Joe, Styles, and Daniels Thread the Needle at Unbreakable
Three-way matches are difficult. There’s a lot of general criticism for the genre at this point that you’ve probably heard. People don’t care for the “one on the floor, two in the ring” structures might be the most common thread there. For me personally, from a booking perspective, I find that adding more participants to a 1v1 setting often has a way of diffusing tension instead of increasing it. In unskilled hands and with bad booking, three-ways often feel like shortcuts. Compromises from the real meaty match up that people truly want to see.
It’s sort of astonishing that none of these issues really take away from this famous TNA bout. To be clear, there’s some truth to the idea that just a little gets lost from running a three-way instead of just a singles match. While it doesn’t tarnish this particular match much, one need only compare this to the Joe/Styles match from a few months after this to see what can be gained from focusing in on a single dynamic instead of adding every player into the mix. At the same time, the booking does play a little trick here as well, using the three-way stipulation to get the X Division Title from Daniels to AJ Styles without Samoa Joe eating a fall. Move the title, preserved the “undefeated” mystique for Joe, it’s simple stuff.
The match’s great achievement is taking all those compromises and tricks and makign the trade off feel so sweet with some of the finest action and construction ever set to a three-way match like this.
From a pure physicality standpoint, this is breathtaking. Samoa Joe and AJ Styles are smack dab in their creative and physical primes at this point. AJ’s an absolute freak of nature here, using his raw athletic ability to hit some truly dazzling high flying that manages to feel still feel (fittingly) impactful. Samoa Joe, meanwhile, is at his most forceful, combining his size with an explosive power that’s stunning to behold even almost two decades later. Christopher Daniels tends to get the short shrift in this particular combo, but he’s not that far off from these two in this match, focusing primarily on character work and structuring without ever sacrificing the crunchiness of the hard hits.
That’s one thing to note especially here. In between all the cleanly conceptualized and executed combos and high spots, there’s a farm’s worth of potatoes in this. Just thunderous kicks from Joe, AJ with some of his best elbow strikes, hell even Daniels throwing out these delightful short jabs throughout. All that sound and tangible contact adds so much depth to the moments in between the more stunning fireworks, and to a certain subset of fans (myself included), act as fireworks all on their own.
All that is clear to anyone who’s seen this enough times. Even if you somehow haven’t seen the match in ful but still find your way to something as niche as this newsletter, there’s really no escaping its grand reputation and the GIFs and clips that filter their way online with regularity. You’ve certainly at least heard of it, and that’s almost entirely due to how awe-inspiring it really is as this relentless churn of action that maintains an insane pace for twenty plus minutes.
This is no shallow spotfest though.
To this end, Christopher Daniels really deserves a lot of credit for what he brings from a character perspective. What could have easily been an all out athletic display, something that could have easily sated this crowd and still been remembered, gets tempered with some honest to god old school pro wrestling dynamics. Daniels comes into this bout as our cowardly heel, and that alone does so much to add texture to he proceedings. There’s the sheer joy of seeing Joe and AJ just take turns teeing off with those early punts and kicks, giving us some honest to God stooging in the midst of all of this. The fact that even in this three-way dynamic, they’re able to give us something of a babyface shine is a true accomplishment.
Daniels also commits to the bit for the most part. He spends most of the match basing and bumping for the babyfaces, often eating the worst of the offense. Where AJ eats a standard Joe face wash, it’s Daniels that absorbs a truly gross corner dropkick instead. Where AJ can stand and trade with Samoa Joe, Daniels drops dead for the big man’s striking. It’s good stuff, and Daniels keeps that mood with his offense as well. He’s out here throwing thumbs to the eye, bringing the belt into the ring, and mostly finds his openings through evasion and good timing. It’s really impressive how ill-feeling he’s able to make his offense feel.
And just look at that bald fucker when he loses the belt too. Hell yeah, perfect heel bullshit where it rocks to see him fail.
It’s down to all three though to basically accomplish everything without a hitch. Outside of a lengthy mid-STF chat between Daniels and Joe where Joe forgets what’s coming, every single idea gets executed without a hitch. It’s this magical feeling confluence of factors where the in-ring timing, conceptual creativity, and athletic ability create a truly special spectacle that’s endured for decades long after cheaper imitators of the style have tried to dilute its best qualities.
They just fucking nail it. And the sheer effort of it is breathtaking to behold when you watch the match. They walk the line between complexity and contrivance beautifully. No one ever feels out of place or rushing to get to their next spot, everything feels like the natural consequence of what comes before, and it’s that cohesion that separates this from a long line of lesser “spotfests.” It’s a wonder to see, can’t believe Colette disliked it once upon a time.
IS IT BETTER THAN 6/3/94? This one’s kind of tough, honestly. Unbreakable certainly feels so much more airtight, but the trade off there is being so relentless doesn’t allow much to breathe. Looking back on Unbreakable is like remembering this whirling rush of action, whereas key moments still stand out better with the King’s Road classic. While I often praise a more concise approach to 6/3/94’s lengthier epic, I think in this case it works in Misawa and Kawada’s favor as they’re able to bask in the occasion a little more with a much more focused and personal dynamic as well. King’s Road takes the win here.
Rating: ****1/2