[2000-04-15-AJPW-Championship Carnival] Mitsuharu Misawa vs Yoshinari Ogawa

[GOTNW]

Amazing match and a great example of how underrated Ogawa is as a worker, he gets so much out of the simplest holds, creating struggle over them and always finding new ways to gain advantage, there are also neat details like Ogawa grabbing Misawa's hair to escape a headlock and MIsawa getting desperate after Ogawa dominated with him holds in the beginning and grabbing Ogawa's hair while locked in a Facelock, eventually they do more conventional All Japan action, the brawling here was neat, both Ogawa's punches and Misawa's Elbows looked great and Ogawa sold like he was being decapitated (which was very close to what was going on) and there were a couple of amazing All Japan kung-fu sequences of insane counters and they played up the difference in their positions in All Japan's hierarchy by being relatively reserved with nearfalls, the crowd didn't buy Ogawa as a threat but watching him bust out all sorts of wacky pinning combinations was amusing. Would probably have this over ****.

[soup23]

Ogawa works over the arm at first frustrating Misawa. Misawa has had a strange 2000 so far. He had the epic with Akiyama but everything else has been off of the ace mentality you are so used to. Mat oriented matches with Hase and Ogawa here, compact versions of the matches vs. Kawada and Kobashi. Overall, it is refreshing and does show some depth from Misawa as a worker even though he isn’t hitting the “great” match level as normally and I am sure the backstage turmoil at least was creeping in somewhat. This had a real natural progression to it where basic work led to strike exchanges and tempers flaring which led to a finale of big moves that weren’t too big. Misawa does two tilt a whirl backbreakers and then a Boston crab at the end which really caught me by surprise. Monkey flip and Tiger Driver continue to emphasize Misawa working over the back. A few more minutes of back and forth with Ogawa fighting back and Misawa puts him a4way with another Tiger Driver. An interesting match that underneath didn’t try to overthink itself and was still successful and entertaining. ***1/2

[Loss]

This was so great! The simplicity of it was just beautiful. About 3/4ths of the match (I'm fact-ing) was built around Ogawa's headlock and Misawa trying to maneuver his way out of it with basic stuff, only for Misawa to come back and trigger the slugfest to end all slugfests before they take it home. I respect how they made no effort to go epic here and instead just had the best possible match that was appropriate based on the standing of both guys at this point in time. Misawa should have won, but Ogawa should have looked good, and both things happened. ****

 

Edit to add how I've always loved how obvious it is that Misawa enjoys working with Ogawa and always makes sure he calls the monkey flip every time they work opposite each other. Maybe he likes how Ogawa takes it. Not sure.

[ohtani's jacket]

This was a fun match. Ogawa isn't cut from the same cloth as wrestlers I typically like but he does a good job using the tools at his disposal. He made a pest of himself throughout and brought something different to the table with his rule-bending. I liked the part where they got into an elbow exchange and Ogawa got a reminder of who's boss. The finish was a little anti-climatic but the match was good. Post prime Misawa continues to fascinate.

[Moonsault Marvin]

I liked Misawa using his wiggling fingers to sell the numbness from the arm work by Ogawa. Ogawa had a good offensive showing that looked credible throughout. Misawa looked sort of tired at times but got fired up enough for the back and forth toward the middle of the match, and the end run didn't go overboard. Good match.

[Mattsdmf]

I thought this was quite a refreshing match to watch. Ogawa is a wrestler that Ive come to really enjoy watching as hes so different from his peers at the time. I really enjoyed the use of counters that Ogawa used and forcing Misawa to rethink his strategy. With the time restraints on the match, I think it really helped from going overboard.

[superkix]

This was such a cool match-up, almost worked like a junior heavyweight match with Ogawa forcing Misawa into his style. Ogawa's a favorite and he was able to show off here, between his slick maneuvering and cheap tactics. Like GOTNW mentioned, Ogawa gets the most out of simple holds, like the way he hangs onto a side headlock or headscissors, or hopping onto Misawa's back with a sleeper to try and wear him down. Great neck-focused chains of offense to set up the backdrop hold and counter work to avoid Misawa's offense, who looked a little perturbed at times that he's got this little gnat constantly buzzing around his head. Of course, the Misawa elbows looked great. Fun stuff.