04-15-2002, 10:25 AM
Match review by some dude named Chris Coey.
The match is Mitsuharu Misawa/Kenta Kobashi vs. Toshiaki Kawada/Akira Taue for the World Tag Titles, June 9, 1995. That's one year and six days after one of the greatest singles matches ever, when Kawada challenged, and lost to, Misawa for the Triple Crown Title, on June 3, 1994.
Prologue - Balance
The time-limit draw was ubiquitous as the feud built to June 9; Taue had drawn Misawa in the Champion Carnival before losing the final match to Misawa later in the month. Kobashi and Kawada had drawn not only in the Carnival but also for Kawada's Triple Crown during the New Year's Giant Series. Misawa and Kawada had drawn during the Carnival as well, in a match that saw a kick break Misawa's orbital bones in the first minute, only to have him battle through the injury to salvage the decision. In tag settings, both their '94 RWTL match and their January match had gone to draws - clearly, the sheer number of ties suggested to the audience that all four men were evenly matched. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
Taue specifically had been soaring, as he beat both Kawada and Kobashi during the Carnival. During the Kobashi match, Taue debuted his Nodowa off the apron, and in the match versus Kawada, he took a bad beating early on but showed the ability to come from behind and win under pressure. Kawada's draw versus Misawa was another case of Kawada's failure to finish Misawa, even when Misawa was wounded, but it also showed Misawa's skill at battling adversity (at least his own). On top of that, Misawa had also recently beaten Stan Hansen for the Triple Crown, starting his second reign with the titles. Finally, and most importantly, Kobashi's leg was badly injured for a long stretch going into the match. While there seemed to be balance between the teams in results, there was very little balance in reality - Taue was now a legitimate threat to both opponents rather than just Kobashi, and Kobashi's injury seemed to say he couldn't carry his weight against the Holy Demon Army in this title defense. For each decision that suggested balance, there was a circumstance that pushed the equilibrium in either direction. Everyone bent under the tension. Something had to give.
Part 1 - Basics
Kobashi and Taue start, as the last pinfall had ended over a year ago, Taue garnering the fan's respect due to his recent surge. Kobashi gets a simple advantage, so Taue kicks the leg, his face saying, "This isn't how I want to do this, but I think you know as well as I do that this is what's going to happen." Kawada is soon tagged, and he defies the chops that visibly pained Taue. They don't hurt him any more or less, but his obnoxious glares and refusal to cooperate have as much psychological effect as his return of fire has physically. Kawada tries the Irish whip, Kobashi reverses, and Kawada takes the opportunity presented to slam a foot directly into Misawa's face. The echo of broken bones reverberates through the crowd as Misawa crashes to the floor, clutching the injured eye. Kawada's response to the tension was to make the first strike, and the result is that his opponents are both flustered and more than a little angry. Misawa wants the tag, and and his slow step into the ring is irreversible - the champions no longer control the match.
Part 2 - Attrition
The following moments are punctuated by anger, and that works directly into Kawada's strategy. A second cheap kick, this time to Kobashi, only intensifies the champions' rage, a condition that the usually disinterested Misawa doesn't really like. Taue takes the brunt of the abuse for a while, but Kawada has a new level of trust in Taue. Kawada knows firsthand the kind of punishment Akira can absorb, so Kawada waits, knowing that someone will make a mistake. Kawada almost makes one of his own as a stab at a cheap shot goes awry, but Kobashi soon creates the space for the challengers to begin their attack on his bad leg.
What follows is a frenzied smashing of the leg, interrupted briefly by a tag to Misawa. At every opportunity, Taue and Kawada attack Misawa in tandem, which has two purposes. Obviously, it disables Misawa for a time, but the real intent is to draw Kobashi into the ring for more damage. Neither Misawa nor Kobashi, as good as they are, can fight the odds created, but they have no control over the odds. Kobashi becomes vulnerable, allowing Taue to throw Misawa onto the injured leg. Kawada ascends the turnbuckles, and as his knee crashes down on the leg, a second impasse is reached. Misawa knows he cannot win alone, but because of what has ensued from the previous step, his situation doesn't appear to leave him with a choice. Here, Misawa makes a miscalculation based upon Kobashi's condition, taking yet another irreversible step.
Part 3 - Footrace
As Kobashi is immobilized on the floor, Misawa is left in a bad situation against 2 men who have almost beaten him in singles competition. On the other hand, "almost" is not "has done;" Misawa has always either tied or beaten both men in every situation where he was involved in a decision. Only Kobashi has lost any decisions for his team, and Misawa knows this. Instinctively, he believes that the final pin will come against Kobashi in his injured state, and he senses that the team's best chance to retain the titles must, for the time being, go through Kobashi.
This may sound counter-intuitive, but with the shape Kobashi is in, he only has one burst of utility left. Misawa's goal is to hang around and let Kobashi recover enough to take the tag as soon as possible. Misawa cannot try to win at this stage, as Kawada & Taue are both entirely too fresh, and, if Misawa were to fail to get the victory, he cannot count on Kobashi to maintain positive momentum. Instead, Kobashi must make the immediate charge so that if Kenta fails to get a pin but can simply do some real work for the team, Misawa can take up the effort and finish off the challengers. Also, as long as Misawa is on the apron, he can prevent a pin on Kobashi; Misawa doesn't have a similar cushion while he is legal.
Kobashi fights through the pain and angrily snatches his opportunity, whipping Taue with a lariat and nailing Kawada with one as Kawada returns the favor. The delay is just enough for Misawa to stun Kawada and get the tag. As Kobashi starts his attack, he immediately thinks of the moonsault to finish, but he isn't able to get either Kawada or Taue into position without Misawa's help. Misawa tags back in to help wear down Taue, and while it succeeds for a while, a tired Kawada catches Misawa with a Dangerous Back Drop to suddenly erase any momentum in the match. From here, it is a footrace to a tag, and Kobashi makes the first strike by bolting across the ring to knock Kawada to the floor. Kobashi gets the tag and hits a German suplex on Taue for a 2. Kawada blocks another moonsault attempt and tosses Kobashi before running back for the tag from Taue. Kawada's suplex attempts backfire, though, and suddenly the champions are double-teaming him to try the moonsault. The moonsault connects, but at 33:56 Kawada kicks out, and the champions are no longer able to win the match. Kobashi is through, and when Misawa sees the kick-out, he sees his miscalculation - it was not that Kawada was the wrong man to pin, and it was not that Kobashi was the weak link who would lose the titles - Misawa knew Kawada wanted revenge, but the revenge he wants has nothing to do with Kobashi's injury.
Part 4 - Fire
Misawa receives the tag and immediately starts trying for moves to put away Kawada - the tiger suplex is blocked, as is the tiger driver, but a German suplex and the second tiger suplex attempt connect for a very close count. The second tiger driver connects, but Kobashi is unable to run interference long enough, and Taue breaks the pin. As each successive pin attempt fails, Misawa's situation becomes more and more apparent - he is the London protagonist, struggling to build a fire with numbing hands as the snow and temperature continue to fall around him. There are simply too many things going against him - Taue's relative freshness compared to the other 3, Kobashi's ruined state, and Kawada's single-minded drive looming over everything.
It would have been simple for Kawada and Taue to eventually allow Misawa to tag Kobashi and score the easy victory on him, but there was no reason to take the easy path. They had beaten Kobashi for years. To Kawada, Misawa was the only prize that mattered, above the win, above inflicting pain on Kobashi's leg for what happened in December '93, above the tag titles. The pinfall was vindication - he was telling Misawa, telling the All Japan promotion, and telling the fans he was just as deserving of All Japan's top spot, just as credible a champion despite never beating Tsuruta in a big setting, just as capable of playing the no-nonsense face dominating the landscape. Being Tenryu's protege stole that chance from him, and now, 5 years after Tenryu's departure, not quite 3 years since Misawa's first successful Triple Crown defense over Kawada, and almost exactly 2 years since Kawada pinned Kobashi with a power bomb in their first tag meeting, the chance to defeat Misawa was materializing. Kobashi's injury simply made it easier to dispose of Kobashi and get to Misawa. And, as Taue's apron-to-floor Nodowa sends Misawa crashing to the ringside mats, the finish is obvious - the champion's struggle will not stop Kawada from pinning him.
Part 5 - Denouement
As with any story, loose ends must be tied up before the conclusion can arrive - Kobashi is still struggling, somehow, but a Nodowa/Back Drop combo sends him to the mat for the final time. Misawa throws elbows, trying to get the fire started again, but a jumping high kick knocks him senseless, and a high-angle power bomb leaves him frozen for the pin. The image of Kobashi vainly reaching out while Taue restrains him, an echo of their 6/93 match, will be burned in my mind forever. While Taue humbly accepts belts and trophies, Kawada slumps in the corner, having already received the only reward he wanted.
For me, this is the spectacle of wrestling: a match steeped in history, but also a match so great in its storytelling, so perfect in execution, that history isn't required to make it meaningful and memorable. Some people may think that the Sports Entertainment trend will be the end of stories, matches, and drama like this, but there's really no way that can happen. McMahon can ride his rocking horse all he wants, but he can never please his audience; they will always want more, they will never be satiated, and once they find something new to please them, wrestling will return to what made it worth watching in the first place - the spectacle. Unlike those fans, I am just happy with the inevitable. (42'37") *****, 7.5 Crunch.
---------
And, since I stole, I'll give props to Chris Coey and his site. He's an asshole, but a smart asshole...
And watch some damn puro, people!
The match is Mitsuharu Misawa/Kenta Kobashi vs. Toshiaki Kawada/Akira Taue for the World Tag Titles, June 9, 1995. That's one year and six days after one of the greatest singles matches ever, when Kawada challenged, and lost to, Misawa for the Triple Crown Title, on June 3, 1994.
Prologue - Balance
The time-limit draw was ubiquitous as the feud built to June 9; Taue had drawn Misawa in the Champion Carnival before losing the final match to Misawa later in the month. Kobashi and Kawada had drawn not only in the Carnival but also for Kawada's Triple Crown during the New Year's Giant Series. Misawa and Kawada had drawn during the Carnival as well, in a match that saw a kick break Misawa's orbital bones in the first minute, only to have him battle through the injury to salvage the decision. In tag settings, both their '94 RWTL match and their January match had gone to draws - clearly, the sheer number of ties suggested to the audience that all four men were evenly matched. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
Taue specifically had been soaring, as he beat both Kawada and Kobashi during the Carnival. During the Kobashi match, Taue debuted his Nodowa off the apron, and in the match versus Kawada, he took a bad beating early on but showed the ability to come from behind and win under pressure. Kawada's draw versus Misawa was another case of Kawada's failure to finish Misawa, even when Misawa was wounded, but it also showed Misawa's skill at battling adversity (at least his own). On top of that, Misawa had also recently beaten Stan Hansen for the Triple Crown, starting his second reign with the titles. Finally, and most importantly, Kobashi's leg was badly injured for a long stretch going into the match. While there seemed to be balance between the teams in results, there was very little balance in reality - Taue was now a legitimate threat to both opponents rather than just Kobashi, and Kobashi's injury seemed to say he couldn't carry his weight against the Holy Demon Army in this title defense. For each decision that suggested balance, there was a circumstance that pushed the equilibrium in either direction. Everyone bent under the tension. Something had to give.
Part 1 - Basics
Kobashi and Taue start, as the last pinfall had ended over a year ago, Taue garnering the fan's respect due to his recent surge. Kobashi gets a simple advantage, so Taue kicks the leg, his face saying, "This isn't how I want to do this, but I think you know as well as I do that this is what's going to happen." Kawada is soon tagged, and he defies the chops that visibly pained Taue. They don't hurt him any more or less, but his obnoxious glares and refusal to cooperate have as much psychological effect as his return of fire has physically. Kawada tries the Irish whip, Kobashi reverses, and Kawada takes the opportunity presented to slam a foot directly into Misawa's face. The echo of broken bones reverberates through the crowd as Misawa crashes to the floor, clutching the injured eye. Kawada's response to the tension was to make the first strike, and the result is that his opponents are both flustered and more than a little angry. Misawa wants the tag, and and his slow step into the ring is irreversible - the champions no longer control the match.
Part 2 - Attrition
The following moments are punctuated by anger, and that works directly into Kawada's strategy. A second cheap kick, this time to Kobashi, only intensifies the champions' rage, a condition that the usually disinterested Misawa doesn't really like. Taue takes the brunt of the abuse for a while, but Kawada has a new level of trust in Taue. Kawada knows firsthand the kind of punishment Akira can absorb, so Kawada waits, knowing that someone will make a mistake. Kawada almost makes one of his own as a stab at a cheap shot goes awry, but Kobashi soon creates the space for the challengers to begin their attack on his bad leg.
What follows is a frenzied smashing of the leg, interrupted briefly by a tag to Misawa. At every opportunity, Taue and Kawada attack Misawa in tandem, which has two purposes. Obviously, it disables Misawa for a time, but the real intent is to draw Kobashi into the ring for more damage. Neither Misawa nor Kobashi, as good as they are, can fight the odds created, but they have no control over the odds. Kobashi becomes vulnerable, allowing Taue to throw Misawa onto the injured leg. Kawada ascends the turnbuckles, and as his knee crashes down on the leg, a second impasse is reached. Misawa knows he cannot win alone, but because of what has ensued from the previous step, his situation doesn't appear to leave him with a choice. Here, Misawa makes a miscalculation based upon Kobashi's condition, taking yet another irreversible step.
Part 3 - Footrace
As Kobashi is immobilized on the floor, Misawa is left in a bad situation against 2 men who have almost beaten him in singles competition. On the other hand, "almost" is not "has done;" Misawa has always either tied or beaten both men in every situation where he was involved in a decision. Only Kobashi has lost any decisions for his team, and Misawa knows this. Instinctively, he believes that the final pin will come against Kobashi in his injured state, and he senses that the team's best chance to retain the titles must, for the time being, go through Kobashi.
This may sound counter-intuitive, but with the shape Kobashi is in, he only has one burst of utility left. Misawa's goal is to hang around and let Kobashi recover enough to take the tag as soon as possible. Misawa cannot try to win at this stage, as Kawada & Taue are both entirely too fresh, and, if Misawa were to fail to get the victory, he cannot count on Kobashi to maintain positive momentum. Instead, Kobashi must make the immediate charge so that if Kenta fails to get a pin but can simply do some real work for the team, Misawa can take up the effort and finish off the challengers. Also, as long as Misawa is on the apron, he can prevent a pin on Kobashi; Misawa doesn't have a similar cushion while he is legal.
Kobashi fights through the pain and angrily snatches his opportunity, whipping Taue with a lariat and nailing Kawada with one as Kawada returns the favor. The delay is just enough for Misawa to stun Kawada and get the tag. As Kobashi starts his attack, he immediately thinks of the moonsault to finish, but he isn't able to get either Kawada or Taue into position without Misawa's help. Misawa tags back in to help wear down Taue, and while it succeeds for a while, a tired Kawada catches Misawa with a Dangerous Back Drop to suddenly erase any momentum in the match. From here, it is a footrace to a tag, and Kobashi makes the first strike by bolting across the ring to knock Kawada to the floor. Kobashi gets the tag and hits a German suplex on Taue for a 2. Kawada blocks another moonsault attempt and tosses Kobashi before running back for the tag from Taue. Kawada's suplex attempts backfire, though, and suddenly the champions are double-teaming him to try the moonsault. The moonsault connects, but at 33:56 Kawada kicks out, and the champions are no longer able to win the match. Kobashi is through, and when Misawa sees the kick-out, he sees his miscalculation - it was not that Kawada was the wrong man to pin, and it was not that Kobashi was the weak link who would lose the titles - Misawa knew Kawada wanted revenge, but the revenge he wants has nothing to do with Kobashi's injury.
Part 4 - Fire
Misawa receives the tag and immediately starts trying for moves to put away Kawada - the tiger suplex is blocked, as is the tiger driver, but a German suplex and the second tiger suplex attempt connect for a very close count. The second tiger driver connects, but Kobashi is unable to run interference long enough, and Taue breaks the pin. As each successive pin attempt fails, Misawa's situation becomes more and more apparent - he is the London protagonist, struggling to build a fire with numbing hands as the snow and temperature continue to fall around him. There are simply too many things going against him - Taue's relative freshness compared to the other 3, Kobashi's ruined state, and Kawada's single-minded drive looming over everything.
It would have been simple for Kawada and Taue to eventually allow Misawa to tag Kobashi and score the easy victory on him, but there was no reason to take the easy path. They had beaten Kobashi for years. To Kawada, Misawa was the only prize that mattered, above the win, above inflicting pain on Kobashi's leg for what happened in December '93, above the tag titles. The pinfall was vindication - he was telling Misawa, telling the All Japan promotion, and telling the fans he was just as deserving of All Japan's top spot, just as credible a champion despite never beating Tsuruta in a big setting, just as capable of playing the no-nonsense face dominating the landscape. Being Tenryu's protege stole that chance from him, and now, 5 years after Tenryu's departure, not quite 3 years since Misawa's first successful Triple Crown defense over Kawada, and almost exactly 2 years since Kawada pinned Kobashi with a power bomb in their first tag meeting, the chance to defeat Misawa was materializing. Kobashi's injury simply made it easier to dispose of Kobashi and get to Misawa. And, as Taue's apron-to-floor Nodowa sends Misawa crashing to the ringside mats, the finish is obvious - the champion's struggle will not stop Kawada from pinning him.
Part 5 - Denouement
As with any story, loose ends must be tied up before the conclusion can arrive - Kobashi is still struggling, somehow, but a Nodowa/Back Drop combo sends him to the mat for the final time. Misawa throws elbows, trying to get the fire started again, but a jumping high kick knocks him senseless, and a high-angle power bomb leaves him frozen for the pin. The image of Kobashi vainly reaching out while Taue restrains him, an echo of their 6/93 match, will be burned in my mind forever. While Taue humbly accepts belts and trophies, Kawada slumps in the corner, having already received the only reward he wanted.
For me, this is the spectacle of wrestling: a match steeped in history, but also a match so great in its storytelling, so perfect in execution, that history isn't required to make it meaningful and memorable. Some people may think that the Sports Entertainment trend will be the end of stories, matches, and drama like this, but there's really no way that can happen. McMahon can ride his rocking horse all he wants, but he can never please his audience; they will always want more, they will never be satiated, and once they find something new to please them, wrestling will return to what made it worth watching in the first place - the spectacle. Unlike those fans, I am just happy with the inevitable. (42'37") *****, 7.5 Crunch.
---------
And, since I stole, I'll give props to Chris Coey and his site. He's an asshole, but a smart asshole...
And watch some damn puro, people!