NOAH European Navigation live report: 6/21/2008, Coventry Skydome
This is the first ever NOAH event held outside of Japan. The show features 7 matches and is held at the Coventry Skydome, a 3500 seater venue in the middle of England that held one of last weeks TNA house shows. I’d first like to mention the good job that Mark Sloan has done on promoting this show. Articles on the website of the UK’s biggest paper, Billboard signs in the city itself and even bus advertisements. This is probably the biggest advertisement campaign for a non WWE UK show in years. His very approachable manner and his aim to make the show as authentic as possible has been great and I would whole heartedly suggest ROH contact him to organise their next UK shows.
The doors opened on time but the show itself was about 15 minutes late. Prior to the show we found out that Marufuji and Morishima had lost their ring gear on the flight over. Not the best of starts. The ring was set up with a ramp leading from backstage, but the ramp was about 8 inches higher then the ring apron. This looked silly but it played a part later on in the night. I would say that there were at least 1500 people at the show, ranging from 6 to 70 years old. Considering the lack of TV and little TV/Radio advertising this was a good crowd. Before the show proper we had a special pre show match, giving an opportunity for 6 young UK guys to show what they can do.
Pre show match: Mark Haskins, Dave Moralez & Zack Sabre Jr vs. Bubblegum, El Ligero & Luke Phoenix
I know very little about these guys. Haskins, Moralez and Sabre were the heels with Haskins playing to the crowd to rile them up. Moralez looks like Wayne Rooney after 3 years on a Burger binge. Bubblegum had some awesome pink crushed velvet tights while El Ligero is, essentially, a British version of El Ligero. It was a decent match that built well and came to a good climax. The heels worked over Bubblegum before he made the hot tag to Phoenix, who really took it to all his opponents. Later on he had a great spot where he completely unloaded on Sabre with a ton of strikes. The finish came when the faces hit two awesome dives on Moralez and Sabre, allowing Bubblegum to beat Haskins with a Shooting Star Press.
Bubblegum beats Mark Haskins by Shooting Star Press, 2.5 out of 5
A fun little match, good for a pre-show match. Each guy did well to show what they can do. The heels were effective but Phoenix and Ligero stood out. Phoenix was a good hot tag and showed some real passion in their while Ligero got the crowd eating out of his palm with some great baby face offence The only thing possibly holding Ligero back is his size and the fact that he uses El Generico’s gimmick.
Match 1: Atsushi Aoki vs. Joel Redman
Joel Redman is a 218lb student of Mark Sloan and came out first. Aoki debuted in 2006 and is already one of my favourite mat technicians today. The match focused around Aoki trying to take Redman’s arm apart while Redman kept trying to find something that would be effective. As the time limit drew closer and closer the wrestlers got more and more frantic with both guys trading frantic pinning combinations. In the last minute Redman managed to reach the ropes after a Jujigatame and the match reached the 15 minute time limit.
15 Minute Time Limit Draw, 2 out of 5
I really like Aoki, as he has a great ring style. He targeted Redman’s arm and worked it over with almost every move, until he got desperate and went for roll ups. Redman looked okay offensively but his selling was awful. I never saw him sell the arm once, which really dragged the match down since you never thought that he was in trouble. This seriously made Aoki’s offence look weak and the ring itself didn’t help since it seemed a little too small for Aoki to apply his submissions without being near the ropes. A nice little mat based match ruined due to an absolute failure to sell the arm by Redman.
Match 2: Tsyoshi Kikuchi & Junji Izumida vs. Wade Fitzgerald & Martin Stone
One half of the English team, Wade Fitzgerald was announced at 150lbs. I doubt he was even weighed that. His tag partner, Martin Stone, may be familiar to US fans who saw him at Chikara’s King of Trios 2008 tournament. Izumida is a chunky guy who likes to use head butts while Kikuchi is another fairly chunky guy who had some great matches in All Japan before the NOAH exodus. Kikuchi has actually been wrestling for more years then Fitzgerald has been on this planet, while Izumida is twice as heavy as Fitzgerald. The match focused around Kikuchi trying to overpower the two Englishmen while Izumida used some head butt based comedy to add a bit of light heartedness to the match. Izumida finally won the match by using a Fireman’s Carry into a TKO on Fitzgerald
Junji Izumida beats Wade Fitzgerald by Fireman’s Carry TKO, 2 out of 5
Firstly, Fitzgerald was the wrong choice here. He was too small and he got in a ridiculous amount of offence which made his opponents look weaker. Kikuchi hit the lowest fisherman suplex I’ve ever seen because of Fitzgerald’s size. Stone had a fairly good showing but he and Fitzgerald should have swapped roles since Fitzgerald’s performance distracted from the match. Izumida and Kikuchi are probably the two worst NOAH guys out of those who flew over but I still enjoyed their performance. Kikuchi was grumpy and surly while Izumida’s head butt based shenanigans were quite entertaining. Not a great match with some really odd choices of roles but it didn’t stink up the joint as I enjoyed it for what it was.
Match 3: Takashi Sugiura & Kotaro Suzuki vs. Nigel McGuinness & Doug Williams
Sugiura is a beast of a Jr Heavyweight while Suzuki is a flippy guy with a large range of moves. The British duo of McGuinness and Williams came out to Vindaloo (a song released as a unofficial anthem for the English Football team years ago). The Brits played up the Nationalism angle and helped pick the crowd up. The match started quite evenly before Sugiura came in as he focussed on out powering McGuinness, even using an impressive dead weight Harelip lift. Sugiura and Suzuki kept attacking Williams on the apron, which really riled the crowd up for the hot tag. Eventually the faces isolated Suzuki and hit a two man Tower of London for the victory
Nigel McGuinness beats Kotaro Suzuki by Two man Tower of London, 3.25 out of 5
This was where the show picked up, due to the combination of a great face performance by the Brits and Sugiura’s tactics. Sugiura and Suzuki isolated McGuinness and used some great spots, including setting up for a Yakuza kick to the floor, only to hit Williams, who was standing on the apron. They built the heat really nicely in this match and the crowd were loving it, backing McGuinness and Williams to the hilt. Doug did a really good job hyping the fans on the apron and McGuinness sold well, making the work over period more effective. Suzuki got some of his spots in and did a good job of putting over his opponents offence, especially Nigel’s 2 Lariats and the finisher, where he stayed down for ages to sell the move. A really nice match that played on patriotism to get the fans involved. Having Sugiura and Suzuki, instead of the originally advertised Briscoes helped the match significantly.
We then had a 15 minute intermission where I caught up with some other fans, including guys who had travelled all the way from Finland and Montreal. The consensus was that it had been not bad but needed to be better to have been worth it.
Match 4: Takeshi Morishima & Muhammad Yone vs. Jun Akiyama & Bison Smith
Akiyama and Smith got individual entrances, with Akiyama getting a nice reaction since I felt that he would be under-appreciated by the fans. Yone and Morishima came out together, with Morishima wearing trainers, black Lonsdale work out shorts and no knee pads Yone acknowledged 6 guys who wore Afro wigs in the front row, who got photographed repeatedly by the Japanese photographers. All three Japanese competitors were over huge, with Yone getting considerable love, although Morishima also got a lot of chants. Yone played a great face in peril and just has this kind of aura that makes you care. Akiyama and Smith did a great job of working over Yone, including a sick DDT onto the apron. Smith even hit with a shoulder block from the entry ramp, diving over the top rope. Morishima eventually tagged in and proved to be the immovable object that he is. He cut out the fast paced, ass based offence and focused more on powerful strikes, coming across like a monster. Eventually Akiyama took Morishima to the outside and kept him there while Bison Smith got the win with the Bisontennial (Styles Clash).
Bison Smith beats Mohammed Yone by Bisontennial, 3 out of 5
A good match where all three Japanese competitors got some love and showed what they could do. Akiyama was good as the grumpy guy who tried to teach Yone not to piss him off. He did a good job controlling Morishima at the end, since you need someone to dominate him to make it look like he won’t make the save. Yone was awesome as the face in peril, since he’s a fairly big dude. He got the loudest chants of the match and got a big pop when he went for the Muscle buster. Morishima wasn’t in the match that much but he was on form when he was. He dropped the ass based offence and just hit his powerful strikes and even brought out the Scrap buster. Smith did a good job and was better then expected. A nice way to get back from intermission and having these guys in that spot helped the crowd get back in the mood quickly.
Match 5: GHC Jr Heavyweight Tag Team Title match – KENTA & Taiji Ishimori (Champions) vs. Bryan Danielson & Eddie Edwards
Danielson and Edwards came out to The Final Countdown, which got a lot of the crowd really excited. Danielson then proceeded to cut the music before it reached those words and declared that only the Americans deserve The Final Countdown. This got a lot of heat from the crowd and meant that the champions got a lot of support when they came out. There were KENTA chants throughout the match. The Americans were heels throughout the match, mostly due to Danielson. He played the chickenshit heel by constantly bailing out before KENTA got involved, picking his spots and targeting Ishimori. When he eventually got a hold of KENTA it was on his own terms and he dominated. Ishimori used his quick offence and a little ground work to help turn the tide while Edwards had some nice work in the work over periods. The match featured more stuff then I can remember clearly but Edwards and Ishimori had some nice Hurricanrana exchanges, including a great counter by Edwards into a Boston Crab. Danielson kept attacking KENTA with his more brutal offence, including Cattle Mutilation, the MMA Elbows and the Triangle Choke Elbows. Eventually Ishimori took Danielson out of the equation with the Telerana DDT and KENTA took Edwards out with the Go To Sleep. Unfortunately it looked like Edwards may have badly hurt his Jaw so I hope he’s alright.
KENTA beats Eddie Edwards by Go To Sleep, 4.25 out of 5
Awesome match, definitely match of the night. Danielson somehow turned the entire crowd on him and did a phenomenal job as a heel. This meant that the support that KENTA and Ishimori got was huge, and this helped the match. All four guys put on great performances, with Edwards doing really well, including a ludicrously sold Lariat which I think may have been the move that hurt his jaw. Danielson’s heel work was truly great, constantly glowering at the fans, jaw jacking with the crowd and being a complete prick in the ring by avoiding KENTA until he was occupied. KENTA showed that righteous fire that he brings in his best matches and Ishimori shows how much he has come on from when I first saw him. A tremendously good match with some really nice exchanges and a good finish. The crowd absolutely loved it and it got one of the few “This is Awesome†chants of the night.
Match 6: GHC Jr Heavyweight Title match – Yoshinobu Kanemaru (Champion) vs. Jay Briscoe
Jay Briscoe was on his own since Mark wasn’t allowed to travel due to passport issues. Kanemaru came out to a decent response but the crowd was obviously burnt out after the previous match. This was the match I expected, a short affair that started with some mat work before both guys brought out the big moves, including a vicious looking Deep Impact (Top Rope Diving DDT) and a sick DDT on the ramp by Kanemaru. The match was quite even, with both guys hitting big moves before Kanemaru hit a Vertical Drop Brainbuster. Jay only just kicked out so Kanemaru followed it up with another for the win.
Yoshinobu Kanemaru wins by Vertical Drop Brainbuster, 3 out of 5
A nice, short match that suffered immensely due to it following the Jr Tag Titles match. They built the match fairly well, starting with mat work before building into a case of both guys using the big moves to get the win as quick as possible. The selling was fairly good and I enjoyed it. To be honest, it was exactly the kind of match that was needed: Short, with two guys who weren’t massively over who put on a simple, watchable match that the crowd didn’t need to be into so that they could rest for the Main Event.
Match 7: Mitsuharu Misawa & Naomichi Marufuji vs. Kenta Kobashi & Go Shiosaki
All four competitors came out in order of seniority, with Shiosaki first and Misawa last. All four competitors got big chants when they came out and Kobashi and Misawa even got the large Pennants for their entrances. Marufuji wore White Lonsdale training pants with White knee pads due to losing his ring gear. This was the match that everyone had been waiting for. While Marufuji and Shiosaki got the most ring time Kobashi and Misawa had more ring time then I expected. Kobashi and Shiosaki had some great chop based double teams on Marufuji while Misawa bought his side enough time for Marufuji to recover. Marufuji hits some great spots including a floor to Apron dropkick and an awesome running dropkick from the ramp, over the ropes, onto a seated Shiosaki. Kobashi nearly caved Misawa’s chest in with the corner chops, turning his chest the colour of raw steak. Near the end Misawa returned the favour with some forearms that nearly caved Shiosaki’s skull in. Misawa brought out two Tiger Drivers while Kobashi hit the Half Nelson Suplexes for a massive pop. Eventually Marufuji and Shiosaki were left in the ring and Marufuji hit the Poleshift to end the match.
Naomichi Marufuji beats Go Shiosaki by Poleshift, 4 out of 5
For atmosphere this was one of the three best matches I’ve ever seen. All four men got tons of respect from the crowd, with Kobashi getting the most chants. Misawa wasn’t that far behind and Marufuji’s in ring work got him a lot of praise as well. Marufuji played up to the flashy little prick role that he uses so well in matches against Kobashi, hitting him with his back turned and generally trying to rile up the big man. Shiosaki helped hold the match together with his big chops and he took the brunt of Misawa’s punishment, featuring the three sickest Elbows I have ever seen. Misawa was the typical modern day Misawa, using his presence, elbows and Tiger Drivers to make up for his age. Kobashi rocked the joint with his great facials, chops and general fire that seems to personify him. The corner chops were sick, Misawa took a nasty Half Nelson suplex and the crowd loved it. It was a quite well worked match with good moves, exchanges and selling but it was the sheer presence and spectacle that made this match so good.
Overall Summary
I said that at intermission some people thought that the second half needed to be good. Well, the second half was better then that. Probably the second best second half to a show that I’ve seen live this year (Supercard of Honor III is hard to beat) and the spectacle of the main event was something else. Two really nice matches and some very solid matches on the mid card make up for the first two matches. The crowd started off badly, with fears of two warring factions of internet fans but the McGuinness tag match turned things around and the crowd really came into it’s own, mixing respect with support and chants. The lack of “This is Awesome†chants (except when it was truly applicable) and “wooing†for chops also helps.
This was a great show for the first NOAH show outside of Japan and the end was met with chants of “Please come Back†and “Arrigato.†Hopefully NOAH do return to the UK since this was a great show and really brought the spirit of NOAH to the UK. Some friends of mine, who don’t watch puro, were unsure about these shows but really loved it afterwards.
8/10
