The Essential Misawa Vs Kawada Boxed Set Disk One: Prologue
Nov 24, 2016 9:15:34 GMT -5
Emperor Ihsahn and TheShowJordanRichards like this
Post by Shatter Machine on Nov 24, 2016 9:15:34 GMT -5
Some genius put this together, and it was in the pile of stuff that my friend put on a hard drive when I lost my collection some time back. It's pretty amazing, but it's also a mind-numbing FOURTEEN discs long. At 90 minutes each, that's about 21 hours of wrestling to watch. It's mostly from All-Japan, with some NOAH tacked on at the end. Misawa and Kawada had known each other since high school, and had broken in at roughly the same time. They were mostly undercard and JTTS types for most of the 80's, but Giant Baba realized that he needed to start creating new stars as his previous generation guys were all starting to age out. Since they were partners as mid-carders, it only made sense to move them to the main event. They'd become in and out of the ring rivals, as they formed a team with each other, then with other guys. The guy who put this set together did a great job of not trying to include everything, as the set would then be 50 discs instead of 14, so he made some judgement calls as far as what matches to include. Your mileage may vary as far as which matches could have been switched for other matches, but I'm pretty stoked for what's here. The years covered here start with 1988 on this disk and go to 2005 on disk 14.
DISK ONE: “The Prologue”
1988.12.16
Real World Tag League Finals (Winners to receive the AJPW World Tag Team Titles)
Stan Hansen & Terry Gordy
vs.
Toshiaki Kawada & Genichiro Tenryu
Tenryu was a top-flight guy, Kawada was not. Gordy and Hansen are the baddest of the bad ass Gaijin heels. Gordy was absolutely AMAZING at this point in time. He just mows Kawada down and suplexes him out of his boots. Hansen comes in and pounds Kawada in the corner. Kawada gets a sunset, but all that does is piss Stan off, so he dumps him to the floor and Gordy sends him to the rail. Back in, and Kawada gets a heel kick and the tag to Tenryu. Gordy and Hansen regroup on the floor. Tenryu muscles Gordy over with a suplex, but Gordy nails a damn dropkick. Hansen comes in, and he and Tenryu exchange shots and brawl to the floor briefly. Hansen hits a backdrop and grabs a chinlock. Tenryu and Gordy exchange chops, and Kawada comes in. He starts kicking Gordy, then hits a cross-body for 1. Hansen comes in, and Kawada sends him to the floor with a dropkick, then hits a Pescado! Hansen no-sells, because he doesn’t sell for anyone apparently. He gives Kawada very little, then they just mow him down for a while. Kawada with a clothesline, and he makes the tag. They do a cool tandem enziguiri on Gordy, where Tenryu hits him in the front and Kawada from behind. Ow. Tenryu hits a clothesline in the corner, then a sloppy neckbreaker for 2. He goes to a headscissor, and we just come grinding to a halt for a minute. Gordy escapes and kills Tenryu dead with a clothesline in the corner. He tags Hansen, but Tenryu clotheslines HIM as he comes in. The Americans stomp him down, but Tenryu just chops his way out of it and tags Kawada. Big kicks on Hansen in the corner until Gordy clobbers him from behind to get the advantage. Gordy misses an elbow in the corner and Kawada hits a bridging German for 2, with Hansen breaking it up. Hansen runs both faces to the floor, where he just starts assaulting both of them. Gordy pounds on Tenryu, dropping an elbow for 2. Hansen starts dismantling Kawada’s knee on the floor, and Gordy drops ANOTHER elbow for 2. Hansen even tears off the leg of Kawada’s trunks. Gordy with a clothesline on Tenryu for 2. Double tackle by the Americans, and Hansen pulls his kneepad down and drops the knee for 2. Kawada may be legally dead on the floor, as they continue to maul Tenryu. Tenryu blocks a Hansen piledriver into a backdrop, but can’t capitalize, and Hansen gets a forearm for 2. Gordy powerbombs Tenryu for 2, as Kawada mounts a huge comeback, nailing Hansen with a chair. This is amazing. Hansen keeps on the knee, and it gets better, as Tenryu gets an inside cradle on Gordy for 2. Double-team suplex gets 2 for Hansen. Tenryu takes him down out of nowhere and grabs a knee bar, but Gordy breaks it up when he sees it while kicking the shit out of Kawada on the floor. Back elbow by Hansen, then an elbow drop gets 2. Kawada keeps going after Gordy, but Gordy just dumps him over the railing. Tenryu chops Hansen down, but Gordy clotheslines him down. Enziguiri by Tenryu, then another. Big slam, and he goes to the top. Back elbow, but Gordy is in. Tenryu kicks Hansen in the face, and hits the powerbomb, but Gordy, in turn, powerbombs him. The ref won’t count because Gordy isn’t legal, so Hansen kills Tenryu dead with a lariat for the pin, the Real World Tag League ’88 Trophy, and the All-Japan World Tag Team Titles. Holy shit that was absolutely amazing. (**** 21:02) Gordy and Hansen would hold the titles for not even two months, dropping them to the team of Jumbo Tsuruta and Yoshiaki Yatsu the following February. Every opponent Kawada would have for the next, oh, decade, would target his knee based on the beating it took from Hansen and Gordy.
1989.06.05
AJPW Triple Crown
Jumbo Tsuruta (Champion)
Vs
Genichiro Tenryu
Jumbo had created the Triple Crown by unifying his NWA International title with Stan Hansen’s PWF Title and NWA United National Titles in April of 1989. This match is pretty much the best Japanese singles match of the 1980’s, and would set the bar and the tone for the 1990’s and match quality. (It's also the longest Triple Crown match to this point, and was kind of a bridge between the 80's style in AJPW and the 90's style that Misawa and company would popularize.) North American fans really missed out by not being big into tape trading when Jumbo was in his prime, he was pretty goddamn awesome. This is essentially the best two Japanese heavyweights slugging it out to determine a champion. They trade shots early, and Tenryu hits a German for 2 really quick. Jumbo grabs a headlock to slow it down a bit. Stan Hansen is at ringside, because I *think* he was Tenryu’s partner at this point. They start slugging it out, then Jumbo hits a bulldog. He goes to a cobra clutch, pulling Tenryu backwards over his knee. Nice. Jumbo blocks a knee and hits a chop on a criss-cross, then hits a kick. He hits another, then drops an elbow for 2. Back to the clutch. Kicks and stomps by Jumbo in the ropes draws some boos from the crowd, but he continues on Tenryu’s back. They go to the floor, and when they go back in, Tenryu clotheslines Jumbo back out, then hits a clothesline from the apron to the floor. Back in, and Tenryu starts working the knee. He grabs a knee bar, but Jumbo breaks and goes back to the Clutch. He works on top for a loooong time, basically just pummeling Tenryu. He sets for a piledriver, but Tenryu backdrops out of it. Jumbo pounds him down, then grabs an abdominal stretch. Tenryu hip tosses out of it, and Jumbo goes to the floor. Huge clothesline by Tenryu gets 2. They start trading chops, and Tenryu goes down in the corner. Jumbo drops an elbow for 2. He goes for the backdropper, but Tenryu blocks. Big running knee in the corner by Jumbo, followed by a backdropper! Big fucking clothesline, but Tenryu is in the ropes. Another one right in the middle of the ring gets 2. Bulldog gets 2. Slam, and Jumbo hits the second rope knee to the head for 2, but Tenryu is in the ropes again. That must be a tiny ring. Again, with the second rope knee! And a third time! TENRYU IS IN THE FUCKING ROPES. Thesz Press gets 2! (Big pop for that because that’s the move he won the title with in April.) Jumbo goes for the Backdropper and gets it! Tenryu is dead! 1, 2, no! Jesus. He goes for another Thesz Press, but Tenryu turns it into a Stun Gun for 2. Jumbo goes right back on the attack, hitting a dropkick for 2. He goes to the top, hitting a knee to the head, sending Tenryu to the far corner. Jumbo drops the kneepad, but misses the kneestrike. Tenryu gets an inside cradle for 2. Clothesline by Tenryu. Jumbo backdrops out of a piledriver attempt into a bodypress for 2. Jumbo goes up, but misses, and hits a clothesline. They go to the mat, and Tenryu hits a slam. He misses the top rope back elbow, and Jumbo gets a ¾ for 2. Tenryu dodges a charge and hits a clothesline, then the enziguiri, followed by a powerbomb for 2 ½. He goes for another one, and after a brief struggle, he gets it and the pin to win the title. (***** 24:04) This wasn’t the WON match of year for 1989, I think, barely being beaten out by Flair-Steamboat III. It was great, easily one of the best 5 matches of the 1980’s, however.
1990.05.14
Tiger Mask II (Mitsuharu Misawa) & Toshiaki Kawada
Vs
Yoshiaki Yatsu & Samson Fuyuki
This is joined in progress from Samurai TV, with Yatsu and Fuyuki beating the shit out of Tiger Mask, who gets mad and has Kawada untie his mask, and they just absolutely turn it into a squash. Yatsu tackles Misawa, but there’s not much behind it. Kawada sets for a piledriver, but turns it into a powerbomb for 2. Misawa lets Yatsu tag Fuyuki in, but just pummels him as well. It slows a bit, as they seem to get kind of lost, but Misawa and Fuyuki reset. Misawa and Kawada hit a double suplex for 2, then Kawada just puts the boots to him. Yatsu blows nearly every move he tries. God, is he awful. He even botches a backslide, but it still gets 2. Misawa and Kawada hit a suplex/splash from the top combo, then Misawa gets a bridging German for the pin after about 8 minutes shown. That was not great, but it was important, because Misawa shed the mask and became his own man. (* ¼ 18:35)
1990.06.08
Jumbo Tsuruta
Vs
Mitsuharu Misawa
This is from Budokan Hall, and was during the Super Power Series during the summer of 1990. This is really Misawa’s first shot at the big time, too. Misawa had almost zero chance to win this one, as Jumbo was a major star, and Misawa had been a tag team guy under a mask a month earlier. Misawa declines Jumbo’s offer of a handshake, and they test each other early. Jumbo mows him over and slams him. He misses a high knee, though, and Misawa hits a dropkick. Jumbo hits the high kick, then a lariat for 2. Jumbo pounds him down, slamming him again. Misawa blocks a backdropper, then turns it into a cross-body for 2. He sends Jumbo to the floor with a sliding dropkick, then does a nice flip to the apron and a dropkick off the apron to Jumbo. He knocks Jumbo over the rail to the crowd, then knocks him off the apron again and hits a PLANCHA! Jumbo clears his head and comes back in, but Misawa stays on him with kicks and elbows. He slows it down with a front facelock, but Jumbo reverses it into a surfboard. Misawa reverses that, just showing that he is superior to the veteran on all levels. This is great. He holds on to it for a bit, keeping Jumbo from the ropes, until Jumbo reverses him. Misawa flips out of it, and they reset. Misawa grabs an armbar, turning it into a hammerlock. Jumbo goes to the ropes for the break, and Misawa SLAPS him. HOLY SHIT. Last man on earth I would slap. THEN HE DOES IT AGAIN. Jumbo looks like he wants to murder Misawa. So, he tries to. Knee to the gut and an elbow, then a running high knee. He locks in the abdominal stretch, because that’s what you do to someone who pisses you off. Then Misawa reverses it. Jumbo makes the ropes and hip tosses him over the top. He sends Misawa to the railing, then back in. Double-arm suplex gets 2, and Jumbo goes to a sleeper. Jumbo does the lift and drop, but when he tries it again, Misawa dropkicks him, then hits a slam. Missile dropkick gets 1. Misawa with an elbow in the corner, followed by a gut wrench. Another slam, and he goes up. Frog splash gets 2. He goes for a cross-body, but Jumbo catches him and stun-guns him for 2. Kicks and stomps by Jumbo, and he hits a sit down piledriver for 2. Jumbo with the Thesz press for 2. He drops a series of knees, then nails a DROPKICK for 2. LUCHA JUMBO! Big kick gets 2. He knees Misawa in the face, then goes for the double-arm suplex, but Misawa goes limp. Slam, and Jumbo goes up. Misawa stops him and sets for the superplex, but Jumbo shoves him off and nails a knee to the face for 2. Damn. He goes for a piledriver, but gets a powerbomb that gets only 2. Another double-arm suplex, but Misawa gets a backslide for 2. They both get forearms and go down. Jumbo goes to the floor, and Misawa hits a sliding dropkick, then a MOTHERFUCKING HIGH FLY FLOW TO THE FLOOR! GOD DAMN. Back in, and Misawa goes for a waistlock, but gets a rolling reverse with a bridge for 2. Spinning back kick, but when Misawa tries the Frog Splash, Jumbo gets his knees up. The crowd is chanting “MIS-AH-WAH!” as Jumbo gets a Boston Crab. Misawa gets the ropes quickly. Jumbo with a jumping lariat for 2 ½. Another gets another 2 ½! More chanting for Misawa. Big clothesline in the corner by Jumbo, then a backdropper, but Misawa kicks off the buckles, so both men are down. Bridging German by Misawa for 2. He goes for the Tiger Driver, but Jumbo backdrops into a bridge for 2. Running high knee by Jumbo (HHH must’ve watched a lot of AJPW as a kid). Misawa goes for the reverse leaping headbutt off the second rope, but misses. Jumbo hurts his arm dodging, then misses the big boot and crotches himself. They fight over a suplex, but Misawa flips over him and lifts him for a backdropper. Jumbo falls on him for 2, but Misawa rolls through and gets the pin! That was fucking astonishing. (***** 24:06)
This disk isn't so much "Misawa versus Kawada" as it is setting them up for who they are and how they got to where they were when they became partners. This disk alone is one of the best two hours of wrestling I've ever watched.
DISK ONE: “The Prologue”
1988.12.16
Real World Tag League Finals (Winners to receive the AJPW World Tag Team Titles)
Stan Hansen & Terry Gordy
vs.
Toshiaki Kawada & Genichiro Tenryu
Tenryu was a top-flight guy, Kawada was not. Gordy and Hansen are the baddest of the bad ass Gaijin heels. Gordy was absolutely AMAZING at this point in time. He just mows Kawada down and suplexes him out of his boots. Hansen comes in and pounds Kawada in the corner. Kawada gets a sunset, but all that does is piss Stan off, so he dumps him to the floor and Gordy sends him to the rail. Back in, and Kawada gets a heel kick and the tag to Tenryu. Gordy and Hansen regroup on the floor. Tenryu muscles Gordy over with a suplex, but Gordy nails a damn dropkick. Hansen comes in, and he and Tenryu exchange shots and brawl to the floor briefly. Hansen hits a backdrop and grabs a chinlock. Tenryu and Gordy exchange chops, and Kawada comes in. He starts kicking Gordy, then hits a cross-body for 1. Hansen comes in, and Kawada sends him to the floor with a dropkick, then hits a Pescado! Hansen no-sells, because he doesn’t sell for anyone apparently. He gives Kawada very little, then they just mow him down for a while. Kawada with a clothesline, and he makes the tag. They do a cool tandem enziguiri on Gordy, where Tenryu hits him in the front and Kawada from behind. Ow. Tenryu hits a clothesline in the corner, then a sloppy neckbreaker for 2. He goes to a headscissor, and we just come grinding to a halt for a minute. Gordy escapes and kills Tenryu dead with a clothesline in the corner. He tags Hansen, but Tenryu clotheslines HIM as he comes in. The Americans stomp him down, but Tenryu just chops his way out of it and tags Kawada. Big kicks on Hansen in the corner until Gordy clobbers him from behind to get the advantage. Gordy misses an elbow in the corner and Kawada hits a bridging German for 2, with Hansen breaking it up. Hansen runs both faces to the floor, where he just starts assaulting both of them. Gordy pounds on Tenryu, dropping an elbow for 2. Hansen starts dismantling Kawada’s knee on the floor, and Gordy drops ANOTHER elbow for 2. Hansen even tears off the leg of Kawada’s trunks. Gordy with a clothesline on Tenryu for 2. Double tackle by the Americans, and Hansen pulls his kneepad down and drops the knee for 2. Kawada may be legally dead on the floor, as they continue to maul Tenryu. Tenryu blocks a Hansen piledriver into a backdrop, but can’t capitalize, and Hansen gets a forearm for 2. Gordy powerbombs Tenryu for 2, as Kawada mounts a huge comeback, nailing Hansen with a chair. This is amazing. Hansen keeps on the knee, and it gets better, as Tenryu gets an inside cradle on Gordy for 2. Double-team suplex gets 2 for Hansen. Tenryu takes him down out of nowhere and grabs a knee bar, but Gordy breaks it up when he sees it while kicking the shit out of Kawada on the floor. Back elbow by Hansen, then an elbow drop gets 2. Kawada keeps going after Gordy, but Gordy just dumps him over the railing. Tenryu chops Hansen down, but Gordy clotheslines him down. Enziguiri by Tenryu, then another. Big slam, and he goes to the top. Back elbow, but Gordy is in. Tenryu kicks Hansen in the face, and hits the powerbomb, but Gordy, in turn, powerbombs him. The ref won’t count because Gordy isn’t legal, so Hansen kills Tenryu dead with a lariat for the pin, the Real World Tag League ’88 Trophy, and the All-Japan World Tag Team Titles. Holy shit that was absolutely amazing. (**** 21:02) Gordy and Hansen would hold the titles for not even two months, dropping them to the team of Jumbo Tsuruta and Yoshiaki Yatsu the following February. Every opponent Kawada would have for the next, oh, decade, would target his knee based on the beating it took from Hansen and Gordy.
1989.06.05
AJPW Triple Crown
Jumbo Tsuruta (Champion)
Vs
Genichiro Tenryu
Jumbo had created the Triple Crown by unifying his NWA International title with Stan Hansen’s PWF Title and NWA United National Titles in April of 1989. This match is pretty much the best Japanese singles match of the 1980’s, and would set the bar and the tone for the 1990’s and match quality. (It's also the longest Triple Crown match to this point, and was kind of a bridge between the 80's style in AJPW and the 90's style that Misawa and company would popularize.) North American fans really missed out by not being big into tape trading when Jumbo was in his prime, he was pretty goddamn awesome. This is essentially the best two Japanese heavyweights slugging it out to determine a champion. They trade shots early, and Tenryu hits a German for 2 really quick. Jumbo grabs a headlock to slow it down a bit. Stan Hansen is at ringside, because I *think* he was Tenryu’s partner at this point. They start slugging it out, then Jumbo hits a bulldog. He goes to a cobra clutch, pulling Tenryu backwards over his knee. Nice. Jumbo blocks a knee and hits a chop on a criss-cross, then hits a kick. He hits another, then drops an elbow for 2. Back to the clutch. Kicks and stomps by Jumbo in the ropes draws some boos from the crowd, but he continues on Tenryu’s back. They go to the floor, and when they go back in, Tenryu clotheslines Jumbo back out, then hits a clothesline from the apron to the floor. Back in, and Tenryu starts working the knee. He grabs a knee bar, but Jumbo breaks and goes back to the Clutch. He works on top for a loooong time, basically just pummeling Tenryu. He sets for a piledriver, but Tenryu backdrops out of it. Jumbo pounds him down, then grabs an abdominal stretch. Tenryu hip tosses out of it, and Jumbo goes to the floor. Huge clothesline by Tenryu gets 2. They start trading chops, and Tenryu goes down in the corner. Jumbo drops an elbow for 2. He goes for the backdropper, but Tenryu blocks. Big running knee in the corner by Jumbo, followed by a backdropper! Big fucking clothesline, but Tenryu is in the ropes. Another one right in the middle of the ring gets 2. Bulldog gets 2. Slam, and Jumbo hits the second rope knee to the head for 2, but Tenryu is in the ropes again. That must be a tiny ring. Again, with the second rope knee! And a third time! TENRYU IS IN THE FUCKING ROPES. Thesz Press gets 2! (Big pop for that because that’s the move he won the title with in April.) Jumbo goes for the Backdropper and gets it! Tenryu is dead! 1, 2, no! Jesus. He goes for another Thesz Press, but Tenryu turns it into a Stun Gun for 2. Jumbo goes right back on the attack, hitting a dropkick for 2. He goes to the top, hitting a knee to the head, sending Tenryu to the far corner. Jumbo drops the kneepad, but misses the kneestrike. Tenryu gets an inside cradle for 2. Clothesline by Tenryu. Jumbo backdrops out of a piledriver attempt into a bodypress for 2. Jumbo goes up, but misses, and hits a clothesline. They go to the mat, and Tenryu hits a slam. He misses the top rope back elbow, and Jumbo gets a ¾ for 2. Tenryu dodges a charge and hits a clothesline, then the enziguiri, followed by a powerbomb for 2 ½. He goes for another one, and after a brief struggle, he gets it and the pin to win the title. (***** 24:04) This wasn’t the WON match of year for 1989, I think, barely being beaten out by Flair-Steamboat III. It was great, easily one of the best 5 matches of the 1980’s, however.
1990.05.14
Tiger Mask II (Mitsuharu Misawa) & Toshiaki Kawada
Vs
Yoshiaki Yatsu & Samson Fuyuki
This is joined in progress from Samurai TV, with Yatsu and Fuyuki beating the shit out of Tiger Mask, who gets mad and has Kawada untie his mask, and they just absolutely turn it into a squash. Yatsu tackles Misawa, but there’s not much behind it. Kawada sets for a piledriver, but turns it into a powerbomb for 2. Misawa lets Yatsu tag Fuyuki in, but just pummels him as well. It slows a bit, as they seem to get kind of lost, but Misawa and Fuyuki reset. Misawa and Kawada hit a double suplex for 2, then Kawada just puts the boots to him. Yatsu blows nearly every move he tries. God, is he awful. He even botches a backslide, but it still gets 2. Misawa and Kawada hit a suplex/splash from the top combo, then Misawa gets a bridging German for the pin after about 8 minutes shown. That was not great, but it was important, because Misawa shed the mask and became his own man. (* ¼ 18:35)
1990.06.08
Jumbo Tsuruta
Vs
Mitsuharu Misawa
This is from Budokan Hall, and was during the Super Power Series during the summer of 1990. This is really Misawa’s first shot at the big time, too. Misawa had almost zero chance to win this one, as Jumbo was a major star, and Misawa had been a tag team guy under a mask a month earlier. Misawa declines Jumbo’s offer of a handshake, and they test each other early. Jumbo mows him over and slams him. He misses a high knee, though, and Misawa hits a dropkick. Jumbo hits the high kick, then a lariat for 2. Jumbo pounds him down, slamming him again. Misawa blocks a backdropper, then turns it into a cross-body for 2. He sends Jumbo to the floor with a sliding dropkick, then does a nice flip to the apron and a dropkick off the apron to Jumbo. He knocks Jumbo over the rail to the crowd, then knocks him off the apron again and hits a PLANCHA! Jumbo clears his head and comes back in, but Misawa stays on him with kicks and elbows. He slows it down with a front facelock, but Jumbo reverses it into a surfboard. Misawa reverses that, just showing that he is superior to the veteran on all levels. This is great. He holds on to it for a bit, keeping Jumbo from the ropes, until Jumbo reverses him. Misawa flips out of it, and they reset. Misawa grabs an armbar, turning it into a hammerlock. Jumbo goes to the ropes for the break, and Misawa SLAPS him. HOLY SHIT. Last man on earth I would slap. THEN HE DOES IT AGAIN. Jumbo looks like he wants to murder Misawa. So, he tries to. Knee to the gut and an elbow, then a running high knee. He locks in the abdominal stretch, because that’s what you do to someone who pisses you off. Then Misawa reverses it. Jumbo makes the ropes and hip tosses him over the top. He sends Misawa to the railing, then back in. Double-arm suplex gets 2, and Jumbo goes to a sleeper. Jumbo does the lift and drop, but when he tries it again, Misawa dropkicks him, then hits a slam. Missile dropkick gets 1. Misawa with an elbow in the corner, followed by a gut wrench. Another slam, and he goes up. Frog splash gets 2. He goes for a cross-body, but Jumbo catches him and stun-guns him for 2. Kicks and stomps by Jumbo, and he hits a sit down piledriver for 2. Jumbo with the Thesz press for 2. He drops a series of knees, then nails a DROPKICK for 2. LUCHA JUMBO! Big kick gets 2. He knees Misawa in the face, then goes for the double-arm suplex, but Misawa goes limp. Slam, and Jumbo goes up. Misawa stops him and sets for the superplex, but Jumbo shoves him off and nails a knee to the face for 2. Damn. He goes for a piledriver, but gets a powerbomb that gets only 2. Another double-arm suplex, but Misawa gets a backslide for 2. They both get forearms and go down. Jumbo goes to the floor, and Misawa hits a sliding dropkick, then a MOTHERFUCKING HIGH FLY FLOW TO THE FLOOR! GOD DAMN. Back in, and Misawa goes for a waistlock, but gets a rolling reverse with a bridge for 2. Spinning back kick, but when Misawa tries the Frog Splash, Jumbo gets his knees up. The crowd is chanting “MIS-AH-WAH!” as Jumbo gets a Boston Crab. Misawa gets the ropes quickly. Jumbo with a jumping lariat for 2 ½. Another gets another 2 ½! More chanting for Misawa. Big clothesline in the corner by Jumbo, then a backdropper, but Misawa kicks off the buckles, so both men are down. Bridging German by Misawa for 2. He goes for the Tiger Driver, but Jumbo backdrops into a bridge for 2. Running high knee by Jumbo (HHH must’ve watched a lot of AJPW as a kid). Misawa goes for the reverse leaping headbutt off the second rope, but misses. Jumbo hurts his arm dodging, then misses the big boot and crotches himself. They fight over a suplex, but Misawa flips over him and lifts him for a backdropper. Jumbo falls on him for 2, but Misawa rolls through and gets the pin! That was fucking astonishing. (***** 24:06)
This disk isn't so much "Misawa versus Kawada" as it is setting them up for who they are and how they got to where they were when they became partners. This disk alone is one of the best two hours of wrestling I've ever watched.
