Yasutaka Yano vs. Kinya Okada
This was little Yano’s debut match and he got the shit kicked out of him like a boss. Bless him for going with blue trunks because this color has been severely underrepresented in NOAH ever since Hitoshi Kumano retired. The boy is scrawny as hell but he already shows a propension for screaming and dropkicks, which is all I need from him at this point. Newly rebranded Thunderbutt Okada worked well in the sempai role and supplied the simple but elegant kitchen sink and Cobra twist cutoffs. The Blockbuster Hold finish was a thing of beauty. **1/4
Naomichi Marufuji & Hajime Ohara vs. Mohammed Yone & Junta Miyawaki
Not sure if Junta lost weight during his absence or what, but none of his gear fits him anymore. Time to get some new threads, boy. Thankfully, he still has the same vibrant Clash-loving energy that made him a standout before his injury. Save for that botchy Tornado DDT, he showed good chemistry with Marufuji and successfully brought the grumpy asshole veteran out of his elder. Always a win. Elsewhere, Ohara worked his sweet lucha submissions, Yone did disco things and a good time was had. **1/2
Kotaro Suzuki, Yoshinari Ogawa & HAYATA vs. Tadasuke, Haoh & Nioh
There really is no middle ground in NOSAWA’s junior division booking, is there? Not too long ago I was joking about the RATELS/Stinger feud going on for all of eternity. Now, we can’t go a week without a junior betrayal. Before the soap opera kicked in, there was a wrestling match and it was allright. Didn’t need to go 18 minutes, but everyone put in a lot of effort. Haoh did most of the work as babyface in peril and got to recreate some of the highlights of his junior title match with Kotaro. **3/4
Go Shiozaki, Kaito Kiyomiya & Shuhei Taniguchi vs. Kenoh, Katsuhiko Nakajima & Yoshiki Inamura
Go and Katsu almost wrestled their entire title match right then and there and it was pretty fuckin’ beautiful. As much as these two used to love each other tenderly, they’re now inhabited by bitter resentment and are completely unafraid to beat the absolute dog shit out of each other. This really was one of the better NOAH 6-man tags in a while, because not only did we get this colossal display of ass beating from the former AXIZ boys, but we also got some tasty preview action from Kenoh and Kaito ahead of their (announced after this match) National title bout. These two have the classic Tana/Shinsuke-type chemistry where I’ll look forward to all of their meetings, even if they were to wrestle 38 times a year. Loads of motivation and stiffness from everyone here + a sweet post-match angle with Inamura abandoning the Dark Side of the Force. This is the NOAH shit that I’m into, man. ***1/2
Daisuke Harada & Atsushi Kotoge © vs. YO-HEY & Seiki Yoshioka – GHC Jr. Tag Team Titles
Yep, this really did it for me. They took everything that worked about the Momo No Seishun title win, removed all the filler and had themselves a quality professional wrestling match of the tag team variety. No limb work, no extended heel beatdown – all action all the time. Lovely pacing and execution, with a clear focus on Cool Shit and double team radness. The Peaches’ double team arsenal is not to be trifled with – I’m a big fan of the drop toe-hold/knee upper and sandwich enzuigiri. Shit looks deadly. The Full Throttlers contributed their share of GIF-ready offense as well, what with the stereo dives and YO-HEY flippy-flopping right into instant death by lariat. I’ll be able to handle any Russo-esque junior division swerve NOSAWA throws at me as long as we get a long title reign from the Osaka boys with more matches like this. ***3/4
Takashi Sugiura & Kazushi Sakuraba © vs. Masa Kitamiya & Manabu Soya – GHC Tag Team Titles
Not to be outdone by their scrawny junior heavyweight counterparts, the barrel-chested heavyweights of NOAH stepped up and a had a tag team burner of their own. Both the layout and strategic use of Sakuraba felt like improved versions of what we saw in the Sugiura-Gun title win against AXIZ. The Kongo Beef Army initially overwhelmed Big Daddy Sugi with their double servings of meat, so Saku had to step in and take out Soya’s arm to even the score. Soya can sell the arm with the best of ‘em and I’m pretty sure Sakuraba has a black belt in bone breaking so I was 100% down with this dynamic.
While the action was smartly bookended by the arm story, the heart of the match was Sugiura and Masa going into Big Match Mode and just nuking each other like a couple of drunken grizzlies. Would you like a side of shoot headbutts with that turnbuckle German suplex? This was one of the great questions that this match asked and I was not afraid to answer positively. Plus, national hero/PRIDE legend Kazushi Sakuraba selling a BEAR HUG like burning hot death put me in such a wonderful mood. This man’s love for pro-wrestling is undeniable. Extremely pleasing match that played to everyone’s strengths. ***3/4
