Damn, what a night this must have been for AJPW fans. Kobashi vs. Taue and Misawa vs. Kawada on the SAME NIGHT?? Insane. After Holy Demon Army's win over the Super Generation Army in 9/6/95, Kawada comes in real hot for this match. Still an underdog, but this is his best chance to dethrone Misawa in a while.

You know they are not fucking around when Kawada lands a Powerbomb on the ringside floor in the first 5 minutes of this match. He controls nearly this whole match until Misawa's comeback at the end, and he doesn't even let up either. He lands numerous Backdrops, Powerbombs and immediately jumps on Misawa with his stiff strikes whenever he fights back, but he can't seem to get the W. Misawa gets the John Cena in the early 2010s treatment, he sells non-stop until he goes wild at the end with a barrage of Tiger Suplexes and a final elbow strike seals the win. When he makes his comeback the crowd erupt into a frenzy until the final pin, it's great.

Misawa was put over huge in this match. He basically seems impenetrable to Kawada's offense and looks as if he's inexhaustible. I feel like my man Kawada was a bit buried in this match, but he did put up a great fight and he was dominant during most of it, so who am I to say? Maybe I'm biased. This match is great for the non-stop pace and the constant dropping of bombs, a sprint to the finish, and it certainly looked like this was Kawada's best chance to beat Misawa to date, but it didn't work out in the end. I was quite disappointed, I wanted him to win... Still a great match, but not very rewatchable, it's heartbreaking to see Kawada put in so much effort only for Misawa to come out on top again.

Interesting to note that Kawada doesn't get too desperate or too nasty (for Kawada standards, he still is a big meanie here) in this match. By reading theditch.biz's match testimonial I realized that Kawada knows he can pin Misawa (and so do we, he pinned him at 6/9/95 Holy Demon Army vs. Super Generation Army), so he attempts to wrestle Misawa in equal terms, no shortcuts, no nothing. Still comes up short in singles, but I bet he will continue to be a thorn in Misawa's side for the forseeable future. The verdict is out: my man Kawada wad not buried.