AJPW 11/27/1992 Mitsuharu Misawa and Toshiaki Kawada vs Giant Baba and Kenta Kobashi

AJPW 11/27/1992 Mitsuharu Misawa and Toshiaki Kawada vs Giant Baba and Kenta Kobashi
I liked this match. It wasn't at the level of Misawa/Kobashi vs Baba/Hansen a year later but it was still really good. Whereas that match had more of a legends vs younger wrestlers vibe to it, this was pretty much a straight tag.

The match was pretty even until the second half, where Misawa and Kawada took over. The obvious move would be to get heat on Misawa and Kawada picking on Baba, but they chose to go with Kobashi instead. Of course, there are few better FIP's than Kobashi, so it worked too.

Baba was not that involved in this match. He was in it a little bit but this was mostly the Kobashi vs Kawada show. Misawa was in this so little too. One cool thing happened in this match. Kawada had Baba up for a suplex but Baba's weight was too much and both of them fell over in the process of getting Baba up. For any wrestlers reading this that are in this situation, ask yourself, WWTKD? Well, Kawada ingeniously decided to play it straight. He sold the effort it took in getting Baba up there and turned what could have been a knock on this match into a positive. Kawada showed us that even the best flub sometimes, but only the best know how to cover it. Baba even sold the botched suplex a little and then smartly got up before Kawada and made a quick tag.

Baba was also a very good face in this match. Baba played by the rules of pro wrestling and refused to interrupt any submission or pin attempt. This is something you don't see everyday. What made it better is that he teased wanting to, but instead chose to be the super face and didn't do a thing. Baba became the cheerleader for Kobashi instead. This added to the crowd's sympathy for the face team.

The finishing stretch saw Kawada and Misawa work over Baba and Kobashi with Kobashi getting a Tiger Driver then a Folding Powerbomb pin from Kawada for the win.

Rating: ****. This was a really good match and it again showed the genius of Baba knowing his role and bringing in pieces of wrestling psychology that have been long forgotten.