Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Toshiaki Kawada

[8.0] "The beginning (in some ways) of one of the most legendary rivalries of all time. There is a lot of great, hard hitting stuff here and I felt the pace and intensity built really well across the match leading to a finish where kawada looks dead on his feet. Can understand some of the comments that say this doesn't live up to their other matches but I still found it a very watchable, very engaging fight and a grat final third"

[6.0] "I mean it's fine, Misawa's matches almost always have a portion where they sit in a hold not moving for minutes on end before the actual match can continue. Kawata's selling is excellent as ever though."

[10.0] "Yet again, these two eternal rivals are absolutely trying to separate each other from their own body parts. Insane fight between two of the best ever."

[7.0] "It was a good back n forth from both guys with misawa dominating kawada in the final stretch for the win. kawada showed a good fighting spirit and so did misawa as he wasnt afraid to test the power of his elbows against kawadas strikes"

[8.0] "A good match with a great ending stretch, but not what you'd expect from the first singles meeting between these two after Kawada's betrayal. Lots of slow limb work early on, that's not necessarily bad in a vacuum. In the context of this match though, it just didn't convey the simmering resentment that the tags leading up to this match did. Things do pick up later, and we get some crazy suplexes, one german on Kawada being particularly brutal. Loved the finish of Misawa having to pick up Kawada's lifeless body to hit him with one last Tiger to pick up the win. Definitely more meat on this bone. ****"

[7.0] "This match makes the mistake of returning to the idea of arm work by Kawada used in the October '92 match, where it was didn't pan out but that's fine and was all worked intensely. Here, it's a bit lifeless, and the lag in the front half is very noticeable. It paces up and has some really nice touches: Kawada's kicks have stepped up again, and are even more effective and equalising; he's insanely touch and determined, as witnessed by the triple kickout and the desperate final tackle; this has maybe the best Spinning Elbow, with an insane sell by Kawada (into the triple kickout). The final run of nasty Germans into a Bridging Tiger Suplex is both cool and puts Kawada over. He's getting there but Misawa is still tougher with a harder-hitting array of moves. That's the story. A solid entry. 3.5/5"

[9.0] "This is a change of style and pace from the tag matches leading up to it, in that it's more of a slow burner than a barnburner. Granted, the early arm work does fizzle out, but some of the subtleties sprinkled throughout are pure class. Kawada's desperation late on when he starts punching Misawa dead in the grill is such a brutal admission of weakness and his selling in the lead up to the finish (best exemplified by the triple kickout) is goat-level ****1/2"

[6.0] "Solid match, its the first one with Kawada as the heel under the Holy Demon Army. I found that the match for the most part maintained a great pace and the holds led to some really great punishes from both men. The level of intensity you see here would be the type of heat that would be seen in their later matches. The match did kind of get cold at times near the end which is why I'm not going to rate it any higher, but it's worth a watch."

[7.0] "By this point Kawada headed the Holy Demon Army and became a top heel. This was quite good throughout and the ending half did take it up a level, but I justed did not feel it too much. The big moves were done well, but I have seen them be done better too. Plus the arm work did not lead to much. ***3/4"

[8.0] "This could've been one of my personal favorites, but it was far too slow during the primary parts of the match. The latter half? Fantastic. Kawada feels like he finally snaps here, and Misawa hammers Kawada with some of the most vicious elbows that he's thrown. Misawa gets the best of Kawada again. It's hard to rate, but I think this match earns it an 8."

[6.0] "Considering how this match was built, I found this pretty disappointing. Their intense segments and brawls in tag matches led to a slow, methodical start to this match which felt quite out of place. Kawada's arm work is very dull and while Misawa does sell it, its nothing that stops him hitting his big offence down the stretch. Once Kawada starts punching Misawa in the face and dropping him with powerbombs and german suplexes. things pickup albeit very abrubtly. There's a really great story told in the finishing stretch with Kawada desperately holding on via double leg takedowns and a desperation backdrop and gamengiri but Misawa puts and end to it with some brutal german suplexes and a tiger suplex. All in all, the beginning portion of this takes me too much out of it to consider this great - ***1/4"

[5.0] "Honest to god, this probably the most boring match I've seen from both of these guys. I LOVE Kawada (He's the greatest pillar) but there's just nothing to this bout, after it was over I legit couldn't tell you a thing that was memorable or that would stick with me for like all these other '90s All Japan matches, thankfully they've had better matches but this was not one of those."

[9.0] "Another amazing match in their rivalry, Kawada focuses on elbow of Misawa after losing to it last time. My favourite spot of match is the 3 kick outs from the elbow near the end, just perfect."

[8.0] "This was a little hard to get into until a submission hold has the crowd thinking Kawada could actually win before Misawa escapes and they both tumble to the floor. Things really pick up from this point as they hit a ton of huge moves, including Misawa hitting Kawada with the sickest release German suplex I've probably ever seen, but still Kawada wouldn't stay down. Misawa hits another German suplex, and by this point Kawada is out on his feet, but Misawa wants to put him away for good and doesn't go for the pin. He picks up the lifeless Kawada and hits a Tiger suplex for the 3-count. Probably not as good as their Champions Carnival match, but not much further behind. ****1/4"

[8.0] "This was a really good follow up to their Champions Carnival '93 match where Misawa knocked out Kawada with the elbow. Kawada gets rid of that loaded gun and attacks the arm for the first stretch of the match with hammerlocks and armbars. Misawa sold the arm through it not being a killer blow like it was for the Hansen and aforementioned Kawada match so it was a good touch to add to the match. Kawada threw some big closed fists to gain control several times which was awesome. He just didn't have enough to put away Misawa. One thing I liked about this match is that the strikes early in the match put over the hatred for each other. A very good addition to the series but it was a step below their other matches up to this point. ****"

[7.0] "Another exciting encounter in this legendary rivalry. There was a real sense of rivalry and tension right from their first few interactions, which made sense, considering that they were no longer allies in Super Generation Army and that Kawada had made it clear he intended to topple Misawa as the company's top guy. Kawada's attacks were all very impactful and perfectly placed, and Misawa did well with selling them. Misawa would intermittently manage to break away from Kawada's control and fire off some powerful and agile attacks, or at least evade Kawada's own attacks, but Kawada's dogged determination allowed him to maintain control and continue wearing Misawa down. Once Misawa had finally gained firm control, he began showing off his wonderfully varied offence, featuring aerial attacks, stiff strikes, and painful holds, all of which were executed with superb technique. Kawada, then on defence, got to show off his absolutely world-class selling, adding so much more to Misawa's already awesome offence. The final 10 minutes featured their standard big-bomb finishing stretch -- stiff strikes, whopping power moves, creative counters, convincing near falls, and an absolutely raucous crowd to accompany it all. Misawa's release german suplexes were absolutely disgusting, yet beautiful at the same time, and Kawada's selling, especially his rag-doll bumping, was wonderful. While seeing Misawa and Kawada demolish each other was very great, the structure of it all was quite generic, as if they just did a variety of 'merely' good work until the 15-minute-ish point, when they finally decided to give us some 'great' work. This was also essentially the same big-move-vs-big-move structure they always worked in their singles matches, so that lack of creativity held it back a bit too. Still, those final 10 minutes were great enough that the match easily reached 'very good' territory, even if they've had -- and will have -- far better encounters. ***3/4"

[8.0] "The first two thirds of this match were solid but rather uninteresting compared to their other matches, it is clear by this point that these two hated each other and the final stretch with Misawa hitting huge move after huge move was fantastic. ****"

[7.0] "So this was their first title match against each other where Kawada had formed the Holy Demon Army to escape Misawa's shadow. You can see that the friendship is gone as Kawada is a whole lot more aggressive here than he is in their first title match. Kawada targets the elbow smashing arm of Misawa to take out his big weapon. The strategy works for a time but Kawada hardly goes back to it, Kawada seemed too concerned with punishing Misawa than actually trying to win the match. Enjoyed the ending with Misawa destroying Kawada with German suplexes before finishing him off. ***1/2"

[10.0] "Misawa and Kawada always produced classics when they were in their physical primes, and this match was no exception. It falls under the radar in comparison to their later matches, but it deserves the same level of praise as their more lauded outings."

[9.0] "A fantastic match overall and one that I really enjoyed. Kawada got another shot at Misawa and the Triple Crown but this time was not able to make the most of it and come away with the gold as Misawa would completely obliterate him in the last 10 minutes of the bout and that was so much fun to watch honestly. (****)"

[8.0] "It was gonna be very hard to follow Kobashi/Hansen, but these 2 put on a damn good match. The beginning was neat w/ Kawada doing some work on Misawa's arm, they strike each other hard (as you would expect), and then there is a really cool staredown between the 2. A while after that the match starts being about Kawada trying to survive all of Misawa's big moves, and he does that for a while until Misawa puts him away. Really good match. ***3/4"