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  1. Sorry for the delay! Here we are with the fall & winter of 2002 and it is a doozy! KENTA & Kenta Kobashi vs Kotaro Suzuki & Mitsuharu Misawa (09/01): We get our first appearance of KENTA in his true form Gone is the surfer hair, orange trunks & white boots. He's in his dark grey tights with kick pad boots...and he is kicking. I know that sounds weird but up until now KENTA wasn't doing his shoot style kicks. This is a good match that gives us some good Misawa vs Kobashi moments without making it all about them. This is way more about KENTA & Suzuki coming into their own. Unfortunately Suzuki is still green enough where coming into your own means taking a beating well. Therefore the middle of the match is like a store brand saltine...Nice to see Kobashi back! Kobashi, KENTA, Shiga & Kikuchi vs. Akiyama, Saito, Hashi & Kanemaru (09/05/02): This is one I wanted to see but the YouTube video was deactivated. But dummy me, I actually have the clipped version on my 10/19/02 DVD! Holy cow! I've had this for over a decade and not known it. Anyway, like I said this is a clipped version with about 30 minutes shown out of 50 so not bad but there's no clean way to clip this. So we get the start and a few minutes before each elimination and probably the last 10 minutes uninterrupted. I didn't keep track exactly. Anyhow this is Sterness vs Burning and from the get go this feels like the Sharks vs the Jets. Captain Fall elimination match so if Akiyama or Kobashi gets pinned at anytime, it's all over. But of course like I said this goes 50 minutes and other folks get eliminated. This is a blast to watch and legitimately looks like a great match. KENTA & Shiga are a focus with Shiga being the defector from Sterness and KENTA really starting to embrace his new style/gimmick. I think it's also a great showcase for Akitoshi Saito and is a excellent showcase for him. He has the best enzuigiri and spinning heel kick btw. And of course there's Kobashi and Akiyama who are as great as always. Great stuff. ----- Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Yoshihiro Takayama (09/07): Great match! Takayama tries to annihilate Ogawa. He shouts "Hey champ! C'mon champ" at Ogawa laying on the mat like a pile of dirty laundry. Like talk about adding insult to injury. The champ does find away though and proceeds to target the giant arm like there's no tomorrow... and frankly there might not be if he can't slow the blonde behemoth down. This is all capped off by an excellent closing few minutes that cements this as a great title fight. Yoshinobu Kanemaru/Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. El Samurai/Masayuki Naruse (9/23/02) This match has a fantastic pace and is full of action. This really is how you build a junior feud. The execution was great and the timing was even better. It left you wanting more. Bitchin’ great match. An unlikely NJ team too... Takeshi Morishima & Takeshi Rikio vs. Akitoshi Saito & Jun Akiyama (09/23/02): I actually watched this after the match below. I'm funny like that but I am glad I did because I thought this match topped the main event. It was a fucking intense battle from bell to bell. Saito and Rikio were just trying to destroy each other. Morishima comes in and brings it to Saito next. I'm thinking Jun, who's not always super stiff at this time would shy away but no! He was hammering on Morishima. Yeah I loved this thing. The pacing and intensity were just right. It could have been a sprint but Wild II are showing they can hang with the big boys. Saito is really coming into his own here...and that's being more of a bad ass. Some folks didn't like this but I'm not really sure why...I got the vibe that it was a comparison thing. comparing everything to AJPW 90's is only going to set you up for disappointment. I had to learn that lesson for myself. Just try to be in the moment, not analyzing and not comparing. I think if you're not familiar with everything going on in early NOAH, you probably won't give two shits about what anyone other than Akiyama is doing... but that'd be a giant oversight. You're not actually invested in these guys and early NOAH really is about pushing virtual nobodies from AJPW into the lime light. So early NOAH is not about trying to be AJ without Mrs. Baba. It's trying to be something different. It helps if you know this BUT this is such a simple beat-the-shit-outta-each-other match that I'm not sure anyone wouldn't like this...I thought this was a classic. Misawa vs Takayama (09/23/02): This is probably one of most lauded singles matches for NOAH 2002. I have never seen it in full! I have a Misawa comp that has clips (for some reason) but I am really glad I saw this. It's very MMA influenced without trying to be shoot style or even Inoki Strong Style (not to be confused with Inokism which was going on in NJ at this time...shoot matches, more MMA guys in NJ...I do like Don Frye as a worker though as well as Kaz Fujita). So don't think of the match being anything like that. Takayama is more like a giant Kawada in this thing. He's hitting knees, head kicks, going for arm bars. As a result Misawa taps more into that by focusing on his elbow strikes, working holds on the mat and even throwing leg kicks. But...he still is doing his moves off the turnbuckles and dives etc. Honestly this was a near classic match... only held back from both guys being beat up (both bleeding) and I think Takayama ran out of gas at the end...so the more intricate things at the end looked sluggish. But fuck! they were going at it all match so I cannot fault anyone for being a bit sluggish after all of that. Also re-watched Frye vs Takayama which is also 2002. Man I miss Pride... back in the late 2000's on Spike they had a Best of Pride FC show (via UFC) and I had my favorites all DVR'd...I digress! ----- Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. KENTA & Takashi Sugiura (10/12/02): This was a pretty darn good match! It probably didn't need to be 23 minutes long but once they got cooking they didn't let up. Lots of creative offense and if you like stiff elbow strikes then this is a match for you! Never heard anything about this but yeah, this is recommended stuff. Takuma Sano & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Kotaro Suzuki & Mitsuharu Misawa (10/12): Wave vs Wave, interesting...I believe Marufuji was injured at this point otherwise he might have been in Kotaro's place. Half shown but man was this fun stuff! The Ogawa/Sano team was really good... I'll have to keep my eye out for more matches with them together. Kenta Kobashi & Kentaro Shiga vs. Jun Akiyama & Yoshinobu Kanemaru (10/17/02): I'm going to tell you this is the one & only match Kobashi uses his Diamond Head power bomb. It's basically a Dominator like Ron Simmons used to use. It doesn't look that cool though but what you want to see is Shiga vs Akiyama...that's great stuff...the whole match is really good. Burning vs Sterness! I was also able to locate my review for Kobashi/Shiga vs. Akiyama/Saito 10/19/02 which is a match that's gotten praise but if you're only going on hype, it seemingly happened in a vacuum. Like you would think everything else they did prior & after sucked. Matches like this are what inspires me to do these projects. They aren't deep dives but attempts to push against conventional wisdom/old ideas. Kobashi/Shiga vs. Akiyama/Saito (10/19/02): This was a match I’ve sought after for a long time. It lived up to the hype for sure. It was great in showing Shiga’s heart as well as Saito’s evilness. That dude is a beast. Great long finishing run with false finishes and great moments for sure. Epic finish too. Bad Ass! People were psyched on this one throughout! It had to build a little for me but, at the end I was shouting and making noises right along with ‘em. Classic match! Since I have taken so long to get this posted, I took the time and dug this DVD set out of storage. I'm looking for under the radar stuff so there's got to be a couple on this show. Makoto Hashi vs KENTA (10/19): Good match and maybe a very good one if you ignore KENTA blowing off all of Hashi's good leg work. Hashi would have been a great junior talent had he debuted in 1986...and for that I really dug him in this match. KENTA is now the kicky version...but not the bad ass we see in ROH for instance. ----- Donovan Morgan & Michael Modest & Scorpio vs. IZU & Maxx Justice & Richard Slinger (10/19): No doubt I skipped this match when I got the 10/19/02 DVD but not now. I'm all about a match like this. It's a lot of fun too! Scorpio and Richard Slinger do a really good chain wrestling opening and from then on there's a bunch of neat moves, some comedy and quality 6 man wrestling. Morgan and Modest added a lot to the match. Kotaro Suzuki, Mitsuharu Misawa, Takuma Sano & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Akira Taue, Daisuke Ikeda, Masashi Aoyagi & Takashi Sugiura (10/19): Oh man this was a lot of fun! The last few minutes were especially good. Not top tier but there's some really exciting sequences that had me cheering. I liked the early focus on Aoyagi and by the end everyone was going off. I really dug this one. ----- Yoshinobu Kanemaru/Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Gedo/Jado - (12/7/02) Oh those bastards. Team NO RESPECT!!! Jado & Gedo are some nasty looking dudes. So the match is kinda like NOAH style American wrestling. It was a ton of fun with Gedo and Jado heeling it up in all those fun US ways. This is stuff that we lost later in the 90s AJPW as the brawler was phased out because it resembled garbage wrestling. So, Jado and Gedo are a call back to that good stuff from the 70s-80s and 90-91 AJPW. And god knows Kikuchi is all for that again. Still this is 2002 wrestling so, there’s some nice moves from both teams. It’s a different match especially from this time in wrestling and it’s great! ----- Kenta Kobashi vs Bison Smith (12/07/02): Great under 10 minute match! From watching GAEA, doing these shorter all action matches with the older guys would have been a good idea. Have the younger guys go longer. I would have liked a different outcome as I think it is Misawa playing it safe. Bison could have been NOAH's Dr. Death for the 2000's. He looked like an absolute monster for 3/4th of the match. Plus the Iron Claw work was excellent...it's a low impact move that can escalated into the iron claw slam. They did this here to great effect. Bison being pushed harder was a missed opportunity but it's still a great fight. Yoshinari Ogawa vs Mitsuharu Misawa (12/07/02): I loved the beginning and middle of this match. It was actually wrestled and reminded me of early 80's AJPW. Eventually they brought this into the late 80's and early 90's. Then the final 3rd didn't set my world a fire. There was too many back drops and Tiger drivers...like do another move or even fight out of it. And they do maybe once but, it was kinda dull but then the very end got really good again. And overall the whole thing was very good but was on its way to be great. 2002 was an excellent year and maybe was the last year for the experimental stage of NOAH. Kobashi comes back full time (until 2006) and things change. Perhaps for the better? NOAH seems far less interesting as times goes on. And that is not a criticism... It's really quality stuff as we get into the Kobashi reign but it becomes more predictable than than in 2001 & 2002. Checking out 2001 & 2002 NOAH has been a project that I have been wanting to do for years. Really glad I got to do it! Hope you have enjoyed it too Thanks for reading!
  2. So I found a Japanese YouTube channel that has some more obscure/hard to find stuff for 2002. Most of it is clipped but I'm happy to see at least some of these matches. Looks like this person has a lot of Ogawa/Misawa/Wave stuff...and in turn more Wave vs Sterness so I'm pretty psyched. So we're going to kinda start back at the beginning of 2002 with these videos. Jun Akiyama, Akitoshi Saito & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs Mitsuharu Misawa, Yoshinari Ogawa & Naomichi Marufuji (01/16): 7 of 17 minutes shown but man this looked great. Kanemaru was on fire! If you can see this in full, I think you're in for a good time! There's some post match fighting too. Yeah this one is recommended. Oh and I watched the pre match video and it looks like there was dissent with Ogawa & Misawa leading up to this match which plays a big part in the finish here. At first the finish looked weird but it's actually pretty cool. Elimination Match: Mitsuharu Misawa & Naomichi Marufuji & Takuma Sano & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Akitoshi Saito & Jun Akiyama & Makoto Hashi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru (01/20): 1/3 shown with this mainly be a highlight format as opposed to joined in progress. We get to see everyone's elimination so that was cool. Akiyama has his shoulder taped up and braced in this match as well as the previous one. I think this would be neat to see in full. Jun Akiyama & Makoto Hashi vs. Naomichi Marufuji & Yoshinari Ogawa (03/14): 9 of 17 minutes and definitely worth seeing in full. This reminded me of a Hayabusa era FMW tag in the best way possible. Lots of great action, no focus on toughness/fighting spirit, ultra stiff strikes etc. Sterness felt like the baby faces with Ogawa & Marufuji being crafty heels. Badass finish too! great stuff! Mitsuharu Misawa & Naomichi Marufuji & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Takao Omori & Takashi Sugiura & Yoshihiro Takayama (03/17): Oh man, only 8 of 20 minutes shown. This was looking pretty badass! Misawa and Omori were laying into each other like it was a title fight. Ogawa vs Takayama was very entertaining as Ogawa was just too quick for the giant. And Marufuji vs Sugiura was excellent as always... Marufuji's, agility works so well with Sug's suplex & slam offense. Jun Akiyama & Akitoshi Saito vs. Yoshinari Ogawa & Takuma Sano (03/25): An appetizer for the Akiyama vs Ogawa title fight and it delivers. 8 of 12 minutes shown and pretty much it only seems to cut Sano's face in peril segment. This was really really good stuff if you're not going into this expecting NOAH as AJPW. I've said this before but, early NOAH seemed much more like an indie than I think most Western wanted/saw as the 2000's went on. NOAH as AJPW happens during Kobashi's title reign. But this first quarter of '02 with Ogawa vs Akiyama being the big thing is very fresh. Takeshi Morishima & Takeshi Rikio vs. Manabu Nakanishi & Yutaka Yoshie (04/07/02): Here's one I found elsewhere. Reminds me of late 80's AJPW. I started watching it but realized these guys can't do a good match for almost 30 minutes. Who gave them that much time? This should have been 15 minutes. But hey, it's out there if you're interested Jun Akiyama vs. Yoshinari Ogawa (04/07): I'm not sure this was the plan for the Spring of 2002 however Kobashi was sidelined for a few more months and I think they were going to do something with Akiyama & him. So this Akiyama vs Ogawa stuff takes its place. They tease at it in the January matches but really commit to it by March. Anyway, this is the payoff and it's a sweet one. It's only 4+ minutes and wrestled at a quick pace. Since it's short I'm going to spoil it just as a heads up. The finish works because Akiyama has Ogawa's wrist clutched for that exploder variation. So both guys are tied together in essence. So when Ogawa reverses the suplex momentum into a small package, Akiyama's tied up into the hold and it's enough for a 3...like a wrist clutch small package hold. They executed this perfectly and if fumbled a little bit it would have looked hokey and damaged the credibility of the people and the title. The fans in attendance were super pumped for the outcome... maybe just because its something different & unexpected. I can get behind that... I think we can agree that rotating the belt between the same 3-4 guys can get stale. Akira Taue & KENTA vs. Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa (05/09): Very joined in progress with only the last 4 of 14 minutes being shown. Nevertheless this was pretty good stuff. Taue and Ogawa works so well because neither are that peak NOAH wrestler. Taue is basically late 70's Baba in terms of mobility and Ogawa is an early 90's AJ junior who wrestles like a he's a mid 80's junior. But it works! And we see that here. KENTA brings the fireworks. while Misawa plays the more than competent #2 to the champ (I know!? Ogawa is champ!). Excellent lead in to their title fight. If you find this in full I'm sure it's a blast! Same with Misawa, Ogawa & Takuma Sano vs Taue, Honda & Mokoto Hashi (05/06). I didn't review it but similar vibes as this 05/09 match. Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. KENTA (05/26): The channel I've been watching for these clipped gems of course had this clipped too but I was digging and found this in full. And really glad that I did! This was great! Perhaps this is the first big KENTA match...he actually did the work the body stuff...as did Kanemaru. It didn't lead to a finish but it certainly wasn't boring. Kanemaru even did a move off the run way to the floor - pretty sick too. I think he did a good job leading this match as well. His cutoffs of KENTA's comebacks were well timed and impactful. It never looked like he was just going through the motions. So when the K-man got an opening with a vicious release German, it felt earned. Again great stuff here... Takao Omori & Mohammed Yone vs Yoshihiro Takayama & Takashi Sugiura (05/26/02): A little bit earlier there's a schism in No Fear. Akiyama calls Omori out saying Takayama is using him...during the match Takayama wants to decimate Akiyama with double team moves (they do) but Omori says enough is enough and hit his partner with the Ax Bomber and splits. That looks to be on the 05/09 show. That sets up this match BUT I have some conflicting info that just shows Omori vs Takayama on this date. So Sherlock Badger checked the crowd and sure enough its the 05/26 from the above match (note the two guys in white shirts wearing ties etc). Anyways...this was some great hateful hard hitting wrestling. It boils down to two parts 1) Takayama getting his ass kicked 2) Omori getting his ass kicked. Yone & Sugiura were very secondary in their roles. Yone was especially stiff with Takayama...I've got to see more of his NOAH work. I would have liked a little bit better of a finishing segment but, we get 20 minutes of potatoes so I can't gripe too much. If you're interested in watching this then, you should! Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Akira Taue (05/26): The lead in matches are so good and before the match, they show a clip from a match the night before. Taue beat Ogawa with a small package hold! He goes down and gets the title belt and throws it on a beat Ogawa and surely says something like, "take good care of this for me. I'll be back for it tomorrow night." Well this was a great match! especially if you've seen some of the lead in. There's call backs to those finishes. I think the layout and timing is really special too. If you're looking for that "once a year Taue is great again" match, I think this might be it! Satoru Asako Retirement Match: Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi & Satoru Asako vs. Akira Taue & Masao Inoue & Makoto Hashi (07/26): Asako is back in his AJ green and Kobashi is back in the orange - that's awesome! Oh shit he's even doing some of his old AJ moves too! Asako is going all out. Inoue gives no fucks and clothesline'd the man of the hour like there was no tomorrow. Taue gave the soon to retire Asako a few good slams too. Yeah this was a blast at about 10 minutes. The post match stuff is really touching too. There's no good reason to skip this one if you're an 90's AJPW fan. Now a big rant of sorts. If you're just here for match recommendations, we're all done for today If you're interested in a little shop talk about 20 year old wrestling then, read on! I am really liking 2002 NOAH and I'm glad I found a bit more than what I had originally planned. This Ogawa stuff has been excellent and unexpected. He's not what you're looking for in a GHC champ especially if you're more familiar with 2003 to 2010's NOAH. But 2001-2002 NOAH in a different animal. I was looking over 2000 AJPW's matches and man! it's really clear that Misawa had a vision with Pro Wrestling Noah. 2000 AJ's under card booking was the drizzling shits. It's the same people but in matches that looked like they were booked using a lotto ball machine. Like random as hell...and maybe those were fun/good matches but Misawa gave folks a purpose, a place, a direction in early NOAH. This didn't really happen until '01 and I think hit its stride in '02. It is very much "we're not going to be a one match company." From watching mid 80's AJPW last year, I think Misawa really wanted a company where there's something for everyone AND something for everyone to do. The popular opinion is that Misawa lacked a vision and couldn't find someone else who could be on top. I disagree. I think his vision was to lift everyone else up rather than find a top star right away. I think evidence of this was Misawa being able to convince Baba on Ogawa as his tag partner in the very late 90's. In NOAH he continues this as Kentaro Shiga, Kikuchi & Asako get a boost out of under card swamp into high profile matches again. Outside veteran talent is given a chance like Akitoshi Saito, Aoyagi, Sano & Too Cold Scorpio as are "younger" outsiders like Daisuke Ikeda & Yone. Some of these folks were in 2000 AJPW...we can see Misawa wanted to shake things up. Inter-promotional feuds which were a staple of 90's puro/joshi could finally happen in earnest. And the young AJPW talent could get pushed into the lime light...Marufuji, KENTA, Morishima are all names we know if you're a 2000's ROH fan because of Misawa's vision. If you're a NOAH fan too then Rikio, Kanemaru, and Hashi are familiar to you. And Misawa knew to give Takayama the push he needed as well... not just a All Asia tag champ but as a main player in the heavyweight title scene. Now I'm not saying it stayed as fresh and exciting until his death. He definitely went into safety mode due to the economics of running a business for the main events(not that the wrestling was poor but it's not as fresh). The under card always stayed interesting and sometimes outshined the main events. That aside, 2001 & 2002 are the years where I think we might be able to see where NOAH was supposed to be headed. And I don't think fans were comfortable with it and he gave Kobashi a 2 year long title reign.. but I don't think he gave up on the under card but conceded that the casual fan (big money arena filling crowds) wanted AJPW main events. After the Kobashi reign they never went back to this more creative main event scene (we see a nod to it in the lauded on PWO Kobashi vs Ogawa match, and in Marufuji's 2006 reign). Maybe I should have put this at the very end of my 2002 posts (there's one more!) but having seen this much '01 & '02, it's clear that Misawa wanted to redo things. He didn't want NOAH to have these one match shows like AJPW had become. Having watched a good deal of Misawa era NOAH, he succeeded... I have always thought that their shows were very good from top to bottom. They don't always have the classic match main event but definitely are a blast to watch..many times having multiple great matches per show. Thanks for reading! Planning on wrapping up 2002 next week.
  3. Controversial match, but I thought this was a stroke of genius as far as pro wrestling booking can go. Sometimes keeping a promotion fresh and unpredictable is more important than having the biggest and most credible guy on the roster be champion. And the match is really good too because they do a tremendous job messing with the audiences expectations. Working cutoffs in such a way has become a lost art, I'm afraid.
  4. KENTA is in his rebellious teen phase and I guess Ogawa is next on his big list of established guys he wants to put on notice. He blasts him mid-entrance with the usual stiff kicks and from there the match pretty much goes how you'd expect: KENTA is by far the superior striker alongside clearly has the advantage of youth on his side with his speed and agility but Ogawa's been the punching bag way too many times to get tripped up by this point. His experience directs him to trying to work on KENTA's legs to try to slow him down and get the match under control. The match itself in terms of macro elements is unspectacular but I feel like the little things this provides are where it gets really great. There's a solidified feeling of malice around this match: KENTA wants to prove in his heavyweight Trial Series (of which this is apart of) that he can belong with the big dogs of the company, that he can not only challenge them in terms of hierarchy (despite his relative size difference) but actually win matches to boot: his attitude shows that he's inching to be respected as someone on their level. Ogawa clearly would know what that's like, given he spent years and years jobbing it up in AJPW as the pin-eater for numerous different factions. Ogawa had to go the LONG way to even get a inch of the kind of thing his opponent wants right now. Even then in NOAH he's been one of those guys who has really respected the old Kings Road hierarchy, having to steal most of his victories against the likes of Taue or Akiyama with dirty tricks and roll-ups, never feeling like a equal to them in terms of stature. Despite being a heavyweight, Ogawa in almost all of his big matches never actually feels like one. Then KENTA shows up and does the same thing without needing to cheat his ass off? You really get the feeling here that Ogawa just wants to squash the dreams of this little shit trying to jump the queue so he can sleep better at night knowing there isn't a easier way of doing what he did. Now despite the epic premise or the potential of these two to have a properly great heated outing with each other, this sadly never truly meets that dream all things considered. KENTA is still a bit shaky here and there and hasn't quite ironed out that killer persona that we'll see in later years. He's a bit unfounded, with him doing moves that, at times, felt rather by the numbers, more-so when he's trying to add in some obligatory Jr heavyweight spots of the time. I mean they aren't bad or anything; just not suited for what this started off as more of a heated brawl than a conventional Jr vs heavyweight back and forth. Regardless of the above there was still a lot of natural heat that stemmed from this, helped by KENTA pulling from the opponent's playbook of rollups at points: this further playing into him surpassing the guy who was formally known as the undersized giant-slayer, something that would ring true later on. Ogawa in turn really helped get this over as well as he really threw in some spiteful stuff to try to squeeze out as much as possible from this small encounter. Despite some incredibly stiff strikes and near falls, eventually the inevitable comes as Ogawa gives his opponent a truly nasty counter-powerbomb off a top rope Frankensteiner attempt and completely stomped on his dreams of heavyweight glory with a sequence of big backdrops (including a rather elaborate one off the second rope) for the pin, despite some last-second counters and attempts by KENTA to stay in the fight. This was solid for sure but it just felt like it was missing something truly special to it. KENTA surely hits hard and has some already amazing offence. He also hasn't quite paced out his M.O. yet, so feels a bit green still despite all of his early success. As mentioned above, he didn't feel ironed out as much as he'd get even by the next year in terms of feeling like a tangible big deal, so a lot of his work seems a bit lackluster compared to then. Ogawa was, however, considerably great and really got a lot out of this despite the lack of big spots for most of the duration: a tough task when Jr-era KENTA essentially made his early career out of having bonkers spot sequences and GIF-heavy moments that were instantly copied across the world. instead his aim was focusing on easy and malleable mat-work and counters to ground this down and give a relatively different angle of his opponent than what we'd usually see while also making sure he looks pretty great with some big sells here and there. Is there better matchups between the two? Absolutely, this is still pretty solid tho
  5. This was solid as anything. Misawa coming out with sunglasses on like some struggling uncle battling through a midlife crisis, Ikeda being the usual goofy killer that he is, Ogawa running a trial by fire to keep the titles retained, just so much great moments to watch. The start was the typical Ogawa/Misawa dynamics, Ogawa has to be bailed out a good few times by his typically far more impressive counterpart in Misawa, some double teaming, etc. Yone comes in and starts throwing forearms, and any casual viewer of Misawa matches (even someone who's just watched a couple bits of his best work) will tell you that this is the moment when Yone should get wrecked for even trying to outscrap Misawa, especially with elbows; it's just a universal truth at this point that no one has sharper elbows than Misawa, even with a pad on. Yet....that's not the case. Yone knocks Misawa hard to the outside with a rather stiff forearm shot, and while Misawa gets his shots in later on, this is definitely here to showcase that he's not going to be able to carry this solely by himself. this is further showcased by Misawa being beat up by the two shooty lads for a good while with a pretty confident control segment. Even when Ogawa gets in and tries for his signature scrappy Japanese Memphis punches he's flattened by Ikeda and nullified as well. It's really great how Ogawa sells basic stuff in the context of the match at hand, like how he clings onto the ropes for dear life when Yone tries for a backdrop or a tight headlock: he's terrified of these two because they completely outgun him. He knows IMMEDIATELY that simple fact just by how he's seen his mentor take some beatings. Ogawa is, try as he might, not a man with much to give in this matchup: strong strikers simply run over him, so Bati-Bati guys are, essentially, his Kryptonite. That's shown excellently by Misawa needing to get involved to stop the control segment by beating up Ikeda on the outside and abusing double team moves to get the advantage alongside a face crank, pulling out all of the stops just to balance this out. Despite this and a dirty punch to the back of the head by Ogawa afterwards Ikeda still has his number and so he quickly tags out again, completely defeated. The Misawa/Yone interactions are probably some of the best of Yone I've ever seen barring probably his Battlarts stint, even if it's mostly him trying to beat Misawa's ass and getting elbowed to death and back for his antics. He has so much fire that you'd almost be fooled into thinking he doesn't turn out to be a massive disappointment so it pairs well with Misawa really pushing him here on a big stage with his domineering bombs setting the pace well. Ogawa gets back in and Yone seems toast after a backdrop, but then Ogawa takes a stiff kick to the head and again has to tag out quick to Misawa: he's still the weak link here, not pulling his weight. Misawa takes a rough backdrop on the ramp, a Axe Bomber, and a whole assortment of good double team stuff from Ikeda and co as he just gets chopped down. This leaves him out of most of the third half in terms of substantial plays, forcing his partner to finally somehow conquer the two by himself. The last 10 minutes in particular were just a lot of smart work, Ogawa in particular with a ton of nifty little moments where he's trying to push though these two with everything, eye pokes, fun ref involvement spots, you name it. Even Yone looks like a big threat here with Ogawa hurling himself around here. Stuff like the top rope double Kinniku Buster or the top rope Flowsion were bonkers spots to see in action. A bit too long? Sure, definitely; this was nearly 30 minutes long, just way too much for something like this. The crowd still loved it though, especially the desperation near the end as Ogawa struggles to survive against the bombs/strikes but eventually wins the match out of a wacky Small Package, just barely pushing through the finish line for the duo. Cut five minutes off this and it could've been great: the four had a pretty solid grove on what they wanted the match to be outside of huge spots. It was designed to be this big showing of Ikeda/Yone as a threatening duo and in that aspect it conclusively works to show that in action. You can tell also that this was a match paced around Ogawa basically proving himself as a valuable act all of his own, starting from being knocked around the place and basically having to crawl and sneak every big advantage back with all of the dirty tricks he knows so far. It's a good look at how his role in the team isn't just the guy who gets knocked around for the big comeback, he's a tangible threat that every now and often reminds you why he has that reputation in the first place. Too long, sure. It makes the point well enough to make up for that.
  6. I love how Yoshinari Ogawa is now in the old-man lucha role of getting to fuck around in tags and trios for 90% of the year, but he gets to then commit to matches with guys he really likes; guys like Ridgeway, HAYATA, etc, and now this. In a way, he's become what Misawa was in the 2000's with his consistent focus on training and working with his own projects to get them over. It was really cool to see him paired back up with Zack; I thought they were one of the cooler tag duos of the time (I actually covered that recently, not finished sadly) and him getting to cook with game opponents made this a easy great watch. Pre-match has Ogawa be a prick and yank Kaito down during his introduction for no real reason, he's just built that way. Starting sequences with Zack/Kaito were pretty much flawlessly smooth, maybe a bit too smooth but I still quite enjoyed how they played around with some WoS bits here and there between the usual handsprings and takedowns. Ogawa/Oiwa was all built on basic wrestling fundamentals; Ogawa would bully with extended holds, Oiwa would have to rely on his atheticism to find ways to escape or counter. Simple stuff: seeing how Ogawa would add in little flairs here and there to really grind the moves out with consistent cheap shots, taunting, and some genius transitions reminds you why he's so brilliant at structuring a match, making a crowd ooo and ahh at shit like headlock takeovers. I was surprised at how much he gave Kaito in terms of selling and bumping, even for stuff that I wasn't really that hot for like his dodgy elbows. The good news; that doesn't last for long! Kaito actually spends the whole middle half selling for the technical lads as they do their old tag-team routines and hone-in on torturing the guy with submissions and whatnot. Kaito's selling for this was fine, but him screaming for what was most of the duration was unneeded and kinda distracting: I'm fine with screaming during the worst moments, consistent screaming for every little thing? Yeah no thanks. I don't know why they went from the arm to the leg and then back again as well and it did feel like overkill, especially when Kaito's attempted hot tag almost right after was him running around the place over and over. There were some funny Rat Boy moments with Ogawa baiting out the ref to try to kick his arm away during a sunset-press before pulling back and making him fall so he could get away with punching Kaito in the face to escape lol. This leads to a strong sequence of the two using the apron to attack Kaito's head while he's draped over alongside Zack throwing on a really cool inverted headscissors to try to knock him out afterwards, leading Kaito to dramatically act like he's dead for a minute. The control work was generally pretty robust and kept a strong pace despite it being led by two technical guys. Looking at this and then the recent Bryan match, I felt like Zack's stuff while still smooth had a bit more.....struggle? I mean he's still mostly the same, more so his work seems more laboured here than it did there. Maybe that's the difference in crowd expectation: he can go at a more slower pace and not have to worry about losing interest: who knows. Last third was enjoyable enough with Oiwa's decent hot tag and some fairly good work with Sabre. He does like a big wrestling takedown after catching one of his kicks to go into a cross armbreaker and does a few gutwrench suplexes that looked very flush. Kaito's work was actually less impressive as he focuses on doing his strikes, which are pretty awful. Ogawa and Kaito finish up and as per expected from their prior work from the 2021 series, it's quite enjoyable, with Kaito pulling all of his wacky Muto-isms with Dragon Screws and crazy facial expressions in submissions. The roll-up sequences were legit entertaining given Ogawa's dragging himself along at such a old age yet still surprising the crowd with some of the stuff he was trying. Eventually Kaito just does the classic Muto-style Shining Wizard spam and after three (!!!) he manages to get the clean pin. All things considered, I think this could've helped with some more rowdy brawling in places. Apart from Zack near the start going to the outside for about a minute, they never really get to those levels of chaos that could've been accomplished. As per a Ogawa-match the technical aspects are all really solid and well thought out in terms of a basic "heel team in control" routine as per what the duo usually done. Sabre and Ogawa work that dynamic naturally really well, even if Ogawa is starting to get effected a bit by Father Time; he's a bit off with some of the faster counters here, but given he's nearly 60 years old at this point you gotta kinda let that slide all things considered. I think what actually does tangibly drag the match down are the other wrestlers involved here. I mean listen, I really like Kaito Kiyomiya, guy is quite talented, he just never really seemed properly on in this match with a lot of his stuff lacking intensity and, you know, looking good. Oiwa while also somewhat having issues with that had some strong powerhouse moments of just throwing weight around, so at least he has that coolness factor to rely on. Kaito parroting Muto-spots with none of the unique flash doesn't match that at all. I'd say the match is still a really solid watch, it's just that there were obvious weak links that could've been worked on.
  7. Solid little match here. YO-HEY is another of NOAH's random Jr heavyweight guys that showed up around this time and he's pretty solid for what he's always been mostly, a tag specialist. That being said, he had a pretty decent outing. They work like this like you'd expect: Yo has the advantage when it comes to just straight up wrestling due to his atheticism and youth which lets him land spots and movez all over the place, but his cockiness early on costs him the advantage as him gloating allows Ogawa the time to dodge a outside dive and cause Yo to land right on his knee, badly hurting it. Ogawa smelling blood goes for the leg with his usual nasty control spots, using a chair, stomps, and tons of tricky holds to work it over as much as possible, really showcasing why he's one of the best when it comes to limb control sequences as he just methodically breaks down it with a whole staple of stuff. Yo's selling is decent and is able to get the crowd really invested in the holds being used despite that kind of slower wrestling generally being frowned upon. Even when he manages to make a comeback, he sells the leg buckling and not being able to give him any leeway to catch up with Ogawa in terms of damage, always being forced to slow down and get caught out again. Ogawa also mixes things up a bit, throwing out some pretty sick leg locks to try to break the guy. Unlike many matches where Yo would eventually get his big break, that just never came here. Ogawa kept cranking on the leg, upping the intensity, and trying to break him with backdrops into figure-fours and the like, Yo didn't give up, but he wasn't in any position to do much else either. Eventually his buddy HAYATA is forced to throw in the towel for him as there was nothing else he could do. As a match it's not amazing or anything, but as a Ogawa showcase of him just working slick technical stuff it's pretty sharp; Ogawa knows how to get simple wrestling over and in doing so really gets them invested in a potential comeback that never comes. It's pretty strong stuff for a random undercard all things considered.
  8. Really solid undercard that I enjoyed also because they mixed things up a bit instead of the usual "everyone gets their shit in, brawl, leave" standard six-man stuff. Ogawa backdrops Genba Hirayanagi on the outside early because he tries interfering on behalf of his staple mates and Ogawa's just trying to enjoy the match, so he has insta-heat with both his tag partners from the get go as that's Kanemaru's boy and he also slaps the shit out of Suzuki when he complains about it. Match itself gets a little bit cute in places (like Suzuki and Aoki do this really contrived starting sequence where they are just going from bit to bit with next to no struggle, that's always lame) but the premise of Ogawa having to contend with his own tag partners trying to fuck him over throughout is definitely unique for something like this and lends itself well to add actual heat instead of just being a series of bland interactions. Ogawa adds to the fire by clapping when Danielson gets the better of Suzuki in a strike exchange which Suzuki calls back to in a few minutes when he full on kicks Ogawa when he's trying to come off the ropes. Ogawa and Williams also get to nerd-out with tons of British Catch spots alongside counters to traditional stuff they pulled off in the past. Kanemaru goes nuts in the middle with a huge jumping head guillotine kick from the guardrail onto Aoki, which Ogawa has no part of because he's a nice guy...this time. Who impressed me the least here? Shockingly, Bryan Danielson. He didn't really look that good here and his stuff was mostly either iffy strikes or spamming his running elbow like a million times with absolutely no urgency or fire. Even a young Aoki was more energised, maybe it's just a off day for him but you definitely didn't get the vibe of a GOAT tier contender here. He does do a springboard knee at one point so that's something at least. Last few minutes were just a burst of spots, but thrown in with solid Ogawa heat as he kept getting beaten up. That threatened a loss in places, however Aoki still ate the job to Suzuki's Blue Destiny for the finish. Williams and Ogawa do a awesome Chaos Theory/backdrop combo post-match on Suzuki when they try for a beatdown. Solid undercard outing with some drama added in to make it a lot fresher than it could have been. Ogawa is probably the backbone as to why, what with his little motions to get the dynamic over alongside enjoyable work with Williams as always, guys like Suzuki, Aoki and Kanemaru add in a really fast pace that kicks ass throughout. Smartly worked but also just as enjoyable as some of the more crazy Jr tags of the time.
  9. Unaired, but a fancam exists of the full thing. Now this is definitely a curiosity: these two will become legitimate tag champs and best bros in the future, for now Misawa is one of the hottest acts in the company and Ogawa is a 7-year (yes, seven year) undercarder who was only now really getting any buzz as a underlining in Tsuruta-gun, though he's mostly just there to bump and eat pins. The two don't do anything radically crazy, but you can tell they already had some solid chemistry with each other and Misawa thought highly of the guy, because this was not only a fairly evenly spread out match, but instead Ogawa actually controls things for a decent portion of it via working the arm in holds. This is definitely a bit slow in places given that fact, the crowd are nevertheless pretty invested. It's cool seeing Misawa actually not be in control here as Ogawa keeps outpacing him with faster stuff and quick snappy counters, using his speed to blindside him over and over. His mistake is then trying to out-strike Misawa, because, you know, elbow. Misawa adopts a more power-based style with the far lighter Ogawa, throwing him up for backbreakers or belly to belly suplexes, pulling from more of a Jumbo-style of power moves than his usual flashy stuff. Ogawa pulls out his usual cheap tricks and the classic punches as Misawa has him completely scouted, escaping his swinging neckbreaker to land a few stiff elbows into his patented facelock for the quick and easy tap-out. Nothing great for this super squash however these two had a great pace going out here and really got over the other despite said squash: Ogawa tries his hardest but he just can't get the job done against someone *this* good yet, at least not without all of the roll-ups in the world at least. Good outing for what it was, Ogawa even this early seemed extremely confident as a act.
  10. Man I love NOAH. Even a minor lead-in tag like this will have a unique, unpredictable structure, everyone playing their role and guys unloading on eachother with stiff shots. Great opening which gets the crowd by the balls immediately. Marufuji putting Hashi in the tree of woe so he and Ogawa can double team Akiyama is something we all did in WWF No Mercy. I like Akiyama a lot but I thought he was outshone by Hashi here, who was just way stiffer, more intense, etc. I thought Akiyama could've done a better job giving Ogawa & Marufuji receipts for their rat boy tactics. Ogawa looked great as usual outsmarting his opponents. Marufuji didn't do anything stupid, even showing some viciousness dropkicking Hashis skull repeatedly. Loved the finish.
  11. A very subdued NOAH main event, which makes this cool immediately in my book. I prefer these guys working smart exchanges over some head droppy macho ass bullshit. Ogawa as usual gets some unusual and cool exchanges out of Misawa. I also really like that Misawa was tagging with IZU~ here. He and Sano just potatoed each other a lot and it was really fun. Izu seemed to be riding high in the end, uncorking his awesome diving headbutt and fending off Sanos comeback attempts only to fall to a basic armbar.
  12. Random as hell match that I saw at the RealHero Google Drive. Ikeda and Ono come in and get a really nice reaction, then Kikuchi and Ogawa kind of eat their lunch. Kikuchi was uncooperative to the max and didn't sell a thing. Ogawa just did his usual spiel. There were some stiff as hell moves here, including Ikeda dishing out some of his stiffest shots I've ever seen on Kikuchi, Kikuchi firing back like a madman and Ono responding to Ogawa's pro style punches with shoot strikes, aswell as a brutal series of german suplexes to Ono. Fun match, but I would've liked a real match and not something borderline unprofessional. This was about the only match of Ikeda in AJPW where he was treated as anything special. I wonder if this was some sort of test as lot of AJPW guys were watching from the side.
  13. JIP but this match is white hot fire baby! It's all about Kawada & Taue killin' eachother. Kikuchi gets thrown around as a human weapon! Ogawa dishes out nasty shots! Taue and Kawada beat the shit out of eachother some more! At one point, Kawada goes for a save and Taue just decks him in his face. Only early 90s puro delivers this kind of action. Sumo slaps = the best.
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