Taiji Ishimori vs. Claudio Castagnoli 8:09
Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Genba Hirayanagi vs. Yoshinari Ogawa & Kento Miyahara 12:54
Go Shiozaki & Akitoshi Saito vs. Akira Taue & Ricky Marvin 12:44
Takeshi Rikio & Mohammed Yone & Shuhei Taniguchi vs. Jun Akiyama & Naomichi Marufuji & Atsushi Aoki 17:37
Takashi Sugiura vs. Chris Hero 13:06
Global Tag League B Block: Bison Smith & Keith Walker [0] vs. Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma [2] 15:10
Global Tag League A Block: Kensuke Sasaki & Takeshi Morishima [0] vs. Yoshihiro Takayama & Takuma Sano [2] 15:58
SEM 4 6/29/06 Tokyo Differ Ariake: Takeshi Morishima & Takashi Sugiura vs. KENTA & Go Shiozaki 15:14
SEM 6 4/4/07 Tokyo Differ Ariake: Takeshi Rikio & Ippei Ota vs. Bison Smith & Joe Legend 18:54
SEMful Gift in Differ '07 12/23/07 Tokyo Differ Ariake: Shuhei Taniguchi vs. Mohammed Yone 9:25
Atsushi Aoki vs. Keith Walker 5:45
Taiji Ishimori vs. Bison Smith 5:50
Kensuke Sasaki & Takeshi Morishima & Naomichi Marufuji vs. Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli & Ricky Marvin 13:31
Takashi Sugiura & Shuhei Taniguchi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Genba Hirayanagi vs. Jun Akiyama & Akira Taue & Yoshinari Ogawa & Tamon Honda 20:12
Global Tag League A Block: Go Shiozaki & Akitoshi Saito [2] vs. Yoshihiro Takayama & Takuma Sano [2] 18:42
Global Tag League B Block: Takeshi Rikio & Mohammed Yone [0] vs. Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma [2] 17:11
Akira Taue vs. Kentaro Shiga 7:43
Mohammed Yone & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Ricky Marvin & Kento Miyahara 11:16
Takuma Sano vs. Genba Hirayanagi 7:52
Go Shiozaki & Akitoshi Saito vs. Takeshi Rikio & Taiji Ishimori 11:39
Jun Akiyama & Yoshinari Ogawa & Makoto Hashi vs. Yoshihiro Takayama & Naomichi Marufuji & Atsushi Aoki 20:01
Global Tag League A Block: Kensuke Sasaki & Takeshi Morishima [2] vs. Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli [0] 17:00
Global Tag League B Block: Takashi Sugiura & Shuhei Taniguchi [2] vs. Bison Smith & Keith Walker [2] 21:00
1/4/10 NOAH vs. NJ Tokyo Dome highlights
1/9/10 Tokyo Differ Ariake
Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Genba Hirayanagi vs. Yoshinari Ogawa & Kento Miyahara 12:54
Go Shiozaki & Akitoshi Saito vs. Akira Taue & Ricky Marvin 12:44
Takeshi Rikio & Mohammed Yone & Shuhei Taniguchi vs. Jun Akiyama & Naomichi Marufuji & Atsushi Aoki 17:37
1/22/10 Mito Citizen Gymnasium
Global Tag League 2010 Block A Match: Takuma Sano & Yoshihiro Takayama [6] vs. Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli [0] 12:40
Global Tag League 2010 Block B Match: Shuhei Taniguchi & Takashi Sugiura [5] vs. Mohammed Yone & Takeshi Rikio [3] 30:00
Taiji Ishimori & Ricky Marvin vs. Kento Miyahara & Satoshi Kajiwara
Kensuke Sasaki & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Kentaro Shiga & Yoshinobu Kanemaru
Bison Smith & Keith Walker & Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli vs. Takeshi Rikio & Mohammed Yone & Akitoshi Saito & Genba Hirayanagi
Jun Akiyama vs. Naomichi Marufuji 15:55. Surprisingly stiff and intense match that never moved beyond what it started out as. As an attempt to have a good match without really any fake highspots, it was a success, but on the other hand no one is going to put it in the class with their excellent 9/9/06 match where Marufuji wins the GHC Heavyweight title. Marufuji took it to Akiyama from the outset with heavy hitting, but Akiyama started to get nasty when they were on the outside, tossing Marufuji around and bashing him with a chair. Akiyama seemed to have a clearer design of how he was going to win the match, as he kept softening Marufuji up with strikes, including some Shinsuke style knees, to set up his front necklock finisher. Marufuji doesn't have any big submissions, and in order to keep the credibility up, his fancy offense such as his cradles and the shiranui were always stunted or countered, so he looked good but never made any real progress toward getting a victory that would even his career record against Akiyama at 3-3. I wasn't expecting an awesome match given the midcard placement, so I'm satisfied with their experimenting, and feel it was the right time to delve into a style they could probably do without either getting too badly reinjured. ***
Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma vs. Takeshi Morishima & Atsushi Aoki 18:04
Global Tag League Final: Yoshihiro Takayama & Takuma Sano vs. Takashi Sugiura & Shuhei Taniguchi 24:05
3/5/08: KENTA & Atsuhiko Ito vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima & Ryuji Yamaguchi
2/25/08: Katsuhiko Nakajima & Ryuji Yamaguchi vs. Kotaro Suzuki & Ippei Ota
Masao Inoue Return Match: Akira Taue & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Masao Inoue & Kentaro Shiga 13:28
Taiji Ishimori & Ricky Marvin vs. Kento Miyahara & Kajiwara Satoshi 14:44
11th GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Champion Decision Tournament 1st Round: Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Genba Hirayanagi vs. Naomichi Marufuji & Atsushi Aoki 13:34
Takeshi Morishima & Akitoshi Saito vs. Kensuke Sasaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima 30:00
Shuhei Taniguchi Bakushin Juuban Shobu #8: Shuhei Taniguchi vs. Yutaka Yoshie 10:53
Takashi Sugiura & Takeshi Rikio & Mohammed Yone vs. Jun Akiyama & Yoshihiro Takayama & Takuma Sano 12:39
SEM #9 2/25/08 Tokyo Differ Ariake: Naomichi Marufuji & Shuhei Taniguchi vs. Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli 17:28
SEM #5 1/11/06 Tokyo Differ Ariake: Kentaro Shiga vs. Tsutomu Hirayanagi 13:18
SEM #8 6/6/07 Tokyo Differ Ariake: Takashi Sugiura vs. Taiji Ishimori 10:12
SEMful Gift In Differ '06 12/23/06 Tokyo Differ Ariake: Kotaro Suzuki vs. Atsushi Aoki 12:11
1/24/10 Korakuen: Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma vs. Takeshi Morishima & Atsushi Aoki 18:04
SEM 1/28/10 Differ
Takuma Sano vs. Atsushi Aoki 9:16
Naomichi Marufuji vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru 10:04
2/6/10 Differ Ariake
11th GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Champion Decision Tournament 1st Round: Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Genba Hirayanagi vs. Naomichi Marufuji & Atsushi Aoki 13:34
Shuhei Taniguchi Bakushin Juuban Shobu #8: Shuhei Taniguchi vs. Yutaka Yoshie 10:53
SEM 1/28/10 Differ: Genba Hirayanagi & Mohammed Yone & Takeshi Rikio vs. Taiji Ishimori & Takashi Sugiura & Takeshi Morishima 19:43
2/6/10 Differ Ariake
Masao Inoue Return Match: Akira Taue & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Masao Inoue & Kentaro Shiga 13:28
Takeshi Morishima & Akitoshi Saito vs. Kensuke Sasaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima 30:00
Takashi Sugiura & Takeshi Rikio & Mohammed Yone vs. Jun Akiyama & Yoshihiro Takayama & Takuma Sano 12:39
Naomichi Marufuji vs. Kento Miyahara 9:49
Masao Inoue & Buchanan vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Genba Hirayanagi 15:38
Takeshi Rikio & Mohammed Yone & Shuhei Taniguchi vs. Jun Akiyama & Yoshinari Ogawa & Atsushi Aoki 15:51
11th GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Champion Decision Tournament 1st Round: Taiji Ishimori & Ricky Marvin vs. Eddie Edwards & Bobby Fish 22:01
Takashi Sugiura & Takeshi Morishima & Takashi Okita vs. Akira Taue & Akitoshi Saito & Yutaka Yoshie 15:42
Yoshihiro Takayama & Takuma Sano vs. Kensuke Sasaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima 15:33
SEM #2 5/7/06 Tokyo Differ Ariake: Takashi Sugiura vs. Akihiko Ito 12:30
SEM #5 11/1/06 Tokyo Differ Ariake: Takashi Sugiura vs. Go Shiozaki 15:39
SEM #6 4/4/07 Tokyo Differ Ariake: Kotaro Suzuki vs. Genba Hirayanagi 6:11
Akira Taue & Takashi Okita vs. Kentaro Shiga & Masashi Aoyagi 5:43
Naomichi Marufuji vs. Bobby Fish 9:24
Kensuke Sasaki & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Akitoshi Saito & Eddie Edwards 10:53
Jun Akiyama & Yoshihiro Takayama & Takuma Sano vs. Takeshi Rikio & Mohammed Yone & Buchanan 1:06
Takeshi Morishima vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima 7:38
Toshiaki Kawada vs. Masao Inoue 1:57
GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Title Decision Tournament Final: Ricky Marvin & Taiji Ishimori vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Genba Hirayanagi 13:48
Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma vs. Takashi Suguira & Atsushi Aoki 15:31
Genba Hirayanagi vs. Bobby Fish 9:48
Taiji Ishimori & Ricky Marvin vs. Masao Inoue & Kentaro Shiga 15:18
Akira Taue & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Jun Akiyama & Tamon Honda 9:45
Takashi Sugiura & Marufuji Naomchi & Atsushi Aoki vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima & Takashi Okita & Kento Miyahara 19:01
Kensuke Sasaki & Takeshi Morishima vs. Buchanan & Eddie Edwards 11:27
Takeshi Rikio & Mohammed Yone & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Yoshihiro Takayama & Takuma Sano & Akitoshi Saito 16:36
Yoshinari Ogawa & Masao Inoue vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima & Takashi Okita 15:21
Akira Taue & Buchanan vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Genba Hirayanagi 10:35
Tamon Honda & Taiji Ishimori & Ricky Marvin vs. Akitoshi Saito & Eddie Edwards & Bobby Fish 13:54
Jun Akiyama & Kensuke Sasaki vs. Naomichi Marufuji & NOSAWA Rongai 14:11
Atsushi Aoki Senkou Juuban Shobu #10: Atsushi Aoki vs. Suzuki Minoru 15:51
Takeshi Morishima vs. Toshiaki Kawada 10:27
GHC Tag Title Match: Takeshi Rikio & Mohammed Yone vs. Yoshihiro Takayama & Takuma Sano 19:36
GHC Heavyweight Title Match: Takashi Sugiura vs. Togi Makabe 26:08
SEM #2 5/7/06 Tokyo Differ Ariake: Takeshi Rikio vs. Shuhei Taniguchi 11:14
SEM #3 6/29/06 Tokyo Differ Ariake: SUWA vs. Ippei Ota 10:13
SEM #9 2/25/08 Tokyo Differ Ariake: Taiji Ishimori & Genba Hirayanagi vs. Takashi Okita & Kento Miyahara 11:38
Ricky Marvin vs. Kajiwara Satoshi 11:41
Bull Takeshi vs. Punch Shiga 3:01
Okita & Miyahara's falls are 2-count: Takeshi Rikio & Mohammed Yone vs. Takashi Okita & Kento Miyahara 13:22
Makoto Hashi vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima 16:04
Submission or KO only: Yoshihiro Takayama & Takuma Sano vs. Kensuke Sasaki & Akitoshi Saito 11:04
Taiji Ishimori vs. Y2P-150kg with Glamour Angels 9:49
Jun Akiyama & Yoshinari Ogawa & Masao Inoue vs. Super Strong Machine & Dynamic Machine #2 & Strong Machine Jr 17:36
Naomichi Marufuji & Shodai Tiger Mask vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Genba Hirayanagi 15:12
Y
3 Way Match: Kentaro Shiga vs. Atsushi Aoki vs. Genba Hirayanagi 7:41
Akitoshi Saito & Yutaka Yoshie vs. Masao Inoue & Tamon Honda 15:47
Takuma Sano vs. Satoshi Kajiwara 8:23
Naomichi Marufuji vs. Takashi Okita 10:16
Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Kento Miyahara 12:04
Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Ricky Marvin 4:26
Jun Akiyama & Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Kensuke Sasaki & Yoshinari Ogawa 16:59
Big Murakami & Katsumi Usuda vs. Mohammed Yone & Takeshi Rikio 6:20
3 Way Match: Kentaro Shiga vs. Atsushi Aoki vs. Genba Hirayanagi 7:41
Takuma Sano vs. Satoshi Kajiwara 8:23
Naomichi Marufuji vs. Takashi Okita 10:16
Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Kento Miyahara 12:04
Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Ricky Marvin 4:26
Jun Akiyama & Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Kensuke Sasaki & Yoshinari Ogawa 16:59
Big Murakami & Katsumi Usuda vs. Mohammed Yone & Takeshi Rikio 6:20
Yoshinari Ogawa & Masao Inoue vs. Takashi Okita & Kento Miyahara
Yutaka Yoshie & Kentaro Shiga vs. Jun Akiyama & Ricky Marvin
Mohammed Yone & Genba Hirayanagi vs. Takeshi Morishima & Satoshi Kajiwara
Toshiaki Kawada & Kazushi Miyamoto vs. Akitoshi Saito & Atsushi Aoki
GHC Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Taiji Ishimori
Global League Match A Block: Takuma Sano vs. Takeshi Rikio
Global League Match B Block: Naomichi Marufuji vs. Yoshihiro Takayama
Akira Taue & Yoshinari Ogawa & Ricky Marvin vs. Takashi Okita & Kento Miyahara & Satoshi Kajiwara 12:34
Keith Walker & Jason Jones vs. Akitoshi Saito & Atsushi Aoki 13:37
Bison Smith & Delirious vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Masao Inoue 10:06
Yoshihiro Takayama & Takuma Sano vs. Takashi Suguira & Shuhei Taniguchi 20:06
Naomichi Marufuji vs. Go Shiozaki 15:40. One of the only interesting matches NOAH books this year, and its middle of the card on the tour opener? They didn't care though. While it wasn't the match they'd deliver in the main event at Budokan, it was better than expected in many ways. Go was glad to allow Marufuji to do his thing, straying from his chopping in the early portion. Marufuji wasn't taking a ton of chances here, but he was extremely graceful. Marufuji was winning through his superior athleticism, so Go eventually tried to get his chops going, but almost every time Marufuji would injure Go's arm with a counter then attack the arm so if he did hit a chop, it would hurt him as much as Marufuji. The sweetest example was Marufuji turning a big chop into a flying armbar. The work was damn good, but what I loved about this match is all the armwork actually payed off with Marufuji ultimately scoring the victory with an armbar despite it not being one of his regular moves, much less a finisher. ***3/4
AAA World Tag Title Match: Takeshi Morishima & Taiji Ishimori vs. Takeshi Rikio & Genba Hirayanagi 12:00
Global League Match '10 B Block: Mohammed Yone vs. Toshiaki Kawada 30:00
Global League Match '10 A Block: Kensuke Sasaki vs. Jun Akiyama 18:19. It wasn't the match they'd have done on a big show, but it was a lot better than what you'd expect from Akiyama at Korakuen Hall. It was slow paced, but very well executed with a nice job of selling the offense. I particularly liked Sasaki coming back by lariating Akiyama out of midair, but then stumbling backwards to the canvas. It wasn't a big chopfest like Sasaki's usual matches, they exchanged some early but then Sasaki ended an exchange with an elbow so brutal I was looking for Akiyama's teeth on the canvas. Akiyama took several minutes to recover from this near knockout, and adopted another strategy. I felt that they did enough, but the intensity could have been a little better. They were certainly trying, but it usually didn't feel like a major or high stakes match even though they were taking it serious enough. ***1/4
3/26/10 Chiba Park Gymnasium, GHC Tag Title Match: Mohammed Yone & Takeshi Rikio vs. Big Murakami & Katsumi Usuda 18:00
4/10/10 Tokyo
Global League Match '10 B Block: Mohammed Yone vs. Toshiaki Kawada 30:00
Global League Match '10 A Block: Kensuke Sasaki vs. Jun Akiyama 18:19. It wasn't the match they'd have done on a big show, but it was a lot better than what you'd expect from Akiyama at Korakuen Hall. It was slow paced, but very well executed with a nice job of selling the offense. I particularly liked Sasaki coming back by lariating Akiyama out of midair, but then stumbling backwards to the canvas. It wasn't a big chopfest like Sasaki's usual matches, they exchanged some early but then Sasaki ended an exchange with an elbow so brutal I was looking for Akiyama's teeth on the canvas. Akiyama took several minutes to recover from this near knockout, and adopted another strategy. I felt that they did enough, but the intensity could have been a little better. They were certainly trying, but it usually didn't feel like a major or high stakes match even though they were taking it serious enough. ***1/4
3/26/10 Chiba Park Gymnasium: Ricky Marvin & Taiji Ishimori vs. Makoto Oishi & Shiori Asahi 15:48
4/10/10 Tokyo
Yoshihiro Takayama & Takuma Sano vs. Takashi Suguira & Shuhei Taniguchi 20:06
Naomichi Marufuji vs. Go Shiozaki 15:40. One of the only interesting matches NOAH books this year, and its middle of the card on the tour opener? They didn't care though. While it wasn't the match they'd deliver in the main event at Budokan, it was better than expected in many ways. Go was glad to allow Marufuji to do his thing, straying from his chopping in the early portion. Marufuji wasn't taking a ton of chances here, but he was extremely graceful. Marufuji was winning through his superior athleticism, so Go eventually tried to get his chops going, but almost every time Marufuji would injure Go's arm with a counter then attack the arm so if he did hit a chop, it would hurt him as much as Marufuji. The sweetest example was Marufuji turning a big chop into a flying armbar. The work was damn good, but what I loved about this match is all the armwork actually payed off with Marufuji ultimately scoring the victory with an armbar despite it not being one of his regular moves, much less a finisher. ***3/4
AAA World Tag Title Match: Takeshi Morishima & Taiji Ishimori vs. Takeshi Rikio & Genba Hirayanagi 12:00
4/10/10 Tokyo
Akira Taue & Yoshinari Ogawa & Ricky Marvin vs. Takashi Okita & Kento Miyahara & Satoshi Kajiwara 12:34
Keith Walker & Jason Jones vs. Akitoshi Saito & Atsushi Aoki 13:37
Bison Smith & Delirious vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Masao Inoue 10:06
4/13/10 Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium #2
Global League 2010 Block A Match: Kensuke Sasaki [4] vs. Takuma Sano [2] 14:14
Global League 2010 Block B Match: Toshiaki Kawada [3] vs. Naomichi Marufuji [2] 22:21. ***3/4
Masao Inoue vs. Jason Jones 9:17
Akira Taue & Shuhei Taniguchi vs. Genba Hirayanagi & Takeshi Rikio 10:33
Go Shiozaki & Ricky Marvin & Taiji Ishimori vs. Atsushi Aoki & Naomichi Marufuji & Takuma Sano 16:23
Jun Akiyama & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Kento Miyahara & Takashi Okita 11:36
Delirious & Keith Walker vs. Mohammed Yone & Yoshinobu Kanemaru 11:55
Bison Smith & Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Yuto Aijima 13:24
Global League 2010 Block B Match: Akitoshi Saito [4] vs. Takeshi Morishima [2] 15:38
Global League 2010 Block A Match: Kensuke Sasaki [5] vs. Takashi Sugiura [4] 30:00
Atsushi Aoki vs. Jason Jones 11:01
Ricky Marvin & Taiji Ishimori vs. Genba Hirayanagi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru 11:07
Go Shiozaki & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Akira Taue & Shuhei Taniguchi 12:00
Delirious & Keith Walker vs. Kento Miyahara & Takuma Sano 14:30
Kensuke Sasaki & Takashi Okita & Takeshi Morishima vs. Akitoshi Saito & Masao Inoue & Yoshihiro Takayama 18:05
Takashi Sugiura & Takeshi Rikio vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Yuto Aijima 13:56
Global League 2010 Block B Match: Mohammed Yone [3] vs. Naomichi Marufuji [2] 16:35
Global League 2010 Block A Match: Jun Akiyama [4] vs. Bison Smith [0] 12:30
4/14/10 Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium #2
Global League 2010 Block B Match: Yoshihiro Takayama [2] vs. Akitoshi Saito [2] 10:16
Global League 2010 Block A Match: Jun Akiyama [2] vs. Takuma Sano [2] 14:02
GHC Tag Title Match: Mohammed Yone & Takeshi Rikio vs. Bison Smith & Keith Walker 24:41
4/24/10 Sapporo Teisen Hall
Global League 2010 Block B Match: Toshiaki Kawada [4] vs. Yoshihiro Takayama [5] 30:00
Global League 2010 Block A Match: Takashi Sugiura [6] defeats Bison Smith [2] 20:04
Masao Inoue vs. Kento Miyahara 10:18
Mohammed Yone & Shuhei Taniguchi vs. Akira Taue & Masashi Aoyagi 9:27
Jun Akiyama & Yoshinari Ogawa & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Go Shiozaki & Akitoshi Saito & Taiji Ishimori 18:38
Takeshi Rikio & Genba Hirayanagi vs. Kensuke Sasaki & Takashi Okita 14:05
Takashi Sugiura & Naomichi Marufuji & Atsushi Aoki vs. Yoshihiro Takayama & Keith Walker & Ricky Marvin 18:33
GHC Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Delirious 17:57
Global League Match '10 A Block: Bison Smith [2] vs. Takuma Sano [2] 15:50
Global League Match '10 B Block: Takeshi Morishima [2] vs. Toshiaki Kawada [4] 12:41. This was supposed to be a war, but half of the bombs were DUDS that they simply pretended they were powerful blows. It was too short to tell a story, and they didn't use many of their moves, simply relying on the real or imagined stiffness. Really only the last minute was even at the level you'd expect them to start at. *3/4
12/23/06 Tokyo Differ Ariake: Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Kikusan Hansen 4:47
Akira Taue & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Takuma Sano & Atsushi Aoki 14:32
Go Shiozaki vs. Ricky Marvin 11:06
Kensuke Sasaki & Takashi Okita vs. Keith Walker & Jason Jones 15:09
Takashi Sugiura & Shuhei Taniguchi & Masao Inoue vs. Mohammed Yone & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Genba Hirayanagi 17:35
Akitoshi Saito & Taiji Ishimori & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Yoshihiro Takayama & Bison Smith & Delirious 17:51
Global League Match '10 B Block: Naomichi Marufuji [3] vs. Takeshi Morishima [5] 30:00. The best match I've seen from the new toned down Marufuji in terms of structuring the match to utilize the spots he was going to do, and focusing on a body part so his lack of high spots was less important. It was more a Bryan Danielson style match than what we'd come to expect from Marufuji. It started out with Marufuji being completely overwhelmed by the big man for the first 8 minutes. I mean, it was bad. Marufuji was lucky when he was able to run away from Morishima on the outside quickly enough to just get a break from the onslaught. Marufuji finally came to life after Morishima missed a running hip attack on the outside, crashing the guard rail. Morishima's hand was taped up, so Marufuji bashed it into the rail then spent the rest of the match working the hand and arm. He mostly wrestled technically, but he did do big damage when they returned to the floor later, using the timekeepers mallet on the hand and slamming it into the apron. Morishima eventually took over again countering the sunset flip powerbomb to the floor with the big sit and hitting the running hip attack with Marufuji sitting in a chair against the guard rail that Morishima had missed earlier. But that's really where the match started to break down. Not that it got worse, but the story mostly ended and the match didn't make up for it by actually taking off to make you forget about that. It was wrestled like a draw from start to finish, consistently medium paced, never breaking out of 2nd gear even for a moment, lacking intensity and sense of urgency. Morishima did enough moves to somewhat make up for Marufuji just being solid, but it's a long match for him and he never showed his usual fire and speed. Given it was NOAH, and especially smaller show NOAH, this was a real highlight of the year. Still, it had well more than the potential to be an excellent match, and they just weren't willing to go beyond good, sound, low stress wrestling. ***1/4
Global League Match '10 A Block: Jun Akiyama [6] vs. Takeshi Rikio [3] 11:48
Akira Taue & Masao Inoue vs. Yoshinari Ogawa & Jason Jones
Global League Match '10 B Block: Toshiaki Kawada vs. Akitoshi Saito
Global League Match '10 A Block: Kensuke Sasaki vs. Takeshi Rikio
Global League Match '10 B Block: Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Takeshi Morishima
Global League Match '10 A Block: Jun Akiyama vs. Takashi Suguira
Takuma Sano & Taiji Ishimori & Ricky Marvin vs. Kensuke Sasaki & Kento Miyahara & Satoshi Kajiwara
Go Shiozaki & Shuhei Taniguchi vs. Naomichi Marufuji & Atsushi Aoki
Bison Smith & Keith Walker & Delirious vs. Mohammed Yone & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Genba Hirayanagi
Global League Match '10 Final: Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Jun Akiyama
4/13/10 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan 2, Global League Match '10 B Block: Toshiaki Kawada vs. Naomichi Marufuji 22:21. Full Match Review ***3/4
4/14/10 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan 2, Global League Match '10 B Block: Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Akitoshi Saito
Kentaro Shiga vs. Jason Jones 11:12
Ricky Marvin & Taiji Ishimori vs. Kento Miyahara & Takashi Okita 12:31
Mohammed Yone & Takeshi Rikio vs. Akira Taue & Yoshinari Ogawa 8:22
Atsushi Aoki & Naomichi Marufuji vs. Genba Hirayanagi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru 14:54
Akitoshi Saito & Shuhei Taniguchi & Takashi Sugiura vs. Bison Smith & Bobby Fish & Keith Walker 21:08
Yutaka Yoshie vs. Takuma Sano 14:02
Mighty Inoue Referee Retirement Match: Jun Akiyama & Kensuke Sasaki & Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Go Shiozaki & Masao Inoue & Takeshi Morishima 25:13
Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Jason Jones 8:15
Keith Walker vs. Masao Inoue 11:36
Akira Taue & Naomichi Marufuji vs. Ricky Marvin & Takuma Sano 11:55
Shuhei Taniguchi & Takashi Sugiura vs. Kensuke Sasaki & Takashi Okita 15:30
Jun Akiyama & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Bison Smith & Bobby Fish 12:02
Akitoshi Saito & Yoshihiro Takayama & Yutaka Yoshie vs. Genba Hirayanagi & Mohammed Yone & Takeshi Rikio 19:27
AAA World Tag Title Match: Taiji Ishimori & Takeshi Morishima vs. Atsushi Aoki & Go Shiozaki 28:35
Akira Taue vs. Masao Inoue
Taiji Ishimori & Ricky Marvin vs. Bobby Fish & Jason Jones
Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Genba Hirayanagi vs. Kento Miyahara & Takashi Okita
Takeshi Rikio & Mohammed Yone vs. Naomichi Marufuji & Atsushi Aoki
Kensuke Sasaki & Takeshi Morishima vs. Takuma Sano & Yoshinari Ogawa
Yoshihiro Takayama & Yutaka Yoshie & Keith Walker vs. Takashi Suguira & Shuhei Taniguchi & Yuto Aijima
Jun Akiyama & Go Shiozaki vs. Akitoshi Saito & Bison Smith
Akira Taue & Genba Hirayanagi vs. Masao Inoue & Jason Jones 11:48
Taiji Ishimori & Ricky Marvin vs. Takuma Sano & Kento Miyahara 11:33
Mohammed Yone vs. Bobby Fish 5:50
Jun Akiyama & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Tamon Honda & Yoshinobu Kanemaru 11:56
Yoshihiro Takayama & Akitoshi Saito & Yutaka Yoshie vs. Kensuke Sasaki & Takeshi Morishima & Takashi Okita 13:33
GHC Junior Heavyweight Title Next Challenger Decision Match: Naomichi Marufuji vs. KENTA 26:51. Granted there was nowhere to go but down after their 10/25/08 masterpiece, but they didn't have to descend this far! It was a nice match, but it was nothing spectacular, and that was a lot of the problem. They did more of a heavyweight match. It was stiff striking via speed and flexibility rather than power and mass, but the match was basically impressive strikes and Marufuji working KENTA's bad knee. What they did was excellent, but it was also very basic. If it was 99% of the wrestlers out there, I'd have been overjoyed, but it was totally lacking in creativity, and that's what sets them apart. Well, that and some tremendous work, but they weren't really developing the match in any way. KENTA just didn't seem up for the challenge, and was even killing a bit of time here and there. The match is probably better than I'm making it sound, but it was a match many juniors could do, and it was terrible compared to their last two. ***3/4
GHC Tag Title Match: Bison Smith & Keith Walker vs. Takashi Suguira & Shuhei Taniguchi 27:43
Bonus matches taped 7/10/04 Tokyo Dome
IWGP Tag Title Match: Minoru Suzuki & Yoshihiro Takayama vs Takeshi Morishima & Takeshi Rikio 12:55
GHC Tag Title Match: Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa vs Keiji Muto & Taiyo Kea 21:46
Ricky Marvin vs. Taiji Ishimori 15:00
Akira Taue & Kentaro Shiga vs. Kishin Kawabata & Takashi Okita 12:01
Atsushi Aoki & Shuhei Taniguchi vs. Genba Hirayanagi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru 14:17
Akitoshi Saito & Masao Inoue vs. Takuma Sano & Yuto Aijima 17:34
Kensuke Sasaki & Takeshi Morishima vs. Takashi Sugiura & Tamon Honda 17:24
KENTA & Minoru Suzuki & Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Daisuke Ikeda & Makoto Hashi & Mohammed Yone 16:53
Go Shiozaki & Naomichi Marufuji vs. Jun Akiyama & Yoshinari Ogawa 21:34
Eddie Edwards vs. Kento Miyahara 15:00
Akira Taue & Akitoshi Saito vs. Masao Inoue & Takuma Sano 13:23
Naomichi Marufuji & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Genba Hirayanagi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru 12:38
Bison Smith & Yutaka Yoshie vs. Shuhei Taniguchi & Takeshi Morishima 14:23
Jun Akiyama vs. Keith Walker 8:57
GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Title Match:
Ricky Marvin & Taiji Ishimori vs. FUJITA & NOSAWA Rongai 16:35
Hiroshi Tanahashi & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Atsushi Aoki & Go Shiozaki 22:45
Katsuhiko Nakajima & Kensuke Sasaki & Yoshihiro Takayama vs. KENTA & Mohammed Yone & Takashi Sugiura 23:44
Kento Miyahara vs. Alex Payne
Akira Taue & Shuhei Taniguchi vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima & Satoshi Kajiwara
Akitoshi Saito & Takuma Sano vs. Mohammed Yone & Ricky Marvin
Takeshi Morishima vs. Eddie Edwards
Go Shiozaki & KENTA & Taiji Ishimori vs. Jun Akiyama & Yoshinari Ogawa & Masao Inoue
Bison Smith & Keith Walker vs. Kensuke Sasaki & Takashi Okita
Takashi Suguira & Naomichi Marufuji & Atsushi Aoki vs. Yoshihiro Takayama & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Genba Hirayanagi
Atsushi Aoki & Shuhei Taniguchi vs. Akira Taue & Masao Inoue 10:43
Bison Smith & Keith Walker & Taiji Ishimori & Ricky Marvin vs. Akitoshi Saito & Mohammed Yone & Kentaro Shiga & Genba Hirayanagi 11:53
Kensuke Sasaki & Yoshinari Ogawa & Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Jun Akiyama & Takuma Sano & Makoto Hashi 15:41
Prince Devitt & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. KENTA & Eddie Edwards 14:13. They showed up for the big show. It wasn't a blow away match, but consistently quality junior action. No one was extraordinary, but KENTA was more his normal self than against Marufuji on 6/6/10, fiery, pushing the pace, showing more varied offense. Apollo 55 worked well as a team. Devitt was good as usual, but Taguchi was better than I've seen. The key was Taguchi and Edwards were able to do enough to keep the match afloat. ***1/4
Takeshi Morishima vs. Yutaka Yoshie 16:09
GHC Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Naomichi Marufuji 23:20. Similar to Marufuji's 6/6/10 match with KENTA, he was doing a more paired down, conservative style where he concentrated on precision execution and using the right move at the right time, more toward what you'd expect from Bryan Danielson than what you'd expect from a younger Marufuji. Again, he did an excellent job, but his opponent was somewhat disappointing. I'm not sure what Kanemaru was doing, really, but he certainly didn't look like a guy that deserved to be the dominant junior in the history of NOAH. Okay, he never looks like that, but he's been a lot better in big spots in the past. Kanemaru set up the handful of huge spots they built the match around, but he didn't seem to be fully aboard, totally on the same page with Marufuji. Marufuji was telling a story, as he injured Kanemaru's neck with an early piledriver on the apron (Kanemaru later avenged with a vertical drop brainbuster on the apron), and made you anticipate the spots while Kanemaru seemed kind of random. He was an adequate foil, but he wasn't adding much to what Marufuji was doing. ***3/4
Go Shiozaki vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi 20:11. A big comeback win for Shiozaki defeating the NJ ace, though a predictable one that evens their series after his loss on NJ's 1/4/10 Tokyo Dome show. Unfortunately, the match was a couple notches below their NJ match, as it lacked the intensity, the desperation, the feeling that everything was on the line. It was a really solid contest that Tanahashi dominated by debilitating Shiozaki's knee, including an early Dragon screw off the 2nd and a nice spot where Shiozaki missed an enzuigiri counter so Tanahashi dropped down with a kneebreaker to the knee he was still holding. Whereas their first match was very even and totally back and forth, today Shiozaki had some little runs, but was always fighting from behind, with Tanahashi picking on the knee as soon as Go began to gain momentum. It was a stiff, very well worked match where Go got a slightly bloody nose and Tanahashi's jaw got jacked up. They worked hard and it was a really nice match, but it was paired down with more knee work, less diversity, and nothing really new or unexpected. Though their first match was the definition of a major interpromotional match, the rematch didn't really feel like a big or interpromotional match. ***3/4
GHC Heavyweight Title Match: Takashi Suguira vs. Yoshihiro Takayama 15:49
Akitoshi Saito vs. Atsushi Aoki 11:34
Akira Taue & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Makoto Hashi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru 11:19
Go Shiozaki & Takashi Okita & Takeshi Morishima vs. Alex Payne & KENTA & Mohammed Yone 14:41
Kensuke Sasaki vs. Genba Hirayanagi 7:35
Takuma Sano & Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Masao Inoue & Toshiaki Kawada 13:08
Jun Akiyama & Naomichi Marufuji vs. Shuhei Taniguchi & Takashi Sugiura 17:57
GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Title Match: Ricky Marvin & Taiji Ishimori vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima & Kento Miyahara 21:29
SEM Highlights 7/18/10
Taiji Ishimori vs. Alex Payne
Masao Inoue vs. Makoto Hashi
Takeshi Morishima & Takuma Sano vs. Naomichi Marufuji & Atsushi Aoki
Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Mohammed Yone & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Genba Hirayanagi
Go Shiozaki & KENTA vs. Yoshihiro Takayama & Ricky Marvin
Jun Akiyama & Akitoshi Saito vs. Takashi Suguira & Shuhei Taniguchi
Taiji Ishimori & Ricky Marvin vs. Asian Cougar & Kanjuro Matsuyama 13:17
Akira Taue & Masao Inoue vs. Takashi Okita & Kento Miyahara 9:59
Mohammed Yone & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Genba Hirayanagi vs. Akitoshi Saito & Takuma Sano & Masashi Aoyagi 9:02
Yoshihiro Takayama & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Takeshi Morishima & Katsuhiko Nakajima 12:14
Shuhei Taniguchi Dash Juuban Match #9: Takashi Suguira vs. Shuhei Taniguchi 15:17
Shinsuke Nakamura & Gedo vs. Naomichi Marufuji & Atsushi Aoki 18:23. This match was all about the stiffness. There was some first confrontation feeling out early on, but it quickly quickly gave way to increasingly less than friendly exchanging. They layed into each other harder and harder, and it got heat because it looked like a fight. The match made you want to see Marufuji vs. Nakamura, but it was rather one dimensional match in the most tightly focused versin of Nakamura's style. They did a great job of making their blows look legit, but they really did little else. I liked what they did, but it was a little frustrating because they are capable of a lot more. ***1/4
Kensuke Sasaki vs. Go Shiozaki 33:36. Go was outwrestling Sasaki pretty badly, to the point Sasaki wasn't even looking to be on his level. Sasaki wasn't at his finest here, and the length of the match wasn't in his favor as his stamina was down an he was requires to do more than just chop and lariat. The match started slow, but Go did a nice job of changing things up with a surprise move or counter when it threatened to settle into predictability. Sasaki allowed Go to get a lot of offense in since his options are limited and he wanted to make Shiozaki look good in the loss, so the second half of the body had some good stuff. They held most of the big chops off until the finishing sequence, even exchanging machine gun chops. It was ultimately a nice match, but not on the level of what Shiozaki has done this year against Tanahashi & Nakamura. ***1/2
Jun Akiyama & KENTA vs. Yuji Nagata & Ryusuke Taguchi 22:24. Nagata lives for these badass interpromotional matches, and was fully in control as usual. This was the third match in a row that was predominantly stiff striking, but it was by far the one with the most intensity and aura with Nagata & KENTA thriving through the ill will of their strikes and Akiyama doing a nice job of playing the grumpy and belligerent enforcer. As the last member of the old guard standing, Akiyama knew he had to step it up, and was able to do so. KENTA was still the star of the NOAH team, and Akiyama really didn't do that much, but he interjected himself at the right times. For instance, after KENTA was busted open hardway during an exchange with Nagata, Taguchi started stomping on him while KENTA was down near their corner, so Akiyama soon punished Taguchi by taking him to the floor and chairing him. Taguchi was also good in this match, consistent with his work though having to save his offense for the end as he has so few moves. ***3/4
Takeshi Morishima vs. Makoto Hashi 8:36
Ricky Marvin & Atsushi Aoki vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima & Kento Miyahara 15:01
Akira Taue & Mohammed Yone & Genba Hirayanagi vs. Akitoshi Saito & Shuhei Taniguchi & Tamon Honda 16:41
Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Masao Inoue vs. Taiji Ishimori & Kentaro Shiga 13:50
Jun Akiyama & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Yoshihiro Takayama & Takuma Sano 3:10
2/3 Falls: Takashi Sugiura & KENTA vs. Go Shiozaki & Takeshi Morishima 0:55, 18:03, & 12:04. Hot, hard hitting, epic main event featuring the top healthy current generation NOAH stars. Shiozaki, KENTA, & Sugiura all did really nice jobs here, with the main thing separating them being Shiozaki logged a lot more ring time and was the more diverse and dynamic. KENTA gave a consistently fiery performance while Morishima was impressive in brief bursts but asked Go to carry a heavy load. Sugiura has become NOAH's answer to early 00's Tenzan. He may not be the most talented performer, but he's a hard hitting and working bull of a wrestler. Shiozaki upped his stiffness because he was putting a beating on Sugiura today, whose chest he beat red. He also blistered him with several wicked lariats, but was the one guy who pulled a lot of hot moves as well as striking. Morishima didn't really get involved in the exchanges, he was more the change of pace doing some fast big man offense. He embarrassed Sugiura with a sub 1 minute pin in the first fall, so when Sugiura gave Go a layout suplex onto the top rope and charged, he decided to knock Morishima off the apron and go after him on the outside. This ultimately didn't work that well, as Morishima took over and hit a hip attack against the guard rail then Go hurt Sugiura with a slingshot into the post. I was impressed by the amount Sugiura was willing to sell here, particularly allowing Go to get the best of him on a number of occasions. Everyone gave all they had and then some in this battle of attrition where they did a nice job of putting over the toll of the match. I didn't feel the 3 fall stipulation particularly helped, as it mainly served to negate the length that helped make the match progressive. It was never a great match, but certainly a very consistent one that gave you a good feeling about all of the competitors. ***1/2
2/28/10 Tokyo Nippon Budokan GHC Heavyweight Title Match: Takashi Sugiura vs. Togi Makabe 26:08
1/22/06 Tokyo Nippon Budokan GHC Junior Heavyweight Title Match: KENTA vs. Naomichi Marufuji 29:19
9/27/09 Tokyo Nippon Budokan GHC Heavyweight Title Match: Go Shiozaki vs. Akitoshi Saito 15:18 of 24:42
Genba Hirayanagi vs. Alex Payne 11:48
Taiji Ishimori & Ricky Marvin vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima & Takashi Okita 12:37
Akira Taue & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Tamon Honda & Atsushi Aoki 12:26
Takeshi Morishima & Takuma Sano vs. Mohammed Yone & Akitoshi Saito 12:22
Go Shiozaki & Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Masao Inoue 18:43
Shuhei Taniguchi Bakushin Juuban Shoubu #10: Shuhei Taniguchi vs. Jun Akiyama 17:53
Takashi Sugiura vs. KENTA 26:36. Both men get up for matches where they can beat the hell out of the opposition, with KENTA always being especially motivated to take it to a bigger man. Though Sugiura is in the midst of the most dominant heavyweight title run in company history, there should be no reason KENTA couldn't compete with him as these two have had some high quality battles over the junior title in the past. It was an intense, hard fought battle from start to finish, pretty much everything you could expect and ask for. They mostly exchanged strikes with KENTA being able to hold his own, but having a hard time ever actually seizing an advantage. Sugiura would eventually win the exchanges or shift away from them and begin bullying the smaller man with power moves including a deadly powerbomb into the turnbuckle. KENTA finally made some progress when he attacked Sugiura's knee, but even with this advantage, you never felt he had any real chance of winning. The match was always competitive enough that it worked though, with Sugiura never stepping out of line and getting superior with KENTA. KENTA took a hellacious beating, but constantly displayed his legendary heart, just finding some way to not only drag himself off the deck but also come up with a big shot to keep himself in the match. KENTA finally went hard after the bad leg with low kicks, dropping Sugiura to his knees. Just when you thought he might finally knock Sugiura down if not out, Sugiura caught a kick and went into an ankle hold for the win. I find that to be one of the lamest finishers, but that aside, I liked the finish and felt it was fitting with KENTA fighting his hardest to the very last, but getting outsmarted rather than outgunned, even by the big brute. ***1/2
Akira Taue & Kentaro Shiga vs. Takashi Okita & Satoshi Kajiwara 9:03
Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Genba Hirayanagi vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima & Kento Miyahara 10:44
Takeshi Morishima & Yutaka Yoshie & Akitoshi Saito vs. Yoshihiro Takayama & Takuma Sano & Masao Inoue 14:27
KENTA vs. Atsushi Aoki 12:35. A basic brutal match where Aoki refused to back down to KENTA, so KENTA had to put him in his place. Aoki stood toe to toe with KENTA, hanging with him exchanging elbows then taking over with a series of headbutts. This alerted KENTA that he was in a match, and he stepped up his level and the overall intensity, getting his kicks going. You knew Aoki wasn't going to win this sort of match, but he did have one great hope stop turning the go 2 sleep into an armbar. The match was on the short side, but it was pretty fierce stuff that stayed true to what it was. ***
Kensuke Sasaki vs. Shuhei Taniguchi 12:04
GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Title Match: Taiji Ishimori & Ricky Marvin vs. Koji Kanemoto & Tiger Mask 21:27. Ishimori & Marvin are the two hardest working wrestlers in NOAH, and they are worlds better in tag than in singles. They did what they could, but this wasn't really their match because the NJPW team weren't up to the challenge. Ishimori & Marvin could do their flying if they wanted to charge or leap at Koji & Tiger, but the NJPW duo was just going to stand there and kick. Kanemoto was good, even if he was at his most one-dimensional, and he did almost all the work for his team. Tiger wsa content to stand on the apron, coming in once in a while to block his opponent from breaking up Koji's finishing attempt. Ishimori was the standout because he managed to be himself, running circles around Kanemoto and hitting all his flying. Marvin was also good, doing a nice job of conforming to Kanemoto's style and credibly mixing it up. Overall, a nice match, but one that not only wasn't as good as it sounded on paper, it never really even threatened to be. ***
Special Singles Match: Satoshi Kojima vs. Mohammed Yone 11:50
Special Singles Match: Go Shiozaki vs. Shinsuke Nakamura 19:08. Unfortunately, this didn't approach the brilliance of their NJPW match on 8/15/10. There's no real excuse for that, given this was just a week later. Today's match was very brutal and well executed, still one of the better NOAH matches of the year, but way too paired down. Not only were there hardly any moves, but there was also no real story. It was pretty much only Go's chops vs. Nakamura's knees, with Go mixing in some lariats and Nakamura some kicks. Go attacked Nakamura's knee a little after Nakamura accidentally crashed the corner when Go avoided his charging knee, but that was more a way to get a different chop and lariat in than anything else. NOAH's handling of Go has been pretty atrocious the past 2 years, rushing the title onto him then taking it off and not doing much with him inside NOAH, but it was a really good job on their part to get him wins over NJ's aces Tanahashi & Nakamura on their big anniversary shows. ***1/2
GHC Heavyweight Title Match: Takashi Sugiura vs. Jun Akiyama 25:25. Akiyama has managed a few high quality matches this year, but he didn't really have it today. This was more toward a late Misawa performance where he stalled and sold. I'm fine with this being the longest match on the show since it's for the top title, but you have to do something to fill the extra time, and they didn't. This wasn't one of Sugiura's rougher, tougher matches, and unfortunately they didn't do more big moves to make up for it. Sugiura scored the first big blow, injuring Jun's neck by draping Akiyama's feet on the apron and hitting a swinging neckbreaker. Akiyama sold his bad neck pretty well, but Sugiura didn't overly attack it. Really, there wasn't much in the way or story or structuring, and the match just sort of went along for quite a while. It picked up when Akiyama finally came to life, but even then he was relying too much on the front necklock for my tastes. I never really felt like Akiyama was going to win this, unless it was going to be one of those unsatisfying Misawa sort of victories where the match ends when he finally gets tired of selling and decides to take the offensive. **3/4
Ricky Marvin vs. Jun Nishikawa 5:39
Akira Taue & Kentaro Shiga vs. Satoshi Kajiwara & Takashi Okita 10:40
Takuma Sano & Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Masao Inoue & Mohammed Yone 14:56
Akitoshi Saito & Atsushi Aoki & Jun Akiyama vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima & Kensuke Sasaki & Kento Miyahara 20:28
Go Shiozaki & Takeshi Morishima vs. Shuhei Taniguchi & Takashi Sugiura 19:38
KENTA vs. Kotaro Suzuki 26:53
GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Title Match: Koji Kanemoto & Tiger Mask vs. Genba Hirayanagi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru 21:25
Takashi Suguira & Ricky Marvin vs. Takeshi Morishima & Masao Inoue 14:04
Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Shuhei Taniguchi 11:25
Takuma Sano vs. KENTA 2:41. No one would have had a problem with the length, if the result was reversed, but why is a 45 year old journeyman killing one of NOAH's only marketable and in his prime wrestlers? To make things sillier, they set KENTA up for a junior title shot by having him get demolished by a bloated, washed up junior? It's amazing that, apart from a couple of no chance heavyweight title challenges, NOAH wouldn't push Sano when he could still go, but now that his time has long past and he's slow and clumsy, he dominates the tag scene. KENTA looked sharp, but Sano's kicks were lethargic and off target.
Go Shiozaki vs. Kotaro Suzuki 22:50. Superior junior vs. heavy match because Go worked toward making it a high quality competitive match rather than copping an attitude. Shiozaki tossed Suzuki around like a ragdoll, but never condescended to the opposition, instead seeing a willing and able adversary and doing all he could to make it a strong, evenly contested match. Go made Suzuki credible early on by accidentally chopping the post, prompting Suzuki to begin working the chop hand and lariat arm. Go sucked it up and came back with two chops that hurt him as well then injured Suzuki's knee by suplexing him over the top onto the edge of the ring apron then worked the knee in between tossing Suzuki around. As the match progressed, they added their favorite moves into the body attacking, so it became the expected power vs. speed match, but again it was even because Go didn't force Suzuki to sell anything he did like he was shot dead. As it wasn't the usual life and death struggle for the junior to avoid just about everything, they were able to go back and forth as they'd do with opponents their own size. The fans were quiet early, but became excitable when they started to believe Kotaro could win, really pulling for the underdog. ***3/4
Akitoshi Saito vs. Mohammed Yone 15:01
Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Taiji Ishimori 11:48. Kanemaru dominated with more brawling than technique. Ishimori sold and made some hot athletic comebacks. Although the execution was a bit off, it had the makings of an interesting match if they bothered to develop it. Unfortunately, it just ended in the midst of what I assumed was the body. **1/4
Atsushi Aoki vs. Genba Hirayanagi 16:44
R
R
Akira Taue & Genba Hirayanagi & Kentaro Shiga vs. Jun Nishikawa & Satoshi Kajiwara & Takashi Okita 9:54
Shuhei Taniguchi vs. Kento Miyahara 8:28
Yutaka Yoshie vs. Masao Inoue 11:26
Ricky Marvin & Taiji Ishimori vs. Bobby Fish & Yoshinari Ogawa 11:49
Kotaro Suzuki vs. Atsushi Aoki 16:32
Bison Smith vs. Mohammed Yone 7:11
GHC Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. KENTA 22:39
GHC Tag Title Match: Takuma Sano & Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima & Kensuke Sasaki 18:49
GHC Heavyweight Title Match: Takashi Sugiura vs. Go Shiozaki 28:45
If Takashi Sugiura Loses, Secret Mail That Was Sent To Cabaret Girl Will Be Opened To Public: Kensuke Sasaki & Go Shiozaki vs. Takashi Sugiura & Masao Inoue 22:18
Finish Hold Restriction Match: Takuma Sano & Kotaro Suzuki vs. Shuhei Taniguchi & Ricky Marvin 19:13
Loser Gets Kissed Match: KENTA vs. Taiji Ishimori 14:49. Wasn't as serious as match, as there was a eunuch dancer at ringside waiting to pounce on the loser that they kept showing between seemingly every hold. Ishimori tried to wrestle, but he can really only play off his opponent. KENTA was fine with setting Ishimori up for his flying, but didn't feel like doing anything of his own, wasting a lot of time early and barely doing any stiff kicks or notable moves. The stretch mostly consisted of them going back and forth reversing flash pin attempts. Ishimori tried to avoid the kiss and appeared ready to gag or vomit from barely accepting it, so he was more than happy to hold KENTA so he'd be forced to succumb to the same torture. **1/4
If Genba Hirayanagi Loses, A Secret VTR Will Be Played: Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Genba Hirayanagi 7:43
Karateka Irie Referee First Challenge: 10 Man Battle Royal 12:44
NOAH & Geinin News Network Pro-Wrestling Expo 10/6/10 Differ Ariake: Ten Man Battle Royal featuring Masao Inoue, Akira Taue, Atsushi Aoki, Genba Hirayanagi, Go Shiozaki, Kentaro Shiga, Mohammed Yone, Takashi Sugiura, Yoshinari Ogawa & Yoshinobu Kanemaru 12:44
10/15/10 Keio Plaza Hotel Hachioji 5th Floor Hall
Nippon TV Cup Junior Heavyweight Tag League 2010 Block B Match: Extreme Tiger & Jack Evans [2] vs. Atsushi Kotoge & Daisuke Harada [0] 12:41
Nippon TV Cup Junior Heavyweight Tag League 2010 Block A Match: Katsuhiko Nakajima & Satoshi Kajiwara [1] vs. Ricky Marvin & Taiji Ishimori [1] 30:00
Nippon TV Cup Junior Heavyweight Tag League 2010 Block B Match: Dick Togo & Yasu Urano [2] vs. Kotaro Suzuki & Yoshinari Ogawa [0] 12:24
Shuhei Taniguchi vs. Satoshi Kajiwara 10:01
Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Masao Inoue 11:06
Akira Taue & Mohammed Yone vs. Kotaro Suzuki & Yoshinari Ogawa 4:01
Takuma Sano & Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Kensuke Sasaki & Takashi Okita 14:08
Extreme Tiger & Go Shiozaki & Jack Evans vs. Ricky Marvin & Taiji Ishimori & Takashi Sugiura 15:59
Nippon TV Cup Junior Heavyweight Tag League 2010 Block B Match: Atsushi Kotoge & Daisuke Harada [2] vs. Genba Hirayanagi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru [0] 17:21
Nippon TV Cup Junior Heavyweight Tag League 2010 Block A Match: Eddie Edwards & Roderick Strong [2] vs. Atsushi Aoki & KENTA [0] 27:53
Masao Inoue vs. Masashi Aoyagi 5:48
Takuma Sano vs. Shuhei Taniguchi 10:26
Go Shiozaki & Mohammed Yone vs. Kensuke Sasaki & Takashi Okita 14:56
Yoshihiro Takayama & Takashi Sugiura vs. Yoshinari Ogawa & Kotaro Suzuki 13:32
Jr Tag League Digest
4th NTV Cup Junior Heavyweight Tag League A Block: Roderick Strong & Eddie Edwards vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima & Satoshi Kajiwara 13:06. Nakajima totally made this match with an energetic top notch performance. He was all over the place, doing a great job of allowing his ring positioning to dictate his next move. No one else was near his level, but it almost didn't matter as he set himself up so well. The others were fine though, and certainly had their moments. Kajiwara is progressing nicely, and definitely has the potential to be someone we look forward to seeing. My main complain is the match was on the short side, but at least they made use of the time they had. ***
4th NTV Cup Junior Heavyweight Tag League B Block: Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Genba Hirayanagi vs. Jack Evans & Extreme Tiger 30:00. Jack was consistently entertaining, but unfortunately Kanemaru & Genba weren't doing Jack. Evans & Tiger might not have executed to perfection, but their work ethic was good. They certainly weren't stalling their way to the draw, in fact, Evans was perpetual motion despite wrestling for close to 20 minutes. Sometimes I'm not sure if Evans even knows what he's going to do, he just seems to find an angle for some of his flippy counters. The highlights belonged to Evans including a 450 splash off the apron and standing phoenix splash. Tiger had his moments including a neat corner evasion, but Kanemaru did nothing interesting apart from one small burst on his hot tag, and I've yet to determine if Genba ever does anything interesting. This would have been better if it were shorter, but the problem was more that Kanemaru wasn't motivated and Genba was Genba. **
4th NTV Cup Junior Heavyweight Tag League A Block: KENTA & Atsushi Aoki vs. Taiji Ishimori & Ricky Marvin 18:18. A nice match, but I was expecting a little more. Ishimori & Marvin were working hard, and working really well together. They put on a good show from start to finish, but KENTA & Aoki basically let them make the match. I can't really fault Aoki, as he tried hard and was scrappy, he just takes better than he gives. KENTA was much better here than in his 10/6 singles match against Ishimori, as he was kicking again and doing his usual moves, but it was more an average effort from a guy who simply has enough ability to get away with it. ***
Taiji Ishimori vs. Takashi Okita 7:22
Shuhei Taniguchi vs. Ricky Marvin 8:21
Roderick Strong vs. Masao Inoue 12:04
Eddie Edwards & Extreme Tiger & Jack Evans vs. Atsushi Aoki & KENTA & Masashi Aoyagi 18:09
Nippon TV Cup Junior Heavyweight Tag League 2010 Block A Match: Katsuhiko Nakajima & Satoshi Kajiwara [3] vs. Great Sasuke & Kenbai [2] 17:49
Nippon TV Cup Junior Heavyweight Tag League 2010 Block B Match: Kotaro Suzuki & Yoshinari Ogawa [4] vs. Genba Hirayanagi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru [3] 20:12
Takashi Sugiura & Takuma Sano & Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Go Shiozaki & Kensuke Sasaki & Mohammed Yone 23:51
S
Akira Taue & Ricky Marvin vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima & Takashi Okita 9:18
Kentaro Shiga & Yutaka Yoshie vs. Akitoshi Saito & Masao Inoue 12:11
Bison Smith vs. Kento Miyahara 4:47
Go Shiozaki & Kotaro Suzuki & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Genba Hirayanagi & Mohammed Yone & Yoshinobu Kanemaru 15:20
Kensuke Sasaki & Takeshi Morishima vs. Shuhei Taniguchi & Takashi Sugiura 1:39
Delirious & Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli vs. Taiji Ishimori & Takuma Sano & Yoshihiro Takayama 16:49
GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Title Match: Koji Kanemoto & Tiger Mask vs. Atsushi Aoki & KENTA 25:54
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Shuhei Taniguchi vs. Genba Hirayanagi 11:08
Akitoshi Saito vs. Masao Inoue 11:23
Atsushi Aoki & KENTA vs. Bison Smith & Delirious 16:42
Takuma Sano & Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Mohammed Yone & Yoshinobu Kanemaru 11:24
Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli vs. Ricky Marvin & Taiji Ishimori 14:36
Takeshi Morishima & Yutaka Yoshie vs. Takashi Sugiura & Yuto Aijima 14:17
Go Shiozaki & Kotaro Suzuki & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima & Kensuke Sasaki & Takashi Okita 25:22
Akira Taue & Kentaro Shiga vs. Shuhei Taniguchi & Taiji Ishimori 7:32
Atsushi Aoki vs. Delirious 10:18
Akitoshi Saito, Masao Inoue & Ricky Marvin vs. Kensuke Sasaki, Katsuhiko Nakajima & Kento Miyahara 13:19
Go Shiozaki & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Mohammed Yone & Genba Hirayanagi 8:16
Naomichi Marufuji Return Match: Naomichi Marufuji vs. KENTA 19:09. They need to stop having these matches as soon as someone returns, wait until both men are right, if that ever happens with Marufuji, and do it properly as a big long main event. For pretty much anyone this would be a really good match, but the bar for this pairing is so high after the amazing 10/29/06 & 10/25/08 matches that it seemed rather routine. As with 6/6/10, it was a rather toned down match by their standards, the first half mostly relying on stiffness. Though Marufuji sustained a bloody lip, this wasn't the shot out of a cannon badass KENTA we grew up on, his fire and intensity are way down. Marufuji wasn't at the top of his game either, which showed in the timing being slightly off on occasion and some of the strikes not quite connecting, but that's more understandable. The second half had a high workrate and Marufuji showed some of his famous creativity, though the level of difficulty was way down. There was a nice spot where KENTA beat him back to the ring easily and thought he had plenty of time to recover, but Marufuji hopped onto the apron and hit his corner to corner dropkick. KENTA added a should have been big avalanche style Tiger suplex, except Marufuji ridiculously popped right up and came back with a Frankensteiner. It was pretty shocking that KENTA took him out with the first go 2 sleep, just his second singles victory over Marufuji, when previously they had more lives than Wile E. Coyote. Overall, the action was nice and it varied from the past enough to not be a simple rehash, but it seemed more like a nice house show match. It was an entertaining almost 20 minutes, but they never kicked it into high gear and delivered anything truly excellent or memorable. ***1/2
Bison Smith vs. Yutaka Yoshie 13:18
GHC Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Kotaro Suzuki 14:49. Kanemaru hasn't been that into the tour matches, but fired up for the major. It was on the short side and they didn't build the match or create any real drama, but the accomplished what they set out to do. It was quite a spectacular match as both men were motivated and on, pretty much just unloading their arsenals from start to finish, doing some special big match moves such as Kanemaru's deep impact off the ramp. Kanemaru was in his 4th GHC junior title reign of 300+ days, but hitting the 400th day proved to be unlucky, as they finally decided to give Suzuki his first reign as himself (he had a half year reign in 2007 under his Mushiking Terry gimmick). Considering Kanemaru is hardly Liger in his prime, it's beyond ridiculous that he's had the title virtually half the time it's been in existence, and hopefully now Suzuki will be able to grow into a bigger star, but it's weird to think of him being just 2 years younger than Kanemaru, as Kanemaru has always been the veteran and Suzuki the up and comer who never quite came. ***1/2
GHC Tag Title Match: Yoshihiro Takayama & Takuma Sano vs. Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli 14:22
GHC Heavyweight Title Match: Takashi Sugiura vs. Takeshi Morishima 22:12. They were pulling out all the stops. Segments such as Morishima hitting a suicida then Sugiura turning a powerbomb on the floor into a Frankensteiner wasn't exactly what I was expecting to see from these two. Actually, what really surprised me is it wasn't all that stiff, considering, but they somewhat made up for it with big power/impact moves and by taking risks. They sold all the big spots well, and the fans were really responding to what they were doing. It kept going back and forth, and apart from already knowing the outcome, I couldn't really tell who was going to win or when. ***1/2
Jun Akiyama, Takeshi Morishima, Naomichi Marufuji & Taiji Ishimori spread puroresu & goodwill to a poor northern Cambodian village.
Jun Akiyama & Naomichi Marufuji vs. Takeshi Morishima & Taiji Ishimori
Animal Hamaguchi Documentary
Takeshi Morishima vs. Akira Taue 3:50
Atsushi Aoki & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Naomichi Marufuji & Ricky Marvin 12:35
Handicap Match: Kensuke Sasaki & Masao Inoue vs. Taiji Ishimori 10:02
KENTA & Kento Miyahara & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Genba Hirayanagi & Katsuhiko Nakajima & Kentaro Shiga 17:40
Go Shiozaki vs. Kotaro Suzuki 14:17
Takuma Sano & Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Akitoshi Saito & Shuhei Taniguchi 16:34
Takashi Sugiura vs. Mohammed Yone 13:37
Akira Taue vs. Takashi Okita 6:54
SUGI & Kento Miyahara & Satoshi Kajiwara vs. Taiji Ishimori & Ricky Marvin & RONIN 13:56. Decent junior action. There were a number of hot moves, but these guys aren't that used to working with one another, and it showed. They weren't screwing up, but the match didn't always flow that well. AAA wrestlers SUGI & RONIN were paired, and they tended to work better with each other. SUGI did a lot of the same moves he did as Yoshitsune, but generally wasn't going crazy with the spectacular flying, although his slingshot to the floor into a Frankensteiner was nice. RONIN seemed to have some nice combination moves such as a press slam into a powerslam. Marvin did a nice spot where he ran the ramp and dropkicked through the ropes into the ring, but he and Ishimori weren't that noticable about from a couple big flying spots. Miyahara and Kajiwara weren't at their best, and seemed to mostly blend in. **
Mohammed Yone & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Yoshinari Ogawa & Kentaro Shiga 11:36
Kotaro Suzuki vs. Genba Hirayanagi 6:40
Go Shiozaki & Akitoshi Saito & KENTA vs. Yoshihiro Takayama & Masao Inoue & Katsuhiko Nakajima 19:23
Takashi Sugiura & Takuma Sano vs. Takeshi Morishima & Shuhei Taniguchi 20:54
GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Title Match: Koji Kanemoto & Tiger Mask vs. Naomichi Marufuji & Atsushi Aoki 23:18. Nice interpromotional story match with the evil interlopers double teaming the inexperienced home wrestler. Koji was in full punk mode here, taunting Marufuji while he beat up his partner, even holding Aoki's hand just out of Marufuji's reach. Marufuji spent most of the match standing helplessly on the ring apron, which didn't help the quality of the match, but was good in the big picture, as it was a big step forward for Aoki to withstand all this abuse and come back to score the winning pinfall. Tiger also wasn't too involved, as he is better in short burts, but Kanemoto is good at this sort of match and Aoki takes well. It wasn't the most complex or spectacular junior match you'll eve see, but it was certainly wrestled well enough and felt important and substantial. ***1/2