[2000-09-15-NOAH-Exceeding Our Dreams] Kenta Kobashi & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Takeshi Rikio vs Jun Akiyama & Yoshihiro Takayama & Yoshinobu Kanemura

[soup23]

Kikuchi starts this off cheapshotting everyone and gaining the early advantage with others giving a WTF reaction. That gets the crowd lit and was an awesome moment. Rikio also has some pep in his step going toe to toe with Takayama and holding his own. Akiyama gets the tag and throws Rikio to the corner begging for Kobashi to tag in. What a prick. Kobashi gets the tag in and him and Jun tee off on each other. Big chop on the outside sends Akiyama over the rail. Back inside, Takayama tries to bully Kikuchi and he again has none of that. Kenta and Taka now fire up and Kenta gets the best of a chop exchange. I love seeing the face team not backing down an inch here. Really impressive long vertical suplex by Kobashi onto Takayama. Match settles in a bit now but it isn’t awful work between Kanemaru and Kikuchi/Rikio, just less than the fever pitch the match was at before. Kikuchi becomes the FIP and they work him over with some vicious and prickish work. Kobashi gets the tag and is a complete house of fire. In a great bit of resourcefulness, Akiyama is able to go after the leg of Kobashi and they regain the advantage with Takayama kicking away. Rikio helps out by stomping away and having a fun offensive flurry at the 20 minute mark. Finishing run happens now and it looks like Kikuchi is in deep shit against both Taka and Jun but he ducks and Taka hits Jun. Kikuchi takes out Taka and then hits two Germans and a powerbomb on Kanemaru to gain the win to a huge pop. Great match. **** (8.1)

[superkix]

This was pretty fun, with Kikuchi and Takayama being the standouts. Kikuchi running around, elbowing everyone to start was awesome, and then Takayama working real stiff against Rikio, between the slaps, elbows, and kicks. I liked when Akiyama throws Rikio in his own corner and demands Kobashi but Rikio doesn't give it to him. There were a couple of hiccups throughout, including the ref fucking up the count and Takayama's missed "inadvertent" big boot to Akiyama, which had a delayed reaction from Jun but allowed Kikuchi to pick up the win after his dope rolling Germans into the Fireball Ball. Kikuchi rules.

[Edwin]

Yeah, I agree with saying this was pretty fun and I will also praise Kikuchi and Takayama's performances here. Kikuchi elbowing everyone and then running away from Takayama was awesome. Stuff like the botched ref. count and the botched big boot hurt this a bit, but it was still a fun match regardless.

[ohtani's jacket]

There's something so 'meh' about NOAH. I think I'll be taking it off my viewing list unless Chad rates something particularly high. It doesn't help that I was never a big fan of Kobashi or Akiyama. Their work here didn't interest me which is a shame because I was hoping to follow their narrative through the coming months but I had an inkling that I'd feel this way heading into the bout. There were some okay moments between Takayama and Kikuchi, and the crowd got into the match when Kikuchi made his run, but for the most part, this was plodding heavyweight action.

[AstroBoy]

Kikuchi brought so much to this, he was a real straw that stirs the drink type guy here. Him interacting with Takayama and to a lesser extent Akiyama helped fill the body of the match with fun sub-stories to keep things interesting. Kobashi and Akiyama continue to build toward bigger things with some terse exchanges but nothing crazy. I liked the tone of Akiyama winning a key striking exchange with Kobashi to continue staying one step ahead of him. Inoue was pretty shitty in some spots but was mostly inoffensive. There were the minor botches by the official and Takayama mistiming his spot with Akiyama but they go right to the finish and the crowd goes nuts for Kikuchi putting Kanemaru away. Really good variety six-man tag.

 

***3/4