FUJIWARASMIRK

This was a match to determine the #1 Contender for the Triple Crown Title.

Getback’s a motherfucker, isn’t it?

The importance of the match’s stipulation isn’t lost on either competitor, but it’s not really the point here. No, the point of this match, the reason this match main evented over the Triple Crown Title match that preceded it and why the fans are losing their minds at just the entrances, is that these two have been embroiled in a feud for the past several months, all stemming from one seemingly innocuous forearm that sent Jumbo Tsuruta spiraling.

To make matters worse, their first singles match of the year ended in the biggest upset of the year when Misawa pinned the native ace. Tsuruta has been sulking ever since, terrorizing the youth as his fear of losing his spot at the top is slowly unfolding before his very eyes. Hell, look no further than Misawa’s own Triple Crown Title shot against Stan Hansen not long before this to see that the tide is already turning in ways that don’t sit well with Jumbo.

To that point, Jumbo approaches this with more caution than their last singles meeting. His work is more measured and deliberate, not falling into traps the younger wrestler might lay out and instead working to his own advantages. He blocks an early elbow attempt from Misawa in the corner, and when Misawa does the same, he doesn’t charge right in. When Misawa reverses the double-arm stretch and continues to maintain control of it when Jumbo does the same, he doesn’t lose his cool even as Misawa hits that backwards mule kick to break Jumbo’s control once he does inevitably reverse it. For a wrestler so prone to fits of emotional instability, especially when up against the man in the green tights, Jumbo Tsuruta is remarkably calm and patient throughout the first half of this.

What’s more is that this doesn’t diminish the impact of any of his offense. Those punches to the gut he hits still look incredibly mean and violent, as do the knee lifts he’s fond of throwing out. The jumping knee and the big boot are still there for him when he needs it most, and he even hits a piledriver and a butterfly suplex for a pair of nearfalls. He has Misawa scouted now, too, so when the former Tiger Mask goes for that springboard back elbow spot he’s been fond of using lately, Jumbo dodges and uses his momentum to send him crashing face-first down into the mat. In case you forgot the disdain he has for his opponent, Jumbo’s still quick to hit a dirty elbow off a rope break or a short little knee to the face just to really spite him.

In spite of Jumbo’s feelings towards him, though, Mitsuharu Misawa is here for a reason.

Misawa knows the likely narrative around his win over Jumbo as being a fluke. He also knows that he’s put fear and uncertainty into Jumbo’s mind and heart, and he can utilize that to his advantage. The nervousness of the former junior heavyweight in their last outing is now gone, replaced with a quiet but undeniable confidence as he bears the brunt of Tsuruta’s punishment and keeps attacking. Just as Jumbo’s scouted him, he also knows some of Jumbo’s tendencies and it allows him to anticipate a knee lift and roll his bigger opponent into a schoolboy for a nearfall, or to reverse a powerbomb attempt into a Frankensteiner. Their familiarity with each other is such that they even play off the finish of their last encounter, as Jumbo goes for a backdrop suplex, Misawa counters it into a pin attempt, and Jumbo reverses the momentum for a nearfall that the crowd completely buys into.

In general, the crowd is incredibly invested in this match as a result of the work put in to make Mitsuharu Misawa seem like a credible top challenger at this point, which again goes back to how Jumbo sold that elbow from him like death in that original six-man tag in May. Misawa continues rattling off those trademark elbows, smashing his forearm into Jumbo’s face whenever he gets the space to do so. It borders on repetitive at some points, but never veers too far into that territory before he switches it up. To Jumbo’s credit, he always sells the strikes so well, at a certain point shaking his head and slaps himself to try and shake off the damage. It always manages to stop him in his tracks or stifle his momentum in some form or fashion.

Until it doesn’t.

At a certain point, Jumbo takes just one elbow too many and he loses it. You can tell from his body language that, at least briefly, something inside him snaps and he takes it out on Misawa. He beats the shit out of him, slapping at him with every fiber of his being and forcing him to roll to the outside. All that rage and fury he kept bottled up comes flowing out of him as he throws Misawa into the announce table outside the ring and just brains him with a chair. If anything could have signified to the audience how much of a threat Jumbo viewed Misawa as at this point, this would have as he hadn’t done this with anyone since his feud with Genichiro Tenryu.

What follows, then, is some of the most exciting wrestling of the entire year. Jumbo’s calm demeanor has been thrown out the window, and it leads him to make mistakes he otherwise wouldn’t have. On the other hand, Misawa is beaten, battered, and tired by Jumbo’s onslaught, and his usually flawless execution is escaping him now. He tries to reverse a Jumbo high knee into a flapjack in the ropes, for instance, but his exhaustion gets the better of him and Jumbo only grazes the top rope as a result. As obvious as the result seems in hindsight, it’s so easy to get swept up in the finishing stretch as both men are scrambling towards the end. When a Misawa elbow narrowly gets cut off by a Jumbo elbow, it feels like a crucial moment in the margins of victory that led to Jumbo’s win. When Misawa kicks out of a backdrop suplex, it feels like a momentous occasion given how rare that’s been for opponents other than the likes of Stan Hansen and Genichiro Tenryu in recent memory.

Jumbo wins with a second backdrop suplex, and both men come out of the match looking even better than they did going into it. For Misawa, even in spite of the loss he showed why his original victory was no fluke, and that he deserves to hang at the top of the card with the more established veterans. For Jumbo, he avenges that loss and proves why he’s the ace of All Japan now, on his way to attempt to reclaim the top prize of the promotion.

And yet, things are far from over with between these two, and the Super Generation/Tsuruta-gun feud has yet to hit its fever pitch. Jumbo Tsuruta may have won one battle, but there’s a war still to be fought over the coming months and years.

Rating: ****1/2