[2002-10-19-NOAH-Navigation Against The Current] Jun Akiyama & Akitoshi Saito vs Kenta Kobashi & Kentaro Shiga

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Superstar Sleeze]

GHC Tag Team Champions Sterness (Jun Akiyama & Atikoshi Saito) vs

Burning (Kenta Kobashi & Kentaro Shiga) - NOAH 10/19/02

The undisputed and unlikely star (at least from my perspective) was Kentaro Shiga. I had never seen Shiga, but with that frame he looked like as if I stepped into the ring. He is not a shorty like Saito, but a tall-ish, lanky fellow. So when Akiyama waves him off dismissively at the very beginning as if to say "Listen chump, it is time for the big boys to play" and then promptly cheapshots him off the apron Shiga comes in and tries to retaliate, but this is not Akiyama's first rodeo and he backs off the apron and gives him a wag of the finger. , I was like "Fuck Yeah!" Shiga then proceeded to prove me wrong the rest of the match that he did belong. Shiga just screamed "Face In Peril", but lo and behold he was one helluva hot tag. Shiga gets a hold of Akiyama and slaps him in the corner. You can imagine what happens next as Akiyama just brutalizes Shiga with a barrage of slaps. Akiyama goes to finish the job on the ramp, but Shiga gets a tornado DDT off the ramp that almost decapitates Akiyama on the railing. HOLY SHIT! He does it two more times off the apron onto the railing and I think Akiyama is dead. Akiyama can only get a foot on the ropes and collapses on the Irish Whip attempt. Kobashi is in and get hits his delayed vertical suplex, but Saito saves drawing boos. One other thing I love about this is match is that there is actual heel heat for Sterness. When Saito saves Akiyama he actually draws boos. Interference is pretty liberal in puroresu tags, but rarely draws boos. The facts the crowd was in unison for Kobashi & Shiga and there was an actual build to a finish improved this match tenfold over the previous Sterness tag. Saito draws more boos by breaking up a sweet ab stretch with crossface. Kobashi tags Shiga, but outside of his on bomb he just does not have the offense to take it to Akiyama, who wrangles Shiga into a vicious crossface while Saito restrains Kobashi. This has been a perfect use of Saito so far. smile.gif

Now the real fun begins as Akiyama busts open Shiga's nose with a high knee and they just brutalize his face during the heat segment. Saito, who throws a pretty good kick, kicks him in the face and steps on his face. Akiyama slaps Shiga in the face while Saito holds him as the ref is admonishing him Saito stands on Shiga's face. This is friggin' awesome. Shiga gets a lariat to tag in Kobashi. I have to say I was bit underwhelmed by Kobashi. It was a pretty tepid hot tag when I was expecting molten fire. He chops the fuck out of Akiyama, but they go into finisher tease. Saito hits a real sweet axe kick on Kobashi and a German. Kobashi lariats Saito and tags Shiga, who is a fuckin house of fire. He is out for blood and just crushing anything that moves. A Saito jumping enziguiri stymies his run. Now it is Kobashi's turn to rattle off offense: he throws Akiyama down on the knee to corner and half-nelson suplexes follow, but Saito saves. They tease the Burning Hammer, but Saito the Personification of Buzzkill breaks it up with a jumping enziguiri. Don't worry Kobashi, Shiga has this on lock. He applies an STF on Akiyama while Kobashi detains Saito and the crowd is rocking for Shiga. Shiga does for his big bomb: the tornado DDT, but Akiyama hits a brainbuster out of it. Akiyama goes to choke a bitch, but Kobashi saves. Shiga gets one more hope spot with a roll-up outta of an exploder, but Akiyama proves too much for him hitting a brainbuster, exploder and a fisherman buster to polish him off for a successful defense of the tag titles.

The match does run pretty long and can be a bit excessive at times would be my quibbles. I would imagine this is Shiga's match of a lifetime. Everyone loves an underdog and this is a story anyone can get. The underdog punking out the bully, getting his ass beat, taking it right to the bullies, but coming up short. Kobashi, who lets face it can be a bit of a glory hog, really let Shiga shine in this. Akiyama played a great heel prick in this much better than any other match I have seen from him. ****

[Ditch]

I feel pretty much the same way: good story, some great moments and runs, but too long to be at the top tier of the decade. Something like the 5/23/96 tag with Akiyama in the Shiga role went 27 minutes; this went 31. 4 minutes shaved off some of those control segments would have done a world of good. This is a lock for my ballot but almost certainly won't crack the top 50.

[dawho5]

Only reason to watch this is Shiga vs. Akiyama. Saito is so very awful here and drags this down to the point where I don't think it's gonna be on my ballot. Shiga is insanely good though, especially against Akiyama.

[Graham Crackers]

Yeah, I really liked Shiga as well during the Burning vs Sternness feud and this is one of his best showcases. It's a shame he never had a performance like this after his injury. This does go a bit too long for what it is and that's a flaw you can apply to a lot of 2 on 2 NOAH tags. Has a good shot at making the bottom half of my ballot.

[Alan4L]

Totally in agreement with all of the above here. Real good match, had some great moments, but went too long. Possible for a 90-100 finish.

[G. Badger]

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. This is a great to perhaps classic match that has been lost in the shuffle. I think most of the mid and early 2000's will be like that...

[ohtani's jacket]

I liked this a lot. In a down year for Japanese wrestling this stood out more than it usually would. One thing I like about Japanese wrestling is that everyone accepts their limitations. Saito isn't a great athlete, so he wrestles as a perfectly scuzzy heel. Shiga has a small build and is undersized, so he wrestles from beneath. Kobashi has fucked knees, and isn't the same worker he was before his surgeries, but he lets it show. Even Akiyama wrestles with a chip on his shoulder that could be construed as being real. This was a classic Japanese tag match with the heels working over the weaker partner. We've seen it countless times, but there's something about it that's tried and true. Watching the match unfold, it was obvious that Akiyama was the best wrestler in the ring, and that Kobashi wasn't quick enough on his dodgy knees to save Shiga, but Shiga put up a hell of a fight and made Akiyama work for the victory. It looked as though Shiga bled hard way, and rather painfully at that, and his kick outs at the end were riveting. A fine match.