Ranking Who Was Really The Man In Wrestling Every Year 1990-2020
27. 1994 - Mitsuharu Misawa
Toshiaki Kawada's 1994 is more revered for its in-ring than Misawa's, but 1994 was the year in which the Ace truly earned a lofty designation.
His performance against Kawada, on June 3, distilled it: he, in the match as with reality, was the indomitable threat, even in the fight of Kawada's life. He found levels upon levels of expertise, brutality and, by the finish, grotesque cruelty to repel Kawada's raging fire. One of the most intricate pro wrestling matches ever, in terms of its grand narrative heft, and it was worked at a level of craft the industry had never seen. It remained, by hardcore tape-trader consensus, the greatest ever until this current generation exploded.
1994 was also the year Misawa solidified the greatest tag team ever, alongside Kenta Kobashi, insofar as combined drawing power and exceptional match quality, and strengthened his trend of near-constant Budokan sellouts.