Stan Hansen vs. Mitsuharu Misawa (AJPW - 7/27/1990)

Second.

I can't remember when or if I've ever even seen this before. I wanted to watch it because i generally agree with Bossrock that Misawa vs Hansen matches don't get a ton of love. I know other than this one there are at least a couple that I really like a lot.

This didn't blow me away in terms of being a contender for this list, but I really liked it a lot. Hansen was really good in this but he was basically the perfect wrestler so of course he was. I really liked the beginning with Misawa lariating Hansen at the start and just attacking Hansen's arm immediately. Misawa grabbing the cowbell and a chair to attack Hansen was cool because its Misawa. The middle portion with Misawa controlling the match by working over Hansen's arm kinda dragged for me. Misawa did some cool stuff at times and Hansen's selling and near escapes/comebacks were great, but Misawa was never particularly interesting at working holds and the middle portion of this was Misawa working holds. Finishing stretch was really good and this was before All Japan was overdoing it in every match.

Not a contender for my list, but I'm really glad this got nominated and I watched it because it was a very enjoyable match that I encourage folks to watch.