EL DANDY~! Tape Review-Comp #3: A Trip Around

-Note to self: BRING DA COMPS!!! I keep it going with a trip to Japan again, this time taking a look at some of the things outside New Japan and All Japan. This is a biggun, too.

-4/2/93-All Japan Women-Dream Slam I-Akira Hokuto vs. Shinobu Kandori-For those of you who have read my stuff in the past, you know the greatness and the sheer beauty of this match. And when I mean beauty, I mean beauty through brutality. Hokuto was the embodiment of AJW. She was “The Dangerous Queen,” a woman who knew no boundaries when it came to combat, and a true holder to the AJW motto of “Victory Through Guts.” Kandori was the toughest woman alive to most people. She will simply just rip you apart and leave you to die when she’s done. She represents Ladies Legends Pro Wrestling, and just like Akira was ready to step up after years of bad luck to carry AJW on her back, Kandori came in with the same motive, to come in on AJW’s biggest show and conquer one of its greatest warriors showing that LLPW was the true home of joshi puroresu. While Hokuto gave the outward appearance of being dangerous, it was her opponent who was more dangerous, as her judo background and sheer toughness was seen as more of a threat than the high-risk offense that Hokuto brought to the table, but all that seemed to be demolished as the bell rang. Hokuto FLATTENS Kandori with ONE punch, and then has the gall to grab THE STICK~! and pretty much tell Kandori, “So YOU’RE supposed to be the big bad monster who’s going to come in and beat ME? You are NOTHING!” And then, probably the greatest ass-whooping not done by Vader takes place, as Kandori absolutely DESTROYS Hokuto’s arm. The visual of Hokuto’s arm in the place it was after Kandori hits the armbar is absolutely horrid because she doesn’t move her arm, as if Kandori really DID take it out of the socket. Then, after some more punishment from Kandori, Hokuto tries to hit a tombstone on a table outside, but Kandori reverses it, and it’s right then and there, that Hokuto has to decide whether or not to press on. First, the arm work takes people back to a time where an arm injury prevented her from getting an All-Pacific Title shot. Second, the tombstone, a move that has broken her neck and taken her out of the game for a very long time, and then the result of that tombstone in this match: the gory gash that gushes out of her skull. Every drip is a grain of sand in the hourglass that is Hokuto’s chance to prove the AJW name worthy. In a match before, a gash in her knee meant that a tourniquet was necessary. Here, and now, in her greatest struggle, there is no tourniquet, there is no bandage, and she must press on. So as she does, Kandori systematically destroys her with various submissions and strikes, most notably Kandori’s famous “Swinging Sleeper”. However, that isn’t to say that Hokuto doesn’t get her offense in. She does return the gore favor to Kandori by taking her to the rail, but even that took a lot out of her. Kandori doesn’t really blade like you’d want her to, ESPECIALLY after Hokuto’s gusher, but the point is put across: Weak offense doesn’t mean much in the end. Hokuto’s selling is absolutely sublime as she is pretty much helped back to ringside and into the ring. Back in, she really doesn’t have much left. Kandori takes her to the mat, grounds her, and makes Hokuto unable to get any offense. Hokuto’s flurries, however, are extremely believable as you see what she uses. One sequences sees her go to an ABSOLUTELY MEMPHIS piledriver, and then that goes into a BRUTAL spinkick that Kandori takes right in the mug. Once again, Kandori grounds her and takes her down. Hokuto is smart though, and like a smaller foe would do against her prey, she waits for the mistakes that Kandori makes and jumps on them. Kandori mistakes lead to splashes, missile dropkicks, planchas, Dragon Suplexes, Backdrop Drivers, but Kandori is able to reach out and grab a hold of the match at any time because of her sheer dominance that she has over Hokuto. When it comes to the 27 minute mark, which is the CHAIN WRESTLING, where Hokuto reverses a Tiger Driver attempt, which Kandori reverses RIGHT back into the move with both women bloody as all hell, the gas is running low on both tanks, Hokuto especially. The blood loss seems to be gone for now, but her face is now red, and her white outfit is now red, along with her hair. It’s at this point, where Hokuto realizes that her weapon, the Northern Lights Bomb, seems to be a fair equalizer, and when Kandori kicks out at two, Hokuto realizes it’s time to go for one more. However, Kandori has other ideas, and that is to spike Hokuto with her own move, in the middle of her ring, in her arena, in front of HER fans. When Kandori does it and Hokuto kicks out at two, the gloves are taken off, the girls haul off, and in the end, when it comes to guts, and glory, and honor, it’s Hokuto, who ends the match with a shot that started it. As she crawls over and hears the ref count three, she achieves victory, but not only over Kandori, but over her own bad luck throughout her career. To that point, she had been a talker, who called herself “The Dangerous Queen.” On this night, however, she earned that moniker forever. This is the greatest women’s match ever wrestled, and you’d be hard pressed to find another person who disagrees with that statement above. *****

-Super J Cup 1994 Quarterfinals-Black Tiger vs. Wild Pegasus-If you don’t know who these two are, Tiger is EDDY~! Guerrero and Pegasus is Chris(t) Benoit. Seeing the difference that nine years makes between these two, it’s eerie to think that they’ve broken down as much as they have over that time. However, taking into account how WCW and WWE both limited their movesets to the point that they only retained maybe 2 or 3 of their usual puro spots, these guys maybe made the greatest transition in the history of the game by taking the styles they have learned abroad, bringing them to the states, and applying them to what we call “wrestling” today. They open up with the good ol’ fashioned matwork with both men going after a leg, but Tiger getting advantage. He hits the slingshot senton and the backdrop and such. They blow a dropdown spot though. I was REALLY surprised at that. Benoit comes back with the usual Benoit spots: Reverse suplex, lariat, kitchen sink kneelift, SWANK German. It’s pretty basic for these guys, they never really do much out of the ordinary. GREAT powerbomb by Benoit. Snap suplex as well. It’s just a lot more crisp then that it is now. Tiger comes back with a rana and a German as well. The restholds are clamped on a bit better in this match, I’ll tell ya that. Even a camel clutch looks sweet. Eddy does the Blockbuster suplex and misses a missile dropkick. Benoit hits his backdrop for 2, and then Eddy does his neato-keen knucklelock springboard rana, where he actually SPRINGS to the top. That’s SO nice. Eddy goes through another super rana and his brainbuster, but Benoit TOSSES him on the Tornado DDT attempt. Benoit goes for a superplex, but Eddy tosses him off, and Benoit armdrags Eddy in midair off a crossbody for the win to advance. If that match happened today, people would be going NUTSO. As it is, it’s not exactly the best match between the two, so take that for what it’s worth. ***1/4

-Super J Cup 1994 Finals-The Great Sasuke vs. Wild Pegasus-Is this indeed the greatest junior match ever? There are many people that feel that this match is in that upper tier of matches that includes the Kanemoto/Samurai 97 match, the Halloween Havoc 97 match, Ohtani/Dragon at the J Crown, and the Ohtani/Benoit vs. Tiger/Sasuke Super Junior Tag League finals as great matches. In the middle of one of the greatest runs in junior heavyweight wrestling, Jysuhin Lyger doesn’t book himself in the tourney final, opting to give Sasuke and Michinoku Pro the rub against the top gaijin star in New Japan’s junior division, and what’s so great about this match is that it just brings things together. Pegasus won all his matches with near-dominance. Sasuke got to the finals with some luck, as he took every little mistake his opponents made and made them pay for it. This is also notable because even though Sasuke might be from a different company, Lyger, the star of New Japan, is there rooting him on against the foreigner. When Pegasus can take Sasuke to the mat, he’s most successful, but Sasuke on his feet, with his speed, is a hard person to keep up with. Pegasus learns this after he’s able to take him down, but after he lets him up, Sasuke is able to counter moves and kick Pegasus down. Pegasus goes to the mat again, but this time Sasuke is able to hang with him and actually outduels him, going to a Bow and Arrow to keep Pegasus out of his hair. So just as Sasuke outduels him on the mat, Pegasus outduels him when the pace gets fast, giving Sasuke that hellish lariat after a rope running sequence. Sasuke gets control after a Pegasus German, but then Pegasus stops him dead in his tracks with a lariat. Pegasus takes this time to hang Sasuke out to dry, kill him with elbows, and then kill him dead with the inside-out springboard elbow. Benoit goes for the kill with the Dragon Suplex, but Sasuke kicks out. Sasuke even kicks out of the swandive headbutt. Benoit with the WILDBOMB~! and Sasuke kicks out of THAT! When all that doesn’t work, Benoit goes to the Sharpshooter, but Sasuke won’t tap. Quebradora only gets 2. This is SERIOUSLY a RIGHTEOUS ass whooping that Pegasus puts on Sasuke, until Benoit misses a dropkick and Sasuke gets control. Weak lariat by Sasuke, but then Pegasus hits a GREAT German for 2. Benoit even counters a Sasuke counter for the Dragon Suplex. Pegasus is beating Sasuke in every way shape or form. But then when Sasuke gets a crossbody and kicks Pegasus out, he decides to up the ante, and busts out the big gun in the Space Flying Tiger Drop. Sasuke then gets all suplex-like with a German and a Fisherman Suplex, but he misses the missile dropkick. Pegasus tries to suplex Sasuke in, but he reverses into one of PEGASUS’S moves in the inside-out suplex. Sasuke then dropkicks Pegasus back out so he can do his BOSS missile dropkick to the floor. And Sasuke ain’t afraid to land with a thud, I’ll tell you that. Sasuke is the underdog and taking a BIG RISK to get to the top of that podium, and he does it again with the Rounding Moonsault for 2. Sasuke goes up top for another, but Pegasus meets him up there and gets elbowed off. Sasuke thinks it’s all in hand, but he didn’t elbow him off hard enough, and Lyger even knows it, because he’s yelling at him to turn around. So he does, and Pegasus hits him with a SUPER GUTWRENCH SUPLEX for the win and the J Cup for 1994. There was just so much great action from start to finish. The gaijin help Pegasus to his feet as the natives help Sasuke out. Sasuke threw everything and the kitchen sink at Benoit, but Benoit knew that he just needed to hit that one big move and Sasuke would be done. A great underdog match, and this definitely deserves to be in that upper tier of great junior matches of all time. ****3/4

-Sometime in 1996-FMW-TAKA Michinoku vs. Hayabusa-This isn’t too bad because Hayabusa was slowly turning into that worker who can fly high and such and TAKA wasn’t bogged down yet. I love how people work over Busa’s leg, only for Busa to shrug it off and fly around. It JUST DOESN’T WORK, PEOPLE! They go for more matwork and then Busa gets lucha with it turning a hiptoss into an armdrag which takes TAKA to the floor as Busa shows off a backflip. TAKA returns the favor dropkicking Busa to the floor, and one ups Busa on the backflip. TAKA goes back to working the leg and gets REALLY shooty with the rolling kneebar. More knee work leads to the figure four. TAKA destroys the knee with a chair and a springboard dropkick to the knee before going to the figure-four again. Busa’s knee is really messed up as TAKA takes him outside and goes for the Spaceman Plancha, but Busa moves. Busa doesn’t even limp as he piles chair upon chair on TAKA and moonsaults onto him from the apron. TAKA JUST makes the 20 count and gets a Tiger Driver for his troubles. Now the highspots start to hit as Busa gets his 450, but TAKA is able to grab control and hit the BOSS slingshot top rope Asai Moonsault, a springboard dropkick, and the Michinoku Driver II for 2. Busa comes back with a Tope Con Hilo, a springboard spinning heel kick, and a standing moonsault for 2. TAKA hits a desperation MD II for 2. GOD Busa has a shitty powerbomb. Falcon Arrow and Spinning Falcon Arrow finish for Busa. Watch this match, and then watch the match later on this comp with Masato Tanaka and look at the difference between that Busa and this. It’s pretty dang startling. Match was a pretty good spotfest. **1/2

-6/17/96-Skydiving J 96-British Commonwealth Title-Dick Togo © vs. Jyushin “Thunder” Lyger-DICK TOGO~! LYGER~! You gotta love this with all your heart because Togo and Lyger are not afraid to dick it up to levels never before seen. This is a part of the Skydiving J, the precursor to the eventual J Crown Tournament, with the winners of these eight matches going on to a single-elimination tournament to crown the J Crown champion. Togo is in Kaientai Deluxe in Michinoku Pro (which was WWF Kaientai + Shiryu (Kaz Hayashi)) and Shiryu accompanies him to ringside. Togo has a bandage on his arm. Togo is a young punk and knows he’s facing the best damn junior heavyweight in the history of wrestling, so knowing this, instead of sprinting with Lyger, he just works Lyger’s ribs over to work towards the FAT ASS SENTON. Togo really does a great job in doing so, too, as even when Lyger gets advantage, Togo’s rib work has weakened Lyger considerably. But Lyger knows that working a body part, exploiting a weakness, if you will, is the key to success in that ring. So he just starts destroying Togo’s bandaged arm. He also takes the time to show that’s he’s the man and that nobody can mess with him (see him flip off the crowd and do his little taunts as Togo is outside), and by doing that, he lets Togo back into the match. Togo really has that great offense that many people have fallen in love with. The sentons, the topes, the DDTs, and then he throws in a double stomp to tell Lyger, “HEY! DON’T UNDERESTIMATE ME, BIG MAN!” Obviously, Lyger heard this and goes on a friggin rampage, shoteing the begeezus out of the young’n before powerbombing him TWICE on the floor. Togo’s rib work isn’t all for naught, however. He does hit the SWEET inside-out slingshot senton that Eddy Guerrero should steal one of these days and then hits the Thunder Fire Powerbomb into two FAT ASS SENTONS. This doesn’t put Lyger down, but it does get him in position to win. However, Togo misses a third try, and it’s here that Lyger’s dominance shines through. He works the arm again, and then when Togo makes a mistake, he makes sure it’s his last, getting a Fisherman Buster, an avalanche Fisherman Buster (Which Togo sells like a CHAMP), and then a great shotei to finish. What you have here are great elements in a match between an up-and-comer and a junior legend. Great psychology, great innovation, great moves, great execution, and you get no complaints from me on this one. ****Ѕ

-Sometime in the year 1997-FMW-Masato Tanaka vs. Hayabusa-This match is weird because it has no SOUND! It’s cool if you wanna call your own action though…if you’re a freak like me, that is. This is really just FMW channeling energy to All Japan at the time, as they saw the Kobashi/Misawa match from 1-20-97 and was like…”Ya know, I bet we could build DRAWMUH~! like that, too, if we wanted!” So basically, they have a little 2 minute sprint before getting to work on a body part. Busa picks Masato’s arm to counter the Rolling Elbow, and Tanaka goes after the leg to stop the high-flying offense. Both work to an extent, with some especially nice work by Busa on Tanaka’s arm, before all psychology is thrown out the window in the finishing sequence. You got numerous German Suplexes, Thunder Fire Powerbombs (AN FMW STAPLE, BABY!), Falcon Arrows, Sentons, 450 Splash, Rolling Elbows, even Tanaka with the ACID DROP~! After all that, it’s Busa with a released Dragon Suplex into a Falcon Arrow and we got a win for Busa. We’re talking MAJOR MAJOR OVERKILL with the finishers here. FMW might be known for their garbage wrestling, but they also know how to put on late 90s All Japan matches, and even though it’s not early or mid 90s All Japan, it’s still better than watching somebody take a bump through 3 tables on fire with 10,000 thumbtacks between them and a flourescent light tube…unless your name is Cactus Jack, that is. ***1/2

-Sometime in the year 2000-Toryumon-CIMA vs. Magnum TOKYO-There needs to be a Conan O’Brien joke in that title…I know there is. God I love the Toryumon. It’s as if Ultimo Dragon smiled upon us all and said, “And I shall bring you the good shit, and you shall love it.” CIMA was probably the best junior in Japan for a while, and Magnum TOKYO was a former BOOGIE KNIGHTS~! whipping boy during his short tenure in WCW, where he was totally wasted and hardly used. Why? Oh, it was WCW, and they don’t really care much for the Japanese. Oh well…TOKYO is a MALE STRIPPER~! We don’t get an entrance, but I’m sure that if I did, I wouldn’t be able to contain myself. CIMA has CRAZY MAX with him and they’re all about the cheap shots on the outside. There’s some really nifty offense from everyone involved here. Magnum gets his gimmick into the offense with the BOOGIE WOOGIE Super Rana and the lucha-cum-English Carny Style Rings of Saturn/STF variation. CIMA actually has a lot of basic offense outside of his dives. He gets a corner tope suicida and a corkscrew plancha and such. Magnum gets the VIAGRA DRIVER~! (pumphandle Michinoku Driver II/SIAKALYPSE NOW~!), and the announcers go into innuendo about Viagra and such and get BLEEPED~! It’s really great, folks. The end is all southern as hell. Magnum gets another Viagra Driver, and then hits his Shooting Star Press, but CRAZY MAX is in the refs way. Magnum goes for it again, eats a bat shot to the nuts, and CIMA takes over. Magnum blocks the Superplex, but then eats two Venuses, a top-rope Iconoclasm, and the Mad Splash for the CIMA victory. This was just fun, fun, fun. Not their best match, but definitely a fun one. ***1/4

2/7/00-Judo Suwa © vs. Dragon Kid-MORE TORYUMON!!! Suwa was pretty damn good and Dragon Kid has come into his own lately. Suwa starts out in control before Kid starts headscissoring and such. He does get one turned into a side slam though, which was neato. Kid gets REALLY flashy with the headscissor variants and then SUWA slams him into the mat. Another headscissors leads to the BERMUDA TRIANGLE~! (cross-corner inside-out moonsault) for Kid. SUWA comes back with a slingshot elbow and NUMEROUS nutshots. Yeah, that’s cool. SUWA then goes that extra Southern mile to get in the catapult and the rope straddle. SUWA with a Crazy Max assisted wheelbarrow facebuster. The ref is distracted and Crazy Max tries a Superbomb, but Dragoncito ranas out of it and kicks the other Crazy Max participant out of the ring. Kid gets with the handspring rana and the rana off the apron and it’s cool. Now it’s the springboard rana. Kid goes for the DragonRana, but he gets CANED~! Suwa gets a superplex. Kid blows a springboard. Kid does the jump back rana that Rey loves to do. And then he hits the DragonRana for the win. This was a neat little spotfest and if Suwa did a fistdrop, I think I would have lost my shit. **1/4

-AJW Tag League The Best 2000-Manami Toyota and Kayo Noumi vs. Kaoru Ito and Miho Wakizawa-Toyota is either the best worker in joshi or the most overrated. I haven’t seen enough of her to say either. Noumi is a spunky little girl who I can’t say much about. Ito is all about the double stomp and the moonsault stomp and because of that, I am deeply into her rib-breaking greatness. Wakizawa is a good little worker who had to retire prematurely due to a neck injury, if I remember correctly, and you can see how good she is in this match. There really isn’t too much to this match. Noumi is definitely not as good as Toyota, so on her team, it’s her that stands to lose the match for the team if it happens, meaning Toyota has to step it up. Ito and Waki do a good job punking Noumi out and such things, and then Toyota comes in and starts dominating. There’s not much to it, but everything is crip in its execution. They have the highspot trainwreck, and then they go through some finishers. Noumi and Toyota do a SWEET Doomsday Japanese Ocean Cyclone Suplex, and then a regular one on Wakizawa finishes it for Toyota. Fun little match, and it’s not a bad intro into what Joshi is about. Not a great intro, but certainly not bad. **1/2

-8/7/00-NOAH Departure-Kenta Kobashi vs. Jun Akiyama-I’ve already done this match, so I’ll just cut and paste from my Departure review. CUT AND PASTE~!

They trade shots with Kobashi getting a tackle and a chop to send Akiyama out. Akiyama gets a double leg into a Boston Crab, but Kobashi powers out of it. Kobashi’s hammerlock is turned into a drop toehold, but he rolls back over into a crossface before Akiyama breaks. Akiyama wins a hammerlock series with a double arm suplex. Kobashi starts chopping away, but Akiyama comes back with elbows and hits his jumping knee. Kobashi rolls outside and reverses Akiyama’s whip to the railing, and then chops him over the railing. Powerbomb on the floor follows. OUCH! That basically said, “I rule. You are NOT going to be the ace of this company, BOY!” Akiyama takes a 15 count before Kobashi grabs him and hits his delayed suplex back into the ring for 2. Facelock applied VERY nicely. He covers for 2. Chop, kneestrike, kick to gut. Torture Style Cobra Twist follows. Akiyama gets to the ropes. Kobashi is just KILLING him. Jun elbows, but eats a Uraken, and then Kobashi clamps on a full nelson. Kobashi is working the neck very nicely. Akiyama gets to the ropes. Chops to both sides of the neck by Kobashi, and then the Half-Nelson Suplex. OUCH! Another full-nelson, and Akiyama gets to the ropes. Another Half Nelson attempt is blocked, but Akiyama’s attempt at a high knee is blocked eventually. Akiyama falls out of a suplex and dropkicks Kenta’s habitually banged up right knee. BOOM. Momentum shifts. And again. Sasukegatime (Sharpshooter) follows, segued into an STF. When Kobashi reaches fo the ropes, he grabs the arm and applies a crossface chickenwing. BEAUTIFUL. Kenta gets to the ropes, but Akiyama pulls back and grabs the reverse kneebar, but Kenta breaks. Another Sasukegatime attempt is rolled through into a kneebar by both men, and Kobashi breaks, but not before Kenta kicks the knee some more. Kobashi rolls out, and back in, Akiyama runs the ropes and hits a dropkick to the knee. Northern Lights Suplex attempt blocked, and Kenta looks for the Chancery Suplex. They fight for it, and Akiyama gets it. SLEEPAH, into the Tequila Sunrise Suplex. So now Kobashi can rest that knee up a bit. Akiyama is out at this point. Jackknife blocked, but Kobashi hits a Uraken into the Jackknife, but Akiyama rolls through it for a 2 count! Half Nelson Suplex gets 2 for Kobashi. LARIAT TIME, BABY! Akiyama blocks with an elbow, ducks another attempt and hits a German, but Kobashi reaches up and keylocks the arm. Cool sequence. Kobashi head scissors the head to prevent Akiyama from getting to the ropes, but Akiyama eventually does. Uraken blocked, Exploder blocked. Lariat, but a second turns into an EXPLOIDAH! LARIATOOOOO from Kobashi gets 2 on the no-sell! Jumping knee to the lariat arm! EXPLOIDAH! EXPLOIDAH! Akiyama says it’s over, and hits another Exploder for 2. EXPLOIDAH! Akiyama hooks on the Akiyama Lock, the move that made Misawa pass out, and defeats Kobashi at 24:25 to become the ace of NOAH. Akiyama actually looked like he belonged in there. Great psychology, nice moves. Akiyama goes all dicklike afterwards with Kanemaru as they beat up Kobashi’s seconds, too. The push is in full force! ***3/4

10/14/02-WRESTLE-1-Bob Sapp vs. The Great Muta-Sapp is a former NFL player who got into mixed martial arts and is now the biggest gaijin star in Japan. He is absolutely taking Japan by storm and he’s having the time of his life doing so. He has a great entrance with the BOB SAPP DANCERS~! around him as they come out to “Borderline” by Madonna. He also has the full-flowing feather robe. Muta has a pretty neat entrance, as smoke surrounds the ring and he “appears.” He has the BEST MASK EVER as it’s a spider-like mask that encases his face to make him look absolutely SINISTER. He also has a nice design on his head as well. Muta gets with the dropkick to the knee/dragon screw stuff, until Sapp powerbombs the begeezus out of him. Sapp needs to work on throwing a good lariat and beating somebody down in the corner. Methinks he was afraid to actually clobber Muta. Muta gets the vaulting Shining Wizard off the ref’s back. Cactus clothesline was nice. Muta with the elbow. Muta does the short arm scissors so Sapp can deadlift him. Sapp actually sells the arm, which is neat, and then tackles Muta to the outside. Sapp then hits a BLOODY PLANCHA on Muta. Sapp is 375 pounds. That’s just SWEET. Sapp throws a couple lariats that are a lot better and tries a powerbomb, but Muta mists him. He hits two Shining Wizards, and Sapp gets up at 1 after no-selling the first. Good. Moonsault gets 2. Sapp turns a Shining Wizard into a powerbomb. Sapp then hits a dropkick and a DIVING FRIGGIN HEADBUTT for the win. WATCH THE BIG MAN DANCE! WATCH PYRO EXPLODE FOR NO GOOD REASON! Match was watchable solely because Sapp made it that way with just his sheer presence. *1/2, but you should see it just to see Sapp. He’s very impressive.

-3/1/03-NOAH-GHC Heavyweight Title-Mitsuharu Misawa © vs. Kenta Kobashi-This match holds a special place in my heart for me. However, it’s also the cause of much controversy surrounding myself, and my views in this match.

To begin with, this is probably the biggest money match in NOAH history. The Akiyama/Misawa 7/27/01 match might have been big, but this is Misawa/Kobashi, two men who were part of the Big Four cornerstone in All Japan for the better part of a decade. The before-match festivities definitely give it that aura about it, and perhaps because it was in the Budokan that the fan base is absolutely pumped. Kobashi comes out in the greatest robe ever, full-flowing with black on its outside and purple on its inside that’s the greatest combo of a Ric Flair/Greg Valentine robe and a boxer’s robe that I’ve truly come across. Misawa comes down in his usual matter and gets warmed up, but Kobashi stands, glaring at Misawa and his belt as the proclamation is read, his disciple, KENTA, at his side as he glares. When his name is announced, in true Kobashi fashion, he pumps his fist and is ready to go. Streamers fill the ring and the bell sounds.

The match itself is almost laid out as a sprint. The first two sequences are just mirror sequences before the action starts up. It’s a race to the big stunning move to set up the bigger move, and that’s achieved four minutes in when Kobashi gets spiked with a backdrop driver. After that, it’s a matter of Misawa staying on the downed man. He starts flying and gets Kobashi down and outside. After that, he works the lariat arm for the better part of about five minutes. When Misawa goes for the elbow suicida fake, followed by the elbow off the apron, he Pillman’s himself, drawing the HARDWAY JUICE~! off the guardrail. Kobashi then takes the time to work over the neck of Misawa with the usual Kobashi offense. It’s really formulaic for both men, actually. Kobashi chops away and does those stretchy hurty moves on the neck, and Misawa comes back with elbows. Then they start with the neck-breaking suplexes and such. Kobashi actually has a reason to go after the neck since Misawa took that shot on the rail, but it just seemed like they worked the same epic they worked years earlier. He does go to the neck with some stretchy moves, like a facelock, and then goes after Misawa with a couple half-nelsons and then a full nelson to get the neckwork involved. Misawa then gets back on the offensive with Tiger Drivers, a Tiger Suplex, and the Tiger Suplex ‘85. Then they head outside and Misawa hits the elbow suicida to the ramp. They fight for position on the ramp, and then Misawa gets Kobashi in position for the spot of ‘03, the Tiger Suplex off the ramp to the floor. Very nice visual. Back in, they get really dramatic with the lariats and the elbows, and then you get Misawa getting the Emerald Frosion for 2. So after all that, Misawa goes to a move that hasn’t been used since his time back in All Japan, the Tiger Driver ‘91, but Kobashi gets out of that. Kobashi then takes advantage after trading elbows and lariats, getting the Sheer Drop Brainbuster for 2. So each man has a move to put the other away, Misawa with the TD ‘91, and Kobashi with the Burning Hammer. On this night, Kobashi will not be denied, and scores a victory over Misawa with the Burning Hammer to get the belt, and his first victory over Misawa for a belt in singles competition.

If you look back at this, Misawa’s five minutes of arm work mean diddly squat when you look at the end result: dropping Kobashi on his head so many times he doesn’t know what fighting spirit is. Kobashi, on the other hand, worked the neck the entire match, and even though he was head drop crazy, it worked on his side of the fence, because nearly all of his offense was focused on the neck area after Misawa bumped to the rail. Many lapses in this match causes this to be knocked down a few notches, but for two broken down men, one at 40 who has been dropped on his head more times than I can count, and for the other at 35 who has nothing but sweat and pride holding his knees together, this was a great match through sheer willpower and determination. I have no problem giving this ***1/2, and while it’s a good match, it’s not a MOTYC, let alone MOTY, not even in NOAH. In fact, the NOAH GHC tag title match three months later, the Taue/Nagata match from 6/6, the GHC JR. Tag Finals, and Nagata/Kobashi 9/12 are all better than this. But you should go see this match, just because it’s two of the best of all time. Yes, you should.

Conclusion: While this isn’t exactly a “Best of” comp, this is truly a nice bit of hodgepodge, which includes the greatest women’s match ever, one of the best juniors matches ever, and just a great mix of big names. If you want it, talk to me and we’ll work it out.

Until next time, I hope you all had a great holiday and I’ll be back with another one of those comps right there.