All Time MOTY List Head to Head 2001: Hashimoto/Otsuka vs. Misawa/Ogawa VS. Santo vs. Parka

Mitsuharu Misawa/Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Shinya Hashimoto/Alexander Otsuka NOAH 1/13/01

ER: Interpromotional Japanese wrestling has always been a source of gold, with the WAR vs. NJPW and Onita vs. Karate Guys being genre standouts. Pro Wrestling NOAH rarely utilized the interpromotional feud, but did so for a scant number of memorable matches opposing Hashimoto's Zero1 in 2001 (maybe some day we'll cover the WEW feud?). One of these matches, Hashimoto/Yasuda vs. Honda/Inoue, was our inaugural 2001 champ, and that was on Zero1's ground. This tag is from three months before that match, on NOAH's ground, and had the pairing that every fan of either promotion wanted to see. The month before, Hashimoto had his NOAH debut in Tokyo, against Takao Omori. The crowd was super hot for Omori, and super excited to see Hashimoto in a NOAH ring. Hashimoto knew exactly how to work one of these Invading Big Star matches, and worked to a clearly uncooperative finish that was to plant the seed of Hashimoto being unprofessional with Misawa in this match, three weeks later. I'm surprised that the first showdown ever between two legends like Misawa and Hash was only run in Osaka, as I'm sure this could have drawn 15-20K people in Tokyo. Perhaps they established rules where Hashimoto would agree to work a smaller Osaka show if Misawa would work a larger Tokyo show, I don't know. And really, I don't care, because this match is everything I wanted.

The presentation was cool, with Otsuka and Ogawa already waiting in the ring, giving Hashimoto and Misawa their own entrances, and the crowd felt like they were chanting equally for both legends. Misawa is ever the benevolent top gun, as he lets Hashimoto totally come off like the top dog here, as Hash pie faces Ogawa all the way around the ring and refuses to take his offense seriously and keeps trying to get Misawa in the ring. I said Misawa was charitable in how much of a star he treated Hash, but picture this: Sting debuts in WWF in 2001 in a tag opposite HHH, and when Sting immediately calls for HHH to get in the ring, HHH just stares back, Sting yelling and demanding he get in the ring with him this instant, and HHH just keeps staring, whispers to his partner to handle Sting himself, and just continues holding the tag rope while not fighting Sting. Impossible, right? Well Misawa does just that with Hashimoto, and Hashimoto is great at punishing Ogawa as punishment for not getting Misawa right off the bat. I was not expecting Misawa to give that much presence to Hashimoto, and I loved it.

But what I *really* wasn't expecting was Alexander Otsuka - not even a Z1 guy at this point so basically a BattlArts guy teaming with a Z1 guy as a band of outsiders - being the superstar of the match. Hashimoto/Misawa was the entree everyone went to the restaurant for, but Otsuka is the dessert that everybody is raving about as they leave the place. I can't believe Otsuka didn't get some kind of big fed run after this match. Maybe he wanted to stay freelance shootstyle Butcher, but can we just assume that Mohammed Yone got his cushy consistent paycheck undercard BattlArts slot? Yone didn't show up in NOAH until the end of 2001, that job was probably Otsuka's for the duration of the year until they just went with the guy with the afro instead of the bald guy playing hard to get. And after a performance like this, it's no wonder they pursued him the entire year, in this scenario I've almost entirely fabricated. But Otsuka's the guy driving the outsider angle, the guy taunting all the NOAH boys at ringside.

Now, young boy attire is what puts some of these feuds into legendary status, with the genre peaking at Karate Dojo OP Surf Punk in FMW. Biggest complaint of the match is the NOAH young boys, as their emotional thermometer never rose above "Hey guys come on, let's keep things on the level and not take away from the show here", and their gear made them look like a JPOP band, all of them wearing black and red athleisure wear in different styles. Marufuji was clearly the star of the group with his baggy track suit and gelled up hair, but Izumida was the bad boy wearing black capri pants and a teen mustache; Morishima was the baby faced fat guy who is always wearing a muscle tank on the beach when the other group members in the music video are shirtless, and Ikeda is the cool guy with his open jacket and caesar haircut. Meanwhile Z1 just brings Tadao Yasuda as their giant track suit goon, and he has the crazed eyes of the dad from the I Learned it from Watching You commercial as he thrust kicks Ikeda during a post-match melee. And here's Otsuka talking shit to NOAH's resident boy band (their band name would be "NO4H"), egging them on, and then starts bullying Ogawa. But the kicker is when he belts Ogawa with a great elbow, then holds his elbow up to Misawa and points at it. That's the kind of juice I NEED. Otsuka also has a genuine claim to Best European Uppercuts - when we talk about who does what best - as nobody throws an uppercut quite like him (his is the fastest, and slices sharp, getting really fast speed for such close contact). He has a real cool showoff showcase of all his coolest throws and strikes, peaking with a gorgeous bridging German.

Perhaps Otsuka's best gift to this match is his selling, as he puts in one of those Lawler/Finlay performances where you can't imagine seeing anybody take a specific offense any better. One of the real joys of this match is seeing both ways Otsuka sells Ogawa's jawbreaker, the first time really rubbing out his jaw and flexing it side to side while getting back to his feet, and the second taking a backwards bending bump on the recoil. He's a tremendous stooge for Misawa and Ogawa's offense, knowing how to play straight to camera as he sells the drop toehold/Misawa elbowdrop like he was at the proctologist, and the way he staggers and stumbles and flies into the ropes for Misawa's revenge for that earlier taunt. Misawa's two hardest elbow strikes of the match are clearly leveled right at Otsuka's jaw, holding Otsuka's coconut with his left hand while shifting his molars with his right elbow.

The Hash/Misawa sections were fun, while never getting to a real volcanic section, with the best part being Hash stomping him into the corner and refusing to quit, leading to NO4H finally thinking he had gone too far. The match stoppages and stalls were built well into the match, and the visual of Hash stomping and kicking his way through Misawa and Ogawa was like a mad lumberjack razing a forest. Misawa's stoicism played well off Hashimoto's fire, and I loved his casual, subtle communicating with Ogawa, loved the way Ogawa finally got Hashimoto to take him seriously and knocked him down, and how he charged Hash at the finish to keep him away from Otsuka. Look at how Misawa rubs the finish in Hashimoto's face, hitting a tiger driver while facing Hash, staring at him during the whole pin, planting Otsuka just out of reach. It's such a Calmer Than You Are way to handle being the house boss. This match should have been the beginning of 4 months of different NOAH/Z1 matches, and judging how well all four player their role in this one, it would have been fabled.


PAS: I am also a Japanese interpromotinal feud superfan, but I thought this fell well short of the heights these matches usually achieve. I am normally a much bigger Misawa fan than a Kobashi fan, but I thought he looked more annoyed than filled with hate and disgust, which is what you need from a match like this. It feels like Kobashi or Akiyama would have been a better top dog. I normally love stoic Misawa, but this felt more like card filler six-man Misawa, and I needed to feel more desperation and fury from him. I liked how they kept Misawa and Hashimoto apart,  it added more juice to the times they actually went head to head, and Misawa pinning Otuska while staring down Hashimoto was great. I think Otsuka is one of the great wrestlers of the 90s and the 2000s, but he didn't pop for me here, he felt a bit steamrolled and we didn't get to see much of the killer offense which makes him so great. There are ways that the lesser partner in these matches get chances to shine, watch what Ohara or Takashi Ishikawa bring to WAR vs. NJ tags, or even Ogawa in this match, but I felt like Otsuka never got to be Otsuka. This is a great Hashimoto performance, he is an incredible interpromotional wrestler and is eager and willing to try to murder both opponents, all of the seconds, and the front row of the crowd. I totally agree that the NOAH vs. Z1 series was a total lost opportunity, but I got that more from the Z1 tag than from this match.


El Hijo del Santo vs. La Parka Review

Verdict: 

ER: I thought this was great, with a strong Otsuka performance that showcased his full range on offense and defense while highlighting his personality. That is was right next to an amped up Hashimoto performance made this extra special. This was the only time Otsuka and Hashimoto tagged, and it felt like a glimpse at a pairing with all time potential. I thought Misawa played his stoicism into brief desperation, into calm cool, and I thought it was an extremely confident performance from the ace of the company, and I love how it felt like he was disrespecting Hashimoto by insisting on Ogawa staying in longer and fighting. These feds could have had some barn burning interpromotional stuff, and I'm glad we at least got this. That said, I think the Park/Santo bloodbath is going to prove to be a tough to kill champion.

PAS: It's Santo vs. Parka for me pretty easily. This would lose to the other 2001 challengers we have put forward, and I didn't like it nearly as much as the other Z1 vs. NOAH tag. Worth watching especially for the Hashimoto performance, but not a top tier contender.