is one of the most memorable. This begins a remarkable two-year chase to the Triple Crown that I've seen bits and pieces of, but I've never watched in order. So I'm excited.

[PeteF3]

Agreed with all of the above. There are way cool moments in the opening of Misawa smacking Jumbo in the face both literally and figuratively, but the matwork portion isn't really anything special, other than more Misawa slaps on rope breaks. Then Misawa eats a few near-falls and gets in a backslide and that backslide is when this sucker picks up, big-time. It isn't the best run of near-falls ever by All-Japan standards, but the actual ending stretch beginning with Jumbo elbowing Misawa as he goes for the headbutt and hurting his own arm--forcing him to go for the high-risk dropkick instead of the reliable Jumbo Lariat and paying when he misses it--is sublime. Misawa reverses the back suplex reversal as most of us know and is now a legitimate main event threat...even if this isn't really a "torch passing" moment. Seeing the ever-stoic Misawa break into a pretty big smile during the post-match is a special little moment among a much bigger special moment.

[soup23]

My #2 match of the year so far. I just think in the history of wrestling it is very rare to see this type of upset on this magnitude. As obvious as it is watching the beginning of the All Japan that changes need to made, I still think this was a very ballsy move. To me what this lacks in polish and overall excitement is made up in the emotion and story being portrayed. It really felt like a #1 NCAA football team going down and a changing of the guard all in one. Jumbo has no reason to act as desperate as he does in this match but yet he does going for big power moves, flying off the top rope, and even continuing looking to the crowd for approval. The downfall from when he venus fly traps himself in the ropes is amazing. In the span of 25 minutes, he realized his best days were now behind him. The ending really gives me chills every time I watch it. I love this match immensely.

[shoe]

I thought this was a strong match that really made Misawa. I thought Jumbo did a good job kicking his ass, and when it was time for Misawa to look strong Jumbo gave it all back. A match both men should be proud of.

[Kevin Ridge]

Minor video random slowing down issues. Or maybe they are trying to shoot this like an action movie. Misawa hasn’t perfected his brow sweat wipe yet. AJPW showing off the overhead camera view for when Misawa is down on the mat. Part of me was thinking this wasn’t as good as I remembered and then they sucked me in big time. Really get into this one as it goes. Misawa gets the victoria off a reversal to a big pop. It’s treated as a big deal which I like.

[Zenjo]

When I first watched this it was with no context, just a match out of time. Now I've seen what came before and what happened after I can truly appreciate what a special night this was in the history of Puroresu. Not only was this a classic match, it's also a great one.

 

Misawa was already super over as the hot new star and looked totally credible as a main eventer. What followed was expert storytelling and wrestling from two masters of the Kings Road. Excellent start and a good middle. My thoughts echo previous posters that this was the part of the match that could use a little improvement. The closing stretch was top notch and near the end when Jumbo gets caught in the ropes is one of the most thrilling moments ever. The fans lapped it up as Kawada and Kobashi lifted the "New Hero" on their shoulders. And Misawa even cracked a smile for one of the very few times in his career. This was exactly what AJ needed with a new superstar to replace Tenryu. With this changing of the guard moment the golden era of the 90's had begun.

[DocSarpolis]

[Quantum]

This is one of my favorite matches of all time. I first saw this match when I bought a Misawa compilation back in the Tape Trading days. I watched this match many times and never got tired of it. All around great stuff.

[Cox]

First time I ever watched this. This match is some spectacular pro wrestling. I like how Jumbo kinda turns heel in this. Misawa is being a disrespectful punk, slapping Jumbo during clean breaks and whatnot, and Jumbo seethes at it all. And yet, the crowd still sides with Misawa. Maybe I'm seeing stuff that isn't there, but I see some "Bret Hart in 1997" parallels with Jumbo here. Also want to point out Jumbo's awesome balls-first dive into the top rope and resulting bump. Great stuff out of Jumbo here. He's another guy I want to watch more of coming out of this yearbook. I know...amazing that I want to see more from all-time greats like Jumbo and Hansen.

[TravJ1979]

At the conclusion I thought to myself, "an example of a perfect match." But wrestling fans can be some of the most nit picky, smarky ,elitist, contrarian, critics when they want to be.

 

Only watching this yearbook did I realize Jumbo lost just 3 days earlier losing the TC to Gordy (who lost it to Hansen on this show) which makes me wonder if this foreshadowed the win by Misawa by having Jumbo getting pinned for the TC so close to this. I always thought Jumbo hadn't been pinned for a really long time making this win more of a "moment"

[Loss]

At the conclusion I thought to myself, "an example of a perfect match." But wrestling fans can be some of the most nit picky, smarky ,elitist, contrarian, critics when they want to be.

That's not really a defense of the match. Respond to the criticisms and explain why we're wrong if this is how you feel.

[WingedEagle]

I've always thought this is one of the ultimate "you had to be there" matches. On its own, without much/any context or even familiarity with follows, its at worst very good and at best a great but not classic match. But if its something you see in the proper context, having followed All Japan in the 80s? I can't argue with someone coming at it from that perspective who contends its one of their favorites or an incredibly meaningful match. I'm just too young to have been lucky enough to be in that position.

[TravJ1979]

At the conclusion I thought to myself, "an example of a perfect match." But wrestling fans can be some of the most nit picky, smarky ,elitist, contrarian, critics when they want to be.

That's not really a defense of the match. Respond to the criticisms and explain why we're wrong if this is how you feel.

 

I didn't say anyone was wrong to criticize this match as I'd wager no match in history is free from having its detractors. My quote of it being a perfect match is obviously subjective like any opinion. My last sentence was a completey seperate thought not particularly linked to the quality or lack thereof regarding this match, rather wrestling in general. It just happened that I typed it in this thread. To be fair, you could replace "wrestling" in that sentence with music, movies, or any other form of entertainment and it would fit and sometimes more accurately.

 

With that said, this isn't so much as a defense as it is just the way I see critique of wrestling in general. Since this is a post for Jumbo v. Misawa, I'll just use it as an example.

 

Scope is very important when judging a match. In general, I'd say it progesses something like this:

 

Quality relative to CARD

 

Now, within there you may throw in comparisons to workers performances recent to said match or any other variables, but generally, and my long winded point is that critiquing matches gets exponentially more fine tuned as you go from CARD to GOAT Contender.

 

I came to this realization when I was doing my Decades list for the 2000's. For instance, my Top 10 for each year/per company only had the scope of THAT COMPANY/THAT YEAR. It had to be this way. If I was to expand that then no WCW or ECW match would of had a prayer of making an appearance. If I were to go one step further and do a Top 10 for all companies in a given year. I would have to be much more critical of each match, noting every mistimed spot, complete botch, finish, etc. Even more so if the Top 10 was for the decade, etc. Also the further you go you really have to consider intagibles like historical impact, etc. to even hope to differentiate between equally great matches when technical efficency peaks.

 

Jumbo/Tsuruta on 6/8/90 is arguably the best match of that card. Again, it's likely the best from the company that month. With June '90 being so strong, the next step is probably where you would have most people dropping support of it. For me, the scope of its perfection goes a bit further, probably dropping just short of GOAT discussion, but then again maybe not. I'm not sure. It usually takes many, many rewatches when you get to that level and also in close succession with a group of other matches in consideration for the same praise.

[JAC]

There's a moment in this match when Misawa has Jumbo in a... what to call it? It's not a double chickenwing. But he has Jumbo's arms pulled straight back and is controling him. Jumbo tries to reverse the hold. Jumbo takes a moment and gives a mighty heave. The intention is that Tsuruta halfway succeed in reversing the hold before Misawa can muster his strength and push back. In practice, Misawa loses his grip entirely, but Tsuruta still pauses halfway through the reversal and allows Misawa to regain his grip. See here (I'm too clueless to figure out how to embed this, notwithstanding twenty attempts to do so!): http://youtu.be/0ztnhHbL20U?t=8m55s

 

As much as I enjoy this match, that little moment in the middle completely takes me out of the moment. It's maybe one of the most glaring botches I can ever recall seeing in a match of this stature. Tsuruta should have played it as him having broken the hold entirely. I've always been surprised to have never seen anybody commenting on that.

 

The other strange thing occurs during the ending of the match (at about 27:24 on the video above). After Misawa reverses Jumbo's final pin attempt, Tsuruta has his right arm around Misawa's neck and appears to be holding Misawa down. It almost seems as though Misawa didn't know that he was going to win and Tsuruta forced him to stay in the pinning position. I always found this a bit curious. Then again, Misawa keeps Jumbo's leg hooked throughout, so it seems like I'm reading too much into Tsuruta's arm position.

 

While I do love this match as a passing-of-the-torch moment, I've always thought it to be a bit quirky. The 9/1/1990 rematch is the better wrrestling match, even if the story that it tells is not quite as captivating.

[Matt D]

Out of context (past reading Misawa's obit from Meltzer a few months ago), I thought this was a very good match. I mainly only watched it at this juncture because I want to see the match between them later in the year and I thought it'd be silly not to see this one too as it was so famous. I didn't really mind the ebb/flow style for most of the match because I thought it told the story of Jumbo recovering using his savvy and Misawa recovering using his grittiness and most of the transitions were pretty good and organic. I liked how both wrestlers paid for going back to the well (I don't think anyone successfully hit anything twice) and how some moves were foreshadowed and paid off later.

 

I think my favorite moment of the whole thing was Misawa's body language after he slapped Jumbo back. You could just sort of see the energy seething off of him.

 

Is this the match where the lore says that Jumbo kept trying to convince Baba not to do the pin job and Baba was cold and unyielding to the extreme? It really was a way to make yourself look good in making the person who is going to beat you look good too. I've seen a few matches where a veteran was going to give up a pinfall so they do everything possible to cut the nuts off of their opponent so it doesn't actually mean anything. This was anything but that.

 

That said, the finish was a little underwhelming. I thought the stretch was good, especially the German attempt into the roll up segment. I really liked that. The problem was that I don't think Misawa really had Jumbo down for the one count of the finish. At first watch, I thought it was only a two until I heard the bell. I went back and looked at it again and he was still scrambling for position as the ref was counting. I see that no one else had a problem with that but it sort of took me out of the moment. My only other criticism and this is both a pro and a con is that the two counters at the end, the kick off on the backdrop driver and the reverse headbutt to counter the clothesline and hurt Jumbo were a little cute. I like that Misawa was able to build in relatively complex spots like that (though I know now that the headbutt was one of his normal spots in this period; I just learned that) but I wonder if they just had one or the other, things might have been a little more straightforward and primal. It wasn't the moment for both bits of cutesyness, maybe? (I think this bit is unfair actually, nevermind).

 

I liked the match quite a bit though.

[dawho5]

This is a match where context makes all the difference between really good/almost great and classic. The opening was great at establishing the nature of the rivalry. The ending was incredible for how it cemented Misawa as THE new star in AJPW. The middle had a few botches and didn't really go anywhere. The test of strength mentioned above was far more glaring than the Jumbo top rope mistake. Either it was some kind of miscommunication or Misawa was out of position, but Jumbo did a sort of short knee off the top to a very close Misawa. Then Jumbo tries going for a tigerdriver only to get backdropped out and works his way back to the top where Misawa cuts him off, Jumbo elbows him off the top and then hits the jump knee off the top spot the way he usually does. It was something you had to really pay attention to catch because they covered so well for it, but it is there. This is an incredible match for how much Jumbo was willing to give and how Misawa really came through in a tough spot. And smiled...I'm guessing you could count the times you saw that on one hand with some fingers left.

[garretta]

I really enjoyed the storytelling in this one. It's the classic "gritty youngster is seemingly outmatched against wily veteran, but won't back up a step" routine. Misawa takes it a step further, though; he not only won't quit against Jumbo, he takes the fight to him, sometimes rather insolently. Jumbo wants to tear him limb from limb for being so insolent, but finds this a hell of a lot easier said than done, and eventually makes the one critical mistake that leads to his downfall.

 

One thing I definitely noticed was the number of bumps that Jumbo took on the back of his head. This played into the match, as not only is he confused by Misawa's refusal to back up from him, but he's also constantly smacking the back of his head in the ring, on the floor, and even on the railing, which disorients him further. Then there's the wipeout bump he takes to set up the ending. If he was reluctant to take a pinfall loss here, it sure didn't show up in his work, as he almost literally breaks his neck to get Misawa over as credible.

 

I also loved the "Misawa!" chant. Clearly the fans of All-Japan were ready to embrace a new star, and on this night, they had their first chance. I'll be interested to see where his journey goes from here.

 

My new number three for Japan with one match to go in the half-year. Looking forward to more matches between these two!

[garretta]

Okay, the server ate my first try. From the top, as nearly as I can remember:

 

This was the classic wily veteran/plucky youngster match, with the added bonus that not only didn't Misawa quit, he took the fight to Jumbo. I loved watching Jumbo's growing frustration as it became clear that this young punk wasn't going down without a fight. Nothing he tried was putting Misawa away, and Misawa was beating him to the punch almost every time he turned around. Finally, he got desperate once too often, and that's what led to his downfall.

 

One thing I noticed was the type of bumps Jumbo took in the match. He must have hit the back of his head at least five times, which seemed to add more to his overall confusion and exasperation at how the match was going. Then, of course, he wiped himself out in the ropes, which led to the finishing sequence. If he was reluctant to do the job here, it didn't show up in his work, as he literally almost killed himself to get Misawa over as a credible main eventer.

 

I also loved the "Misawa!" chants by the crowd. They really seem ready to accept a new crop of main eventers now that Tenryu and several others are gone. It's going to be interesting to see what happens to All-Japan over the rest of the year as the new blood settles in and mixes with established veterans like Jumbo.

 

This is my new number three for my Japan "ballot" with one match left to watch in June.

[TheU_2001]

I watched this match again today, it had been a very long time since I had seen it. The pinfall reversal sequence at the end does seem a tad awkward, but man, what a spectacular match. Jumbo is out throwing bombs most of the match, although he does try to slow it down with a couple of submission holds, and Misawa is the young buck, trying to take over. Misawa uses his quickness, and some great ariel moves throughout the contest, and the beginnings of the famed elbow strikes. It's just a phenomenal match, with both wrestlers givin their all and telling a fantastic story throughout the contest. An easy ***** match, which truly helped AJPW achieve greatness in the 1990s.