[1997-04-19-AJPW] Toshiaki Kawada vs Kenta Kobashi

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Kawada targets Kobashi's arm, which was injured in the Misawa match. Pretty much everything I said about Misawa/Kobashi would also apply here. But I do think it worked a little better here, simply because the crowd saw the injury happen in an earlier match and it's playing out on the same card. I'm conflicted on this. It's a great match, but it could have been so much better if all of that solid arm work Kawada did meant anything in All Japan. Compared to other matches these two have had, it's just not all that memorable, but almost any other two wrestlers would look back on this as the best match of their careers.

[jdw]

Kawada beats Misawa for the first time in a singles. He beats Misawa (#1 in the promotion) and Kobashi (a bit more clear at this point the #3 in the promotion) on the Same Night. He wins the Carny for a second time, which Misawa (1) and Taue (1) and Kobashi (0) haven't.

 

Yet...

 

Yeah, it really means next to nothing.

 

Worse:

 

March 28, 1997

Champion Carnival: Kenta Kobashi pinned Mitsuharu Misawa (24:09)

 

So they already gave that one away on a non-TV, non-taped match.

 

Okay, so it means less than nothing.

 

I think this was the point at which it was clear that AJPW's booking on Big Stuff had gone to total dogshit.

[Childs]

Yeah, Kawada's work going after Kobashi's injured arm was really good, but it never meant as much as the limb work in the Misawa-Kobashi from 1/20. Still a very stiff, well-worked match, and I liked the finish, with Kawada stalking in search of a knockout.

 

I'll say the same thing here as I did about Misawa-Kawada. Viewed in a narrow context, this capped off an interesting, excellent night of wrestling. Viewed in full context, it didn't really click.

[Kevin Ridge]

Even though Kobashi sat out the second match he was much more beaten up going into their match than Kawada. I like the sense in that Kawada got to sit and watch the first match and had real time intel on how to beat both Misawa and then Kobashi. He smartly rushed a weakened Misawa and then worked Kobashi’s injured arm. My problem is it was done with it being Kawada’s first singles victory over Misawa.

[soup23]

This does feel like the ending era where you can say conclusively that All Japan is not the top dog from a main event storytelling standpoint and the workrate is not quite there either. Everything seems to have peaked with 1/20/97. I am very interested to see how the rest of the year plays out but hope I'm not too saddened. This was a great match but may almost be one of the most hollow matches I will ever give **** to and I almost feel bad that it will almost assuredly be on my top 100 over something like Nick Patrick vs. Randy Anderson. Shame to that Kawada's big night feels lackluster.

[PeteF3]

I liked this match more than anyone here, though all the criticisms of it is stuff that I can't argue with. I think the overall "atmosphere" and larger booking is a bigger issue than the work itself, which was really strong and really worked to undo all of the misgivings I had about the matwork in the first match. The arm work is really, really good and heated here, paying off what happened in the first match.

 

In a vacuum, this is a very strong match. In a larger sense, I think AJPW's bubble-riffic style has never been more of a liability than it is here. These Yearbooks make it apparent why New Japan was generally ahead of AJPW business-wise: New Japan cards took the 3-ring circus approach that would give you a little bit of everything. If you think flippy junior wrestling is overrated, here's a crazy brawl. If you don't like blood and guts, here's a shootstyle match. Here's two hosses beating the shit out of each other, etc. All-Japan has made token attempts to get out of its shell, but the matches like the Albright/Takayama tag simply weren't that well-received by the fanbase at the time (even if I've personally liked them) because stuff like matwork and cross armbreakers and submissions in general and brawling had been so de-emphasized.

[Jordan]

Ditto what PeteF3 said about this being an extremely strong match but Kawada might as well have defected to NJPW at this point. What I felt made it strong was that it actually did feel more like a NJPW match than what you'd expect from AJPW at this point. You had Kawada breaking out judo throws, looking for armbars and wristlocks and making a clear effort to get a sub win. And even after that his backup wasn't the usual powerbomb, it was far more about finding an opening and landing a major strike. This isn't full shootstyle or something but it definitely has the feel of a Hash match where you don't know if he'll win with the brainbuster or slap on a triangle and get a sub win. '97-'99 Kawada is such a weird misfire when it comes to AJPW because he clearly had some desire to inject more submission based work into his matches but AJPW had no interest in going that way and letting him earn some finishes. The fans clearly bought it and were on the edge of their seats for the threat of a submission (the same way they were going crazy for Kawada/Albright) and I think you'd create something huge if Kawada submits Kobashi here to put over that sort of threat. Probably raises Takayama and Albright's stock even more in the process.