History of the Triple Crown Championship | Part 3 | Four Pillars

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.