| Simon Watches NOAH - 2000s | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Dec 24 2013, 02:30 PM (5,310 Views) | |
| Big Tuna | Aug 22 2014, 02:27 PM Post #61 |
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The Master and Ruler Of The World
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KENTA vs. Go Shiozaki, 6/3/2007 This is exactly the kind of match you would expect. The first half is a little bit slower, but then they escalate it well in the middle, and the finishing run is an awesome bombfest. Go isn't at his full powers yet, but he's doing enough now to almost hang with big names in these kinds of finishing runs. There's nothing groundbreaking yet or super dramatic, but KENTA gets the win with the Go to Sleep. **3/4 Naomichi Marufuji vs. Taiji Ishimori, 6/3/2007 This is also fun, but not quite great. Marufuji is pretty good as a meaner veteran abusing the new young flashy guy in shiny pants. They have a finishing run that wavers between awesome and horrible. Some of the ideas are awesome. They try and do fighting spirit no-sell spots without any real passion, so it just comes off as shitty no-selling. They do nearfalls, and Marufuji kind of downgrades his new big finish by needing the Pole Shift to beat Ishimori. **3/4 Akitoshi Saito vs. Go Shiozaki, 6/8/2007 This is great! Saito has his arm taped up and Go works it over. He really seems to relish it, probably finding it cathartic after Akiyama destroyed his arm in January. Go is not Akiyama though, and Saito comes back and gives his shit a real kicking, as he is prone to do. They then have a nice low-key kind of heavyweight slugfest for 15 minutes. It's not amazing, but it's a low key kind of great. Saito wins with the Steiner Screwdriver. *** |
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| Big Tuna | Aug 23 2014, 03:28 AM Post #62 |
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Nigel McGuinness vs. Kotaro Suzuki, 7/1/2007 Any previously unseen Prime Nigel is a gift, so this is fun to see. Nigel guides him through some matwork, and then Kotaro does a fancy dive. Nigel responds by doing lots of arm work. It's really painful looking stuff as usual and he changes it up some too by throwing headbutts to the shoulder. Kotaro decides he's not interested in selling even a little bit though, so this isn't quite great. Nigel does his thing and the Rebound Lariat gets him the win. **3/4 Takeshi Morishima/Mohammed Yone/Makoto Hashi vs. KENTA/Akitoshi Saito/Taiji Ishimori, 7/1/2007 This wasn't the greatest match, because it's a midcard random six man AND it's in Differ Ariake, but it's a low level great one. Some fun monster battle with Mori vs. Saito, and Morishima wins them all. KENTA vs. Morishima is fun again. Hashi is for once not the lowest guy in a match and Ishimori is beat up a lot. Yone is also in this match. They do a solid Ishimori run at the end, and because NOAH is weird, Yone beats him with the Muscle Buster. Because Yone must be kept strong. *** Bryan Danielson/Davey Richards vs. Rocky Romero/Atsushi Aoki, 7/1/2007 The inaugural NTV Junior Tag League is upon us. AND IT BRINGS MORE DANIELSON/AOKI. Also, a fucking WEEK after the Benoit incident, Davey Richards is showing up in a leather vest and doing a ton of Benoit offense. The fucking balls. And since this is 2007, Davey and Rocky show NO REMORSE. Young Davey is more willing to be led, so this is great. Danielson basically leads everyone, as 2007 is the time Danielson starts actually looking like maybe the best in the world. There's a few nice high impact things, but this is mostly based on the mat in the first half and all four are pretty good there. Aoki is again a great FIP. Romero is out of his element trying to be a hot tag so that's not great, but it settles back into cool spots. Romero makes Davey tap out to the Jujigatame in kind of an upset. *** The Briscoes vs. Naomichi Marufuji/Kota Ibushi, 7/1/2007 Also rules, because it's the Briscoes working only 15 or so. They do their great kind of constant action formula tag. Kota has become great now, both as a highspot dude and as an FIP, and he plays both roles here. Big ass finishing run where Kota gets to tease a lot of what's in the tank, and Marufuji rolls up Jay Briscoe for the win. *** KENTA/Taiji Ishimori vs. Naomichi Marufuji/Kota Ibushi, 7/15/2007 This isn't the finals, but the winner of this wins the tournament. KENTA and Marufuji, the greatest junior team of all time, have split and found new partners, each very similar to the other. KENTA has found a flippy dude in shiny pants and Marufuji has found a kicky guy with cool hair in biker trunks. They do good opening half stuff establishing these things and then go totally apeshit. Ishimori has some fun stuff and KENTA rules, but holy shit, this is Kota's match. Marufuji hangs back to really let him shine and Kota just goes NUTS. He has some of the coolest highspots in the world at any given time and reels most of them off in a row. Lots of cool exchanges with he and KENTA too, and KENTA eventually catches a spin kick and flips him up into the Go to Sleep for the win. **** Mitsuharu Misawa [c] vs. Akira Taue [GHC Heavyweight Championship], 7/15/2007 Most of the defenses from this reign are just lost to time because the internet collectively decided they weren't worth saving, but THIS was a blast. Taue puts one one of his final great appearances to get something awesome. TAUEPE SUICIDA MEANS THIS IS SERIOUS. They basically just do an awesome 15 minute old man bomb chucking contest, and it gradually gets bigger and bigger. It's so much better than it realistically has any right to be, and they have some cool counters. Taue survives the Emerald Frosion, so Misawa brings out a suplex lift Emerald Frosion to win. ***1/4 |
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| Big Tuna | Aug 23 2014, 03:05 PM Post #63 |
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KENTA vs. Atsushi Aoki, 8/10/2007 This is a fun enough 10-11 minutes, but the cool part is that they're in a ring set up outside in the middle of a big public area, so it's a unique crowd and environment. It's clearly a KENTA showcase because you showcase your stars at a thing like this, but Aoki holds his own. They do some cool stuff, and KENTA wins with a Tiger Suplex. **3/4 KENTA/Taiji Ishimori/Rocky Romero vs. Ricky Marvin/Kotaro Suzuki/Ippei Ota, 8/19/2007 Oh my god, this is awesome. Best junior six man in forever. The tag teams are great, Romero is fine, but surprisingly, Ota's thing is what makes this. KENTA treats him like a piece of shit in an early scramble, so Ota spends the rest of the match trying to get back at KENTA and getting more and more brutally taken down. Ota is an awesome dude in peril, and he provides a great emotional core to the crazy and fluid highspot stuff of the teams and Romero. Finishing run had a lot of nutty stuff and then ended perfectly. The Ota focus was fun, but he can't carry a finishing run, so they throw it into a killer KENTA/Marvin extended run, for I think the first time. Lots of awesome awesome counters, and KENTa pulls off the Go to Sleep for the win. **** Go Shiozaki vs. Takeshi Morishima, 8/19/2007 There's a round robin tournament around this time to determine Misawa's next victim, and it produces some fun singles matches like this. Morishima is fine enough here or whatever, but this is Go's breakout performance, in terms of actually looking like a future top guy. There's some great initial fast stuff, and then Go slows it down and actually controls. Morishima comes back and destroys him, so Go works the legs. He has some good stuff but then in the finishing run, he starts to break out these killer chops to the thighs. Morishima sort of no-sells it though, and makes a comeback in the very end. He hits a Lariat and then the Backdrop Suplex to win. *** |
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| Big Tuna | Aug 23 2014, 10:53 PM Post #64 |
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Yoshihiro Takayama/Takeshi Morishima/Mohammed Yone vs. Mitsuharu Misawa/Akira Taue/KENTA, 9/2/2007 This is JIP, but we still get 11 minutes. KENTA again tries to man up, but forgets that bullying rookies and juniors is not the same as slapping around Takayama and he gets beat up a ton for trying. Taue and Misawa are fun enough and contribute, but this is basically KENTA's match against Takayama and Morishima. Morishima has a cool block of a german Suplex as he just doesn't go over and falls down on KENTA's chest in a reverse Bonzai Drop. He manages to get Morishima up for the GTS, but Takayama saves. He hits the Everest German, and Morishima follows with the Backdrop Suplex. Nobody kicks out of that combo, and KENTA is beaten but looks really good now. *** KENTA/Taiji Ishimori vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru/Atsushi Aoki, 9/9/2007 This is also guided a lot by my dude Aoki, as he gets some awesome matwork in the first half instead of it just feeling like obvious filler before cool moves. AND THEN FUCK THAT, BECAUSE LIKE 3-4 MINUTES IN, KANEMARU JUST EXPLODES ON KENTA AND ALMOST WINS WITH THE BRAINBUSTER! WHOA! There's very much been a feeling, and I remember from when it was fall 2007, that KENTA and Ishimori were the new hot junior team despite not having the belts. So Kanemaru basically decides to throw a nuke at them, forever hating KENTA's life for ruining his promising career by usurping the junior Ace spot. Ishimori is controlled, AND KANEMARU GOES OUT AND DROPS MORE BOMBS ON KENTA ON THE FLOOR AS HE TRIES TO GET UP! This is unexpectedly a gem. KENTA eventually gets the hot tag and the place erupts as he kills Kanemaru in revenge. Aoki also gets some, but for once KENTA seems understanding that this is not Aoki's beef at all. Aoki and Ishimori then have a cool finishing run. KENTA lands a head kick on the boy, and Ishimori gets a Skayde Special like roll up series to win. ***1/2 Jun Akiyama vs. Takeshi Morishima, 9/9/2007 This is also awesome. The winner has to fight Marufuji right after this in the finals of the tournament, so they want it to be short. They achieve this by going crazy from the start. Morishima does some big stuff, but doesn't press the advantage and Akiyama takes control. Akiyama does awesome things. Morishma makes a comeback and there's an awesome finishing run. Morishima surprisingly pulls off the victory with the Backdrop Suplex. ***1/4 Takeshi Morishima vs. Naomichi Marufuji [#1 Contender's Match], 9/9/2007 Morishima is pretty tired. Marufuji also wrestled tonight, but it was against Akitoshi Saito and not a super hard win that he got with a cradle. They do stuff for nine minutes and it's sort of just a thing with a general theme of Morishima's tiredness, but only kind of? They were still even and not really like it should have been, I guess. Marufuji hits a Rolling Superkick and then the Pole Shift to win. **3/4 |
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| Big Tuna | Aug 24 2014, 03:12 AM Post #65 |
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Mitsuharu Misawa/Jun Akiyama/Yoshihiro Takayama vs. KENTA/Naomichi Marufuji/Go Shiozaki, 11/24/2007 OLD VS. NEW! GENERATION FIGHT! Go gets another big main event shot and looks like he belongs. KENTA tries to man up against Takayama and does alright. Marufuji gets beat up by everyone because after two years of upsets, everyone is basically sick of his shit. They never really reach more than a low level great deal because Differ Ariake is the worst crowd. Still, they come alive sort of for the finishing run when it seems like Go might actually pull it off. I loved the story here where the one time it seemed like the kids might get the win was when KENTA and Marufuji got over their rivalry to do double teams. Then they split back off into individual stuff, and got picked off. The old guys remained a more cohesive team and it cut off the offensive of Go. Takayama beat him with the Verest German. *** Go Shiozaki/Tamon Honda/Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Takashi Sugiura/Mohammed Yone/Akihiko Ito, 12/2/2007 Kenta Kobashi makes his return on this show, so the entire roster is super enthusiastic with all eyes on this one, and everyone tries super hard. Kobashi returning also means BURNING is back, so they assemble here to give it a go. Go does well as a leader, further establishing his rise up the card in 2007. Go and Sugi preview their awesome 09-11 rivalry. Ito is a young boy, but doesn't embarrass himself and mostly stays away until the end. Yone and Kikuchi bring enough here, and Honda shows up and rules again. Go pretty much destroys Ito at the end with the others keeping the other two out, and Go debuts the Go Flasher to win. *** Yoshinobu Kanemaru/Atsushi Aoki vs. Kotaro Suzuki/Ippei Ota, 12/2/2007 Aoki once again delivers, and Ota is also really fun again. The STERNNESS team again has a really fun offensive to start and take over, but in some level of continuity, they now target the weaker guy with it. Kotaro gets in for a killer run against Kanemaru. Even these dudes put in a ton of effort tonight. Aoki and Ota get the crazy finishing run and the nearfalls are super awesome. They get big ovations, some impressive counters and exchanges, and it ends at the high point. Aoki's attempts at arm work all year finally pay off when he makes Ota tap to the Jujigatame. ***1/4 Takeshi Morishima vs. Naomichi Marufuji, 12/2/2007 Morishima is back for revenge, and this is a de facto #1 Contender's Match. This entire match is Marufuji trying fancy and confusing stuff to outmaneuver Morishima or chop him down, and just DYING when Morishima refuses. Marufuji does crazy things to stay alive, including a Shiranui Kai off the ramp to the floor. It all fails. He tries a shitty no sell of the Backdrop Suplex, but Morishima closes the gap with a Lariat, and then hits another Backdrop Suplex to win. *** Mitsuharu Misawa/Jun Akiyama vs. Kenta Kobashi/Yoshihiro Takayama, 12/2/2007 This is the big emotional return from cancer. The story is all about Kobashi coming back and looking almost just as great as he was before, and they do that awesomely. Of course, we'll later find out that he can't work singles matches, therefore he cannot properly pass the torch like NOAH needs him to, so this return isn't the solution everyone thought it would be. But yeah, the match. It's an awesome 30 minute bomb throwing slugfest, and no two dudes do that better than Kobashi and Akiyama. Misawa and Takayama contribute a good amount and a great amount, but this is very much the show of the other two. Then as usual in Japan, the person making the comeback loses to show the journey in front of them. Akiyama and Misawa bring their old teamwork to this to isolate Kobashi for bombs at the end, and Misawa wins with an avalanche Emerald Frosion. ****1/4 |
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| Big Tuna | Sep 8 2014, 09:35 PM Post #66 |
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Takeshi Morishima/Mohammed Yone/Naomichi Marufuji vs. Mitsuharu Misawa/Go Shiozaki/Ippei Ota, 1/6/2008 Misawa/Morishima is on for March, so this is set up to build that. Ota is again just a fucking BLAST as a fired up young lion. Marufuji does stuff, and has new pants. Go vs. Morishima is a lot of fun and seems to get the most play. NOAH seems like it's setting that up as a big time match in the future, showing a lot of forethought that ultimately doesn't help at all. It's a little sad. Things happen and Yone beats Ota with a head kick. *** Kenta Kobashi/Go Shiozaki/Tamon Honda vs. Jun Akiyama/Yoshinobu Kanemaru/Kentaro Shiga, 1/13/2008 BURNING VS. SORT OF STERNNESS! YEAH! This goes too long at like 35ish minutes, but there's enough quality. It takes some time to get going, but the stuff with BURNING destroying Kanemaru is always fun. Go got isolated next which was fun. I'm a little over him being the low man on the totem pole though, especially when Honda is right there. Kobashi has a good hot tag and as usual in these, they build up a Kobashi/Akiyama pairing until the hot tag when it's delivered. That goes a solid 5 and RULES, but then they go to Honda vs. Shiga for the final run. NOAH is weird and broken. Honda wins with a Peterson Roll. *** Yoshihiro Takayama/Atsushi Aoki vs. KENTA/Akitoshi Saito, 1/20/2008 This is also kind of just there, but falls short of great just like the last match barely got there. It's only like 12-13, but Saito kinda dogs it and wastes a lot of time. But whenever KENTA is in, this rules. KENTA vs. Takayama is still just the fucking best, and KENTA/Aoki is becoming a reliable little pairing too. Neither gets nearly enough play. Good KENTA/Aoki run at the end and KENTA predictably wins with the Go to Sleep. **3/4 |
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| Big Tuna | Sep 10 2014, 12:29 AM Post #67 |
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Kensuke Sasaki/Genichiro Tenryu/Yoshihiro Takayama/Minoru Suzuki vs. Toshiaki Kawada/Shinjiro Ohtani/Akitoshi Saito/Yutaka Yoshie, 2/11/2008 I used to cover Kensuke Office stuff in Other Puro, but for the next few years, they're increasingly tied to NOAH with NOAH stuff continuing and spilling over into K.Office shows. So, fuck it. This is very much a special match fireworks show type deal, but it is just so so god damned fun. Everyone hits pretty hard, but again, Tenryu is still the best striker, even now in the twilight of his career. Aside from himself, Kensuke's team is a collection of GOAT surly assholes. Everyone shines here and even Saito brings it. This is like 30ish minutes of hellish exchanges and strikes and aggression for no real explained reason, and it all builds up. It's perfect for what this is and a near classic. Kawada tries, which means Kawada vs. Tenryu is the best slugfest in this match full of them. There's also several subplots. Kawada vs. Tenryu of course. Ohtani draws the ire of Takayama and MiSu, so Yoshie assists him when they target Ohtani's taped up arm in a crowd brawl. Takayama ends up beating Saito with the Everest German. ***3/4 Naomichi Marufuji/Takashi Sugiura/Go Shiozaki vs. Yoshihiro Takayama/Takuma Sano/Ippei Ota, 2/15/2008 More unexplained grudges from Takayama to all the young dudes. So they beat up Ota. Poor Ota. The hate starts as Sugiura jumps Takayama at the bell and they try to kill each other. Sugiura is a heavyweight now and wants to prove his manliness, but he's also probably annoyed that Takayama is teaming with other people besides him after Takayama was a mentor to him at points. While common theory is that Marufuji peaked in 2005-6, I think his 2008 merits discussion too. He's finally started hitting like a heavyweight here and 2008 is when he starts innovating a ton of super cool counters and moves before they go too far in 2009-10. Anyways, they control Ota and all three are just SO mean. Clearly reveling in not being the isolated young guys anymore. Sugiura tries to kill Ota a few times, as he's becoming Big Boss Sugi fast. Takayama has a KILLER hot tag against Sugi and Marufuji too. He busts Sugi's mouth open and the Takayama Knee Sequence is again one of the most nasty things ever. Sano vs. Sugi also rules and Go/Ota was shockingly good at the end. I figured it'd be super obvious, and it was, but I really got into Ota's nearfalls by the end. He had that rare Kikuchi-ish kind of underdog charisma where I know in my head that he won't ever beat these big names, but I just want him to so badly that I start buying into stuff like cradles and basic moves. Go eventually wins with the Go Flasher. This was a big surprise. **** Kenta Kobashi/Tamon Honda/Shuhei Taniguchi vs. Takeshi Morishima/Naomichi Marufuji/Takashi Sugiura, 2/21/2008 The young guns take aim at the Ace. AND SUGI GOES FOR 2 IN A WEEK WHEN HE JUMPS KOBASHI AT THE BELL! But Kobashi gets into a chop vs. forearm war with him. Sugi does SHOCKINGLY well and Kobashi has to break out a Half Nelson Suplex early to cut him off. NOAH is doing a really good slow build of Sugiura as a top level heavyweight. He's probably too small for it to work completely, but it's being built REALLY well. Also doesn't help that by the time he earns his spot on top, NOAH has lost their TV and thus their means of really building any sort of new star. But yeah, each guy on the New Gen team takes shots at Kobashi on the apron at points. Marufuji is the least manly, so he's the one who gets caught and beat up for a while. Kobashi clearly just LOVES finally getting to maul this cocky little prick after years of his boy KENTA protecting Marufuji from this ass beating. Taniguchi is isolated after that, and they all put a hurting on the kid. BUT BIG BOSS SUGI THROWS HIM IN THE CORNER AND DEMANDS KOBASHI. AND TANIGUCHI TRIES TO MAN UP AND REFUSES, SO SUGIURA CHEAP SHOTS KOBASHI AGAIN! KOBASHI GETS IN AND GETS A LONG RUN AGAINST MORISHIMA! IT'S AMAZING! The problem is raised that even when it's laid out so they look close to equal, Morishima just doesn't come off like a top star Ace figure so much as the monster an Ace slays. Still, great great run. Sugi and Marufuji fight Honda and Honda brings it again now that his boss is back. Taniguchi is stuck at the end for the obvious result, and while he's not Ota, he does alright. The body of this is better than the last one though, so this is better. Marufuji wins with the Pole Shift. ****1/4 |
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| Big Tuna | Sep 10 2014, 09:56 PM Post #68 |
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The Kings of Wrestling vs. Akira Taue/Junji Izumida, 3/2/2008 This is more comedy than a serious deal, but it's really good comedy. Izumida has a Samoan-level hard head and there's some awesome stooging where Hero keeps hurting his knee or elbow trying to hit him on the top of the head. Kings eventually do take over and do some cool control stuff. Things generally happen and Taue beats Claudio with the Dynamic Bomb. **3/4 Kenta Kobashi/KENTA/Tamon Honda vs. Yoshihiro Takayama/Takuma Sano/Atsushi Aoki, 3/2/2008 Sugiura has clearly brought Kobashi and Takayama together in a love of pre-bell assaults, as Takayama jumps Kobashi at the start. KENTA and Kobashi both have long standing grudges with Takayama. Honda is trying really hard again, and Aoki does great in the young boy role. Both taking a horrific ass kicking in the first half and then showing a lot of fire in the second. Aoki has been reared and brought up by two STERNNESS members in Akiyama and Kanemaru, so the first shot he gets, HE TAKES A CHEAP SHOT AT KOBASHI. AOKI, NO. So of course, he dies for a while. Takayama killed KENTA to let them isolate him. Still not sure why they insist on Honda not being the lowest ranked dude on that trio. Kobashi has an awesome hot tag and run against Takayama. Great KENTA/Aoki run at the end with some quality nearfalls. KENTA beats him again with the Go to Sleep. This suffered from being the first Burning tag to follow the February classic, but still, super great. ***1/2 Naomichi Marufuji/Takashi Sugiura [c] vs. The Briscoes [GHC Tag Team Championship], 3/2/2008 The finish here is pretty famous, but the match is only on youtube, if you're interested. This is both a flawed and wonderful match. It goes on too long and while the first half is full of good stuff, it's good stuff that is very clearly killing time for the first 5-10 of 30. They pick up the pace and eventually isolate Marufuji and run through a lot of their super super fun offense. They let go of that a little soon to do a lot of spots. This is much more of a junior heavyweight style tag, which is interesting, although maybe not good. This has peaks and valleys, but the peaks were really high, so I'm calling it great. The famous finish happens, which is where Marufuji catches a Doomsday Dive in mid-air and flips back with the Shiranui Kai for the win. It would be improved in about four weeks when Briscoes vs. AOTF ends with Jacobs doing the same and ALSO transitioning seamlessly into a front guillotine. *** Mitsuharu Misawa [c] vs. Takeshi Morishima [GHC Heavyweight Championship], 3/2/2008 FINALLY. JESUS CHRIST. In his last real shot at it, Misawa does the absolute best he can to establish Morishima as a huge deal. It doesn't work because Morishima is a real goofy looking fat guy with a hipster girl's haircut and bangs, but god damnit, Misawa tried. It's not his final great match, but I'm pretty sure this is Misawa's last classic singles match. Misawa hurls himself around desperately to try and stop the monster, but it just won't work. You can already see some of the problems in Morishima, as he's willing to lie around in an obvious resting lazy chinlock and throw shitty strikes half the time. Misawa responds to this repeatedly by popping him in the mouth with nasty elbows. The 50ish year old dude should NOT have to motivate the young gun like this. BUT THEN MORISHIMA DOES THE OWEN HART STYLE CROSSBODY SUICIDA AND I AM TORN. They keep the pace up REAL well after that. Misawa drops larger and larger bombs, but his age shows as he can't follow up quick enough. Misawa survives one Backdrop Suplex and he tries his big big match Misawa Comeback, but Morishima cuts off the out of nowhere Rolling Elbow with a Lariat. One more Backdrop Suplex, and he's the new champion. ***1/2 Kensuke Sasaki/Jun Akiyama vs. Yoshihiro Takayama/Minoru Suzuki, 3/28/2008 This one is from Kensuke Office again. This sort of stems from the February eight man where Kensuke and MiSu had some lingering problems after Kensuke's Triple Crown win over MiSu in the last summer. Really good Akiyama/MiSu matwork to start, and Akiyama again reminds people how good he is on the mat. Takayama and MiSu are both really big pieces of shit. Kensuke doesn't like that, but he's Kensuke so he won't really stoop to their level. Akiyama though...well, he will. And he does. But he gets trapped on the floor and they beat him up with a chair before isolating him. It's good stuff although probably too long and Kensuke gets the hot tag in his home company. Good finishing run to raise this up to a low level great one. Kensuke beats Takayama with the Northern Lights Bomb. *** |
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| Big Tuna | Sep 12 2014, 12:16 PM Post #69 |
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Kensuke Sasaki/Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Akira Taue/Go Shiozaki, 4/4/2008 NOAH's decided to run a tag league as one of the first signs of realizing business is falling and they need some hooks now. Kensuke and Nakajima are again a really good team. They have the big/little thing down while also both being strikers, which is interesting. Go's chop wars with Kensuke are really really awesome, and he works great with Nakajima too. Taue does Taue things, which is a fun change of pace from all the striking. Nakajima keeps Taue away at the end while they double up on Go. Go survives a Lariat, but he goes down to the Northern Lights Bomb. ***1/4 Jun Akiyama/Takeshi Rikio vs. Naomichi Marufuji/Takashi Sugiura, 4/12/2008 Akiyama has relatively long standing beef with both of the tag champs. Some good Akiyama/Marufuji hold trading stuff and then Sugi forced Rikio to do a battle of the bulls type deal early on. Akiyama has the area around his eyebrow taped up, so the champs try and work on that early on. This isn't great because they abandon that to just sort of do stuff for a long time. Rikio got the finishing run vs. Sugi and really dragged it down. Rikio wins with the Muso. **1/2 Kenta Kobashi/KENTA/Shuhei Taniguchi vs. Kensuke Sasaki/Katsuhiko Nakajima/Ryuji Yamaguchi, 4/13/2008 BURNING VS. KENSUKE OFFICE BEGINS! This could be the least of all the big tags in the feud because of the two young boys, but it's still great and the young boys do pretty well. There's a ton of ridiculously hard hitting between the big four and it's just so satisfying. This kind of wrestling really just ruins the rest of it. It's violent, it's hard hitting, and it tells a coherent story of prideful men and their proteges who inherit their mentors' hatreds. It's perfect. Taniguchi does an AMAZING KO sell after a face kick from Nakajima. He is a good FIP, and then Kobashi gets in. They actually change it up from the predictable by having Nakajima being the one isolated. And oh my god, KENTA clearly just HATES this guy he sees as a copycat and unloads some of his hardest kicks ever. The Taniguchi/Yamaguchi run near the end really holds this back from classic territory, unfortunately. Nakajima gets back in at the end to at least give a good finishing run before Nakajima wins with the Bridging German. ***1/2 Kenta Kobashi/KENTA/Tamon Honda vs. Yoshihiro Takyama/Go Shiozaki/Takuma Sano, 4/27/2008 Takayama now returns with Go replacing Aoki, and holy FUCK, GO VS. KOBASHI. Honda and KENTA jump Takayama and Sano at the start in a reversal of last time, leaving Go and Kobashi. They have a perfect chop war for their respective positions, and this entire match makes me sad that Kobashi never really got to put Go over. Takayama cuts it off with a cheap shot, AND GO GETS MAD ABOUT IT AND TAKAYAMA AND GO START FIGHTING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE RING. AND THEN BOTH TURN TO TAKE DOWN KOBASHI WHEN HE GETS UP! Takayama has a newfound respect for Go after this, which is just the best. At first, he picked him as a power move to fuck with Kobashi's head, but now he likes the kid for showing balls. Takayama basically lets Go take over the team and lead them to control segments, to which Go uses a ton of chops. Kobashi is pissed, and they isolate Go. Go learns a lesson about Takayama. Takayama is not a mentor. He's fine letting younger guys shine and take over, but he's not really going to bail you out and help you learn like a Kobashi or Akiyama might. Awesome Go/KENTA run near the end, and yeah. Honda/Sano was your finishing run and that was a step down from the rest of this. However, 90% of this was amazing enough that this is still classic level. Sano wins with the Northern Lights Bomb. **** Jun Akiyama/Takeshi Rikio vs. Kensuke Sasaki/Katsuhiko Nakajima, 4/27/2008 If Akiyama and Rikio win, they win the tournament. If they lose or draw, then Bison Smith and Akitoshi Saito do. The K-Office dudes are ABSOLUTELY the type to ruin the tournament for Akiyama and Rikio. 2008 is kind of a down year for Akiyama as NOAH shoves him to the side in meaningless tags for most of it, but you can't stop a GOAT from killing it when he gets 20 minutes on a big stage against two awesome heavy hitters. Even if Rikio is his partner. Good control on Nakajima and then Kensuke tried to drag Rikio to a good finishing run. He wins with the Northern Lights Bomb. ***1/2 Saito and Bison end up winning the league and then they win the Tag Titles from Maru and Sugi for some reason nobody understands. |
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| Big Tuna | Sep 14 2014, 11:48 PM Post #70 |
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Bryan Danielson vs. Atsushi Aoki, 5/15/2008 Aoki now comes out to a hard rock Japanese version of "Hotel California". This is a standard Danielson touring match against a young home promotion guy. You saw this a lot in 2008 and 2009, but it's such a fucking blast. He does like 5-10 minutes of matwork and Aoki can more than hold his own on the mat with AmDrag. Bryan then ups the pace and they have a really great finishing run of counters. Aoki survives the Cattle Mutilation and the initial Triangle Choke, but then Bryan gets him back in the Triangle Choke and knocks Aoki out with elbows to the top of the head to win. ***1/2 Kenta Kobashi/Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. KENTA/Naomichi Marufuji, 5/24/2008 This is a 20th anniversary match for Kobashi and Kikuchi, so there's a ceremony with gifts when they come out before the younger guys. And KENTA and Marufuji are absolutely out to spoil the party. This was really really fucking great. A lot of times the NOAH tags can get too lazy early on and the first third or half will just be back and forth, but here they did normal ass control segments back and forth, so it didn't just feel aimless. Eventually, KENTA and Marufuji isolated the weak link Kikuchi for a long period of time. They both get really mean and violent to the old underdog. Not quite Fuchi level mean spirited ness toward Kikuchi, but definitely in a taunting way. Kobashi gets the hot tag and it's fun, but this never really reaches a next level to become classic. Crowd kinda sucks, maybe that's it. Kikuchi tries his best, but yeah, it's 2008. KENTA beats him with the Go to Sleep.***1/4 |
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| Big Tuna | Sep 16 2014, 12:42 PM Post #71 |
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KENTA vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima, 6/13/2008 This is from Kensuke Office, and comes a day before they're supposed to meet in a big tag match. They throw a lot of kicks and hard strikes. This is basically the match you expect, for good and bad reasons. KENTA smacks the shit out of Nakajima and tries to keep it simple, but Nakajima yet again has no real grasp on what his opponent's strengths are, so he tries to work the knee. KENTA sells alright, but at a certain point like...dude. They managed to still have a great match because this was a struggle for control, so Nakajima was more peppering at the knee throughout than ever controlling for a while on it. This winds up going a little long when they'ren ot willing to go totally insane, both as the first match in a series and saving for the next night, so 27 minutes is excessive. Still, there's promise here. KENTA wins with the Go to Sleep. *** Kenta Kobashi/KENTA vs. Kensuke Sasaki/Katsuhiko Nakajima, 6/14/2008 Classic stuff. They do a thirty minute broadway and it is EXACTLY what you'd expect and want. Lots of hard hitting and general dislike. The main beef driving this is KENTA vs. Nakajima, and the mentors totally support this because neither Kobashi or Sasaki really likes the other. They do control segments on the juniors and both are pretty great. They mix up the pairings a lot, and both Kobashi/Sasaki and KENTA/Nakajima get big runs in the final ten minutes. They do a ton without really giving away too much, which is also really impressive. Time expires, obviously. **** Post-match, there's a huge pull apart involving all of Kensuke Office and Burning. Takeshi Morishima [c] vs. Takashi Sugiura [GHC Heavyweight Championship], 6/14/2008 This isn't on Ditch's site because REASONS, but it was fucking great. A little bit of a slow start, but it was very much a prototype for the Go/Sugi wars of 2009-10 that I loved. A bunch of huge spots all peppered in and escalating well with killer strikes thrown in. It's incredibly flawed and if done wrong, it can be SO bad. But they did it really really well, so it ruled. Morishima broke out the Crossbody Suicida for his big transition move, and Sugiura used A FUCKING GUTWRENCH SUPLEX OFF THE APRON for his. This went on a few minutes too long at the end and peaked with Morishima's Uranage off the top. Sugiura coming back was unnnecessary there, as Morishima wins anyways with the Backdrop Suplex. *** KENTA/Taiji Ishimori/Ricky Marvin/Kotaro Suzuki vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru/Davey Richards/Atsushi Aoki/Genba Hirayanagi [Best of Three Falls], 6/29/2008 This is pretty fun, but not great. A lot of low level stuff in the first fall that goes 15-20 and picks up near the end. That match alone would probably get **3/4 because nothing they do is amazing or stands out, but there were no real mistakes either. Ishimori gets the Superstar Elbow on young Aoki to go 1-0. The second fall picks up a lot and then Genba frames Marvin so it looks like he tripped Kotaro. Kotaro is distracted and fails to save when Kanemaru rolls up KENTA with the tights to go 1-1! Right before #3, GENBA PUNTS KENTA IN THE DICK! YEAH REAL HEELING! KENTA is isolated and then Kotaro gets in. Marvin and Kotaro again miscommunicate. There's so much less KENTA and Aoki than this match needs to be great though. Kotaro stops Genba from hitting Marvin with a chair, and then hits Marvin with the chair! Kanemaru hits the Touch Out to win. **3/4 Post-match, Kotaro leaves with Kanemaru. |
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| Big Tuna | Sep 16 2014, 11:54 PM Post #72 |
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Kenta Kobashi/Yoshihiro Takayama/Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Mitsuharu Misawa/Naomichi Marufuji/Takashi Sugiura, 7/18/2008 This seems like a crazy mix and match six man, but then Maru and Sugi are still together, so it's just fucking weird to have Kobashi and Nakajima on the same team. Kobashi and Takayama too, but they spend the entire match arguing and competing, which is absolutely the best. Everyone here hits super hard and has some level of beef with the other team. It's wonderful. Takayama vs. Sugiura is still a thing. Nakajima takes aim at Marufuji to show up KENTA. Kobashi still hates Marufuji. There's a killer Sugiura/Nakajima finishing run too with some incredible nearfalls and counters. Sugiura gets the Ankle Lock for the win. ***3/4 Kensuke Sasaki vs. KENTA, 7/18/2008 STRIKING. KENTA strikes and acts like he's not a junior and is on Kensuke's level, and Kensuke is FURIOUS. The vicious circle. Kensuke levels him time and time again with some horrific beatings. KENTA sells super well and then makes these fired up ultra energetic comebacks, and it's just the best. They build up KENTA finally knocking down Kensuke well so he gets a huge pop off of a clothesline when it finally happens, although it's like the 4th or 5th in a row. He does stuff, and then Kensuke predictably wins with the Northern Lights Bomb. ***1/4 Takeshi Morishima [c] vs. Takeshi Rikio [GHC Heavyweight Championship], 7/18/2008 Clubbering. This isn't amazing or anything, but Morishima drags Rikio to his best singles match in a long ass time. It's basically just like fifteen minutes of them running into each other really hard and smacking each other. Rikio brings actual effort with his strikes. Morishima does stuff and wins with the Backdrop Suplex. *** |
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| Big Tuna | Sep 17 2014, 09:01 PM Post #73 |
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Genba Hirayanagi vs. Taiji Ishimori, 8/1/2008 This is from the seemingly annual outdoor show. It's very house show-y, but it's a fun heel/face thing. Good cruiserweight type exchanges at the beginning with fast matwork and vaguely lucha type stuff. Ishimori has this beautiful and nasty release bridging German near the end, and then wins with the Superstar Elbow. **3/4 Kenta Kobashi/KENTA/Atsushi Aoki/Akihiko Ito vs. Kensuke Sasaki/Katsuhiko Nakajima/Takashi Okita/Kento Miyahara [ELIMINATION GAUNTLET MATCH], 8/17/2008 The format here is a series of tag matches, and whoever is pinned is eliminated and replaced, so it's always 2v2. It starts with Miyahara and Okita vs. KENTA and Aoki. Okita and Miyahara both have a lot of promise. Miyahara is more a traditional junior young boy, where as Okita is a lot like young Sugiura in his power and aggression. KENTA stays out of the way and lets the three younger guys shine, and it's great. Aoki and Miyahara have an awesome run at the end and Aoki does a nasty That Arm Submission style hold on Miyahara to eliminate him. AND KENSUKE IS IN NEXT! He keeps shitcanning Aoki out so he can fight Kensuke, and Aoki eventually makes an ill-advised zero fear run at Kensuke and dies. Kensuke wins with a nasty Boston Crab over Aoki, which is kind of shitty because it's a young boy finisher and Aoki is becoming an actual person in 2008. Ito is in next. Ito makes a run against Kensuke, but is flattened by a Lariat and also pinned. SO THE ONLY ONE LEFT IS KOBASHI! YEAH! He makes the shortest work yet of Okita AND FUCKING CHOKES HIM OUT WITH A SLEEPER TO GET RID OF HIM. NAKAJIMA IS IN LAST, AND WE GET THE REMATCH FROM JUNE! YEAH! This is the best stuff, yet again. KENTA and Nakajima have the real feud here, but neither Kobashi or Sasaki is cool with their protege NOT winning and even less cool with the other guy's protege trying to get the best of them. Because this is a K-OFFICE branded show (although it's technically billed as K-OFFICE vs. NOAH), Nakajima is the one isolated a lot and Kensuke is making the hot tag. It doesn't totally work for me, because I'm more on the side of Burning than the KO dudes, and especially not on Nakajima's side, because he comes off much meaner than KENTA in all their meetings. Finishing run is super super great. The entire match didn't need to be like an hour and the final tag didn't NEED to go 30-35, but it ended so so so strongly. I said in June that they held stuff back for a rematch, and this is that rematch where basically everything goes. Some really amazing nearfalls, and Nakajima brings out the Death Roll to beat KENTA and win. ****1/4 KENTA/Taiji Ishimori vs. Bryan Danielson/Davey Richards, 8/23/2008 The junior tag league is here! This could have been great, but it wasn't. Firstly, they weren't trying especially hard to do anything more than just having a match. Secondly, Davey was Daveying it up with some awful holds, including his WOAT Texas Cloverleaf that always just kills a match for me. Genba Hirayanagi randomly comes out again just to briefly fuck with KENTA and Ishimori. KENTA then also ignores knee work throughout and rolls up Davey out of the Shitty Cloverleaf to win. **1/4 Bryan Danielson/Davey Richards vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima/Kota Ibushi, 8/28/2008 This was a lot better. It's only like 12 minutes and they work a much simpler basic structure. Danielson and Davey are mean and beat up Kota so that Nakajima can get the big hot tag for the finishing run. Which is pretty awesome. Nakajima and Danielson provide a great preview of their ROH match in September. Kota gets in against Davey and that's also pretty awesome when they reign it in some. Nakajima beats Davey with the Death Roll. *** |
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| Big Tuna | Sep 20 2014, 12:02 PM Post #74 |
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The Briscoes vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima/Kota Ibushi, 9/6/2008 BRISCOES COMING OUT TO "GIMME BACK MY BULLETS". HNGH. This is the best Briscoes match in a long time, not counting brawls against AOTF, because bloody matches with Jimmy Jacobs in 2008 were a cheat code. They work a basic roughhouse heeling thing and it's great. Awesome control seg on Ibushi and Nakajima got in for a really awesome hot tag. Big nearfalls and it actually ends with no overkill, which is super rate for a late 2000s Briscoes normal match. They beat Ibushi with the Springboard Doomsday Device. ***1/2 KENTA/Taiji Ishimori vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru/Kotaro Suzuki [Possible Best of Three Falls Match], 9/6/2008 So basically, if KENTA/Taiji win, they become tied for points with Kotaro and Kanemaru. This will force a finals match immediately after, so they're not heavy favorites here. Genba comes out to distract KENTA and Taiji during the entrances, and the heels come from the crowd. Good stuff here. They try super hard and work to actually build a match up with a basic format. Genba sticks around to keep interfering. Kotaro and Kanemaru do basic heeling, but it's at least SOMETHING. And generally, you like KENTA enough to want to see him kick the shit out of them for it. Awesome finishing run, AND KENTA FINALLY SNAPS AND MURDERS GENBA ON THE FLOOR! The fact that they don't have a singles match for a while really blows. Really killer Taiji/Kotaro finishing run with great great nearfalls and Ishimori hits a Reverse Rana and then the Skayde Special pin for the win! YEAH! AND WE GO TO A SECOND MATCH AS A FINAL! This one isn't as good because they peaked with that final run and now they slow it back down. It's again fine enough, but they never really hit the same highs, despite another great finishing run. Some minor miscommunications too, but enough cool stuff to still be great overall. This would have worked better as one singular match, but it's nice to see NOAH actually try some new creative ideas. KENTA beats Kanemaru with the Go to Sleep, and KENTA and Ishimori win the tournament a second year running. *** Takeshi Morishima [c] vs. Kensuke Sasaki [GHC Heavyweight Championship], 9/6/2008 BIG MAN FIGHT CLUBBERING STRIKE BATTLE. This is really really great and Kensuke really tries super hard. He's had an awesome year and as a bigger name, he's a great big defense for Morishima. As much as I love Sugi and enjoyed the Rikio match, Morishima needs to go over someone else established for this to really work. This is a classic NOAH style deal. Lots of striking and slapping early on, a ramp bump, increasingly dangerous stuff, etc. Big ass finishing run, and Kensuke hits the Northern Lights Bomb to WIN THE TITLE?! WAT. LOLNOAH. Morishima's now in that Rikio camp of failed "next top guys", and Kensuke is seemingly going to be used as something of a reset button, I guess. Kensuke manages to belt whore his way into being the first guy at the time to hold NOAH, NJPW, and AJPW's top belts. He'll later be joined by Takayama. *** KENTA/Taiji Ishimori vs. Naomichi Marufuji/Ricky Marvin [Best of Three Falls], 9/27/2008 UNEXPLAINED THREE FALL MATCH! Super enjoyable match though. They start with two super cool KENTA/Maru and Ishi/Marvin exchanges. Maru and Marvin then really go nuts on KENTA to an unexpected extent, and Marufuji brings them up 1-0 when he skips all his other stuff and goes straight to the Pole Shift to beat KENTA. KENTA is hurt on the floor after that and they isolate Ishimori. They play a lot on Ishimori being a lot like a young Marufuji. This Marufuji in 2008-9 is a lot more willing to not come off as a babyface at all, as he's really calculating. He's not outright heelish, but there's a definite harshness to him that makes it really easy to get behind his opponents. Marufuji becoming this good in 2008 and then regressing when he comes back from injury in the second half of 2009 and eventually becoming HORRIBLE is so sad. Super good KENTA hot tag, and he surprisingly makes Marufuji tap to a nasty looking Octopus Stretch to go 1-1. Both have some from KENTA vs. Marufuji combos. Final fall is more of the same and then some cool exchanges at the end. KENTA/Marufuji and Ishimori/Marvin. Really good nearfalls with the lesser two and Ishimori does the Tornado Clutch/Skayde Special pin again to win! This was a ton of fun, but could have also been a ton more. *** Yoshinobu Kanemaru/Kotaro Suzuki [c] vs. Team No Limit [Tetsuya Naito/Yujiro] [NJPW] [GHC Junior Tag Team Championship], 9/27/2008 Team No Limit are young dudes from NJPW being brought over for experience. They have no real shot, but they do alright. You can already tell that Naito is the talented one of the two. Still, they're both kind of inexperienced and K/K need people to really bring something out of them because both are prone to laziness. Finishing run is good, but the previous 15 were sort of average. This probably should have only been 10-12 given the amount of actual good stuff they had in them. Naito has one of the best Babyface Flying Forearms of his generation. Kanemaru beats Naito with the Touch Out. **1/2 |
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| Big Tuna | Sep 22 2014, 01:10 AM Post #75 |
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Jun Akiyama/Takeshi Rikio/Akihiko Ito vs. Kensuke Sasaki/Katsuhiko Nakajima/Takashi Okita, 10/5/2008 FINALLY more Akiyama makes tape in 2008. He and Kensuke have more of that trademark NOAH totally unexplained hatred. The best part of NOAH grudges is that they force you to fill in the gaps yourself, so I assume Akiyama is furious that an outsider belt collector like Kensuke now has the GHC belt. The three younger guys all do really well for themselves too with stiff strike battles and a lot of energy. Takeshi Rikio was also in this match, but let's move on. Okita does especially awesome in strike wars with the other team and has a great finishing run against Ito. Ito wins with a Bridging Dragon Suplex. ***1/2 Bryan Danielson [c] vs. KENTA [GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship], 10/13/2008 If you recall, Danielson won the title on one of the ROH in Japan shows in September 2008. KENTA/Marufuji is booked for the end of October and that means this is a result that is never in doubt. Still though, it's KENTA/Bryan! This is their final singles match out of four. This isn't the least, which is their first NOAH match in 2006. It's not their best, which was the ROH match in September 2006. This is about even with the 2007 ROH match for being in the middle. They do a lot of big reversal based stuff and don't kill time on a lot of limbwork. There's a weird patch in the last third where Danielson briefly works the leg and KENTA briefly sells it, but it has no real purpose and goes nowhere, which is odd for AmDrag. As everyone knew would happen, KENTA pulls ahead with the Busaiku Knee and then the second GTS to win the title. ***1/2 Kensuke Sasaki/Katsuhiko Nakajima/Kota Ibushi vs. Mitsuharu Misawa/Ricky Marvin/Taiji Ishimori, 10/25/2008 A lot of fun. Kensuke and Misawa do a few things and they're alright in their roles as heavyweights occasionally getting in to throw their signature strikes, but they mostly stay away. This is a junior tag in disguise, and the four juniors totally kill it. This is 15 minutes of well laid out offensive attacks and counters, peaking at the right time and then immediately ending. Ishimori vs. Nakajima was particularly awesome, and Nakajima hit the Death Roll for the win. *** KENTA [c] vs. Naomichi Marufuji [c] [GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship vs. AJPW World Junior Heavyweight Championship], 10/25/2008 I've avoided watching this for close to six years. Because of the title/title thing, of course it's a broadway. A sixty minute one. It's totally unnecessary and they do one of the worst possible broadways by going all out and doing really dumb stuff. Marufuji starts working the leg like 10 minutes in, ignoring proper hour match rule of thirds type structure. Also, KENTA sucks at leg selling 9 times out of 10, so even doing it at all is real dumb. He does some stuff and after a few touches of the knee, KENTA blows it off to take over with hard hitting. I'm torn on this. On one hand, it was dumb to even do a little bit of it when it goes nowhere, but because they did so little, it's not THAT bad when KENTA blows it off and they move on. They trade control with stuff and pepper in big moves well. It's still VERY clearly them going to a time limit draw because they never do this shit, but it's better than I expected. Last third is super awesome and full of huge stuff. Marufuji hits the Asai Moonsault this time that he almost died on in 2006. While the middle 20 has a ton of filler, the final 20 sees them really go wild with a bunch of stuff they saved. This is both a crash course in how AND how not to do a broadway. It's really an interesting piece. In a great callback, KENTA uses the Octopus Stretch that he won a fall with a month ago. The final 10 minutes is a lot like their previous meetings where genius Marufuji is laying all these traps and KENTA just keeps walking into perfectly timed and set up bombs, but instead of countering or anything, he just fucking survives all of them and comes back, because KENTA is now at his peak as a badass tough dude. They go a little too far in kicking out of TWO GTSs and Pole Shifts, but this entire match is too far. Time expires. This is super flawed but also pretty entertaining and cool to watch. It's absolutely something they did just because they could, and it's history making as the first junior title match in Japan to go 60. It's not as bad as people have made it out to be in the six years since it happened and I never had anything really to fear. It's a token modern broadway as there's maybe 30-45 minutes of actual awesome stuff and then the rest is filler. Worth watching if you like these guys and have an hour to kill. *** |
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| Big Tuna | Sep 22 2014, 01:54 PM Post #76 |
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Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima, 12/7/2008 This is Misawa's final singles match in Budokan Hall. It's pretty fun in that sort of late period Misawa way where he's pissed off at anyone younger than him. Not great or anything, but ten minutes of Misawa grumpily chucking elbows and being annoyed at Nakajima getting in offense on him as Misawa's body is failing him. Misawa finally shuts him down and then immediately hits the Emerald Frosion to end it quick. **3/4 Jun Akiyama vs. Takeshi Morishima [#1 Contender's Match], 12/7/2008 Another sprint from them. AND IT RULES. MORISHIMA DOES A TOPE SUICIDA AFTER A MINUTE! BIG MOVES! Akiyama is the perfect guy to do this match because he's fast approaching his Tenryu phase as the one legend that can still go, and 50% of that is actually putting stuff together well. Morishima throws bombs, but Akiyama survives because he's been in bombfests with dudes who do a lot more than Lariats and Backdrop Suplexes. Like Misawa, he grows bored of a drawn out slugfest and just chokes Morishima out with the Front Neck Lock to win. *** Yoshinobu Kanemaru/Kotaro Suzuki [c] vs. KENTA/Taiji Ishimori [GHC Junior Tag Team Championship], 12/7/2008 This is JIP as KENTA is busted open. Can't find a complete version anywhere online either, but it's still 18 minutes. They beat up KENTA a lot. Kanemaru and Kotaro both mean well, but they are super average cookie cutter type heels. Genba is on the floor to add some actual flavor. Ishimori gets the tag and they move into crazy moves, so the cut deal ends up being meaningless. Some shitty no selling in the finishing run, but overall, pretty good. KENTA vs. Kotaro is pretty cool. Kotaro uses a new Rubik's Cube/Joker Driver type move to pin KENTA and retain. **3/4 |
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| Big Tuna | Sep 24 2014, 12:36 AM Post #77 |
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KENTA/Takashi Sugiura vs. Yoshihiro Takayama/Akira Taue, 1/11/2009 Only ten minutes, but a lot of fun. KENTA and Sugi both still really don't like Takayama, and Takayama enlists Taue to try and help. It's a nice small story that NOAH does well. Takayama's usual partner (since MiSu is getting busier with AJPW stuff around this time) is Takuma Sano, but Sugiura and KENTA are both in their peaks in 2009, so Takayama had to make a substitution. KENTA and Sugi swarm on Taue at the end and Sugiura gets a BIG win with the Olympic Slam on Taue. **1/2 The Kings of Wrestling vs. Takeshi Morishima/Makoto Hashi, 1/12/2009 The Kings now get to do serious stuff, and while this isn't great, it's another fun one. There's some comedy based on Hashi's comically hard skull, but the Kings mostly control Hashi with awesome strikes. Morishima does some things and then Hashi gets back in. It is no longer 2003-6 for Hashi, who really sucks and is slow and sloppy now. Shame. They beat him with the KRS-ONE. **1/2 Takeshi Morishima/Mohammed Yone vs. The Kings of Wrestling, 1/25/2009 Morishima now brings in his real partner, and it's really fun too. The Kings isolate Morishima and Yone both with a lot of cool strikes and shit. Morishima has a big run vs. Claudio too, which is pretty fun. Claudio was unable to get the Giant Swing on him two weeks prior, so now he softens him up first and does it. Nice minor storytelling. Of course, he's a foreigner so that won't work as well, and Morishima still wins with the Backdrop Suplex. **3/4 KENTA [c] vs. Kotaro Suzuki [GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship], 1/25/2009 This is a big one. Kotaro is still a generic heel, but this is laid out with a lot of great heel tricks. It's a weird thing to type those two sentences because great heel tricks usually indicate a good heel, but there's very much an acting nature to it. Still, faking low blows and the ultimate in trying to fake a chair shot and baiting the ref into a DQ is via A FUCKING BLOOD PACKET is so fantastic. That begs the question of why eh would do that as the challenger though, so it's actually REALLY dumb upon second look. Still, Kotaro's plan is great. We learned in December that he has KENTA totally scouted so he also keeps trying to bait KENTA with weapons to distract him. KENTA keeps not using them, but he finally tries to use one of the steel rods but it's all a ploy for Kotaro to get him distracted. Except that uh, now KENTA has Kotaro totally scouted too. So Kotaro is fucked when he realizes this. KENTA becomes really dangerous in 2009 because he finally adapts. People have countered the GTS and Busaiku Knee for years now, so KENTA starts countering the counters into Powerbombs and reversals and shit. Kotaro avoids a loss after GTS #1 by grabbing the ref's wrist before three to stop the count, but KENTA kicks him in the head a lot and hits it again to win. This is great through force of booking and KENTA being the best dude, but if Kotaro had like charisma or presence or was an above average wrestler, this could have been a classic like KENTA/SUWA. ***1/4 This match ended up being SUPER overrated at the time, but that's a common problem for puro and non-mainstream stuff in general. There's always going to be people discovering other stuff for the first time who are blown away by the stuff being done and some of the ideas who overrate it for that reason. Also along the way, people stopped getting into puro/indies by watching the pantheon of classics and jumped into modern style over substance type stuff. This is going to be the most elitist thing I've typed in a while, but this is why one should always take puro/indy ratings of people new to the scenes with a grain of salt. |
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| Big Tuna | Sep 24 2014, 01:38 PM Post #78 |
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The Master and Ruler Of The World
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Kensuke Sasaki/Kota Ibushi vs. Jun Akiyama/Taiji Ishimori, 2/11/2009 Kensuke/Akiyama is set for March 1st, so this is a big preview. Both juniors get beaten up by the bigger guys and have some super cool spotty exchanges in between all the slugging. Kota has a taped up shoulder, so YOU FUCKING BET AKIYAMA GOES AFTER IT. Akiyama is again a perfect heel when he gets the shot. There's a real casual nastiness to his attacks on the arm, like he's above this entire event, but NOAH made him do it because of the NOAH/K-Office partnership. He comes off like he's here just to make an example out of Ibushi, but he holds him in such little esteem that he does nothing beyond just basic stretches and nasty elbows to the shoulder until he's pushed by the kid. The juniors have a big run after the initial hot tag out. Kota forgets about his elbow, but they do enough crazy shit that it's not super noticeable. Akiyama vs. Kensuke then surprisingly gets the finishing run and Kensuke beats Akiyama with the Northern Lights Bomb! ***1/2 KENTA [c] vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima [GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship], 2/11/2009 This had all the potential, but it went like 39 minutes and just went way too god damned far. The match in June 2008 had the knee work flaw as a time killing measure, but they've both learned a lesson and totally ignored it at the same time. They learned seemingly that knee work is no way to kill time, but they didn't actually learn not to fill a match with meandering stuff. The first 15-20 minutes of this is all pretty average kicking and throwing each other into stuff. It's decent for that whole deal, but TOTALLY unnecessary. It picks up a bunch after they start doing actual stuff. They try SO HARD to make this a big epic match with a ton of strike exchanges and KENTA breaking out the Falcon Arrow off the apron and everything. They try, but this stumbled at the first 20 and never recovered. Just overlong fake epic kind of aimless bullshit that originally turned me off late 2000s/early 2010s puro to begin with. This crossed over to become actually bad, and it's KENTA's first bad match in a long long time. Nakajima's too, but he's a lesser talent, so it's not surprising. Nakajima wins the belt with the Death Roll. ** |
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| Big Tuna | Sep 25 2014, 02:30 PM Post #79 |
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The Master and Ruler Of The World
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Taiji Ishimori/Ippei Ota vs. Takashi Okita/Kento Miyahara, 3/1/2009 Ditch has dubbed the NOAH team Yellow Fever. I am on board. Ota was never as great as he was in 2007 as a one year fired up young lion and gets injured soon and retires, but he shows flashes of that here, as the KENTA-led juniors do not want to get shown up by the K-Office boys. This is like 8 minutes though and more solid than good or great, so this is YET ANOTHER weird ass Ditch choice. Ishimori beats Miyahara with a 450 Splash. **1/4 Takashi Sugiura/Go Shiozaki vs. Shinsuke Nakamura/Milano Collection AT, 3/1/2009 This is one of my favorite matches of the year. It's really straightforward interpromotional heat, but every single one of them brings it. Nakamura is kind of a dick and he hits really hard. Milano is absolutely a crafty little shit and they keep taking the strikers down on the mat to prove NJPW's typical technical dominance. They manage to get Go for a little while, BUT BIG BOSS SUGI FUCKING EXPLODES AND BRINGS THE FIRE. Every interpromotional feud has one or two guys who get absolutely made because of the fire it brings out. When WAR invaded NJPW, Hashimoto and Hase stepped up. When UWFi invaded NJPW, Yamazaki and Takayama became stars on the other side. When AJPW invaded NJPW, Nagata became a star, etc. Sugiura is stepping up huge against NJPW guys and this match is where he earns love for his insane energy and intensity and also comes out looking like the next top guy. Shiozaki rules it at the end with Milano too. Milano tries his fancy trickery again, but this time Go is leveling him with stuff and powering out. He hits the Go Flasher and could win, but as a show of NOAH's traditional power and striking dominance, he wipes out Milano with a Lariat to win. ****1/4 Katsuhiko Nakajima [c] vs. KENTA [GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship], 3/1/2009 This is one of my all time guilty pleasures. It gets a lot of stupid hate for the same reasons a lot of Cena matches do and that's perceived no selling that doesn't actually exist. Naka focuses a decent amount on the knee in the first half, but he doesn't continue it at all, so it's totally fine to fade it out after a while. KENTA sells here and there and peppers in some really nice minor sells. They do a ton of stuff but it all builds up and nothing seems like super obvious filler like 2/11. It's super mindless strikefest junior wrestling and you get a sense that this inspired so many bad matches in its style, but this is the perfect way to do this. KENTA continues to counter usual counters as he blocks the Rana out of a GTS try into a Liger Bomb. His knee fails him after he hurts it again on a first GTS, but he shakes it off and mans the fuck up. Nakajima does stuff to come back and he tries a second Death Roll, but KENTA is just waiting. He catches him in a super cool counter and throws him up to hit the GTS to regain the belt. **** Kensuke Sasaki [c] vs. Jun Akiyama [GHC Heavyweight Championship], 3/1/2009 This can't follow those matches. It just can't. They have a fun slug and bombfest, but the crowd is just fucking EXHAUSTED and a mere great match has to follow two classics. They throw elbows and chops and do big moves and it's super simple and fine enough. Akiyama wins the title a third time with the Sternness Dust Alpha. *** Jun Akiyama/KENTA vs. Go Shiozaki/Makoto Hashi, 3/15/2009 This is a one off spot show in shitty ass Differ Ariake, so it's not the best, but still, some cool stuff. Go Shiozaki is great vs. both of them, and despite his best days being behind him, I will never stop getting joy from Akiyama vs. Hashi. The goal of this is building Akiyama/Shiozaki for the tour in April, but I can't find that match anywhere. Differ Ariake crowd again reacts to absolutely nothing, so this is basically in a vacuum. Stuff happens, and KENTA beats Hashi with the Go to Sleep. **1/2 |
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| Big Tuna | Sep 25 2014, 03:32 PM Post #80 |
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The Master and Ruler Of The World
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KENTA vs. Genba Hirayanagi [No DQ], 4/19/2009 Disappointingly, this is only like 7 minutes. At the same time, it's also perfect for the feud they've been having. They aren't equals. KENTA has nothing to prove. Genba is an annoying little cocksucker of a young boy who buddied up to KENTA's enemies to try and get some more TV time and keeps interfering, so KENTA just mauls him and beats the shit out of him and shows the world how far above Genba he is. Genba needs a chair to stay alive, but never really comes close. KENTA knocks him out with the steel ringside box to win. ** Atsushi Aoki/Akihiko Ito vs. Kento Miyahara/Kaji Yamato, 4/24/2009 Aoki comes to K-Office again! He now has his hair dyed blond and is working more heelishly and aggressively, firmly entrenched in the Sugiura and Akiyama style camp in the division in NOAH. Yamato is pretty green and judging based on how little I've seen his name outside of KO shows, I assume he does nothing. Miyahara and Ito both have promise and Aoki does his best to guide this. It might be a little long at 15, but it's a solid young boys match. Aoki does arm stuff to Yamato and he has this beautifully painful looking Kimura transitioned into a Jujigatame for the win. **1/4 |
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KENTA beats him with the Go to Sleep.
6:53 PM Jul 10