“It was all going so well, and then he kicked my balls into my lungs.” Actually, that’s a better punchline than what I wrote in the comic. Pretend I wrote that instead.

I’m watching a lot of ’90s All Japan recently, as followers of the blog and my Twitter are likely aware, and I’ve reached the interesting post-NOAH split period. It’s a pretty big step down in match quality for a few years, with an aging and kind of boring at that point Keiji Mutoh taking over the company and carrying the Triple Crown. 2003 starts to pick up again, as Kawada recovers from injuries and gets the long run with the Triple Crown that was probably intended for him several years earlier. Kawada had a fantastic match with Shinjiro Otani to capture the belt, then a less fantastic but still pretty good bout with Tenryu. He also beat Mike Awesome in 3 minutes in the tournament semi-final prior to wrestling Otani, which was just pretty funny. I think he legitimately knocked Awesome out with a soccer kick to the head.

Next Week: Bust a gut.