5 Best Wrestling Matches of 1997

3. Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Toshiaki Kawada - June 6, 1997

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQDamSWdagg

You can’t have a list of greatest matches without two of the greatest wrestlers of all time, Misawa and Kawada. These men were fierce rivals throughout the 1990s, and together have put on numerous critically-acclaimed matches.

In this classic, Misawa and Kawada hit each other with extremely stiff strikes from the opening bell, and then spend the following thirty minutes clobbering each other with various strikes and suplexes.

Kawada also showed some great psychology as well by targeting Misawa’s main elbowing arm, thus rendering Misawa’s signature elbows less effective. Because of that, the second half was less about Misawa hitting as many elbows as possible and more about absorbing an inhuman amount of punishment.

Misawa took powerbombs to the floor, terrifying Backdrop Drivers directly onto his head and neck, and several kicks to the face that should’ve broken his jaw. But Misawa would not give up, and after taking an incredible amount of punishment, demolished Kawada with some terrifying strikes and suplexes of his own.

By the end, both of them had dished out enough punishment to put an ordinary man in the hospital for life, as they both gave out and absorbed some of the most vicious offense ever seen, including a ton of moves targeting both the head and neck.

If you don’t care about storylines or theatrics and just want to see the wrestling equivalent of two bitter rivals wanting to more or less kill each other for a championship, this is the match for you.