It might not be super clear from the below star ratings, but I had a really good time watching this entire NOAH show. Thanks to the benevolent soul who uploaded the whole thing on YouTube. You’ve done a great service to the former-Green Ring. While the show wasn’t stacked with six star bangers, it showed that NOAH currently has at least one thing over modern day All Japan: a willingness to spend money on big dumb pro-wrestling fun. This entire tournament apparently drew like shit but you could never tell from the way they presented it here. Massive stage and entrance ramp, great lighting, former shoot fighters randomly appearing on the undercard and a full on LEGENDS MATCH! Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and book Kazushi Sakuraba in your midcard multiman tags. That’s a lesson every wrestling promotion will have to learn one day.
Masa Kitamiya vs. Rhyno
The man known as Rhyno is here and I’m not sure what to think. Love me a good spear, but there doesn’t seem to be a lot more to him beyond that one move in 2019. Everything that worked about this match was supplied by the ever-reliable Kitamiya who got the crowd going with his feisty comebacks and awe-inspiring hulk ups. I did quite like how they treated Masa’s Backdrop as a major looming treat all the way through. **1/2
Yoshiki Inamura vs. Kazuyuki Fujita
Like most men who have lost their way, Fujita is now managed by NOSAWA Rongai. He doesn’t have the same aura of danger of his glory days but still can put a murderous finish together. Match wasn’t much but Inamura looked good just fighting back. **
Katsuhiko Nakajima & Hijo Del Dr. Wagner Jr. vs. Go Shiozaki & Alex Hammerstone
Amusing trainwreck of match where everyone seemed to be throwing random shit at the wall, hoping anything would stick. And to be fair, some of it did stick. The AXIZ COLLIDES portion of the match was obviously good stuff – so good that it made the Wagner/Hammerstone exchanges feel a bit weak in comparison. Still, gotta give credit to Hijo Del Wagner for working the crowd like a pro and tossing out a couple of fun high spots. **3/4
Daisuke Harada © vs. Atsushi Kotoge – IPW Junior Heavyweight Title
It’s probably best for his career that Kotoge dropped the caped crusader comedy act, but he didn’t have to throw out his ENTIRE personality along with it. This was a well-executed junior bombs-fest from the Osaka boyz, but the lack of emoting and facial expressions was a little bit jarring at times. Harada’s obviously a total pro and more than held his own, but Kotoge felt like a blank slate for a lot of the match. They went for a lot of next-level modern pro-wrestling reversal insanity and most of it landed pretty well, I’ll give ‘em that. A bunch of sweet rollup counters, a bonkers top-rope flipping German suplex and a picture-perfect Moonsault from Kotoge. Lots of cool shit. Again, if they added more emotion to go along with the movez, these guys could have a great match. ***1/4
Yoshinari Ogawa, Kotaro Suzuki & Chris Ridgeway vs. Kazushi Sakuraba, Hajime Ohara & NOSAWA Rongai
Powerman 5000: how I have missed you. Kiyoshi Tamura could be seen in the crowd during this match, probably thinking to himself ‘’Yes, the U-Dream is alive and well’’ when Saku countered a jawbreaker attempt from Ogawa right into a front necklock. Isn’t Ogawa vs. Saku the ultimate Pure-O-Resew dream match you never knew you wanted? Ridgeway needs to come into contact with natural sunlight as soon as possible, but other than that I dug his indie scum shoot-stylish vibes. Getting his arm broken by Sakuraba for the finish felt like a fitting end for him. **3/4
HAYATA © vs. YO-HEY – GHC Junior Heavyweight Title
The half-Muta face paint is a great look for HAYATA and it almost makes me want to embrace his uninspired mall goth persona. An All-Movez-All-The-Time type of match that often felt more like a YouTube compilation than an actual wrestling match. Trying to find more positives here, I will say that both guys are very adept at utilizing their shiny baggy pants to enhance their thigh slap sound effects. Again, it was all fairly well executed and I popped for some of the bigger spots but it also felt very hollow. I don’t want to yammer on about STORY TELLING and go all Cornette on these poor dudes, but it really felt like there wasn’t much meat to this thing beyond the movez. ***
Kaito Kiyomiya, Keiji Muto & Jun Akiyama vs. Naomichi Marufuji, Masaaki Mochizuki & Shuhei Taniguchi
Can you imagine how nervous Kaito must have been coming out after Muto and Akiyama? Poor kid. I had a bad feeling about this match after the slow motion dream match wrestling opening from Marufuji and Muto, but then Akiyama and Taniguchi started beating the absolute dog shit out of each other and the whole thing became absurdly fun. You could tell Uncle Jun had some violence to get out of his system after feuding with Masanobu Fuchi for the entire year. This match also made me realize that few things in life make me happier than Keiji Muto cleaning house with dragon screws. Mochizuki had great chemistry with everyone here – what a treasure. Kaito seemed predictably bland compared to all the legends on deck, but he still worked his ass off and put together a good ending stretch with Taniguchi. Really, really enjoyable match. ***1/2
Takashi Sugiura vs. Kenoh – N-1 Victory (Finals)
The one thing that held this match back for me was my inability to relate to babyface Kenoh. The guy has such undeniable evil asshole energy that watching him fight from underneath feels uninteresting. It’s why he works best for me as a guy beating the shit out of Kaito Kiyomiya, rather than an underdog contender for Sugiura’s throne of toughest bastard alive. Despite the issues I had with the character work, this was still a well laid-out slug-fest that checked off a lot of Big NOAH Main Event boxes.
Sugiura made Kenoh pay for his no-selling insolence by tearing his back and neck apart, softening him up for the front necklock. In true NOAH main event fashion, they used the ramp in fun/sadistic ways and were able to make the match feel important from a structural standpoint, even if it wasn’t always clicking on the dramatic side of things. The rolling double foot stomp as an ultimate death move for Kenoh is a great idea in theory but kinda looks like shit in practice? Just throwing that out there. Overall, an occasionally-great match – but I’m pretty sure the next one between Kenoh and Kaito will work a lot better. ***3/4
