Toshiaki Kawada vs. Kenta Kobashi (AJPW - 6/12/1998)

There's a chance this doesn't make my list, but it's still a damn great match. It's always weird to see these guys do matwork in the early minutes, but they do a nice job escalating the violence. Kawada's selling in particular is awesome.

The opening matwork may have been filler, but I still prefer these guys working amateur exchanges and fighting for armlocks over the usual sprint opening. This was, once again, a long, solid match, which I easily enjoyed more than any long AJPW match up to this point (in 1998). The fighting spirit/no selling shit was also less prevalent. Enjoyed how Kobashi controlled early on with nasty neck cranks etc only for Kawada to start slowly getting the better and using him as a kicking bag. Lots of violent neck chops and boots to the face ensue. They dish out some insane punishment, to the point where the finishing run came across as chaotic messy. Once again I thought the match should've ended like 5-10 minutes earlier, but there was nothing egregious about it. Both guys had some crazy selling. Kawada doing his stumbling around then hit a kick to the face is like the only guy who can do that. So yeah, long, excellently worked, crazy crazy match. I don't mind there being not an epic story, but I thought the match inevitably lacked urgency as opposed to Hashimoto/Fujinami.

I definitely don’t agree on the match lacking urgency. Something I tried to get across in my PWO review was how well the end stretch was structured with getting across Kobashi’s lariat as a simple but effective move he could pull out at any moment to turn the tide in his favor and deal serious damage to Kawada. The match kind of breaks with the usual stylistic convention of guys going for bigger and more complex throws in the end stretch, with Kobashi instead dialing his move set back to focus on just hitting the lariat as that seems his best shot at capitalizing on Kawada tiring himself out. It really seems like Kobashi having the move in his repertoire and knowing how to use it makes the difference compared to their earlier matches.

I rewatched this for the first time in a few years and I think it might well be the greatest match I've ever seen. When I did my write-up back in 2018, I was fascinated by Kawada's seeming insistence on using this match to announce himself as a Misawa-esque ace by somewhat uncharacteristically refusing to target Kobashi's injured knee and Kobashi obliging by going for the classic Misawa weak spot of the neck on Kawada. This time, the subtle differences struck out to me in how much more effort Kawada puts into struggling out of moves in the early going where Misawa generally looks more comfortable on the defense, and in how quickly he tries to even the deficit by coming at Kobashi with some neck work of his own.

Another thing was just how masterfully it integrates elements from shoot fights and how it repurposes those elements for the match's sense of escalation and narrative. Not sure how I've underrated the opening matwork all this time, but it's actually really fucking cool and makes perfect sense that they'd initially focus on wear-down positioning holds given how their prior TC matches went the hour. Before, I praised Kawada grinding his forearm against Kobashi's ribs while Kobashi sat in turtle position, but Kawada also getting a leg hook in and Kobashi having to get past that to escape was a really cool detail that I didn't notice before. It reminded me of a similar spot in the Shamrock/Sano 1991 PWFG match. My favorite part of the opening matwork on this go-around, though was Kobashi trying to wrap his big meaty thighs around Kawada's head into a headscissors. I could feel a bit of a dynamic of Kawada's technique from his amateur wrestling days vs. Kobashi's size and power.

A thought I've been giving some time to recently is the idea that, counterintuitively, the best shoot fights have deeper narrative and storytelling than what you'll find in wrestling. You can spend all day watching a shoot fight in slow motion and going over the countless tactics in play and how they came together, but trying to take that approach in wrestling often quickly leads to you running into the wall of "it's cooperative, dummy." I'm not saying that this match holds up to the level of analysis you'd see on The Modern Martial Artist's Youtube channel, but it's a match that flows very logically and there's a lot to analyze the tactics in play. They go for shooty matwork to start, thinking they'll have a long match -> Kobashi takes the advantage due to his size/power and cranks Kawada's neck while in a headlock -> Kawada escalates things into a striking battle and eventually claws his way into control -> Kobashi, using tricks like fighting back tooth and nail on Kawada's big moves and hanging onto the ropes when Kawada unloads with kicks, successfully wears Kawada down -> Kawada survives many of Kobashi's big moves but is too exhausted to mount a Misawa-style comeback of his own and gets lariated into hell.

The match is full of all kinds of cool little tactical moments within it. Look for Kawada trying to roll out of the ring off a tiger suplex but getting caught in the ring ropes, how Kawada wears himself out from Kobashi's fighting back on the powerbomb attempts and his look of exhaustion after the first one, and Kawada at one point trying to get Kobashi into a muay thai clinch in the middle of the ring for some knees but Kobashi quickly backing into a corner to avoid it. Absolutely tremendous spot towards the end as well when Kawada nails Kobashi with a gamengiri but he uses the ropes and turnbuckles to keep himself up, then runs along the ropes to confuse Kawada before steamrolling him with a lariat. I usually try to avoid too much straight play-by-play, but there's just so many things that you aren't going to completely pick up on first viewing (or tenth, lol). Kobashi's early work on Kawada's body with the kicks and stepping on him initially just seem like neat spots, but they make a lot of sense in the context of the match when you understand his strategy of sapping Kawada's stamina. I really feel like you get the best of both worlds here in worked theatrics and drama that grab you on first viewing but then also shooty tactics that keep rewatches rewarding.

I think the main thing that grabbed me so hard with this match on my initial viewing was Kobashi's glassy eyed selling during the Kawada kick beatdown sections. I'd still say it's the best usage of that type of selling I've seen in a match, but the thing that's started to grab me even more since then has been Kawada's performance. There's such an incredible progression of exhaustion he shows during his control segment, which, combined with all the sweat dripping down him, makes me wonder how much of it is legit. It really struck me on this viewing just how helpless he seems when Kobashi is making his comeback. Even if he's still kicking out of stuff, he truly seems powerless to get up on his own, let alone dodge the massive lariats Kobashi is hurling at him. Yet he's too prideful to stop from trying to kick the shit out Kobashi even if he's too exhausted for any big throws or even a lariat of his own. And even then, he's not going to attack Kobashi's bad knee because it's not something his senpai would do in this position. It's his time to show that he can comeback like Misawa would and he just can't get it done, and that is so gripping for me. There's so much meaning behind every close-up of his face during the end stretch. Before, I'd always been taken in by Kobashi's likability and his announcement in the post-match of this as the beginning of a new era. Yet this time I found myself drawn towards the look of utter dejection Kawada has, seemingly towards himself, the one time the camera shows us his face after the match. And I couldn't help but feel for Kawada while I watched that post-match promo this time.

I also want to draw attention to Kawada's armbar counter and what a sheer feat it is that they actually made that into one of the most memorable near-falls of a 1998 AJPW big match. I've been watching some lesser heralded stuff lately while looking for hidden gems, and something that I've been astonished by is just how little fucks these late 90's AJPW crowds gave for submissions. Pretty much any time a guy goes for a submission it's almost a guaranteed heat killer. We even have a bit of that here when Kawada goes for the stretch plum, though I'd argue it works for getting across the futility of Kawada trying to put away Kobashi and how he's pretty much already lost the match by that point. When he goes for the armbar, though, the crowd is molten right up to Kobashi finally making it to the ropes. I could point to it as showing just how hot they'd made the overall match by that point, and it would probably be true, but I want to focus more on the execution of that move. This was a full on god damn shoot armbar that had to have hurt Kobashi like hell when it was over. Even knowing it wouldn't be the finish, I felt real drama in seeing Kobashi endure a hold like this on an arm that he'd one day require surgery on. I've seen a lot of improperly applied armbars passed off as near-falls or basic body part work in NJPW or US promotions, and it's always kind of cringe for me, so this really stood out to me in contrast to that.

Lastly, on the subject of medically ill-advised moments that added drama to the match, how about those fucking head drops. Everyone remembers the backdrop drivers Williams did on Kobashi in their 8/93 match, but the ones Kawada delivers here are right up there. I'm also not sure if it's sad or badass that we see Kikuchi watch at ringside without even flinching as Kawada eats a nasty half-nelson.

Yeah, that's an impressive in-depth look. I rewatched this recently and would *only* give it ***1/2 but I do appreciate the way it was worked and the story they tried to tell.

Lovely amateur sequence --> Kobashi control segment --> Kawada fights for ascendency --> mini-Kobashi headdrop blitz --> Kawada dominates but fails to actually put Kobashi away --> Kobashi comeback and lariat-brigade powers through the arm injury and ends all-too-familiar tale for Kawada