All Japan TV 4-8-93 Misawa vs Kawada in the main event!
Apr 7, 2023 19:22:17 GMT
Post by Chitohausen on Apr 7, 2023 19:22:17 GMT
Sanctioned by the Pacific Wrestling Federation; Lord James Blears, chairman
Airs across Japan on Saturday, April 8, 1993 on:
Taped on March 27, 1993 at the Prefectural Gymnasium in Kyoto, Japan
Announcers: Kenji Wakabayashi and Kosuke Takeuchi
Ring Announcer: Takashi Yamada
Referees: Red Shoes Unno, Tiger Hattori and Kyohei Wada
KENJI WAKABAYASHI and KOSUKE TAKEUCHI open the show.
They welcome us to this week’s episode of “All Japan Pro Wrestling”!
This week, the Champion Carnival continues!
We’ve got three big Carnival matches on tap today, Terry “Bamm Bamm” Gordy meets Bobby Fulton!
Steve “Dr. Death” Williams faces the Dragon, Tatsumi Fujinami!
And, the feature bout, arguably the two top young wrestlers in Japan today square off, as Triple Crown champ Mitsuharu Misawa meets a man that many consider a future Triple Crown champ, possibly even the one to take the belt from Misawa, his friend and tag team partner Toshiaki Kawada!
Before the first match, we see clips from earlier in the day, a non-televised Champion Carnival match between Johnny Ace and Dan Kroffat. Ace wins the 10-minute match after catching Kroffat with the Ace Crusher for the pinfall!
CHAMPION CARNIVAL MATCH:
TERRY "BAMM BAMM GORDY [11] beats BOBBY FULTON [3]. Fulton holds his own early against Bamm Bamm, but as the match progresses, Gordy’s size and power advantage is just too much for Fulton to overcome. In the end, Gordy drives Fulton into the mat with a Powerbomb for the 1, 2, 3!
Gordy picks up 2 more points in the Champion Carnival, and after several victories at non-televised shows, this puts him at 11!
A promo video airs for SUPER BATTLE IN TOKYO DOME!
In just over a month, on May 3, All Japan will be in the Tokyo Dome for the biggest card in the company’s history!
Scheduled matches include:
Jushin Liger vs Tiger Mask III! Liger has won the first two matches between them, but Tiger Mask has continued to improve, and he feels this is his time to finally beat Liger!
The Miracle Violence Connection defend the World tag team titles against Toshiaki Kawada and Akira Taue!
WWF superstar Sting will return to Japan, as he faces Riki Choshu! Both men use the Scorpion Lock as one of their signature moves, and on May 3 we’ll find out who’s is better!
In a battle of four of the biggest names in Japan in the last 20 years, Giant Baba teams up with Genichiro Tenryu to face Antonio Inoki and Tatsumi Fujinami!
And, the main event, a dream match for the Triple Crown, Mitsuharu Misawa defends the belts against the Great Muta!
We hear comments from some of the wrestlers that will be involved:
Tiger Mask III says that he lost his first two matches to Jushin Thunder Liger, but he’s been training harder than ever, and he feels that May 3 will be his night to finally defeat Liger and prove that he belongs at the top of the junior heavyweight division!
Sting can’t wait to return to Japan! He’s wrestled in the Big Egg before, and says there’s no experience quite like it! He has a lot of respect for Riki Choshu, and he’s looking forward to facing him on May 3!
Giant Baba & Genichiro Tenryu talk about their tag team match against Antonio Inoki and Tatsumi Fujinami. Baba says that he and Inoki were once a great tag team, but their careers took different paths, and they never had the big match against each other that both men so badly wanted. Baba says that on May 3, he finally has the chance to prove himself against Inoki! Tenryu says that Tatsumi Fujinami came into AJPW with the others from New Japan, and disrespected the entire roster here in All Japan. He says he just can’t let that go, and he’ll put Fujinami in his place on May 3!
Mitsuharu Misawa says that, previously, he said he didn’t always feel as though he deserved to be wearing these belts. Now, on May 3, he has the opportunity to defend them against one of the biggest names ever, the Great Muta! He says that this will be the test that he needs, and if he can defeat Muta at the Tokyo Dome, he will have finally proven to all these fans, and to himself, that he is worthy of being called the Triple Crown champion!
CHAMPION CARNIVAL MATCH:
“DR. DEATH” STEVE WILLIAMS [13] beats “THE DRAGON” TATSUMI FUJINAMI [8]. Two of the favourites to win the whole thing face off here. Steve Williams has been on a tear, both as a singles and tag team wrestler, since coming over to All Japan, and Fujinami is considered one of the most talented, technically sound wrestlers of this generation!
Williams dominates early. He goes right at Fujinami, stunning the Dragon with elbows and clubbing forearms. Whenever Fujinami tries to turn the tables, it seems Williams has an answer for it. Fujinami grabs a side headlock, but Williams lifts him up and delivers a side suplex, and when Fujinami goes after Doc’s legs, Williams is quick to deliver more stiff elbow shots that leave the Dragon dazed.
Williams remembers what happened last week, when Toshiaki Kawada targetted his leg, and made it hard for Doc to hit his big moves, so Williams is especially quick to retaliate whenever Fujinami goes after his legs.
Williams knocks Fujinami to the floor, and the Dragon takes a moment to shake off the cobwebs before climbing back in. Williams charges at him once Fuji is back inside the ring, but this time, Fujinami is ready, and he takes Williams down to the mat. Fujinami immediately goes to work on the same leg that Kawada injured last week, but Williams is quick to battle back, and after knocking Fujinami to the mat, he puts the boots to the Dragon!
Williams targets Fuji’s arm, knowing that if he can injure the arm, it makes it much harder for Fujinami to use two of his favourite holds, the Dragon Suplex and the Dragon Sleeper. The next few minutes see Doc twisting and bending Fuji’s arm in all sorts of unnatural ways, as well as stomping and dropping knees onto the arm and shoulder.
Fujinami again tries to fight back, but it’s short-lived, as Doc whips him into the ropes and delivers a thunderous Powerslam for a 2-count. Doc goes right back to the arm, but Fujinami fires off some super-stiff elbows that stun Doc, and Fujinami then takes him down and slaps on a leglock! Doc quickly gets to the ropes, forcing Fujinami to let go, and then as both wrestlers get to their feet, Doc grabs Fujinami and throws the Dragon through the ropes and to the floor! On the outside, Williams stomps Fujinami, but when he attempts to whip him into the ringpost, Fuji reverses it and sends Doc into the post instead!
Back inside, Williams is groggy from going headfirst into the steel ringpost. Fujinami takes advantage, and hits a dropkick that sends Williams through the ropes and right back out to the floor! Doc is pissed off now, and he slides back into the ring and charges at Fujinami, but again the Dragon takes him down to the mat. Williams fights back, and goes back after Fujinami’s arm. He throws Fuji out of the ring, then attacks him on the floor and repeatedly wraps the Dragon’s arm around the ringpost!
Doc spends the next few minutes working on the arm of the Dragon. As we near the 20-minute mark of the match, Fujinami turns the tables, but his arm is in bad shape, and when he attempts the Dragon Suplex, he can’t pull it off with the bad arm. Williams responds by bashing Fujinami with several stiff elbow strikes, then hoists him up and delivers the Oklahoma Stampede!
Williams covers Fujinami, but the Dragon somehow manages to get a shoulder up at the last second! Williams decides to try a different approach, he sets Fujinami up, and hits the DOCTOR BOMB!!!!
This time Fujinami is down for the count, and Williams gets the 3-count and 2 more points in the Champion Carnival!
Before the main event, we see clips of Mitsuharu Misawa’s first defense of the Triple Crown, last October at Nippon Budokan against Toshiaki Kawada.
The two men wrestled a clean, scientific match, lasting just a few seconds shy of 30 minutes before Misawa hit the Tiger Suplex for the pinfall.
CHAMPION CARNIVAL MATCH:
MITSUHARU MISAWA [10] beats TOSHIAKI KAWADA [7]. As we saw in the clip of their last one on one encounter in October, the match was a clean and scientific contest. This time, there seems to be a difference in the approach of both men. The announcers mention this, and attribute it to the fact that every point is important in the Champion Carnival, and so both men are going to go all out to win.
Kawada tears into Misawa to start, hitting some knife-edge chops that leave red welts on Misawa’s chest! Misawa turns the tables, and stuns Kawada with several elbow shots, before connecting with a dropkick that sends Kawada through the ropes to the floor. Misawa heads to the top turnbuckle, and dives onto Kawada on the outside!
Back inside the ring, Misawa keeps up the attack, and quickly goes for the Tiger Suplex, the move he beat Kawada with in October, but Kawada kicks out at 2. Kawada goes for his spinning heel kick, but Misawa is ready, and avoids it, but Kawada responds with a jumping kick that stuns Misawa. Kawada proceeds to just beat the hell out of his tag team partner. At one point, he backs him into the corner, and lays in several stiff kicks. Kawada keeps going higher and higher with the kicks, until the last one catches him right across the bridge of the nose, and at that point, Misawa bails out to the floor.
Misawa, clearly in trouble, takes a moment to compose himself before climbing back into the ring, but he’s met with more strikes from Kawada! Misawa keeps fighting back, hitting Kawada with some super-stiff elbow shots, but Kawada is relentless, he just keeps attacking. Kawada nails a Powerbomb, but they’re close enough that Misawa is able to put his foot on the rope when Kawada covers him. Kawada goes for another Powerbomb, but Misawa backdrops him, then moments later, hits the Tiger Driver, but Kawada kicks out!
Misawa misses a diving clothesline, and Kawada tears into him with more vicious chops and forearm strikes. Misawa hits a spinning heel kick, but then eats one from Kawada in return! Kawada hits a brutal looking Backdrop Driver, but Misawa somehow kicks out at the last possible second!
They go on trading bombs for the next two or three minutes, before Misawa just obliterates Kawada with an elbow shot, knocking Kawada senseless!
That’s all she wrote, and Misawa picks up the 3-count and two more points in the Champion Carnival, bringing his total to 10!
There was a lot more intensity in this match than their match in October, it’s hard to believe they’re tag team partners after watching this one! It seemed like they honestly wanted to destroy each other!
A graphic appears on the screen, showing the standings in the Champion Carnival:
1. Steve Williams [13]
2. Terry Gordy [11]
3. Mitsuharu Misawa [10]
4. Tatsumi Fujinami [8]
5. Kenta Kobashi [8]
6. Toshiaki Kawada [7]
7. Akira Taue [6]
8. Johnny Ace [6]
9. Big Bubba Rogers [4]
10. Bobby Fulton [3]
11. Doug Furnas [0]
12. Dan Kroffat [0]
13. Jun Akiyama [0]
Wakabayashi and Takeuchi wrap things up, and hype next week’s show.
Credits Roll
© 1993, All Japan Pro Wrestling