[1999-10-23-AJPW-October Giant Series] Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa vs Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

This didn't grab me like the March tag did, but it was still a strong match. The March tag was all about Ogawa showing he could compete at this level, while this one was more of a showcase of the Misawa-Kobashi rivalry. Kobashi and Akiyama are dominant for most of this and keep Ogawa neutralized so they can decimate Misawa. This is a very decisive match that certainly works in that regard, as Kobashi pins Misawa once again after delivering a Burning Hammer. I liked this quite a bit, but I was hoping/expecting to like it more than I did.

[Tim Evans]

This was going good till the kickout fest at the end. Misawa and Kobashi were just throwing headdrops like it was out of style. My favorite guy here was Akiyama. I liked him toying with Ogawa including kneedropping him in the head while Ogawa was in the boston Crab. Misawa seemed really out of it towards the end. Good match.

[Zenjo]

AJ continues to bring the goods. Ogawa helped to create a spritely opening. To his immense credit he didn't look at all out of place in tag team main events this year. Both teams utilised numerous double team manoeuvres. Of course everyone worked together like clockwork. The quality of wrestling was what you'd come to expect. It wasn't as strong as their previous battle. Could've lopped 5m off the duration. For the finish Kobashi downed Misawa with the Burning Hammer.

[tim]

Started off super hot with especially great stuff coming from Ogawa and Ogawa and Misawa's chemistry as a team but lost me toward the middle. The end stuff felt more tedious than epic. There was plenty of good stuff in the match but overall it I wasn't too impressed outside the first several minutes.

[PeteF3]

A good match, but not at the level of the March tag. In contrast to everyone else, I thought the *beginning* was the weak spot here--the March tag had some beautiful matwork and did an excellent job of establishing Ogawa as a threat by sheer craftiness. Here, the opening portion basically felt like filling time because, hey, we're going 25+. The near-falls down the stretch are good but not quite jump-out-of-your-seat good, and sometimes this feels like two Akiyama-Ogawa and Kobashi-Misawa singles matches than a tag. Still a good match in the series with everyone acquitting themselves well, and while it might be a bit on the long side the finish carries a nice tone of finality to it.

[Jetlag]

This was in the same style as the March tag and good in the same way, altough not as great and nowhere near as exciting. For some reason, the elements that were very strong in the march tag were not as emphasized here. Hence the action, while good, felt a bit run of the mill and the Ogawa relation to his partner and his opponents was not as pronounced, detracting from the fascination of the matchup. After a somewhat weak transition, Ogawa is isolated for a bit, but it doesn't reach the same intensity and as soon as Misawa tagged in it was back the same old dance. They did finish with a bang, though.

[Kadaveri]

Ogawa still feels very below the other 3 guys in the match (like the gap between him and Akiyama is still probably bigger than the gap between Akiyama and Kobashi/Misawa) so having him look good on offense for the first few minutes was a neat move. It's kinda like a 'shine' sequence although it's not establishing who is the babyface, it's establishing that Ogawa can hang with the rest of them. Lovely moment in near the beginning where Misawa goes for his signature spot where he flips over the ropes to do a flying move to the outside, but just as he's about to do it Akiyama runs in from behind and jumping knees him in the back! Kaboom. Unfortunately the match kinda loses the spark of the first 5 minutes and becomes more pedestrian, although it's still entertaining wrestling, before turning into a bombfest. Ridiculous moment where Misawa hits Kobashi with a Tiger Driver and the crowd loudly goes ONE, TWO, THR-AHHHHHH!!! for the nearfall. Come on. You cannot seriously believe Misawa was gonna pin Kobashi with 1 Tiger Driver in 1999. Fortunately for Kobashi, he has the biggest move up his sleeve so wins the bombfest.

***1/2