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[2004-06-01-NOAH-Navigation With Breeze] Takeshi Morishima vs Daisuke Ikeda


NintendoLogic

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I'll be honest. I had never even heard of this match, let alone seen it pimped as anything special, until I saw this post. I'm not even slightly a fan of actual shoot-style, but I do generally enjoy guys with shooter gimmicks in pro-style matches, so I figured this was worth a look.

 

This match is for the WLW (Harley Race's promotion) Heavyweight Championship. Let me begin by saying how much I love Morishima's Inside the Heat Beats theme, largely because it's so incongruous for someone who's supposed to be a monster/power wrestler. It sounds like it could be Sakura's theme in a Street Fighter game. Then again, Morishima does look like a giant schoolgirl, so maybe it it is appropriate. Anyway, the match. I've been on a NOAH kick recently, and Morishima's lariats might be my favorite thing in wrestling right now. He dominates the opening minutes other than an Ikeda kneebar that would come into play later. There's a funny moment when Ikeda tries to block a backdrop by grabbing the referee, so Morishima just smashes both of them into the turnbuckle. This leads to a visual pinfall off an Amaze Impact. The action spills to the outside, and Morishima grabs a chair and obliterates Ikeda with a JBL to Eddie Guerrero-level shot to the head that I'm surprised didn't bust him open hardway. Morishima then tries to backdrop Ikeda off the apron through a table. It's kind of interesting to see Morishima work a brawling style rather than monster style, more Stan Hansen than Vader. Ikeda blocks it by going after the knee he worked over earlier (psychology!) and turns the tables with a Death Valley Driver through the table. Ikeda starts throwing punches in a desperate attempt to keep the big man down and gets the win with a series of kicks to the head.

 

Super match.This is almost certainly Ikeda's best NOAH match and quite possibly his best match overall, at least for my tastes. It's a shame he never got a big run with a major promotion. With his grasp of pro-style psychology and flair for the dramatic, I think he could've gotten over.

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  • 2 months later...

NintendoLogic picked this for me for the Secret Santo project. I'm not the biggest NOAH fan so I've never seen this but man was it awesome. Morshima right out the gate goes after Ikeda with Lariats. The first couple he hit are brutal. I was surprised at the ref bumps in this as I didn't think NOAH did that. They go to the outside and use chairs and even the ref takes a chairshot. Ikeda does a DVD through a table and gets his comeback. He throws a bunch of punches and kicks and finally gets the win and the title. Good story and awesome match. Glad I watched it.

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  • GSR changed the title to [2004-06-01-NOAH-Navigation With Breeze] Takeshi Morishima vs Daisuke Ikeda
  • 2 years later...

This match rules. It's for the WLW heavyweight title which is the title from Harley Race's WLW academy. With the ref. bumps, the chair shots, the table bump and the brief ringside brawling, this feels more like a big FMW Korakuen Hall main event title match than a Noah match and that's not a bad thing as there's plenty of those matches that delivered and this delivered as well. Aside from the FMW Korakuen Hall spots, both men brought the aggressiveness. Morishima was blasting Ikeda with some neat lariats and even catches him with a pretty brutal running big boot, but Ikeda of course one upped him when it came to aggressiveness as he was constantly blasting him with brutal Dai-Chan Bombers. That finishing run was fantastic with the 4 punch left and right hand combo leading to the big knee lift was my favorite bit of it. Very, very good match.

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  • 5 months later...

Man Morishima was an absolute beast in this. I've been meaning to watch this match forever, I might even own it on DVD and skipped it back when because Ikeda always seemed like he was collecting a paycheck in NOAH. This match is laid out in a clever way where he looks like he's not in Morishima's league most of the time but he actually comes out stronger for it by the end. The finish absolutely floored me. This match might be the best example ever not to judge something on paper until you've seen what they do in the ring. Great stuff.

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