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Post by fxnj on Mar 12, 2019 1:20:11 GMT -5
To appreciate the work of the 90s AJPW crew, I think it really helps to sometimes take a break and watch other stuff. Even in a lesser regarded match like this, Misawa and Akiyama's fundamentals felt like they in a different league of skill from the other wrestling I've seen lately. Misawa's elbows are simply a thing of beauty. I'd go as far as saying that this is a fantastic title match on its own that I don't think has gotten its proper due. Big match feel, layered psychology, vicious exchanges, and a great sense of escalation. The story of the first half centers on a conflict in Uncle Jun on the difference between just beating Misawa and proving himself as worthy of the top spot. He already knows that he can beat Misawa, but this time he wants to do so by taking him head-on rather than relying on the neck-work strategy he used last year. Thus, he begins the match by engaging in an elbow exchange with Misawa and predictably ends up getting destroyed. He's forced to return to his old neck work, but he later lets his ego get the better of him when he goes back to striking, which gives an Misawa an opportunity to get grumpy on him and regain control of the match. In the latter half he starts to find his groove with a combination of returning to the neck work and looking for openings to land exploders, but Misawa definitely doesn't go down without a fight. I loved Akiyama's selling of Misawa's elbows, even when he was on offense. There's an excellent reversal sequence they do on the ramp with Akiyama teasing an exploder off of it that kind of foreshadows the big spot in 3/1/03. The Super Tiger Driver kickout is a spot I've seen people dislike, but I actually thought it added a lot to the match. Firstly, you kind of had to have a big kick-out like that to make it clear Akiyama deserved the win given how they were running with the story about Misawa smoking him in the strike exchanges. Secondly, it serves to conclude a theme behind Misawa's prior title matches with Kawada, Misawa, and Akiyama on 2/98 where it seemed Misawa always had some new trick up his sleeve whenever it looked like he was in danger. Misawa thinking that all he needed to finish Akiyama after that were a few elbows sort of seemed like a callback to how he finished Kobashi on 10/98, complete with Akiyama doing the crumble. Similar to Kobashi surviving the ramp Tiger Suplex in 3/1/03, Akiyama surviving the Super Tiger Driver serves to show that he's deserving of being the new ace and gives the last few minutes this epic passing of the torch feel. Loved the last few minutes between the molten crowd, Misawa's sick bumps on the flash Exploders, the guillotine near-fall, and the slow build to the match-ending Wrist-Clutch Exploder. Really can't ask for much more from this dynamic. ****1/2
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Post by superstarsleeze on Nov 17, 2019 0:27:25 GMT -5
What I remember most about this is the Super Tiger Driver and the crazy finish! I love the finish so much, both men in a corner and they just come out charging. Knee vs Elbow and whoever hits it will win. I thought that was so cool. This match is criminally underrated as FXNJ points out. This finished I believe in my Top 30 for Best of Japan in the 2000s.
GHC Heavyweight Champion Mitsuharu Misawa vs Jun Akiyama - Budokan 1st Anniversary Show 07/27/01
The crowning achievement of Jun Akiyama's career as it finally seems like he is going to be the man. All of 2000 was leading to this climax where he defeats Misawa to become the GHC Champion. The aftermath would turn out differently as NOAH would reset and go with Kobashi as their big drawing ace. However, for this one night Akiyama looked like he fulfilled his potential and had become puroresu's new big star.
In their last big match at the Budokan, Misawa lost to Akiyama and he comes out elbows blazing. He will not be deterred and elbows through everything. Akiyama tries to powder. Misawa keeps elbowing. Akiyama ties to take it to the mat. Misawa elbows out. Akiyama tries to go elbow for elbow well that is just preposterous. Akiyama finally kills this onslaught by dropkicking Misawa off the top rope onto the floor in a sweet bump. Akiyama drives his knee into Misawa back sending him crashing into the railing. Misawa is not the only who remembers their previous match as Akiyama goes for Misawa's neck with a tombstone piledriver and some neck submissions. All of sudden we are transported to the Greensboro Coliseum where the "Total Package" Mitsuharu Misawa no-sells "Nature Boy" Jun Akiyama's strikes in the corner and cleans his clock with some more elbows and Akiyama has some great webble-wobble, ropes holding me up sells of it. The one of the biggest stylistic differences in this match from the 02/00 match is that Misawa gets way more of his offense in this match. I don't if it is due to his age, but Misawa almost looks demonic when he slaps on the front facelock the way his eye-brows are arched. Misawa gets his trademark diving elbow to the floor after doing a rana out of a powerbomb and a butterfly suplex after he cant get his Tiger Driver. Then out of nowhere Akiyama applies a crossface.
Here come the fireworks! Akiyama DDTs Misawa on the ramp and teases an Exploder and a German off the ramp onto the floor, but Misawa elbows him off. Similar to Misawa's fatal mistake in 2000, Akiyama dodges an elbow from the ramp and drives him to floor. He capitalizes on this mistake with an Exploder on the floor and in the ring. Then in a perplexing move, Akiyama goes to the top? They tease a superplex until you realize that they are actually going to do a SUPER TIGER DRIVER~! It did not look as great as it possibly could have, but the audience and announcers all collectively lost their shit. Misawa sells his own damage thus it takes him too long to cover. Misawa follows up with the Roaring Elbow and a Tiger Driver both getting two. Hence he looks to finish off Akiyama and hit the Emerald Flowsion, but Akiyama wriggles free to hit two Exploders to level the playing field.
They are both in their respective corners and charge at each other, but it is Akiyama's high knee that finds the mark. The end is nigh for Misawa. The brainbuster and choke fail to polish off Misawa, but the combination of an Exploder and a Wrist-Clutch Exploder ultimately finish Misawa and Akiyama wins his first major singles title.
Unlike the first match, Akiyama feels like he is overcoming Misawa's onslaught of elbows and bombs. In the first match, he builds a huge lead and needs to weather the inevitable comeback. In this performance, he proved he does not have to be a front runner and he has big time comeback ability. I loved Misawa's presence in this. He was not going to lose to Akiyama again and just elbowed through everything. He would not be denied. The problem was that when he tried something high-risk it paid off with him crashing and burning (yes he pulled off the SUPER TIGER DRIVER~!, but more often than not he ate concrete). Eventually, it came down who was quicker at pulling the trigger Akiyama's knee or Misawa's elbow and the younger Akiyama won that battle and ultimately the match. My major issue with this match was the transitions were pretty lame and did not weave a complete story. The Akiyama crossface and the SUPER TIGER DRIVER~! were poorly set up from an in-ring action perspective. I don't think they made the most of their big spots. Nothing seemed to have any consequence until about 2 minutes to go. I liked the story, but I thought the plot devices could have been better combined to deliver a more complete match.
Rewatched this as I felt I short-changed it. It is amazing that I am agreeing with my reviews almost wholeheartedly I just absolutely hate the ratings I am giving. What is my problem! After Misawa lost in 2000 this is the exact match they needed especially if Akiyama is scheduled to win. Misawa has, has to reestablish himself as a major obstacle for Akiyama to overcome and he does that by elbowing through everything. Akiyama and Misawa are making each earn everything. Akiyama is not standing around just getting elbowed he is forcing Misawa to elbow through his offense. By the same token when Misawa hesitates like he did on the top rope early Akiyama dropkicks him off the top rope. I loved how they constantly attacking, but with Misawa getting the better. Thus Akiyama earns another victory over Misawa, but this time it is through resiliency rather than pure offense. He plays Misawa's game and wins. Misawa is forced to one-up himself and more often than not does more harm than good. Thus the Super Tiger Driver was the key to victory, but could not follow it up. Akiyama has enough fight to counter the Emerald Flowsion and hit a bomb. Like I said, they are both recovering in opposite corners. It comes down to who can pull the trigger first and Akiyama hits the knee and the rest is history. Akiyama outlasts Misawa and wins proving February 2000 was no fluke and that he can come from behind. Some of the transitions were a bit lame and it was a bit bloated and listless in the middle. The overall story propels this to fourth best match of 2001 and probably no worst than #30. ****1/2
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Post by fxnj on Aug 25, 2023 12:50:52 GMT -5
Watching this after some of the late 90's stuff and back-to-back with 2001 AJPW makes this match feels just a tad less special. The Nagata presence at ringside feels like more of a distraction than something that helps the match, and it also comes across as NOAH piggy-backing off something AJPW did given that Mutoh/Tenryu from last month had Fujinami watching at ringside. Misawa's attention to detail in his selling performance also seems to have weirdly regressed compared to the godly level he reached in 1997-2000. The layout, though not as annoyingly formulaic as Kobashi's later GHC defences, is a bit questionable in terms of getting over Akiyama, with Akiyama spending most of the match wrestling really dumb (in kayfabe) trying to trade elbows with Misawa, and the finish run creates the impression that he just barely squeaked by instead of this being a true passing of the torch. I could have sworn this had a decisive finish with Akiyama hitting the Sternness Dust Alpha. Mandela effect shit.
Even despite all that, this is still probably MOTY. Pretty much everything in my old review still holds, but I think what I underrated a bit was just how many cinematic visuals or gif worthy moments the match has. Misawa stoically standing over a fallen Akiyama, Akiyama's incredible chicken leg selling Misawa's elbow, Misawa setting up the Super Tiger Driver while a little girl jumps in the background, Misawa transitioning from a neck stretch into a hard elbow on Akiyama's nose, Misawa's facials while Akiyama puts him in neck holds, Misawa following up a front kick to the chest with a front kick to the chin, Akiyama's look of disbelief followed by triumph when he gets the win. The list just goes on and on, to the point that it feels like I'm just doing play-by-play trying to list any more. These guys just got how to make a match feel epic.
Even with Misawa taking a step back with his selling, he takes a step forward with his offense. His elbows look great and there's a real focus to his performance with how he dismantles Akiyama for most of the match. I love the contrast of Akiyama's weak ass elbows that Misawa barely sells with the sledgehammers Misawa throws that leave Akiyama loopy. It feels like Misawa wrestled a near-perfect match but he just underestimated how much Akiyama had left in the tank and gave him just enough openings to give the win. Lastly, one way that watching the context actually improved the match was in picking up on the understated cautiousness to Misawa's offensive performance. This is best exemplified by the moment early on when he gets Akiyama to the outside and teases an elbow suicida but decides against it. The way that he dives back into the middle of the ring instead of doing his usual thing with skinning the cat on the ropes shows how much he respects Akiyama's ability to create openings from the outside. It's not until later on, when he's absolutely certain that he can get it, that he goes for the move again and hits it. Still, a later attempt at a flying elbow following the ramp fight ends up crashing and burning, referencing a similar spot from their April match. Besides that, he also seems to avoid spending too much time on the mat, despite having that amateur background to call upon and being competitive with Akiyama in their early grappling exchanges.
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Post by elliott on Aug 25, 2023 14:57:27 GMT -5
Watched it.
I've never thought the Misawa vs Akiyama matches were very good and this didn't change my mind. I like them more as a team or against other people.
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