Nioh vs. Yasutaka Yano
Lil’ Yano is giving me early Atsuki Aoyagi vibes. Not just for the blue trunks, but also for the preternatural high-flying ease. Since the last time I checked on the kid, he’s added the Sayama-style corner backflip and the KUSHIDA hiptoss-into-cartwheelin’ dropkick to his arsenal. Clearly, he’s itching to take it to the skies, but for now he’ll have to settle for getting beaten up by Kaientai Dojo LEGEND Hi69. Nioh totally gets the job done when he’s in full disciplinarian mode so I enjoyed all of this opening match wrestling. **1/2
Masato Tanaka & Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Junta Miyawaki & Kinya Okada
Midcard wrestling doesn’t get much better than Mochi and Tanaka schooling some young boys. Actually, I’m starting to think Mochizuki was hired specifically to bring out some fire from Okada. He was trying extremely hard to get a rise out of the Thunderbutt Prince here, but Okada still felt restrained. Personality is not the boy’s strong suit. Junta’s much better at emoting and he did a fine job getting his arm dismantled by the M’s Alliance veterans. Credit where credit is due, Kinya has solid mechanics and played his part well through the ending stretch. That simultaneous PK/Sliding D from Mochi/Tanaka is one of the gnarliest double teams in wrasslin’ right now. ***
HAYATA, Seiki Yoshioka & Yuya Susumu vs. YO-HEY, NOSAWA Rongai & Ikuto Hidaka
As random as the unit feels, Los Perros Del Mal seem to have completely revitalized NOAH’s tumultuous junior division. The heel work from NOSAWA’s new troupe was sharp as hell here – low on shenaniganz and high on clever double teams. I was getting Crazy MAX flashbacks from their cornerpost cheap shot into flying dropkick. The whole match was a blast, with Stinger feeling much lighter on their feet without Ogawa around. Yoshioka put in a jaw-dropping performance, very much looking like a guy who should still be GHC junior champion right now. The chemistry between him and YO-HEY was on another level and I’d be up for a singles match between the two any day. ***1/4
King Tany, Mohammed Yone & Akitoshi Saito vs. Kazushi Sakuraba, Kazuyuki Fujita & Kendo Kashin
Pretty much the expected mix of old man comedy tropes and occasional display of shooty competence. Not sure what happened between Yone and Kashin, but the BattlARTS afroman wasn’t in a playful mood and caved in Kendo’s face for a large chunk of the match. Everything else was tailor made for the ol’ fast forward button. **
Daisuke Harada & Hajime Ohara © vs. Haoh & Tadasuke – GHC Jr. Tag Team Titles
The very definition of a show stealer. Three of the junior division’s finest and The Cleaner 2.0 Tadasuke doing their thing and melting some minds. This was the rare case of a match not adhering to any clear-cut structure and just winning you over with straight-up high-quality wrestling. There wasn’t any deliberate babyface in peril section or anything from the Southern tag playbook, just a whole bunch of impressive sequences and creative thinking.
Haoh and Ohara worked the crux of the match together and these two just might be a top 5 NOAH pairing. The build towards Haoh’s tilt-a-whirl DDT was pure genius and the action only got better when they hooked up for the craft-heavy ending stretch. Harada was at his usual high level and Tadasuke impressed with his well-timed contributions. I still can’t get over that Gory Special Bomb/Diving foot stomp combo. Brutal! Take these god damned stars. ALL FOUR OF THEM. ****
Masa Kitamiya, Yoshiki Inamura & Atsushi Kotoge v. Kenoh, Katsuhiko Nakajima & Manabu Soya
As far as overly-long NOAH 6-man tags go, this was way up there. I’ve touched on this in my review of their cage match, but the Agression storyline mirrors the AXIZ implosion in the best possible way. Every potentially-throwaway match now gets a shot in the arm if Nakajima and Kitamiya are across the ring from each other. Everyone went hard for a solid 20 minutes, embracing the signature NOAH physicality and leaning into the hatred.
Inamura/Soya had a test of strength worthy of Hogan/Warrior, Kenoh paid tribute to his mentor Jinsei Shinzaki with a gorgeous Mandara Hineri and Kotoge stepped up to the plate as the perennial underdog babyface. All killer/no filler was the name of the game (also the name of a very good Beastie Boys album). Honestly, the whole match could’ve sucked and I’d still stick to the same rating because of that brutal TAKAIWA BOMB finish. Soya knows the way to my heart. ***1/2
Keiji Muto & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Kaito Kiyomiya & Kotaro Suzuki
It’s 2021 and Keiji Muto keeps reinventing himself. He Moonsaulted his way to stardom in the 90’s and started a revolution in the early aughts with the Shining Wizard. Today, he does it again with a brand-new trick: collapsing out of the ring for 5 minutes as the crowd claps along to prevent heart failure. Watch and learn, indie wrestlers. This is how you get babyface sympathy. To be fair, there were solid parts to the match but my interest in a Muto/Ogawa dream team is at an all time low. In spite of the geriatric opposition, Kaito looked super motivated and brought back some of his tricky dragon screw counters from the first match with Muto. Also popped for Kotaro’s Tiger Driver. **3/4
Naomichi Marufuji © vs Takashi Sugiura – GHC Heavyweight Title
Considering how long the match went and how banged up Marufuji is, this was a bit of a miracle. They pulled off a big NOAH main event epic with all the bells and whistles – physicality, limb work subplots, floor spots and false finishes. I’ll forever be a sucker for this kind of match when it’s done right and this felt very right. Sure, a lot of it came down to Sugiura being one of the most reliable workers in wrestling, but this was also one of Maru’s best performances in ages.
The layouts for this type of long-form championship odyssey can get predictable if you watch a lot of them (matwork, limb work section A, dangerous spot sets up limb section B, etc.) and while this didn’t reinvent the wheel, I was impressed by their ability to keep things interesting for so long. Marufuji was flying around with double-jump Moonsaults and Sugiura did a bonkers THROUGH-THE-ROPES-SPEAR. There was always a hook to keep you on board during the slower sections.
A lot of the creativity on display took me by surprise, especially for such a worn-down pairing. The counters were sharp and looked even more realistic (ie: less rehearsed) due to both guys’ physical limitations. Case in point: Big Daddy Sugi snatching the front necklock out of Maru’s Perfect keylock attempt. Could not have been happier to see the Pole Shift Frosion make a return for the finale, as all of Marufuji’s knee strike variants work better as secondary finishers. Great stuff. ****1/4
