Why 6/3/94 is the greatest match ever...

[Guest RickyChosyu]

I wouldn't say that no viewers can't appreciate it - most do. It's just that they usually feel underwelmed due to all the hype it receives, when a lot of that is coming from people who know the history. 6/3/94 is enjoyable enough on the surface, but that's nothing compared to getting the full enjoyment out of it.

[Guest Coffin Surfer]

"but i was still really loving the match till misawa no-sold the kicks in the corner and started elbowing kawada (who, of course, sold the hell out of them). it wasn't even cool no-selling"

 

It was Kawada's last stand. He was 34 mins into the match and was done. His kicks were not lethal anymore...Misawa hulking up coming out of the corner was him being the man, showing that Kawada was this close to getting him, but not close enough. Very symbolic.

 

Watch it again with that in mind and I think it will become clearer to you and you will like it. It is typical Misawa selling...He is the man of the promotion and as the man, he had enough of what Kawada was giving him (plus Kawada's kicks were weaker) and he stopped it.

 

Tim

It's also symbolic of Misawa finally being cemented as "The Man" and taking Jumbo's place.

 

If you recall in the Misawa/Jumbo 9/1/90 match, Misawa elbows Jumbo down in the corner, only for Jumbo to rise up and destroy him. The whole match in fact is almost the exact same story as 6/3/94. "The Man's" position is being threatened, and he has dig deeper than ever before to knock the number 2 man back in his place.

[Guest godthedog]

still, a big symbolic spot like that has to work on a literal level before it can work on a symbolic level or else it ruins the suspension of disbelief. i can't tell you how many movies i've seen where they tried to make some big, important point at the sacrifice of the characters & the believability of the story, making it overblown and pretentious.

[EL DANDY~! 0]

Well, this match isn't overblown in the least, and in fact, it's subtlety is absolutely outstanding. You have to know what each move means for them to mean something.

[Guest evenflowDDT]

Eh... I've seen 6/3/94. I won't deny that its really good, but I wouldn't call it the greatest ever. And no, I haven't read/seen any of the back story, but the match didn't exactly motivate me to do such either.

[Guest RickyChosyu]

godthedog: After thrity four minutes, a man starts to get winded, and his attacks get weaker as a result. Kawada's kicks weren't lethal because he hadn't been able to break Misawa's spirit with them, and he had reached a point where they didn't have the impact to do any real harm to Misawa at all. Misawa had withstood Kawada's best and still had enough left to dish out his own punishment. Keep in mind, this is wrestling, so there's always a required suspension of disbelief, but you're talking about attrition, which is plenty believable, in my opinion.

[Guest wolverine]

Most people venture into this stuff without having a clue as to what it all means, which is the problem to begin with. I mean, it's just like reading chapter 18 of a classic book and then complaining that's it's not that great or didn't make sense.

 

All Japan is obviously not for everyone. But to dismiss it on the premise of not understanding a match with a deep-rooted story is quite the shame. I mean you can always go watch some of the 6-man tags, like 7/2/93, which is non-stop action, if that's what people want to see. Hell, you can even go watch Steve Williams drop Kenta Kobashi on his dome twice in '93. There's plenty of variety in 90's AJ to suit everyone's tastes.