Toshiaki Kawada vs Mitsuharu Misawa
Champion Carnival 1997 Finals Match #2
04/19/1997
Nippon Budokan, Tokyo, Japan
(reviewed 05/20/2024) I believe a random draw is what determined the order of matches in this triangle final, though they work out according to the tiebreakers I mentioned earlier. Kenta Kobashi, the only one of the three to have earned a victory over the others, goes first and enjoys a break. Toshiaki Kawada, having not lost to either man, comes in rested against an opponent who just had a match before returning the favor at the end. And then Mitsuharu Misawa, who has the fewest points to show from their three matches earlier in the tournament, enjoys no advantage at all. That was probably intentional, insofar as it allows them to arrive at a much-anticipated win in the least satisfying way possible, which is exactly what we’ve come to expect from Giant Baba’s booking. The bitter realization of Kawada finally defeating his rival but only with this impossibly unfair advantage might prove compelling if it didn’t come several years too late and wasn’t simply the first tragic act of the man’s wider downfall. Unlike with his last doomed effort, I think it’s impossible to appreciate Kawada’s plight because of how I know it concludes with title matches in the coming years but even in the here and now it’s not quite right. Just listen to the crowd. They politely pop for big spots, dutifully ooh and aah at kickouts, but there’s no distress in seeing their ace down and out. You could hear a pin drop when the stretch plum is applied. When Kawada finally wins they react, sure, but it dissipates long before the man’s music plays, unlike with something like Misawa’s miraculous win over Jumbo Tsuruta. No one cares because why would it even matter at this point? The war is long since over. As if he were a long-lost imperial soldier holed up on some far-flung island in the South China Sea, it’s just sad that Kawada has kept fighting and sadder still that we’re invested in it. That’s where following the King’s Road gets us: punished for hoping things might have turned out any other way, fighting phantoms of men dead fifteen years or more.
Brock Hates Wrestling 