Shuhei Taniguchi vs. Yoshiki Inamura – N-1 Victory (Block B)
They had the right idea in cranking up the physicality here, but Inamura never looked like he had much of a chance of winning. A bummer considering this was his last chance to score any points. Would’ve been fun to see him get some proper near-falls in the final stretch instead of just getting obliterated by multiple punt kicks. In better news, I haven’t seen Korakuen this packed for a NOAH show in ages and it’s pretty heartwarming. **3/4
Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Manabu Soya – N-1 Victory (Block A)
Nothing you need to rush out of your way to see, but this was smartly worked for what it was. Saku completely smoked Soya with his elite mat game and Big Red Manabu sold like crazy to make it seem like death was just around the corner. Despite dominating most of the match, Sakuraba still took the time to put over Soya’s strength advantage during the short-lived fingerlock segment. Nice gesture. The counter rollup finish was well done and both guys’ reactions afterwards were right on the money. **3/4
Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Masa Kitamiya – N-1 Victory (Block A)
Fun little match that pit Mochi’s kicks and leg attacks against Kitamiya’s Backrops and charmingly goofy power-ups. They layout kept you on your toes by balancing the basic themes of the match with some nifty surprises (EARLY BACKDROP! That sweet rolling leglock counter from Mochi!). Mochizuki cracked me up by asking for a timeout after the aforementioned Backdrop that kicked off the match. Will someone just give this poor old man a break already? It’s a shame that the finish was slightly delayed by Masa being out of position because the idea was really cool (Backdrop off the turnbuckle to counter the Triangle enzuigiri). ***1/4
Kenoh vs. Takashi Sugiura – N-1 Victory (Block B)
Not too far behind their N-1 finals from last year in terms of quality ass kicking content. All the match sections had some meat to them: from Big Daddy Sugi working the ribs to the hateful forearm/middle kick war and eventual battle for ankle lock supremacy. Both guys brought the intensity, stiffness and appropriate fits of raging anger to keep you hooked. Kenoh keeps providing the best offense of this whole tournament and for that he has my eternal gratitude. Not only did he bring back the wild apron cartwheel spot from his match Taniguchi, but he also tried to end Sugi’s life with a god damn apron German suplex and vicious diving foot stomp to the BACK (which Sugiura understandly sold like instant death). Would’ve taken another minute or two of this face-smashing fun time. ***1/2
Junior Rumble of Death
Enjoyed this a lot more than I expected. The NOAH junior division booking as of late has been filled with Vince Russo-esque SWERVES, so a full-on WWE style Royal Rumble felt like an appropriate payoff for all the recent backstabbing storylines. Ironically, the NOAH juniorz completely stayed away from most of the bad Rumble tropes and packed the match with a bunch of fun professional wrestling. The pace stayed frenetic from bell to bell and we got to see the division’s biggest strength on full display: HIGH-QUALITY ROLLUPS. Say what you will about this division, but these follks know how to roll someone up. Adding one full star for Ogawa eliminating himself by simply walking out of this mess because he’s obviously too old for this shit. ***1/4
Naomichi Marufuji vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima – N-1 Victory (Block B)
Marufuji ending his N-1 run on a high note with his strongest performance of the tournament. This was Wiley Veteran Maru at his finest, taking out Katsuhiko’s arm and grinding him down with Kawada-style pull-up chops. I was initially skeptical of the arm work story considering Nakajima’s feet are clearly his most dangerous weapon, but they managed to milk some solid drama out of it thanks to Katsu selling his ass off and Maru building towards the Perfect Keylock. The back end of the match featured the same kind of high-precision kick dodging craziness as Maru/Kenoh and both guys thrived in that setting. Tremendous execution and creativity. The Ko-oh and superkick cutoffs from Marufuji were ON POINT and Nakajima busted out the gnarliest possible counter for the Shin Ko-oh (knee’ing the fuck out of Maru). Well done. ***1/2
Go Shiozaki vs. Kaito Kiyomiya – N-1 Victory (Block A)
The Go/Kaito title match from January remains one of my favorites from 2020 and while this wasn’t on that level, it still delivered those good old NOAH main event thrills. These two have a special kind of chemistry that will only help Kaito get better the more they face each other. There’s a timeless kind of dynamic to their match structures that makes everything feel ‘’important’’. You can tell they watched a lot of Misawa/Kobashi and NWA World title matches.
Go’s seasoned viciousness never fails to bring out the youthful aggression from Kaito and vice versa. For every inspiring Kaito power-up, there’s devastating ‘’Eat shit, kid’’ retaliation from Shiozaki. While the character moments were great, I did find it a bit mind boggling that Kiyomiya would NOT go after Go’s badly-damaged arms here. Considering he’s been filling his matches with subpar arm work subplots for all of the N-1, this would’ve been a prime occasion to get some real drama out of his arm fixation.
Thankfully, they made up for the lack of arm drama by supplying a high-stakes ending stretch with big time widescreen moments and probably the best lariat near-fall of the year. PS – I’m a big fan of Kaito adding the classic All Japan jumping knee attack to his repertoire. ****
