Quote:
Originally Posted by AllBlackDan
Man I am so clueless with Japanese wrestling, Im thinking I better go back and watch some
Im a huge promo mark though so not being able understand the build up might annoy me and has been a factor in me not getting in to it sooner
Some context for that Misawa/Kawada I posted. Misawa's finisher was a Tiger Driver. In 1991 he accidentally dropped some guy on his neck like in the gif I posted and that version got to be known as "Tiger Driver 91".
Misawa and Kawada had faced off a few times in singles matches from 92-94 (when this Tiger Driver 91 happened) and dozens of times in tags/6mans. Kawada had never pinned Misawa. In this particular match Misawa just couldn't put Kawada away so he pulled out this move that he hadn't used in 3 years to beat him.
side note: imagine how buried everyone would think a Kawada is nowadays if he lost every match vs. his rival for 3 years and his first pin on him wasn't even in a singles match. It took Kawada 5 years to get his first pin on Misawa in a singles match and even then it wasn't "clean". It used to be better, even in Japan.