Kenta Kobashi v Steve Williams (All Japan, 8/31/93)
This was alright. It's basically a big beefy boy slugfest only with head drops and suplexes and whatnot rather than punches and kicks to the eye socket. On the one hand if I'm going to watch a big beefy boy slugfest I'd probably rather watch Ashura Hara v Akitoshi Saito, but on the other hand those two for 27 minutes likely wouldn't have been as good as this so I guess we must give credit where it's due. I actually thought the pacing was really good, and even though the match was generally Big Boys Hitting Moves I don't think it really teetered into overkill territory. Didn't feel like just a collection of STUFF and there was at least progression and such. There was a point where they maybe started to lose me a wee bit, but I'd seen this enough times that the anticipation for the lunacy at the end woke me up again. That backdrop driver was teased throughout and it was always lurking in the back of your mind. Whenever Williams went for it Kobashi immediately scrambled out of dodge and there was a palpable sense of danger around the move. The first one at the end is of course insanity, met with a sort of ripple through the crowd where they might wonder if Kobashi's actually dead, then Williams does it again and Kobashi's selling is something I could be convinced is genius one day and just the absolute dumbest shit another day. Then the third backdrop driver is basically like swatting a house fly with a hand grenade. Cue up the "he's already dead!" Simpsons GIF. I might watch Misawa/Williams from the following week to see how it compares. Later, perhaps. Or another year down the line.
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