Kuishinbo Kamen & Ebessan III vs. Kikutaro & Catfish Man
TAKA Michinoku & Takeshi Minamino & Kento Miyahara vs. BxB Hulk & Takuma Tanizaki & mcKZ
Sanshiro Takagi vs. Takashi Okita
Kensuke Sasaki & Kota Ibushi vs. Jun Akiyama & Taiji Ishimori
GHC Junior Heavyweight Title Match: KENTA vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima 38:53. After the great success of their first match on 6/13/08, they decided to have them go another 11 minutes. It shouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that two junior heavyweights with similar striking oriented offense are not likely to benefit from being forced to exchange hard shots for nearly 40 minutes. KENTA especially is a diminishing returns sort of wrestler, as some of his biggest strengths are his energy, aggression, and explosiveness. Everything was really slowed down here, feeling nonchalant compared to the previous classic. It was slow with some occasional bursts, marred by too many rest holds, and a lack of urgency. The striking loses a lot of its charm when they are standing around waiting on each other, and going back to the same blows over and over. The match was never dull, in fact it was very well executed and credibly performed, but there was literally no reason for it to be so long. As you'd expect, there wasn't a whole lot of story. In this amount of time, one is likely to land repeatedly to any number of spots, and clearly whatever effect the handful of rib moves from KENTA and neck moves from Nakajima might have had was lessened by being so spread out they practically could have been incidental. Nakajima did a good job in his role as counterwrestler. It made sense for him to try to slow it down to keep KENTA off his tempo, but again, it felt less like this was a strategy, and more that it was a necessity KENTA wasn't exactly fighting against. Certainly, it lacked the zip and pep that distinguishes KENTA's best work. The highlight of the early portion was Nakajima injuring KENTA's midsection by using his own go 2 sleep on him. KENTA did more damage to Nakajima's stomach with a diving footstop off the apron followed by one off the top to the floor. KENTA also countered a pescado with a middle kick. If these bits of focus weren't separated by long periods of kicking and selling, the match would have gained a lot more momentum. Instead, there were just random good spots, such as Nakajima ducking a running lariat on the floor and countering with a DDT that busted KENTA's lip. Nakajima hit a nice tombstone counter, and a brainbuster that caused KENTA to escape to the outside. There was a lot of good action on the floor, but perhaps the best was KENTA's falcon arrow off the apron. They were able to pick it up tremendously for the last 10 minutes, and this portion showed the sort of match they were capable of. While the faster finishing segment saved it for me, it may alienate some who were into the beginning. Either way, it's fair to argue that by this point, the escalation actually seemed at odds with the match they had been doing. Underdog Nakajima tended to be on his back foot, but was able to do things such as turn the go 2 sleep into a Frankensteiner for a near fall. Nakajima was ultimately able to score the upset with an awkward death roll that seemed a pretty feeble finisher after all this time and effort. This was their 4th best match. ***1/4
Kikutaro & Catfish Man vs. K-ness & CHANGO 10:28
Genba Hirayanagi vs. Go 7:29
Atsushi Aoki & Akihiko Ito vs. Kento Miyahara & Kaji Yamato 11:42
Takashi Okita "Face Power" 5 Match Series vs. Champions 1st: Kengo Mashimo vs.Takashi Okita 10:38
Masaaki Mochizuki & TAKA Michinoku & Don Fujii vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima & Takeshi Minamino & Masaaki Okimoto (Rasse) 23:21. Nakajima was clearly the standout wrestler in the match, and his pairing with Mochizuki really delivered. The problem with the match wasn't that Okimoto was the main wrestler; he showed some good athleticism and nice offense when he was allowed to actually do anything, including a 450 splash. The problem was that Mochizuki was the only wrestler on his side that did anything really worthwhile. TAKA just stole his paycheck, and Fujii was at his most boring. Minamino was fine when he was actually in, but was yet another non-factor. **3/4
Kikutaro & Masaki Okimoto & Catfish Man vs. Don Fujii & CHANGO & Spark Aoki 15:17
Atsushi Aoki vs. Go 11:03
Taiji Ishimori & Akihiko Ito vs. Takeshi Minamino & Kento Miyahara 13:16
Takashi Okita "Face Power" 5 Match Series vs. Champions 2nd: Billyken Kid vs. Takashi Okita 11:27
The Great Sasuke & Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima & El Blazer 21:11. The same problem as the last Office main event, Nakajima and Mochizuki are up to the task, but don't get enough support. What was annoying is it was a much more interesting match on paper, and Sasuke & Blazer were in much of the time, they just didn't want to be themselves. Mochizuki may have done more flying than either of them. He was more on than the previous month, but Nakajima was probably less so. In any case, if Sasuke & Blazer merely brought half their usual flying, the match would have been notable, but without that, their portion was certainly not up to snuff. **3/4
Kikutaro & Catfish Man vs. CHANGO & Tomoya 13:23 of 16:53
Takeshi Minamino & Kento Miyahara vs. Genba Hirayanagi & Go 14:53
Takashi Okita "Face Power" 5 Match Series vs. Champions 3rd: Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Takashi Okita 7:35
Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Go Shiozaki 25:11. Solid, well built and executed match. They didn't go nuts on the small show, but they did the sort of fairly intelligent hard fought match that won't leave anyone feeling cheated. They devoted a lot of time to developing injuries, with Nakajima attacking Go's chop/lariat arm and Go attacking Nakajima's knee. There were a few key spots on the outside, with Go reinjuring his hand chopping the post when Nakajima ducked and Go hitting a knee crusher into the post. Nakajima's upper chest was so red from the chops that it looked like he fell asleep sun bathing in a tank top. As the pace picked up and they went to their better moves, they forgot the injuries and reverted to the predictable, tried and true offense, but you never felt it was truly about winning by taking away a body part, it was about taking away the opponent's weapon so they couldn't win with it. ***1/4
Kensuke Sasaki & Takeshi Morishima vs. Takeshi Rikio & Mohammed Yone 21:45
Kikutaro & Catfish Man vs. Satoshi Kajiwara & CHANGO 13:00
Taiji Ishimori & Akihiko Ito vs. Takeshi Minamino & Go 16:28
Takashi Okita "Face Power" 5 Match Series vs. Champions 4th: HARASHIMA vs. Takashi Okita
Captain's Fall Elimination Match: Katsuhiko Nakajima (c) & Kento Miyahara & Masaaki Okimoto vs. Masaaki Mochizuki (c) & K-ness & Super Shisa 30:17. Nakajima & Mochizuki made more of an effort to carry this than their previous tags. Unfortunately, they needed to, as they got little help. Miyahara put for an enthusiastic effort. He may still be the least skilled of the six, but he was easy to root for and overall more of a plus. The other three were no better than passable, and could all be lumped in the dead weight category. But the Nakajima vs. Mochizuki stuff was really good, and there was more than it than in the previous tags. As Nakajima had two unestablished parters, they were the first two out, leaving the home favorite to go 1-3. The Dragon Gaters made it that much more difficult, continually triple teaming Nakajima, but the captain's fall stip kept him in it as all he needed to do was find a way to beat his rival. Easier said than done, but he got lucky and sent the crowd home happy. ***
Satoshi Kajiwara vs. Atsushi Aoki 9:05
Catfish Man & "Hollywood" Stalker Ishikawa & Antonio Honda vs. Kikutaro & Genba Hirayanagi & CHANGO 9:54 of 13:12
Takashi Okita vs. Kento Miyahara 17:05
Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Masaaki Mochizuki 21:25. They've been teasing us the past few months with tag matches that their work together was clearly the highlight of. Tonight they finally lost the kids and got rid of the dead weight so they could give us what we wanted. Mochizuki was really bringing it, and the match was everything you'd hope his match against Nakajima would be, intense, brutal, and crisply executed. I found it to be less contrived and predictable than the majority of high end junior stuff, and appreciated how they used their athletism, quickness, and flexibility to go back and forth through counters. I also liked that their brutality was focused, with Nakajima directing his kicks at Mochizuki's left arm to set up an armbar and to a lesser extent Mochizuki kicking Nakajima's knee out and going after leg and ankle locks. Mochizuki did a nice job of selling his arm between his own offense early on, and they generally build the counters and transitions around attacks to the weak appendage. Amongst many highlights, I was impressed by Nakajima's armbreaker off the middle rope rolled into an armbar. ****
Kensuke Sasaki vs. Takeshi Morishima 21:51. A toned down version of their 9/6/08 GHC Heavyweight Title Match. It's the same length and still essentially in Morishima's style, but the pace and intensity weren't really there and some of the best moves were gone. It's still good, but far more a generic main event. Sasaki is more comfortable with the moderation, but doesn't actually add much of his stiffness, so it's not much of a help. Morishima doesn't stand out as much as the pace is closer to the standard heavyweight match, and the offense isn't anything really that most others couldn't do. They did the same spot where Kensuke tries to powerbomb Morishima off the apron, but Morishima sits on his chest. This time they followed it up though with a nice counter where Morishima tries the moonsault, but Kensuke powerbombs him off the ropes. Kensuke hit a plancha, so it wasn't as though they weren't taking any chances, but the match was mostly memorable for Kensuke actually doing a singles job to repay Morishima for dropping the belt. ***
Kikutaro & Catfish Man vs. CHANGO & Chabinger 10:32
Katsumi Usuda vs. Satoshi Kajiwara 3:34 of 7:33
Katsuhiko Nakajima & Kento Miyahara vs. Bear Fukuda & Go 27:20
Takashi Okita "Face Power" 5 Match Series 5th: Yutaka Yoshie vs. Takashi Okita 1:03
GHC Tag Title Match: Kensuke Sasaki & Takeshi Morishima vs. Go Shiozaki & Akitoshi Saito 28:45