Mitsuharu Misawa (c) vs Toshiaki Kawada
Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship
06/06/1997
Nippon Budokan, Tokyo, Japan
(reviewed 05/20/2024) Ok so Kawada’s long-awaited win over Misawa was tainted, no two ways around it, but with that momentum carrying him forward can he do it again here? Can Kawada clear his conscience and finally win clean? Can he finally exorcise all these years of pent-up resentment from this one-sided rivalry? No, of course not. That’s stupid. Why would you ever expect anything to change, let alone progress? We’re still in the bottom of the third, baby.
1996 was the first time in a while these two went a whole year without a title match, so these two are “out of practice” as it were. In that sense it’s impressive how heated they’re able to make this early on, being a lot more aggressive than in either of their recent Champion Carnival matches. As with everything else in this feud it doesn’t last. Kawada makes the mistake of forcing Misawa through some UWF armbars, sapping so much of that early energy because Misawa is maybe the person on the AJPW roster least-suited to the improvisational exchange of shoot style. Man ain’t great about giving something up or selling the immediate danger of doing so. Misawa does drop a knee across Kawada’s face to escape the holds, though this ardor eventually dissipates like everyone’s reaction to Kawada’s big win did. Without that intensity—lacking in both the audience and within themselves—they resort to an empty series of head drops that only a few short years after their introduction feel pretty pathetic. Even bothering to have these matches when Kawada can’t ever win already feels insulting. Making these empty gestures at drama is even worse.
Maybe I’m being too hard on these guys. After all Misawa does slap his long-time rival, showing some fire for the first time in forever. Then when we see his face again he looks like he’d rather be anywhere else.
One step forward, two steps back. That’s called walking the King’s Road.
Brock Hates Wrestling 