20 AJPW Matches you must see before you die

1. Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue – June 9, 1995

This is the greatest tag team match I have ever seen, and it is quite possibly the single-greatest tag team match ever. To be honest I’m surprised Dave Meltzer didn’t rate this match 6-stars since it was just as deserving as the one AJPW match he did rate 6 stars out of five.

This match is different from the others on this list in that it had multiple stories being told at the same time. Misawa and Kobashi were the babyfaces champions defending against Kawada and Taue, who resorted to dirty and underhanded tactics several times throughout the match. In other words, you had actual heels and faces in an AJPW match, which was unheard of at the time.

Secondly, you had Kobashi wrestling with an obviously hurt leg, which was targeted and destroyed throughout the match. But the gutsy Kobashi refused to give up, even as Taue chokeslammed Misawa onto Kobashi’s injured leg. Even when Kobashi knew he was all but useless to his partner, he still tried to save the match by holding Misawa’s leg to prevent him from being Powerbombed, and then later covering Misawa with his own body to protect him from a 2-on-1 attack. There has yet to be a better example of a pure babyface tag team partner than Kobashi.

Thirdly, you had the next chapter in the years-long rivalry between Misawa and Kawada, and in this legendary match, Kawada did the seemingly impossible by pinning Misawa clean for the first time ever. It was a critical point in the rivalry between these two men that signaled that Kawada was Misawa’s equal and no longer beneath him.

Even if you had no idea who was who when watching this match, you didn’t have to understand a single thing to understand the story being told in the ring. This makes this arguably the perfect wrestling match, and is one that any aspiring wrestler should study.