Mohammed Yone vs. Quiet Storm
One day you’re teaming with your best friend, a strong man with whom you share a great passion for disco music and forearm strikes. The next day, he’s standing across the ring and you must battle him for opening match supremacy. This is the life of a NOAH pro-wrestler. Or is it simply an allegory for life itself? I’ll have to get back to you on this. Simple but effective wrasslin’ here – lots of quality grunting from Quiet Storm and a couple of shockingly stiff shots from Yone. Muscle Buster finish was class. **1/4
Hajime Ohara & Kinya Okada vs. Haoh & Nioh
Still not sure if Haoh and Nioh are doing anything for me, as much as I want to like them. What I know for sure is that I dig Ohara’s various backbreaker spots. He is pulling off the Japanese Roderick Strong gimmick with great panache. Okada looking gigantic next to Haoh was a good look. Post-match introduction of DICKMANIA was pretty great – some quality wrestling on the horizon. **1/4
Michael Elgin vs. Masao Inoue
HOW COULD THEY DO THIS TO YOU MASAO!?
Takashi Sugiura, Kazushi Sakuraba & Hideki Suzuki vs. Shuhei Taniguchi, Minoru Tanaka & Hitoshi Kumano
Sugiura-Gun is truly the most fearful faction in wrestling right now. Solid multiman tag action with Tanaka/Saku grapplefuckery bringing back glorious memories of Minoru’s BattlARTS days. I was also a big fan of the match-long running gag that consisted of Sugiura abandoning Saku right in the middle of double-team attempts. Equally cruel and hilarious. Kumano and Hideki didn’t seem on the same page for the ending stretch but Kumano’s heart won Korakuen over so THERE YOU GO. **1/2
Shiro Koshinaka, Akitoshi Saito & AKIRA vs. Kenoh, Masa Kitamiya & Yoshiki Inamura
HOLY RANDOM HEISEI ISHINGUN RIVAL BATMAN. Crowd didn’t seem to share my enthusiasm for the Ishingun surprise so it made for kind of a heatless match. I’m always down for a Koshinaka hip attack, but the match felt pedestrian. **
Kaito Kiyomiya vs. Hijo De Dr. Wagner Jr.
Pretty good little rehabilitation match for Kaito following the loss to Shiozaki. Loved seeing him smiling, slapping hands with the fans and playing to the crowd during his entrance. Almost like losing the belt lifted a weight off of him. The former champ trying his hand at lucha with Hijo de Wagner was a fun time, even if it wasn’t always the smoothest. The Son of Wagner pulled out some pretty fancy offense for the occasion including a brutal CROYT’S WRATH INTO THE TURNBUCKLE that nearly ended Kiyomiya’s life right then and there. Not sure if Kaito should be using his Emerald Frosion variant for a near-fall in a 10 minute midcard match but HEY – kid’s still learning. ***
Keiji Muto, Daisuke Harada, HAYATA, Tadasuke & YO-HEY vs. Doug Williams, Yoshinari Ogawa, Kotaro Suzuki, Atsushi Kotoge & Chris Ridgeway
Fun stuff – ain’t no better surprise in wrestling than KEIJI MUTO. Bouncy goblin child YO-HEY was trying really hard to change my opinion of him and nearly succeeded. His interactions with Muto were the clear highlight here and really shone a light on his undeniable comedic timing. On the straight-up wrestling front, Kotaro and Harada also delivered big time whenever they were in the ring together. I’m all about the forearms to the chest. Also, legit LOL’ed at Ridgeway NOT holding back at all on his Penalty kick to Muto and getting booed by a few fans for stiffing the poor old man. ***
Go Shiozaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima © vs. Naomichi Marufuji & Masaaki Mochizuki – GHC Tag-Team Titles
There’s a serious sense of danger to every AXIZ tag match that feels completely unique to this beautiful pairing. Shiozaki’s hands are registered as a lethal weapon and Katsu has a master’s degree in kicking the shit out of you. If these fellas get a hold of you, you are done. This made for a great dynamic with the surprise team of MARUMOCHI, two fellow striking experts currently in the midst of epic battles against age and injury. Both might be grizzled vets at this point, but they still sold their asses off for AXIZ, which made everything super compelling.
Marufuji, himself a black belt in knife-edge chops, did such a great job putting over Go as a monster threat – trying to avoid his chops at all costs and having to use all kinds of wild tricks to get in some offense. Mochizuki, probably the toughest 50 year old dude in the biz right now, attempting to outkick Nakajima was also a lot of fun. The entire match felt like an absolute FIGHT, which is why the banana peel ending seemed a little underwhelming to me. Go missing the flash rollup finish happening right behind him felt more like an American TV wrestling trope than an appropriate NOAH slug-fest finale. Everything else was pure gravy. ***3/4
