Superstar History: Mitsuharu Misawa
Added 2025-07-21 04:06:15 +0000 UTCThis week for our "superstar spotlight," we'll be watching two matches from Mitsuharu Misawa! We'll be watching Tiger Mask II & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Yoshiaki Yatsu & Samson Fuyuki (AJPW Super Power Series 1990 Day 1) and Mitsuharu Misawa & Akira Taue & Kenta Kobashi vs. Jumbo Tsuruta & Masanobu Fuchi & The Great Kabuki (AJPW Super Power Series 1990 Day 10).
Moving forward, we'll be focusing on current WWE/AEW superstars to go back and watch their older matches. But I hope you enjoy this video and leave suggestions for next week's superstar history!
Comments
Love this series concept! Looking forward to more!
Nick
2025-07-25 04:37:10 +0000 UTCFinally had time to watch this. Glad you enjoyed the 6 man match. And yeah the tag match isn't much past the unmasking. - Tiger Mask and Yatsu were both partners of Jumbo in the past. Yatsu and Jumbo were known as the Olympians (as both of them had competed in the Olympics) and were a super succesful team, 5 time tag champs including the first ever world tag team champions (when the PWF and NWA titles were unified). They also won the World Tag League. - Tiger Mask and Jumbos history isn't as prestigious but they still had a few fun matches tagging together. They even had singles matches before their famous first meeting in 1990. - Yatsu, Fuyuki, and Kabuki would all leave All Japan in the following weeks and months following these matches, as they followed Tenryu to the newly formed SWS promotion. This would lead to Akira Taue leaving the Super Generation Army and linking up with Tsuruta-gun. This betrayal adds a lot of fire to future 6 man matches. You definitely have to continue down the All Japan path, it only continues to get better from here.
Rhys Withhisspoon
2025-07-22 13:25:36 +0000 UTCStill working on that King's Road write up for you (just finished with '91), but while I'm here I thought I'd drop some context on the guys in the 6 man match: The Babyfaces, a stable called the "Super Generation Army": Misawa: Debuted in 1981. Like you saw, was the second Tiger Mask. Giant Baba wants to make him the new Ace now that Jumbo is winding down. Taue: Debuted in January 1988. The Oldest and the Largest of what would become the Four Pillars, initially scouted to be a more workrate version of Giant Baba. Before wrestling, he was an accomplished Sumo Wrestler, and used that in his own wrestling style. He's the one that would quickly betray the SGA and join Jumbo. Kobashi: Debuted technically in December 1987, officially in February 1988. The baby of the group, Baba booked him to lose his first 63 matches in order to get him over as a never-say-die eternal underdog. He's technically still considered a Junior Heavyweight by most when this match happens. The Heels, a stable called "Tsuruta-gun" ("Tsuruta's Army"): Jumbo Tsuruta: Debuted in 1973, and became AJPW's Second Ace after booker/founder Giant Baba. Now Misawa's coming to take his place, leading to Jumbo essentially turning heel for the first time ever. Fuchi: Debuted in 1974. Fuchi rules the Junior Heavyweight division, wrestling the Classic Jr style before it was revolutionized to be more highflying. Lots of stretches and (as a heel) cheating: Using the ropes, punches, etc. The only person in this match still wrestling today. He usually has one match a year, still for AJPW. Kabuki: Debuted in 1964, became The Great Kabuki in 1981. Kabuki was a vicious heel in America during the territory days, and was the first wrestler to blow the Poison Mist. When he got back to Japan, his use of facepaint and traditional martial arts spectacle made him an instant star, and AJPW often used him to "Smarten Up" wrestlers moving from the Juniors to Heavyweight, blasting them with stiff strikes and brutal stretches.
OakTree
2025-07-21 23:42:37 +0000 UTC25 five star matches. Underrated legend
Ray_Tenay
2025-07-21 10:42:44 +0000 UTCThe wrestler i recommended watching next is KENTA Some of his matches I would include are KENTA vs Naomichi Marufuji at NOAH Autumn Navigation 2006 KENTA vs LOW-KI at ROH Final Battle 2005 And KENTA vs Bryan Danielson at ROH Glory By Honor 2006
Poirate
2025-07-21 05:24:29 +0000 UTCI think Danielson would be a great start. The 3 matches I'd most recommend for him are: vs Nigel McGuinness at ROH Unified vs Takeshi Morishima at ROH Final Battle 08 vs KENTA ROH Glory by Honor 06 If you want a WWE guy then WALTER would be cool. For me I'd recommend: vs Jordan Devlin at OTT WrestleRama (on youtube btw) vs Zack Sabre Jr PWG All Star Weekend 2017 vs Tyler Bate Progress Hello Wembley If you want a woman then Io Shirai would be great, too. vs Meiko Satomura Stardom Year End Climax 2015 vs Kairi Stardom 5th Anniversary vs Mayu Iwatani Stardom Year End Climax 2016 If you need help sourcing any of them I'll be happy to assist. There's an almost endless list of people that are gonna be perfect for this. It's gonna be a fun series. Thanks for the content!
Rhys Withhisspoon
2025-07-21 04:32:37 +0000 UTC
