The Burning Champion Vol. 1: Kenta Kobashi (NOAH, 2003)

Hey yo Studmuffins & Foxey Ladies,

When I first started this journey to determine the best match in Japan during the 00s decade, there was no stretch I was looking forward to more than the Kobashi GHC Heavyweight Title Reign that lasted from 2003 through 2005. It is generally regarded as one of the greatest title reigns in the history of pro wrestling and I would argue was the high water mark of interest in puroresu in America leading to Ring Of Honor bringing in Kobashi to face Samoa Joe in New York City. The following blog echoes these sentiments plus will give a more comprehensive look at the title reign (I will only look at 8 of the 15 GHC Title matches over the course of two blogs): http://cewshreviews.blogspot.com/2012/10/sunday-supplement-kenta-kobashi-and.html

A Burning Champion

On March 1, 2003, Kenta Kobashi did more than just win the GHC Heavyweight Championship from ex-tag partner, rival and fellow Four Corner of Heaven, Mitsuharu Misawa. He became The Man of Pro Wrestling NOAH. Tracing back to All Japan Pro Wrestling, Misawa had been undisputed Ace since 1992 and even though he would lose the Triple Crown, everyone still knew who The Man. It is similar to John Cena's status in the WWE when he does not have the title. Like Cena now, Misawa was winding down and it was time for another wrestler to assume the mantle of Ace of Pro Wrestling NOAH. Once Kobashi came back in 2002, Akiyama's days as champion were numbered and after two transition reigns Misawa regained the GHC Championship to build to the Clash of the Titans Budokan March 1, 2003 match with rival, Kenta Kobashi. The match did not disappoint in the slightest. It was a very fitting climax filled with high drama, intrigue and of course big bombs. Try as he might, there was no denying Kobashi on that night as he seized the torch from one of the greatest champions to ever live.

A title victory does not make a title reign great unto itself. While the best title defenses will be showcased in the part 2, this blog gives you a taste of what made Kobashi a great champion. Kobashi, one of the greatest offensive dynamos in the history of wrestling, took a step back allowed himself to be more vulnerable than ever before. He gave huge swaths of his matches to challengers like partner, Tamon Honda and New Japan invader, Yuji Nagata. In doing so, he constructed great matches that planted seeds of doubt into viewers' head and had them clamoring for the big Kobashi firework comeback. In the Honda match, he basically made life-long mid-card nobody Tamon Honda into an upper mid-card performer and a credible partner for him to defeat Akiyama & Saito for the tag titles. In the Nagata match, Nagata and Kobashi generated that rare big fight feel that makes a match special. Not to be outdone, Nagata just came off setting the record for most IWGP Title Defenses and defeated Four Corner of Heaven, Akira Taue. The match felt bigger than GHC Title. It was a match where the winner who would declared the best Japanese wrestler in the world at that point and the undisputed Japanese Wrestler of 2003. While, this is all going on, they are building to the big money match, Kobashi vs Akiyama at the Egg Dome.

After having a rocket strapped to his ass, Akiyama had settled down to rule the tag team division with the mountain of suck known as Akitoshi Saito. While does Saito does suck, I did rank their title defense against Kobashi & Shiga as the second best match of 2002. After Kobashi won, Akiyama began to provide commentary for Kobashi's title defenses or was shown watching them. He had defeated Kobashi at the second ever NOAH show via choke-out, but fell prey to the Burning Hammer in their epic December 2000 blowoff. Now both were on a collision course. Also apart of the buildup were tag team matches pitting their two stables Sterness and Burning against each other. At the June Budokan show, Kobashi & Honda defeated Akiyama & Saito to win the tag titles featuring one of the best home stretches in the history of wrestling. In August of the same year, the two stables faced off in 8-Man Tag, but this time the emphasis was placed on the rising stars of the Junior Heavyweight division, regardless Akiyama & Co. picked up the win. As we will see in part two, it all comes to head in NOAH's debut show at world-famous Tokyo Egg Dome with a crowd of 50,000 to watch Kenta Kobashi defend the GHC Championship against Jun Akiyama.

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1. Mitsuharu Misawa vs Jun Akiyama - Budokan 02/27/00
2. GHC Heavyweight Champion Mitsuharu Misawa vs Kenta Kobashi - Budokan 03/01/03
3. All Japan Triple Crown Champion Kenta Kobashi vs Yoshihiro Takayama - All Japan 05/26/00

4. All Japan Triple Crown Champion Genichiro Tenryu vs Keiji Mutoh - Budokan 6/8/01
5. Toshiaki Kawada & Masa Fuchi vs Yuji Nagata & Takashi Iizuka - NJ PPV 12/14/00

6. Kenta Kobashi vs Jun Akiyama - Budokan 12/23/00

7. IWGP Jr Hvywt Tag Champs Ohtani & Takaiwa vs Kanemoto & Minoru - NJPW  6/25/00
8. IWGP Champion Kensuke Sasaki vs Toshiaki Kawada - 10/00 Tokyo Dome Non-Title
9. Keiji Mutoh vs Toshiaki Kawada - Champions Carnival 04/01
10. IWGP Jr Heavyweight Champion Minoru Tanaka vs Takehiro Murahama - NJPW 4/20/01
11. Shinya Hashimoto & Takashi Iizuka vs Naoya Ogawa & Kazunari Murkami - Tokyo Dome 01/04/00
12. GHC Heavyweight Champion Kenta Kobashi vs Tamon Honda - NOAH 04/13/03
13. Genichiro Tenryu & Masa Fuchi vs Toshiaki Kawada & Nobutaka Araya - AJPW 6/30/01

14. Kenta Kobashi vs Takao Omori - Champions Carnival Final '00
15. GHC Tag Team Champions Sterness (Akiyama & Saito) vs Burning (Kobashi & Honda) - Budokan 6/6/03
16. GHC Champion Mitsuharu Misawa vs Jun Akiyama - Budokan 07/27/01
17. GHC Heavyweight Champion Kenta Kobashi vs Yuji Nagata - Budokan 9/12/03
18. New Japan (Liger & Minoru ) vs. NOAH (Kikuchi & Kanemaru) - NOAH 4/7/02
19. GHC Tag Champions Akiyama & Saito vs Kobashi & Shiga - NOAH 10/19/02
20. Toshiaki Kawada & Genichiro Tenryu vs Stan Hansen & Taiyo Kea - Budokan 07/23/00
21. IWGP Heavyweight Champion Genichiro Tenryu vs Kensuke Sasaki - 01/04/00
22. Genichiro Tenryu vs Toshiaki Kawada - Vacant All Japan Triple Crown 10/28/00
23. Mitsuharu Misawa vs Toshiaki Kawada - Champions Carnival '00
24. Kenta Kobashi vs Jun Akiyama - NOAH #2 08/06/00

25. GHC Champion Yoshihiro Takayama vs Mitsuharu Misawa - Budokan 09/23/02
26. Mitsuharu Misawa vs Yoshihiro Takayama - Vacant GHC Title 04/15/01
27. Genichiro Tenryu vs Satoshi Kojima - AJPW 07/07/02
28. IWGP Champion Yuji Nagata vs. Yoshihiro Takayama - Tokyo Dome 05/02
29. All Japan Triple Crown Champion Vader vs Kenta Kobashi - Budokan 2/27/00
30. IWGP Jr Tag Champions Kanemoto & Minoru vs Liger & Makabe - NJPW 9/12/00


31. Keiji Mutoh vs Yuji Nagata - Sumo Hall 08/12/01 G-1 Climax Final
32. Mitsuharu Misawa vs Kenta Kobashi - Champions Carnival '00
33. Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi vs Jun Akiyama & Yuji Nagata - Budokan 02/17/02
34. Mitsuharu Misawa & Akira Taue vs Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama - NOAH #1 08/05/00
35. New Japan (Liger & Inoue) vs NOAH (Kikuchi & Kanemaru) - NOAH 2/17/02
36. IWGP Jr Hvywt Tag Champs Liger & Minoru vs. Kikuchi & Kanemaru - NJPW 8/29/02'
37. Sterness  vs. Burning 8-Man Tag - NOAH 08/03
38. Toshiaki Kawada vs Kenta Kobashi - AJPW 01/17/00
39. Genichiro Tenryu vs Satoshi Kojima - AJPW 02/24/02

40. Yoshihiro Takayma vs Osamu Nishimura - G-1 Climax Semifinals
41. Yoshihiro Takayama vs Kensuke Sasaki - G-1 Climax Round Robin
42. SUWA vs Dragon Kid - Toryumon 08/24/00 Hair Vs Mask
43. NWA World Heavyweight Champion Shinya Hashimoto vs Masato Tanaka - Zero-One 3/02/02
44. Keiji Mutoh & Hiroshi Hase vs Jun Akiyama & Yuji Nagata - Tokyo Dome 10/08/01
45. NJPW(Liger, Minoru , Makabe) vs Osaka Pro(Delfin, Murhama, Tsubasa)-NJPW 12/14/00
46. Toshiaki Kawada vs Vader - AJPW 2/17/00
47. Shinya Hashimoto & Yuji Nagata vs Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama - Zero-One 3/2/01

48. Toshiaki Kawada vs Satoshi Kojima - AJPW 06/06/01
49.  Naoki Sano vs Minoru Tanaka - Battlarts 01/30/2000
50. Dick Togo vs Tiger Mask IV - M-Pro 08/25/02

51. GHC Tag Team Champions Wild II vs Jun Akiyama & Akitoshi Saito - Budokan 9/23/02

I wonder whats in the briefcase...I bet it is a backgammon set. 

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GHC Heavyweight Champion Mitsuharu Misawa vs Kenta Kobashi - Budokan 3/01/03

This is how you seize the torch. Finally, Kobashi takes the mantle from Misawa as the full-fledged and embarks on a magnificent heavyweight title reign. Very rarely in wrestling and sports is a there a "torch passing" moment so when it does happen it truly feels like a special match. So when you take an extraordinary match add this touch of gravitas you have the makings of a Match of the Decade candidate. I would argue that this is the most famous match of the era and thus will come under extra scrutiny. After watching the match for either the fourth or fifth time, I believe it warrants inclusion among the best matches produced in Japan in the 00s.

The story of this match was Kobashi would not be denied on this night. After years and years of proving his mettle, he was ready to defeat Misawa definitively. For Misawa, it was his last stand as The Man of Japan. It was a fitting climax to the story of two great, competitive rivals. The beginning of the match is Misawa establishing control and setting the pace with his elbow. After scoring the first bomb (a backdrop driver), Misawa stymies Kobashi at every turn with the elbow while focusing on Kobashi's arm removing the lariat and chop from the arsenal. Kobashi sells the arm like a champ as he cant apply the sleeper due to the arm work. When Misawa has the opportunity to hit his customary diving elbow, he was not expecting to crash and burn into the railing chin-first coming up with a nasty gash. Much like the chin-first drop toehold in the amazing '00 Akiyama match, Kobashi sees his opening and pounces. Everything is focused on debilitating the neck of Misawa. If you have control of the head & neck, you have control of the body. Kobashi paces his work a little better than Akiyama reserving his bombs for later content for using cravats and DDTs. The best spot of the segment is when Misawa goes for the monkey flip and Kobashi just falls back and eats turnbuckle. Kobashi starts to chop the fuck out of Misawa's neck, but Misawa ain't having any of it. We were one muscle flex away from Misawa doing his best Luger impression. It does not matter if it is Greensboro Coliseum or Budokan Hall, that spot is over like rover. The playing field is levelled after a trading a spinning back chop and a Roaring Elbow,

Misawa is first up, but Kobashi still has fight left in him and Misawa elbows him back in the head. He rattles off his finishing sequence that has culminated in so many victories. He goes for Emerald Flowsion, but Kobashi desperately shoves him into the turnbuckles to save himself and hits a half nelson suplex. Kobashi will not be denied as he fights through elbows to hit a LARIATOOOOOO! The struggle over a suplex and MIsawa suplexes him on the ramp then dives through the ropes to elbow Kobashi on the ramp. After 25 minutes, they are both out on the ramp and I just wondering what is going through their minds knowing what the next spot will be. In the spot of the match, Misawa Tiger Suplexes Kobashi off the ramp onto floor. I still lose my shit when it happens. "KO-BASH-I" chants ring out in the Budokan and they tease the double countout finish to really put over that spot. Misawa only gets a two. To steal a phrase from DDP, this crowd is JAAAAAAAAACCCKED!!! Both men selling the fatigue and battle wear like champs. Kobashi throws wild chops, but Misawa catches him with nasty back elbows. Kobashi is falling over himself on jelly legs and finally Misawa hits it. The end all be all: Emerald Flowsion. 1-2-KICK OUT CROWD LOSES THEIR SHIT~! Delayed brainbuster triggers the MI-SA-WA chant. This crowd does not want it to end. Burning Hammer brings the match and the rivalry to a fitting conclusion. Kobashi grabs the reins from the Misawa in a classic barnburner. *****

This Is Gonna Hurt

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GHC Heavyweight Champion Kenta Kobashi vs Tamon Honda - NOAH 4/13/03
This is my first Tamon Honda match and I don't think I got him until the tag title match after this so I will need to rewatch this match down the line. I thought it was a great match, but not an elite match. It is a perfect first title defense for Kobashi against a solid midcarder, who had some solid victories in 2002 and a very good Olympic record in freestyle wrestling. Plus established Honda as Kobashi's #2 and a reputable tag partner. This has to be Honda's career performance with a great array of throws and submissions to try put down Kobashi. Kobashi just has too much game for Honda, who is outgunned by the new champion.

The beginning match establishes just that: Kobashi is the champion and he is going to control the beginning because he is the better wrestler. Now, Honda is the game from the beginning going for cradles and being able to throw Kobashi on a headlock, but cant turn the tide early against the offensive juggernaut that is Kobashi. Kobashi DDTs him on the ramp and it looks like nothing can stop him. Until in a badass spot, Honda German suplexes Kobashi over the ropes onto the ramp. Now thats creatively badass. As is a staple of Kobashi matches, his opponent goes to work on the arm to take away the Lariat and the chop. Kobashi is such a master seller of this every time out and sells the cross-armbreaker very well. Honda goes back to the top wristlock to quash any Kobashi resistance. Honda freaking headbutts Kobashi's arm. Kobashi nails the back drop driver and sells the arm well, but you know it is coming, the Orange Tsunami is going to overwhelm Honda, a DDT and 2 half-nelson suplexes confirm it. Honda gamely tries to hold on by grabbing his Olympic Hell (did not realize this was a finish just thought it was a chinlock until after I did some reading.). Honda starts throwing Kobashi around climaxing with a top rope German suplex and again goes back to Olympic Hell. He can't put him away and goes for the powerbomb. Kobashi-rana and LARIAT!!! The end is nigh as they show the GHC title. Out of nowhere, spear by Honda. Honda force Kobashi over on the German, but eats a LARIAT. Everybody is out. Honda one last pin attempt before sleepr suplex and BURNING LARIAT continue Kobashi's title reign.

Kobashi worked the match much more underneath relying on his selling to get match over and in turn helping to make Honda look like a credible threat. Honda impressed me with throws and his work on the arm. Once I realized Olympic Hell was more than a intensely held chinlock I think I would like this match even more. I could see why some detractors of Kobashi who go after his offensive-laden matches may choose this as a shining example of a great Kobashi match. I thought it was perfect way to start a title reign, but at the same time allows to be even greater matches down the road rather than blowing your wad all at once. ****1/4

This Gonna Hurt More

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GHC Tag Team Champions Sterness (Jun Akiyama & Akitoshi Saito) vs Burning (Kenta Kobashi & Tamon Honda) - Budokan 6/6/03

During the home stretch of this match is when I got Honda, which is why I need to rewatch that GHC title defense again towards the end of the project. The GHC Title defense established Honda as a solid junior partner (not in the weight sense) for Kobashi to go up against Kobashi's arch-nemesis and his junior partner. The finish run of this match stands as one of the best finishes I have ever seen, but I thought the first half of the match was really just there. If you JIP to Kobashi's hot tag and then extrapolate out I could imagine someone dropping the full monty on this match, but the outset and Honda's FIP were really lukewarm. It is not as bad as a disjointed match to grade. It is just they sort of go from the ground floor to the top floor in two blinks of an eye instead of a gradual build.

The match follows the usual Japanese formula the heels isolate the junior partner, but cant handle big gun. I love this formula; I just did not think it was executed with as much panache as usual. At the beginning, Akiyama pokes Kobashi in the eye, which fires up Kobashi to chop the fuck outta him. When Saito and Honda tango, Saito gets an upper hand so Kobashi comes in and puts him in his place. When Honda is back in, Saito wins a suplex struggle and Akiyama hits a high knee. Thus the basic strategy is established isolate Honda because Kobashi is too much man to handle. What I love about Japan is not everything so black and white even though Honda is the junior in the pecking order, he is still a world class athlete so he can defend himself and throw Akiyama down. However, everything has been fine to this point, but not super badass then you had some meaningless bomb throwing: Akiyama hits Kobashi with a DDT on the ramp and the next move is a Kobashi superplex. Sterness gets the match back on track with a sweet spike piledriver on the floor to Honda. The face in peril sequence after that just kinda meandered as they were just going through the motions.

Honda spear and hot tag to Kobashi ignites the crowd and takes a good match and turns it into a classic. It is spinning back chops for everyone and Akiyama is out on his feet. Sleeper suplex, but finally Saito does something worthwhile and hits a HUGE German suplex. Saito had not ruined this match for me, but he was definitely not making it better. C'mon Saito you are still going to do a lot more than just that to take Kobashi down. Spinning back chop and a half-nelson suplex on ramp and Kobashi was back on top. At this point, Honda takes over the match for 5 or so minutes is the best wrestler in the world. No written word recap will do this finish justice. It is one of the more dramatic finishes to a Japanese tag or any match ever. It is filled with saves, Honda Germans, Olympic Hell out of Exploders and high drama. The pop for Honda's victory over Akiyama is one of the loudest I have heard from a Budokan Hall. This match is why you can never project where a match is going to go. What started as a ho-hum match turned into a classic finish with a great underdog babyface victory. It is hard to rate, but I will need to re-watch. I am going conservatively and saying ****.

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Burning (Kenta Kobashi, Tamon Honda, KENTA) & Naomichi Marufuji vs Sterness (Jun Akiyama, Akitoshi Saito, Yoshinobu Kanemaru and Makoto Hashi) - Korakuen 08/23/03

I was watching a spotfest when I wrote this. Forgive me if it goes astray.

I have actually been looking forward to seeing KENTA & Marufuji's big run as it is something I missed that is highly polarizing. I am always interested in wrestling acts that are highly polarizing. I really liked the KENTA/Nakajima series from 2009 and in general enjoyed him. I always thought Marufuji would have been better off on the Japanese gymnastics team or the Japanese version of Jackass/Stupid Human Tricks. This is NOT a Kobashi/Akiyama match at all. It is actually quite jarring watching Kobashi & Akiyama take part in such a 00s spotfest. I am not trying to say they are beneath it. It is just not how they work that makes this strange to watch.  This is definitely a KENTAFuji showcase and their new en vogue style.

This match affirms everything I remember: KENTA is pretty good and Marufuji is just atrocious. There are just so many lame gymnastics exchanges from Marufuji that look especially bad when Kobashi comes in and just chops the fuck out of Kanemaru. KENTA is athletic, but remembers to actually hit you.  I thought this was a very quiet performance from Honda, which disappointed me after his monster performance in the GHC Tag Title match. I could watch Kobashi chop the fuck out of Hashi & Kanemaru all day. Once Marufuji starts getting his ass kicked I start to enjoy the match a lot more. Nothing makes me want someone to get their ass kicked more than after they hit Sliced Bread No. 2. When you hit that move, I just want you to take closed fists to the head and piledrivers to eternity. Unfortunately all good things come to an end and Marufuji takes out Akiyama's knee and tags in the big man, Kobashi. Kobashi crushes Akiyama. Saito throwing KENTA down with an urnage was the best thing he has ever done. If this review seems disjointed, it is because they are just throwing out a ton of shit. Saito powerbombs KENTA and Kanemaru frogsplash, but triple save. Burning quadruple teams Kanemaru. Ballshot Kanemaru! Use the Ballshot!!! In the spot of the match Kobashi puts Kanemaru on Honda and winds him up to hit an Inverted Alabama Slamma. That was pretty cool. KENTA runs through some offense, but gets pinned from behind on a rollup. What the fuck?!?!?!

KENTAFuji are taking over. Ok? Get used to it. Spotfest in every sense of the word. It is a really fun match with some cool stuff in it. I thought the finish was pretty lame as they should have gone out like they came in a blaze of glory. I dig spotfests, but they can only get so high for me. ***1/2

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NOAH vs New Japan

GHC Heavyweight Champion Kenta Kobashi vs Yuji Nagata - Budokan 09/12/03

"Mr. IWGP" Yuji Nagata having just broken the title defense record as the IWGP champion (10 defenses, which would stand until Tanahashi's 2011-2012 reign) and defeating Akira Taue at the most recent Budokan show in June looks to wrest the top prize in NOAH from their ace, Kenta Kobashi. A victory here for either would cement the winner as the hottest star in puroresu. Both took part in New Japan's last ever sellout of the Egg Dome in May of 2003 where Nagata lost his IWGP title to Takayama while Kobashi successfully defended against Masa Chono. Kobashi was riding a tidal wave of success as the freshly minted ace of NOAH having defeated Misawa in March and was looking like the biggest star in Japan. However, a loss here and Nagata could easily claim the mantle of the hottest star in puroresu. This just had a big fight feel that the last three matches were lacking. The Budokan crowd was rocking from the outset and never let up. They were lapping up everything from the first chop exchange to the final BURNING LARIATO!

Early on, Kobashi asserts his dominance over Nagata with his chop. He suckers Nagata into his type of match: chop exchanges, tests of strength and and bombs. Nagata eventually realizes that is not a game he can win. He just gets tired of Kobashi chopping him and starts unloading with kicks to Kobashi's chopping arm. Nagata even pushes the ref away from him as he works over the arm and that gets the crowd on his case. The Nagatalock III is an armbar variation that has proven to be a death knell for all his opponents and the entire time in this segment Nagata works his darndest to apply the hold and Kobashi works equally hard to stay out of it. This sense of struggle lent itself to great drama and the best Nagata singles performance I have seen yet. Once Kobashi is able to score a bomb (half-nelson), Nagata seems to lose his sense of strategy. Kobashi is able to level the playing field with a lariat. Kobashi is still selling the arm allowing for Nagata to hit his own bombs including a wicked back body drop that only gets two. Kobashi is able to shift his weight on a suplex attempt and after a lot of struggle he hits a corner powerbomb (Im such a mark for that move). They are selling battle exhaustion really well here even if they dropped arm story prematurely. Surprisingly, Kobashi gives a lot of the home stretch to Nagata after Nagata hits a wild spin kick to press advantage. This ultimately helped the crowd dynamics as they are more predisposed to cheer for the underdog so after Kobashi survived the Nagata onslaught of a super exploder, a barrage of enziguiris and a back drop driver, the crowd exploded with a huge "KO-BASH-I" chant. Kobashi reversed an Irish Whip with a Lariat. I love the camera shot of a concerned female fan who is all of sudden ebullient then they cut back and Kobashi has that "This Fucker Bout To Die" expression. Brainbuster gets two and a BURNING LARIAT secures the win.

Budokan crowd loved this match and really was hanging on every nearfall. Nagata had been so well-built by NJPW and the win over Taue made him one of the better challengers from a booking standpoint. From a match standpoint, Nagata just is not an elite wrestler. He is missing the intangibles. He does not doing anything poorly, but he is not great at anything. I think they could have had a classic if they stuck with the arm work and told an interesting story. Instead they went with the bomb throwing match, which is something that Kobashi excels at. The match just felt very safe. They performed a match in Kobashi's wheelhouse and delivered satisfaction to those in attendance. The difference between a Nagata and a Hashimoto or a Mutoh would be they would have forced Kobashi out of his safety zone. In turn, Kobashi would have forced Hash and Mutoh out of their comfort zone. If Nagata forced Kobashi to work a little more NJPW style (read: more matwork) I think it could have been a more unique match. As it stands it is just another very good Kobashi match. ****

Best of Japan 2000-2002

Hey yo Studmuffins and Foxy Ladies,

Finally, I have finished the years 2000, 2001, and 2002 for the Best in Japan  in the '00s project. At first, I was pleasantly surprised with the overall quality of the matches. The 00s were not a critically acclaimed period in Japan. However, when I was reviewing everything I had watched two things dawned on me that dampened my feelings.

FOUR!

Number one was the vast majority of the great matches took place in 2000. Four out of the top five matches I ranked were from 2000. In fact, puroresu pundits call 2000 an anomaly as a sort of one year return to form to the glory days of the 90s. There is a clear drop off in 2001 and finally a precipitous decline into 2002 (the top match of the year finished at **** and ranked number 14). Part of this all was the unsustainable nature of Japanese wrestling at the time. All Japan was running with Kawada, Mutoh and Tenryu all legends on the backside of their careers. By 2003, All Japan was a distant third promotion in Japan. New Japan was wrecked by Inokism and his obsession with Mixed Martial Arts. NOAH was relying on a spent Misawa and an injured Kobashi. In 2003-04, Kobashi would have one last stand for the King's Road style generating great match after great match, but after that what was left. Wrestlers like Akiyama, Sasaki and Nagata were left without credible opponents and stalled due to tepid booking. So while the year 2000 was a high quality year for puroresu, the infrastructure was clearly crumbling and it looks like it never does recover.

Number two was this past year in WWE, we had probably seven or eight matches I rank ****1/2 stars or higher. Across three promotions in three years, only 5 matches made that mark for me. Yes, WWE had a stellar year last year in terms of in-ring quality, but in-ring quality is supposed to be Japan's bread and butter. While, I would the year 2000 and say it stacks up pretty well to 2013 WWE (it hit higher highs) after that it is a sad state of affairs.

This should not be a total doom and gloom column. We are the celebrating the best of the best. We are celebrating Masa Fuchi standing on people's heads; Toshiaki Kawada having one last great year and cranking out 5 **** star matches in 2000; Keiji Mutoh reborn with an obession of dismantling people's knees; Genichiro Tenryu punking out youngsters with punches; Minoru's cross-armbreaker; Akiyama's ascent as the fifth pillar of heaven. It may not be 1995 anymore, but there is still plenty of good to be found.

Without any further adieu here is the best of 2000-2002 in Japan:

I'll never get tired of Fuchi standing people's head

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1. Mitsuharu Misawa vs Jun Akiyama - Budokan 02/27/00
2. All Japan Triple Crown Champion Kenta Kobashi vs Yoshihiro Takayama - All Japan 05/26/00

3. All Japan Triple Crown Champion Genichiro Tenryu vs Keiji Mutoh - Budokan 6/8/01
4. Toshiaki Kawada & Masa Fuchi vs Yuji Nagata & Takashi Iizuka - NJ PPV 12/14/00
5. GHC Heavyweight Champion Yoshinari Ogawa vs Yoshihiro Takayama - NOAH 9/7/02
6. Kenta Kobashi vs Jun Akiyama - Budokan 12/23/00

7. IWGP Jr Hvywt Tag Champs Ohtani & Takaiwa vs Kanemoto & Minoru - NJPW  6/25/00
8. IWGP Champion Kensuke Sasaki vs Toshiaki Kawada - 10/00 Tokyo Dome Non-Title
9. Keiji Mutoh vs Toshiaki Kawada - Champions Carnival 04/01
10. IWGP Jr Heavyweight Champion Minoru Tanaka vs Takehiro Murahama - NJPW 4/20/01
11. Shinya Hashimoto & Takashi Iizuka vs Naoya Ogawa & Kazunari Murkami - Tokyo Dome 01/04/00
12. Shinya Hashimoto & Yuji Nagata vs Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama - Zero-One 3/2/01
13. Genichiro Tenryu & Masa Fuchi vs Toshiaki Kawada & Nobutaka Araya - AJPW 6/30/01

14. Kenta Kobashi vs Takao Omori - Champions Carnival Final '00
15. GHC Heavyweight Champion Mitsuharu Misawa vs Akira Taue - Budokan 5/01
15. GHC Champion Mitsuharu Misawa vs Jun Akiyama - Budokan 07/27/01
16. New Japan (Liger & Minoru ) vs. NOAH (Kikuchi & Kanemaru) - NOAH 4/7/02
17. GHC Tag Champions Akiyama & Saito vs Kobashi & Shiga - NOAH 10/19/02
18. Toshiaki Kawada & Genichiro Tenryu vs Stan Hansen & Taiyo Kea - Budokan 07/23/00
19. IWGP Heavyweight Champion Genichiro Tenryu vs Kensuke Sasaki - 01/04/00
20. Genichiro Tenryu vs Toshiaki Kawada - Vacant All Japan Triple Crown 10/28/00
21. Kensuke Sasaki vs Toshiaki Kawada - IWGP Championship FINALS Tokyo Dome 01/04/01
22. Kenta Kobashi & Akira Taue vs Jun Akiyama & Vader - NOAH 1/13/01
23. Mitsuharu Misawa vs Toshiaki Kawada - Champions Carnival '00
24. Kenta Kobashi vs Jun Akiyama - NOAH #2 08/06/00


Match of the Year, 2000:
Mitsuharu Misawa vs Jun Akiyama - Budokan 02/27/00

Match of the Year, 2001:
All Japan Triple Crown Champion Genichiro Tenryu vs Keiji Mutoh - Budokan 6/8/01

Match of the Year, 2002:
GHC Heavyweight Champion Yoshinari Ogawa vs Yoshihiro Takayama - NOAH 9/7/02

Match of the Year (2000-2002), New Japan Pro Wrestling:
Toshiaki Kawada & Masa Fuchi vs Yuji Nagata & Takashi Iizuka - NJ PPV 12/14/00

Match of the Year (2000), Pre-Split All Japan Pro Wrestling:
Mitsuharu Misawa vs Jun Akiyama - Budokan 02/27/00

Match of the Year (2000-2002), Post-Split All Japan Pro Wrestling:
All Japan Triple Crown Champion Genichiro Tenryu vs Keiji Mutoh - Budokan 6/8/01

Match of the Year (2000-2002), Pro Wrestling NOAH:
Kenta Kobashi vs Jun Akiyama - Budokan 12/23/00

Match of the Year (2000-2002), Junior Heavyweight Division:
 IWGP Jr Heavyweight Tag Champs Shinjiro Ohtani & Tatsuhito Takaiwa vs Koji Kanemoto & Minoru Tanaka - NJPW  6/25/00

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Japan #1

Jun Akiyama vs Mitsuharu Misawa - Budokan 2/27/00

After this match, Akiyama was paid, laid and made. This was not a passing of a torch. Akiyama was out to seize that torch on that night and Misawa was going to fight every single step of the way to keep it. The proof is in the pudding: watch Akiyama's head snap back on one of Misawa's transition elbows in the corner or the knee drop Misawa drops on Akiyama's nose that draws blood. When I saw that knee, I was like "Holy fuck, I think he just broke his nose" and when Akiyama came up then was blood. Akiyama gave as he good as he got. As soon as, he was given a weakness (Akiyama drove Misawa to the mat on an attempted reverse cross body and Misawa came up holding his neck) and he went after Misawa's neck (yes given the circumstances now that can be uncomfortable) with a tenacity rarely seen. I am a drop toehold mark. In this match, I think I saw the greatest drop toehold of all time, when Akiyama applied a drop toehold onto Misawa into the railing. Thus match developed into one of the all-time classic Misawa matches with Misawa working underneath while Akiyama strung together one of the greatest offensive runs of all time. The whole time because of the credibility of Misawa's comeback and Misawa's elbow going all the way back to 1990 you never once think he is outta of it until he is shockingly out of it.

They are a bit tentative to start and they actually dive out of the way each of the other's moves before Misawa hits a dropkick sending him out of the ring. Akiyama, knowing Misawa too well, moves out of the way so Misawa stops himself on the apron and hits his diving elbow onto Akiyama. Misawa hits some absolutely wicked elbows on Akiyama in the corner to establish him dominance as THE ACE. However, Akiyama side-stepped a Misawa reverse cross body and drove him to the mat. Misawa comes up holding his neck and the complexion of the match totally changes. Akiyama hits a jumping knee to send Misawa out to the ring. Misawa whips Akiyama into the railing, but Akiyama side-steps him and hits the most wicked drop toehold into railing. He drops Misawa onto the railing throat first and while he is hanging there he hits him with a knee from the apron. Then he hits a knee while Misawa is hanging on the apron, then a piledriver onto the floor and then a friggin' wrist-clutch exploder on the apron. This was a holy shit string of moves all focused on the neck. Akiyama wrangled him into a cool neck submission with grapevining his legs in such a way to apply pressure on Misawa's neck.

Misawa backs him into the corner and hits an absolute monster back elbow and then a springboard dropkick to face. This is a wake up call to Akiyama that there is a reason Misawa is known as one of the most resilient wrestler ever. Misawa hits his front facelock the announcer sells it like it is 1992, but it is 2000 and the crowd does not really buy it. I will say it still looks tenacious as all hell. The crowd just was not buying it as a possible finish. Akiyama dropkicks Misawa off the top rope, hits a running knee off the apron, knee to the back into railing, tombstone piledriver in the ring and finishes this run off with a huge diving elbow to Misawa's neck while he is in the ring and an Exploder. He still can only get a 2.

Misawa gets out of a neck submission to hit his spinkick and drop a nasty knee to Akiyama's nose that draws blood. Misawa's frogsplash gets 2. Misawa runs of his impressive offense: two Germans and a Tiger Driver. Misawa hits a roaring elbow, but just phases Akiyama who hits two Exploders. On the second exploder, Misawa fumbles around before falling looking oddly like arch-rival, Toshiaki Kawada. Could the Kid actually pull it off? Akiyama hits a running knee to Misawa's face and then an exploder for 2. He hits a brainbuster for two. Finally hits the mother of all wrist-clutch exploders dropping Misawa on his head to win at that point the biggest of match of his career in grandiose fashion.

This match reminds me so much of The Dark Knight in how it is perfect confluence of the superficial with meaning. What makes the Dark Knight so great is there is enough fireworks and eye candy to appeal to our audiovisual senses, but all rooted in a beautifully woven story. It appeals to pretty much facet of humanity, much like this match. You have the story of the young upstart looking to dethrone warrior-king by attacking his neck ruthlessly and violently. The old warrior-king has plenty of fight left in him, but eventually he overcome by the surmounting pain and the indefatigable resolve of the young upstart. On top of that, this is one of best offensive spectacles to ever be produced. Akiyama does a tremendous job of never letting up just zeroing in when Misawa is coming back he does not stop coming forward. Misawa is one of the ultimate underneath workers in this match he gives Akiyama even more offense than he would usual, which shows how much he trusted him at this point. After that second Exploder, when Misawa tried to get up and just fell back down you flashed back to all the times it had happened to Kawada and it was Misawa standing tall. The grand finale was a vicious head-drop wrist clutch exploder. Akiyama respected Misawa enough to know that he had to have no remorse if he wanted to take his place in the run. *****

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IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Champions Shinjiro Ohtani & Tatsuhito Takiwa vs.

 Koji Kanemoto & Minoru Tanaka - New Japan Summer Struggle 6/25/00

The next time a hot chick asks me in a club the two guys I would least want to wrestle I have my answer "Shinjiro Ohtanu and Tatsuhito Takaiwa". Holy shit were their strikes gnarly. That is how you fuckin heel yourself with stiff offense. I was feeling bad for Kanemoto & Minoru just because these ornery hombres were trying to fuckin kill them. I very rarely root for wrestlers in puroresu, but I was pulling for Kanemoto & Minoru big time.

Early on the game plan for Ohtani and Takaiwa was trap their opponent in a corner and just slap, claw and punch the shit out of them. It was a violent mugging in those corner.s When Ohtani first came in and he just started punching Kanemoto in the head, it just set the tone: Kanemoto and Minoru were going to have survive. Minoru & Kanemoto has faces these bad muthafuckas before they knew they had to use movement and submissions. When they got a chance, Kanemoto yanked their noses, but they just incited them further Takaiwa yanked on his. Takaiwa gives the biggest slap I have ever seen to Kanemoto. It has to be seen. Ohtani says you thought that was a slap and slaps him even harder. Kanemoto somehow fires up and hits a true axe kick on Ohtani to tag in Minoru. Minoru goes for his bread and butter: the cross armbreaker, but Ohtani makes the ropes. I love the part where Kanemoto has a slight advantage and tells Minoru to get his ass in because it shows how much in survival mode they are. Usually, tag rules are loose enough that people make saves at will, but rarely does a team double team when on offense just really puts over the story of this match. Minoru goes for a cross armbreaker again, but Takaiwa is NOT HUMAN and powerbombs him onto the ropes. It really felt like a scene out of a slasher flick. They can't keep these psychopaths down. Ohtani dropkicks Minoru in the head twice while hanging in the tree of woe and makes sure to taunt Kanemoto each time. Minoru & Kanemoto return the favor on Ohtani only they dropkick him in the balls while in the tree of woe. I friggin love this match. The finish stretch is one of the hottest I have ever seen.

Ohtani regains controls with a wicked eyerake and then low and high facewashes in the corner on Kanemoto. Kanemoto no-sells hits his weird flippy move and goes for his moonsault, but no one home. Takaiwa hits a lariat and Ohtani with a springboard dropkick on Minoru. However, it is overhead belly to bellys for everyone courtesy of Kanemoto. Kanemoto goes for a top rope frankensteiner and Ohtani holds on and he takes a nasty spill. They tease the Doomsday Device, but Minoru breaks up with dropkick. Takaiwa hits his death valley driver, but Kanemoto hits a dragon leg screw and Ohtani saves his partner. Minoru is a little quicker than the older Ohtani and applies a heel hook. Kanemoto and Takaiwa eye each other while Ohtani is squirming for the ropes. After all the punishment Ohtani has dished out to see him doing his temper tantrum selling makes you want to see Minoru kick his bratty ass even more. Ohtani is on jelly legs, but hits his Dragon Suplex for two. Ohtani blocks Minoru's superkick and hits two massive powerbombs one of each of his opponents. He threw them down! Ohtani hits a massive palm strike and goes for it again, but Kanemoto pushed Minoru out of the way and hits an overhead belly to belly on Ohtani. Minoru hits a springboard dropkick to back of Ohtani's head then follows up with the Dragon suplex and the cross armbreaker for the immediate submission.

This match is for stiffness marks everywhere. The beginning of the match is almost uncomfortable to watch with how badly they are kicking the shit out of each other. Then not to be outdone the last 5 minutes or so is absolutely crazy action with bodies flying everywhere. Ohtani & Takaiwa are trying to get the Doomsday Device going and stiffing the shit out of their opponents. Kanemoto and Minoru are trying to survive with movement and flash submissions. Best juniors match of 2000-2002 ****1/4

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Toshiaki Kawada & Masa Fuchi vs Yuji Nagata & Takashi Iizuka - New Japan PPV 12/14/00

New Japan vs All Japan delivers another classic in this tag match pitting the 2000 G-1 Tag League Winners against the All Japan stalwarts. Nagata & Iizuka come out with Sasaki and Liger immediately this match has a big fight feel. At first, Fuchi cowers away from the younger, Iizuka using the ropes to his advantage. I have never seen Iizuka match and just know him as the dude that the Steiners took liberties with at Wrestlewar '92. He has a predilection for the sleeper. Nagata tags in and brings the fight to Fuchi, who tags out to Kawada. Kawada and Nagata duke it out on the mat in a very gritty exchange. Kawada, cocky as ever, goes for hamstring stretches so Nagata kicks him in the face. The ref admonishes Nagata allowing Kawada to retaliate with a kick to the face of his own. We leave this exchange feeling both are equals. Fuchi mans up and hits a kneecrusher on Iizuka and transformed into the cockiest bastard ever. He lays Iizuka on the middle turnbuckles where he stands on Iizuka's neck and legs. Kawada puts him in a half-crab, which in typical Kawada fashion involves him stepping in his head and nearly breaking him in half. Fuchi gets in on the action by standing on Iizuka's head with the look that says "What the fuck are you going to do about it, Nagata?" Fuchi puts Iizuka in the half-crab so Nagata lights him up. This gives Kawada the chance to floor him with a jumping kick.

So now Kawada and Fuchi take turns beating the shit out of Nagata on the floor while the other keeps Iizuka at bay. That's fuckin bitchin' tag wrestling. The crowd is behind Iizuka and I love how you see Sasaki urging Nagata on while he is fallen in the corner. Nagata tries to interfere, but just collapses. You really get the feeling what is one the line here. It is New Japan versus All Japan and New Japan lost the first battle when Kawada beat their champion. Iizuka is able to hit a suplex on Fuchi and he grabs a sleeper on him. Kawada breaks it up, but Fuchi falls outside the ring. While Kawada is checking on Fuchi, Iizuka tags Nagata. I loved that sequence so much. Kawada knows he is in enemy territory and cant afford to lose Fuchi.

Nagata tells Kawada to bring it, don't sing it. Kawada hits a big boot and lariat for two. Kawada goes for the back drop driver, but Nagata gets some jumping high kicks to rock him. Kawada is just masterful at selling these. Nagata gets a German, but Kawada hits his spinning heel kick. Kawada hits the back drop driver, but only gets two. Liger cheers the kick out. This is such a cool atmosphere. Kawada applies the stretch plum and the crowd seems very nervous that All Japan will go over again. Kawada with a boot to Iizuka and goes for the powerbomb, but Nagata blocks and kicks Kawada's knee, an eye for an eye. Nagata applies the Nagatalock. Fuchi, remember that badass mutha, staggers in and breaks it up. However, both the All Japan boys end up in leg submissions. Kawada punches Iizuka in the head to make the ropes. When Fuchi is released, he collapses in the corner looking for a tag even though his not legal and Kawada is not there. I need to watch more Fuchi because after being the cockiest bastard ever he is selling like a million bucks. Not to be outdone, Kawada keeps collapsing on German suplex attempts before doing a jumping kick out of it.

Kawada tags the limping Fuchi. Fuchi dropkicks Iizuka's knee hoping to regain that advantage. He hits two back drop drivers on Iizuka. Fuchi grabs his own sleeper on Iizuka to give him a taste of his own medicine. Kawada stretch plum on Nagata and Fuchi switches to stretch plum. I love mirror spots! I don't know Japanese, but it sounds like the time calls are getting closer together. Iizuka and Fuchi knock heads on a criss cross exchange. One last Kawada/Nagata exchange and they rip into each other with vicious face slaps. Nagata ends up gets the better of it and applies a cross-armbreaker. Fuchi stands on Nagata's head to break it up as the time limit expires. WHAT A WAR!

First, my new dream team is Masa Fuchi and Tony Atlas. Whenever, Atlas played FIP they could have had Fuchi walk on him to revitalize him. :) Seriously, this was a fantastic that used everybody to their best potential. They highlighted the Kawada/Nagata showdowns in such a way they came off as a big deal, but without feeling like we did not see any action. Fuchi's work in this was excellent and I really need to watch more of his stuff. I loved the Iizuka FIP, which actually became a double FIP where both Iizuka and Nagata were in peril. That was some really ingenious booking. It is the type of stuff you only get to see in puro tags. The finish was great with Kawada and Nagata trading stuff in a logical, violent fashion. I loved Fuchi's and Kawada's selling at the end. It really took the match to whole new level. The ending with Nagata and Kawada slapping the fuck each other in a race against the clock was so dramatic. It just had to end as a draw. ****1/2

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Burning vs Sterness

Jun Akiyama vs Kenta Kobashi - NOAH #4 PPV 12/23/00

The story of Akiyama's two monumental victories is focus, focus, focus. Take what it is given to you and don't let up. Weather the inevitable comeback and unleash a barrage of Exploders to win. In this match, he has three things working against him: he falls into an early hole, Kobashi's half-nelson suplex levels the playing field in the middle and then pride at the end. In the previous matches, Misawa's elbow and Kobashi's lariats and suplexes were rendered powerless by Akiyama's tenacious work. In this match, Kobashi shows tremendous fighting spirit in working through his arm injury to hit a half-nelson suplex to knock Akiyama out. Akiyama is able to recover from this, but when he had Kobashi knocked out on the outside after an Exploder instead of taking the victory he wanted the decisive victory. Thus was the great, long fall of Akiyama from the top rope onto the back of his head.

Kobashi is ripshit to start the match and is lighting Akiyama up. Akiyama vacillates between retreat and standing tall with neither working. On the outside, he is able to use Kobashi's overzealousness against him ducking out of the way of a chop. He drops him across the railing and Kobashi is really selling the cheat. As a viewer, I thought this was clearly the opening Akiyama would exploit. However, Akiyama deviates and instead goes high-risk on the ramp hitting a DDT on the ramp and a running elbow (ala Mutoh). He looks to end it early with an Exploder, but Kobashi plants him with a DDT on the edge of the ramp. Akiyama deviating from the gameplan did not work out too well. Instead, Kobashi takes a page out of Akiyama's playbook and is absolutely relentless on Akiyama's neck. It really climaxes when Akiyama goes for his knee in the corner and Kobashi throws him down. Akiyama really sells that neck making you believe Kobashi had turned the tables on Akiyama. I actually believed I could buy Kobashi's headlock as the finish after the neck work and Akiyama selling and how tenacious this headlock was.

In a callback to the August match, Akiyama saves himself with two desperation dropkick to Kobashi's knee. Different day, same story? Not so fast, Akiyama drops a boot on Kobashi's arm from the apron and drives his knee into Kobashi arm riding into the railing. Akiyama is looking to take away the Burning Lariat and the lethal chops of Kobashi. The following arm work is so textbook, but so well-done with Akiyama using everything available (ropes, post, railing, his own shoulder) to hit to inflict damage on the arm. Kobashi makes you believe that arm is totally useless, but just when end seems near he snaps off a sleeper suplex. Kobashi continues to sell the arm, but hits a half-nelson suplex on Akiyama that knocks him the fuck out. That is not something Akiyama had to weather in his previous victories. Kobashi is still injured, but in a lot of ways the entire playing field had been levelled. Kobashi, ever the sportsman, stops the ref's count and drags Akiyama back into the ring. Kobashi still sells the arm doing moves like the powerbomb and the lariat. You believe it is arm that is allowing Akiyama to kick out because those moves don't have their usual power behind them.

Kobashi goes for a move that does not use the arm: the moonsault. However, Akiyama gets up to powerbomb him off the top rope. It is even stevens. It really feels like it is a tied ball game going into sudden death overtime at this point. Akiyama goes for the kill with the exploder on the apron, but they both jump off the apron. Akiyama is able to hit an Exploder on the exposed concrete and he is fuckin out. Now, Akiyama stops the ref's count to drag Kobashi back into the ring. In Akiyama's mind, a pinfall the ring must mean effacing all doubts and securing his place in the Sun. He hits a double-arm DDT, a diving elbow to the back of Kobashi's head and then a exploder, but only gets two. Akiyama goes for his choke, but they get wrapped up in the ropes. There is a great struggle over the wrist-clutch exploder where you actually feel bad that Kobashi is about to be hit with this move. Then Kobashi kicks out! So Akiyama figures the only thing more he can do is hit the Exploder off of a higher place. Kobashi still has enough struggle in him to send Akiyama crashing onto the back of his head. Kobashi just collapses onto the mat in a great visual. Kobashi hits three lariats, but he knows what he must do. Akiyama puts up a perfunctory struggle before the inevitable BURNING HAMMER~! Both men shake hands and all is right in the Kingdom of NOAH.

At 35+ minutes, this match continues the lineage of dramatic, epic Kings Road matches. I loved the symmetry of both men having the other knocked out at different points, but wanting to finish it in the ring. I liked the callbacks to their previous encounters. I do think this match is a little overly self-indulgent and could have benefited from trimming. There is plenty of gratuitous suplexes and such that left off because I did not want to write a novel about this match and because I thought they were insignificant. I am strong believer moves like that should not be. In the February 2000 classic with Misawa, there were no wasted moves. Still, it showcased Akiyama and Kobashi at their finest with Akiyama working the arm over and Kobashi fighting through it. There is no slight in not being as good as that Misawa/Akiyama 2000 match. It was a great, great blowoff match and excellent example of both men's resumes. ****1/2

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All Japan Triple Crown Champion Genichiro Tenryu vs Keiji Mutoh - Budokan 6/8/01

Slow and steady wins the race. One wrestling cliche that I feel is misappropriated for many wrestlers is "no wasted motion". In this match, there was no wasted motion. Every single move mattered, was milked and was given time to breathe. At one point, I popped for a dropkick to the knee like it was a frigging Burning Hammer. That is pro wrestling. On the surface, this match is about Mutoh's hyper-focused strategy: the knee, the knee, the knee and Tenryu's consequent retaliation. However, perhaps buried in this match is Tenryu's masterful performance working underneath and selling Shining Wizard from the first minute of the match to the transition to finish. That is pro wrestling. Mutoh comes out all guns blazing and is looking to end it early. Tenryu, off-guard, catches Mutoh's foot who uses it as a step stool to hit a Shining Wizard. He hits his backbreaker, but Tenryu powders before the impending moonsault. The headshot Tenryu suffers prevents him from mounting pretty much any offense in the first ten minutes of the match. When Tenryu is able to string together three moves punctuated with a powerbomb, Mutoh hits a kappo kick to the head sending him reeling to the outside. Mutoh follows up with a plancha and his knees strike Tenryu's head. When Tenryu is climbing back into the ring, Mutoh pounces at the opportunity with two dropkicks to the knee. A desperate Tenryu hits a brainbuster on the apron and a diving elbow through the middle ropes. That is the price you pay for the All Japan Triple Crown. Unfortunately, It is too little too late as Mutoh grabs his leg and dragon leg screws him off the apron and immediately hits a dropkcik from the apron to the knee. Tenryu does his best to try avoid Mutoh's relentless onslaught on the knees, but ends up in the figure-4. After a rope break, Tenryu lands a punch, then a dragon leg screw and then the Ultimate FUCK YOU Dropkick to the knee. I have never popped so hard for a dropkick to the knee. After all the NOAH matches with their constant strike exchanges, we get a shot basement dropkick exchange, which is bitchin'. Tenryu wins with a dragon leg screw and he get his own figure-4. He applies a Texas Cloverleaf, but his knee gives out. Tenryu, feeling in control now, is comfortable to start hitting his big bombs to put away Mutoh. SPIDER GERMAN~! and falling reverse elbow (a combo someone has to crib) get two. Mutoh gets his hope spot with an out of nowhere Frankensteiner. Tenryu blocks the follow-up Shining Wizard. He hits a brainbuster for two. Frustrated, he hits a top rope Frankensteiner for two. He goes back to the well one more time with the brainbuster and eats a knee to the head. He just collapses calling back to the initial Shining Wizard at the outset of the match. They square off once more, but Mutoh hits a bicycle kick and you can feel the end is nigh for Mr. Puroresu. Mutoh hits two Shining Wizards, but neither puts him down for three. Mutoh hits his trademark backbreaker/Moonsault combo to win the Triple Crown and become only the third wrestler to have won both the IWGP Heavyweigh Title and Triple Crown title (Vader and Genichiro Tenryu are the other two who preceded him). ****3/4 (I am not a huge fan of star ratings, but I need something to keep track of all these matches. With that said, I could see me giving this five stars)

Mutoh and Tenryu delivered near perfect individual performances that intertwined to deliver one of the best matches I have seen from 00s Puroresu. Tenryu gave one of the best resilient, sympathetic underneath performances ever. Mutoh was on point with every transition making sense, his strategy was worked to a tee, and he sold well. The whole match Tenryu was hitting home run shots because Mutoh got him off-balance early and even though he recovered by giving Mutoh a taste of his own medicine. Mutoh was able to hit him in the head twice to finally set up for the finish stretch and still Tenryu did not go down without taking 2 Shining Wizards and a moonsault. The only criticism (you have to nitpick when you are trying to determine the best match of the decade) is that it is worked on the slow-side with lots of downtime. I can see other NOAH matches when put together as well as this plus the pace they work edging this out. I think this is a definite MOTDC.

Mr. Puroresu vs Shining Wizard

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GHC Heavyweight Champion Yoshinari Ogawa vs Yoshihiro Takayama - NOAH 9/7/02

Yoshinari Ogawa's tights say GHC Champ. Automatic 5 Stars!!! Hands down the best match of 2002 with Takayama and Ogawa just tearing it up in one of the best heel vs heel match that I have ever seen. Ogawa and Takayama have been the two best heels in Japan in the 2000s, but heel vs heel is even harder than face vs. face. I would say heel vs heel was the root cause of the relatively quiet crowd until the hot finish. They make it work because a monster bully can make even the most snot nosed punk an undersized underdog and the most snot nosed punk can make even the biggest bully an asskicking giant. Much like Hart/Diesel Survivor Series '95 (albeit that's a face v face match), I thought Takayama/Ogawa did a good job trading roles within the match.

The hooks of the match are Takayama underestimating Ogawa and Ogawa looking for any opening to exploit. Ogawa starts hot with a roll-up (where Ogawa actually sold his arm because Takayama is so heavy) and an eye poke/shoulder knockdown, but then goes totally flying on the kick out. Takayama begins to kick the shit out of Ogawa because Ogawa is not a tough badass we get some really fun selling. Takayama steps Ogawa's face and does the one foot cover. You actually feel a bit of sympathy for the little punk. Then you remember he is such a little snot when Takayama big boot goes over the top rope and puts Takayama in the tree of woe. When the ref tries to hold Ogawa back and Ogawa pushes him off, it is not the usual heel trying to be more violent, it is that Ogawa knows this is now or never. Ogawa makes the most of it and wrenches the arm across the post. Ring-assisted figure-4 armlock, Ogawa is God! Ogawa is hyper focused on arm and Takayama is still using his size to struggle, but Ogawa is leveraging this is as his one advantage. Every time Takayama seems like he is about to destroy Ogawa, but Ogawa always gets out. Takayama lifts him out of short arm scissors, Ogawa rolls through into another one. Takayama looks to send him into the railing, but Ogawa sends him arm first into the post. Takayama looks to take off Ogawa's head, but Ogawa gets drop toehold into the post. Ogawa back drop driver onto floor. YES! YES! YES! Crowd gives the biggest pop when Takayama gets back in the ring at 19 and Ogawa lets out a nice, big "SHIT!". Ogawa has turned Takayama babyface, BABY!

Ogawa rattles off a bunch of back drop drivers and one after another Takayama kicks out. You know it is coming. You know it is coming. BAM! KNEE LIFT AND OGAWA GOES FLYING! Ogawa actually kicks out of the first Everest Suplex. Ogawa counters with a barrage of roll-ups, which are actually over because it is Ogawa. Ogawa goes for a small package and Takayama stands tall and slams him in a wicked cool spot. Everest Suplex and Takayama wins the GHC Title!

I had been so down in 2002, just turns out I was not watching the correct matches because this was all types of awesome. Ogawa just embodies Rat Boy so well. The way he can just slip out of each situation and his heat segments are some of the best since 2000 because there is no guy you want to see get his ass kicked. He just kept getting out of each situation. Then he gets the countout finish. It keeps building and building, you get that knee lift just like the Kobashi bloodied up Ogawa. Then you get a nice compact finish run Takayama needs a bomb or two and Ogawa tries to hold on by the skin of his teeth with roll ups. The only reason this does not go on higher is because Takayama as such a natural heel just is not as good as the ultimate babyface Kobashi steamrolling Ogawa so that is why it is a level less, but an easy 2002 Match of the Year and gives 2002 a Match of the Year on the level of the years. Watch this match! ****1/2

(In)VADER: Demise of Four Corners of Heaven (All Japan 2000)

Hey yo Studmuffins & Gypsy Queens,

I will keep this one rather brief as there is not too much to discuss in terms of revelations. I chose to watch these six matches knowing full well none were going to fare too, too well (Misawa/Kawada did surprise me a little, when I should not have been that surprised, it is Misawa/Kawada, after all), but because I am a total mark for Misawa, Kawada, and Kobashi and wanted to see how they interact with one of my top 5 favorite wrestlers in Vader.

LARIATOOOOOOOOOOO!

I know this is not peak 1993 Vader, but there is enough about Vader in terms of his selling (especially verbally) and his offense that if you construct the match wisely you can still have a very effective, entertaining match. By that I mean, is hide Vader's weaknesses at time regarding his mobility (impacted his bumping greatly) and focus on him as a methodical monster. I thought Misawa and Kobashi both had very good matches with him in 2000. Plus 2000 was the last year the Four Corners of Heaven were altogether so I wanted to see their last matches under the All Japan banner (in the case of Kawada/Kobashi, their last singles match ever). I thought Misawa/Kawada (even though at that point was one of the more played out rivalies in the world) really built on their past history by changing the tempo of the match. They knew each other's moves so the only way to string offense together was to hit their moves as quickly as possible before their opponent knew what hit them. This dynamic made the match feel unique and a worthy addition to the series.

With that, we shut the door on Puroresu in 2000-2002. We look towards the incredible Kenta Kobashi GHC title reign and the controversial KENTA & Naomichi Marufuji run. I have a big blowout on Thursday scheduled to do a nice wrap-up on 2000-2002 with some awards and thoughts.

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1. Mitsuharu Misawa vs Jun Akiyama - Budokan 02/27/00
2. All Japan Triple Crown Champion Kenta Kobashi vs Yoshihiro Takayama - All Japan 05/26/00

3. All Japan Triple Crown Champion Genichiro Tenryu vs Keiji Mutoh - Budokan 6/8/01
4. Toshiaki Kawada & Masa Fuchi vs Yuji Nagata & Takashi Iizuka - NJ PPV 12/14/00
5. Kenta Kobashi vs Jun Akiyama - Budokan 12/23/00

6. IWGP Jr Hvywt Tag Champs Ohtani & Takaiwa vs Kanemoto & Minoru - NJPW  6/25/00
7. IWGP Champion Kensuke Sasaki vs Toshiaki Kawada - 10/00 Tokyo Dome Non-Title
8. Keiji Mutoh vs Toshiaki Kawada - Champions Carnival 04/01
9. IWGP Jr Heavyweight Champion Minoru Tanaka vs Takehiro Murahama - NJPW 4/20/01
10. Shinya Hashimoto & Takashi Iizuka vs Naoya Ogawa & Kazunari Murkami - Tokyo Dome 01/04/00
11. Genichiro Tenryu & Masa Fuchi vs Toshiaki Kawada & Nobutaka Araya - AJPW 6/30/01

12. Kenta Kobashi vs Takao Omori - Champions Carnival Final '00
13. GHC Champion Mitsuharu Misawa vs Jun Akiyama - Budokan 07/27/01
14. New Japan (Liger & Minoru ) vs. NOAH (Kikuchi & Kanemaru) - NOAH 4/7/02
15. GHC Tag Champions Akiyama & Saito vs Kobashi & Shiga - NOAH 10/19/02
16. Toshiaki Kawada & Genichiro Tenryu vs Stan Hansen & Taiyo Kea - Budokan 07/23/00
17. IWGP Heavyweight Champion Genichiro Tenryu vs Kensuke Sasaki - 01/04/00
18. Genichiro Tenryu vs Toshiaki Kawada - Vacant All Japan Triple Crown 10/28/00
19. Mitsuharu Misawa vs Toshiaki Kawada - Champions Carnival '00
20. Kenta Kobashi vs Jun Akiyama - NOAH #2 08/06/00

21. GHC Champion Yoshihiro Takayama vs Mitsuharu Misawa - Budokan 09/23/02
22. Mitsuharu Misawa vs Yoshihiro Takayama - Vacant GHC Title 04/15/01
23. All Japan Triple Crown Champion Vader vs Kenta Kobashi - Budokan 2/27/00
24. IWGP Jr Tag Champions Kanemoto & Minoru vs Liger & Makabe - NJPW 9/12/00
25. Genichiro Tenryu vs Satoshi Kojima - AJPW 07/07/02
26. IWGP Champion Yuji Nagata vs. Yoshihiro Takayama - Tokyo Dome 05/02

27. Keiji Mutoh vs Yuji Nagata - Sumo Hall 08/12/01 G-1 Climax Final
28. Mitsuharu Misawa vs Kenta Kobashi - Champions Carnival '00
29. Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi vs Jun Akiyama & Yuji Nagata - Budokan 02/17/02
30. Mitsuharu Misawa & Akira Taue vs Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama - NOAH #1 08/05/00
31. New Japan (Liger & Inoue) vs NOAH (Kikuchi & Kanemaru) - NOAH 2/17/02
32. IWGP Jr Hvywt Tag Champs Liger & Minoru vs. Kikuchi & Kanemaru - NJPW 8/29/02
33. Toshiaki Kawada vs Kenta Kobashi - AJPW 01/17/00
34. Genichiro Tenryu vs Satoshi Kojima - AJPW 02/24/02

35. Yoshihiro Takayma vs Osamu Nishimura - G-1 Climax Semifinals
36. Yoshihiro Takayama vs Kensuke Sasaki - G-1 Climax Round Robin
37. SUWA vs Dragon Kid - Toryumon 08/24/00 Hair Vs Mask
38. NWA World Heavyweight Champion Shinya Hashimoto vs Masato Tanaka - Zero-One 3/02/02
39. Keiji Mutoh & Hiroshi Hase vs Jun Akiyama & Yuji Nagata - Tokyo Dome 10/08/01
40. NJPW(Liger, Minoru , Makabe) vs Osaka Pro(Delfin, Murhama, Tsubasa)-NJPW 12/14/00
41. Toshiaki Kawada vs Vader - AJPW 2/17/00
42. Shinya Hashimoto & Yuji Nagata vs Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama - Zero-One 3/2/01

43. Toshiaki Kawada vs Satoshi Kojima - AJPW 06/06/01
44.  Naoki Sano vs Minoru Tanaka - Battlarts 01/30/2000
45. Dick Togo vs Tiger Mask IV - M-Pro 08/25/02

46. GHC Tag Team Champions Wild II vs Jun Akiyama & Akitoshi Saito - Budokan 9/23/02

For God so loved the world...

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Toshiaki Kawada vs Kenta Kobashi - AJPW 01/17/00

Kawada's big return match falls flat even though he goes onto have 5 ****+ matches in his last truly great year of his career. This felt like their routine good match. They are laying in all their shots and everything looks good, but there is no sense of electricity. They are just going through the motions. Most wrestlers wish that their matches looked like this when they were going through the motions, but still can't be but a little disappointed by what I believe is the last ever Kawada/Kobashi singles match. Kawada levels Kobashi as soon as the bell rings with a big boot to say I'm back, bitch. Kawada plays king of the mountain at the beginning using his feet to keep the fiery Kobashi at bay. In a popular All Japan transition spot, Kobashi wins a suplex battle and takes over with short running knee lifts. Kawada answers in kind with one of his favorite transition spots, the sudden spinning heel kick. Kawada is focusing on the face of Kobashi with all these running big boots. I liked their apron sequence the best where Kawada hits a true axe kick, but Kobashi does the All Japan no-sell and clobbers him with a BURNING LARIAT! At this point, we get that classic Kawada selling that just makes his match as Kobashi begins to unload his offense. Kobashi really wants to hit his moonsault and Kawada really does not want to be hit by it. So Kobashi slaps on a sleeper to drain Kawada's energy, which is pretty effective psychology. Kobashi hits his powerbomb, but cant manage the half-nelson suplex, which Kawada hits an enziguiri out of. Kawada gets his own powerbomb, but when he goes to the well again Kobashi-rana counters albeit very botched. I am surprised Kobashi would do a Misawa spot and not only that fuck it up. Kawada adds a wrinkle with an armbar takedown -> cross armbreaker, which Kobashi sold well while in the hold, but does not have much significance. Kobashi All Japan no sells a back drop driver and wins a double lariat battle. He throws Kawada with a Tiger suplex and the jacknife powerbomb only gets two. Kobashi goes to hit his lariat, but Kawada can't even stand up on his own so Kobashi stands him up just to knock him down with BURNING LARIAT! I feel like the finish is like a metaphor for the like the system, man, you know. :)

It is the best hits of Kawada/Kobashi, but it did not feel like any spots until the very quick finish had any sort of consequence. It was just a fun exhibition of moves. Stuff like the Kobashi sleeper or the Kawada cross-armbreaker really could have added interesting new dynamics to their match. As it stood, it is just par for the course. ***1/2

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All Japan Triple Crown Champion Vader vs Toshiaki Kawada - All Japan 2/17/00

Man, six years ago, I thought this match was the shit. Now, it felt like it was being wrestled in slow motion and surprisingly light. Kawada's strike looked so chumpy especially whenever he tried to imitate the Vader punches. Vader's offense and selling are still top notch, but his movement thus his bumping has gone to shit. It is too bad that this match did not happen in 1993/4 as this could have been an all-time classic. Kawada evades Vader early on, which frustrates Vader, who tries to corner him, but ends up taking several boots to the face and being suplexed. A Vader eye poke transitions the match into the favor of the Mastodon. I love when a bully resorts to such cheating. Vader hits his body attack and a headbutt on the floor. Much like Kobashi's moonsault, Kawada does his best to avoid Vader's Vaderbomb, but eventually he has to take it, but kicks out. Kawada mounts a comeback with kicks and Vader sells the stretch plum better than anyone has since 1992 with his great verbal selling. The Vader body attack restores his advantage and he pours on his offense with a powerbomb and back drop driver. Kawada blocks the chokeslam. Vader swings a wild bear paw that finds his mark that finally puts Kawada on jelly legs and Vader murders him with a clothesline to successfully defend his titles.

It is a perfectly fine match but there is not anything really that special about it. Kawada is trying to fight from underneath against the Mastodon, but Vader proves to be too much to handle. Will Kobashi be able to wrest the titles for from The Man They Call Vader? ***
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All Japan Triple Crown Champion Vader vs Kenta Kobashi - Budokan 02/24/00
I would hazard a guess that this Vader's last great match and it actually surprised me how good it was. It had been six years since I seen it last and had no recollection of it, but this was really well-executed. This is puroresu version of a most excellent Black Sabbath dirge, slow and heavy as fuck. Kobashi's ribs are taped up and Vader eats him alive. The match focuses on the two things Vader has left his offense and selling. At the beginning during Kobashi's shine, I was worried this match would go the way of the Kawada match with Vader trying to bump for Kobashi and just not having the agility anymore. I know that Vader helps everyone when he gets suplexed, but it looks even more obvious in these matches. Kobashi starts to chop as he would Akiyama or Kawada, but instead of the usual macho pissing contest, Vader just creams him with a clothesline. Lets Go Vader. From there, Vader zeroes in on the ribs dropping all his weight on them and just doing everything he can to injure them further: hanging Kobashi out to dry on the railing or ripping off the tape. Kobashi would get a hope spot like a flying shoulderblock and Vader would just immediately fall with all his weight on Kobashi's ribs to stymie him. The crowd finally gets into after three Vaderbombs, which starts up the ""Ko-Bash-I" chants. Where was the Vader whistle and customary trash talk? Vader hit a huge short arm clothesline, but here comes Kobashi with the spin kick. Dont you just love when all of sudden the Japanese commentator will just scream "FLYING BODY ATTACK~!"? Kobashi hits a powerbomb off the top rope and a German suplex, but you can't hold Vader down yet. Vader starts swinging those bear paws and just throws Kobashi all over the place with three German suplexes. Double clothesline and Vader is still first to his feet and hits a monster chokeslam and then another. The straps are down and all that gut is hanging out. It must have been an 18+ only show at Budokan that night. It is all for naught as Kobashi hits a Burning Lariat for two and then a moonsault for two. In a finish I absolutely loved, Kobashi bounces off the Vader body attack, rebounds and takes Vader's head off with a BURNING LARIAT~! to win the championships to a huge pop.

Given Vader's limitations at the time, they have the best match possible with Kobashi taking a shit ton of punishment from the Mastodon. I loved all the moments where Kobashi would hit a move and Vader just kept on coming back. It felt so different from the usual All Japan fare at the time where you had a really established underdog in Kobashi because of the size disadvantage working hard underneath. This is Vader in his fucking element too. Give him a popular babyface that can sell and has great fire and he can't have a bad match. It doesn't matter that he put on a ton of weight and can't move, David vs Goliath is Vader's game and no one does it better. I heard one critique of this match was that Kobashi did not get enough offense and it was just an extended squash (on puroresu.tv). I am going to be a dick about this comment and say this guy needs to watch more American wrestling because two momentum shifts in a match is a perfect number to have an all-time classic. This match actually had four because Kobashi had a false comeback. The story of the match was Kobashi outlasting the monster you have to take Vader to proverbial twelveth round that's Sting learned at Starrcade '92. By letting Vader punch himself out, Kobashi had effectively already weakened Vader. In addition, his ribs were fucked so he was looking to hit a big bomb and get the fuck out of there. That's why he went for a cover after each big bomb because he was trying to shorten the match once his ribs were attacked. Plus, the fact Vader basically kicked Kobashi's ass demonstrates how much of a warrior Kobashi is for surviving that onslaught. In reality, that is the central question in most Vader matches, "Can the opponent survive the onslaught?" It was a excellent execution of that story. ***3/4

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Misawa's elbow has Kawada like...

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Mitsuharu Misawa vs Toshiaki Kawada - Champions Carnival '00

What struck me the most about this match was how they were still able to manage to add something to their matches even though they had been wrestling big time singles matches since 1992. This encounter would be their final encounter in All Japan and I believe their last singles match until they drew 52,000 to the Dome under the NOAH banner in 2005. This match felt a lot like Flair/Steamboat Spring Stampede '94 in that the wrestling is still great, but it just does not grab you as much as it did when it was fresh. Both matches feature enough new stuff and just plain fundamentally awesome wrestling that neither can be written off, but they pale in comparison to their past glory. Misawa and Kawada depart from their classic long build matches (even previous Carnival matches went 30 minuet Broadway) to deliver their version of a tight sprint. There is a sense of urgency that is not as present in their previous encounters to finish this match early. It stems from the fact that after wrestling each other for over a decade that they knew each other's moves so they only way to beat one another is to hit the move before the opponent knew what hit them. Kawada won the early slugfest with a back drop driver and from there on out just kept kicking Misawa in the face anytime he tried to string together a combination of offense. Misawa is able to finally get on offense because he quickly hits a Tiger Driver. I can't remember the last time Misawa quickly hit a Tiger Driver there is usually a lot of struggle before he can hit one. Same goes for his follow-up German it was explosive. Misawa crashed and burned on the frogsplash attempt. Kawada capitalizes with a quick powerbomb, but when he tries again, he can't. It is the element of surprise that is all they have. So once Misawa has time to prepare for the powerbomb he can block it or Kawada can evade the frogsplash. Misawa's roaring elbow after the stretch plum and Kawada's consequent sell are why this match-up is one of the greatest in history.

Kawada regains the advantage when he catches Misawa with a kick as he is coming down. He just unloads with everything in his strike arsenal and cant get the pin with a brainbuster. The teased the Ganso Bomb, but Misawa headscissors out, but Kawada eventually hits the powerbomb and still can't pin Misawa. Misawa's back elbow has Kawada like Oh My God. The Tiger Driver only gets two. It devolves into an elbow versus boot match and Misawa wins that with a nice elbow combination. Misawa finally hits Emerald Flowsion on Kawada to win their last contest in All Japan. The urgency of this encounter makes an interesting addition to their canon. ****

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Mitsuharu Misawa vs Kenta Kobashi - Champions Carnival 4/11/00

The point of interest in this bout is how Misawa works on top for most of the match. For a wrestler with as much offense as Misawa, you would expect him to work on top more often, but I have seen mostly work from underneath. Though I have found the wrestler who works underneath in Japan most likely wins thus since he won a lot it may have necessitated him working underneath. Reinforcing that conjecture is of course, Kobashi did win over arch-nemesis, Misawa in this bout. I thought Misawa was going through the motions in this match, which let's be honest is better than 95% wrestlers ever, but at the same time a pity. He has so much offense that the match is never boring, but he just is not wrestling with a panache. It is harder to discern with stoic Misawa if he is trying, but I feel like he was just there. He opened the match with a great array of aerial attacks that found their mark on Kobashi. In a HOLY SHIT~! transition spot, Kobashi hotshots Misawa off the apron onto the railing. He just lays in a beating on the outside to Misawa. Kobashi was definitely the more fired up of the two for this match, but that makes sense as he is younger and still hungry. Misawa starts coming back with a flying head scissors to counter the Kobashi powerbomb. It was nice to see struggle over a suplex on the apron as some of the match felt like they would use a facelock reset to move onto the next spot. Kobashi's selling and histrionics are the highlight in this match as he begin to take Misawa's best offense. Misawa may be peaking too soon and could the Emerald of All Japan be peaking too early in this match? I like the sequence of Kobashi hitting the 3/4 nelson suplex to level the playing field as he does not just pop up and do it, but rather earns it. I am a total mark for powerbombs onto the top turnbuckle and Misawa takes a wicked one. Misawa counters the Burning Hammer and begins to use his elbows to set up his finish stretch. Kobashi blocks Emerald Flowsion and only the ropes can hold him up. Kobashi hits a sleeper suplex for two and immediately follows up with an Axe Bomber and a Burning Lariat to get the duke. It is 2000 All Japan. You get a ton of high-end offense with a couple head drops with some Kobashi Fighting Spirit. It is good, but there is really nothing here to separate it from the pack. Misawa seemed uninspired even though it was refreshing to see him work on top. The only spot that really stood out to me was the Hotshot onto the Railing, which needs to be cribbed. It should have been a late transition spot for more impact in the match. This is a match that blends into All Japan portfolio, but still an entertaining watch. ***1/2
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To Hell With Orange

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Mitsuharu Misawa vs Vader - NOAH 12/23/00

This bout is not on the ballot to be voted on, but I thought since I had watched every other combination of these four in 2000 that I might as well watch this one. I thought this was surprisingly good given Vader's condition at the time. Yes, Kobashi proved you could still have a great match with Vader, but I thought that was a lightning in the bottle moment. They worked a smart match with Vader as the methodical monster and Misawa works on trying to deprive him of the use of his arm. Vader's verbal selling during the arm work really make the match and you really believe that Misawa can topple the monster by going back to the arm repeatedly. They begin with Vader casually flipping off Misawa. After a couple lock-ups, Vader spits at Misawa so Misawa flips him off!!! I marked out for that. Vader chucks Misawa across the ring in a German suplex. I love Vader. Vader just destroys Misawa in the corner. Misawa is able to evade one of his splashes and he grabs an arm applying an armbreaker, but Vader hammer punches out of it. Vader throws Misawa around again like a ragdoll and Misawa presses with the cross armbreaker. Vader throws a wild bear paw and knocks Misawa out. Vader always has a puncher's chance. Vader sells his arm like crazy really putting over the drama of the match since he can't make the cover after a Vaderbomb and has to do his Vadersault from the middle rope. The Vadersault from the middle rope was crazy because of the acceleration of the rotation was even more impressive. Misawa capitalzes on the injury with elbows to arm as Vader just yelps in pain. Misawa elbows Vader in the back of the head hard and then floors him with a elbow to pick up the victory. I thought this was a very strong outing from both with each playing their roles effectively. Vader is established as a monster. Misawa's gameplan is take out a limb and survive the onslaught. Once, he has him wounded he uses his trusty elbow to win. It was a great layout with excellent offense and selling from Vader. ***1/2

My Time: The Rise of HHH (WWF, 1999)

Hey yo Stud Muffins & Gypsy Queens,

First off, just want to again promote how fucking awesome the Steve Austin Show is. As, you'll see below, I had good laugh at Austin's expense during the Summerslam '99 when he nearly topples over the ropes and gets himself stuck. I didn't have the 411 on this situation. Some guy named Ross wanted to know what was up and Austin dropped that 411 on us and made the story even funnier.

Hunter Hearst Helmsley (Triple H or HHH) has been a firebrand on the internet since I can remember (I started reading sites like Wrestleline in 1999). Back in 1999, the controversy if he was being pushed too hard and too fast given his crowd response or whether he could work convincingly as a heel. I distinctly remember an article by Scott Keith in 1999 that claimed HHH did not have the offensive firepower to work heel citing that a heel has to lead and control the majority of a match by conventional standards. I would say after watching HHH matches given that it is 1999 WWF not 1986 NWA, HHH had all the fundamental wrestling tools to carry his end of a WWF main event match. In fact, I think he brought an ingredient to the table that had been lost for sometime in that he was a much better bumper than any heel they had in a long time. Plus, I think his high knee cutoff of a babyface hope spot is a really effective spot. From, a pure work prespective, HHH had everything he needed to be a main event player, but what he lacked was the organic support that his peers had before they were stars.

Triple H parties like it is 1999!

The manufactured push for HHH also differed greatly from the recently developed stars: Steve Austin, Mankind and The Rock. All three of those guys were created organically by the crowd response. Hell, Foley and Austin were not even supposed to be stars. Triple H's push felt forced and artificial.  Triple H was getting good pops as the leader of D-X, but he was not going to be pushed as sophomoric, wise-cracking degenerate, but as a sadistic egomaniac that was consumed about getting to the top of the business, which is a key difference as Austin, Foley and The Rock were not playing very different gimmicks from what got them to the dance to begin with. Now in Triple H's defense, he was being pushed to be the No.1 Heel in the company so unlike the other three who became huge babyface successes he was not supposed to endear himself to the crowd, but you could not shake the feeling that just was not what people wanted.

I remember as a kid feeling like HHH really did not belong. It is the same way I felt about Edge and Jeff Hardy for a long time that those wrestlers just were not main event material. I could ramble on about that for pages and pages, but I really just wanted to describe that gut feeling I had. Was the Triple H push the first in the long line of artificial pushes by the WWF to tell the fans what they want? I'd argue that yes it was. However, this top to down approach to star-making has created main event stars in the past decade, but in recent years we have seen the fan rebel in a populist movements rallying around CM Punk and Daniel Bryan. They are demanding their voices back after having lost them in the past decade. Remember, Vince McMahon once fired us all on National TV. O, Vince! It is a bit outside the scope of this blog, but WWE has become so similar to WCW in a lot ways. It used to be the anger of "smart marks" was directed at WCW for holding down their idols: Benoit, Guerrero, Jericho etc..., but then it is almost like when WWF bought WCW in 2001 it purchased their inability to properly push talent according to crowd response along with haphazard and myopic booking. As a WCW fan, WCW was a lot more fun because of the loose management structure than the micro-managed WWE, which has all of WCW's bad traits and seemingly none of the good ones. Point is that this all coincided with the Rise of Triple H. Is he a bit insecure that even with all the bells and whistles that he never achieved Rock or Austin status? Eventually if you tell people something enough they will start to believe it, case in point with the status of HHH as the great bastion of wrestling psychology and a throwback to yesteryear when men were men and had Chester A. Arthur's facial hair. The WWF/E promotional machine still works smart marks, but in a different way training them to believe that all Triple H was one of the best wrestlers of all time and a great ring general.

The Great HHH Debate on PlaceToBeNation.com fueled my desire to take a look back on Triple H's career so that I could decide for myself. Going into this, I have mixed feelings on Triple H. Outside of a few matches, he has rarely blown me away in the ring. At the same time, he really does not suck. On the stick, he can be a blowhard that rambles aimlessly, but on the other hand I can find him pretty damn funny (when he sang "When you wish upon a star" to Daniel Bryan last year that was gold). As a character, I can appreciate the idea of a heel that wants to be strong and protected to make someone, but he never really made anyone (ok, Batista) and he never had a good grasp of his own character. The character, I described above, as an egomaniac hell-bent on making it is probably a good description of who HHH is and I think if they had some fun with that they could have done a better job with his gimmick. I think the biggest problem with HHH was that he was so deeply entrenched in wrestling culture. You will often hear HHH is a real student of the game. He wants to continue the lineage of Flair and Race. He watches footage of Bockwinkel and Stevens, don't you know! Whenever, you have seen so much wrestling you want to do it all. When you try to do it all, you are half-assing everything and nothing gets accomplished. In addition to that problem, is he know how wrestling works, but I don't think he knows why it works. I learned in my entrepreneurial studies class that a differentiated product or a great distribution strategy or low cost structure is what separates the successful companies from the failures. It is how the company each element of the company works in tandem towards success. It is an interlocking system and you take out one element and the company crumbles. Ric Flair works because every aspect of Ric Flair worked towards making a great product. Triple H missed the boat that Flair was not a badass in the ring. This is my running hypothesis: HHH being a "student of the game" actually hurt him in the ring because he became a wrestler that understood "how", but not "why"

a. He saw something he liked it, but did not fully understand why it worked and thus caused half-ass implementation
b. Made him more mechanical. He knew that a babyface should shine, take heat and make a comeback, but this caused him to go through the motions rather than feel it.
c. He tried to emulate others and especially tried to be everyone at once. God, I love Ric Flair, but damn being invincible like Hulk Hogan is pretty cool so why choose, why not be both.

I don't doubt that HHH watched and watches as much or more wrestling than all of us. He just interprets it a lot differently. I would love to talk to him about 80s wrestling because I want to be able to pinpoint where that departure is from how I view wrestling.

I will come back to this hypothesis as I continue to watch more Triple H and see if it is valid. Before, I forget Chyna had the best wrestling psychology of anyone in 1999 that I have seen so far.

Choice cut from Triple H's early 1999 run:

Triple H vs X-Pac - Backlash 1999

Historical Matches:

WWF World Champion Steve Austin vs Mankind vs Triple H - Summerslam 1999 - HHH's first PPV main event

WWF World Champion Mankind vs Triple H - RAW 08/24/99 - HHH's first WWF World Title.

She could take me to the psychology learning tree anytime ;)

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WWF World Champion The Rock vs Triple H w/Chyna - RAW 1/25/99 I Quit

One night after my pick for the 1999 WWF MOTY, The Rock has another "I Quit" match, but this one is against the leader of the babyface D-X, Triple H. The main takeaways from this match were HHH understood what he had to do, but did not connect as well to the crowd whereas sometimes I would question The Rock's decisions, but he had such undeniable charisma that he came off as such a natural. Also note to Cena, track pants >>> jorts, just saying dude.

The beginning of the match is some really well-timed HHH offense, his punches look great, he uses the high knee really smartly and punctuates the corner punches with a crotch chops. Even with Rocky bumping and selling the chin, there was not a lot of popping and I think HHH needed to go that extra mile. My biggest fear of going back to this era will be the "tour of the arena" segments, but this was kept short. I did not like some of Rocky's cutoffs, but he had a good one ringside when he used HHH's trunks to pull him into timekeeper, he talked some trash on his monkey ass and then delivered the Corporate Elbow with the bell hammer onto the bell onto HHH. That was a fun spot. The Rock berates HHH to get him and HHH tells him to "SUCK IT". Big pop for that and atta boy, Trips! Rock feeds and bumps for Triple H like a champ, facebuster on knee into the Pedigree. HHH says it ain't over and Pedigrees him on the floor and now he is talking some trash to The Rock is about to do it on the announcer's table until the Corporation hits the ring. Bossman (it is so weird to think how high up the card he was in 1999 WWF) tells HHH to say I Quit or else his chicky poo gets it. Triple H bows down and says I Quit. Of course, Chyna promptly gives him a low blow and she is in the Corporation so that kinda sucks for him. Thus begins probably the most complicated WWF storyline Russo ever ran with 8 million turns between HHH, Chyna, X-Pac and Kane. As for the match, I enjoyed the hell out of The Rock with his selling and bumping. He was a great stooge in all of this. HHH held up his end of the match was starting to show some fire after he told him to "Suck it". Maybe there is some hope for Mr. Helmsley. It was a pretty entertaining short RAW match. **3/4

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Triple H vs Kane - RAW 2/1/99 Steel Cage Match

Do you believe in miracles? It is not a MOTYC (well it is 1999 so it might be), it is not great, but gosh darn it these two had a good match. No wrestler elicits apathy from me quite like Kane, but seeing him back in his original costume definitely made me nostalgic for my childhood. They treated him like a monster the whole match. Kane was booked way stronger in this match than HHH to the point where it was almost shocking that they would book any babyface (HHH is the face in this match) like this. You had HHH crawling for the door just to escape the monster and X-Pac liberally interfering at the finish. Yes, HHH wins the match, but as wrestling fans we know it is whether you win or lose, but how you are presented and HHH was presented as escaping by the skin of his teeth. At first glance, I thought this was a disconnect from the story as HHH should be fired up to get revenge, but his heat is not with Kane it is with Chyna so it is easier to explain why HHH just wants to survive. Short of drawing blood, Kane did a pretty good job being an imposing, invulnerable force of nature. Hell, he kept things moving as well. He had his working boots on for this mauling. HHH did well to time and escalate his hope spots. He realizes that wrestling moves were not cutting it and he became focused on ramming Kane's head into cage, or using a steel chair (nothing has changed the zombie sit-up is still badass) or he kicks Kane's leg out during a top rope chokeslam attempt to crotch him. HHH had to use tricks to get out from underneath the monster. He actually showed some good fire once he had Kane crotched ramming him into the cage, the big high knee, but Kane back body drops out of the Pedigree and hits the Chokeslam. This triggers X-Pac slamming the door in Kane's face and holding him at bay while HHH climbs over the top (has to kick Chyna off first). My issues with match were that Kane sometime forgot his role as a monster and would act like a normal wrestler just trying to win. Kane should want to destroy HHH before leaving because he is a sadist and eviscerates people for his own personal pleasure (Big Pop! :) ) and sometimes he would make attempts while HHH was still up. HHH did not sell very well for Kane, who from an offensive standpoint looked great. HHH could have really taken this to the next level if he made you believe he was fighting for his life in there against the Big Red Machine. The way the match was laid out with Kane in control for the vast majority, HHH escape attempts to the door, X-Pac interference it is clearly the story they are telling, but HHH needed to go that extra mile and really sell it. I came in expecting the most boring match ever and came away thinking maybe there is hope for 1999. I know for a fact that I do like the next match I am going to review: HHH vs. X-Pac so this may not be so bad. ***

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NECK PSYCHOLOGY~!

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Triple H w/Chyna vs X-Pac - Backlash 1999

Backlash 1999 is a lone beacon of light in the tempest of shit known as 1999. The best Rock/Austin match of 1999, a surprisingly good Undertaker/Shamrock match and a strong fundamentals match between the Kliq members. For those keeping track at home, Triple H & Chyna have gone corporate and X-Pac is fighting the good fight to change the world one crotch chop at a time with his new BFF, Kane. Since they worked this pretty straight, the Attitude Era crowd did get a bit restless at times, but X-Pac gave a great babyface performance and is such an excellent worker. He really was one of the few great workers the WWF had in the Attitude Era. Helmsley slaps him early and X-Pac is on him with full court press and HHH cant escape his wrath. The kids start an "X-Pac" chant, which warms my heart even though X-Pac and kids should not mix, but then the adult males chime in with "Sucks!". X-Pac, two previous neck surgeries under his belt, takes a ridiculous bump over the top rope. Sit down and shut the fuck up while a master works. HHH looks to come off the apron and still X-Pac catches him with a punch to gut. They are working a great shine sequence establishing X-Pac is pissed off and came here to fight. Chyna trips him up going for the Bronco Buster and that gives HHH time to dodge and the impact causes the fragile neck of X-Pac to be injured. Helmsley immediately rocks him with a clothesline. He is just equally relentlessly as X-Pac was in the shine on working over the neck. He lets Chyna get a lick in to draw some more heat. I loved his punches to the back of head/neck area because you know how fragile that part of the body is. JR is on fuckin point selling this match and the risk to X-Pac career and how HHH is a sadistic son of a bitch. Those moments of righteous indignation towards Lawler were awesome that's how you "Think shoot, but work" on commentary. The crowd does get restless when Trips works the neck holds (I enjoyed HHH asking the ref loudly for a time check), but I thought they kept things moving with X-Pac timing his hope spots and HHH using cutoffs like pulling him down by the hair or sending him out for Chyna to press slam neck-first on the barricade. Neck psychology is not the easiest to work, but I thought this was one of the more effective efforts. HHH grabs a sleeper and X-Pac reverses into his own, but this did not get the pop that it would have even just two years earlier in 1997. It must have been strange wrestling in the Attitude Era. HHH rams X-Pac's back into the corner, but X-Pac is firing up and hits a tornado DDT. Chyna distracts the ref while X-Pac goes low with a headbutt. HHH uses a leverage move to send X-Pac crashing back to the outside, but you cant deny X-Pac and he sends HHH into the steps, but in his overzealousness wipes out the ref with a baseball slide. He is able to hit the X-Factor, but there is no ref. Chyna hits the low blow and the Slop Drop (NECK PSYCHOLOGY!) this triggers Kane. Chokeslams for everyone and he sets up both of the heels for the Bronco Buster, which is the feel good moment before HHH hits the Pedigree and wins. HHH going over is clearly the right call, but I would have loved a better finish. They were working this great fundamental match with X-Pac the plucky overachiever with the bad neck versus the sadistic bully that may have underestimated his opponent, but was now showing no remorse in dissecting him. You slap a finish on that story and you got yourself a MOTYC, but with the Attitude Era finish it is just feels disjointed. ***3/4

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Triple H w/Chyna vs Mankind - RAW 5/31/99 Falls Count Anywhere

No one is going to confuse this with their classic '97 RAW Falls Count Anywhere match, but it was fine. I actually thought HHH was a lot better in this than Foley. Foley just kept no selling to get to the next spot whereas Helmsley sold the wear and tear of the match. Helmsley also out-bumped Foley in this match which is saying something taking flat back bumps on chair and his trademark corner bump (which got the biggest pop outside of the finish). I did like Foley's backslide on the floor even though the crowd did not bite. Is this first appearance of the sledgehammer? I know Foley mentioned that HHH Tonya Harding'd him at the at last PPV, but sounded like he used a pipe in that match. Foley no-sells a chair shot and a sledgehammer low blow with the endgame being to put Socko on Chyna (Chyna had been checking on Mankind's Manhood in the shower) to pop the crowd. HHH blasts Foley's knee with the sledgehammer to win and the comes back beats up the officials and further works over the knee only to have The Rock make the save. Is that the birth of the Rock n Sock connection? This was a pretty good Triple H performance that continued to his trajectory to being the top heel in the company.

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Triple H w/Chyna vs The Rock vs The Undertaker - RAW 6/14/99

This is a glorified handicap match as Corporation and Ministry of Darkness have merged to form the awkwardly named Corporate Ministry. I cant wait for the Wyatt Authority and the inevitable Randy Orton & Bray Wyatt vs. Daniel Bryan match. The more things change the more they stay the same. Ten year old Martin was deathly afraid of The Undertaker (and The Brood for that matter) and was not happy that his hero, Vinny Mac was in cahoots with the Lord of Darkness. I love Steve Austin now, but at the time he seemed so mean-spirited, loud, unruly to me while Vince was just trying to keep decorum and run his company in peace while Austin kept ruining things. I was an interesting ten year old. Anyways, beyond reliving my childhood, this match is pretty fuckin boring. I will say The Rock being so friggin' over is the only thing that saves this because this is ten minutes of clubbering and random brief hope spots for ten minutes. I will say HHH does not get enough credit for his high knee. It is up there with Jumbo Tsuruta's it is a really nice looking high knee. Undertaker does the ropewalk (finally a highspot!), but HHH inadvertently crotches him. Mergers can be so difficult. The Rock finally has isolated HHH and unloads, but the ref gets caught in the crossfire. Now Taker accidentally bumps HHH out of the way and he takes the Rock Bottom and People's Elbow, but Chyna pulls out the ref and HHH breaks it up. The endgame sees Chyna accidentally trip Taker, who is hot at her and gozzles her so HHH does not take too kindly to that (he did quit for her when he had the WWF Title in hand back in January so this is internally consistent) so Taker gives him a Stunner via the ropes and HHH walks into the Rock Bottom so that Rocky can face Taker for the title at KOTR. It was the first real boring Attitude Era style match with lots of clubbering and a little bit of arena touring. The takeaway was The Rock was really fuckin' over.

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WWF World Champion The Undertaker w/Paul Bearer vs. Triple H w/Chyna - RAW  6/21/99

You can say what you want about this era of TV, but I always enjoyed the episodic nature of the TV with strands of continuity connecting each episode. Too often, now, the episodes feel like standalone shows. Triple H and The Undertaker butted heads in their match against The Rock last week and ultimately Triple H wants to be the Champ so it is natural for them to have a match even though they are both heels. That is the appropriate booking in my mind. This match shocked the hell out of me. I came in with the preconceived notion that 1999 Undertaker was absolutely awful, but he wrestled great from underneath with great selling for HHH. Taker plays the babyface because he is the more natural face and that HHH is being positioned to be the new ultra-heel. Undertaker wins an early slugfest, but HHH slipped in a kick to the knee during a goozle that has Taker favoring it. Taker seems to further jam it off his Ropewalk and HHH is all over it. He wrenches the knee and even Chyna gets in on the action. Taker attempts to mount a comeback nasty headbutt, all this hair adds to the match. HHH tries to stymie him by attacking as he returns to the ring, but to no avail he goes for the ride and takes his corner bump. Taker still moving gingerly so HHH scoops his legs up and wraps his leg around the post. HHH applies the Figure-4 on the CORRECT leg can this man do no wrong? Taker goozle in the figure-4 and I am getting excited for this closing stretch, but it is 1999. Chyna get nervous and is in with the chair Taker stops her and here comes The Rock to lay the Smackdown on his Dead Roody-Poo Candy Ass. HHH hightails out of it. The Rock and Bossman (they teased a Bossman face turn!?!?!?!?) beat off the Ministry and tie Paul Bearer to the Brahama Bull symbol and Rocky has some choice words for the Lord of Darkness. It is too bad they went with that finish because this match was well on its way to being the best RAW match so far. It does set up the reason for HHH to cost Rocky the World Title because he cost him the title here and one can argue Trips was in pretty good shape having softened up Taker's knee. It is surprisingly good match until the Attitude Era finish. 

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Thats how I felt watching their matches in 1999

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Triple H w/Chyna vs The Rock - RAW Steel Cage Match 7/5/99

What a piece of monkey crap this was! The only thing saving this match was the fact The Rock was just so damn over it didn't matter that this match made no sense because the crowd just wanted to cheer for The Rock. There is a real disconnect between the angle and the way the match is wrestled, which is a pet peeve of mine. Rock cost HHH the title and then HHH cost Rocky the title and JR is blithering how this is so damn personal so Rock tries to escape three minutes in after he punches HHH a couple time.

WHAAAAAAAAATTTTTTT????

HHH knocks him off and he does a great bump off the turnbuckle. Also, I don't know if 1999 in general has short shine segments, it was the evil HHH holding people down that caused short shine segments or the fact Rock preferred taking heat right away, but HHH is in control pretty quickly. Then there is weird bit with handcuffs. HHH is in control so it is not like he desperately needs the handcuffs. So I guess he wants to really kick the Rock's ass, but he never uses them and at the first sign of trouble (low blow by The Rock) he heads to escape (HHH cutoff via swinging neckbreaker) and the handcuffs are never used.

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTT???

 Rocky throws HHH off the top turnbuckle and this levels the playing field. Chyna, who is the best worker in this match, knocks Tim White out with the cage (finally someone used the cage) and drags HHH out. Rock follows and catapults HHH into the cage, who does a pretty good sell. Rock drags him back in and shuts the door. I was half-expecting that he would just start climbing give the rampant non-psychology at this point. Rock actually starts throwing him into the cage and hits a Samoan Drop. He tries to escape again?!??!?! Seriously dude that's all the anger you could muster. Chyna actually sells her anxiety better than Rocky is selling anything (anger or injury). HHH hits a facebuster and sends him into the cage and levels the playing field again. They battle on top of the cage and HHH with the spot of the match pokes Rock in the eye and cracks him with a chair. To be consistent with how inane this match has been, Triple H decides to go through the door which is diagonally opposed to him and he staggers and crotches himself of the ropes and tied himself up albeit stupid it was a good heel spot. The race is on and Rocky wins.

Personally, I think the onus for this pile of shit needs to fall on The Rock as the avenging babyface he needed to be the one that wanted to stay in that cage until he kicked some ass, but he never seemed too inclined to kick ass as he was ready to leave as soon as possible. Triple H was adequate as a heel he did some things well like show ass at the finish and worked good cutoffs like his high knee, but he too needed to show better aggression, but I think Rock is more to blame. There you have it Chyna out worked the both of them.

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Triple H w/Chyna & Vince McMahon vs The Undertaker w/Paul Bearer - 

RAW 7/19/99 No. 1 Contender's match

The winner faces Austin for the WWF Title at Fully Loaded in a First Blood: End of an Era Match. It is an End of Era because if the Corporate Ministry member loses then Vinny Mac is off TV and Austin loses he will never get a shot at the championship again. This angle got me off WWF TV until I started watching again for HHH/Steph marriage because I was such a huge McMahon fan at the time. Then Russo ruined my beloved WCW and I had to start watching WWF simultaneously (I never gave up on WCW until about Fall of 2000). So McMahon is having this match to see which Corporate Ministry member is best fit to defeat Austin. I don't know based on what I have seen from Taker this muthafucka could still go in 1999. I know he had a rep for being lazy in this era, but he was flying around and that was an excellent shine sequence (Taker was the de facto face). I thought they did a good job using Chyna to transition to HHH's control. HHH using the high knee as a cutoff is just fantastic. Seriously, I think these two had a kickass match in them in 1999 it is too bad we never got it. Steve Austin hits the ring after Taker chokeslams HHH and a melee ensues with Rocky joining the fray. Austin locks Taker in an ambulance and busts McMahon open for old time's sake. Taker comes back and busts Austin open to sell the stip for Fully Loaded. I wish Taker/HHH had a chance to have a match in 1999 because I think they could have rocked it. This was solid, fundamental angle building, which I enjoyed.

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Triple H vs The Rock - WWF Fully Loaded '99 Strap Match No. 1 Contenders

HHH has since cut the famed My Time "shoot" promo. I didn't think it was that shooty. It used some real-life backstage stuff to feed the fire of HHH's rise, but it was not a super shoot promo or anything.

The last Rock/HHH match was just nonsensical this match was plain fuckin boring. It was a typical Attitude Era brawl and there just so happened to be a strap connecting them. Even Lawler was begging for someone to use the strap either to choke or whip somebody. The Rock cuts a promo and with promos like that there is a reason why his in ring work could be shit. Rock does not even get strapped in he just lays the Smackdown on HHH's candy ass. He even takes a picture of this with a hot broad's disposable camera (damn she had nice toned arms). HHH, having been disrespected, takes over with punches and it is all down hill. There is some boring brawling by the Spanish Announce Table. Then some boring brawling in the ring. Then some boring brawling in the crowd. Then some boring brawl by the entrance area. Hey HHH finally whipped The Rock! I don't care if this gimmick was arbitrary and capricious for the feud the onus is on the wrestlers to use it. Rock starts to mount a comeback, but HHH high knee stymies him. The high knee cutoff is the best spot in HHH arsenal at this point. Chyna is out to signal that finish is starting. Thank God! HHH is all like "I want to do this myself" and Chyna is all like "That is not what you said last night in bed, tune changer". Rock Bottom! Rock is all like "Let me take a deep breath through my nose for the umpteenth time" and HHH cracks him in the People's jewels. This apparently the first time People's Jewels was coined because Lawler found it hilarious. HHH throws Rock to outside and says to hell with the strap. JR's indignation about this is hilarious. To paraphrase his tone: "That's not right. That's just not right. The ref should give him a stern talking to. I am going to write a polite, but tough letter about this." Rock hits the DDT, but Billy Gunn in see through tights is bethonged and  hits Rock's head with a dong. Ok it was a club, but I couldn't miss that rhyme. HHH is pissed that he has had all this help! I bet he is going to be super passive aggressive about who  should clean the hotel room that night. Rock somehow manages to find and hit HHH's shrunken testicles so that he can hit the Most Electrifying Move in Sports Entertainment. Gunn pulls Rock off via the strap and HHH hits the Pedigree to win. The first half was wicked boring. HHH was just punching and punching. The Rock's go to move was to breathe deeply through his nose. The finish was pretty funny with all the Attitude Era hijinx. Total dogshit match and one of the worst matches I have watched in a real long time. 

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WWF World Heavyweight Champion "Stone Cold" Steve Austin vs Triple H vs Mankind - Summerslam 1999

Yep, this is the first thing I watched on the WWE network. Judge away. :) Besides the fact that you have to guess where the match would begin and the incessant buffering throughout, the better video quality over youtube was worth it.

Jesse "The Body" Ventura is the special guest referee for the match since it was held in Minnesota where he was governor at the time. The Body reads HHH and Foley the Riot Act and he won't be putting up with any bullshit tonight. I have head different reasons for why Mankind was added to the match: 1. Austin did not want to job the title to HHH 2. They did not want Ventura to have declare HHH (a heel) the new Champ. If it really is reason #2, then why Austin have to lose anyways other than because Austin did not want to job the title to HHH. Feel free to present new information because I am unsure of this, but based on the information I know this seems to be the reason. In the storylines, it did make sense because HHH put Foley on the shelf back in May so it only makes sense that he would want to exact some vengeance. I watched this match about a year ago and did not think much of it. This time around I thought HHH really outshone both Austin and Foley in this match. Austin was clearly hurting and needed time off. Foley was coming back from an injury was still shaking off that ring rust. Based on what I have seen, HHH is clearly the best WWF main event worker and it is not really close. He bumps big, he shines a babyface up real nice, he heels pretty well. He needs to work on his heat segments, but overall he is a pretty solid performer at this point.

At the beginning of the match, HHH bounces around like a pinball for the broken down Austin and ailing Foley. Mankind goes in for the hug with Austin and Austin gives him the big 'ol FU. Austin whoops both their asses. Chyna, who has really impressed me on the outside, shoves Mankind into the post, which draws Ventura's attention so that HHH can wrap a chair around Austin's knee. This incapacitates Austin and HHH and Mankind go at it. I thought they did a pretty good job with the hardest part of triple threat matches the transitions from pairing to pairing. Mankind gets the Mandible Claw, but no Socko, so it is not as potent without his special junk juice (alliteration is just too damn tempting). Chyna trips up Foley and posts him. The Body throws Chyna out. In their protest (Chyna did a great job,), Austin makes a beeline for Hunter and floors him. Helmsley is able to wrap Stone Cold's knee around the post and now HHH/Foley double team Austin. Mankind calls for HHH to do the Figure-4, but goes for the cover himself. WWE network censors HHH's audible "What the fuck are you doing". I wonder if they will censor all his spot calling. Mankind hits the Cactus Clothesline, but crashes and burns on the somersault plancha onto the floor. O Foley. Austin is back up, but HHH goes back to work on the knee, but Austin pulls his legs in and HHH goes nose first into the post. Austin's mindless brawling is really tiresome. Foley and HHH take two really good back bumps for Austin. It is painfully obvious how badly Austin needed a year off at this point, but given the crowd reactions he gets it is so hard to pull the trigger on that. I am glad doctor's orders finally reigned supreme. Austin catapults HHH into Mankind and STUNNER to Foley!

HHH breaks it up with chair and wallops Foley in the head unprotected with the chair. O Foley. The Body refuses to count for Triple H. The crowd pops huge. They tease HHH/Body confrontation (should have milked it longer) before Shane O Mac comes out in the glorious "I just passed The Test" shirt. I had forgotten about that. Austin hits a weak ass Stunner on Shane that still draws a pop and Ventura gets a bigger pop for throwing the little bastard out of the ring. In his excitement, Austin nearly toppled over the ropes and got caught in them, which had me laughing heartily. Mankind applies the double Manible Claw, but only one has the special junk juice soaked sock. HHH was not choking down that sock so he had the wherewithal to break out of it and go for the Pedigree. Austin clobbers him. Austin STUNNER TO HHH. PEDIGREE TO AUSTIN! DOUBLE ARM DDT TO AUSTIN! And Mankind wins?!?!?!?!??!?!

I think the current 8 million false finish/finisher/finisher reversals/finisher steal style had me all fucked up because this seemed downright abrupt after only 4 finishers! Even though, I full well knew that Foley won this match I was still taken by surprise and that crowd sure was too. I actually enjoyed this match just fine and thought HHH was really good as the glue. Austin was running at 25% and his brawling was tepid and tiresome. Foley brought a couple bumps, but not much else to the table. Still, whoever called this match got it right because there was no downtime, everything kept moving, and transitions were well worked.   ***1/4

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WWF World Heavyweight Champion Mankind vs Triple H - RAW 8/23/99

HHH threatened to break JR's arm in order to get a championship match and then broke it anyways so Foley denied him then Shane O Mac forced Mankind to defend anyways. It was actually a great douchey start because HHH knew he could get away with it all because he had Shane O Mac in his pocket, The Rock is out to do some guest commentary and is mostly enjoyable on commentary. Chyna is out with HHH because she is selling Double J's guitar shot from earlier. HHH is rocking some chain mail before the match. Did I miss chain mail being really in between 1999-2000 that both HHH and Steiner were rocking it. O finally, Shane O Mac is your special guest ref. They actually do an early spot to establish that Shane will be biased to HHH when Foley goes for an early cover and Shane O jaws with Rocky. Psychology! The match gets really weird as they put what usually is the finish stretch in the beginning as Mankind's shine segment. He Socko's Shane, HHH and an ailing Chyna (who sells throughout the match and post-match.) HHH did not love Chyna for her body, he loved her for her beautiful wrestling mind. :)

Triple H Irish whips Foley into Chyna who hiptosses him so that he does his usual leg bump onto the steps. Outside of the high knee cutoff, HHH really has nothing during his heat segments. He is much better at bumping at this point. Foley's comeback is weak. Cole mentions that Mankind is fired up because the injury to JR and really I did not feel that at all. Mankind was just wrestling. I would have loved so bigger HHH pinball bumping, but I don't blame HHH because it is not like Mankind was giving him anything to bump off of it. Shane awakes and hits Mankind with a chair and he no sells it. However, Triple takes advantage to paste Foley with a chair and might as well clobber The Rock for good measure. He hits the Pedigree for the victory. Chyna grabbing her head celebrates with Triple H. It was a pretty anti-climatic victory.

This match is really strange. You have Mankind taking out Shane and busting out Socko like they were going to finish early. Then they had a tedious heat segment followed by a quick finish. It just does not build towards anything. Given the amount of investment they put into HHH's push, they really would have busted out the big fireworks.

On the docket, we got the last batch of matches from 2000-2002 in Japan as we look at the last matches the Four Corners of Heaven had together in pre-split All Japan. Finally, we wrap it all up in a big awards ceremony for 2000-2002 naming the best matches in different categories. Stay Frosty!

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