Gibby
June 13th, 2014, 9:31 AM
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Mitsuharu Misawa passed five years ago today. Some random/disconnected thoughts.
- At first, he didn't grab me. Few of my favourites do. A friend put his bootleg Best of Stan Hansen DVD on and for the first few minutes of his match with The Lariat it seemed pretty standard fare. Then he dived off the apron to smoosh his opponent up against the railings. A few minutes later he Tiger Suplexed him out of his boots and onto his sweat-drenched head. He didn't win. I didn't care.
- It's difficult to explain what makes someone a star. On one hand I still can't explain Misawa. His face is usually stony and inexpressive until the match begins. Nothing about him to me yells 'star' until you see everybody in the crowd yelling for him. Undoubtedly, Misawa was a star. All of his consecutive Tokyo sellouts attest to it. People attribute AJPW's death to Baba dying: personally, I'd attribute an even sum of this to Misawa leaving. But it still remains a tough task to explain the austere, work-rate heavy stardom of Misawa to many, to sell the stories of his many battles to an increasingly impatient audience.
- Like they said on the last Cewshcast, wrestling can't really be like it was in 90s AJPW again. It was probably the divine meeting point between wrestlers wanting to go further to impress a crowd, greater media presence, a lack of medical science to prevent concussion, a talented generation of workers, increased interest in the business, great booking and the post-territorial slump in the US still meaning top-rated US workers were available. Did Misawa benefit from being in the right place? Would he eventually be a star player if he was 22 now? In a way the answer doesn't matter.
- Was he wrestling's equivalent of a great character actor? Playing roles as different as the impudent upstart to hero Tsuruta, the noble homegrown warrior against foreign invaders Williams and Hansen, the wily ring scientist against the marauding Kobashi, the brave good-guy against the ruthless Kawada, the master to many proteges with equal believability and aplomb? Is it because we didn't know much about him that we can project him in all of these roles?
- How did the crowd know Tiger Mask 2 was Misawa? Do we discredit audiences in the pre-internet era for their supposed lack of insider knowledge?
- Weird to think on the night that he passed away, Chris Hero and Bobby Fish were on the card. How transitory and fast a wrestler's life is.
- NOAH publicly invited Akitoshi Saito, who delivered the final bump, back to work for the company at the 5 year memorial. Saito cried in acceptance. I can't imagine how difficult it must be to carry that weight inside.
Any thoughts or favourite matches, join in if you like. My favourite is either the GHC title match v Kobashi in 2003, or one of those crazy tag matches with Kobashi against Taue & Kawada.
Mitsuharu Misawa passed five years ago today. Some random/disconnected thoughts.
- At first, he didn't grab me. Few of my favourites do. A friend put his bootleg Best of Stan Hansen DVD on and for the first few minutes of his match with The Lariat it seemed pretty standard fare. Then he dived off the apron to smoosh his opponent up against the railings. A few minutes later he Tiger Suplexed him out of his boots and onto his sweat-drenched head. He didn't win. I didn't care.
- It's difficult to explain what makes someone a star. On one hand I still can't explain Misawa. His face is usually stony and inexpressive until the match begins. Nothing about him to me yells 'star' until you see everybody in the crowd yelling for him. Undoubtedly, Misawa was a star. All of his consecutive Tokyo sellouts attest to it. People attribute AJPW's death to Baba dying: personally, I'd attribute an even sum of this to Misawa leaving. But it still remains a tough task to explain the austere, work-rate heavy stardom of Misawa to many, to sell the stories of his many battles to an increasingly impatient audience.
- Like they said on the last Cewshcast, wrestling can't really be like it was in 90s AJPW again. It was probably the divine meeting point between wrestlers wanting to go further to impress a crowd, greater media presence, a lack of medical science to prevent concussion, a talented generation of workers, increased interest in the business, great booking and the post-territorial slump in the US still meaning top-rated US workers were available. Did Misawa benefit from being in the right place? Would he eventually be a star player if he was 22 now? In a way the answer doesn't matter.
- Was he wrestling's equivalent of a great character actor? Playing roles as different as the impudent upstart to hero Tsuruta, the noble homegrown warrior against foreign invaders Williams and Hansen, the wily ring scientist against the marauding Kobashi, the brave good-guy against the ruthless Kawada, the master to many proteges with equal believability and aplomb? Is it because we didn't know much about him that we can project him in all of these roles?
- How did the crowd know Tiger Mask 2 was Misawa? Do we discredit audiences in the pre-internet era for their supposed lack of insider knowledge?
- Weird to think on the night that he passed away, Chris Hero and Bobby Fish were on the card. How transitory and fast a wrestler's life is.
- NOAH publicly invited Akitoshi Saito, who delivered the final bump, back to work for the company at the 5 year memorial. Saito cried in acceptance. I can't imagine how difficult it must be to carry that weight inside.
Any thoughts or favourite matches, join in if you like. My favourite is either the GHC title match v Kobashi in 2003, or one of those crazy tag matches with Kobashi against Taue & Kawada.