[1990-09-30-AJPW-Summer Action Series II] Mitsuharu Misawa & Toshiaki Kawada vs Jumbo Tsuruta & Akira Taue

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Ditch]

My take from 5 years ago:

"There is some downtime but remarkably little given the length. They do the little things right, they do the big things right, sometimes the little things are done so well they BECOME big things. 40+ year old, chunky Jumbo dishes out maybe the most dramatic dropkick I have ever seen. Taue gives the performance of his young life, maybe the best pre-CC '95. Taue going after Misawa with elbows is so great. Kawada kicking Taue in the head is great. Jumbo is Jumbo. Head and shoulders above the other iterations of this match, heck above every Jumbo/Taue AND Misawa/Kawada tag."

[Loss]

To this point, the best All Japan match of 1990, and also one that should be discussed in the top 20 All Japan matches of the decade. This is a 45-minute draw, but the time really flew. This seemed much shorter than it really was.

 

I mentioned in the Misawa/Kawada vs Kobashi/Ace thread that Misawa and Kawada seem to have a newfound confidence, with Kawada in particular finding himself. That's even more true here, as we see them up the aggression in a big way in the early stages of this, especially when going after Taue's cut, only to return to it later in the match the first chance they get. Kawada targeting Taue's cut is one of the first times he has felt like the wrestler we know him to be, instead of a junior midcarder.

 

Taue, in fact, delivers one of his first really strong performances. What he lacks in skill to keep up with the other three, he makes up for in attitude. His fired up comebacks are one of the best things about this match, and this match spotlights him in a way that the epic tags later in the decade just don't. It's not often that you hear the crowds chanting for Taue in those matches like they are here. Misawa and Kawada give him lots of kickouts to keep him looking strong, to a point where the fans are stomping for kickouts of some pretty perfunctory nearfalls.

 

Jumbo is in a position to fight the good fight for his team. If in previous matches, I was rooting for Misawa and Kawada to upset the hierarchy, here, I felt a little bad for Jumbo having to deal with them. The ambiguity is one of the great things about this feud.

 

I love the final stretch of desperate pin attempts from both teams. There are beginnings of quite a few things that would become staples in All Japan matches throughout the decade.

[Ditch]

I ranked it 15th for AJ in the '90s.

[PeteF3]

I got interrupted during this and put into a real sour mood for work reasons, so I'll probably have to revisit later because I didn't see any way this was on the level of the Misawa/Jumbo matches or the 6-man that spawned this feud. It was really quite good, but...well, I called "time limit draw" about ten minutes into the match. There was a whole lot of sympathy placed on Taue here, with Kawada and Misawa focusing big on his pre-existing cut, and the presence of blood in a '90s All-Japan ring as well as chants for Taue gave this a unique atmosphere, in a bit more epic scope than the big singles brawl in January '91.

[soup23]

Fantastic matchup that sustained a great pace for the entire time. My favorite thing about this match is whereas before it felt like Misawa and his friends vs. Jumbo and his henchman, this match had four distinct personalities going at it. MOTYC

[Childs]

I have loved this match from the first time I saw it, and that didn't change this time -- which is saying something, because my patience for long draws ain't what it used to be. You guys have pretty much nailed the particulars of what made it good. This was both Taue's first world-class performance and the first significant chapter in his great, underrated rivalry with Kawada. And there was very little unfocused or heatless work for a match this long. Top 10 for the year.

[Kevin Ridge]

This was a great match. Hatred is starting to really brew between the guys. Misawa’s chest is beat red and Taue gets bloodied up against the ring post. Everyone is just whacking the hell out of each other for most of the match. They aren’t even trying to pin each other. The last few minutes it turns more into a wrestling match with the close counts. Part of me wished they just continued to beat on each other as I thought some of hate went away as match progressed. Still it’s a real quality match that ends in a 45 minute draw and didn’t feel like it went that long at all.

[Zenjo]

Well that was lengthy. Very, very long. Absolutely no question of any shortage in the duration department here. Don't get me wrong it was a decent enough match but there's no reason for it to go 45m instead of 30m. The work was solid throughout and there weren't any bad segments. It just never at any stage looked like anything but a draw, so lacked excitement. The main theme was Taue's growth as he was mainly on the receiving end. He bled for nearly the whole time as it was an existing head wound. Kawada was also stepping up and looked at home in the main event scene. Solid, and plenty of it.

[BackToBionic]

Well that was lengthy. Very, very long. Absolutely no question of any shortage in the duration department here. Don't get me wrong it was a decent enough match but there's no reason for it to go 45m instead of 30m.

I THINK they called an audible before/during the show to make it 45 mins because there was a typhoon hitting Japan and fans were filing in late and this was one of the few "good" matches on this schmaltz-y card and they wanted to please the fans by giving them a good match.

[DR Ackermann]

This really surprised me. I found the Jumbo/Misawach mates prior to this somewhat underwhelming. They had their moments but as a whole I wasn't a fan of either of the matches. Kawada and Taue were still figuring it out at this point too. So going into this match, the idea of three of these guys going 45 minutes at this point in their careers didn't sound like too good of an idea but everyone delivered in a huge way. Awesome all around. One of the best matches of the year and the number one match out of Japan for me at this point.

[garretta]

An incredible tag match. Forty-five minutes of four guys trying everything possible to vanquish each other, and yet none of it works. Taue bleeds a gusher, Kawada almost gets his ribs cracked, Jumbo almost gets knocked into the next solar system over, and they just keep fighting. Even the fact that both sides begin to repeat spots because they don't know what else to do fits into the narrative; they're visibly wondering, "How in the hell are we going to put these guys away?" Finally, one last Misawa/Kawada doubleteam almost does the trick, but the time limit runs out before they can capitalize. A fitting ending to an dead-even bout.

 

This is my number two Japan bout right now behind the sick brawl between Doc and Hansen. It knocked Liger/Sano out of the two spot, which shows you just how good this one is in my view. The amazing thing is, there's lots more to come!

[Tim Cooke]

If you liked this, the RWTL match from Dec will be a real treat. Same with their 1991 tags

[garretta]

Thanks, Tim. Looking forward to those bouts!

[drew wardlaw]

This felt the most heated that Jumbo has been, with the possible exception of the May 6 man. He had a different aura here though, not quite as reckless, but more mean. Everyone else has nailed the particulars, but I wanted to mention I really enjoyed the tags. Like the physical movements made in order to tag each partner I thought were really good. Kawada especially, there were a couple times where he was falling over himself after taking a move, flailing to make a tag. Taue stood out here in a big way, I think for the first time this year.

[JKWebb]

http://placetobenation.com/countdown-top-500-matches-of-the-90s-50-1/

 

#46

 

Watched this one not too long ago while going through 1990. Even though it was long, I remember thinking they cut an incredible pace. Taue was awesome. I've said it before, but I'll say it again, there just aren't many wrestlers that touch Jumbo in a tag setting.

[Jetlag]

This was a little hesitant in parts, but when it got going it got going good. Misawa and Kawada are assholes to Taue, working over his bloody face and slapping him around, and the crowd gets behind him big time. Speaking of Kawada, he is now in the black and yellow and as asskicking as you all know him including sumo palm striking Taue in the face. Jumbo dishes out some big punishment as if to confirm his regained confidence from beating Misawa, and they keep the action really high until the very end. I actually felt they threw out a little too many moves with not quite enough urgency especially Jumbo. I mean, common, old man, this match has been going for 40 minutes, surely you can attempt a backdrop driver now and not a neckbreaker? But to hell with it. They have the crowd by the balls and they go nuts for some of Misawa's reversals. You could tell they were booked to go long, but they delivered a hot match and this was a great way to keep people guessing in the feud.

[dawho5]

To be fair, they were bound to be pissed at Taue. He had left their side and joined Jumbo's army. Death to the damned traitor! Anyway, really great tag match with Kawada looking waaay more like Kawada than he has to this point. Why did Taue drop doing the elbows when he got pissed at Misawa anyway? Seemed like one of the highlights to me.

[superkix]

When a match goes to a draw, whether it's half an hour, the fully sixty, or somewhere in between, there's often an issue of keeping the furnace burning. This match keeps it lit and while there are the inevitable moments of downtime, they are few and far between. All four guys bring something unique to the party and perhaps best of all, buckets of hate. Terrific brawling in and out of the ring and a crowd that stays hot until the end, buying into all the big two counts in the final few minutes. The animosity between Misawa and Jumbo is still very strong here as Misawa gets in some flippant slaps prior to their initial lock up and keeps antagonizing him throughout. I loved the interactions between Misawa and Taue, with Taue's bandaged forehead getting re-opened. He plays to the sympathy of the fans so well here, as Misawa and Kawada keep riling him up with shitty kicks to the head. Kawada, of course, as the gap-toothed rowdy bully the bloodied Taue and pissing off Jumbo -- loved Kawada exploding with elbows on Jumbo before Jumbo tosses him out of the ring. In the back half of the match, the bombs start falling and there's some cool spots, including Kawada hitting a proto-Stylin' DDT on Jumbo and then a sweet atomic drop > jumping high kee > backdrop double team by Taue and Jumbo on Misawa. Misawa especially delivers some beautiful offense, including the German and tiger suplex, and an awesomely executed tiger driver. Taue and Kawada have a pretty great shotei exchange, with Kawada getting the upper hand, and in the end, he comes off the top rope with the knee drop just as the time limit expires. Great stuff.

[KB8]

To nobody's surprise this was not a bad wrestling match. It had lots of really good stuff and some that was great. It's just that, at this point in my life as a wrestling fan, 45 minutes of a style I don't love like I once did was always going to be a bit of a bumpy ride. But it's these four so, you know. I thought Misawa was excellent in this. He was more assured here than in either of the Jumbo singles matches and best of all he was SURLY. Maybe it was because of Jumbo's general presence, maybe he was still pissed at Taue jumping ship, but either way he was about as grumpy as I can remember seeing him. Even in that very first exchange with Jumbo he looked like a man who was there to claim his rightful spot in the pecking order, and he carried that attitude with him the rest of the way. I'm not sure Kawada was all that great yet but he was certainly starting to look more like the Kawada we became accustomed to, at least in that he'd dropped the spinning wheel kicks and quasi-juniors offence for the short kicks and knees to the face. Taue really took a shit-kicking and I thought the strongest section of the match by a mile was his extended heat segment. Him and Kawada hated each other to death around this point and Kawada kicked him in the head many times, but Misawa was downright Tenryuish in how he'd just stomp his skull into the canvas. Taue getting opened up and it leading to some working of the cut naturally appealed to the vampire in me as well. That the proper heat segment came later, after they teased it early on when Taue started bleeding to begin with, is one of those cool bits of foreshadowing 90s All Japan did so well. I also thought the match hit a wall after Taue finally tagged out, which came at about half an hour in. It's not that it went off a cliff or anything, but it felt like they started to run out of ideas down the stretch. Even if I don't have much interest in going back to those '95 tags that went an hour or even the Kobashi/Kawada broadways, they had their formula down by then and the pacing and transitions were much sharper. Still, this was the first time anybody had gone this long in years so it's hard to be too critical. I suppose overall it held up pretty well. I think I'd need to watch 90s All Japan in small doses nowadays, but this did give me an itch to open that book again.
 

[Chess Knight]

45 minutes is a long time for a match and it did have its down time, but overall it was pretty stunning how well the time was used here. I didn't expect this to be such a Taue-focused match, and I couldn't be happier with the result. Misawa and Kawada were such punks to him (probably still considering him a huge turncoat), giving him an early onslaught by reopening a bandage on his head so he's bleeding immediately, and just basically bullying him for a lot of the runtime including several direct blows to the cut. Misawa had just become essentially the company's flag bearer, and here it is uncaring about boos as long as he can get a cheap shot in when Taue was doing well for himself. Kawada at one point brings Taue to where the audience are and basically just chucks him in the corner of the room as if he isn't even a participant in the match, but an unwelcome intruder. Taue was fantastic as the large, yet struggling underdog (if that is the right word in this context). My favourite moment of his was probably where Kawada was walking away from him, ready to tag out, but Taue blindsides him and violently clubs his back, as if saying ''how dare you think I have so little in me that I couldn't get back up and stop you ASSHOLE.'' Kind of wild there was a bit of a Jumbo hot tag in here; very stark contrast to Kikuchi and Kobashi tagging out in future tags between these two groups. I fucking adore the Kawada vs. Jumbo match up in 1990. Kawada wants to be taken as seriously as Misawa despite obviously not being there yet, so he's very tenacious and acts a thorn in Jumbo's side, while Jumbo is aggressively dismissive of him and seems to not want to admit Kawada even exists. Kawada is light years ahead as a worker from where he was in January. I haven't seen any Footloose in a long time but in that one tag I watched he looked awkward and sometimes lost at what to do next. Here you can see him call spots to megastar legend Jumbo Tsuruta (not loudly, but like, if you know what a spot call during a headlock looks like then you'll catch it). Actually now that I mention it, that first Kawada/Jumbo interaction ruled, Jumbo struggled to get out of a headlock and just rapid shot a back drop leaving Kawada flat on the ground. I mentioned in the August tag that the feud was starting to feel more personal, and this is them getting there to end all doubts. They're honest to god just wrestling now like people who do not like each other. Japanese MOTYC.