Jumbo Tsuruta v Mitsuharu Misawa (All Japan, 6/8/90)
I haven't watched this in close to fifteen years. I imagine that, like a lot of people, it was my gateway to 90s All Japan. I remember reading back then about the deep storytelling and how you really needed to watch a lot of it chronologically to pick up on all the intricate details they were weaving into these matches. 6/9/95 is the pinnacle of pro-wrestling but you better check out these fifty three matches that came before it to REALLY get a handle on the tale they're telling. It was kind of carny in retrospect, but the passion folk had for writing about it was infectious and it's certainly a major reason why I started watching stuff outside of my WWF/WCW comfort zone. This always made sense as the place to dive in. You got the ageing ace of the 70s/80s and the future ace of the 90s. You got to see where Misawa cemented his spot. You got to see King's Road in its infancy. Plus you needed to see this for the sixth interaction between Misawa and Kawada in the fourteenth Misawa/Kobashi v Kawada/Taue match to truly resonate the way it should so really it was the perfect place to start. I don't remember exactly what I thought about it on last watch, never mind the very first watch. In 2019, at a point where I've mostly closed the book on 90s All Japan, I thought it had a great opening five minutes and a great closing five minutes but a middle fifteen that didn't really do a ton for me. I guess I'd rather be watching Battlarts? The opening ruled and I thought they did a solid job establishing both guys' strengths. Misawa wrestled more like a heavyweight than he did as Tiger Mask, but he only shed the hood a couple weeks ago so he still had some of those tricks up his sleeve. He had to get squirmy to escape a backdrop, reversing it into a pinning situation which I guess is a cool bit of foreshadowing for the finish. Then he went to the fake-out tope and dropkicked Jumbo into the barricade. That was an awesome spot because Jumbo obviously wasn't seeing anything like it from the heavyweights he was used to wrestling. It established a point of attack for Misawa that Jumbo probably didn't have an answer for (yet). Jumbo hitting the high knee and 'OH'ing with the crowd felt appropriately dismissive, but then Misawa slapped him across the face because he's here to stay. At that point you expect Jumbo to maul him, but they mostly settle into a steady wrestling match and Jumbo working from above wasn't the most compelling. I remembered Misawa's strikes playing a bigger role as well, especially after the six-man that started the whole thing where he was scrambling Jumbo's brains with elbows. Or maybe it was the rematch where they really played that up. I did like that Misawa's flying bailed him out a few more times in the body of the match and the big plancha to the floor down the stretch looked killer. Even when Jumbo was dominant there was always that danger of Misawa being agile enough to pull *something* out the bag. That of course plays into the finish and I still think it works really well, as does the set up with Jumbo taking the crazy bump into the ropes (which I'd forgotten about). Misawa managed to hang with him and it always felt like he was in with a chance, even if it was because of how different he was to Jumbo's most recent rivals. He may not have won decisively, but he used that athleticism to best Jumbo when he needed to and a three count is a three count. I always thought the rematch was the real classic so maybe I'll check that out again soon. I haven't seen that in about fifteen years, either.
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