NOAH di colosseo 7/4/05 Navigation with Breeze '05 |
6/5/05
Takuma Sano vs. Minoru Suzuki 14:01. I feel like I took a time machine back to 1992. They returned to their UWF offshoot roots, actually utilizing a much neglected side of their background to deliver a fine technical bout rather than simply doing the same old NOAH style incessantly. In the process, they delivered one of the most focused and well told story matches of the NOAH year. Sano was typically overmatched, but overcame that by being his old rudo self. Suzuki withstood Sano’s cross armbar long enough to make the ropes, but Sano refused to break until the last possible second, disabling Suzuki. Suzuki did a superb job of putting the injury over consistently for the duration of the match. He acted as if he had a broken arm, holding the bent appendage at his stomach unless he was using it to do a move. Sano went right after the arm with a kick, prompting Suzuki to escape to the floor for the first of his lengthy sells. After withstanding several more well targeted kicks, Suzuki finally broke up a slap exchange by sneaking behind Sano and applying his sleeper, but Sano just wrenched the broken wing at the wrist. Suzuki tried a one-arm piledriver later, but wasn’t able to pull it off, leading to more of Sano’s arm work. The one problem with the match is they had no idea how to end it since Sano can’t simply get the logical big win. They knew Suzuki had to win quickly, but there’s not many submissions you can do with one arm, so they just allowed Suzuki to use the arm for 30 seconds as he transitioned between submissions until he found something Sano would tap to. ***1/2
Kenta Kobashi & Go Shiozaki vs. Takeshi Rikio & Mohammed Yone 16:38. One reason Kobashi has good matches on the small shows is he shames the others into trying. Outside of Misawa, no one in NOAH can feel comfortable sleepwalking when the kneeless wonder is working hard to put on a good show. They kept it simple, but did a nice job of making the match seem meaningful, instilling a sense of desperation and urgency. Yone gave the type of performance I’ve been looking for, facilitating good wrestling so to speak by working lengthy segments with both opponents (keeping Rikio on the apron). Shiozaki did a few more flying moves than usual, even if they were of the basic 1980’s variety. The fans were really into seeing him try to pin Yone, especially after Yone nearly had him beat. Of course, the opposite occurred. ***
6/10/05
6 Man Royal Rumble Battle Royal 17:10. The only good wrestling came from the final pairing with the rest being goofy fun, at best. Still, despite the match consisting of largely uneventful undercarders, it was worlds better than the old star filled AJPW battle royals. There were a few annoying aspects, such as there was no legitimate attempt to eliminate anyone before all six members were in the match, and they would essentially stop wrestling every time a new entrant made his way to the ring. Still, they managed to be marginally entertaining, and overall it wasn’t too bad, if only for the novelty. Kishin Kawabata & Mohammed Yone started, with Masao Inoue siding with Kawabata to double team Yone. The next fighters, Tamon Honda & Takuma Sano both sided with Yone. When Takeshi Morishima joined Yone’s team as well, Inoue basically said “screw you Kawabata, I’m going to the other side”. Kawabata managed to survive the segment anyway as Inoue allowed Honda to be the last member in the 4 way appendage submission so he could pounce on Inoue, with the others leaving Kawabata's arm and ankles to pile on. Now that they were no longer picking on Kawabata, he actually lasted to the end. His final segment with Morishima was surprisingly good, with Kishin nearly scoring the upset then putting up a valiant effort after he missed his diving senton before succumbing to Morishima’s backdrop. *1/2
Hair Match: Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Takashi Sugiura & SUWA & Makoto Hashi vs. Naomichi Marufuji & KENTA & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Kotaro Suzuki 21:35 of 30:10. Though Ricky Marvin’s offense was certainly missed, the talent was still there to have a memorable hair match. Unfortunately, during the first half it barely resembled a NOAH junior match. There was some good stuff such as KENTA & Hashi laying into each other with slaps, but they killed a lot of time, including a surprising amount of brawling on the outside. The best guys – Marufuji, SUWA, & KENTA – were virtually invisible outside of quadruple teams and fighting around the arena, only wrestling the briefest segments. This meant full helpings of Kikuchi, Hashi, & Sugiura. Sugiura became disgusted with Hashi when everyone else came in and gave a prone Suzuki a running kick while Sugiura had him in the camel clutch, but Hashi instead delivered a Mongolian chop, which forced Sugiura to release the hold. The action grew increasingly desperate in the second half, with Suzuki doing a good job of working in and around his usual spots before Kanemaru pinned him. Everyone volunteered to get their hair cut, but Kikuchi got the honor after a game of rock-paper-scissors. **1/2
Jun Izumida Proposal To Mima Shimoda Match: Takeshi Rikio & Jun Izumida vs. Jun Akiyama & Go Shiosaki 15:36. Mima Shimoda sat in the front row, in one of her legendary pink chairs of course, for this match where loser Izumida got to propose to her if he managed to win. Izumida was incredibly jealous of the other wrestlers interactions with her. Shimoda may not have been too keen on him, but she did her best to support him, clapping and yelling “Gambate!” Rikio was efficient when he was in but barely wrestled, as Izumida might not be as successful, but if he was going to lose his chance with Shimoda, he at least wanted to be the one to do it. Luckily for him, Akiyama seems to barely wrestle in any tag outside of the big shows, though he was active and aggressive when he was in and generally gave a good brief showing. In any case, this was largely a singles match between Izumida and young Shiozaki. Izumida stinks, but the others did enough that the match was passable. Shimoda was very excited when Izumida pinned Go with his meteorite. Izumida didn’t bother with a ring, getting a couple of flowers to offer along with his proposal, which Shimoda appeared to accept. Then Izumida tried to seal it with a kiss only to be slapped, blasted with a chair, and scolded. **
