Worst. Kawada Match. Ever.

Toshiaki Kawada VS Yoshihiro Takayama - AJPW 10/21/1997

JJZ: This match is fascinating to me. It was nothing that I expected to be honest. I mean it is stiff and I did expect that. This is the earliest Takayma that I can remember watching. They work this like a UWF match and to my memory I don't remember AJPW ever doing this before or after. I'm sure after watching this they must have done this at least a few times but I dunno. I realized half way through I need to adjust my expectations of what this match is. I could tell they wanted to get Takayama over. He really manhandled Kawada at times. The crowd erupted when Kawada was getting his shit in. I found this to be a true hidden gem and a great watch.

CJD: I said last week's fancam was a fascinating watch and I'd agree with your assessment this match was too. Want to know something funny about this match? Meltzer was a Tak hater at the time and called this the worst Kawada singles match he'd ever seen! This was a match that definitely messed with expectations and made you reconsider what you were going to see, and I can see opinions being all over the place because of it. I thought it was very entertaining although not especially good, if that makes sense? That probably sounds harsh but I did love it at times. I just thought they were building a promise they never fully delivered. You could see Kawada putting together a strategy to try to take down this monster. Is he trying to rope a dope him?? Bring him down to his size on the mat?? A flash KO or submission? I kept asking myself these questions but in the end I don't think we ever really got the answer. Still it was fun to watch them tell a different kind of story for this time in AJPW even if the execution was short of what someone like Tak's cornerman Gary Albright was able to do as a similar dance partner for Kawada. I think the more we watch it was safe to say Takayama was great by 1999. He's well on his way here, and I like watching him develop while watching Dangerous K work outside of his wheelhouse. I can see why you were chomping at the bit to get me to watch this one, there's a lot to unpack!