Best of Japan 2000-2009: Vader vs. Toshiaki Kawada, AJPW 2/17/00

2. Vader vs. Toshiaki Kawada, AJPW 2/17/00

Well this was great. I had actually never seen this match before. They cram so much cool stuff into 14 minutes, and it's kind of a tidy synopsis of everything that got me into puro in the first place. Both guys were vulnerable hardasses, match had all sorts of turns, both guys took nasty shots, both guys turned in great selling performances, and it had a nice easy story that they were able to branch away from at a moment's notice.

We start with Vader circling and cornering Kawada like an animal, holding out his arms to seem even more imposing as he approached, acting like a giant one-man police netting. Kawada eventually solves that by just running boot first at Vader's face. Kawada goes on a tear for the next five minutes, staying one step ahead of Vader, avoiding his big bombs, front kicking Vader's face, kicking out his knee, at one point giving Vader a back suplex and then delivering punches from the mount. It sounds normal, until you stop and think about how strange it is to see somebody in 2000s All Japan using punches. At that point I'd occasionally seen Kawada break out one punch against Misawa, but to see him lacing into Vader on the mat was wild. Vader's selling throughout was awesome, desperately reaching for the ropes just to keep himself standing while Kawada destroyed his knee. Kawada also traps him in the corner and mauls him with Vader style bear attacks, just smacking Vader around with fists and his inner forearms. It's awesome and hilarious enough that it's clear to me and everybody in the crowd that those actions will result in a nasty Vader receipt later. Vader puts them over huge, feebly trying to escape through the ropes to the floor while Kawada kicks at him. Vader gets so desperate he eyepokes Kawada!! But Kawada still levels him with a clothesline.

But all it takes is Kawada letting up for a few seconds. He goes to charge Vader and Vader greets him with his leaping double bear paw body attack. And then it's Vader's turn.

Vader beats the hell out of Kawada, plants him with a powerbomb, pays back that receipt on the corner by dishing out 9 straight hard rights and staggering him hard with a left hook. Kawada sells as great as Kawada here, trying to stagger away from Vader and falling into the ropes. Vader squashes him with a Vader Bomb, and there's a cool part to the story here as Vader keeps trying to do more Vader Bombs, but Kawada keeps rolling out of the way. Sometimes guys really get stuck trying to finish a match/fight a certain way, even when it just makes more sense to stomp the holy hell out of them. Vader getting blinders on about hitting more Vader Bombs allows some minor recovery for Kawada. Kawada stops one of the Vader Bombs by just getting up and grabbing Vader's leg. I loved that. He couldn't do anything more than just hug his leg, just to stop his move. Vader looks down confused before just belting him with punches to the side of the head.

But Kawada still gets tiny comebacks throughout, sneaking in kicks to Vader's legs which start to show damage. Vader's selling is incredible with these, just subtly limping around and struggling to pick Kawada off the mat. Eventually Vader's power is too much as Vader hits him with another of many huge clotheslines and fists and locks in a tight pin (Vader's pins were also awesome in this, hooking the legs and clasping the hands. Kawada really had to fight to kick out every time. Type of thing most workers don't ever think about).

This had the feeling the whole time of two incredible workers at the top of their game having an absolute battle. I loved all of this.


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