Kenta Kobashi vs Mistuharu Misawa (AJPW - 6/11/1999)

The finishing stretch is actually my favorite bit. Kobashi is closer than ever and keeps getting up and Misawa has to bust out literally everything to put him away. Great build too but the body of the match is not as compelling as compared to their other matches. Third.

Most people could only dream of a match this good. 1/20/97, 10/31/98 and 3/1/2003 will make it but this will just miss the cut.

I have watched 10/98 and was blown away on re-watch, but did not have time to write up a review. So I am going to rewatch that again tonight. This is the last major Misawa/Kobashi match that I have not seen before.



AJPW Triple Crown Mitsuharu Misawa vs Kenta Kobashi - AJPW 6/11/99



Misawa comes into this match the newly minted champion defeating Vader for the title at the Baba Memorial Dome Show (last really great Vader singles match). Since their last meeting in October of 1998, Misawa had lost the titles to Kawada in the infamous Ganso Bomb/Kawada's arm breaks match and Kobashi lost in the Champion Carnival Finals of '99 to Vader. Kobashi is 0-4 in Triple Crown match against Misawa at this point.



A decidedly slower build to this 43 minute epic sees Kobashi start off with a quick flying cross armbreaker before settling into a headlock sequence. If you are going to go long, I prefer the slower, NWA-style build they opt for and in addition Kobashi is taking a much more conservative approach. After losing 4 times, I think he realizes him taking chances had cost him so if he could wear Misawa down to set up his bombs he would have a better chance. Kobashi works his way into a hammerlock targeting the arm, which all Misawa opponent know is the bets strategy. I like the teasing of the headrops here, but with nobody landing any. They do some really nice tests of strength here, which I always enjoy as a way to show each competitor's manliness. Misawa is nominal in control and Kobashi invites him into a strike exchange, which is an interesting strategy. Against pretty much anybody else, Kobashi and his chop would have a definitive edge, but Misawa with his elbow is his equal If not his superior. Kobashi does win the strike exchange with a blistering barrage of spinning back chops. That first one was particularly nasty. Kobashi begins work on Misawa's midsection using his knee lift as the primary weapon. He gives Misawa a little too much room to breathe and he fires back with an elbow and Kobashi ends up on the outside. Now this has been where a lot of the turning points in the previous matches have happened. Lo and behold, Kobashi catches him in a power slam off the apron. No Misawa diving head first into a steel railing, but it will do. Kobashi goes for a move off the apron, but when Misawa starts to back sass him with some elbows, he grabs his wrist and JUMPS FROM THE APRON TO THE RAILING WRAPPING MISAWA'S ARM AROUND THE GUARDRAIL!!! OH! That's the turning point.



The match actually gets really interesting here and actually had the potential to be the most interesting match of the series in my opinion. It seemed like it was asking the question "What if Misawa did not have his elbow to make the comeback?". Kobashi destroyed the arm, ramming into hard objects, nice hammerlock DDTs, GREAT heat on the cross armbreaker (sold very well by Misawa). Misawa trying to mount a comeback with only kicks was great. Misawa busted up Kobashi's mouth with one of those kicks to the face. Only for Kobashi to start dumping him on his head to set up a Nagata-style armbreaker. Misawa finally stuns Kobashi enough by a wicked kick to the face. Kobashi sells like he has been knocked loopy outside. Misawa is still in a pretty bad way. Outside, he cements his advantage by elbowing Kobashi's bad leg and suplexing him off the apron (successfully doing what he intended to do at 10/97). Then he hits his diving elbow. I don't mind these one-off uses of the elbow and he is selling pretty big. Misawa runs through his stuff: missile dropkick, flying bodypress and then on the Tiger Driver, he releases very quickly because his arm is shot. I love it. He has made most of his comeback through kicks, but when it came time to polish off Kobashi he couldn't. Then he makes a strange decision on the surface. He goes for a Tiger Driver off the apron. Seems silly after not being able to hit the first one properly, but that move was the key to winning 10/98 so if he does hit it, it would seal victory. Showing that Misawa felt he needed a home run now or never.



Kobashi backdrops Misawa onto the apron. He goes for the Half-Nelson Suplex, but Misawa blocks, but on second attempt Misawa eats it. This is actually when my intrigue was piqued. Misawa had to make the first comeback completely without elbows, what was going to happen here. Kobashi went through dumping Misawa on his head a bunch (the powerbomb, powerbomb hotshot was pretty cool), the moonsault was sweet, I LOVED THE CALLBACK TO 7/29/93 with Misawa as Kobashi & Kobashi as Hansen. Whats Misawa's second greatest defensive move after his elbow, well it is the Misawa-rana out of the powerbomb and that's what he nails on the floor sending Kobashi crashing into railing. Misawa creates a lot of space here, but is in a really bad way. Kobashi is actually the next to hit a move being a jumping high knee in the corner. Misawa stakes his defensive position in the corner. He ducks the lariat. Hits a German. Awesome! Kobashi charges again, Misawa gets double elbows up on the lariat arm (1/20/97, but this time needs two elbows).



At this point the match loses its luster for me, Misawa makes his typical comeback elbows included. It just became so routine. I really thought arm work that completely destroyed Misawa's elbow was novel. We had seen Misawa fight through the pain, which I love but making that comeback with kicks was great. The Kobashi finish run was nice and Misawa transition to the real finish run was great, but at the end it became very All Japan same-y. That Tiger Driver '91 was nasty. Cant believe Kobashi kicked out. Nice flash Kobashi hope spot with the sleeper suplex. It was elbows, head drops and Emerald Flowsion. It was awesome, nothing that had not been seen before (well I guess Emerald Flowsion was new, but I was never impressed by that much).



First 15 minutes are well-worked NWA-style championship match that I think sets the table as each competitor as an equal and Kobashi trying to be more conservative in setting up for the win. Loved the transition off the apron into the arm work, great drama with both arm-based submission. Misawa making a "no-elbow" comeback was very cool. Thought the half-nelson suplex transition and Kobashi run was tons of fun (7/29/93 callback popped me huge). The Misawa transition to comeback was again very interesting, but the finish run was same 'ol same 'ol even if it was a great fireworks display. I would say this is the fourth best Misawa/Kobashi match, but one that should get praised more and discussed more. ****1/2

The psychology of this match is really underrated. I've always been critical of the first 10 minutes or so and how the match takes a bit to get going, but watched in the context of their other title matches I think I get what they were going for. Their other matches were defined by them having each other scouted really well and also mistakes leading to big turning points, so they naturally tried to bring new things to the table and were tentative to repeat mistakes from their prior matches. It's one of those blink and you miss it things, but I love the moment when Kobashi has Misawa in a surfboard and Misawa jolts his body as if to do his usual flip kick counter, but seemingly decides against it after how Kobashi counter it in their 10/98 match.

Bit of a side note, but I think it's interesting how the norm in big match series is for the first match to be more heavy on feeling-out type stuff while the rematches are more to the point, and Kobashi/Misawa turns that on its head. 10/95 and 1/97 feature early runs of big offence, but 10/98 and 6/99 have most of the big offense saved for the end stretch and the early going is more tentative than the earlier bouts. That's really something I think people complaining about the "excessive finish runs" in those matches miss.

On the arm work, that's another thing I'd been critical of in the past due to 1. Kobashi reusing a lot of spots from 1/97 and 2. Misawa's selling not making it feel as meaningful as it did in 1/97, but again I think I understand things better now. I mentioned earlier that the theme of the match's beginning was them trying to come up with new ideas to surprise their opponent, but I feel like as the story unfolded we started to see Kobashi kind of fall back on a lot of the things that he went with in earlier matches. This time Misawa has the arm work scouted pretty well with his awesome kicks-based comeback, and he later neutralizes Kobashi pretty well with some arm work of his own, so it doesn't damage him as much as it did in 1/97. Besides the arm work, there's also other neat spots going along with that theme of Kobashi not quite being able to change things when push comes to shove, like how he gets screwed over again by a powerbomb->hurricanrana counter, and there's that spot at the end where he keeps trying to hit the lariat even as Misawa elbows him every time he goes in. There's a lot of focus on Kobashi's growth in this series and that's definitely a huge story point in their other matches, but I think with this one the focus is more on Misawa's growth and how he's adapted to Kobashi.