AJPW 02/27/00: Jun Akiyama vs. Mitsuharu Misawa
Alright, after this viewing, I feel confident in saying that this is the best AJPW match of all-time. It's such a beautiful storytelling masterpiece that in many ways feels like the end of an era for the golden 4 Pillars era of All Japan. Misawa gets a little control segment in the beginning, but soon after Akiyama evades a top rope attack from him, which leads to Misawa dropping on the mat hard & grabbing his neck immediately afterwards. Akiyama goes after the neck like a shark that's smelling blood; he brutalizes the neck throughout the match w/ the stuff with the guardrail being especially nasty & vicious. Young Jun is laser focused on the neck w/ literally every move he does being done with the intent to unleash more damage to it. It's arguably best bodypart targeting there has ever been in any match ever. Misawa's selling is simply fantastic & his eventual comeback w/ the elbows & that awesome dropkick to the face rules - his facial expression when he has that facelock on is perfect; he's like "this kid is something, man" while still showing how much pain he's in. His overall performance as the ace who's getting bested by this younger, former tag partner of his is simply perfect. The match gets capped off with what might just be the best finishing stretch of all-time - that Exploder sequence w/ Misawa popping up after the first one, but then getting blasted with another one, only for him to try & pop up again, but ultimately crumbling to the mat was PERFECT. The storytelling was perfect, the lay-out was as compelling as a match can be, the performances by both men were perfect - I already praised Misawa's work in this big time, but Jun Akiyama delivers an all-time performance as well w/ him executing the neck psychology to perfection, as well as having some tremendous character work in the finishing stretch when Misawa wasn't going down as easily as he would've wanted. It's a perfect match. Pro Wrestling at it's very best. *****
AJPW 05/26/00: Kenta Kobashi vs. Yoshihiro Takayama
The match has one of the best starts ever w/ Takayama headkicking Kobashi as the ref is checking them before the bell rings, the bell then ringing & Takayama immediately hitting Kobashi w/ a PK for a nearfall. Kobashi is pissed off at this & as he quickly gets the brief control, he starts chopping Takayama's FACE. Big Tak gets the control back quickly, and works quite a mean segment on Kobashi w/ the stand out moment being the armbar; Kobashi sold that big time & while that didn't play into the thing immediately, they brought it up later on in the match w/ Takayama eventually focusing his onslaught towards that arm of Kobashi's. Kobashi of course sells excellently, has terrific facial expressions, showcases the perfect amount of fire & his comebacks are goddamn wonderful w/ him just chopping & punching away at Takayama's FACE. Just a notch below their 04 GHC Heavyweight Title classic, but this really is one of the best Triple Crown bouts there has been. ****3/4
NOAH 04/25/04: Kenta Kobashi vs. Yoshihiro Takayama
After watching their Triple Crown classic, I just had to watch this right after. As mentioned above, this is a level above that match. Kobashi delivers a performance that makes me go "that man is the best babyface of all-time" and Takayama is even bigger, badder, better & meaner than he was four years before, as he gives Kobashi a menacing beating throughout. It's one of the best matches of all-time, to put it simply. *****
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