Best of Japan 2000-2009: Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Toshiaki Kawada, AJPW 3/31/00

Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Toshiaki Kawada, AJPW 3/31/00

Damn this was a really cool sprint. I don't think I've ever seen this, as I had no memory of a 15 minute Misawa/Kawada match. The fans realize really early that these two were going for the killshot, as a Kawada powerbomb 6 minutes in gets huge buzz as a false finish. AJ fans buying a finish 6 minutes into a match is pretty awesome. And even though this was short by AJ main event standards it wasn't really "greatest hits played faster and lets rush to the finish". It was smartly worked with both guys going for finishes early, both trying to put the other away fast. It made the tone of the match totally different from any of their other matches (that I've seen) as you go into those seeing them try and wear the other down and it's not like you're watching perfunctory NJ opening matwork, but you know you're not getting a finish any time soon. So I love how the fans immediately picked up on the fact they were seeing a different style from these two. It didn't feel like they were going for flash pins or anything though, it just felt like they were trying to take the other out of his element and maybe surprise him.

In hindsight Misawa and Kobashi really come off like bullies in their matches with Kawada. Not with how stiff they work, but more in the way they sell his offense. They both take furious beatings from him no doubt, and he dishes it out, but it's almost like they just treat his offense like it does less damage than their own, no matter how painful it looks when Misawa takes a shin right to the teeth. Kawada has awesome comebacks and his selling is superb (he does a little stumble here into a crashing faceplant that looks so wonderful, and I cannot imagine most other workers doing it and not looking like total drama queens)…but I keep getting a sense during these matches (most of the time without knowing the results ahead of time) that Misawa and Kobashi are just kind of letting Kawada get his stuff in, before they decided "okay we're gonna finish this now". Like they just treat his offense as painful…but not anything that could ever put them away.

This match had tons of cool wrinkles. I loved that Kawada set up a kind of desperation Ganso Bomb and Misawa did a "oh shit he's really gonna do it!" quick headscissors to escape. Miswa's elbows are so sick here. Either Kawada is the master salesman or he just found out the hard way from experience how a man falls after getting elbowed in the face a bunch. They did do a lot of "I kick you, I elbow you" manly spots, and these two make them more interesting than most, but it's still always a tiny degree silly looking. That aside, really loved this match. Loved the feel, the ring work from these two during this era was super tight and knowing their history and their moves always brings a sense of familiarity to things. Awesome match I'd never seen before.


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