Daisuke Harada, YO-HEY & Kinya Okada vs. Atsushi Kotoge, Hajime Ohara & Seiki Yoshioka
Greetings FiteTV newcomers and welcome to my recurring nightmare: the NOAH 20 minute draw opening match. These fine gentlemen had the decency to sprinkle in some serious urgency in the last 3 minutes, but sadly I am way past caring at this point. Why does this keep happening? Why start your show with these random ass matches with no stakes going long for no reason? NOSAWA my man, please heed the advice of underrated 2005 Britrock band Art Brut and stay off the crack. **1/4
Kenoh vs. Yoshiki Inamura – N-1 Victory (Block B)
Dug this one a lot. They played up the Kongo hierarchical difference effectively and it led to Inamura’s best match of the tournament. You would think that angry little man Kenoh bossing gigantic beefster Inamura around would be a tough sell, but they pulled it off with ease thanks to Inamura’s top notch selling and Kenoh’s cold viciousness. Kenoh’s been having a really solid N-1. He keeps his matches fresh by including at least one memorable high spot (the ninja shit with Katsu, the apron cartwheel with Taniguchi, the flying double knees to the floor in this one) and switches up his finishes constantly to keep you guessing. The shotei flurry KO ending here popped me big time and perfectly concluded the story they were telling. No need for Kenoh to pull out any of the big runs to put away his underling. No matter how chunky he might be. ***1/4
Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Masa Kitamiya – N-1 Victory (Block A)
Love an exciting 2 minute match that just makes sense, but I would’ve taken a lot more of this. The chemistry was on point: Saku running wild over Kitamiya with his superior shooter skillz, Masa desperately trying to survive with his meaty sentons. Could’ve used another 2 minutes to ramp up the drama. **1/2
Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Shuhei Taniguchi – N-1 Victory (Block B)
Cool story for this one, as the self-proclaimed Genius of the Kick has visibly been watching Taniguchi’s recent use of the Kazuyuki Fujita-style punt kick and decided to show him how it’s really done. As well-intentioned as it might’ve been, the free punting lesson nearly KO’d big boy Shuhei right off the bat and forced him to fight from underneath for the whole match. A good role for him, as he radiates powerful sympathetic idiot vibes and I legit felt bad watching him get his ass kicked so hard. Thus, I was very much in the right frame of mind for his rocking comeback and eventual sweet revenge, when he took out Katsu with the very punt kick that set off this entire debacle in motion. THE CIRCLE OF LIFE, baby. ***1/2
Kaito Kiyomiya vs. Manabu Soya – N-1 Victory (Block A)
Not sure if it’s the Kaito/Mochi trauma playing tricks on my mind, but this felt much longer than it actually was. Never a good sign. They filled the match with a lot of limb-focused subplots that were all competently done (Soya wrecking Kaito’s lower back with stiff forearm shots was pretty rad) but never amounted to much in the grand scheme of things. Again, I’m all for simplicity but the lack of depth in Kaito’s moveset isn’t doing him any favors in these long matches. There’s not much drama in him putting on a random necklock 17 minutes into a match when you know there’s no chance it’ll tap anyone. Maybe he should try getting an arm submission over as a potential finish if he’s committed to working the arm in his matches? Soya’s great-looking power offense couldn’t keep me on board for this one. **3/4
