Kobashi v Misawa -- The Superclassic!

Kenta Kobashi v Mitsuharu Misawa (All Japan, 1/20/97)

Well, in case y'all might've had other ideas, this is still an absolute fucking scorcher of a pro-wrestling match. I've had trouble with a few of the lengthier All Japan matches (even the truly heralded ones) in recent times and struggled to really settle in early. There'll usually be a point where they do something and it all clicks into place and they'll have me 100% for the rest of the journey, but even in the '96 Tag League I found the first ten minutes sort of bland, at least in comparison to the rest of it. This had me right from the go and not once did I check out.

There are really only four or five key transitions/momentum shifts the whole match and we get two in the first ten or so minutes. After the initial feeling out stage, which at this point for these two is a case of throwing strikes and hitting a mid-range bomb, Kobashi gains control and starts working Misawa's ribs. It doesn't last too long but it's good stuff. Kobashi wasn't DEEPLY into the stage of his career where he'd start doing annoying shit, although even at his fighting spirity worst he always had killer offence and world class strikes. He'd cut off Misawa early by hitting a sort of leaping spear, then he'd back him into the corner and throw these great body punches, and of course everything was interspersed with his chop variations. He has great chops and will spin chop you right in the neck so we're all digging proceedings early. When Misawa takes over he sells the damage pretty subtly, like how he'll stop after an offensive move and huff a bit longer than usual. He isn't selling like his lungs are burst because the situation doesn't require that, but he's just been kneed in the guts several times so he's not in perfect shape either.

Then the major turning point comes when he tries to hit the elbow off the apron and smashes his arm off the guardrail. Kobashi is absolutely first class going after this and has a ton of interesting ways to work the arm. Submissions hadn't been over as legitimately viable finishers in All Japan for about six years at this point but I'll be fucked if they never had folk buying that cross armbreaker when he finally locked it in. They had those awesome little bits of build and escalation working as well, like how Kobashi went for the cross armbreaker initially and Misawa made the ropes before it could be properly applied, which put over how much of a struggle even getting that hold on him would be, and then of course it felt huge when it eventually happened for real. Misawa's sell of the arm was phenomenal and about as good as any sell of a body part I've seen. He was typically subtle with it, especially in comparison to Kobashi's grander expressions, but he was pure magic. You knew he was going to keep throwing elbows no matter what. It's his oldest and most reliable weapon; even if that arm's hanging on by a mere sinew he will elbow you in the fucking mouth. It's the way he'd do the little things, though. The longer it went and the more damage Kobashi did to the arm, the more effort Misawa needed to exert and the more detrimental throwing those elbows would be. He'd fire back with one and it'd rock Kobashi, but then he'd need to use the other arm to follow up, or worse yet take a second for the pain to subside, and that would sometimes let Kobashi back in. Kobashi refusing to be put in his place by his old partner was great as well. He wasn't Misawa's #2 anymore, he was the Triple Crown champ and Misawa needed to step back. Then he goes for the lariat and Misawa just fucks him in the arm with his own dodgy elbow, so now we've got both guys with a bad wing.

The contrast in selling is so cool at this point, because both sell their arm amazingly, but it goes back to Kobashi being way more grandiose with Misawa stoicly powering through. And whether it was intentional on their part or just a byproduct of how they chose to communicate pain, Kobashi's arm being totally fucked after ONE Misawa elbow after all the shit he had thrown at said elbow himself told a story in its own right. Misawa might not look like it, but that guy is the Terminator and you better take your opportunity to put him away when you have it. Misawa doesn't really work the arm to the extent Kobashi did, but it remains an outlet for Misawa to exploit and Kobashi is clearly hampered by it. At this point they start bringing out the bombs and if they ended the match after 25 minutes it would've been a MOTYC. Except they go another 15, and the fact it never once felt remotely like overkill is sort of staggering in its own right (I know YMMV but generally speaking my mileage is not typically great on heavily extended finishing runs). There were a ton of awesome moments, from the micro to the macro, my favourite maybe coming when Kobashi decides he has to use the arm for the lariat only for Misawa to block it and both of them end up going down clutching an arm. I guess you could argue that Kobashi should've gone back after the arm when Misawa started to regain some footing, but it never felt like Kobashi's end goal was to win with an arm hold or the likes. It was there as a base off of which he could start dropping nukes, while at the same time slowing Misawa down. The latter was clearly working because Misawa was struggling to hit his own big moves (and again, the way he sold that was near impeccable), and that alone kept Kobashi in the fight. Misawa even hit the Tiger Driver and couldn't cover him properly because the arm basically gave out. More arm work might've made the whole end stretch even more dramatic, but I definitely don't think it suffered due to any lack of it.

The last big momentum shift comes when Kobashi goes for his one last "no you will NOT make the big fucking comeback" gambit by trying a powerbomb off the apron. It's full desperation and the STRUGGLE is so great, just from the way Misawa practically tries to crawl out the ring for some respite while Kobashi sees his chance and has to pick him up one-handed. Of course Misawa reverses it and Kobashi takes a ludicrous rana bump to the floor and sells it like he's been shot in the kidneys. He never fully recovers from there while Misawa does what he always does and finds a way, because he is by god Mitsuharu Misawa and you shall not pass. Kobashi kicking out of the Tiger Driver '91 was massive and there might've even been a hint of uncertainty on Misawa's face. After that all Kobashi can really do is crawl around half dead, feebly attempting these lariats from his knees that have nothing behind them. By the end he knows for an absolute fact that he's fucked, yet he'll stand and meet his doom head on because at the end of it all we are who we are and he is Kenta Kobashi.

There are only a small handful of matches at this point that I'm almost completely confident will hold up to the absolute elite/***** level no matter how often I watch them. I've said before that the book on 90s All Japan is pretty much closed for me and I don't have a ton of interest in rewatching it, but there are more All Japan matches included among that handful than any other. I would give this match the full McConaughey in True Detective GIF; the most prestigious of all Whiskey & Wrestling accolades.