Shuhei Taniguchi, Hajime Ohara & YO-HEY vs. Yoshiki Inamura, Kinya Okada & Yasutaka Yano
Pretty decent opener that showcased the young men of NOAH and Taniguchi’s new Disco Manabu Nakanishi gimmick. Inamura handily stole the show with his ridiculous feats of strength and Yano put his freshly-developed chemistry with YO-HEY to good use during the finish. **1/4
HAYATA vs. Junta Miyawaki
Uncle Yoshinari was meant to work his magic with Junta here, but a fever/COVID scare has led us to this cursed HAYATA replacement booking. In a weird way, having such to wrestle such a bland opponent made Miyawaki’s work all the more impressive. He brought the fire and put together all sorts of intricate arm-targeting offense. That Tornado DDT into chickenwing armlock was a thing of beauty! Unfortunately, there’s nothing to HAYATA beyond ‘’Guy who does moves’’ so there was a limit to how much Miyawaki could achieve here. Hope he gets another show at Ogawa. **3/4
Akitoshi Saito vs. Mohammed Yone
When booking your Pro Wrestling NOAH card, always ask yourself: ‘’Does this show need a singles match between Akitoshi Saito and Mohammed Yone?’’. The answer might surprise you. I can’t tell if they’re trying to do a Very Serious Feud between Funky Express and Dark Argents or if this is just filler bullshit. Probably a bit of both. All I know is that Saito seems quite angry with Yone’s disco ways and I think he should just chill out. *3/4
Daisuke Harada & Kai Fujimura vs. HAYATA & Yuya Susumu
You know it’s time to reassess your life choices when the undercard you’re reviewing throws you a second HAYATA match. They had the right idea here with the young boy in peril structure, but HAYATA and Susumu are such lifeless heels that the beatdown section put me in a deep sleep. Then I started dreaming about life outside of this Fukuoka show and it was wonderful. I woke up just in time to see Susumu’s Dick Togo/Daisuke Sasaki-esque ability to put on a crossface from any angle. That’s something I can get behind. **1/4
Kenoh, Haoh & Nioh vs. Kazuyuki Fujita, Kendo Kashin & NOSAWA Rongai
Oh, buddy. Remember when Sugiura-gun felt like the most dangerous faction in wrestling? Were we being worked all this time? I guess we were. BRING BACK RENÉ DUPREE. There were a few decent moments between Big Kazzer and Kenoh, but most of this felt like a bad comedy match. The Staredown Revival, the wonky countout restart, Kendo Kashin’s existence. Who is this for? *3/4
Seiki Yoshioka © vs. Atsushi Kotoge – GHC Jr. Heavyweight title
A real blessing compared to the rest of this show, but not quite as good as I had hoped for. Despite a few thrilling sequences and solid work all around, these two couldn’t keep the match fully engaging for the whole duration. The ‘’Regular ol’ junior back and forth’’ plotline is a risky gamble when you’ve got two guys with limited personalities going 20. Before anyone tries to cancel me over this line, I know Kotoge has a wild personality, but I find that it rarely translates in big match situations. Could you tell from this match that this dude is crazy?
On the positive side, the action never dipped into irredeemable territory and there were some genuinely clever moments spread throughout. Yoshioka’s BACKSLIDE 2 SLEEP counter of Kotoge’s rolling cutter was obviously an all-timer, but I also dug Kotoge’s apron missile dropkick and the constant teasing of the shoot headbutt of death. Could’ve done with less time and a Yoshioka victory. ***1/4
Go Shiozaki, Naomichi Marufuji, Takashi Sugiura & Kotaro Suzuki vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima, Masa Kitamiya, Manabu Soya & Tadasuke
On the one hand, there’s no reason for these NOAH-ISM tags to go this long. Misawa’s legacy could still be celebrated in 15 minutes. On the other hand, I enjoyed large parts of this. You just can’t go wrong with such a high quantity of conductive pairings. As noted by the Abema commentary crew, the Go/Katsu exchanges in these low-stakes tag matches still have a title match aura to them. Off the charts intensity and off the charts stiffness. Sugiura/Masa is another pairing that always delivers: less post-divorce violence and more beef-centric walloping. Other highlights: the various nods to NOAH’s history, Soya’s always-incredible test of strength spot and the wild your move-my-move sequence that led to the finish. ***1/4
Keiji Muto © vs. Kaito Kiyomiya – GHC Heavyweight Title
I was weirdly pleased with the first Muto/Kaito match and had nothing but good words for Kiyomiya’s performance. The sequel didn’t really work for me. On the surface, they told a story that made sense: Kaito staying one step ahead of Muto thanks to his youth and obsessive headlock knowledge, Muto slowly getting back into the driver’s seat by dismantling his arm.
Beneath the paper-thin layer of kayfabe, the match was so clearly designed to give Muto MAXIMAL NAP TIME that basic emotional attachment was impossible to achieve. One sequence for one rest hold was the math formula used to layout this bad boy. Kaito’s a real champ for going along with this, but also what the fuck was going with his offense here? The self-concussing flying rugby headbutts exuded big dumb energy and that Misawa-style Facelock made the Skull End look like advanced human torture.
Sure, the Muto/Tenryu Fukuoka ’99 avalanche-rana callback was almost worth three stars alone, but everything else about this was just too frustrating. And for the record, I don’t think Kaito losing here hurts him at all. The real damage was the slow realization that we’re getting a long-term Muto GHC reign in 2021. **3/4
