All Time MOTY List Head to Head 1999: Misawa/Ogawa vs. Kobashi/Akiyama VS. Santo/Casas vs. Bestia/Scorpio

Kenta Kobashi/Jun Akiyama vs. Mitsuharu Misawa/Yoshinari Ogawa AJPW 3/6/99

ER: I had never seen this match before. It popped up as an autoplay after some other wrestling I was watching on YouTube, and I liked the sound of it. Kings Road is just about my favorite style, and I was just really in the mood for a big 30 minute Kings Road tag title match that I'd never seen. I liked the pairing on paper even more once I saw the timestamp. The length of the match told me this had the chance to be a real Ogawa show, and I was not disappointed. I love Kings Road matches where a less heralded guy gets put on the main stage, and the way the crowds respond to them getting one of their biggest moments. Kobashi and Akiyama were a great subtle heel team (and All Japan crowds are always great about booing everything they view as "heel behavior"), Misawa stood by his boy, and Ogawa did his best to fight back against Burning. This was Big Stage Ogawa and he ruled, but this was a match with four separate and very well done performances.

It even starts with French Catch Ogawa! Seriously the way Ogawa and Akiyama went to the mat felt unique for this era All Japan, and it was arguably the best I'd seen Ogawa look in All Japan. He was breaking out the quickest tricks, absolutely working circles around Akiyama, doing his slickest Regal-as-Boogaloo Shrimp wristlock reversals, and spectacularly tying up Akiyama's arm and sending him directly into Kobashi, with Kobashi flying to the floor. Everything's coming up Ogawa! Everybody is clearly up for a great performance, as they're all trying out unique stuff. Misawa comes in and decides to channel his lucha days, hitting a weird floating armdrag like he was a tripper Tim Horner, then working a headscissors spot in the corner. But his elbows to the jaw still stagger steps, and are returned in kind my sharp neck chops from Kobashi. I love the moment where Ogawa's luck runs out, the moment his whipping punches and jawbreakers stop working, and Kobashi starts cranking his neck in a nasty abdominal stretch. And every little turn the match takes just works, with a simple easy to follow story, and the fans along with every step.

The match had a real strong, effective use of repetition, from Ogawa repeatedly going back to his eyepokes and punches and cradles, to things like Misawa going for a senton on Kobashi, missing, bunny hopping another one to trick him so he could hit one; Ogawa just hitting double stomps on Kobashi's stomach over and over to kill time while Misawa got ready for his big splash, to Kobashi always using a big suplex (a sleeper suplex that the camera mostly misses, a half nelson tossing Misawa on his head) as a way to get Misawa out of the ring and focus the attack on Ogawa. There were so many cool individual moments, like Misawa elbowing Kobashi out of the sky, Ogawa's big hot tag where he went absolutely wild. It's awesome as it was set up by Misawa being a great FIP (taking a nasty double arm DDT and powerbomb from Akiyama, among other things), even breaking out a combo headscissors/headlock takeover on Burning to make it to Ogawa, as if Misawa was the Tommy Rogers in this relationship! Ogawa wasn't really treated like a young punk, and I loved the way he kept fighting back. His hot tag was huge, even breaking out his own tiger driver, and I loved the moment where he held Akiyama in a sharpshooter and refused to break it as Kobashi kept throwing harder and harder kicks and chops. I don't think I've ever seen Ogawa get this much offense against two big dogs, and it lead to a dynamite home stretch.

These four were absolute masters at timing throughout this match, never more evident than the hot final 10 minutes. We get expert level nearfalls (an Ogawa inside cradle after Akiyama misses a knee into the buckles made me leap forward in my seat), last minute saves, big double teams, and somehow manage to make it seem - every second of the match - that any person in the match could realistically get the pinfall win. The Kings Road formula was built on hierarchy, of knowing who in every match were equals, of knowing who was most likely to take the fall, and in those simple hierarchies it became clear when someone was acting out of rank. This match on paper screamed "Ogawa is taking the fall!" and lo and behold, Ogawa did take the fall. BUT, it wasn't apparent that he was going to take the fall until the actual moment the ref counted 3. Kobashi and Misawa beat the hell of each other on the floor (with Kobashi hitting an unhinged lariat to get them both there), and Ogawa and Akiyama rush just as quickly in the final minute as they did in the first minute, and I kept thinking Ogawa just might pull this one off. But when he didn't, it didn't matter, because nobody came out of this one looking like a loser.

PAS: Among hardcore tape trading wrestling fans I am a low voter on Kings Road All Japan. The absolute Mount Rushmore stuff holds up really well, and I dig a bunch of the stuff on the margins, but your step below elite stuff has never really connected for me. Akiyama got really good in NOAH, but All Japan Akiyama always felt a little bloodless, he had a ton of technical skill, but just ran through that technical stuff without much color or flavor. Having Kobashi in the roll he played in this tag negated most of the things which make him interesting to me as well, he is great as a hot tag, or a guy fighting through a beating, but here he was more of dominant overdog, and he doesn't do that well (it is why I thought all of the real great Kobashi GHC title defense in NOAH were great because of his opponents). Ogawa is fun in this match, and I like that he brings something different to the table then the other three, the match needed variety and he provided that. Misawa is another one of my favorites, although I thought he was a bit on autopilot. I thought the end run was pretty exciting, the Ogawa eyepoke into a chin breaker, into a Misawa elbow, Gibson leglock pin, was a hell of a near fall, and Kobashi and Akyama really know how to dump folks on their heads. I imagine I would have liked this match more if I had gotten it on clipped All Japan TV from the video store in Hayward, as it really built to something.


El Hijo Del Santo/Negro Casas vs. Bestia Salvaje/Scorpio Jr. Review


Verdict: 

ER: I loved this tag, loved the big shifts in momentum, loved the big nearfalls, loved the last minute saves, loved the team work, loved the crowd's loud reaction to Ogawa, and love the simply laid out story. It's hard to beat a big implications title match in front of a sold out Budokan, with that crowd getting louder and louder every direction you take things, and there were a ton of great directions. This match takes it for me.

PAS: Not a bad match, but I doubt it would even make a top 50 All Japan matches of the 90s, and that isn't even a style I love. I didn't even think this was close. Lucha tag in a blow out.