Comparisons & Contrasts: Misawa/Kawada vs Magnum/Tully

This is an interesting one. I just drew up a very rough top 50 that I am going to start working off of and these two matches were around the same tier, with Tully/Magnum being just a little head. As of right now I have them both in the 20-35 range I think (don't have the list in front of me).

Misawa/Kawada was a match that was hyped to me as the greatest ever before I saw it. That is an unfortunate thing to have to live up to, honestly. Even still, I think it is an all time great. I haven't seen it in a while, so my memory might be a bit fuzzy and/or everything could change on my impending rewatch; however, this match strikes me as one of the most well balanced and shining examples of great AJPW 90s wrestling. It was in many ways the ultimate clash between Misawa and Kawada, who were bitter rivals. Kawada and Misawa sell very differently, but this is a great performance from both with respect to their selling. Kawada sells concussion/death as well as anyone and Misawa's ever-stoic refusal to show pain waivers in all the right spots, especially when the dude is literally concussed (something that may turn off modern fans or some fans watching again in our modern climate). It is back and forth and builds drama through high impact offense, great execution, two guys leaving it all on the line to prove who is the better man.

Magnum/Tully has a few little advantages to me that push it over the edge. First, I didn't watch this in context (I was 1), but I did watch it when I was fairly young and still in my child phase of wrestling. I had no notion of "greatest match" or what might even constitute that, but this still stood out to me as a visceral, singular match (I wouldn't have put it that way, but you get it). So this match has been with me longer, etched more into my DNA as a wrestling fan perhaps. Second, probably not completely unrelated, I am a guy who loves his bloody brawls. This match is about hatred and they never let you forget that. This match builds its drama through hatred and an elevation of violence. There is a danger here, almost a feeling that things are getting out of control. In a way, that is the kind of wrestling that resonates with me most.

I really like this comparison and may try to watch them side by side because I think these matches represent two ways of "doing" hatred in wrestling... two ways of performing visceral animosity. Some of that might be cultural or it might just be styles of wrestling (or both), but the matches at their core I think are trying to get at the same thing from different angles. I keep returning to this analytic for thinking about a match that achieves true greatness and I believe I heard Chad mention it on a podcast. When it feels like whoever loses isn't going to be the same after a match, like they have invested so much in winning that the match is going to take a piece of them with it, that is when it really hits that highest level. I feel like both of these matches achieve this in their own way (and I am not maybe talking myself into having each higher). The devil will be in the details when deciding which way to go. I think it will be hard for me to detach the context of knowing these matches from how I rank them. I also just think, when all else is equal, a brawl featuring two guys bleeding all over the place and trying to stab each other's eyes out will win out.

Great pick to compare.