I completely forgot about this match, so I'm sitting here with my jaw on the floor and goosebumps all over my body probably just like when I saw it in 2002. ps. This is a few years before my good friend got to tag with Akiyama in Germany and I shook his hand backstage
i love Ogawa but i don't think i'll ever understand the decision to have him beat Akiyama here honestly.
@dashtoroya28387 ай бұрын
From what I have heard there are two theories. First one was that misawa despite pushing akiyama to the limits still finds him a tag team wrestlers and that's why have the title drop to ogawa for reasons like ogawa was misawa's partner for a lot of his time. Which is insane considering akiyama main evented NJPW's 4 Jan Tokyo dome defending and retaining the title against then NJPW's ace yuji nagata. Then you have akiyama feeling mentally exhausted and needs time off.
@hoboscanbekicked6 ай бұрын
@@dashtoroya2838most likely it was a mix of 1) Misawa getting a timeline for Kobashi to be back (as his intent even upon starting NOAH was to transfer Ace status from himself to Kobashi), and 2) with the choice being “have Akiyama hold the belt until Kobashi is ready to take it off him” or “do a little hot potato with the belt to set up a final Misawa vs Kobashi match to officially pass the torch”, he went with the latter, which also gave him the opportunity to give his close friend Ogawa a cup of coffee with the belt and to also pass it onto Takayama as an “attaboy” for doing business so easily both in moving his freelancing from AJPW to NOAH and losing in the finals of the GHC title tournament in the first place, which then Misawa could take off of him just in time for Kobashi to begin getting built up for his title shot that would then be the focal point of the promotion moving forward from that point. And then somewhere down the line, he still can run Akiyama vs Kobashi for the belt, a still unspoiled, built-from-day-one match at whatever point he felt it was right to pull the trigger on (which turned out to be the 2004 Tokyo Dome show). Akiyama also probably needing a break nearly as badly as Kobashi needed weeks into NOAH’s official start was probably part of it, sure, pretty much everyone high level in the latter half of All Japan in the 90s were the walking wounded, but the business end of things probably played a bigger part.
The match that fucked up Akiyama main event credibility.
@818KiraАй бұрын
I love Ogawa’s style Sneaky mf lol
@ahmed-mazino71108 ай бұрын
The day Akiyama career end.
@arthursepeda43888 ай бұрын
Was that a botch count?
@dashtoroya28386 ай бұрын
Nope it was planned as a surprise
@russo15016 ай бұрын
XD
@user-ml5bx8pd9f4 ай бұрын
マジッく小川 1:45 1:50
@user-ml5bx8pd9f4 ай бұрын
普通なら勝ててない
@user-ml5bx8pd9f4 ай бұрын
ありがとうございます!小川マジッく小川!
@user-ml5bx8pd9f3 ай бұрын
秋山やる気ない
@user-oo3jv5es5y7 ай бұрын
完全なブック
@user-yk1qi5vs6d7 ай бұрын
どうなると、そうじゃないの?
@user-nr2pz5xu5w6 ай бұрын
@@user-yk1qi5vs6dそんなピンポイントで5分決着を返せるもんかね😂
@DropkickNation8 ай бұрын
As a huge Ogawa fan that loved him for years, this was an awesome surprise. As a business decision to put the belt on him, it probably was worse than when Marufuji was heavyweight champion.
@jadoc37677 ай бұрын
I agree with you. Ogawa is one of my all time favorites, but him as the champion was a bad decision. But at least it gave Ogawa vs Takayama which was in my opinion the best performance of his career.