Misawa & Kobashi vs Kawada & Taue (RWTL - 12/3/1993)

Second

I thought I did as well. Oops. Yeah, not a lot to say here. The pillars out there doing pillar stuff and its awesome. This one is probably a little bit of a fringe candidate or me. It isn't locked in on my list, but it isn't on the outside looking in. This has one of the better Kobashi performances in this grouping. I'll be interested how this ranks for folk.

Terrific tag match even if it's not the best featuring all four men. Taue is an absolute beast as he launches Misawa into the turnbuckles and just hangs him out to dry on the top rope. Kobashi plays the spirited and emotional underdog as always, and Kawada's leg selling is fantastic. Misawa isn't quite as prominent in this match, but he's still super-fluid and does a great job cleaning house for certain stretches. It really amazes me how much action they're able to pack in these tag team matches that go close to 30 minutes and don't have an ounce of downtime or even a feeling out process.

Strong possible contender.

Come for Kawada's leg selling, stay for Taue trying to hold this shit together. Kawada/Taue are desperately trying to end this because they know Kawada is fucked. Kawada initial reaction to Kobashi going for the leg is sublime. Kobashi desperately trying to prove he belongs is also a great story. I like how Misawa basically hands Kobashi the victory with Elbows galore. It allows for growth in the sequential tag team matches. I have
this as the greatest match of 1993-1994 in All Japan over 6/3/94 and Hansen/Kobashi, which is saying something.

Holy Demon Army vs Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi - Real World Tag League 12/3/93
Vacant All Japan World Tag Team Championship
All Japan Match of the Year, 1993

The match is famous for Kawada's sublime knee selling. I think what enhanced it this go around for me is watching the Holy Demon Army vs Doc & Bossman tag match that precedes this by two days. Knowing that Kawada is coming in with an injury rather than it happening in the middle of the match was a game changer.

In their first tag match together and in their six-mans, traditionally it is Kobashi vs Taue that starts off. Misawa starts off this time. Very strategic. Misawa & Kobashi know that Taue cant tag out because Kawada is injured so this allows them to put heavy hitting Misawa in there first. They immediately reap rewards. Misawa smokes Taue with an elbow. Double Dropkick! Kobashi baseball slide! Misawa diving elbow! Great babyface shine.

Holy Demon Army's only hope really is for Taue to get an advantage have Kawada come in and consolidate & isolate one of them preferably Kobashi. We see Taue able to knock Kobashi down. Kawada wisely goads Kobashi into a chopfest wins and that and hits his famous Spinning Heel Kick. He nails, but if you watch carefully he comes up gingerly which I think I missed. This brings me to my favorite part of the psychology of this match...Holy Demon Army try to sprint to the finish line. This is not la dee da lets build to finish. This Kawada's knee is fucked...lets get the hell out of Dodge.

So we get Kawada's Mack Truck Lariat (good knee sell from Kawada here too, great subtlety) and Stretch Plum and the SIngle Leg Crab with Kawada stepping on his head. We get Snake Eyes galore from Taue. We get the bodyslam on the floor. We bodyslams and Cowboy Kicks! This was a ferocious ass kicking Kobashi took. It all made sense. The idea was to hit every bomb and get the win as fast as possible. This made for a very urgent match which I love. The game changer is Kawada lets his foot off the gas. This time it is a clear hubris flaw. He thought he had it in the bag so he playfully kicks Kobashi in the head. He chops the neck but Kobashi fires up. As Kawada would he snaps off a kick to Kobashi's leg. What is the immediate, natural response, Kobashi rifles Kawada's injured knee. Kawada flies into a FURIOUS RAGE! That is incredible. Kobashi has SPOOKED Kawada as much as he has hurt him. Kawada knows he is vulnerable and needs to snuff this out. Kawada translates that fear into ANGER and unloads on Kobashi pelting him with illegal closed fists. It is an amazing moment. Once the initial anger subsides, Kawada is left hobbling & powerless and Kobashi POUNCES on him and starts punching the hell out of the bad knee. This is one of all time favorite sequences. So awesome and emotional!

Taue tries to stop the bleeding by knocking Misawa off the apron, but Kobashi traps Taue and Misawa knocks him out and Kobashi tags in Misawa with Kawada still on his ass. Kawada looks like easy pickin's. Kawada tries to fire up and tries to potato Misawa. Misawa absorbs and smokes him with an Elbow. Tiger Driver gets two, Taue saves Kawada on the Tiger Suplex otherwise it may have been a short day at the office for the Holy Demon Army. This affords Kawada the opportunity to hit a Lariat and crawl to make a tag. Taue is rolling Snake Eyes on everything that moves. Misawa and Kobashi are just feeding him. Taue looks like a world-beater and he understands the dire straits his team is in. NODOWA/BACKDROP DRIVER COMBO! Gets two! Not as hot of a nearfall as I was expecting. I thought it was red hot in my living room. Kobashi saves. Taue hits a powerbomb on Misawa, but it is not quite the Dynamic Bomb so it is only a 2 count. He feeds Misawa into Kawada's lariat. Kawada's selling is so, so good. Kawada tries to feed Misawa in for a Nodowa, but Misawa elbows out of trouble and tags in Kobashi! This match rocks!

Kobashi is a house ablaze...chops...DDTs...he even Snake Eyes Taue! Which I popped huge for! I think the fans hate that move so much they didnt pop for it, but I loved Kobashi throwing that in Taue's face. Taue has used that move SIX times in this match. It was high time he got a taste of his own medicine. We also found out that Taue is a load. Kobashi had a hard time getting him up. Leg Drop...MOONSAULT! 1-2-NO! This match has been at a break neck pace but everything still feels logical, earned and it is breathing. Really incredible. Taue chops and lariats his way out of trouble. Here comes Kawada. Lets see what he can do on a bum wheel. Taue bough him about 5 minutes to recover will that be enough?

Kawada back drops Kobashi immediately. Trainer helps him work out his leg. His second attempt on the Back Drop Driver his knee gives out causing him to smack the back of his head on the mat hard. What a nice touch! Kobashi has the opening to tag out. Kawada grits his teeth through out and hits trusty Spinning Heel Kick to stun Misawa but his knee is all sorts of messed up. He cant hold on the German Suplex bridge. He has to release the Stretch Plum gets two. The Powerbomb ends up with Misawa sitting on his face. It was all bad for business. Kawada is trying to be a gamer but he is fucked. Kobashi dropkicks the knee. This is the first time Kobashi can really get a hold of the knee. Misawa is more sporting perhaps or maybe more pig-headed that it is elbow or death. Kobashi has no shame and dropkicks the knee to a smattering of boos I believe if my ears dont deceive me. Kawada the babyface who wouldve thunk it. Kobashi throws the Single Leg Crab complete with stomps to the head back in Kawada's face and then switches to a Texas Cloverleaf. Great stuff! Jackknife Powerbomb for two! WOW! Kobashi crashes & burns on the moonsault!

Kawada desperately needs to tag out, but Kobashi drop toeholds Kawada. Instead Kobashi is the one that tags out, oh shit! Misawa sention...frogsplash...TIGER SUPLEX! 1-2-NO! Misawa exits like he has taken a beating, lol, dude you dont know the half of it and here comes Kobashi. Kobashi lunging flying shouldertackle eats THE JUMPING HIGH KICK! One more, but Kobashi hits the Lariat that is not yet Burning! Kawada has had two cracks in the sky but cant get that tag out. Stereo Germans! It doesnt look good. Misawa ROARING ELBOW TO TAUE! ROARING ELBOW TO KAWADA! Kawada goes full limp seel on German Suplex. Misawa Diving Elbow. Backdrop Driver and Kobashi gets the pin on Kawada! They win the Real World Tag League and the Double Cup (World Tag Team Championship)!

Can you say greatest match ever? Because I sure can. Ok, maybe a little hyperbole, I had have to give it a good think. It is definitely Top 20 all time and probably Top 10. It is my 1993 Match of the Year over either Hansen/Kobashi. Kawada's knee selling is so sublime, but it is so much more than that. It is Kawada/Taue urgently trying to close this out early. It is Kawada's reaction to the first kick to the knee. It is Taue desperately trying to salvage the match. It is Kawada trying to be a gamer and grit through this. It is Kobashi trying to close it out and prove he belongs. Outstanding. *****

It's been fifteen years since I last watched this. That's not very far off half my stupid life. Fifteen years is a long time and back then I would've called this one of the ten best matches I'd ever seen. I wondered how it would hold up as just about all of the 90s All Japan I've re-watched over the last five/six years has fallen a wee bit short. Not wholly surprising as my tastes have changed and it's not like I think it all sucks, but still, it is what it is. I mean this is the kind of thing where I could pick out a bunch of stuff that I'd objectively say is good and even great, but subjectively it's just not really for me anymore and I'm old and tired and I work with fuckin children and I don't really care about the line between objective and subjective anymore. Leave that to the philosophers like Socrates or Zico or whoever.

This had all the hallmarks of your real top end 90s All Japan matches -- the structure, the established roles, the struggle, the big offence, the selling, the NARRATIVE~, the extended finishing run. It's kind of amusing how 90s All Japan was lauded for that stuff as if they were the first to do it, or if not the first then the best, when there's enough readily available footage out there now that would at least provide arguments to the contrary. Anyhow, that's by the by and I don't want to start an argument about Kawada being a poor man's Shinobu Kandori. What struck me most about this was Misawa. Just...Misawa in general. This is the match people always point to for Kawada's performance, and of course it's justified because he was good in it and the leg selling is cool, but I think at this point it's really only Misawa out of this group that I would want to watch in large quantities. I thought he was phenomenal here, in that very Misawa-ish way. People actually used to argue that that dude had no charisma and that is just absurd to me. It's obviously a different charisma to Kobashi's and even Kawada's, he was nowhere near as grandiose as the former, didn't really sell using facial expressions like the latter, didn't necessarily EMOTE like either of them, but I don't think there's ever been a better embodiment of The Ace than Misawa. I'd forgotten the gap between him and everyone else at this point in terms of where they stood in the hierarchy. Misawa felt like he could work his way through this with one hand tied behind his back if he needed to, and I suppose that was the case when you consider his partner on the night. Kobashi's trajectory was damn near vertical but he was still the clear whipping boy here, even below the gangly Taue who at least would use his surliness to give himself a leg up. That said, Kawada felt closer to Kobashi than he did Misawa and there was never really a point where it seemed like he could take Misawa down, not even when he and Taue were throwing out double-teams or when Kawada had Misawa in a stretch plum and was rocking back and forth like he was trying to yank his head off. At one point Kawada flat out kicked him in the face and Misawa shot him an amazing look of "who do you think you are?" before crumpling him with a single elbow. That was about the most Kawada managed to move the needle on Misawa the whole match - a show of irritation. I think Kawada actually hurt the leg in the first place by kicking Misawa in the head, which is even more insult to injury. You kick a man in the head and YOU end up coming off worse? No wonder that boy was always so angry. I love that Misawa didn't even acknowledge the leg though. He didn't need to, sure as he was in his dominance. Kobashi obviously went to it again and again, because that was his equalizer. There was a point after he'd been kicked up and down the place for about five minutes where he leapt on Kawada - after Misawa stepped in and dropped him with an elbow - and just started punching the knee over and over. Taue was really fun as the majority of his offence consisted of picking people up and dropping them face- and throat-first across turnbuckles, the ropes and his partner's knee. It's hard to imagine watching this that he'd eventually manage to snuff out Misawa before Kawada, but sometimes the world do be like that. Misawa feeding Kawada's corpse to Kobashi at the end and telling him to finish what was clearly already finished was perfect. You are beneath me, so much so that I don't even need the satisfaction of pinning you, and in fact I'll let my little buddy here do it instead. The disrespect. Three stars.