[1997-09-06-AJPW] Mitsuharu Misawa vs Jun Akiyama

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

This is Misawa's elbows vs Jun's young enthusiasm. A good match, but it takes a while for the crowd to get into this. The work is solid but the whole match has a lethargic feel to it, which is weird because this should be a pretty fresh matchup. I do like the psychology of Akiyama attempting pin covers too frequently by going for a cover after every single big move at first, then realizing he needs to do a series of back-to-back moves if he has any hope of pulling off a miracle. Sadly, the bloom is off the rose with All Japan Pro Wrestling at this point. The top guys are still producing good matches, but I'm not sure they're appreciably better than the WWF headliners … at least not in 1997. Jun Akiyama is a very good worker, but his performance in this match, while very good, is reflective of the future of the promotion. This isn't meant to be a dig at him, but it's just the truth of the matter: he simply can't follow Kawada and Kobashi. Most people in wrestling history couldn't, so it's nothing to be ashamed of. But All Japan spoiled their audience to the point that the standards were simply unrealistically high.

[Ditch]

Akiyama looked much more competitive in their '98 matches, but none of these were great. They hit the mark in 2000 at least.

 

Compare this to the Jumbo/Kobashi matches (which weren't even for the TC). Which half was more important in making those matches better?

[Kevin Ridge]

Tough crowd earlier on. I like their matches later on. Crowd just didn’t seem to believe Jun had a chance. AJPW had such a great run on these yearbooks putting out some of the best matches. Tough to follow that act. Match is good but I just think about Jumbo facing Jun instead.

[Childs]

Misawa did kind of work this like he knew he could weather the storm and put Jun away whenever he needed to. But I'm not sure that was wrong given their respective positions. Jun did a nice job laying in his offense and stringing together moves to make it seem as if his attack was escalating. I thought he could have gone back to Misawa's knee a few more times so the dropkick to set up his last rally would've carried a little more weight. Misawa was fine here, but he certainly didn't deliver the kind of layered selling that defined his best performances. The ending feel a little flat because the crowd hadn't invested invested in Akiyama's chances. So yeah, I agree with the "good, not special" consensus.

[soup23]

Im in the very good but not great camp as well but did like the story i was able to gain of Akiyama's overexuberance and Misawa bringing in "jumbo' qualities vs. a young gun. The tiger driver finishing Akiyama off felt like it was a little bit of a dig though. Really interested to see the 1998 All Japan stuff as the 1997 has been *good* and you cant reiterate that enough but besides 1/20, few matches have been superb.

[PeteF3]

Not a bad match, but not a result that was ever remotely in doubt. That's fine for Jun's level in '97, but it does bring to mind why he's getting a TC shot. I guess the lack of depth was really hurting AJPW at this point, because who are you going to replace him with? Albright again? Omori? Neither of those match-ups are all that inspiring. The bloom is not only off AJPW as a whole but it's really off Misawa as a worker--facially he looks like he's aged 15 years in the past 4 and while he's still good, this is yet another match of his that's sort of going through the motions. Akiyama showed more energy in his counters and his occasional big bombs than Misawa did for most of the match.

[Superstar Sleeze]

AJPW Triple Crown Champion Mitsuharu Misawa vs Jun Akiyama - AJPW 9/6/97

 

Akiyama's first big match against Misawa for Triple Crown as his junior partner reminds me a lot of October 95 Kobashi match from booking but definitely not as much heat.

 

Akiyama takes a cautious but assertive approach against Misawa he wins the early sequences. The best part of the first half was Akiyama hitting a ground to air drop kick on Misawa. Good impact great selling by misawa. First he tries to quickly get a tiger driver to stave off Akiyama but that gets turned into a backslide. So he goes to the corner and clutches his chest. Masterful sequence by Misawa. Misawa again goes for a Suplex this time into a leg bar. Akiyama goes for knee sets up head drop German not soon after Misawa pops up hit elbow. Here there is a little struggle on duplexes but Misawa mostly has his way with Akiyama. Flying body press and diving elbow look great but Akiyama is rag dolling. Like how Akiyama needs to hit two big strikes to take over. Head drop German gets no reaction...eek High knee...fire up...reaction...fans respond to emotion Exploder only two! Goes for super Exploder never give your opponent the High ground and Misawa beats him off and drop kick from middle rope. Akiyama hits an immediate head drop Exploder. Pretty much his strategy is to just drop Misawa on his head a lo a lot. Most head drops I've seen in this watching campaign. Misawa selling well mostly deadweight style, nice oosotigari counter on one. Piledriver!!! Lots of work on neck and head.

 

Akiyama runs into a big back elbow and then ROARING ELBOW!!! Misawa is sweating profusely and looks like shit. Was he sick? Misawa takes about 4 minutes to demolish Akiyama with sickkkk elbows and a barrage of Tiger Drivers.

 

Great offense but nothing that really stands out. Just kinda going through their offense. Which is great but without a hook, interesting layout kinda falls flat. Lots of head drops don't make up for it. ***1/2

[Zenjo]

Both men brought plenty of purpose to the early stages. They could've done a shorter bout, but in the end stuck to what had become the traditional longer duration. The workrate was certainly high. It would've benefitted from more variations in tempo. On paper Akiyama didn't have much of a chance of victory. Yet on the day Misawa was clearly not in peak condition, looking like he was banged up and under the weather. When Jun gained the momentum 15m in he was clearly the younger and fitter man, and that gave him an opportunity. Ultimately he wasn't good enough to take it. This lived up to my expectations going in.