NOAH NOAH's voyage #160 6/9/08 Encountering Navigation '05 |
Michael Modest & Donovan Morgan vs. Yoshinari Ogawa & Richard Slinger 6:57 of 12:00. Standard NOAH tag formula with one unit, Team Kaos, isolating the weaker member in their corner and taking him apart for the bulk of the body. Slinger actually made a few comebacks, but was cut off pre-tag. The match picked up with Ogawa’s hot tag, which of course led to Slinger coming right back in to take the rest of Kaos’ offense. Good moves, but no drama as it was essentially a squash. **1/4
Mitsuharu Misawa & Mohammed Yone vs. Kenta Kobashi & Go Shiosaki 11:41 of 20:43. Good action with Shiozaki busting it, and Kobashi & Yone lending enough support to make the match. Shiozaki is fiery and energetic, but doesn’t have enough offense for the veterans to sell for him consistently. The match was mostly Shiozaki vs. Yone, but rather than allow his partner to get constantly brutalized, Kobashi would soften the opposition up during brief stretches and then hand the weakened opponent over to Shiozaki. Unlike Kobashi, Misawa failed to make his presence felt. He was in lazy mode, and wouldn’t even come in to make saves for Yone. He eventually relented when it appeared Shiozaki had Yone pinned in a moonsault, but today he was the one who was carried to a good match. ***
Captain's Fall Elimination Match: KENTA (c) & Naomichi Marufuji & Kotaro Suzuki & Ricky Marvin vs. Takashi Sugiura (c) & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Makoto Hashi & SUWA 28:48 of 46:06. It’s hard not to get excited when you hear the likes of KENTA, Marufuji, Suzuki, & Marvin are involved in a 45+ minute elimination match. The problem is they were all on the same team, going against the no offense juniors who were led by easily the worst wrestler in the match, Sugiura. The first half of the match was damn good with Marvin & Suzuki flying all over the place with SUWA and to a lesser extent Kanemaru around to make their offense look even better. The problem is these were the first four eliminations, which left a real gap in the offense given Sugiura’s move set is about as exciting as Manabu Nakanishi’s. I don’t mind Sugiura & Hashi’s lack of offense so much as their inability to make up for it by other means the way SUWA can. KENTA & Marufuji, who were more or less saved for the second half, should have been more than enough to maintain the excellent quality displayed in the nonstop first half, but they just didn’t get enough help. In the end, Marvin & SUWA made strong showings, Suzuki & Marufuji were at least good, Kanemaru wasn’t around long enough to make much of an impression, KENTA was fine but failed to reach his normal high level, and Sugiura and to a lesser extent Hashi kept it from being the match it could have been. ***1/4
