The Art of Wrestling’s Japanese Vacation II: Pro Wrestling NOAH
My Pro Wrestling tape-and-DVD-watching hours tend to be spent primarily on “Best ofs” and compilations. This definitely screws with my expectations. Trying to review Golden Boy’s Best of Japan 2004 is proving to be slightly difficult in a very strange way: All of the matches are really good, so I really have to work to make one review sound much different from the next.
I was a little surprised and a disappointed, then, to find that a typical Japanese wrestling show has just as many crappy matches as a comparable North American show. The good news is that, as far as I can tell, Puroresu still has far fewer sophomoric story lines and skits, and a far higher percentage of very good and great matches.
Pro Wrestling NOAH 12/4/05, Yokohama Bunka Gymnasium
Out of the three shows that I saw, this show definitely had the highest production values. The building was nice and intimate, it looked like every seat was reasonably close to the action. The reported crowd of 4,600 sounds about right to me, and there seemed to be a very obvious and strong connection between each of those people and their favourite wrestlers. In fact, experiencing the intense and genuine interaction between the crowd and the wrestlers was one of the true highlights of the show. The show started right on time, as all of the lights in the building dimmed and then a series of bright white lights illuminated the ring. This had the immediate effect of focusing, and keeping, everyone’s attention where it belonged. Impressive light shows and incredibly loud music were part of each NOAH wrestler’s entrance.
Kentaro Shiga & Mitsuo Momota vs. Tamon Honda & Tsutomu Hirayanagi: This was an enjoyable and inoffensive opener, combining comedy with violence in equal measure. Shiga got most of the action for his team, but in the end it was his partner, the 57-year-old son of Puroresu’s first true icon Rikidozan, who got the win with a Powerbomb on Hirayanagi.
Doug Williams & Nigel McGuinness vs. Takeshi Rikio & Kishin Kawabata: This was the evening’s first pleasant surprise (or second, if you were expecting the Honda match to suck). The originally announced card for this show didn’t include any of NOAH’s excellent gaijin workers other than the exciting high-flyer Ricky Marvin. I was very happy to get a chance to see the former and the current ROH Pure Wrestling Title-holders in person. I was also surprised that the two former Sumo wrestlers and the two Brits worked really well together, that Nigel’s goofy corner spots were well over with the Osaka crowd, and that Williams hit his Chaos Theory (Roll-up German Suplex) on Kawabata.
Yoshinari Ogawa, Takuma Sano & SUWA vs. Scorpio, Bison Smith & Low Ki: If I was excited to see Doug Williams, I was ecstatic to see Low Ki on the card. Scorpio was very popular with the crowd, and all three Americans hit impressive spots that drew big reactions. Seeing ex-Crazy Max Toryumon star SUWA in the ring with Low Ki was one of the many highlights of my evening, and I think that I’m not going to give away the endings these matches in case anyone reading this wants to watch this show one day. If you need to know who won, you can always go to Green Destiny. They’ll give you the match times there, too.
Minoru Suzuki & Naomichi Marufuji vs. Akitoshi Saito & Masao Inoue: Suzuki & Marufuji make a really good team, even if they are not quite the Second Coming of KENTA & Marufuji. It’s become fashionable to bash Marufuji for being too spotty, but he can still really shine in a match like this where his crazy moves are spaced out more logically and balanced with Suzuki’s stiff and realistic approach. I can’t help but question the booking logic in taking the belts off of this team to put them on the frankly rather dull tandem of Yone & Morishima.
Genichiro Tenryu & Shiro Koshinaka vs. Kenta Kobashi & Junji Izumida: This semi-dream-match ended up as kind of a letdown for me personally. Like many of the matches on this card, the focus seemed to be on building up the mid-carders and the younger wrestlers at the expense of the more established stars. That’s good for the future of NOAH, but it was kind of bad news for someone like myself, who was hoping to see Kobashi and Tenryu drop some big moves on each other. Instead, they brawled a little outside of the ring, and chopped each other a bunch of time, presumably setting up a full-on dream match for the future. The actual match was more about Izumida’s indestructible afro vs. Koshinaka’s mighty ass-based offense. It was fun, but it wasn’t exactly what I was hoping to see.
KENTA & Katsuyori Shibata vs. Mitsuharu Misawa & Go Shiosaki: Anyone who has been reading my columns for any length of time knows what a total mark I am for Mitsuharu Misawa. One of the things I was most looking forward to about my trip to Japan was the chance to chant Misawa’s name along with the crowd as his theme music played. In Yokohama, the music was played so loudly that it was not possible to even hear myself chanting, let alone the people around me. I could, however, see people clapping and pumping their fists in the air, and I could actually feel the chant, if that makes sense. I actually got chills while this was happening. In the ring, ont his night, Misawa took a righteous ass-beating. Supernova Shibata in particular just laid into him with dozens of ridiculously stiff kicks, and KENTA didn’t exactly seem to be holding anything back, either. The match was fast paced and exciting, and I emerged from it more of a Shibata fan than I have ever been. My respect for Misawa was elevated further by the match as well. It was pretty refreshing to see someone with so much booking power letting himself look terrible so that a younger wrestler could look great.
Kensuke Sasaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Jun Akiyama & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi: Again, this was something of a potential dream match, except that Akiyama and Sasaki put their stuff on the back burner so that Nakajima could be given the chance to shine. Post-match shenanigans seemed to indicate that an Akiyama vs. Sasaki going one on one was a distinct possibility for the future… which is great, except that I won’t be in Japan to see it. Nakajima is a damn fine young wrestler, by the way, but I’m still a tiny bit bitter about the whole thing.
Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Takashi Sugiura vs. Kotaro Suzuki & Ricky Marvin for the GHC Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Title: This match went about half an hour, and every second of it was packed with action and drama. I was surprised how much I got into it, as I ended up really wanting to see the athletic and exciting challengers beat the cruel and merciless champions. This match combined elements of The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express vs. The Midnight Express with high level modern day Japanese and Mexican high flying. The Japanese crowd was madly in love with Ricky Marvin, despite his recent losing streak. Kotaro Suzuki looks to be a big part of the future of the Jr. Heavyweight division, and Kanemaru and Sugiura are doing their part to contribute to the worldwide revival of great Southern Heel tag teams. It was easily the in-ring action Match of the Evening, and I hope it will make its way onto The Best of Japan 2005.
Akira Taue vs. Takeshi Morishima for the GHC Heavyweight Title: This match was a lot better than I expected it to be, but to be frank I had expected it to suck. Instead, it turned out to be a classic student vs. teacher battle. The people sitting around me chuckled indulgently when Taue stumbled in the ring, but they also yelled their approval when the match went well. Morishima bumped like a fiend for his mentor, including landing with an audible splat after taking a Nodowa Otoshi (Choke Slam) from the ring apron to the floor. Taue busted out all of his big spots, then debuted a very impressive new one, where he whipped Morishima into the ropes, then grabbed him by the throat and hair and took him right over his head into an incredibly violent Nodowa variation.
Ichi, ni, san…TAHHHH! I respect you, booker man!
Overall, this was a very satisfying night of wrestling. As I’ve said above, I would have been happier if Misawa, Akiyama, Sasaki, Kobashi, and Tenryu had all wrestled much more selfishly. Still, given the very good action and the amazing crowd, I’d rank this with Backlash 2004 and April’s ECCW Pacific Cup as the best live wrestling shows I’ve seen in the new millenium.
Thank You Very Much
Thanks to David Ditch, Stuart from Strong Style Spirit, and the fine people at Smark’s Choice and the Death Valley Driver Video Review for the advice they gave me prior to my trip. Japan was everything that you said it would be, and more!
Thanks to Zach from Puroresu Power for putting up a link to last week’s column on his site.
My opinions on Brock Lesnar ended up generating some pretty heated discussion on a couple of the above-mentioned sites, which was very gratifying. It’s always nice to spark discussion, even when much of that discussion is people violently disagreeing with my point of view.
The Inside Pulse Writer’s Fantasy Football League
I know that nobody cares about this, but we had our final game this past weekend. My team ended up tying Shawn M. Smith‘s team 110-110, but Shawn won the tiebreaker (His QB got more points than mine). Congratulations, and KANCHO! to Shawn, who now has bragging rights until the end of next season.
Next Week:
All Japan Pro Wrestling’s Real World Tag League.
THANKS FOR READING!
