Puroresu Show Reviews
Reviews of puroresu shows in my collectionTuesday, July 28, 2009
NOAH "SHINY NAVIGATION" 9/06/2008
Ricky Marvin & Eddie Edwards VS Akihiko Ito & Ippei Ota
This was a great opener, and a good way to warm up the crowd for the show. Both teams looked really good here, and the way they went at it, you’d think the junior titles were on the line or something! Also didn’t hurt that the match was a sprint and didn’t go too long. Marvin & Edwards work well together and showed a few great tandem moves, like the springboard Shining Impact and the old Orient Express superkick/German suplex finisher. Ota showed a lot more fire here than I can remember from any of his previous matches, which is a good thing, and I can’t wait for Ito to break out as he’s definitely one to keep an eye on.
Match Rating: **1/2
See Match Highlights: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yxPg6-glvI
Kishin Kawabata, Kentaro Shiga & Genba Hirayanagi VS Junji Izumuda, Makoto Hashi & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi
Hirayanagi stole Shiga’s sunglasses and came out with them! Shiga snatched them back though. There was a funny spot where everyone in the match gave Genba an atomic wedgie! Finish was Kikuchi fighting off all 3 men and scoring a flash pin on Genba with a school boy.
Match Rating: 1/2*
NTV Cup Jr. Tag League: Bryan Danielson & Davey Richards VS Naomichi Marufuji & Kento Miyahara
Story of the match was young lion Miyahara trying to step up with his veteran partner Marufuji against the ROH team. I really didn’t see anything from Miyahara that stood out, other than taking a page from Marufuji and using the superkick a lot. He still fell to Richards and his double-arm brainbuster finisher.
Good work from all 4 men making it a fun match still.
Match Rating: **
Kenta Kobashi & Tamon Honda VS Akitoshi Saito & Masao Inoue
The highlight of this match was the comedic antics of Inoue whenever he was in there with Kobashi. The poor guy got chopped all over the ring from just about every angle! But the crowd was clearly behind him though. There were also some hot exchanges between Honda and Saito, giving off a hint of a mini-feud, but unfortunately didn’t really go anywhere. Honda wins with the Dead End on Inoue.
Match Rating: **
Mitsuharu Misawa, Yoshinari Ogawa & Takashi Sugiura VS Jun Akiyama, Takeshi Rikioh & Atsushi Aoki
Hage Akiyama starts the assault by attacking Misawa’s team as they are making the ring introductions, but it takes ONE elbow shot from Misawa to break their momentum! Back and forth action for a bit as the heavyweights take turns beating up the juniors of the other team, with some good time given to Sugiura and Aoki. They had some good exchanges against each other, and I love the spot where Sugiura boosts Aoki up and spins him in mid-air to catch him with a German suplex! Aoki kicks out, but falls to the Olympic Slam. There wasn’t really much of note from the others in the match, but it was still watchable.
Match Rating: **
Akira Taue & Mohammed Yone VS Yoshihiro Takayama & Takuma Sano
It was Akiyama in the previous match, and now it’s Yone here making a preemptive strike by attacking Takayama & Sano during the ring introductions! Another fun tag match with the added surprise of Yone getting the win over Sano with the Muscle Buster.
Match Rating: **
NTV Cup Jr. Tag League: Katsuhiko Nakajima & Kota Ibushi VS Jay Briscoe & Mark Briscoe
Considering who was involved in the match, it’s not surprising that it broke down into a big spot fest, which was a lot of fun to watch! One fun spot was Ibushi hitting a moonsault to the outside on Jay, also taking out the camera crew on the process! The live crowd was really into the match and you could feel the dread in them when the Briscoes went for their springboard Doomsday Device and hit it for the win on Kota.
Match Rating: ***1/2
See Match Highlights: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjpwPABqe64
NTV Cup Jr. Tag League: KENTA & Taiji Ishimori VS Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Kotaro Suzuki
Genba comes out to distract the defending tag league champions, leading to the third surprise attack during the introductions of the night! It was really something different watching Genba constantly interfere to help Kanemaru & Suzuki, though it was not as bad as the levels usually done by the likes of Dragon Gate. But KENTA & Ishimori were able to weather the storm and Ishimori steals the win from Suzuki with a modified cradle to tie up the score, forcing an immediate tie-breaker to determine a winner!
Match Rating: ***1/2
NTV Cup Jr. Tag League Decision Match: KENTA & Taiji Ishimori VS Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Kotaro Suzuki
The heels pulled out all the stops to try and topple KENTA & Ishimori, Kanemaru giving KENTA a brainbuster out on the ramp way early to keep him out of the match, and when that didn’t work, Genba tried interference again and even brought a chair in when the referee got bumped! He didn’t get a chance to use it though, as KENTA intercepted him and took him out of the match for good with the Go2Sleep shortly before taking out Kanemaru with one to win the match and take the NTV Cup for the second year straight!
Match Rating: ***1/2
See Match Highlights: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNcHyB_fm-M
GHC Heavyweight Championship: Takeshi Morishima [C] VS Kensuke Sasaki
A hard hitting match as expected, and both men pulled moves out of their hat that you wouldn’t normally see, like Sasaki doing a top rope hurricanrana, and Morishima going for the moonsault! At one point Sasaki even hit four consecutive backdrops on Morishima’s huge frame! Morishima kicked out of the Northern Lights Bomb, and Sasaki kicked out of the backdrop, but it was a second Northern Lights Bomb after a barrage of lariats that finally put away Morishima, making Sasaki the first man to win the heavyweight title of all 3 major promotions in Japan.
Match Rating: ***1/2
See Match Highlights: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtJ7iWB9K2E
Overall: Honestly, from top to bottom, this was a very watchable and entertaining show, mostly thanks to all the junior heavyweight tag matches I guess. Highly recommended watching.
This was a great opener, and a good way to warm up the crowd for the show. Both teams looked really good here, and the way they went at it, you’d think the junior titles were on the line or something! Also didn’t hurt that the match was a sprint and didn’t go too long. Marvin & Edwards work well together and showed a few great tandem moves, like the springboard Shining Impact and the old Orient Express superkick/German suplex finisher. Ota showed a lot more fire here than I can remember from any of his previous matches, which is a good thing, and I can’t wait for Ito to break out as he’s definitely one to keep an eye on.
Match Rating: **1/2
See Match Highlights: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yxPg6-glvI
Kishin Kawabata, Kentaro Shiga & Genba Hirayanagi VS Junji Izumuda, Makoto Hashi & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi
Hirayanagi stole Shiga’s sunglasses and came out with them! Shiga snatched them back though. There was a funny spot where everyone in the match gave Genba an atomic wedgie! Finish was Kikuchi fighting off all 3 men and scoring a flash pin on Genba with a school boy.
Match Rating: 1/2*
NTV Cup Jr. Tag League: Bryan Danielson & Davey Richards VS Naomichi Marufuji & Kento Miyahara
Story of the match was young lion Miyahara trying to step up with his veteran partner Marufuji against the ROH team. I really didn’t see anything from Miyahara that stood out, other than taking a page from Marufuji and using the superkick a lot. He still fell to Richards and his double-arm brainbuster finisher.
Good work from all 4 men making it a fun match still.
Match Rating: **
Kenta Kobashi & Tamon Honda VS Akitoshi Saito & Masao Inoue
The highlight of this match was the comedic antics of Inoue whenever he was in there with Kobashi. The poor guy got chopped all over the ring from just about every angle! But the crowd was clearly behind him though. There were also some hot exchanges between Honda and Saito, giving off a hint of a mini-feud, but unfortunately didn’t really go anywhere. Honda wins with the Dead End on Inoue.
Match Rating: **
Mitsuharu Misawa, Yoshinari Ogawa & Takashi Sugiura VS Jun Akiyama, Takeshi Rikioh & Atsushi Aoki
Hage Akiyama starts the assault by attacking Misawa’s team as they are making the ring introductions, but it takes ONE elbow shot from Misawa to break their momentum! Back and forth action for a bit as the heavyweights take turns beating up the juniors of the other team, with some good time given to Sugiura and Aoki. They had some good exchanges against each other, and I love the spot where Sugiura boosts Aoki up and spins him in mid-air to catch him with a German suplex! Aoki kicks out, but falls to the Olympic Slam. There wasn’t really much of note from the others in the match, but it was still watchable.
Match Rating: **
Akira Taue & Mohammed Yone VS Yoshihiro Takayama & Takuma Sano
It was Akiyama in the previous match, and now it’s Yone here making a preemptive strike by attacking Takayama & Sano during the ring introductions! Another fun tag match with the added surprise of Yone getting the win over Sano with the Muscle Buster.
Match Rating: **
NTV Cup Jr. Tag League: Katsuhiko Nakajima & Kota Ibushi VS Jay Briscoe & Mark Briscoe
Considering who was involved in the match, it’s not surprising that it broke down into a big spot fest, which was a lot of fun to watch! One fun spot was Ibushi hitting a moonsault to the outside on Jay, also taking out the camera crew on the process! The live crowd was really into the match and you could feel the dread in them when the Briscoes went for their springboard Doomsday Device and hit it for the win on Kota.
Match Rating: ***1/2
See Match Highlights: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjpwPABqe64
NTV Cup Jr. Tag League: KENTA & Taiji Ishimori VS Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Kotaro Suzuki
Genba comes out to distract the defending tag league champions, leading to the third surprise attack during the introductions of the night! It was really something different watching Genba constantly interfere to help Kanemaru & Suzuki, though it was not as bad as the levels usually done by the likes of Dragon Gate. But KENTA & Ishimori were able to weather the storm and Ishimori steals the win from Suzuki with a modified cradle to tie up the score, forcing an immediate tie-breaker to determine a winner!
Match Rating: ***1/2
NTV Cup Jr. Tag League Decision Match: KENTA & Taiji Ishimori VS Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Kotaro Suzuki
The heels pulled out all the stops to try and topple KENTA & Ishimori, Kanemaru giving KENTA a brainbuster out on the ramp way early to keep him out of the match, and when that didn’t work, Genba tried interference again and even brought a chair in when the referee got bumped! He didn’t get a chance to use it though, as KENTA intercepted him and took him out of the match for good with the Go2Sleep shortly before taking out Kanemaru with one to win the match and take the NTV Cup for the second year straight!
Match Rating: ***1/2
See Match Highlights: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNcHyB_fm-M
GHC Heavyweight Championship: Takeshi Morishima [C] VS Kensuke Sasaki
A hard hitting match as expected, and both men pulled moves out of their hat that you wouldn’t normally see, like Sasaki doing a top rope hurricanrana, and Morishima going for the moonsault! At one point Sasaki even hit four consecutive backdrops on Morishima’s huge frame! Morishima kicked out of the Northern Lights Bomb, and Sasaki kicked out of the backdrop, but it was a second Northern Lights Bomb after a barrage of lariats that finally put away Morishima, making Sasaki the first man to win the heavyweight title of all 3 major promotions in Japan.
Match Rating: ***1/2
See Match Highlights: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtJ7iWB9K2E
Overall: Honestly, from top to bottom, this was a very watchable and entertaining show, mostly thanks to all the junior heavyweight tag matches I guess. Highly recommended watching.
Labels: DDT, Kensuke Office, NOAH
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