Puroresu Show Reviews

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