Some '94 All Japan

Toshiaki Kawada v Steve Williams (All Japan, 4/16/94)

The first thing I noticed here is that Kawada has all of his teeth. Truly a sign that I've spent too long talking about wrestling with our good man elliott on the GME Discord. I thought this was mostly good and in points really good. Williams was pretty awesome as the human embodiment of a mountain you needed to scale, especially if that mountain was almost entirely comprised of cliff faces that were trying to throw you off them. All of his little shuffling on the spot was fun jock shit and at a couple points he'd pick up Kawada and throw him with legitimately absurd ease. The Doctor Bomb was the prime example but there was another moment where he just hoisted Kawada up and planted him with a powerslam that made Kawada look like a small child. The best parts of the match were when he'd haul off and punch Kawada dead in the face. The first time he did it was a single shot by way of response to one of Kawada's kicks, and the Kawada KO sell is as dead a horse as any horse can be but I thought this was one of his better KO sells ever. A punch from a unit like Williams would shatter many a chin (though I guess not Bart Gunn's). Then later Williams threw an ungodly flurry where the final roundhouse about took the fuckin jaw clean off Kawada's face. It was an awesome mess with the bull and you get the horns performance from Doc. I thought Kawada was excellent at getting across how dangerous Williams was too, and especially how dangerous his big bombs were. The first time Williams even attempts to grab Kawada's waist Kawada scrambles away, then every instance after that he would try and buck or twist or outright leap for the ropes if there was a hint of backdrop driver (or Oklahoma Stampede at another point). The one time he couldn't he was already half out on his feet and by christ did Williams murder him with this thing. Kawada rolling to the floor made sense because at that point what the hell else do you do? The first tiger suplex was also one of the nastiest versions of that move ever, and it came from a great little slow build where Williams used a seated ab stretch, moved into a sort of chickenwing, then grabbed both arms and launched him. Williams sold being slowly chipped away at really well down the stretch and I loved him trying to fight off that last powerbomb by almost going dead weight, probably not even sure where he was but instinct telling him he didn't want to be there. 

Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi v Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue (All Japan, 5/21/94)

Having watched the '93 Tag League final a few months ago, this felt like progress. Not just for the Holy Demon Army, though mostly for the Holy Demon Army, but for Kobashi as well; Baba's long-term booking in all its glory. Prolly. In the '93 match there was never really a point where I felt like Kawada - never mind Taue - was on Misawa's level. They were an annoyance to Misawa and even Kobashi's relative inexperience as Misawa's partner wasn't enough to force the latter into much of a sweat. He could've gone at them both alone and won the thing. This felt a bit different, like the gap had been closed somewhat, which I guess is what you want in a long-term storyline. Misawa was still the unquestioned Man but it didn't feel like anything came as easy to him here. Part of that was Kawada and Taue being a little nastier than before, probably a little smarter too. Kawada was as ornery as I've ever seen him, as mean and combative as you'd need to be to step to the Ace at this point in time. You saw it in the early stages when he'd boot Misawa off the apron and glare in disgust, or when he'd just stomp on Kobashi's kneecap. The work on Kobashi's knee felt like a receipt for the Tag League as well. Kawada didn't forget, not about the beating his own knee took that night and not about how Misawa treated him like an afterthought. In that match there was only one instance where Misawa even acknowledged Kawada, and in that moment he gave him a quick look of annoyance and shut him down immediately with an elbow. He never needed to do anything else, such was the gap between them. He even fed Kawada's corpse to Kobashi at the end, one last insult. There was a moment here where Misawa was driven past annoyance into legit anger, which didn't happen often. It was when Kawada started booting him in the face. Misawa's response was one of the best "do you know who the fuck I am?" looks before crumpling the wee fella. Then he tagged in Kobashi, because Kawada was still beneath him. I feel like narratively speaking people saw Kawada as being closer to Misawa's level at this point, especially leading into the June title match, but having watched the surrounding matches over the last few months I keep getting the impression Misawa is waaaay out in front. Kawada's Napoleon Syndrome has only gotten him wellied in the face. There was a bunch of other good stuff here as well, obviously. Kawada and Taue flipping the script from the Tag League and going after Kobashi's knee was a nice touch and Kobashi largely sold it all the way to the end, even past the point where it was a proper focus, like when he hit the first moonsault and couldn't really capitalise because knee hit canvas in the process. I also liked how he paid Kawada in kind a bit later by doing the shinbreaker on the announcer's desk. Another thing about having seen all of this stuff before -- it can be easy to project, maybe see things that aren't really there, find setups that you convince yourself are paid off later. Maybe that's the case here but I thought it was cool seeing what looked like the early formation of the "isolate Misawa's partner and pray we can keep Misawa out the way for a while" strategy. A couple years later they had to flip that and isolate Misawa while keeping Akiyama out the road, better the devil you know and all that, but for now the smart course of action felt like targeting Kobashi. It never worked but fuck it, you live and learn. Kobashi also felt way more capable of holding his own. In the Tag League final he wouldn't have lasted 10 minutes without Misawa, but he went toe to toe here and probably came out on top as often as not. That he picked up the win for his team without Misawa actively feeding it to him was a huge step, and there was one save off a powerbomb that was absolutely vital. Great finishing run, because obviously. Look, I'm pretty confident that there are about a dozen styles of wrestling I prefer more at this stage of the game, but it's tough to keep me engaged for a 40-minute match and other than the two times I paused it to go pour more whisky, this pretty well managed it.