Katsuhiko Nakajima, Mohammed Yone & Kinya Okada vs. Akitoshi Saito, Masao Inoue & Seiya Morohashi
Katsu might have lost his precious red belt but at least he’s back where it matters the most: across the ring from his ultimate arch-nemesis Masao Inoue. You cannot escape your destiny. You cannot escape Masao World. This was Morohashi’s first match in like two months and you could tell he was itching to wrestle professionally. The guy went after Nakajima as soon as he got the chance, practically begging to be used for target practice. He brought the energy level way up, which helped because the Dark Agents and Yone seemed content with just going through the motions. I did laugh at Yone not even bothering to change his face to sell the Agents’ double teams. **1/4
Kaito Kiyomiya, Shuhei Taniguchi & Daiki Inaba vs. Atsushi Kotoge, Hajime Ohara & Seiki Yoshioka
Here they are, God’s favorite motorcyclists: FULL THROTTLE. I missed Daiki Inaba’s empty arena introduction, so this was my first time seeing him in NOAH. Can’t say the match was designed to highlight him in any way, but I did appreciate his complete confusion towards Kotoge’s BOOM BOOM-ISM. Kaito had a prime occasion to foreshadow his upcoming match with Muto here after busting out a 2nd-rope knee dropkick but settled for an Indian deathlock instead of the obvious Figure 4 follow up…? Come on, man. Rest of the match was the usually solid midcard wrestling you’d expect from these guys with Yoshioka once again being a highlight. **1/2
Kotaro Suzuki, HAYATA & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Daisuke Harada, Tadasuke & YO-HEY
One of the benefits of working the same guys 300 times during the year is that you’re forced to reinvent yourself and keep things fresh. RATELS and Stinger, as tired as their feud is, are still really good at coming up with fun new layout ideas. Whether it’s the 3 on 1 situation from last Korakuen or Harada dropping your favorite mall-goth HAYATA with the Katayama German right off the bat in this match: their stuff is never boring. With the IPW title match coming up, Harada and HAYATA are riffing off all of these lead-in tags and adding clever new layers. The Moonsault/roll up counter from last Korakuen came back into play but this time HAYATA had some new tricks up his sleeve. ***
Kenoh, Masa Kitamiya, Manabu Soya, Haoh, Nioh & Yoshiki Inamura vs. Takashi Sugiura, Kazushi Sakuraba, Kendo Kashin, Hideki Suzuki, Kaz Hayashi & NOSAWA Rongai
This was so much better than the last version of this match at Stay Together Forever. Outside of NOSAWA, whose current gimmick seems to that he straight up refuses to wrestle, everyone stepped up and delivered a fun 12-man extravaganza. Kongo did TWO Kaientai elbowdrop rush sequences in a row and I felt truly blessed, as this could very well be my favorite current (old) spot in wrestling. Elsewhere, a completely bonkers test of strength between Soya and Hideki made me instantly crave a singles match between the two. Felt like I was watching nothing less than Ultimate Warrior and Hulk Hogan do battle in Korakuen Hall. Plus, Kenoh/Sugiura beat the shit out of each other and Saku busted out a pescado! Can’t ask for more. ***1/4
Go Shiozaki © vs. Naomichi Marufuji – GHC Heavyweight Title
You won’t find a better visual metaphor for all of NOAH’s struggles than Go and Maru, covered in tape and battle scars, facing each other for the top prize on the company’s 20th anniversary. These guys have gone through some shit. Ironically, the wear and tear on both of them simultaneously drove the story of this match and held it back slightly. Marufuji went after Go’s injured shoulder like a shark and thanks to Shiozaki’s top notch selling, I was hooked. Crafty old veteran Marufuji is a role I can always get behind. This layer of the match was even better if you’ve been watching the lead-in tags, because they’ve been putting over Maru’s Perfect Keylock as major threat since day one.
Understandly, these guys wanted to do more than limb work for NOAH’s 20th anniversary, and that’s where it got a bit tricky. Marufuji brought out the Greatest Hits and while some of his old classic spots looked miraculously great (double-jump Moonsault, avalanche Shiranui), others were a bit more laborious or needed a lot of cooperation to achieve. That being said, the match wasn’t about any individual high spot, it was about two ravaged dudes pulling out all the stops to honor their formerly-green ring. On that front, they got the job done through flesh-ripping chop battles and heartfelt Misawa tributes.
I’m 100% sure a fully-vocal, jam-packed Korakuen crowd would’ve made up for any execution issues here, which makes this thing even harder to assess. Add more stars if you’re a die-hard Marufuji fan. ***3/4
