Puroresu Show Reviews

Wrestle Kingdom Grand Opening VIENTO DORADO: Mistico, Ryusuke Taguchi & Prince DeVitt VS Averno, Jado & Gedo
More of a showcase match to introduce Mistico to the Japanese fans. I thought the New Japan guys were more impressive than the CMLL crew since they didn’t really do anything that we haven’t seen before by other junior heavyweights in other promotions. And since it was the lucha style, there were more than a few awkward moments that broke the pace of the match since they would just stand around to play to the crowd before continuing the match.
Match Rating: *

Jushin Thunder Liger 20th Anniversary Match: Jushin Thunder Liger & Takuma Sano VS Koji Kanemoto & Wataru Inoue
Sano was really out of place in the match, and they teased how Liger & Sano couldn’t seem to function as a team since there were a few miss-timed spots that ended with them hitting each other. It was an ok match, but Liger’s 20th anniversary match deserved better than to be buried on the undercard of a big show like this.
Match Rating: *

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Titles: NO LIMIT (Yujiro & Tetsuya Naito) [C] VS The Motor City Machineguns (Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley)
Note to NJPW: If TNA are ever stupid enough to release the ‘Guns, you guys better sign them to contract! Seriously! The ‘Guns totally overshadowed NO LIMIT here as they wowed the crowd with their tandem offense and flashy speed based offense. I just hope the fact that they actually won the titles here and have been back to Japan several times since is a sign of New Japan’s interest in the duo as great workers, as compared to TNA who really have no idea what to do with them.
Match Rating: ***1/2

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title: Low Ki [C] VS Tiger Mask
I liked that Tiger kicked out of the Ki Krusher at the beginning of the match since he was still fresh, but I hated how after taking all the punishment from Ki that he did throughout the match that he only suddenly needed THREE moves to put him away and win the belt! A release half tiger suplex, followed by a tiger suplex-hold for a near fall and a bizarre half tiger, wrist clutch between the legs suplex hold for the win.
I think Ki deserved better, and it’s no wonder many of the IWC are hating on Tiger.
Match Rating: **

Fighting Holdings Competition: Riki Choshu, Masahiro Chono, Kurt Angle & Kevin Nash VS Karl “Machinegun” Anderson, Tomohiro Ishii, Takashi Izuka & Giant Bernard
I know Nash is broken down and his move set is down to just 2 moves now (not counting punches & kicks), but I was actually expecting to see more Nash VS Bernard action. Nothing riles up the crowd more than 2 big men going at it. The whole match was probably more about setting up the aftermath where Bernard laid out Angle with the Bernard Driver after Angle took the win with the ankle lock.
Long story short, this was the match on the card that was thrown together to get the rest of the roster onto the card, plus two TNA guys who don’t really need the exposure. It served it’s purpose in that regard.
Match Rating: *1/2

Zero-One World Heavyweight Title – Crusade for Justice: Yuji Nagata [C] VS Masato Tanaka
Take two rival promotions, put a belt on the line, and throw in a lot of HATE, and you get an awesome match! This is how you make a blood feud! Both men bleeding and still tearing into each other with all they got. I think my only complaint was that it was a bit on the short side, and maybe they could have let Tanaka kick out of a few more near falls during the ending sequence to build up even more drama, but other than that, still a fantastic match and the first one of the night to really bring the crowd alive.
Match Rating: ****
Click Here to watch highlights from this match.

New Japan VS NOAH Battle Tendencies – The Invasion: Manabu Nakanishi VS Jun Akiyama
Nakanishi’s power VS Akiyama’s cunning, and they put on a passable match based around the amateur backgrounds of both men, though amateur wrestling didn’t play into the match itself. Best spot of the match was when Nakanishi lifted Akiyama off the mat while he had him in a front neck lock and slammed him down on the mat. Akiyama escapes the Argentine Backbreaker and lays in a barrage of Exploders before taking down the big gorilla with a wrist-clutch Exploder.
Match Rating: **
Click Here to watch highlights from this match.

IWGP Tag Team Titles – Hardcore Rules: Most Violence Players (Togi Makabe & Toru Yano) [C] VS Team 3D (Brother Ray & Brother Devon)
The match that featured the infamous "bouncing" diving headbutt, where Devon does a diving headbutt and comes short by about a foot, but his impact bounces him off the mat to reach his target! It's pretty obvious that without the hardcore gimmick, Team 3D would be pulling off the worst tag matches in Japan. How these two got so lazy is beyond me, and it doesn't help that Ray likes doing comedy spots while working in Japan. Makabe & Yano really should have won this one, but then again NJPW have shown almost zero interest in getting their belts back from TNA Team 3D won the belts here.
And what is up with those kindergaren tables they used here? Did New Japan have to slash the budget to save on expenses that they couldn't afford adult sized tables to be used in the match???
Match Rating: **

New Japan VS NOAH Battle Tendencies – The Encounter: Shinsuke Nakamura & Hirooki Goto VS Mitsuharu Misawa & Takashi Sugiura
Unfortunately this would be the last time we hear Misawa's name chanted in the Tokyo Dome. But it was a heck of a match! Even though limited, you could see Misawa was doing all he could for the match. But the star of the match was easilly Sugiura who carried most of the work load for his team. And it still amazes me how Nakamura does that flying cross-armbreker of his, though he probably over did his post match celebration when he won it for his team.
Match Rating: ****1/4
*Match Highlight clip coming soon*

IWGP Heavyweight Title: Keiji Mutoh [C] VS Hiroshi Tanahashi
If you like the dragon screw leg whip, you'll just LOVE this match, as at least 80% of the offense in the match consisted of that one move from various angles and positions. People might complain about Kobashi and his use of the chops, but this was downright ridiculous! At least Tanahashi remembered to sell the knee throughout the match, but Muto really needs to find some other structure to his matches other than countless dragon screws and Shining Wizards with a figure four tossed in here and there.
Match Rating: **

Overall: It was a great show from top to bottom with more good than bad. Definitely worth checking out.

Labels: AJPW, NJPW, NOAH

Mohammed Yone & Akihiko Ito VS Takashi Okita & Kento Miyahara
I know Yone is coming off challenging Sasaki for the GHC title and all, but it didn’t look right seeing him no selling and single handedly handling two guys here! I wouldn’t mind if he was someone the size of Rikioh or Morishima, or a senior like Taue, but he is neither so it sort of buried the Kensuke Office guys for me.
Match Rating: ½*

Yoshinari Ogawa, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Kotaro Suzuki VS Doug Williams, Bryan Danielson & Atsushi Aoki
I find it funny that despite the rivalry between Ogawa and Williams, that they never decided to throw them together to form a tag team, even for short term. Their styles match up well and it would have made for an interesting tandem. It was funny seeing Ogawa not wanting any part of the cheating tactics of his partners, and even took out Genba with a backdrop on the floor! It got to the point Kanemaru & Suzuki attacked Ogawa! They still ended up winning when Kotaro pinned Aoki with the Blue Destiny, but that just lead to Williams & Danielson assisting Ogawa to lay out the junior tag champions.
Match Rating: **

Akira Taue & Makoto Hashi VS Yoshihiro Takayama & Takuma Sano
Despite being the newly crowned hardcore openweight champion, Hashi was still the job guy here. I really hated that he connected with TWO of his finishers on Sano, but it still wasn’t enough to put him away! He added a nice spinning backfist to his arsenal at least, but after being with the company for so long, it wouldn’t hurt to give the guy a decent push, and being hardcore openweight champion doesn’t count.
Match Rating: *1/2

Takeshi Morishima & Takashi Sugiura VS Nigel McGuinness & Superstar Steve
The ROH rivalry between Morishima and McGuinness, the man that beat him for the ROH title, are brought to the Budokan, and two go right at it! It was a good tag match, with a solid showing for Superstar Steve, who looked more than just enhancement talent. Maybe one day he will be a superstar? It was still determined that he’s pretty low in the rank and file though, since it took Sugiura to catching him in mid-air with a German suplex-hold to be enough to put him away. And at least we got to see Morishima give McGuinness a wicked looking backdrop suplex.
Match Rating: **

Kensuke Sasaki, Katsuhiko Nakajima & Kota Ibushi VS Mitsuharu Misawa, Taiji Ishimori & Ricky Marvin
I actually had high hopes for this one, since there’s a good deal of talent involved. But it seemed by the end of it a lot of them messed up their timing and botched quite a few moves! I liked seeing Ibushi changed things up with his offense when instead of doing a double moonsault when his opponent rolled away, he did a moonsault followed by a standing shooting star press when his opponent rolled inward instead! I will admit though, it was a bit hard seeing Misawa take big bumps here, like Sasaki tornado-bomb, when you knew that fate that awaited him just eight months later.
Match Rating: **1/2

GHC Tag Team Titles: Akitoshi Saito & Bison Smith [C] VS Jun Akiyama & Takeshi Rikioh
They tried to make it look like the deck was stacked against the champions since Bison was working with a heavily taped upper body, which I hate to say resembled a bra. But he fought through the pain the champions were able to pull out a victory. I know Akiyama is more than willing to put people over, but it just damages himself when we’ve seen him take so much more in previous matches, but here it just takes a Bisontenial followed by a lariat and a Sickle of Death to put him away. I thought they could have done a better job with the near falls to build up some suspense, but you know they had the match go shorter than the usual half-hour blockbuster tag title match since they were going for the 60-minute match next.
Match Rating: **1/2

GHC Jr. Heavyweight Title & AJPW World Jr. Heavyweight Title – Double Title Match: KENTA [GHC] VS Naomichi Marufuji [AJPW]
Kyohei Wada is the referee for the match. Bell rings and both men stare each other down rather than charge into each other like they have in the past. Collar and elbow tie-up, and KENTA backs Marufuji into the ropes before breaking clean. Lock up again, and Marufuji backs KENTA into the ropes. Marufuji tries a cheap shot high kick, but KENTA ducks and responds with one of his own that Marufuji blocks. Lock up again and they trade elbow strikes. KENTA hits a sobat kick and runs the ropes. Marufuji follows him and they avoid each other before KENTA tries a kick which is caught by Marufuji, who also ducks an attempt at an enzuguiri. Marufuji tries for a sliding dropkick but KENTA avoids it and they stare off. They trade positions trying to get each other’s back before trading arm-wringers back and forth. Marufuji uses a hammerlock to get KENTA onto the mat, and starts driving his knee in to work the arm. KENTA tries to get to his feet, but is grounded as Marufuji transitions from a kimura to a headscissors. KENTA teases going for the old Muga hand-stand to escape, but instead pops his head out and tries to take off Marufuji’s with a quick kick, but the AJPW Jr. champion is quick enough to avoid it.
5 MINUTES
They trade strikes and Marufuji forces KENTA into a corner with a sobat kick. He charges him but KENTA kicks him off. KENTA runs the ropes, Marufuji tries a leapfrog, but KENTA meets him in mid-air with a big jumping kick! KENTA with a double knee drop and a cover for the first 2 count of the match. Marufuji sitting in the corner as KENTA lays in several kicks and stomps. Irish whip and KENTA turns Marufuji inside out with a kitchen sink knee to the gut. He pins him for a 2 count before locking on a body scissors. Marufuji drags them to the ropes, but Referee Wada kicks the ropes away when Marufuji touches them! Seems Wada wants full contact with the ropes rather than a light touch. Marufuji is able to grip the rope with both hands to get the hold released. KENTA works the mid-section with knee strikes and body shots in the corner. Whip into the corner and KENTA follows in, catches Marufuji as he tries to kick him, ducks and head kick, but gets caught with a headscissors and Marufuji pulls him face first into the 2nd turnbuckle. Marufuji charges in and hits a big jumping elbow. Off the ropes and Marufuji runs into a big boot, but catches KENTA with a dropkick as he comes of the ropes, sending him to the outside. Marufuji tries an Asai moonsault, but KENTA kicks his legs out and both collapse out on the floor. KENTA tries to bring Marufuji back into the ring with a suplex, but Marufuji escapes by slapping him in the nose and follows with a triple jump moonsault attack for a 2 count!
10 MINUTES
KENTA flips out of a backdrop attempt and catchess Marufuji with a zero-sweep kick off the ropes. KENTA tries a running high-kick in the corner, but Marufuji ducks it and kicks out his other leg while he caught on the ropes. Marufuji seems to botch a springboard move so he ends up just kicking out KENTA’s leg again before going back to work on it. Marufuji locks on a figure four and KENTA manages to get to the ropes after struggling for a bit. Marufuji stomps and stands on KENTA’s leg in the corner. Marufuji straddles KENTA on the top rope and dropkicks his knee before bringing him back in the ring with a dragon screw. Rolling leglock by Marufuji and KENTA has to struggle to the ropes to break the hold again. KENTA tries to fire back, but Marufuji with a low dropkick to the knee to cut him off. Marufuji out on the apron and tries to dragon screw KENTA through the ropes, but KENTA fights it off with elbow strikes, and takes him down with a kick to the leg of his own followed by a kick to the body that knocks him off the apron to the floor.
15 MINUTES
KENTA rests up Marufuji climbs back into the ring. Marufuji catches KENTA with a low dropkick off the ropes, but KENTA recovers in time to drop Marufuji as he comes off the ropes with a big lariat. KENTA now with a barrage of kicks and flings Marufuji into the corner turnbuckle with a double-underhook suplex! Strike combo followed by the Busaiku Knee! Cover, but only a 2 count! KENTA tries for a powerbomb, but Marufuji escapes and drives the back of his head into the corner buckle, and follows with a kick to the back of the head. Marufuji off the ropes, but KENTA trips him into the 619 position. KENTA follows up with a springboard out of the ring driving his knees into Marufuji’s face! Both men out on the floor now. Marufuji reverses an Irish whip into the guardrail and follows in, but KENTA trips him and he crashes chest first into the steel. KENTA picks him up on his shoulders and drops him chest first on the guardrail! KENTA follows with a neckbreaker, dropping Marufuji’s back across the rail! Back into the ring and KENTA covers for a 2. KENTA starts to work on Marufuji’s neck with a pair of elbow drops and one off the second rope. Pinfall attempt gets another 2, and KENTA locks on a figure-four headlock. Marufuji struggles to the ropes to break the hold.
20 MINUTES
Neckbreaker by KENTA for another near fall. Marufuji flips out of a neckbreaker kicks KENTA as he charges him in the corner. KENTA tries to suplex him off the second rope, but Marufuji lands on his feet and kicks him in the head before driving him into the opposite corner with a knee to the back of the head for added measure. Marufuji grounds KENTA with a modified headlock, which ends up as a crossface. KENTA struggles to the ropes to break the hold. KENTA struggles to his feet and is met with a superkick followed by a kick to the back of the head, and a Shiranui! Marufuji covers for a 2 count. Marufuji tries for a second Shiranui, but KENTA pushes him off. KENTA charges in but is met with a kick to the face. Marufuji tries a springboard move out of the corner, but KENTA catches him with a stunner! KENTA places Marufuji on the ropes and goes up top, but Marufuji recovers and knocks him off the top to the floor with a springboard dropkick! Marufuji sends KENTA into the corner post before driving him into the guardrail. Back in the ring and Marufuji covers for 2 count before clamping on a sleeper. Back to their feet and Marufuji uses a cravate.
25 MINUTES
Marufuji with a snapmare before giving him a neck snapper. Marufuji off the ropes with a double stomp on KENTA’s face! KENTA rolls out of the ring in pain, but eats a dropkick in the face when he tries to get back in and the back of his head smacks the guardrail. Marufuji next with a sick brainbuster dropping KENTA’s back on the standing guardrail! KENTA struggles back into the ring to beat the count, but Marufuji then places his neck across the ropes and stands on his face! KENTA is able to struggle to his feet and trade slaps with the AJPW Jr. champion, but Marufuji takes a cheap shot at his neck. With KENTA down on his back, Marufuji gives him a swift soccer kick to the side of his head! Piledriver by Marufuji for a near fall, and Marufuji uses a sleeper hold with a body scissors to continue his work on KENTA’s neck. KENTA eventually gets to the ropes to break the hold
30 MINUTES
Marufuji props KENTA in the corner and continues his assault with a knuckle punch to the back of KENTA’s neck. KENTA reverses an Irish whip and hits Marufuji with a lariat in the corner followed by a big running kick. KENTA tries for another running move, but Marufuji follows him into the corner and hits a lariat of his own! Marufuji with an Irish whip into the ropes, but KENTA comes out with a running forearm smash and follows up with a pair of lariats. Whip into the corner again, and KENTA launches Marufuji with a big back body drop. KENTA goes up top and connect with a diving lariat for a near fall. Fisherman’s buster for another near fall. KENTA tries for the STF, but Marufuji quickly scrambles to the ropes. Marufuji trips KENTA off the ropes, and KENTA trips him right back before locking on the STF! Marufuji is able to struggle to the ropes to break the hold. KENTA tries for a tiger suplex, but Marufuji holds on to the ropes. KENTA tries a charging attack, but Marufuji ducks and KENTA flies over the top rope out to the floor. Marufuji tries a plancha, but KENTA dodges and kicks him into the guardrail. KENTA charges in, but Marufuji flips him over the guardrail into the audience. Marufuji then hits a HUGE springboard moonsault off the top rope over the guardrail out on KENTA! Shades of the GHC title match 2 years prior, but Marufuji didn’t almost kill himself again by landing throat first on the railing this time. KENTA barely beats the 10 count back into the ring as the ring announcer signals the 35 minute mark!
35 MINUTES
Marufuji with a big jumping knee in the corner, followed by a German suplex for a near fall. KENTA fights off a second German attempt, and tries a lariat but ends up in a cross-armed German position! KENTA gets to the ropes to break the hold, so Marufji changes it to a cobra clutch, and flips the GHC Jr. champion down to the mat with a triangle cobra clutch! KENTA struggles to his feet, but Marufuji brings him right back down with a back cracker while maintaining the cobra! Marufuji wraps his legs around KENTA’s head for added pressure! KENTA struggles and eventually makes it to the ropes to break the hold, but Marufuji instead modifies the hold into a cobra & wrist-clutch backdrop suplex-hold for a near fall! KENTA is dazed and bleeding from the mouth as Marufuji sets him up in the Tree of Woe. Marufuji springboards from corner to corner, but KENTA avoids the move by pulling himself up the corner! KENTA gets to a seating position up top, but eats a big jumping superkick!
40 MINUTES
Marufuji tries for a hurricanrana, but KENTA counters by tossing him off with a powerbomb! While Marufuji is on all fours, KENTA dives off the top with a double stomp on the back of Marufuji’s neck! KENTA covers for a 2 count. KENTA sets up Marufuji on the top rope and hits a big diving knee to his back, following with a kick off the ropes while Marufuji is in a sitting position for a near fall. Marufuji catches KENTA with a thrust kick, but gets sent over the top to the apron. KENTA hits the strike combo followed by a Busaiku Knee, knocking Marufuji off the apron onto the guardrail and almost knocking the announce table! Marufuji beats the 10 count back into the ring, but is met by a springboard missile dropkick and a barrage of high impact running kicks in the corner. Sit-out powerbomb by KENTA for a 2 count. KENTA tries for the Go 2 Sleep, but Marufuji flips out and tries for a Shiranui, but KENTA counters that wrapping him in an Octopus Stretch! Marufuji actually carries KENTA’s weight to try to get to the ropes, but loses his balance and falls down. KENTA maintains the hold and gets a pinning combination out of it for a 2 count. Strike combo by KENTA, but Marufuji follows him off the ropes and hits a Busaiku Knee of his own!
45 MINUTES
Referee counts both men down, but Marufuji to his feet first. He goes up top, but KENTA recovers as well and cuts him off. KENTA tries to superplex Marufuji out of the ring to the floor, but Marufuji is able to fight out of it. With KENTA dangling on the top rope, Marufuji makes a mad dash down the isle and hits KENTA with a dropkick! Marufuji then slams KENTA off the top down to the floor! KENTA is hurt and barely gets back in the ring in time, but Marufuji is waiting for him and hits him with the springboard dropkick from one corner of the ring to the other! High angle spinning powerbomb by Marufuji gets a 2 count! KENTA struggles to his feet and is met by a superkick followed by a Shiranui for a near fall. They trade strikes, but Marufuji drops KENTA with a lariat off the ropes for another near fall.
50 MINUTES
Marufuji sets up for another Shiranui, but KENTA blocks it, so Marufuji turns it into a flipping neckbreaker! Cover and another near fall! Frustrated, Marufuji sets up KENTA for a super Shiranui! KENTA fights it off and tries for a super tiger suplex, but Marufuji flips over and lands on his feet! He charges at KENTA with a lariat, but KENTA counters into a tiger suplex-hold for a very close 2.9! KENTA with a running knee to the back of Marufuji followed by a Busaiku Knee for another 2.9! KENTA with 3 hard kicks to the head and covers him for another near fall! KENTA tries for the Go 2 Sleep, but it’s Marufuji who catches him with a knee to the face out of the move! Both men struggle to their feet. Marufuji with a thrust kick! KENTA with a lariat! KENTA with a high kick! Marufuji with a spinning back kick to the head! Both men down again! Both men struggle to their feet again and trade strikes. KENTA with two high kicks to the head, and Marufuji responds with a spinning back kick knocking KENTA to one knee!
55 MINUTES!
Marufuji with another kick to the face and a cover for a near fall. Marufuji sets up KENTA and hits the Pole Shift! But he’s too hurt to make the cover! He eventually gets over for the pinfall, and KENTA barely lifts a shoulder for the 2 count! Marufuji tries for the Pole Shift again, but KENTA pick him up for the Go 2 Sleep! Marufuji tries to fight out with a barrage of elbow strikes, but KENTA connects with the move! KENTA crawls over for the cover, but only gets a big near fall!
57 MINUTES!!
Both men are exhausted and are fighting just to get to their feet. They both charge and take down each other with lariats, but KENTA is able to crawl over and pin Marufuji for another near fall!
58 MINUTES!!!
Marufuji with another big spin kick to the head and a cover, but KENTA gets his foot on the ropes! They get to their feet again and start throwing serious elbow strikes at each other! KENTA picks up Marufuji out of nowhere and hits another Go 2 Sleep! Cover! 1-2-2.9!
59 MINUTES!!!!
They struggle to their feet and trade strikes again! Sobat kick by Marufuji! POLE SHIFT! Marufuji with a deep cover, but only gets a 2.9 with 10 seconds left on the clock! Both men are on their knees trading strikes as the time limit comes to an end, signaling the bout as a DRAW!

Wow. They worked kind of a smart match here, and not the all out spot fest you’d expect. If you didn’t know the match ended in a draw, you could pretty much tell that was the direction it was headed since they hadn’t really busted out any of the big spots by the half way mark. All the body work from the first half of the match seemed to go out the window by the third quarter though. It was still a solid effort by both though, and a great match overall.
Match Rating: ****1/2

Overall: From top to bottom, this was another entertaining show. Maybe it had to do with the undercard matches being so short? The main event didn’t really break any new ground, but it was definitely a spectacle.

Labels: AJPW, DDT, Kensuke Office, NOAH

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.

Labels: DDT, Kensuke Office, NOAH

Akihiko Ito VS Takashi Okita
A good showing for both youngsters. Okita looks a lot like Tomohiro Ishii, and he has a nice spear tackle and a Jackhammer which he should be finishing people off with soon. He'll definitely be a good heavyweight prospect after a few years of work. I'm also still a big fan of Ito and love seeing his progression.
I thought it was a nice touch by the referee to not count the 3 when Okita didn't land properly from Ito's full-nelson suplex, and Ito had to do the move again to get it right for the 3 count.
Match Rating: *1/2

Masao Inoue & Genba Hirayanagi VS Mitsuo Momota & Masashi Aoyagi
Momota is wearing red tonight, matching Aoyagi. The usual comedy antics and slapfests ensue, and Inoue pulls out the win with a very weak looking pin on Momota. Would have been better if they gave Genba the rub of scoring the pin.
Match Rating: 1/2*

Mitsuharu Misawa, Yoshinari Ogawa & Atsushi Aoki VS Yoshihiro Takayama, Takuma Sano & Takashi Sugiura
Standard six-man warfare, with emphasis on Aoki getting to show what he's got. I liked the spot where Takayama blocked Ogawa's eye-poke and gave him one of his own! Everybody now seems weary to avoid Sano sobat kick, and Misawa didn't do much in this one. There was a good pop for Aoki when he kicked out of a big powerbomb by Sano, but fell to the Northern Lights Bomb seconds later.
Match Rating: *

Akira Taue & Akitoshi Saito VS Jun Akiyama & Takeshi Rikioh
This was an entertaining match, with good work from all four men, but I thought Taue deserved better the way Rikioh pinned him with a rather sloppy Muso.
Match Rating: **1/2

Takeshi Morishima VS Katsuhiko Nakajima
The match only went nine minutes, but I still feel Morishima gave Nakajima too much offense here. Sure Nakajima was smaller and faster, but even he shouldn't be recovering so quickly from a DDT on the concrete floor to take back control! Seeing Nakajima German suplex Morishima is always impressive though. Two big lariats and a backdrop suplex later, and Morishima gets the win.
Match Rating: **

2/3 Falls: KENTA & Taiji Ishimori VS Naomichi Marufuji & Ricky Marvin
Marufuji & KENTA did the more high-impact stuff, while Marvin & Ishimori did the speedy flippy stuff. It was surprising that Marufuji scored the first fall over KENTA, followed by KENTA scoring the second fall over Marufuji. And the final fall was Ishimori going over Marvin with a modified cradle.
I liked Marvin heeling the crowd of fangirls was cheering for the pretty boys in the match. Definitely a few missed spots in this one, but all 4 men put in good work here for an entertaining match.
Match Rating: ***

GHC Jr. Tag Team Titles: Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Kotaro Suzuki [C] VS Yujiro & Tetsuya Naito
Yujiro & Naito look like heavyweights compared to the NOAH champions! They weren't even treated as heel outsiders as there was a loud group of fangirls cheering for them throughout the match! Too bad Kanemaru or Suzuki didn't heel it up a bit by yelling at the fangirls like Marvin did in the 2/3 falls match. Having the champions be the face team against an outsider team that was getting cheered more than them just didn't work.
With that said, I actually had a hard time watching this match. For some reason NO LIMIT just weren't as interesting to watch here compared to seeing them in NJPW. I guess it didn't help that they didn't do anything to stand out and be considered a threat to the champions. Being the outsider team, even they didn't try to heel things up to get some heat. Things picked up by the end, with the champions retaining after Kanemaru pinned Naito with the Touch Out, but overall I didn't think the match was anything special.
Match Rating: ***

GHC Heavyweight Championship: Kensuke Sasaki [C] VS Mohammed Yone
Give them credit for starting this off different from other title matches, as Yone attacked Sasaki backstage and dragged him out to the arena! Sasaki was able to regain control though, and it took a while to convince Joe Higuchi to start the match without the official title match declaration and introductions!
One of the major complaints I have about this match was that they went overkill having Kensuke kick out of TWO Muscle Busters! And this was after Yone had already given him one out on the floor earlier in the match! Sure it might have built up a big hope spot for Yone, but kicking out of the move twice just cheapens the effectiveness of the finisher, like what they do all the time in Dragon Gate. Yone also seemed to have lousy facial expressions to sell the shock of Sasaki kicking out of his finisher, and some points he even did a lousy job of selling Sasaki's lariats! Heck, Sasaki did a better version of the Muscle Buster than Yone, making it look more like a fisherman's brainbuster before putting him away with the Northern Lights Bomb to retain.
Yone put up a good fight, but he looked nowhere near being a main event challenger. The overkill of his finisher not working didn't help either.
Match Rating: **1/2

Labels: Kensuke Office, NJPW, NOAH

Genba Hirayanagi VS KAGETORA
Clipped down quite a bit and we see the continued heel growth of Genba, matching up against the more experienced KAGETORA. Genba tries to steal the win, but the Shoryu-Genba and a straight up low blow both fail to get the job done. Genba has also added a nice version of a T-bone suplex to his arsenal. KAGETORA back with a big brainbuster followed by the John Woo and his Ikkitousen (fireman’s carry into an Emerald Frosion) finisher for the win.
Match Rating: *

Kikutaro & Akira Taue VS Namazu Man & Kuishinbo Kamen
A great injustice was done to this match since they clipped it down a lot! The first meeting of Kikutaro and Kuishinbo since their Osaka Pro days together, and the two clowns haven’t missed a step of their chemistry together! Didn’t get to see much of the newly beefed up Catfish Man, but Taue was fun and adapted to well to the comedy spots. Taue chokeslams his own partner and Catfish man pins him for the win.
Really would have preferred if they didn’t cut out so much.
Match Rating: *

Naomichi Marufuji, Taiji Ishimori & Ippei Ota VS Ultimo Dragon, Amigo Suzuki & Takeshi Minaminao
Part of the hype of this match was Marufuji and Ultimo having similar finishers, the Shiranui and the Asai DDT respectively, and the two had some good exchanges in there together which they could build for a future singles encounter between the two. The other story of the match was Taiji Ishimori going up against his mentor and he some solid exchanges with Minaminao as well before putting away Amigo with the Superstar Elbow. A match like this should lead to something down the line for the participants involved, but as per NOAH's booking style, NOTHING came of it.
Match Rating: *1/2

4 X 4 Survival Tag: Kenta Kobashi, KENTA, Akihiko Ito & Atsushi Aoki VS Kensuke Sasaki, Katsuhiko Nakajima, Takashi Okita & Kento Miyahara
Match #1: Takashi Okita & Kento Miyahara VS KENTA & Atsushi Aoki
- A hot start to the series with the NOAH team using some rather heelish tactics on the KO rookies. Okita has potential to be a good powerhouse grappler like Sugiura, but he'll be stuck in the junior heavyweight division since he lacks height! KENTA was taller than him! Miyahara had his arm brutalized by Aoki throughout the match, and that lead to him finally being eliminated by a keylock cross-armbreaker by the future NOAH Jr. star.
Match #2: Takashi Okita & Kensuke Sasaki VS KENTA & Atsushi Aoki
- Match two and KO send in it's biggest gun in Kensuke! KENTA gets right in his face and is actually able to stand toe-to-toe with the former IWGP/Triple Crown champion! Aoki even seems to get in some good shots on the big man, including hitting his Assault Point finisher for a near fall before Kensuke regains control slamming down with a powerbomb to counter an armbreaker, and making the rookie submit to the Boston Crab!
Match #3: Takashi Okita & Kensuke Sasaki VS KENTA & Akihiko Ito
- Ito got in a good amount of offense on Sasaki, including hitting a big Death Valley Driver and a frog splash for a near fall, but then Sasaki took his head off with a big lariat and pinned him!
Match #4: Takashi Okita & Kensuke Sasaki VS KENTA & Kenta Kobashi
- Okita now gets a chance to shine against a veteran as he takes it to Kobashi and even manages to hit a big Jackhammer for a 1 count! Kobashi quickly battles back with a superplex and a barrage of chops before putting Okita's lights out with a sleeper-hold! Very convincing sell of the sleeper by Okita!
Match #5: Kensuke Sasaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima VS KENTA & Kenta Kobashi
- This is where the awesomeness of the match goes into serious overdrive! All four men put in one heck of an effort to pull out one Hell of a back and forth battle where you know the first team to give in inch to the other could lose it all! This confrontation was also leagues better than the tag match at the Budokan that ended in a draw, and the shocking ending of Nakajima scoring the win over KENTA adds fuel to the fire of what would be one of the best feuds of the year!
- Nominated by many as a Match of the Year contender, I would whole-heartedly agree, and the final round could easily have been a MOTY in itself!
Match Rating: ****1/2

Labels: El Dorado, Kensuke Office, NOAH, SEM

Junji Izumuda & Taiji Ishimori VS Kento Miyahara & Takashi Okita
- Skip this unless you want to see how the KO students are coming along.

Kishin Kawabata, Kentaro Shiga & Masao Inoue VS Tamon Honda, Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Mitsuo Momota
- Skip this too as we've seen it a million times before.

Akira Taue & Mohammed Yone VS Akitoshi Saito & Kazushi Miyamoto
- A tryout match for Miyamoto? He got to show off some good offense and Yone sold well for him, but in the end he did the job and hasn't been seen back in NOAH since if I'm not mistaken.

Naomichi Marufuji & Kotaro Suzuki VS Mitsuharu Misawa & Ippei Ota
Watching this, I wonder if Ota did anything to piss off anyone in NOAH since he was picked on by almost everyone, including his partner Misawa! We had retired wrestler Satoru Asako as the referee in this one, and he did an OK job. I don't get why he didn't complain when Marufuji used his as a tag partner by ramming him into Ota in the corner. Good match with a bit of comedy to it. One great spot was Kotaro catching Ota in mid-air off the top in a vertical suplex position before flipping him an dropping him in a tombstone piledriver! Suzuki finished off Ota with the Blue Destiny. Ota managed to get his airplane spin spot in, but I still can't see him as a serious contender in NOAH, but maybe more along the lines of a Makoto Hashi-like jobber for life run.
Match Rating: **

Atsushi Aoki Shining Magic 10-Match Trial Series - Match 5: Atsushi Aoki VS Yoshinari Ogawa
- As you can expect, this was a very technical mat based match, with Aoki constantly attacking Ogawa's arm and trying for submissions every chance he got. Felt a bit dull to me though.
Match Rating: *1/2

Jun Akiyama, Takeshi Rikioh & Yoshibobu Kanemaru VS Yoshihiro Takayama, Takuma Sano & Genba Hirayanagi
- The fun thing about this match was watching Genba being a total pain in Akiyama's back with him constantly taking cheap shots at the former GHC champion every chance he got. He even got in a low blow on both Akiyama and Rikioh at one point! Of course Genba lost the match for his team, and took a low blow from Akiyama after the match, but that didn't stop him from getting on the microphone to provoke Akiyama again! Akiyama ran out from the locker room and Genba ran off in the other the direction, which was rather hilarious.

Kenta Kobashi & KENTA VS Kensuke Sasaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima
- As good as this match was, I don't think it was as good as the tag match from 2005 with Go Shiozaki in KENTA's place. While Kobashi and Sasaki had some good exchanges here, the story of the match focused heavilly on KENTA and Nakajima by the end. Nakajima most probably could have beaten KENTA here if not for the time limit, but it just stirs up the hatred between the two even more when KENTA becomes a spoil sport after the match and attacks Nakajima leading to a big pull-apart brawl!
Match Rating: ***1/2

GHC Heavyweight Championship: Takeshi Morishima [C] VS Takashi Sugiura
- I'm not sure if the point of this match was to show that Sugiura could hang with the heavyweights in the main event scene. He can obviously hang with the heavyweights, but looked like they put him over Morishima a little too much, just short of actually winning the title. The ending of the match sort of soured me a bit, as Sugiura controlled a lot of it and seemed to have the match in the bag, hitting the Olympic Slam on big Morishima twice to get a near fall. He had previously pinned Morishima that same way during the Global Tag League. Unfortunately, Morishima than pops up and all effects of the beating he took througout the match are out the door as he proceeds to destroy Sugiura enroute to retaining his title. Rather than have Morishima just get up like nothing happened, it would have made more sense for Sugiura to miss a big move, or Mori to counter something before getting his breath back for the comeback. Credit to Morishima for reaching down in his bag of tricks and pulling out a moonsault before ending the match with the backdrop driver. And the spot where Sugiura tried to German suplex big Morishima but buckling and Morishima's weight collapsing on top of him was a spot I've always wanted to see in wrestling. Pulling out something different now and then shows growth, but I still can't forgive that little booking blunder of Morishima's comeback.
Match Rating: ***3/4

Labels: Kensuke Office, NOAH

Kento Miyahara Debut Match ~ A New Dream: Kento Miyahara vs Seiya Sanada
Kensuke Office rookie vs All Japan rookie. Good new blood match, but I felt it went a little too long. Sanada wins with a high-angle Boston crab after hitting a high-angle backbreaker.

Takashi Okita Debut Match ~ A New Dream: Takashi Okita VS Takeshi Minaminao
Minaminao is an Ultimo Dragon student, and Okita is an ex-American football player. This one also felt like it went longer than necessary with Minaminao finally putting away the rookie with a Swanton bomb.

Catfish Yume no Holy Land: Catfishman, Catfishman & Catfishman VS Kikutaro, Magnitude Kishiwada & Boso Boy Raito
Fun little comedy match with these bizzare Catfishmen. Nothing much really stood out for me in this one.

Katsuhiko Nakajima Return Match ~ Future Dream First Confrontation: Katsuhiko Nakajima VS Ryuji Yamaguchi
Fun cometitive match between the returning Nakajima and rookie Yamaguchi. These two folded each other in half several times with backdrops and Germans before Nakajima hit a moonsault press to take the match.
Match Rating: *1/2

Under the Name of Dream: Kensuke Sasaki, Genichiro Tenryu, Yoshihiro Takayama & Minoru Suzuki VS Shinjiro Ohtani, Yutaka Yoshie, Akitoshi Saito & Toshiaki Kawada
A fun all star main event where everyone got to hit their spots. They even teased Suzuki heeling Kensuke when he broke up a cover Kensuke had on Ohtani! There were a lot of fun strike exchanges too and I really loved Tenryu acting like he broke his hand when he smacked Kawada on the cheek with a guh punch! Finish came with Tenryu hitting the 53-Years Old on Saito, followed by a Northern Lights Bomb from Kensuke and the Everast German Suplex-hold by Takayama for the win.
Match Rating: ***1/2

Michiyoshi Ohara and Tatsutoshi Gotoh attacked Kensuke after the match. Where were all of Kensuke's friends then?

Overall: Fun show and worth a look for the two main events.

Labels: AJPW, Kensuke Office, NJPW, NOAH, Zero-1 MAX

Akihiko Ito & Genba Hirayanagi VS Takashi Okita & Kento Miyahara
Ito and Miyahara have been developing a bit of a rivalry through out the tour, and this was the climax of it for now. Good showing from the rookies of both sides, and Ito avenges a previous loss pinning Miyahara here with a German suplex.

Kishin Kawabata, Kentaro Shiga & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi VS Masao Inoue, Junji Izumuda & Mitsuo Momota
Standard mid-card fare. Kikuchi pins Momota with a roll-up.

Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Taiji Ishimori VS Bryan Danielson & Atsushi Aoki
Interesting thing about this match was that Kanemaru turned on his partner here since they’ve been feuding for a while now anyway. Despite the assist from Kanemaru, Danielson & Aoki still weren’t able to put Ishimori away and Ishimori beat Aoki with a sick cradle DDT.

Akira Taue, Kotaro Suzuki & Ricky Marvin VS D-Lo Brown, Buchanan & Bobby Fish
I hope D-Lo enjoys being an enhancement talent in WWE, cause it’s such a waste of his talents considering the push NOAH was giving him. Would you rather work for a company that pushed you as a legitimate monster foreigner, even getting to no-sell for KOBASHI, or would you rather be dropping falls in 2-minute matches to put over a lot less talented workers?
Rant aside, a fun match with the main story being Marvin trying to take on the bigger foreigners. Fun back and forth closing moments, with D-Lo finally hitting the Lo-Down on Marvin for the win.

Kenta Kobashi, Tamon Honda & KENTA VS Yoshihiro Takayama, Takuma Sano & Go Shiozaki
Takayama bring Shiozaki over to the dark side and watch the fun ensue when Shiozaki takes on his mentor Kobashi! What we get here is a taste of the awesomeness that’s in store when Kobashi and Shiozaki finally collide some time down the line. Both delivered stiff-ass chops with the crowd eating it all up wanting to see Go beat Kobashi! Takayama and Kobashi’s rivalry also heated up pretty good here, as they brawled and had to be pulled apart after the match even.
KENTA got some good shots in on Takayama as well, as you know he’s still looking to beat the bigger striker. The only person in the match that seemed like an after thought was Honda, who ultimately dropped the fall to Sano in the end.
Match Rating: ***3/4

Global Tag League: Naomichi Marufuji & Takashi Sugiura VS Takeshi Morishima & Mohammed Yone
Current GHC tag champions versus the former GHC tag champions, and the match also served the purpose of building up Sugiura to get a GHC heavyweight championship match against Morishima when he pinned him here after dropping him on his head twice with the Olympic Slam! Other than that, it was see-saw match with a lot of great back and forth action that could have easily gone to a time limit draw.
Match Rating: ****
See Match Higlights: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1OTrZ7ICFQ

Global Tag League: Jun Akiyama & Takeshi Rikioh VS Kensuke Sasaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima
The former unbeaten GHC tag champions take on the pride of the Kensuke Office, with awesome results! Mostly due to the fire Nakajima brings to his matches, especially when playing the underdog to two bigger guys like Akiyama and Rikioh. Current AJPW Triple Crown champion Kensuke matched brawn and power with Akiyama and Rikioh, and the crowd erupted for him pinning former GHC champion Rikioh with the Northern Lights Bomb.
Match Rating: ***1/2
See Match Highlights: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEzEe2OyGEw

Global Tag League: Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa VS Akitoshi Saito & Bison Smith
Nobody in their right mind expected Saito and Bison to win this, but that’s exactly what happened, and it surprised everyone when Saito was able to pin Ogawa with the Sickle of Death enzuguiri. Not really a great match per-say, as they could have done more to build up the finish since Misawa/Ogawa didn’t get many near falls on Bison/Saito to make the fans believe that the underdogs had a chance rather than just have them dominate the ending and add a bit of drama.
Match Rating: ***

Overall: This was a very good show from front to back, capped off with a load of great tag matches.

Labels: NOAH

Happy New Year!

Junji Izumuda & Tsutomu Hirayanagi VS Kishin Kawabata & Mitsuo Momota
Surprisingly Hirayanagi is breaking out as a mini SUWA-like heel! He wasn’t afraid to dish out low-blows when in trouble and even heeled his own partner! He’s gonna make a fine junior heel in the future. Kawabata remains a fun guilty pleasure of mine to watch, and he pulled out a new move I haven’t seen before, where he went for an inverted corner splash but flipped inward into a senton! Kawabata finished off Hirayanagi with his top rope diving senton, but Hirayanagi was the one with the lasting impression as he gave Izumuda a low blow before leaving on his own!
Fun match, just for watching Hirayanagi’s growth.
Match Rating: *

Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Atsushi Aoki VS Kotaro Suzuki & Ippei Ota
This was a lot of fun! Aoki and Ota have come a long way since their rookie days, but Aoki is the obvious stand out of all the rookies with his speedy submission moves that seem to come out of nowhere. Ota is still a airplane-spin machine, and there was one rather hilarious spot where after getting spun around, Kanemaru almost dropkicked the referee! Ota still does the swinging bulldog and Buff Blockbuster, but it wasn’t enough to put away Aoki, who managed to catch Ota in a cross-armbreaker for the submission win.
Match Rating: **1/2

Doug Williams & Bull Buchanan VS Masao Inoue & Takuma Sano
OK match to showcase Buchanan who will hopefully be touring regularly with NOAH since he doesn’t have many other places to go. I didn’t like the spot where both Sano and Williams just popped up and no-sold each other’s finishers. Inoue had some good exchanges with Buchanan, and Buchanan won with the Iron Bomb off the top rope on Inoue.
I think Buchanan would make a good partner for Bison Smith if they want to re-establish a monster gaijin team.
Match Rating: *

Tamon Honda, Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Go Shiozaki VS Mohammed Yone, Takashi Sugiura & Akihiko Ito
Standard six-man tag fare here, but the highlight was easily watching Shiozaki and Ito go at it! It was really surprising that they gave Ito a finisher like the Vertebreaker / Cop Killa’, and that they would let Go kick out of it! The crowd really came alive for the hot finish, and Go did a tribute to his mentor Kobashi by almost putting Ito away with the Burning Sword short lariat! Sugiura broke up that pin attempt, but Go was able to score the win with his Go Flasher finisher.
Match Rating: ***

Yoshinari Ogawa & Eddie Edwards VS KENTA & Taiji Ishimori
KENTA was in total dick mode here as he constantly took every cheap shot he could at Ogawa! It would be good for Ogawa to start putting over the new blood like everyone else has been doing over the rest of the year and hopefully they follow this up in 2008. Edwards and Ishimori had some good exchanges as well and Ishimori had Edwards beat on several occasions if not for Ogawa making the save. Edwards had a great finishing run as well, catching Ishimori with a top rope frankensteiner followed by a big powerbomb for a near fall, and finishing with a sweet looking cross-legged fisherman’s buster for the win.
Match Rating: **1/2

Akira Taue & Kentaro Shiga VS Akitoshi Saito & Bison Smith
This was fun mostly when Taue was in the ring as they sort of teased a Taue/Bison feud. Shiga may have lost his hardcore title and his hair, but was still fun to watch as he wasn’t afraid to give Bison multiple low blows through out the match, including a double-hand testicular-claw to break Bison’s iron claw! Shiga fell to Saito’s Sickle Death enzuguiri though. But hopefully they continue with a Taue / Bison feud as they too had some heated exchanges here.
Match Rating: **1/2

Naomichi Marufuji VS Takeshi Morishima
Well, I’d heard the hype about this match and how good or how bad it was depending on your view. A lot of complaints about the structure, but I thought it was pretty good. They played it up as the big man vs. little man match, with Morishima being a monster and Marufuji the smaller man, but not necessarily the underdog as he had a lot of tricks up his sleeve to try and take down the big man. Marufuji got in some offense you wouldn’t have expected, like an inverted powerbomb off the top rope and a flipping Shiranui (Spanish Fly / Flux Capacitor) off the ramp to the floor! He even did something new, like a new foot-stomp version of the Famouser! Marufuji actually looked like he was on his way to winning this one, till Morishima countered the Pole Shift by falling on top of him and going wild with strikes followed by a pair of SICK lariats and backdrops for the win!
Match Rating: ***3/4

Kenta Kobashi Return Match: Kenta Kobashi & Yoshihiro Takayama VS Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama
The match was all about the atmosphere of Kobashi being back in the ring, and man doesn’t seem to have lost a step despite being away from the ring for over a year! The crowd was nuts every time Kobashi was in there and you could tell Kobashi didn’t want to disappoint them! He still throws some nasty chops, and when it came down to it, he also busted out the big moves like the sleeper suplex, the half-nelson, and the always crowd pleasing moonsault press!
It got to the point Misawa had to play heel and hit Kobashi from behind to stop his momentum at one point, which got a good round of boos from the crowd! The final stretch saw Misawa and Akiyama do their best to put down Kobashi, but the Tiger Driver, running elbow and Emerald Frosion couldn’t do it! Misawa had to give Kobashi a sick looking Emerald Frosion off the top rope to finally put away Kobashi, and this totally hushed the crowd as they really wanted to see their hero get the win here.
Unlike previous Budokan shows though, the crowd didn’t leave immediately after the main event, but rather stuck around cheer on Kobashi for his efforts (even chanting “Kobashi” over Misawa’s theme!) and only when he disappeared through the entrance curtain did the crowd disperse.
Kobashi is definitely still on form here, and didn’t look all that winded at the end of it. Will be interesting to see how the next chapter in Kobashi’s career progresses now with the rise of the new blood like Marufuji and Morishima. But make no doubt about it, KOBASHI IS BACK!!!
Match Rating: ****

Labels: NOAH

Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Tsutomu Hirayanagi VS Mitsuo Momota & Atsushi Aoki
I rather enjoyed watching the two old veterans go at it, as Momota wasn’t afraid to take some sick looking elbow strikes from Kikuchi and Kikuchi took several loud slaps from Momota. They really flubbed their timing during the ending moments of the match though, and the final 3-count was a bit questionable whether Momota kicked out of Kikuchi’s backslide in time or not since Aoki was right there to break the count but didn’t. Of the two rookies in the match, Aoki got to show more than Hirayanagi, who’s still very far down the food chain compared to the boy in blue.
Match Rating: *

Yoshinobu Kanemaru & SUWA VS Ricky Marvin & Taiji Ishimori
Now this is the kind of match that comes to mind when you think of junior heavyweight tag team action! You had the exciting speedy team of Marvin and Ishimori up against the two heel brawlers in Kanemaru & SUWA, and what you get out of it is a great match. I love the opening sequence where Marvin avoided everything that was thrown at him and managed to take down the heels with a bit of help from Ishimori. Than the heels took over with their dirty tactics, distracting the referee so SUWA could hit a big low blow on Marvin, take him out of the match for a bit so they could work over Ishimori. SUWA even dropped a submission hold to threaten to go out after a fan sitting in the audience!
Marvin finally gets the hot tag and it’s more high-speed offense all over the place, hitting a big 619 and a sweet Shining Wizard for a near fall. Ishimori joins in the fray and hits a big Swanton-bomb and a standing shooting star press for a near fall Ishimori tries for the Superstar Elbow, but SUWA recovers and catches him in mid-air with a big back suplex! SUWA hits a big time lariat, but only gets a near fall. SUWA than hits a big John Woo, than finally finishes Ishimori with a big running FFF 3-quarters across the ring for the win!
Match Rating: ***

Tamon Honda & Shuhei Taniguchi VS Scorpio & Murat Bosporus
Like I’ve said before, I really enjoy watching Bosporus in NOAH, and there were even a few Bosporus fans chanting “Murat” for him in the front row here! His major disadvantage for him as once again demonstrated here was his size, as there were a few spots that just didn’t come out right because of it and even cause a few unintentional funny moments, like the bizarre cross-face chicken wing he attempted which ended up looking like a really ugly Tazmission. Still, he did manage to hit that great frog splash of his, and managed to belly-to-belly suplex the much larger Tamon Honda.
Taniguchi was also given a good showing here, as he hit some big suplexes of his own on Scorpio, and played a part in the finish where he and Honda gave their opponents stereo Germans and pinfalls, with Taniguchi getting a 2 count on Scorpio, but Murat couldn’t kick out of the Dead End, giving the home team the win.
Match Rating: *1/2

Masao Inoue, Kishin Kawabata & Ippei Ota VS Doug Williams, Nigel McGuinness & Ares
Well, Ares finally made himself useful for a change. He did some of his usual comedy at the beginning with his neckties, but came out looking strong at the end of the match when he hit a great looking cannonball on Ota, followed by a nice brainbuster and finishing with a tiger driver for the win. There was also a really nice spot where Williams and McGuinness battered Ota back and forth with non-stop European uppercuts! Other than all that, the one other fun spot was Inoue and Kawabata helping Ota get more spin on his aeroplane spin and Ares doing a great job of selling the move while he was going round and round.
Match Rating: *1/2

Akira Taue & Kentaro Shiga VS Akitoshi Saito & Go Shiozaki
This was another really fun tag match! Saito and Shiozaki tried to steal this one early by attacking Taue and Shiga, then hitting a big doomsday missile dropkick on Shiga, but Taue recovered in time to make the save. But the best part of the match was when Taue tried to charge in on Saito with his trademark running corner face kick, and Saito ducked and Taue a big jab in the nuts! It was funny watching Taue hop around selling the shot, but than Saito sets up Taue for a Dynamic-Bomb, and Taue responds by giving a head butt in the gonads! So we get a really funny sight of two veterans selling their aching genitals on the mat! This match will forever be immortalized for that spot alone! Add to that, we also get a good showing from Shiga and Shiozaki, including a very Kobashi-like short lariat from Shiozaki, and Shiga steals the win from Go with a ground cobra-twist.
Match Rating: **

Takeshi Morishima & Mohammed Yone VS Jun Akiyama & Makoto Hashi
There was one really awesome spot in this match where Morishima and Yone were going to give Akiyama a Doomsday Device type move, but Akiyama escaped it by giving Yone a super Exploder off Morishima’s shoulders! We than get the usual underdog Hashi booking, as he comes close to winning the match several times and fighting for all he’s worth to survive the onslaught of the former GHC tag team champions. They may have goofed up the ending a bit when Yone hit the Muscle Buster on Hashi, but he actually let Hashi up before pinning him again and Hashi kicked out the second time on his own. Yone would than hit a huge diving guillotine leg drop on Hashi for the win.
Great match aside, what the heck happened to Hashi? If he teamed with Morishima, you could probably call them Team Man-Boobs!
Match Rating: **

Mitsuharu Misawa, Yoshinari Ogawa & Kotaro Suzuki VS Yoshihiro Takayama, Takuma Sano & Takashi Sugiura
Seriously, I thought this one dragged on longer than necessary. There was a lot of goodness with Suzuki in there playing the little guy taking on a gang of bigger guys, and he even managed to hit the Blue Destiny on Sano for a near fall! There was even a few fun exchanges between Ogawa and Takayama. The only thing that seemed to kill the momentum of the match was Misawa, who as usual looked really un-motivated here. Sano takes the win for his team with a big Northern Lights Bomb on Suzuki.
Match Rating: *

GHC Heavyweight Title: Naomichi Marufuji [C] VS KENTA
To say that these two gave it their all in this one is definitely an understatement, as both men threw caution to the wind on more than one occasion to risk it all for the gold, the way a world title match should be! They did some really insane stuff in this one, but the biggest near miss that could have been disastrous was the moonsault out to the floor Marufuji gave KENTA early on, but didn’t quite clear the guardrail and could have broken his neck! KENTA was busted open the hard way from spot, but you could still see him asking the referee and the seconds to check on Marufuji.
Things just got more extreme from there, as KENTA would counter a Shiranui from Marufuji by tossing him right out onto the floor, crashing into the guardrail! They tried to re-enact the Misawa/Kobashi tiger suplex to the floor spot from 2003, but Marufuji was able to flip out of the German suplex KENTA tried and land on his feet. Marufuji wasn’t so lucky moments later when KENTA would give him a big time falcon arrow off the apron to the floor, and follow that with a big springboard diving double foot stomp onto the champion’s already aching chest on the floor! They then did the classic “no-sell chain sequence”, where Marufuji escaped a Go2Sleep attempt and hit a dangerous backdrop, KENTA pops up with a dangerous backdrop of his own, Marufuji pops up with a release German, KENTA pops up with a German of his own but almost loses him due to the momentum and Marufuji almost crashes on him, Marufuji pops up again with a release German but KENTA lands on his feet and gives Marufuji a discuss lariat, and Marufuji answers with a superkick before both men finally collapse!
Marufuji also managed to match kicks with KENTA as he added the spinning sobat kick to his arsenal and scored a near fall after a barrage of spin kicks to KENTA’s head. Marufuji also innovated a wrist-clutch Shiranui for a near fall and was smart enough to position himself near the ropes after taking a Go2Sleep so he could get a foot on the ropes to break the count. The biggest “WTF” moment for Marufuji was when he hit the super Shiranui (one-man Spanish Fly) and KENTA actually managed to kick out at 2.9! Marufuji was shocked as heck, so he picked up KENTA and drove him on his head with his new wrist-clutch fisherman’s driver finisher, which reminded me more of Hiroyoshi Tenzan’s sit-out ganso-TTD, to finally put KENTA away and successfully defend his title after 30-minutes of action!
Overall, the match was what you’d expect from these two next generation aces of the company. It was a great world title match if you don’t look between the lines that you basically had two junior heavyweights fighting it out for the company’s top prize. And like I said at the beginning, they gave it their all and sacrificed their bodies to entertain the 10,000+ fans at the Budokan who were really in to it from the get go.
Match Rating: ****3/4

Overall: OK, it’s no secret the card was put together deliberately just to see how well Marufuji VS KENTA could draw on their own without anything else major on the undercard. But despite how poor on paper the card looked, the actual matches were all quite entertaining and made for a good show overall. On a final note, I hope they bring back Murat Bosporus sometime in the future ^_^ .

Labels: NOAH

Kentaro Shiga, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Tsutomu Hirayanagi VS Tamon Honda, Makoto Hashi & Shuhei Taniguchi
Rookie Hirayanagi takes a beating getting slammed out on the floor several times, but he did manage to get in some stand-out offense like a missile dropkick, fisherman’s suplex-hold and a swinging DDT. Kanemaru showed a lot of animosity towards his ex-Sterness partner Hashi, and I think they botched a spot where Hashi tried to front suplex Kanemaru off the top and I think Kanemaru was supposed to counter it into Deep Impact, but they just fell awkwardly and Hashi had to sell the spot. Honda went wild with Dead Ends near the end and Hashi scored the win over Hirayanagi with the Gori-Thunder (Blue Thunder). Good opener.
Match Rating: *

Masao Inoue, Kishin Kawabata & Masahi Aoyagi VS Scorpio, Ares & Murat Bosporus
I find myself really enjoying watching Murat Bosporus. He looks like a midget in there, but he makes up for it with his explosiveness and Taz-like arsenal of suplexes, as well as a great frog-splash. Murat plays the serious guy off Ares’ more comical persona and the two mesh well. I don’t get why Scorpio is wearing the lucha-mask though. He won it for his team with a big 450’ splash on Aoyagi.
Match Rating: *

Yoshinari Ogawa, Kotaro Suzuki & Ippei Ota VS Takashi Sugiura, Ricky Marvin & Atsushi Aoki
Great junior six-man tag action (Ogawa is a free-weight, remember?), and I like the short exchange between Ogawa and Sugiura. Marvin and Suzuki never fail to entertain when they are in there against each other, and the rookies looked good too. I think this is the first time Aoki did his Mysterio-rana into an arm-breaker perfectly. Suzuki spiked Aoki with a tombstone piledriver for the win.
Match Rating: **

A quick look back to earlier in the day where Tamon Honda had to surrender the GHC tag titles, followed by the contract signing and Q&A session for the GHC heavyweight title match on 10/29/2006 at the Budokan between the champion Naomichi Marufuji and challenger KENTA.

Jun Akiyama VS Tsuyoshi Kikuchi
One of those rare moments where Kikuchi shows the potential for greatness in him instead of just being the comedic grumpy veteran who keeps getting pinned in tag matches. Kikuchi started off strong with a barrage of elbow strikes and triple-rolling Germans, but Blue Thunder Akiyama bounced back and pummeled Kikuchi with a big Exploder out on the floor and a barrage of running knee strikes, but the old veteran wouldn’t go down easily. Akiyama had to drop him on his head with a big Exploder to finally put him out, but Kikuchi still fired him up with an elbow-strike to the face when Akiyama offered him a handshake after the match!
Match Rating: ***

Takeshi Morishima & Mohammed Yone VS Naomichi Marufuji & Go Shiozaki
Morishima and Yone really had to work hard to earn this one! Despite his size, GHC heavyweight champion Marufuji used his quickness to counter the size and power advantage of his opponents, and Shiozaki is still as exciting and explosive to watch as ever. I don’t know what it is about Shiozaki that he can make a move like a German suplex so exciting to watch, and it’s a scary thought that he almost pinned Yone with it if Morishima hadn’t made the save! The rookie showed a lot of fight before finally being put down by Yone’s Muscle Buster.
Match Rating: ***

Mitsuharu Misawa VS Kazunari Murakami
Well this was a big disappointment! It’s bad enough Murakami had to hold his punches back, but Misawa just didn’t really sell anything for the guy! Even when Murakami was trying to hit him right in the face, Misawa didn’t flinch! The only thing of note was Misawa’s lousy attempt at a pair of rolling Germans, and finally getting stiff with his elbow shots before finishing off Murakami (who did a small blade job) with his trademark (and anti-climatic) running elbow bunt.
Match Rating: *

GHC Tag Titles Decision Tournament – Round 1: Akira Taue & SUWA VS Doug Williams & Nigel McGuinness
A standard tag match which I didn’t feel built up to much. I don’t know if it’s intentional, but McGuinness needs to lay off the comedy since this was a big match to go for the tag titles. Williams played up the senior role for his team so we at least got to see him doing something in there and not clown around. The odd pairing of SUWA and Taue advance in the tournament after Taue pins the ROH Pure Champion with the I AM TAUE.
Match Rating: *1/2

GHC Tag Titles Decision Tournament – Round 1: Yoshihiro Takayama & Takuma Sano VS Akitoshi Saito & KENTA
Now this was just an all out tag war! Takayama may have been the biggest man in the match, but I’m surprised at how much punishment he took in there, especially some stiff shots to the head. He made KENTA look like a million bucks too, and it was good of KENTA to return the favor when Takayama was in charge. The only minor complaint I had was probably that the match was mostly just KENTA and Takayama in there, with Sano and Saito playing supporting roles even if they did get some spots in like Saito’s near falls on Takayama with some of his big moves. Saito appealed to be KENTA’s partner in this tournament, but KENTA came out looking a whole lot stronger since when it came down to it, it didn’t take much for Takayama to do away with Saito, using the Everest German suplex-hold to advance in the tournament.
Match Rating: ****

Overall: I like the ramp set up they had for this show in a rather big looking Osaka arena, but overall a lot of the matches just felt by the numbers, with only the big tag main event really standing out from everything else.

Labels: NOAH

The show starts off with a 10-bell salute to the late AAA founder Antonio Pena, with Ricky Marvin in the ring holding his picture. We then see Jun Akiyama in the back with a big smile on his face as he points to his name on the event program as he’s in the opening match as part of his plan to rebuild himself from the bottom up after losing the GHC heavyweight title to Naomichi Marufuji the month prior.

Jun Akiyama & Atsushi Aoki VS Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Go Shiozaki
Interesting how Akiyama looks a lot younger when wearing his old blue tights and not coloring his hair? He didn’t even do any of his big move offense and had a fun elbow strike exchange with Kikuchi, which I think would have been better if Kikuchi won or switched to a headbutt to throw off Akiyama’s momentum during the exchange. Akiyama & Aoki in matching blue gear makes them look like a regular tag team too.
I’m not sure how it happened, but Aoki got busted open the hard way during an exchange with Shiozaki. Both youngsters looked great in there, with Shiozaki showing more moves added to his arsenal again and finally having someone he can have seniority over. I don’t know why also, but Kikuchi felt the need to yank up Aoki’s tights into a wedgie to half moon the crowd while shouting “Aoki-chan!” before giving him a pair of snap suplexes.
The ending came off as a bit anti-climatic too, as the crowd didn’t react to Kikuchi beating Aoki with the fireball-bomb. Maybe cause they didn’t give Aoki any hot kick outs?
Match Rating: *1/2

Makoto Hashi Return Match: Makoto Hashi, Tamon Honda & Mitsuo Momota VS Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Kentaro Shiga & SUWA
First off, Hashi looks really big compared to the last time I saw him. He’s even bigger than SUWA. He looked great in there though, and seems to be heating a rivalry with SUWA here. A lot of good back and forth action here, though nothing really memorable. Interestingly enough, Hashi lost his return match as expected, but it was Momota that dropped the fall to a school boy roll-up from Shiga.
Match Rating: *

Akira Taue & Takuma Sano VS Scorpio & Ares
This was mostly a comedy match, especially when Taue and Scorpio were in there doing things like giving each other a testicular claw! Ares probably had the best match of his career against Kobashi in Germany a few years back, and he fit the comedy bill here the way he kept stopping to adjust his tie. Taue even got in on it telling Ares to tuck in his shirt. Though he did botch a fisherman’s neckbreaker that probably wasn’t all his fault, Ares had a nice showing in the closing moments, hitting a forward flip senton on Sano for a near fall as well as countering a Northern Lights Bomb into an inside cradle for another near fall before Sano finally hit his move to take the win while Scorpio mooned the crowd due to Taue pulling his pants to prevent him from breaking the cover!
Match Rating: *1/2

Akitoshi Saito, Masao Inoue & Kishin Kawabata VS Takeshi Rikioh, Mohammed Yone & KENTA
A fun six man tag mostly due to KENTA being the little bastard that he is always trying to pick a fight in a big dog like Saito, and the fighting spirit of Kishin Kawabata as he again put on a good showing being the underdog that he is. It was fun seeing Kawabata add Giant Baba’s atomic drop-to-backdrop suplex combination to his arsenal, and he hit a pretty good Axe Bomber on Yone for a nearfall. The match broke down to a wild brawl all over the ring and Yone managed to score the fall on Kawabata with the muscle buster.
Match Rating: **1/2

Yoshinari Ogawa & Kotaro Suzuki VS Nigel McGuinness & Ricky Marvin
In one of those “What the heck was he thinking?!” moments, Marvin hit a huge dive over the top rope on Kotaro out on the floor and slammed his leg into the guardrail really early in the match (the very FIRST exchange!). The guy was obviously in a lot of pain as he slowly rolled back on the ring and to his corner to tag out to McGuinness before immediately being checked on by the ring seconds and officials. Marvin was able to continue after getting his leg heavily taped up, but it became an open target for Ogawa and Suzuki to attack for most of the match. Despite this though, Marvin put up a heck of a gutsy performance and almost won the match on several occasions! He was finally put away by Suzuki with a tombstone piledriver at the end.
I haven’t seen much of McGuinness, so it was good to see what his Tower of London finisher actual was, which is a hangman’s Ace Crusher. Interestingly enough, they even managed to pull out a pair of 4-way comedy spots, first with all four men giving each other ground headscissors, than the classic Osaka Pro spot where 3 guys lock each other in figure four headlocks, and the third guy does a Boston crab to the last guy in the line.
Overall, I’m not sure if the Marvin smashing his leg into the guardrail was part of the plan, but it made for telling a good underdog story in the ring as he fought through the pain to continue the match.
Match Rating: **

Mitsuharu Misawa, Takashi Sugiura & Ippei Ota VS Kazunari Murakami, Katsumi Usuda & Manabu Hara
Well this was rather disappointing! The only time Misawa and Murakami got it on was after Sugiura and Ota beat down Murakami, and Murakami quickly tagged out then too! So it was mostly just the younger guys getting it on, and Sugiura got to show a bit of his MMA side too. Wasn’t a whole lot to this one at the end either, as Murakami totally destroyed Ota and pinned him with a big left handed punch. The fans were obviously expecting more too.
Match Rating: *

Naomichi Marufuji & Takeshi Morishima VS Doug Williams & Murat Bosporus
Bosporus is a short pudgy guy, almost like Taz, and I think his gimmick is similar since he has suplexes drawn all over this tights and favored using several suplex variations, including a big second rope belly-to-belly on Morishima. He also hit an impressive looking Lo-Down/Mad Splash for a near fall, and that move even got the biggest pop of the match. He even managed to block Marufuji’s Shiranui twice, but with a little help from Morishima, Marufuji was able to hit the move on Bosporus from a standing position to get the win for his team.
Not really a lot to this match other than seeing what Bosporus could do in there. Everything else felt by the numbers.
Match Rating: *1/2

Tsutomu Hirayanagi VS Shuhei Taniguchi
Interestingly enough, they decided to end the show by airing a dark match from before the show began earlier in the day. It was a good showing for both rookies, with Hirayanagi grounding the bigger Taniguchi for the opening minutes before surviving a ton of punishment and scoring a few near falls on the big man before the 10-minute time limit ended and the match was declared a draw.
Match Rating: *

Labels: NOAH

Mushiking Terry VS Atsushi Aoki
I was rather surprised at the amount of offense Aoki got in the match, working over Terry’s arm to set up for his arm-bar finishers. The rookie in blue even showed a bit of cockiness and also tried to steal the win by hitting Terry with a low blow followed by his cradle backdrop-hold for a near fall! He still needs a bit of work on his Mysterio-rana into an armbar, and he did slip up his timing on one corner Irish whip, but was able to cover up for it nicely. He also showed his fighting spirit by kicking out of a death valley bomb (which I don’t think I’ve ever seen Terry do before!), and a 619 before the hero of NOAH finally put him away with the Mist Crash.
Match Rating: **

Akitoshi Saito, Masao Inoue & Kishin Kawabata VS Scorpio, Joe Legend & Ace Steel
This match was better than it had any right to be! Everyone was working on full cylinders here and didn’t slow things down for a minute! I was actually rather surprised at Ace Steel playing up the insane maniac role as he was constantly biting all the Dark Agents and drew the ire of Inoue who he bit him back when he had the chance! Legend even surprised me with his agility for a big man as he was able to turn himself in mid-air out of a diving body press into a diving leg drop! Legend ultimately scored the win over Kawabata with a high-angle Complete Shot to end a darn entertaining match.
Match Rating: ***

Tamon Honda & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi VS Takuma Sano & SUWA
What the heck is up with Kikuchi’s new entrance music? It’s sounds something like him singing it repeating the words “I am Kikuchi” over and over! He was also going for the wild man entrance, taunting the audience and headbutting a soccer ball into the crowd! The match itself also mostly centered around him as he goes iron-head again, blasting SUWA with a big headbutt twice outside the ring with the microphone held up to it to enhance the effect! After seeing what happened to SUWA, even Sano did all he could to avoid getting hit by Kikuchi’s cranium!
SUWA even tried to steal a page from the old Dragon Gate Florida Brothers playbook when he brought in a Halliburton briefcase and tossed to Kikuchi before faking being hit by it behind referee Mighty Inoue’s back, prompting Inoue to accuse Kikuchi of hitting him with it! Unlike in Dratgon Gate, Kikuchi wasn’t disqualified though, and the match continued, with Sano and SUWA getting the win after SUWA hit the John Woo followed by the FFF on Kikuchi. Honda barely had any time in the match, and the only thing of significance he did was lifting SUWA off his feet in a chancery while he sat on the top rope! That was before Sano knocked him off and hit the diving foot stomp leading up to the finish.
Match Rating: **1/2

Mohammed Yone & Ippei Ota VS Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Kentaro Shiga
Another match that was just a ton of fun! After the confrontation here, I can only imagine the kind of singles match Yone and Shiga could have since both men targeted each other’s trademark hairdo! There was even a very fun camera view of Yone and Shiga dragging each other out on the rampway and getting the crowd to mess-up each other’s hair while Ota put Kanemaru through a 30+ rotation airplane spin! Kanemaru also did a fun job of selling the airplane spin as he stumbled to his feet and dropkicked thin air cause he still dizzy! You got to give Ota credit also, as he was able to kick out of the superstar press and the moonsault before Kanemaru put him away with the brainbuster.
I seriously hope we get to see Shiga defend the Hardcore Crown against Yone sometime down the road.
Match Rating: **1/2

Akira Taue & Go Shiozaki VS KENTA & Katsuyori Shibata
This one was all kinds of awesomeness, and seemed to almost have the same heat level as Kobashi/Shiozaki VS Sasaki/Nakajima from 2005! Shibata and KENTA irritated Taue a lot during the match, constantly kicking him off the apron while they abused Go, and Shibata even did Taue’s coconut crush move to annoy the big man! So needless to say the crowd was hot and exploded when Taue got the hot tag and went it beating down the two disrespectful punks! Team TAKEOVER managed to battle back though, and Shibata took out Taue with the PK, giving them the opening to hit a springboard doomsday device on Go to get the win. Awesome match!
Match Rating: ****

Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa VS Bison Smith & Keith Walker
As far as fun factor goes, this was probably the least fun, but still good none the less, with Smith and Walker playing the badass big power gaijin team. I also liked the little heelish touch they added by having Joe Legend and Ace Steel as their cornermen and cheating behind the referee’s back when they had the chance! Ogawa had his problems due to his size, and it was up to Misawa to match power and technique with them even if he did have his share of difficulties. The gaijins almost scored the win with an awesome powerbomb/top-rope iron-claw bomb combination on Misawa, but the two time GHC tag champions were able to battle back and score the win pinning Walker after an impressive combination Emerald Frosion/brainbuster move.
Match Rating: *1/2

Takeshi Rikioh & Takeshi Morishima VS Yoshihiro Takayama & Takashi Sugiura
I thought the tag match with Shibata earlier would be the best of the night, but than this match comes along! The crowd was heavily behind Sugiura and went nuts every time he was able power up the two super heavyweights who comprise WILD II! Sugiura was able to dead-lift Rikioh off the mat, and hit the Olympic Slam on Morishima, as well as delivering several German suplexes to the bigger men! He even almost made Rikioh tap out to the grapevine ankle-hold! The crowd really wanted Sugiura to win here, and he gave it all he got up to the very end when Rikioh finally put him away with the Muso. Heck, the look on Rikioh’s face by the end of it clearly shows what a war they were just put out Sugiura!
I really hope Sugiura gets a heavyweight push much like Marufuji and KENTA have been getting lately.
Match Rating: ****

GHC Heavyweight Title: Jun Akiyama [C] VS Naomichi Marufuji
Let’s face it, NO ONE expected Marufuji to win this one, but that all changed late in the match when Marufuji kicked out of a big head-drop Exploder as well as the Sterness Dust Alpha (so much for Akiyama having a move that could beat Kobashi?). It was there that the big Marufuji chants started and things turned in his favor after hitting a big top rope Shiranui, quickly followed by a sequence of counters leading to Marufuji trapping Akiyama in the Perfect Inside Cradle, which looked like a wrist-clutch small package hold, to pull off the upset of the year and win the GHC heavyweight title!
Once again, as per Marufuji’s MO, there was leg-work at the beginning that really didn’t play much of a factor in the ending if you ask me. But he did do a rather sick looking Shiranui on to the guard rail, trying to break Akiyama’s back! He also gave him a Shiranui on the floor and a dropkick knocking off the apron landing hard on his back too. Akiyama also spent a period working over Marufuji’s back, slamming him off the rampway to the floor and locking on the old Scorpion Death Lock!
But the night of course was Marufuji’s, and the crowd erupted in shock and surprise that he actually pulled it off, but gave the man big cheers and chants of his name as his theme played. Nice touch by Marufuji to go out and thank Misawa at ringside who was doing guest commentary for the match.
Match Rating: ***1/2

Overall: Top to bottom, this was a great show! Highly recommended!

Labels: NOAH

Live from Korakuen Hall on the road to Naomichi Marufuji challenging Jun Akiyama for the GHC heavyweight title at the Nippon Budokan on 9/09/2006.

Ippei Ota VS Kotaro Suzuki
After watching so many Mushiking Terry matches, it was good to see plan old Kotaro Suzuki back in the ring again. It was different seeing him in the dominant senior role stiffing and punishing his opponent, and I love his backdrop where he flips his opponent over and slams them on their stomach, one of those “no room for error” looking moves that could be ugly if not pulled out right. And I love his Blue Destiny finisher too.
Another strong showing from Ota as well. He only got 22 rotations on the airplane spin, but made up for it with some near falls, especially when he was able to counter a La Majistral from Suzuki into a cradle of his own for a really close near fall! I just wonder what they plan to actually give him for a finisher since he already has a pretty good Blockbuster and swinging bulldog headlock.
Match Rating: *1/2

Takuma Sano & Atsushi Aoki VS Mohammed Yone & KENTA
Sano and Aoki make a good team since they wearing matching blue gear. Good showing for Aoki who took more than his fair share of stiff kicks from Yone and KENTA. I’m not sure if it was on purpose, but it looked like he blew a Mysterio-rana, but was able to change it to a cross-armbreaker at the last minute. Aoki is going to be gold in the junior division in a few years.Sano and KENTA had some fun kick exchanges, and KENTA even tried to challenge Sano to a sobat kick exchange, which he came up short in. KENTA also took a rather nasty looking sobat kick right in the face when Sano broke up a Boston crab he had Aoki in. At one point KENTA looked like he was trying for a Northern Lights Bomb to egg Sano on even more, but Aoki escaped the move. Not sure who’s fault it was, but KENTA’s finishing Go2Sleep on Aoki didn’t look very good, but Aoki sold it well to make it look killer.Match Rating: *1/2Taiji Ishimori VS Takashi SugiuraThis was a really one sided match as Sugiura totally out-sized and out-muscled Ishimori. Ishimori almost killed himself when his legs caught the ropes a bit during a dive out of the ring, but luckily Sugiura stopped his momentum when he hit him. Ishimori didn’t get a whole lot of offense in, and Sugiura almost totally choked him out with a triangle-choke, but Ishimori shocked everyone when he was able to pull his shoulder up at 2.9, but Sugiura instantly followed it up with the Olympic Slam to finish him.
Match Rating: *1/2

Akira Taue & Mitsuo Momota VS Akitoshi Saito & Kishin Kawabata
This seemed like a rather high profile match for Momota to be in, and it was a lot of fun watching the old veteran in there locking it up with Kawabata, another guilty pleasure favorite of mine. He even had a good showing against Saito and even delivered his trademark backdrop finisher to him for a near fall. Momota and Taue also make a fun geriatric team if you will. It probably wouldn’t be a match one would take seriously, but Taue and Momota challenging for the tag titles sounds like a fun gig. Heck, Momota challenged for both junior titles before, so why not?The one thing I didn’t like about the match was the way Saito was a little too rough at times, specifically when he brawled with Momota and Taue on the floor and both times tossed his opponents right into the audience without giving the fans time to move out of the way. Cheap heat like that is something he doesn’t need.Kawabata picked up the win with an axe-bomber on Momota, though I expected Momota to grab the ropes or something since he was so close to them and the fans also seemed a little under-whelmed at the ending.
Match Rating: *1/2

Scorpio & Joe Legend VS Takeshi Rikioh & Takeshi Morishima
Legend looks huge compared to when he was I last remember him, and he did this really cool looking foot stomp move on Morishima that sort of resembled a Fame-Asser. Morishima was the MVP of this match I’d say, as he wowed the crowd a bit with his cartwheel corner splash and running hip-attacks, and he even almost went at Rikioh with a hip-attack at one point! He also scored the win with a sweet backdrop suplex on Legend.
Match Rating: *1/2

Tamon Honda & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi VS Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa
The referee actually gave Kikuchi a yellow card for attacking Misawa before the bell! This was actually a rather fun match with Kikuchi constantly trying to irritate Misawa with elbow challenges and using headbutts and low kicks when those don’t work. Kikuchi is one of those guys that seriously shouldn’t be doing comedy stuff as he’s a great worker and the fans are still into him. Honda moved a bit faster than usual in this one, and did some fun double-team headbutts with Kikuchi. I’d like to see the two BURNING members get a tag title shot as it would definitely freshen things up from the norm.The ending was really anti-climatic as all four men were in the ring trading shots left and right and Misawa hits Kikuchi with a big elbow before Ogawa rolls him up for the pin without struggle. They could have done a lot more for this one since it was also Misawa’s 25th anniversary match in the business and Kanemaru presented him with a bouquet of flowers after the match. I’m all for Misawa not having a big head and not making a big deal out of his 25th anniversary, but you’d think he’d at least turn it up a notch to make the match better?
Match Rating: **

Naomichi Marufuji VS Masao Inoue
I thought the highlight moment of this match, and the of the whole show up to this point, was when Inoue spiked Marufuji on his head with a cobra-clutch suplex! I was wondering why he never used one before since he does the leg sweep version of it. Other than that, we got a lot of eye gauging from Inoue using his wrist bands, boot laces, the ring apron and the ring ropes! He even managed to outfox Marufuji a few times stealing near falls with cradles of his own and tried to steal a count out win like in his title match with Akiyama.There wasn’t much of a size difference between Marufuji and Inoue, so Marufuji wasn’t at a total size and power disadvantage here. He actually managed to powerbomb Inoue at one point as about the only power move he could get on the guy. He spent a lot of time working Inoue’s leg before they hit the high sprint and managing to out-cradle Inoue for the win. I would have preferred if Marufuji actually finished the match instead of steal a win to help his build up.The ending run of the match was fun, but the opening bits were rather boring due to all the leg work from Marufuji and eye-gouging from Inoue, neither of which played a part in the finish of the match.
Match Rating: **

Bison Smith, Keith Walker & Ricky Marvin VS Jun Akiyama, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Kentaro Shiga
The story of this match was definitely Kanemaru trying to pick a fight with Bison all through out the match. He outsmarted the big gaijin a few times, but was ultimately out-powered in the end by the big man, hitting a nice combination powerbomb into the Bison-tenial. Bison is a big man who is definitely overlooked as he always seems to have good exchanges with the native heavyweights, and despite his serious demeanor, isn’t above doing a comedy spot or two and giving the smaller guy a good showing. Walker is a big muscle-head and sort of resembles Batista a bit with the tattoos and all. He had some good powermoves like the chokeslam into a backbreaker he did to Kanemaru, but he doesn’t look like he can carry a match well. Marvin and Shiga rouded out the match and I wouldn’t mind seeing Marvin challenge Shiga for the Hardcore title.
Match Rating: *1/2

Show ends with an interview with Misawa regarding the formation of the Global Pro-Wrestling Association (GPWA), which would probably explain why he wasn’t in the main event or something bigger to celebrate his 25th anniversary in the business.

Labels: NOAH