Elbow? (Pro Wrestling)
Pro Wrestling NOAH. Nowadays, my pro wrestling diet is exclusively NOAH and CMLL. And man, I'm getting fat. The quality of both products is absolutely astounding, especially considering NOAH's talent pool is mostly older men. Yet somehow, when the big shows come around, NOAH just cannot be beat. And the biggest of the big for NOAH was this year, on July 18th. "Destiny."
The main event was between Mitsuharu Misawa and Toshiaki Kawada. In Japan, this is the equivalent to El Hijo Del Santo Vs. Negro Casas, or Ron Wright Vs. Whitey Caldwell. It's not only perpetual and unbalanced, but it's pretty much always good. Over the last decade and a half, Misawa and Kawada's histories have been closely intertwined, as is shown in the brief highlight video for the match before it starts.
Misawa and Kawada had what is seen as one of the greatest matches of all time, back in 1994. June 3rd, for the Triple Crown, back in All Japan Pro Wrestling. This match is not a rematch, as they wrestled each other several times over the ensuing 90s All Japan period, but 90s All Japan came to a very sudden stop in August of 2000, when Misawa took pretty much all of AJPW and formed NOAH. Kawada stayed behind, of course.
Since then, All Japan and NOAH have gone in fascinating paths. AJPW struggled, then shed the Oudou image, as did the entirety of NOAH. Both grew into strangely unique federations, with NOAH being the Watts-era Mid South to AJPWs Carolina, and both continued to grow.
For those who dont exactly get that, it's like how WWE and TNA are now. Only no one gives a shit about TNA. But, to be fair, no one gave a shit about AJPW during the restructuring.
But I'm not here to talk about how they grew, with Misawa and Kawada in different yet similar positions in both feds. Or how weird AJPW got, or how awesome NOAH got. I'm not even here to talk about Misawa Vs. Kawada. I'm here to specifically talk about the end of the match. This was just the briefest history lesson, but history will play a part in establishing the finish.
Amongst the internet wrestling community, there has been backlash over the end of the match. It's full of people who simply do not understand and therefore hate the finish.
For those who haven't seen it, it's a match full of headdrops, that ends with this.
http://pulolesu.game-server.cc/move/move-photo/252.gif (Apparently, img tags dont work.)
Then a pin.
And people complained about this.
Before I get into the history and how this is logical, I want to share a theory I've come up with. The Universal Law of Being Fucked Up in the Head. It's like this: When the force of the contact upon one's head is not only so fierce that it rocks the head, but causes the subject's scalp to ripple, the subject as officially reached the state of Fucked Up in the Head.
Even aside from that, look at where he hits. Anyone that's seen boxing or MMA will know that all it really takes is a good shot to the jaw to cause a man to crumple, like Kawada. Kawada was hit with a knock out blow, and IWC members are complaining. This is a perfect suppliment to my "strikes aren't over in the US" arguement two posts back in the Strong Style issue.
There's also the factor of history, which cannot be ignored. I brought this up in a recent debate over Naomichi Marufuji and his contagious faggotry, and that is that Misawa's elbow have years upon years of build to it. It KOed Fuchi, it mauled Tsuruta, it toppled top gaijin, and it gave him his title and tournament wins. His elbow is the ultimate weapon. So fittingly, it's what gives him the win here. He's beaten the very, very best with his elbows. He hasn't always finished with them, but it's the use of the weapon that gives him victories. Watch the match twice; see how cautions Kawada is of getting hit until the first hit makes contact, and he tastes it all over again. This time, he thinks he's grown enough to have less of a resistance. Sadly, Kawada is still no Tsuruta, so he cannot take that kind of abuse. So, he lost to the elbow. The finish of this match is poetic, not repulsive, and it's what sets the mistique of 90s AJPW apart from all other puro.
The main event was between Mitsuharu Misawa and Toshiaki Kawada. In Japan, this is the equivalent to El Hijo Del Santo Vs. Negro Casas, or Ron Wright Vs. Whitey Caldwell. It's not only perpetual and unbalanced, but it's pretty much always good. Over the last decade and a half, Misawa and Kawada's histories have been closely intertwined, as is shown in the brief highlight video for the match before it starts.
Misawa and Kawada had what is seen as one of the greatest matches of all time, back in 1994. June 3rd, for the Triple Crown, back in All Japan Pro Wrestling. This match is not a rematch, as they wrestled each other several times over the ensuing 90s All Japan period, but 90s All Japan came to a very sudden stop in August of 2000, when Misawa took pretty much all of AJPW and formed NOAH. Kawada stayed behind, of course.
Since then, All Japan and NOAH have gone in fascinating paths. AJPW struggled, then shed the Oudou image, as did the entirety of NOAH. Both grew into strangely unique federations, with NOAH being the Watts-era Mid South to AJPWs Carolina, and both continued to grow.
For those who dont exactly get that, it's like how WWE and TNA are now. Only no one gives a shit about TNA. But, to be fair, no one gave a shit about AJPW during the restructuring.
But I'm not here to talk about how they grew, with Misawa and Kawada in different yet similar positions in both feds. Or how weird AJPW got, or how awesome NOAH got. I'm not even here to talk about Misawa Vs. Kawada. I'm here to specifically talk about the end of the match. This was just the briefest history lesson, but history will play a part in establishing the finish.
Amongst the internet wrestling community, there has been backlash over the end of the match. It's full of people who simply do not understand and therefore hate the finish.
For those who haven't seen it, it's a match full of headdrops, that ends with this.
http://pulolesu.game-server.cc/move/move-photo/252.gif (Apparently, img tags dont work.)
Then a pin.
And people complained about this.
Before I get into the history and how this is logical, I want to share a theory I've come up with. The Universal Law of Being Fucked Up in the Head. It's like this: When the force of the contact upon one's head is not only so fierce that it rocks the head, but causes the subject's scalp to ripple, the subject as officially reached the state of Fucked Up in the Head.
Even aside from that, look at where he hits. Anyone that's seen boxing or MMA will know that all it really takes is a good shot to the jaw to cause a man to crumple, like Kawada. Kawada was hit with a knock out blow, and IWC members are complaining. This is a perfect suppliment to my "strikes aren't over in the US" arguement two posts back in the Strong Style issue.
There's also the factor of history, which cannot be ignored. I brought this up in a recent debate over Naomichi Marufuji and his contagious faggotry, and that is that Misawa's elbow have years upon years of build to it. It KOed Fuchi, it mauled Tsuruta, it toppled top gaijin, and it gave him his title and tournament wins. His elbow is the ultimate weapon. So fittingly, it's what gives him the win here. He's beaten the very, very best with his elbows. He hasn't always finished with them, but it's the use of the weapon that gives him victories. Watch the match twice; see how cautions Kawada is of getting hit until the first hit makes contact, and he tastes it all over again. This time, he thinks he's grown enough to have less of a resistance. Sadly, Kawada is still no Tsuruta, so he cannot take that kind of abuse. So, he lost to the elbow. The finish of this match is poetic, not repulsive, and it's what sets the mistique of 90s AJPW apart from all other puro.
posted by MaSuTa at 10/15/2005 05:36:00 PM
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