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From what I've read by Meltzer, the newspapers and weekly magazines were pretty big during this time period as a way of keeping up with news and they definitely would have mentioned Misawa's injury. But fans wouldn't have even needed those nor would they have even needed to see any prior footage to have picked up on that since I'm pretty sure the commentator makes it clear Kawada and Taue are targetting Misawa's injured eye.

The thing to keep in mind is that as great 6/9/95 is, its purpose in storyline terms is pretty much as a lead-in to the 7/24/95 Kawada/Misawa TC match. I don't think it would have worked as well in that respect if you gave away Kawada pinning a 100% Misawa in the tag and leaving no question of if he could beat him when he had more time to heal. If you want to see Kawada pin Misawa with no injury shenanigans and in a match that serves as more of a climax than just build-up, you'll need to watch 12/6/96. That match should have been on the original list anyway since it's another serious candidiate for best tag match ever.

Sorry, missed that post.

No idea how I didn't see this thread before. I've never thought the finish to 6/9/95 was underwhelming. If anything, the repeated kickouts added drama by really driving home that there was no way Misawa/Kobasi were coming back and thus building anticipation for when Misawa's seemingly limitless stamina finally gave out. As great a moment as it was for Kawada to get his first pin over Misawa, what really puts it over the top as my favorite finish ever is that visual of Kobashi a few feet away still desperately reaching out to break up the pin and leave himself open for more ungodly punishment even at a point when it's obvious he had no chance of winning. It's Kobashi exclamation point on what I consider the most compelling performance I've ever seen. Also a pretty major story of the match not touched on is that the work on Misawa's orbital bone area goes back to an injury he sustained in his CC match with Kawada and which Taue exploited to nearly win the tournament. It feels redundant to say that taking the time to watch more of the lead-ins will illuminate a lot of the less obvious storytelling elements and make it easier to look past most of these criticisms brought up but... yeah.

Guerrero/Kamegai was fucking amazing. I came in expecting a Guerrero showcase but by the end I was crying that Kamegai didn't pull off the upset. Boxing at its best.

I'm calling bullshit on there not being some politicking going on to get KENTA/Sekimoto as the sole NOAH nominee over the Kobashi retirement, KENTA/Sugiura, and KENTA/Marufuji.

YES to 1/6 KENTA vs. Takeshi Morishima. Very cool how they tease early on that KENTA might be in over his head trying to trade with Morishima before having him overcome that size difference through the power in his strikes and sheer determination. Sets up really well for his heavyweight reign. Also doesn't hurt that they spend the match mauling each other starting from the opening bell.

The build to Mayweather/Garcia is going to be fucking epic.

I usually get a few DVD's every month from Lynch. Mostly shows promoted by or featuring Kana because I'm a mark for her and they usually don't show up online.

I actually thought it was a pretty brilliantly laid out match and wrote an embarrassingly long review about it for Daniel's forum. But yeah, this place isn't the same without yes/no threads.