[2005-08-27-NOAH] Minoru Suzuki vs KENTA

[GOTNW]

KENTA attacking Suzuki before the bell here was very well done, he just dashed at him and booted him in the head, and Suzuki's towel blocking his vision made for a great detail. KENTA brought great fire and his offence was as crisp as I remembered it to be. I loved the transitions Suzuki would use-the Front Necklock/Guillotine where he left KENTA hanging in particular was a fascinating visual, and he was at home when it was time to stretch KENTA, but I wasn't in love with the portions in the match where in the middle where he was outstriking KENTA. Due to their difference in stature KENTA had to sell really big for Suzuki and he did, but Suzuki isn't big enough and didn't hit hard enough that it'd make those long moments of selling after every strike fitting. The match went into another gear when they moved onto the finishing stretch and started working more evenly, Suzuki's Leglock counters were awesome as was him busting out a Giant Swing out of Half Crab and they smoothly worked them into the match since KENTA has enough kicking offence he doesn't have to to pointless rope running of doom with no moves being attempted in them, and the final slap battle was perfectly done with Suzuki evading KENTA's strikes and gaining a bigger and bigger advantage until finally just nuking him and putting him away. ***1/4

[ShittyLittleBoots]

I knew I would love this. And I did. Fantastic dynamic with KENTA being the hard hitting underdog who wanted to prove that he is on the same level as the Heavyweights - loved him attacking Suzuki while he was still making his entrance, that only pissed off MiSu, which lead to him working on top of KENTA for a pretty lengthy period of the match - it was really good. KENTA's hope spots & comebacks were real good, and I thought that his performance overall was very strong, really rocked the underdog role in this one. ****