Shuhei Taniguchi & Mohammed Yone vs. Masa Kitamiya & Yoshiki Inamura
Yep, this is how a Pro Wrestling NOAH card should start. The antithesis of the random 20 minute draw opener. A bunch of thicke-boned lads summoning the four elements of Japanese wrestling: forearms, shoulderblocks, screaming and disco. Swiftly wrapped up after 8 minutes of meaty ass kicking. Tempted to drop a Gentlemen’s Three on this just to illustrate how much I hate the recent trend of long openers, but I will restrain myself. I am a professional, after all. **3/4
Kenoh vs. Naomichi Marufuji – N-1 Victory (Block B)
Nobody brings out the asshole energy from Marufuji like Kenoh. The smug smile during the entrances, the bitchy Kawada step kicks, the grinding submissions. That’s my favorite side of Veteran Marufuji and it was on full display here. Beyond the fun character moments, these two are super adept at pulling off the wacky kick-dodging kung fu stunts and they also delivered on that front. Recently, Maru found a genius solution for his decreasing air time on the Ko-oh knee strike by just knee’ing people right in the stomach. Kenoh put it over as instant death here and it sold me on the whole endeavor. I think the only time I disconnected from the action was when the Abema commentary team went on a rant about Seth Rollins stealing the curb stomp from Maru. Had to pay close attention to this fine piece of discourse. Otherwise, enjoyed all of this. Props to Kenoh for finding all these clever ways to slap on his body-scissored sleeper finish. ***1/2
Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Kaito Kiyomiya – N-1 Victory (Block A)
Saku, you god damn legend. This tense grapplefest did more for Kaito than anything in his main event with Soya from the afternoon show. Sakuraba dumbed himself down just enough to let Kiyomiya hang with him on the mat and Kaito’s aggressive attempts at classic pro wrestling holds in the middle of shooty back and forths made him look like a superstar. If you come at a shoot fighting legend with kneebreakers and Figure 4 leglocks and make it look somewhat believable, you have my eternal admiration. Lots of quality drama in these 9 minutes, with a looming sense of dread telling you that the match could end at any time. Can’t get over Good Guy Saku putting over Kaito clean. What a solid human being. ***1/4
Daisuke Harada, YO-HEY & Kinya Okada vs. Kotaro Suzuki, Yoshinari Ogawa & HAYATA
An occasionally very good 6-man that sadly ground to a halt when Stinger got their hands on young Okada. Still, the last stretch between Ogawa and Harada was chock-full of good stuff. Particularly enjoyed Harada’s tricked out use of the falling rollup. The post-match RAW is NOAH JUNIORZ segment was simultaneously very dumb and pretty entertaining. There are clearly ways to play around with faction alignments without having RATELS turn on each other every week and I’d love for NOSAWA to figure them out because this shit is full on parody at this point. That being said, the Kotoge/Harada Osaka boys reunion that closed the angle was undeniably cool. **3/4
Takashi Sugiura vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima – N-1 Victory (Block B)
Having been in the building for their red hot 2018 Korakuen title match in the pre-COVID timeline, this seemed a bit flat initially, but they managed to make up for the lack of atmosphere by ramping up the physicality to absurd levels. These guys are pros at making everything feel like a fight and I don’t mean just the throwdowns. Lots of great-looking counters that never look too cooperative, including the full on markout moment of Sugiura applying an ankle lock in the middle of Katsu’s irritating turnbuckle photoshoot spot. Thank you Big Daddy Sugi. The insane escalation in the back end of the match was absorbing enough to make you forget about the lack of crowd reaction. Can’t go wrong with both of these guys turning into complete dickheads and shoot punching each other right in the face for YOU, the Puroresu fan on Twitter. Could’ve used an additional minute or two to reach the next level, but what they did here was enough to land them in the coveted Very Good 2020 N-1 Match bracket. ***1/2
Go Shiozaki vs. Masaaki Mochizuki – N-1 Victory (Block A)
BANGER ALERT. Easily the most exciting match of the tournament so far, with sly Dragon Gate veteran Mochi bringing the fight and pushing the NOAH champ to the brink. Loved the dynamic between these two. Few people in wrestling right now can pull off the Strong Ace mannerisms like Shiozaki. His facials and reactions exude Kobashi-esque ‘’do not fuck with me’’ energy and Mochizuki played off them brilliantly by being a bit of a prick. Mochi smartly used Go’s arm injury story to close the weight class gap, going back to it whenever Shiozaki would become too troublesome.
As it’s been the case with all these recent Go matches, the selling was so on point that it added dramatic effect to every little moment, culminating in the epic sequence where Go powered through Mochi’s kicks to the arm by lariating his god damn foot off. They built an action-packed ending stretch centered around Go’s lariat and Mochi’s Triangle enzuigiri that kept me on the edge of my seat all the way to the shock finish. So many twists and turns. Sure, Mochizuki’s Dragon suplex looked a bit off, but it also contributed to the surprise in a weird way? Loved this! ****
