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Post by bossrock on Mar 28, 2020 8:41:30 GMT -5
Two all-time great wrestlers. One a heavyweight, one a junior heavyweight. One always in the shadow of the ace, one pigeonholed in his division. Both tremendous offensive wrestlers. Liger has arguably the most longevity of any wrestler, but Kawada has a sneaky good post-Pillars career. So, who ya got?
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Post by tetsujin on Mar 28, 2020 9:12:14 GMT -5
I'm surprised about how easy I find this one. My first thought was "ok, this would be tough" but... The more I think about it, the easiest the answer is to me. A couple of years ago I would have said Kawada > Liger with cero doubt, but the more I see of Liger, the more I love about him. Kawada's 1982-1987 period wasn't as good as some other GOATC's rookie years are,and his first non-Misawa's partner years weren't as good as I thought they would be, but his peak is undeniably amazing and his veteran stuff is pretty good. But Liger... Everything I've seen from Liger since 1990 to his retirement this year has been from good to all time great, and everything in between. I'm not as high on some of his most famous matches (the 1990 Sano match and the Samurai match, for example), but besides that he's very strong at every Cap's category. I'd love to see some rookie Liger sutff before choosing, but right now, with everything I have checked, Liger looks like the right answer.
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Post by elliott on Mar 28, 2020 16:51:48 GMT -5
The only thing Kawada was better at was getting his teeth knocked out.
I don't know how much "rookie year" Liger is out there. He debuted 3/84. The 4/85 match against Shunji Kosugi is really good. Other Keiichi Yamada stuff to check out:
w/ Inoki vs Takada & Kido 2/5/86
vs Hase 2/4/88
vs Koshinaka 12/9/88
He's also one of 10 in the 4/27/88 & 9/12/88 Elimination Matches. The 4/27 one is all young guns & juniors. The 9/12 match has more heavy hitters and a top 3 NJPW MOTD.
There's a bunch of great stuff after he became Liger in 4/89 to the 90 Sano match.
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Post by bossrock on Mar 28, 2020 17:26:40 GMT -5
The only thing Kawada was better at was getting his teeth knocked out. I would be more resentful of your Kawada slander if it wasn't so funny  |
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Post by elliott on Mar 28, 2020 18:26:38 GMT -5
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Post by elliott on Mar 28, 2020 18:30:34 GMT -5
I'll say something positive about Kawada because we're in the end of days time now.
I love his running high kick. When a guy would be in the corner and Kawada just sprints full speed and does the high kick in the face. That's awesome. Or the early spot in 6/9/95 when Misawa is out on the apron and Kawada just blind sides him with the high kick. That's one of the low-key greatest spots of the decade.
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Post by tetsujin on Mar 28, 2020 18:50:14 GMT -5
The only thing Kawada was better at was getting his teeth knocked out. I don't know how much "rookie year" Liger is out there. He debuted 3/84. The 4/85 match against Shunji Kosugi is really good. Other Keiichi Yamada stuff to check out: w/ Inoki vs Takada & Kido 2/5/86 vs Hase 2/4/88 vs Koshinaka 12/9/88 He's also one of 10 in the 4/27/88 & 9/12/88 Elimination Matches. The 4/27 one is all young guns & juniors. The 9/12 match has more heavy hitters and a top 3 NJPW MOTD. There's a bunch of great stuff after he became Liger in 4/89 to the 90 Sano match. Yasss that's exactly what I was looking for. Thanks! |
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Post by elliott on Apr 1, 2020 15:34:37 GMT -5
The only thing Kawada was better at was getting his teeth knocked out. I don't know how much "rookie year" Liger is out there. He debuted 3/84. The 4/85 match against Shunji Kosugi is really good. Other Keiichi Yamada stuff to check out: w/ Inoki vs Takada & Kido 2/5/86 vs Hase 2/4/88 vs Koshinaka 12/9/88 He's also one of 10 in the 4/27/88 & 9/12/88 Elimination Matches. The 4/27 one is all young guns & juniors. The 9/12 match has more heavy hitters and a top 3 NJPW MOTD. There's a bunch of great stuff after he became Liger in 4/89 to the 90 Sano match. Yasss that's exactly what I was looking for. Thanks! Just as a follow-up. I watched that Fujiwara vs Yamada match from 9/23/86 which I'd never seen before and it is really really good. Early example that makes it clear Liger would have been an all time shoot style wrestler if he had chosen to go that direction. Definitely prioritize this one for pre-Liger. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qb5MRvagx2Y |
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