Puroresu Show Reviews

Richard Slinger & Masashi Aoyagi VS Haruka Eigen & Kishin Kawabata
- It’s always fun watching Eigen. Everyone else was OK. Aoyagi seems better here than when I saw him in FMW VS Atsushi Onita, and the time line of that match was 10-years before this! Rating: *

Mitsuo Momota, Tsuyoshi Kikuchi& Takeshi Rikioh VS Kotaro Suzuki, Takuna Sano & Tamon Honda
- This was OK. Honda’s hype seemed to have died down a bit even though he was currently one half of the tag champs. Several fun bits where they teased the Dead End on Momota. Suzuki was working inured but still worked most of the match for his team. Rikioh played the big thug that could only be halted be the equally sized Honda. I’m still waiting to see Kikuchi use his big head-butts. Momota himself showed he can still work despite his age. And Sano seemed to sit out most of the match. Rating: **

Mohammed Yone, Daisuke Ikeda & Akira Taue VS Masao Inoue, Yoshinari Ogawa & Mitsuharu Misawa
- This started out a bit slow. I did not enjoy seeing Ogawa pull a comedy spot out of Taue & Ikeda. The matched really picked up pace later on and everyone hit their spots. Yone is returning from injury, though now he really looks like a young Hiroshi Tanahashi (who was in the audience). Though one could argue this was one of Misawa’s ‘lazy’ matches. Ikeda even paid tribute to the late Kodo Fuyuki when he used a Screaming Lariat! Rating: **

Bison Smith, Donovan Morgan & Yoshihiro Takayama VS Jun Izumida, Akitoshi Saito & Jun Akiyama
- Now this was a fun match! On one team you have the top heel of NOAH, and on the other you have the then top heel and IWGP champion, and they both start the match against each other! Lots of stiff shots and big bumps in this one, and the spot of the night up to this point of the show in Bison’s Iron Claw Slam on Izumuda off the top rope!! Rating: ***

WLW World Title Match
Takeshi Morishima VS Ron Harris
- I still wonder why Harley Race would put his world title on a guy like Ron Harris, and he also probably wonders when any of his workers will take back the title for WLW. This match was under WLW rules (US rules) and wasn’t really that big of a train-wreck like I’ve read about all over the internet. You could probably sum this up as a standard big man match, American style. The problem here was that they let Harris carry the match, and as big and strong as both men were, they had problems pulling out the power moves on each other. Harris’ timing was a bit off at the beginning, but made up for it later when he powerbombed Morishima on the entrance ramp! He even managed to get Morishima up for a sweet chokeslam. Morishima’s backdrops were less impressive though. Rating: **1/4

GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Title Match
Makoto Hashi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru VS KENTA & Naomichi Marufuji
-Another AWESOME Junior tag bout! This was just off the charts as everyone gave it there all to the point of physical exhaustion! Some incredible spots include Marufuji & Kanemaru’s always incredible move exchange, Marufuji’s Shiranui on the floor, Marufuji & KENTA’s double team Doomsday Busaikyo Knee and Kanemaru & Hashi’s killer double-team moves. Definitely a MUST SEE match! Rating: ****1/4

GHC Junior Heavyweight Title Match
Takashi Sugiura VS Michael Modest
- This match slowed things down a bit from the previous bout, but was a good way to rest up the crowd for the upcoming main event. Sugiura was all business and Modest looked like underestimated his opponent during the opening minutes. A lot more mat work in this one, but the closing saw a few INSANE bumps, including Modest giving Sugiura a Reality Check off the apron to the floor! Rating: ***

GHC World Heavyweight Title Match
Yuji Nagata VS Kenta Kobashi
- I had high expectations for this one. Unfortunately, they may have been a bit too high. Most of the match consisted of the two aces stiffing the hell out of each other with kicks and chops, and Nagata keeping Kobashi grounded. At one point Nagata even hit SIX consecutive jumping head kicks! Kobashi used the standard fare of half-nelson suplexes and a sleeper suplex. Great match overall and you could just tell Nagata loves playing the heel in NOAH. Rating: ****

Overall: This is a great show. The awesome Junior tag title bout alone makes this show worth getting as it was literally the show stealer. Though I can honestly say I was expecting more out of the main event, I still highly recommend getting this show.

Labels: NOAH