[2000-08-06-NOAH-Departure II] Naomichi Marufuji & Takeshi Rikio vs Takeshi Morishima & Masao Inoue

[soup23]

Morishima is so skinny here. It is neat to see him and Rikio be developed right out of the gate for NOAH as someone worth following. Otherwise, this was just a match more than anything else form the first two NOAH shows. The action doesn’t really have a linear story for most of the first portion and the work over Marufuji is extremely halfhearted. I know Inoue has a rep for being shitty but in his first two matches, he hasn’t shown even glimpses of being entertaining. The last 3-4 minutes finally bring some juice into the proceedings 20 minutes into the match with Rikio and Marufuji going through more strikes and their flashier offense. Inoue regains control in these final moments and to show how boring he is, his near fall finishers involve a back breaker and side Russian leg sweep. He actually gets the tap out from Marufuji here with the torture rack in just under 20 minutes. Again, kudos to NOAH for allowing these young guys to stretch out their legs in substantial tags time wise but this was WAYYYY too long. **

[AstroBoy]

Morishima was a beast here and I really loved his clashes with Rikio. The rest of it I could pretty much live without and this was pretty bloated without much interesting to sustain it but they all get a chance to air their stuff out a little bit and grow into bigger roles this way. I don't find Inoue as go-away as some I guess. He is serviceable. But this was all about Morishima and to a lesser extent, Rikio.

 

**