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Post by fxnj on Mar 12, 2019 3:25:52 GMT -5
The first big Misawa/Kawada 6-man and probably their best. Everyone gives a little extra intensity to their performances, and the crowd is right there to elevate the match into feeling big. Especially love Kawada's aggression. Right up there with the best of the Jumbo feud for me.
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Post by nintendologic on Jun 30, 2020 12:59:49 GMT -5
Second.
On the whole, I find the Misawa/Kawada six-mans to be rather underwhelming. Kawada wasn't quite as strong as Jumbo in kayfabe, so Taue had to carry more of the load for his side and move beyond being the designated punching bag. However, that meant a Kawada/Taue/Fuchi team would have no real kayfabe weaknesses. As a result, the third slot was usually filled by Ogawa, which was a significant step down. Ogawa's best work is as a weasel who catches opponents off-guard with roll-ups and eye pokes, which doesn't really lend itself to high-end trios action as well as Fuchi the master torturer. With all that said, this is easily the best post-Jumbo All Japan six-man in my book thanks to a world-class FIP performance from Kikuchi and Ogawa mostly staying out of the way. I really liked how they demonstrated that Ogawa and especially Kikuchi were in way over their heads. Kikuchi treats Taue like he's Andre the Giant, being unable to knock him off his feet or execute even basic suplexes and hiptosses. Again, the obvious highlight of the match is the horrific beatdown on Kikuchi. If someone were to claim that it was on par with the one in the Can-Ams match, I wouldn't argue the point. In addition to his selling, what makes him such a great FIP is the way he combines absorbing Japanese-style offense with American-style hope spots. Misawa has an awesome hot tag, and there are some fantastic exchanges between Kawada and Kobashi down the stretch. Kikuchi and Ogawa exchanging nearfalls isn't the ideal finishing run, but it doesn't go long enough to be truly offensive. It helps that much the attention goes toward Kobashi and Taue brawling on the outside.
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Post by elliott on Sept 11, 2023 16:05:07 GMT -5
These matches feel so much longer than they are. Video says 27 minutes but it feels & is paced like its going to be 67.
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Post by fxnj on Mar 22, 2024 22:28:42 GMT -5
This fell for me a bit on rewatch. Still a great watch for all the stiff shots and fast pace, but it doesn't compare favorably at all to the best of the Jumbo era stuff. You don't really get as much emphasis on character work or the feeling of watching all these overlapping stories come together. Misawa also weirdly fades into the background with Kawada's exchanges with Kobashi being more memorable. It always looks insane watching Kobashi dive head first into a gamengiri. Kikuchi takes some big bumps and lets himself get stretched out but it's hard to look past that his equivalent in Ogawa kind of sucks. Ogawa's schtick just doesn't work most of the time in these matches and the Ogawa/Kikuchi stretch run is easily the most underwhelming pairing they could have went with to wrap this up. I don't agree that you needed Ogawa instead of Fuchi as I think Fuchi could have added a lot more personality.
To test my theory on Fuchi improving things, I watched Misawa/Kobashi/Akiyama vs. Kawada/Taue/Fuchi from 7/12/93 and it looked like it could have potentially been better than this. Hard to really say since we only have 17 minutes of a 31 minute match, but that one seemed more focused than this between a neat Misawa leg injury angle and Fuchi doing Fuchi things.
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