Now we get to what everyone creamed themselves over when I was a kid first discovering the online wrestling world in the late ‘90s. The main event gaijin get more or less pushed into solely the tag division before, then they end their careers in failed runs in the United States (except for Hansen). In their place, All Japan began to push their home grown Super Generation Army, which contained the Four Pillars holding up the company: Mitsuharu Misawa, Toshiaki Kawada, Akira Taue, and Kenta Kobashi.
May 26, 1995 – Sapporo, Hokkaido
Mitsuharu Misawa def. Stan Hansen {Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship Match}
From the Super Power Series. Here we go again. This was joined in progress. This was more of the same from these two. The last couple of minutes were exciting, but I was hoping this third big title match between them would see Misawa dominating a lot more. He did not. He won with a weird head scissor takedown at 21:34 (shown of 25:06). He held onto the title for almost exactly a year. Hansen would never hold the title again. I’d say he stuck around about a year or two passed his prime, which is a bummer. ***
May 24, 1996 – Sapporo, Hokkaido
Akira Taue def. Mitsuharu Misawa {Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship Match}
From the Super Power Series. Like most American wrestling fans, I know less about Taue than I do the other Four Pillars. For some time I assumed that Jun Akiyama was the fourth. He won the Champion Carnival in ‘96, though the night before this he & Kawada lost the tag titles to Misawa & Akiyama. This was the refreshing change of speed I needed. Taue channeled Jumbo Tsuruta (his former tag partner and from whom he seems to have taken his look) and Giant Baba (from whom he seems to have taken his ring gear) and dominated this match while looking for the neckbreaker drop and the chokeslam. It’s interesting how much Misawa fights from behind in these matches when he’s clearly meant to be the new top guy in the company. Taue countered a frog splash to a chokeslam for the win at 16:05. That was Taue’s first ever win over Misawa, and one of only two he’d ever claim. ***¾
July 24, 1996 – Tokyo, Japan
Kenta Kobashi def. Akira Taue {Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship Match}
From the Summer Action Series. Kobashi had lost a number one contender match to Kawada a couple months earlier (Taue clearly beat Kawada), but then he won singles matches over Kimala II (twice) and Tamon Honda, and fought to a draw with Akiyama. Okay so I loved this. Kobashi played the ball of energy looking to speed through Taue, and Taue basically grumped him down to size. Kobashi lost his temper at that quickly, but Taue kept finding measured responses to Kobashi’s rage. The crowd LOVED Kobashi here, and who can blame them. The dude had so much built in charisma. There’s a moment where Taue ducks a lariat and hits a chokeslam, but Kobashi pops up and hits the lariat before collapsing and even the referee is so invested in Kobashi that he tries to encourage him to go for the pin! As far as I can tell, this isn’t one of the more celebrated matches of the era (though it is well-liked), and I just don’t understand that. It brought me so much joy. Kobashi won with a diving legdrop at 27:25. ****¾
January 20, 1997 – Osaka, Osaka
Mitsuharu Misawa def. Kenta Kobashi {Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship Match}
From the New Year Giant Series. Kobashi defended successfully against Hansen and fought Kawada to a draw before losing the title here. To this point he had never beaten either Kawada or Misawa one-on-one. I love storylines like that and wish we could see more of them now, but 50-50 booking makes it impossible. That WALTER vs. Voldemort… I mean David Starr feud in which Starr had lost dozens of matches to WALTER was awesome. And given the way Starr cratered out, he’s truly never beating WALTER. Anyway, this match; you can’t say they didn’t make Misawa fight for it. Between Misawa’s mullet and Kobashi’s douchebag ski bro quaff, I don’t think there’s ever been a more ‘90s match. Follically speaking, I mean. I’m seriously burying the lede here because this is regarded by some as the best match of all time. The first seventeen minutes of the match are pretty good, but then Misawa misses a dive and bangs his elbow against the barricade and things take on a whole new color. Then Kobashi obliterates Misawa’s arm. Eventually, Misawa realizes he’s going to lose without a big gambit, so he hits an elbow to Kobashi’s lariat, sacrificing what’s left of his arm to hurt Kobashi. So dope. After that, even when he hits the Tiger Driver, he’s too hurt to cover. The bright side is that Kobashi now needs time to recover after hitting lariats. Both guys’ selling was off the charts. Misawa gutted out a spinning elbow for the win at 42:06. Greatest match ever? Probably not, but it did offer a level of cerebral satisfaction that I don’t think I’ve seen in another match. It also had a midair counter from a powerbomb to a hurricanrana off the apron. In a heavyweight match. In 1997. ****¾
May 1, 1998 – Tokyo Japan
Toshiaki Kawada def. Mitsuharu Misawa {Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship No Time Limit Match}
From All Japan’s 25th Anniversary Show, which was meant to be a sort of reboot for the company, which had seen a recent decline in their numbers. The show drew 58,000 people. Kawada and Misawa fought to a draw in the Champion Carnival, which played into the storyline that got this match booked in the first place; Kawada had trouble beating Misawa, often fighting him to a draw. Misawa was coming into this match very injured. Like, his whole body was wrecked. After the match, he was basically forced to take a few months off. Much like Samoa Joe vs. CM Punk III years later, the no time limit match wound up subverting expectations and lasting shorter than expected. Also, Misawa got concussed and later said he didn’t remember how the thing ended. The match was good given that one guy was essentially a mushy sack of flesh. Kawada finally beat Misawa for the title at 28:05 with the Ganso Bomb. ***½
June 12, 1998 – Tokyo, Japan
Kenta Kobashi def. Toshiaki Kawada {Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship Match}
From the Super Power Series. A few months earlier, Kobashi had finally gotten his elusive first win over Kawada in the Champion Carnival. Then, Kawada won the title. Now it was Kobashi’s time to see if he could repeat the victory. This match is basically thirty minutes of bomb dropping and not a ton more. Still, the crowd ate up every one of those bombs. There’s not much to complain about, except for a few moments where there seemed to be communications issues and one guy had to stand around and wait for the other to stop mucking about and get on with it. Mostly, it just didn’t have that extra layer of story that I’m now spoiled for. Kobashi hit a gnarly lariat for the win at 33:49. ****
October 31, 1998 – Tokyo, Japan
Mitsuharu Misawa def. Kenta Kobashi {Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship Match}
From the October Giant Series. What does this match look like with a healthy Misawa? I think this is the kind of match people think about when they imagine All Japan main events from this era, or really even when vaguely thinking about Japanese main events in general. They started with a good long feeling out process and then spent thirty minutes escalating the violence. I really liked the way they were both clearly fighting through exhaustion at the end, and that what Misawa used to beat Kobashi for the title last time was tripled down on here. One elbow didn’t work, so he peppered Kobashi with elbows for the win at 43:29. I prefer the nuances in their first match more, but this is a wild fight. ****½
January 22, 1999 – Osaka, Osaka
Toshiaki Kawada def. Mitsuharu Misawa {Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship Match}
From the New Year Giant Series. Kawada gets another win over Misawa but breaks his arm in the process. This reminded me a lot of the last match, but with Kawada being that much more aggressive than Kobashi. I loved Misawa’s comeback spots. My issue with him in general is that he tends to look too stoic (for my tastes) when he’s on offense. But seeing him take Kawada’s kicks and rising up in the corner before hitting an elbow was stirring. Kawada hit the Ganso Bomb for 2 and then hit a brainbuster for the win at 24:15. The Ganso Bomb really has no place in wrestling. I’d never have guessed that Kawada’s arm was broken here. ****¼
The title was vacated a week later. A few days after that, Giant Baba died at age 61 of colon cancer. Misawa vs. Kawada was the last match he was in attendance for. A literal giant of the business had died, and soon it would have a major effect on the industry. Misawa was named President of All Japan.
March 6, 1999 – Tokyo Japan
Vader def. Akira Taue {Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship Match}
From the Excite Series. Vader was already the number one contender to the title when Kawada went down with injury. I’m not sure why Taue got this spot, though. Maybe because he was Kawada’s partner? Post WWF Vader isn’t who I expected to show up in this position. This was solid enough. Vader was slow but hit hard. Taue’s comebacks were almost believable given that in the early going Vader responded to everything with a rebound avalanche. The spots on the apron took a lot of obvious cooperation, so that wasn’t awesome. Vader won with a big ol’ powerbomb at 12:51. ***¼
May 2, 1999 – Tokyo Japan
Mitsuharu Misawa def. Vader {Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship Match}
From the Giant Baba Memorial Show. Wow, look at Vader bringing it while fat and at 44 years old. This told a great story, where Vader was steamrolling Misawa, only to more and more find himself facing more than he bargained for. Misawa’s comebacks were terrific, which makes sense since that’s his best quality. Vader took a couple surprising bumps here, like a missed moonsault and an avalanche DDT. Misawa caught Vader on his back and peppered him with elbows before getting the win with a spinning elbow at 18:07. ****
October 30, 1999 – Tokyo, Japan
Vader def. Mitsuharu Misawa {Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship Match}
From the October Giant Series. I like the implication here that if you can last beyond 15 minutes with Vader then your chances of winning go up, but that it’s not going to be a picnic getting there. I’m also not mad at a series of shorter matches after all the marathons I’ve been watching. Misawa rarely got Vader on his back here, and was only in control for brief periods. He did hit a Tiger Driver, but it came way too early in the match. Vader casually fought back, first countering a crossbody to a powerbomb, then dismantling the champ, and finally hitting a powerbomb for the win at 12:12. It was kind of wild to see Misawa get nearly squashed like this, but too one-sided to be exciting. ***¼
February 27, 2000 – Tokyo, Japan
Kenta Kobashi def. Vader {Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship Match}
From the Excite Series. Here’s a match I never knew that I absolutely needed. Kobashi came into this match with taped ribs. It took Vader about six minutes and a little trouble on the floor before he started targeting those ribs. Things slowed down a bit in the middle, but then Kobashi found little openings to knock Vader off balance. Eventually he rebounded off of an avalanche and hit a lariat for the win at 19:49. I didn’t find the finish entirely convincing, but Vader showed Kobashi respect after the match which went a long way to help. ***½
I did not expect this review to end with four middle-aged Vader matches. Three months later, Jumbo Tsuruta died. Also around that time, the board of directors, guided by Motoko Baba (Baba’s widow), removed Misawa as President. In response, Misawa resigned from All Japan, as did most of the rest of the roster. Misawa announced they’d be forming a new company called Pro Wrestling NOAH. In the days that followed, many of the All Japan office workers defected to NOAH as well. Next time, I’ll take a look at the drastic measures AJPW went to in the wake of what should really have been the end of the company.
From Diamond Ring Kensuke Office Changes. They emphasize that Nakajima beat Dragon Gate wrestler Kenichiro Arai 
From Dynamite 131. This is a qualifying match for the Owen Hart Foundation tournament. Joe debuted at ROH Supercard of Honor, saving Jonathan Gresham from Jay Lethal (whose soul searching apparently led him to turn heel) & Sonjay Dutt after the main event. And now that ROH and AEW are the same thing, that seems worth mentioning. Caster’s pre-match rap was cute. This was real squashy, with Joe needing only two minutes to put Caster down with the Muscle Buster at 2:52. Lethal & Dutt pop up on the big screens and Lethal says he’d been trying to get a hold of Joe during his difficult soul searching time, and Joe never picked up. They have a present for Joe next week. N/A
From Dynamite 132. Jay Lethal & Sonjay Dutt were in the front row cheering on Joe. Sarcastically, probably, as they brawled with Joe at ROH Supercard of Honor XV. 
From Rampage 39. 
From Dynamite 137. 
From Dynamite 138. This is a 
From Double or Nothing. 
From PWF York Cougar Football Fundraiser. I didn't know that this match happened until over a month after the fact. This started out as a non-title match, but we'll get to why I've listed it as a title match in a moment. FTR have Mick Foley in their corner while their opponents have Bill Behrens. I’ve never actually seen Behrens do an on-camera gig before. He's holding a tennis racket, presumably as an Umaga to Jim Cornette. But it's confusing because there was actually a tennis player named Bill Behrens. They announce this match as having a 20-minute time limit. Only 11 minutes in, they say there are three minutes remaining. Until then, this was as run-of-the-mill as a modern FTR match gets. But the announcement snapped everyone out of their heat-on-Wheeler funk and forced them to go for desperate pins. They announce ten seconds remaining a couple of times, but no one can get the roll up pin they're looking for. The 20-minute time limit expires at 1
From NXT UK 183. McGuinness started by essentially saying that Fraser is going to pee or poo himself during the match. Unnecessary. Had Shawn Michaels been game to have a good match against Vader, this is what it would have looked like. Actually, a more appropriate and modern analogue is Brock Lesnar vs. Seth Rollins from SummerSlam. Much like that match, Frazer used quick strikes and avoided his larger opponent’s signature big move to stay alive. Here it was the powerbomb whereas there it was suplexes. Here, Frazer also successfully damaged WALTER’s knee, which slowed the big man down and made it hard for WALTER to hit the powerbomb. Unfortunately for Frazer, WALTER was able to bide his time and clothesline Frazer’s legs out from under him. An inevitable powerbomb followed and won the match for WALTER at 14:02. I hate to say this because I’m happy that he’s healthier, but the way WALTER has slimmed down has taken some of the magic away from his aura. At least for me it has. That said, dude can clearly still go as well as ever in the ring. ****
From NXT 659. Strong was feeling it here, which is thanks in large part to the crowd being maniacally loud from the get go I’m sure. His whole game was fast and devastating stick and move attacks. That worked pretty well, as WALTER was dazed from time to time. But as with all good WALTER matches (which is pretty much all WALTER matches), everything WALTER does is devastating here so it takes very little for him to take back control. And eventually he did just that and hit the powerbomb for the win at 9:46 (shown of 12:18). After the match, WALTER gets on the microphone and says that his name is Gunther now. I did not think WALTER would be a victim of the renaming curse this far into his run. What will they rename Strong?! ***¾
From NXT UK 185. Andy Shepherd helpfully announces from inside the ring that the reason for the stipulation is that the feud has gotten so violent that it wouldn’t be safe to have fans around. Devlin says during the match that it’s because he thinks Dragunov could only muster the energy to win if he had the crowd behind him. I like that explanation a lot more. The only real reason I could think of to do this without fans is that there was a scheduling conflict with one of the wrestlers for the regular TV taping date and they needed to get this thing filmed. We just had such a long stretch of empty arena NXT UK episodes that I can’t imagine anyone was dying to get another taste of it. This aired the day after Adam Cole vs. Orange Cassidy in a match that was also no disqualification and falls count anywhere, and this served up everything I felt was missing from that match. Now you might say, “Brad, Cassidy is not the same kind of character as Devlin or Dragunov, how could you expect the same level of violence or intensity?” To that I say, when Cassidy started his match by breaking his own sunglasses and rapidly punching Cole, he was indicating that level of violence and/or intensity. And instead the match was mostly wacky. Anyway, this was not wacky. It was stiff and intense and featured weapons that made sense and spots the didn’t take forever to set up. Dragunov got in trouble when his eye injury acted up. Devlin took control and beat the crap out of him. I wasn’t wild about how meek Dragunov was when Devlin was zip tying his hands, but I did like that in the end it turned out to be an error on Devlin’s part anyway because Dragunov’s finisher requires no hands. And indeed, a bound Dragunov jumped off the steel steps (which had been brought into the ring) and hit the Torpedo Moskau on Devlin for the win at 21:43. NXT UK is still sneaking in these dope matches that no one is watching. Y’all should watch them. ****¼ 
From AAA Triplemania Regia. FTR come out with Vickie Guerrero. This was supposed to be explained at an earlier AAA taping but FTR and Guerrero all missed them. AAA is notorious for having this kind of luck/being incompetent lately. FTR is also wearing Eddie Guerrero tribute tights, with American flags on one side and flames on the other, I suppose to pay homage to his Gringos Locos and Latino Heat gimmicks. This match mostly sucked, but one cool spot saw FTR tie Pentagon’s mask to the ropes and force him to unmask with his hands over his face to stop them from climbing the ladder. That would have been a very meaningful moment to lead up to the Lucha Brothers winning the titles back, but unfortunately instead it led into nothing. He just got his mask back and the match continued on in its lame, derivative way. At one point, Pentagon was the only man standing, but instead of climbing the ladder he grabbed a table from the floor. So the titles mean enough to him that he’d unmask to stop his opponents from winning, but not enough for him to get the titles when he had a clear path to do it? Vickie powered Pentagon, causing him to voluntarily jump through the table and Harwood grabbed the belts at 12:12. This was abysmal. *
From AEW Full Gear. Silver was hamming it up a lot more here than he was the year before in New York. That said, this had stronger just-a-match vibes than the aforementioned match. After Silver ripped out Cassidy’s pockets, Cassidy turned up the heat and these guys put on a middle of the row undercard match. Not bad by any means, but nothing memorable either. Cassidy hit the Beach Break rather out of nowhere for the win at 9:42. **¾ 
From the second Honor Reigns Supreme. The commentators sold this as Gresham getting a big shot against a top ROH guy after being an also-ran in the Television Championship division for a while. This was terrific. Both guys did a fantastic job selling their respective targeted limbs, and Gresham in particular played the role of the tenacious underdog perfectly. He didn’t just watch to see where Lethal would have trouble executing his finisher because of the damage he’d done to the former ROH Champion’s arm, he pressed the assault whenever he could, taking out the arm to make sure the Lethal Injection would never come. But what he couldn’t do was stop Lethal from battering his knee and ultimately winning with a Figure 4 Leglock at 17:54. ****¼ 
From the second Masters of the Craft. Columbus has way more Gresham fans than Concord did. That’s a neat little advancement to the plot, innit? They both went after the same limbs that earned them dividends in their previous match. And then they went ahead and built an incredible match out of that story. At first it seemed as though Lethal wasn’t going to be able to get Gresham’s leg to give out. But about halfway through the match, Gresham’s knee was in trouble. Gresham was able to escape the leglock this time by using the momentum of Lethal pulling him away from the ropes to shift to an armbar. But Gresham’s focus on the arm bit him in the ass. Lethal went for the Lethal Injection and collapsed again, but when Gresham went for a roll up after that Lethal cut back on it for the win at 18:27. This is one of the best American examples that I've seen of a match building on the match that came before. Rather than try to outdo the maneuvers from their first meeting for the sake of a big crowd reaction, they adjust their game plans in logical ways that, to me, were just as exciting. I think this match is slept on, by virtue of the fact that I’ve never heard anything about it before watching it. ****½ 
From ROH Wrestling 364. In real life, 
From Death Before Dishonor XVII. Gresham and Lethal had been teaming, but Gresham grew frustrated and started heeling. Ultimately, he turned on Lethal. It took them a little while to get there, but once they got into a groove this was exactly what I wanted from this match. It was back to their old tricks, with Lethal targeting the leg to set up for the Figure 4 Leglock and Gresham targeting the arm to block the Lethal Injection and set up for his Octopus. In the end, Lethal tried the cutback trick that worked for him in Columbus, but Gresham countered to a pin and then put on the gnarliest Octopus for his first win over Lethal at 17:20. This is the best kind of wrestling series. And none of it felt stale because it was a year after they’d wrestled last and because they found ways to energize the old tropes. And that’s not to mention Gresham busting out what I can only describe as a sumo-style assault. Gresham and Lethal make up after the match. ****
From ROH Wrestling 500. During the pandemic, ROH made the most of their empty arena shows by kicking them off with a tournament to crown a champion for the revived Pure Championship. Gresham won the tournament, and this was his fourth defense of the title. Lethal and Gresham were still allies here. In an interesting move, the other match on this milestone episode was two other partners fighting in Jay and Mark Briscoe. They cut to a commercial break about six minutes in, though the action didn’t get beyond (admittedly fast-moving) mat wrestling until the 10-minute mark. That had me thinking this was going to go long, but things took a different turn. Both guys had abused the other’s shoulders, and Lethal used that to his advantage best. He forced Gresham to use his first rope break to stop a pin, and his second to escape a crab. Then, he used the failed Lethal Injection to bait Gresham into a crossface, forcing the champ to use his final rope break. But he made the mistake of giving Gresham a breather and was quickly caught in a head scissor takedown giving Gresham the winning pin at 14:06 (shown of 16:40). For an empty arena match, this held my attention. It was totally different than their previous matches while still using a couple elements from the rivalry to elevate it just a bit. Not essential viewing, but if you’re working your way through their series you shouldn’t skip it. ***¼ 
