[1997-01-20-AJPW-New Year's Giant Series] Mitsuharu Misawa vs Kenta Kobashi

[GOTNW]

Here's another match which I haven't watched in over a decade and have no idea how it will hold up.  Obviously this was a classic to the eyes of a 13-14 year old who started watching Jwres because of TheSuicidalDragon Youtube videos. Misawa is someone whom I've never stopped loving despite my opinions on prowres changing drastically, and 1997 Kobashi isn't full on Crybashi anymore but is also about 3 years removed from becoming a wrestler whom I actually love. So, now that some matches aren't automatically better than other matches to me because they have more cool moves, does this 40 minute maximalist late 90s All Japan bout hold up?

Yeah.

This match is worked in a style which, for the sake of the pro-wrestling industry as a whole, probably never should have existed. But it is an undeniable masterpiece of that style. I am a much bigger proponent of prowres minimalism than I am of maximalism, something like this dooms the next generations who are sure to see a highlight video of this and fall for the flash of the big spots without understanding all the layers of structure and meaning underneath them. And they are really what sets this match apart. New standards in workrate have been set since this match has taken place, there are matches that have more apron bumps, more top rope action, more headdrops, but this match remains at the top of the mountain of big action-based prowres.

Working a long main event title match by just going straight into it, with the "hot start>cool down>finishing stretch" All Japan layout instead of the classic prowres layout of gradual escalation presents many issues, as those of us who have seen a lot of 90s All Japan can witness. Probably the most common one is that matches feel disjointed because wrestlers lose focus in the middle. This match manages to successfully avoid that. The armwork probably helped with that, but these two just had an absolute command of the pacing. I'd say the secret ingredient was the way they used holds to connect their transitions and control segments, especially in the beginning. Putting on a Surfboard Stretch or something similar when you can't even get a deep 2 count makes sense from traditional Prowres logic, and it was crucial in preventing the moves from losing their impact and blurring together.

Another important thing is that there wasn't actually a cool down period. This was a long match which escalated gradually, obviously later in the match you're going to have the dramatic selling and the nearfalls, the middle is where you're either going to have some twists and turns or you're going to get lost. Here they managed to connected the armwork to the big moments without it feeling like a rest period, and the viciousness of the armwork itself really managed to make it as legitimate of a choice as the bomb-throwing. That's a proper foundation for a constantly progressive action-based bout

Now that I've covered why this works and doesn't fall apart like most contemporary workrate wrestling, this is just a festival of spectacular offence. And honestly the big headdroping suplexes might be the least interesting thing here. Misawa's Sliding Dropkick, the Belly To Back Suplex over the ropes, that beautiful Elbow Drop…..he really gives you a reminder who the real exellence of execution was, just watching him do his stuff and chain moves in sequences is absolutely wonderful. When he busts out something like that crazy Diving Spinning Back Kick it's almost like a flex. 90s Kenta Kobashi is a necessary evil which needed to exist for something like this to come together, he never saw a move he didn't want to do, and if there's a time and a place for that to come to good use it's a match like this. Outside of one stupid facial expression he made when he wasn't in the ring, Kobashi did a very good job of emoting desperation and perseverance, and his stubbornnes clashing with Misawa's stoicism spiced up the good fundamental built and played into the finish nicely.

I would rate this as a wrestling classic. It's definitely the best All Japan match of the year and almost certainly the best pro-style Japanese match of the year, as well as a strong candidate for best match ever done in the style. It's not my favourite style, so MOTY will have to go to Casas-Santito which is probably my Lucha match of the decade. Still, if you're not allergic to the style, it doesn't get any better than this.