Puroresu Show Reviews

The show starts off with the ~let me talk~ talk show in the ring featuring Makoto Hashi, Kotaro Suzuki and I think one of the rookies. I skipped this whole thing since I had no idea what they were talking about, and the segment went 30-minutes!

Tamon Honda & Masao Inoue VS Akitoshi Kawabata & Kishin Saito
In case you didn’t get it, Saito and Kawabata swapped gimmicks and first names for this one! Kishin added some fakes tattoos, whereas Akitoshi had fake thick eyebrows on! They even stole each other’s mannerisms and a few moves! Needless to say, this was one big comedy match, mostly due to Kawabata & Saito’s antic. There was one fun spot where they did stereo delayed vertical suplexes on their opponents, all the more impressive when it was Kishin who muscled up big Honda and held him up there! More fun ensued when the referee got bumped and Satoru Asako, who was at ringside in referee gear took over the match, which lead to Asako hitting Kishin with a Stone Cold Stunner when Kishin tried to rough him up a bit! From there Asako constantly fast counted Kishin whenever Inoue tried to pin him, but gave Kishin a slow count when he had a pinfall! This went back and forth several times till the 15-minute time limit expired and the match ended in a draw.
Definitely something different from what we usually see out of Saito and the Dark Agents, but Saito has been known to ham it up for shows like this, as well as the annual NOAH Christmas shows. Not a great match by any means and probably won’t be as funny the second time around, but it was different and entertaining.
Match Rating: *1/2

Sarubin Kikin & Ricky Marvin VS Takuma Sano & Akihiko Ito
Kikin is actually Tsuyoshi Kikuchi mimicking Ricky Marvin, and he’s even wearing matching red tights with black kick pads! It was rather funny seeing Kikuchi try to match kicks with Sano, even though he’s pretty lousy at them. Kikuchi even pulled off a pretty good 619! Sano is so not into the comedy stuff, but you could see he was actually holding back from laughing out at one of the spots they did where he had Marvin in a leg lock, and Kikuchi tried to help, but only ended up hurting Marvin even more!
Ito had a strong showing in this one too, as he got to show some new moves in his arsenal, including dropping Marvin with a Vertebreaker! Good to see the kid finally try to stand out from the pack. Marvin was his usual fun to watch self, and he pulled out a rather interesting variation of the Crippler Crossface where he actually sat on Ito’s arm while scissoring it, locking it in place so he couldn’t move, and Marvin scored the pin with a cool modified brainbuster, which almost looked like a gordbuster version of it.
Entertaining match overall.
Match Rating: *1/2

Jun Akiyama, SUWA & Atsushi Aoki VS Junji Izumuda, Kentaro Shiga & Ippei Ota
Another match that had comical spots due to the theme of the night. Izumuda, Shiga & Ota probably stole the show coming out as the “Punch Gundan”, which is a yakuza type gimmick! All 3 of them came out sporting black suits, shades, fake tattoos, and iron perms! They even did a special “Punch Gundan” pose, all which actually cracked up Akiyama and even SUWA couldn’t help but smile at them! Akiyama wasn’t laughing a while later though, when they managed to trap him in their corner and with the help of Makoto Hashi in their corner, who was also in Gundan gear, was able to put an iron perm wig on his head! It probably should also be pointed out that Akiyama had a flowery design on his signature white trunks tonight too.
It wasn’t all fun and games though, as we still had SUWA to stiff things up as well as a strong showing by both rookies. Ota managed to muscle up Akiyama into his airplane spin, and almost scored the win with his swinging DDT on Aoki. But Aoki managed to pull out the win against the Yakuza team pinning Ota with an impressive double rolling northern lights suplex-hold! Something I’ve never seen before! These kids are going to be great once they develop in a year or two.
Match Rating: **

Captain’s Fall Elimination Match:
Takeshi Rikioh [C], Takeshi Morishima, Mohammed Yone & Go Shiozaki VS Yoshinobu Kanemaru [C], Takashi Sugiura, Naomichi Marufuji & KENTA
The over the top rope elimination rule is in effect, in addition to the standard pinfalls and submissions. It would be a bigger uphill battle against the junior heavyweight team without that stipulation. I also wonder how KENTA feels teaming with Sugiura just days after losing the junior title to him?
Shiozaki & KENTA kicks things off, and Shiozaki takes it straight to the former junior champion. They exchange elbow strikes and KENTA resorts to kicks when he can’t down Shiozaki, but ends up running into a big dropkick. Yone tags in and slams KENTA hard before landing a big legdrop off the ropes and taunting the junior team. Rikioh tags in, and KENTA takes the opportunity to tag out to Marufuji.
Marufuji uses his agility to roll, flip and reverse an arm-wringer on Rikioh, and rolls with Rikioh when the big man attempts to roll out of the move to make sure he doesn’t escape it! Rikioh resorts to raw power to escape the move and drops Marufuji with a back elbow off the ropes. Morishima tags in and uses his girth to stand right on top of Marufuji in the corner! And while Yone distracts the referee, Rikioh & Shiozaki pile on top of Morishima to add more weight! After the referee breaks up the pile up, Morishima tosses Marufuji to his corner and team captain Kanemaru tags in.
Morishima might have the size advantage, but Kanemaru was still able to take him down with a dropkick and a Japanese armdrag! Morishima backs Kanemaru into his corner and Shiozaki tags in and the two lay chops into Kanemaru’s chest in the corner. Shiozaki catches Kanemaru with a dropkick and gets a 1 count. Sugiura tags in and he holds Shiozaki open for the other three to chop his stomach?!? KENTA tags in and lays the kicks into Shiozaki, but the youngster battles back and knocks KENTA’s partners off the apron before giving KENTA a big dropkick. KENTA rolls to the outside, but that’s a big mistake as all Hell breaks loose and a big brawl between both teams erupts. Yone gets a big running start from the entrance way and hits a big jumping knee on KENTA, followed by Morishima getting the same momentum to hit a big hip attack while the rest of the juniors are getting tossed into the barricades left and right! Back in the ring, and Shiozaki hits a short knee drop for a 2 count. Rikioh tags in and flattens KENTA in the corner with a lariat before hitting a big drop kick that sends KENTA all the way to the other side! Shades of SUWA’s John Woo! He goes for the cover, but KENTA’s team mates make the save. Morishima tags in and himself hits a big dropkick, which leads to the juniors again making the save when he tries to cover him! Shiozaki tags in and hits a dropkick of his own for a 2 count. Shiozaki stares at the junior team wondering why they didn’t break up his pin like the other two. Big mistake as it gives KENTA time to recover and land several big kicks. Go rolls out of the ring in enemy territory and instantly gets pounced on by KENTA’s team mates who whip him into the guard rail and Sugiura drags him all the way up the stands into the cheap seats! Sugiura suplexes Shiozaki out on the concrete and grabs a quick drink from a fan before dragging Go back to the ring.
All 4 men whip him into the ropes and attempt a quadruple dropkick, but Sugiura fakes it while the other 3 connect! KENTA & Marufuji argue with Sugiura for a bit while Kanemaru continues the attack. Shiozaki takes a beating for a bit, including a comedic moment where Sugiura & KENTA argue over who gets to give him middle kicks! Sugiura hits a big backdrop for a near fall. Shiozaki tries to fight back against all 4 opponents, but is out-numbered of course. Shiozaki flips out of a backdrop from Marufuji, but gets caught by a drop toe-hold. Shiozaki is able to dodge a sliding dropkick and hits an enzuguiri, before tagging out to Rikioh!
Rikioh goes right to work taking down Marufuji and dropping all 3 of his partners off the apron with a big double lariat! Rikioh fight to suplex Marufuji, and Marufuji tries to get the big man up himself. Rikioh finally manages to suplex Marufuji over the top rope, but he lands on the apron. Marufuji tries a big springboard sunset flip, but Rikioh picks him up by the neck into a bear hug! Marufuji quickly escapes and hits a pair of lariats but can’t budge the former GHC champion. He hits a quick dropkick to the knee followed by a cool sliding lariat to finally take down the big man. Sugiura tags in and quickly hits a big spear followed by another one in the corner, and picking up and flipping over big Rikioh, almost dropping him on his head! In show of raw strength, Sugiura is able to dead lift Rikioh off the mat for a Greco-Roman slam! Rikioh is able to knock down Sugiura long enough with a big shoulder block to tag in Yone.
Yone hits two big jumping knee attacks in the corner for a 2 count followed by a big running face kick for another 2 count. Sugiura flips out of a backdrop and slams Yone with a big release German suplex before tagging in Kanemaru, who quickly hits a big dropkick in the corner on Yone followed by a split-legged moonsault for a near fall. Yone comes back with a Rolling Thunder (spinning heel kick) before tagging in Morishima, who enters hitting a big Scud Missile Dropkick off the top rope! Morishima goes after Kanemaru’s partners, but that was a big mistake as his momentum almost sends him over the top rope! His partners are barely able to save him from being pulled out of the ring. The heavies hit a barrage of corner attacks on Kanemaru, ending with Morishima hitting his cartwheel corner splash and an Amazing Impact reverse chokeslam for a near fall. Morishima hits a big lariat for another near fall and tries for a backdrop, but Sugiura makes the save. Rikioh takes out Sugiura and WILD II try to double team Kanemaru. Morishima holds up Kanemaru and Rikioh charges in with a lariat, but Kanemaru ducks it and Rikioh clotheslines Morishima over the top rope to eliminate him!
Takeshi Morishima is eliminated!
Marufuji & Shiozaki tag in, and Marufuji downs Shiozaki quickly and rakes away at his eyes with his boots. Marufuji almost puts Shiozaki to sleep with a variation of Misawa’s facelock. Sugiura tags in and clamps on a camel clutch and KENTA gets in a few kicks on Go’s exposed chest. Rikioh breaks the hold, and KENTA tags in and drops Go with a back elbow off the ropes. Shiozaki flips out of a suplex, and catches KENTA off the ropes and hits him with a swinging scrapbuster. Rikioh & Yone rush in to knock KENTA’s partners off the apron. The pound KENTA in the corner and whip him into a superkick from Go, who follows it with a Kobashi Orange Crush for a near fall! KENTA connects with a sobat kick, but Shiozaki ducks a big head kick and hits a German suplex-hold for a near fall! Go slams KENTA and goes up for the moonsault, but KENTA rolls out of the way as Go crashes to the mat! KENTA hits a kick to the head and goes for the cover, but Yone & Rikioh break the pin. KENTA hits the strike combo and tries for the Busaikuu Knee, but Go catches him with a hurricanrana-pin and gets a really close 2.9! It looked a lot more like a phantom 3, but before Go could react, KENTA is quickly back on his feet and hits a big discus lariat followed by the Go 2 Sleep to eliminate Shiozaki from the match!
Go Shiozaki is eliminated!
2 against 4, and Kanemaru tags in but is met by a barrage of kicks from Yone. Kanemaru catches one of Yone’s kicks and spins him around with a dragon screw. Sugiura tags in and they trade elbow strikes, which leads to them trading face kicks, and Sugiura wins the confrontation with a spear attack. Yone fights off a German suplex attempt and drops Sugiura with a lariat, followed by a legdrop off the second rope for a near fall. Rikioh brawls on the outside while Yone sets up Sugiura for the Muscle Buster, but Yone clamps his legs around Yone’s head and tries to pull him over the top rope. Yone fights it, but KENTA comes out from behind and shoves Yone over the top to the floor to eliminate him!
Mohammed Yone is eliminated!
KENTA than does the unthinkable as he kicks Sugiura off the apron and Sugiura is eliminated! Looks like KENTA does have some bad blood with losing his belt to Sugiura a few days back!
Takashi Sugiura is eliminated!
Rikioh is triple-teamed, but is able to come back taking down KENTA with a lariat and launching himself at Marufuji & Kanemaru with a cross body block! He slams Marufuji with a chokeslam, and tries to powerbomb Kanemaru, but KENTA makes the save with a springboard dropkick. KENTA hits a big kick in the corner and tries for a tornado DDT, but Rikioh uses the momentum to launch KENTA over the top rope out to the floor to eliminate him!
KENTA is eliminated!
KENTA is in shock as Kanemaru & Marufuji double team Rikioh by crotching him in the corner and hitting a big double baseball slide. Marufuji hits a superkick followed by a Shiranui, and Kanemaru actually muscles up Rikioh for a brainbuster! But he only gets a near fall! Rikioh hits a lariat on Marufuji, and Kanemaru school-boys him for a near fall!
Suddenly, the show RUNS OUT OF TIME and they cut to Rikioh pinning Kanemaru, skipping Marufuji’s elimination! WTF?!?
Match Rating: ***

Overall: OK, I was as surprised as everyone else that the show ended the way it did. I’m not sure if it aired like that since there was a disclaimer during the closing seconds of the main event to catch the match on NOAH’s Di Colosseo show, or maybe it was just the source I got it from? Either way, the show was a lot of fun due to the light hearted comedy throughout the show. I recommend getting this show if you can find one that has the main event in full.

Labels: NOAH

SUWA & Akihito Ito VS Mitsuo Momota & Atsushi Aoki
I would have preferred seeing more of Momota VS SUWA in this one, as they’ve been developing quite a mini feud between the two and their exchanges were pretty heated with the crowd behind Momota. Aoki came off looking a lot better between the two rookies in this one, as Ito didn’t show anything unlike Aoki, who did a nice northern-lights suplex and an armbar on SUWA. It all came down to SUWA more or less intentionally avoiding contact with Momota, hitting the John Woo and the FFF on Aoki before pining him for the win, and than taunting Momota, leading to a brawl between the two all the way back up the ramp to the locker room.
Match Rating: 1/2*

Masao Inoue, Kishin Kawabata & Ippei Ota VS Junji Izumuda, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Low Ki
Somebody needs to tell Ota not to hold back on his strikes too much, as they looked really weak with zero visual impact. He did do a fun multi-rotation airplane spin to Kanemaru though. I thought Low Ki and Kawabata had some fun exchanges, and could make for an interesting mini-feud, or at least a singles match. Izumuda delivered one NASTY sounding headbutt to Ota, and that was about it save for a few Mongolian Chops. Nothing much from Inoue either, and despite looking like the weak link of the team, Kanemaru bounced back rather nicely with his trademark moonsault as well as a brainbuster on Ota to score the win.
Match Rating: 1/2*

Akitoshi Saito VS Jason Bates
This was really bad, and the crowd couldn’t care less either. It really would have helped “Street Fighter” Jason Bates if he at least tried to heel up the crowd a bit or the atmosphere of the match wouldn’t have been so boring. There was zero reaction for his Jaywalk finisher since the crowd probably also isn’t as familiar with him as he thinks. Saito wasn’t any better, and I didn’t get why Bates had to control most of the match considering Saito’s tendency to no-sell and be the tough guy. This was probably the first toilet break match of the night before the intermission.
Match Rating: DUD

Akira Taue, Takuma Sano & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi VS Scorpio, Bison Smith & Bobby Fish
This was some what fun as they added a bit of comedy to the action, like the bit where Sano has Scorpio in a surfboard stretch, and Fish tries to help, but ends up slamming Scorpio on his face! Than, Sano has Fish in a cross-leglock, and Scorpio and Bison try to help but end up hurting Fish more! I think Taue could break the Masterlock also, since he was able to outsmart Bison and break his full-nelson here. Scopio scored the win with his 450’ splash on Kikuchi after an iron-claw-bomb by Bison, but I would have preferred if the gaijin team lost since Fish sucks and probably won’t be back any time soon for future tours.
Match Rating: *

Jun Akiyama VS Shuhei Taniguchi
Taniguchi had a really good match with Rikioh at a SEM show, and he had another fun one here against the GHC heavyweight champion Akiyama.
Starts off with Akiyama wearing down Taniguchi with several submission holds, including a really pinfall looking overhead armbreaker, but Taniguchi manages to rebound and counter a suplex attempt into an Exploder! He than gives Akiyama a double-underhook suplex into a cross-armbreaker! Akiyama struggles to get to the ropes to break the hold. Taniguchi than tosses around Akiyama with several Greco-Roman throws, and gets a near fall with a beautiful German suplex-hold! They trade strikes, and Akiyama takes off Taniguchi’s head with a stiff lariat followed by a running knee strike for a near fall. Akiyama clamps on a Boston-crab, and Taniguchi just barely makes it to the ropes to break the hold. The crowd is really into it as they exchange strikes, but Akiyama ends it dropping Taniguchi on his head with a big time Exploder to pick up the win!
Solid effort by Taniguchi, and I really can’t wait to see him lock it up with Go Shiozaki.
Match Rating: **

Takeshi Rikioh, Naomichi Marufuji & Kentaro Shiga VS Mitsuharu Misawa, Yoshinari Ogawa & Ricky Marvin
WHY would the referee actually overlook the brass knucks Shiga was wearing on his hand when checking the wrestlers for weapons? The guy didn’t notice until Shiga himself and his team mates pointed it out! Shiga is definitely the best “re-created” wrestler in NOAH today, thanks to his “aniki” gimmick and iron-perm. He works the comedy with his technical style really well, and I enjoyed seeing him actually out-wrestle Ogawa and counter everything into various submission or pinning combinations. Hopefully Shiga will quickly catch up to the form he was on before he was sidelined with injuries several years back.
Misawa sat out most of the match, which might not actually have been a bad thing as we got to see Marvin carry the load for his team, and Ogawa had to work some too despite still being an annoying rat that was hard to catch. Rikioh showed some mobility for his size, actually hitting a cross-body block on Misawa at one point, but was still continually foiled by Ogawa. Marufuji scored the win for his team hitting the Shiranui on Marvin for the pin. Enjoyable match overall, nothing too fancy, but gets the job done.
Match Rating: **

Before the next match, we get a quick clip of Takashi Sugiura winning the junior battle royal the previous day to earn his title shot against KENTAt. The crowd seemed pretty dead for his win, probably cause it was rather predictable since KENTA did nominate him as his next challenger before the whole battle royal scenario came into play.

GHC Jr. Heavyweight Title: KENTA VS Takashi Sugiura
Sugiura has all the Dark Agents and SUWA in his corner, KENTA’s got NOBODY!
You can always count on these two to bring it when in big match mode. The match started off with the usual ground work, but then they took it up a notch and laid it into each other with some really stiff kicking. That’s right, Sugiura pulled out low and middle kicks! He even hit KENTA with his own Busaikyu Knee Kick! I really liked that they kept the out of ring brawling to a minimum, and they even teased a rather dangerous spot where Sugiura tried to Olympic Slam KENTA off the apron to the floor, but at the last second, KENTA flipped over and DDT’d Sugiura on the apron!
They took it another level once they were back in the ring as started with the big throws and heavy slams. They then pulled off one of the best sequences I’ve seen all year when they started giving each other face kicks, which lead to KENTA giving Sugiura a fisherman’s suplex, Sugiura giving KENTA a side backdrop suplex, KENTA giving Sugiura a release German suplex, Sugiura flipping KENTA onto his face with a big release German suplex, and finished with both men colliding in mid-air attempting jumping face kicks!
Sugiura was than able to catch KENTA in mid air out of the Busaikyu Knee and counter it into an ankle-lock! KENTA escapes and Sugiura hits an Olympic Slam for a near fall. Sugiura tries to set up KENTA for a top-rope Olympic Slam, but KENTA counters it into a super fisherman’s buster for a near fall! KENTA scores another near fall with a barrage of hard head kicks. They get to their feet and start exchanging slaps, which soon turn into clenched fist punches! KENTA hits the Busaikyu Knee for another near fall!
Than, out of a page from Kurt Angle’s book, Sugiura catches KENTA’s leg in mid-air out of the Go2Sleep and counters it into the ankle-lock! KENTA fights to reach the ropes, but Sugiura stomps his head several times and drags him back to the center of the ring and drops down in a leg-grapevine! KENTA fights for all he’s worth, but he eventually TAPS OUT to the hold! NEW CHAMPION!
What I really enjoyed about the finish was that KENTA actually tapped out, and the match wasn’t stopped by the referee, making Sugiura’s win all the more credible. A great match overall, with really nothing to complain about. I’m really hoping that Sugiura can be pushed up the heavyweight ranks someday, as he’s got the size and ability to be more than credible.
Match Rating: ****

GHC Tag Team Titles: Takeshi Morishima & Mohammed Yone VS Kenta Kobashi & Tamon Honda
Much like when they first won the tag titles two years ago, Kobashi was all about putting Honda over in this one, and Honda delivered again putting in a strong performance much like the last time. Honda took the bump of the night when Yone gave him a Muscle Buster out on the floor, and Honda also had the comeback of the night when after taking a barrage of punishment as well as a second Muscle Buster, he sprang back to life and delivered Dead Ends like there was no tomorrow to both tag champions! The crowd went nuts for him like two years ago, with a “Tamon” chant breaking out as he hit the cross-armed Dead End on Yone to win the belts.
Kobashi’s mobility is shot thanks to his artificial knees, but he still does more on his feet than most healthy workers in this business. I’m still rather surprised at all the ways he’s found to deliver a simple chop. Whether it’s a straight forward machine gun chop barrage, or teaming with Honda to deliver a backdrop / chop combination! He didn’t take any monster bumps like he usually does in big matches, but he take a pair of Morishima backdrop suplexes, as well as getting stiffed the Hell out by the big man’s Vader Hammers. He even took a half-nelson from Yone before rebounding later and giving big Morishima one. But like I said, in the end it was all about giving Honda the spotlight to shine this time around as he held back Morishima, giving him a wicked lariat out on the entrance ramp leaving Honda free to finish Yone.
They lost the match, but the former champions had nothing to be ashamed of in their performance, and walked out with their heads held high.
I didn’t think the match was as good as the first time they won the titles from Akiyama & Saito, but it was a solid back and forth brawl between the young and the old guard. The crowd was into it, and the even though he isn’t a spring chicken, we’re heavily backing Honda and popped big for when he scored the win.
Match Rating: ***1/2

Overall: The show dragged a bit at the start, but ended up strong. The junior title match is definitely a must see, and the main event is goodness for the Honda fans. Sadly, the main event would be the last big match Kobashi would have before being diagnosed with a tumor in his kidneys, and he’s been out recovering from surgery ever since.

Labels: NOAH

We begin this April 1st, 2006 edition of Big Japan Death Match Wars with a look back to the last Korakuen Hall show where Takashi Sasaki won the Death Match title off Abdullah Kobayashi in a brutal match where Sasaki had a nail stub stuck to the back of his head penetrating his skull! The new champion is back in action tonight, and in a 6-man tag death match no less!

Shadow WX & Mammoth Sasaki VS Yuko Miyamoto & Shinobu
I was surprised at the amount of offense the 666 tandem of Shinobu & Miyamoto got in this match despite the immense size difference between them and the Big Japan tag champions. They didn’t necessarily had to rely only on their speed, but actually took it toe-to-toe with the big men Shinobu being able to take down WX after a series of Sex Bomber lariats, and Miyamoto was actually able to overhead belly-to-belly suplex Sasaki!
I really like the ending of the match where both teams did a series of tandem offense moves, the way good tag wrestling is supposed to be about! When the 666 team thought they had things going their way and were about to pull off a huge upset, the tag champions rebounded with two sick lariats in stereo, followed by a pair of brainbusters to take the win. The champions were obviously impressed by the new comers since you tell from the looks on their faces after the match that they seriously underestimated this team and gave them props after the match.
For the record, my favorite spot of the match was the “audience interaction” big where Mammoth gave a chair to a guy in the audience, asking him to hold it while he smacked Shinobu’s head into it ^_^.
Match Rating: **

Backstage and despite recently losing his title to Sasaki, Kobayashi (still heavily scarred from the title match), Numazawa (still bandaged up) and Sekimoto are still able to laugh and crack jokes to THE COMEDY MUSIC!
Jump to Team Go Forward (Ito & Sasaki), and Sasaki (with a heavily bandaged head) is talking about his title win. Ito suddenly jokes around, wanting his shot at Sasaki’s belt and tries to take it from him. The main event is next!

Light Tube Death Match: Ryuji Ito, Takashi Sasaki & MASADA VS Abdullah Kobayashi, Daisuke Sekimoto & Jaki Numazawa
Surprisingly, this actually was a tag match, and not the usual six-man scrambles these types of matches tend to be. I’m guessing it’s probably because of Sasaki’s condition, and you really got to give him credit for getting back in there this early and letting a maniac like Numazawa stab a light tube where the nail stub penetrated his skull! He even took another Koba-driver in the match.
Still, the match did have it’s fair share of six-man brawling, and I got to see my favorite Big Japan foreigner MASADA in action! And he did the flaming punch too! Just how does he do that?!? There was also a cool spot where Sekimoto caught Ito out of mid air out on the floor, and used him as a weapon to take out Sasaki and MASADA before giving him a death-valley bomb on the floor.
The finish of the match saw Numazawa hit his rolling senton off the top through a bundle of light tubes on MASADA to pick up the win for his team, and post match Numazawa put in his bid to challenge Sasaki for his newly won Death Match title.
Fun match, and using the standard tag rules for this one made it more interesting than the usual brawls.
Match Rating: **1/2

Post match, Numazawa does his sexy-pants promo, again putting in his bid to challenge for the title. And Ito playfully tries to steal Sasaki’s title belt before again saying he’d like a shot for the belt at some time. Why doesn’t MASADA get any promo time?!?

Labels: BJW

Mitsuo Momota & Shuhei Taniguchi VS Junji Izumuda & Akihiko Ito
Taniguchi definitely impressed in this one when he was able to German suplex Izumuda. He even almost managed to dead lift the big man for another! I always enjoy watching Momota in action for some reason, and the old veteran managed to backdrop Izumuda too! The only disappointment of the match was probably Ito, who didn’t really do anything memorable other than a comedy spot with Izumuda and the usual rookie mat wrestling moves with Taniguchi. Despite losing the match to Izumuda’s diving headbutt, Taniguchi is definitely the youngster to keep an eye on.
Match Rating: 1/2*

Atsushi Aoki VS Bobby Fish
Not really a whole lot to this one. I think they are definitely pushing Aoki in the submission wrestler direction since he pulled off two pretty good armlock submissions. He didn’t do a whole lot else though. Fish sort of looks like a more beefed up Petey Williams. I don’t think he did a whole lot to stand out here either, other than maybe his finisher, which was a modified backdrop that sort of looked like an Olympic Slam.
Match Rating: 1/2*

Akitoshi Saito, Masao Inoue & Kishin Kawabata VS Akira Taue, Takuma Sano & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi
Not a lot to this one up till the closing scramble. Kikuchi did get his lip busted open though. And there was a bit of comedy from Taue’s team as they stretched Inoue several times. Inoue does get his heat back as being a former GHC heavyweight title challenger at the end of it though when he scored the win with his Argentine Backbreaker on Kikuchi. Disappointed that we didn’t get a Kawabata Axe Bomber too.
Match Rating: *

Takeshi Rikioh & Takashi Sugiura VS Jun Akiyama & Kentaro Shiga
Now this was a lot of fun, mostly due to Shiga’s yakuza aniki mannerisms. There were also a heated exchange between Akiyama & Rikioh, with Akiyama running 11 consecutive running shoulder blocks to finally take down the former GHC champion! Rikioh also showed a bit of comedy the way he’d mess with Shiga’s hair. The ending of the match was also rather funny as Shiga set about with a barrage of cradles to try and pin Rikioh, but Rikioh countered one final small package with one of his own to score the win! Rikioh & Sugiura were laughing about it after the match as even Rikioh himself couldn’t believe he had won with that move!
Match Rating: **

Scorpio & Ricky Marvin VS Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa
Now this was surprisingly entertaining, thanks to the odd mix of comedy from the veterans and Ricky Marvin’s highspots. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Ogawa or Misawa do a tittie twister before, and it was rather strange seeing Misawa do it with his usual straight faced expression! You also got to tip your hat off to Marvin for putting on a tremendous effort here, and making it not just another tag match on the card. Sure he fell for Ogawa’s usual cheap tactics here and there, but for the most part he showed he could hang in there with the bigger Misawa & Ogawa, as well as using his speed to counter and out-wit the veterans. At one point Marvin almost pinned Ogawa with his own backdrop-hold finisher! He was just finally outsmarted in the end when Ogawa countered a roll-up and reversed it into one of his own.
Match Rating: **1/2

Bison Smith & Jason Bates VS Kenta Kobashi & Tamon Honda
Now this one was really solid. Jason Bates might call himself the “Street Fighter”, but other than the standard big gaijin offense of punches and wear down holds, he really didn’t do anything of note other than his J-Walk finisher which is a fireman’s carry into a sit-out slam pin (Ebese-otoshi). You got to hand it to Kobashi for willing to take some big bumps in a match like this just to make that little bit more special, and at the same time make his opponents look good. Kobashi took a big half-nelson suplex from Bison at the beginning of the match, as well as a combination iron claw-bomb/backdrop from the two big foreigners. Kobashi took some big punishment, but himself really didn’t do much other than his usual array of chops, leaving Honda open to show his stuff a bit. There was a rather awkward looking spot where Honda had Bison in a head-and-arm lock, and barely was able to lift his legs up to catch Bates with a headscissors for a duel submission! And once Kobashi had taken out Bison with a big lariat, it gave Honda the opening to drop Bates with the Dead End to pick up the win. I haven’t seen an actual Dead End German in a while now, other than all the dead-lift German’s the rookies are doing.
Match Rating: **1/2

Yoshinobu Kanemaru, SUWA & Low Ki VS KENTA, Naomichi Marufuji & Taiji Ishimori
As expected from these six, they tore the house down with this non-stop high sprint of a match, with lots of fast paced and innovative offense coming from all sides. Everybody got their time to shine in the match, which ended when Kanemaru was able to hit the Touching Out on Ishimori giving the heel team the win, but the best part probably came after the match when SUWA confronted KENTA with regards to the upcoming junior heavyweight battle royal, with the winner getting a shot at KENTA’s junior title on 6/06/2006. All the juniors gathered in the ring as Sugiura came to confront KENTA as well, and then Mitsuo Momota got in the ring as well, prompting SUWA to take a pot shot at him on the microphone, leading to Momota and SUWA going at it, and SUWA was about to FFF Momota when KENTA made the save, but with his back turned, Momota dropped KENTA with his trademark backdrop suplex! He than got the crowd chanting his name when he proclaimed on the mic, “Don’t look down on the old man!”!
The rest of the wrestlers left the ring after Momota, leaving KENTA laying to close out the show.
Match Rating: ***1/2

Labels: NOAH