Pro Wrestling Love vol. 5: Best of Pro Wrestling NOAH 2000-2004 (Kenta Kobashi, Mitsuharu Misawa, Yoshinari Ogawa)

Hey Yo Stud Muffins & Foxy Ladies,

Funny work story: So I have been working with this sales rep from China for the past month or so. She asked me in an email: How do you solve import tariffs? I popped for that one.

Pro Wrestling Love vol. 5:

The Greatest Matches of Pro Wrestling NOAH in 2000-2004

Objective:  Break up the Greatest Match Ever Project (hosted at gwe.freeforums.project.net) into more manageable chunks to help me build my Top 100 List for the project.

Motivation: Contribute to the discussion around these matches to enrich my own understanding of pro wrestling and give a fresh perspective for old matches and even hopefully discover great pro wrestling matches that have been hidden by the sands of time.

Contact Info: You can revisit past Pro Wrestling Love Volumes at ridingspacemountain.blogspot.com. You can check out the full version of these match reviews in ProWrestlingOnly.com by going to the forums and finding the folders associated with the date of the match. You can reach me on Twitter and Instagram @superstarsleeze or at ProWrestlingOnly.com as Superstar Sleeze to continue the discussion. 

Subject: This fifth volume of Pro Wrestling Love finishes the Top 12 countdown of the best matches to take place in Pro Wrestling NOAH from 2000-2004. Pro Wrestling NOAH was a splinter promotion started by Mitsuharu Misawa in 2000 from the All Japan Pro Wrestling Promotion after the death of Giant Baba led to a year and half of tumult backstage. Misawa started the NOAH promotion with all the natives of All Japan (sans Toshiaki Kawada and Masa Fuchi, who said behind out of loyalty to Mrs. Baba). Personally, I think the Tokyo Dome show in the summer of 2005 is the proper place to stop this. I think that is end of peak NOAH, the Kenta Kobashi reign had just ended and the Dome 2005 show was the last major show before the downward spiral of NOAH in the late 2000s. However, I feel that a list of the best Puroresu matches from 2005-2009 makes a lot of sense and if I do a NOAH list from 2000-2005 it would cause some strange overlap. So out of deference from that list, we will do NOAH from 2000-2004 even though that is kinda messy because we would still be in the midst of Kenta Kobashi’s epic title reign.

Ratings: Reviewing these matches again reminded me how much I love each and every one of these matches. They are so unique and different from one another with such spectacular characters. It is a heartbreaker but I don’t see how #6 can make my list. The other 5 are all mortal locks and I would say #1 and #2 are Greatest Match Ever Contenders. I have flipped flopped one and two so many times so we will see what happens in April!

My Spirit Wrestler!

Top Six Match of Pro Wrestling NOAH from 2000-2004

#6. GHC Heavyweight Champion Yoshinari Ogawa vs Yoshihiro Takayama – 9/7/02

NOAH Match of the Year, 2002

I don’t know when it was decided, but sometime in the middle of Jun Akiyama’s title reign, Misawa switched gears and decided that Kenta Kobashi was going to be the Ace. Kobashi was injured throughout the majority of 2001. It only made sense to finish what Babe started with the Misawa vs Kobashi feud that was the main feud of late 90s All Japan. Thus he planned for a major torch passing moment, but in order for that to happen Misawa would need to win the Championship. If he beat Akiyama, that would undo a lot of hard work that was put into the major Akiyama push. So he needed a transitional champion. Someone worthy to beat, but who? Misawa selected Takayama as big badass heel that has no allegiance to NOAH, a perfect person to beat. However, if Takayama defeats Akiyama it would have to be decisively which again undo all the hard work put into Akiyama. So Misawa thinks outside the box and uses a double transitional champion, a rare, shrewed move. So who could Akiyama lose to in a fluke fashion and be totally sacrificed at the altar of the Bleach Blond Badass of Japan. RAT BOY! Misawa is a genius!

Normally, I am not too fond of heel vs heel, but this is a great character dynamic. Imagine a cheating, dastardly David when he takes on Goliath. You can choose to root for Takayama to destroy this punk, cowardly scuzzball. Or you can root for Ogawa to somehow upset the Giant. Ogawa’s tights say “GHC Champ” so yes you should root for him! J  The hook of the match is that Takayama underestimates the undersized Rat Boy and Ogawa exploits this to make in-roads in the match. The beginning of the match establishes the danger that Ogawa is in as Takayama kicks his ass, but Takayama is cocky. It is an errant big boot that sees Takayama crotch himself on the top turnbuckle. Ogawa is totally desperate and urgent. He is shoving the ref out of the way trying to get his licks in when he still can. The focus of Ogawa’s attack is the arm. Takayama has a lot of great strength hope spots while Ogawa continues to desperately cling to his arm work. The best moment of the match is when Takayama is poised to take Ogawa’s head off, Ogawa ducks and drop toeholds into the steel post. They really milk the 19 count and when Takayama rolls in, Ogawa lets out a nice big “SHIT!” and I pop huge! You know it is just a matter of time now. Back drop driver after back drop driver does no good. Then one gigantic knee lift and Ogawa goes flying! The end is nigh for Rat Boy and Takayama kills him dead with slams and his Everest Suplex. I would say this is the best heel vs heel match ever. Whether you are cheering for the asskicking brute or the cheating punk, you will not leave disappointed.   

#5. Mitsuharu Misawa vs Yoshihiro Takayama 

GHC Heavyweight Title Tournament Final 4/15/01 

NOAH Match of the Year, 2001

In 2001, it came time for NOAH to establish their own championships and Misawa taps Takayama as the man he wanted to beat to make that championship mean something. Takayama is such a star. I love how he carries himself. He is king shit. Takayama is a very large man for a Japanese pro wrestler standing 6’ 5” and 275 lbs. It was Misawa that saw something special in Takayama. After years in the mid-card in UWFi and All Japan Pro Wrestling, Misawa began pushing Takayama after Baba’s death in All Japan and once NOAH was started he saw Takayama as a shoot-style badass heel that offered something very different than rest of the Five Pillars.

Takayama tries a new strategy against the greatest big match wrestler in puroresu history and that is use his inherent size advantage to bully Misawa. He is not going to engage Misawa in a fire fight like Kobashi would. The problem with Takayama is that he is inherently arrogant because he knows he is a big, bad asskicker. So when he pulls stunts like a one foot cover and warning kicks to Misawa’s kicks it serves to annoy Misawa more than hurt him. The next taunt was Takayama putting his hand over Misawa’s mouth. There is something naturally very upsetting about someone having their hand over your mouth controlling your ability to breathe and talk. So an enraged Misawa unleashes a barrage of elbows, but still the Giant is always able to go back to the knee lift to the abdomen. It is when Takayama bloodies Misawa with a nasty kick to the ear, just vicious. He unloads two absolutely sick elbows and an Emerald Flowsion that fell the Giant. The finish run is short and sweet, but it makes sense because it had been building the whole match. Takayama had controlled the whole match and was not just dominating Misawa, he was disrespecting him. Misawa totally obliterated him. No reason to drag it out just one short, explosive climax. This is the quintessential Misawa match. Takayama is a big, bruising Giant and they just build and build and build to that big finish run.  

#4. GHC Tag Team Champions Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa vs

KENTA & Naomichi Marufuji 4/25/04

One disappointing difference between All Japan and NOAH is the lack of emphasis on tag team wrestling, but damn if this match is not one of the best tag team matches of all time. In late 90s All Japan, Misawa started peculiarly teaming with Rat Boy. I like to imagine that Ogawa is the only man alive that can make the ultra-serious Misawa laugh and that’s why Misawa keeps Ogawa around. Ogawa is my spirit wrestler. I am an inch taller and we have a similar build. We have similar badass hair (ok mine is nicer) and both have a love of zebra pants. If I was ever a wrestler, I would have been the most low-down, dirty, dastardly, cheating chump you would have ever seen. KENTA & Marufuji were the main beneficiaries of Misawa’s interest in pushing junior heavyweights. It would eventually lead to both of them being pushed in the heavyweight division as main event stars. I generally enjoy KENTA. He is a hard-hitting, explosive wrestler who suffers from the problem a lot of 21^st century wrestlers do and that’s moving a million miles per hour through a match undermining the action that happened previously. Marufuji would be better suited for the Japanese men’s gymnastics team with all his tumbling passes which result in very light offense. Never let it be said that I am not open-minded as a Marufuji match will be making my Top 100 matches of all time.

Misawa rushes over to catch Marufuji as he coming down on Sliced Bread and hits EMERALD FLOWSION!!! Ogawa covers. KICK OUT! WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED!!!! KENTA flies in with a springboard legdrop and takes out Ogawa with roundhouse kicks. Misawa restores order with elbows and heads to the top. KENTA hits enziguiris to stun him. Marufuji joins him on top and hits a fuckin Moonsault Rock Bottom on Misawa! KICK OUT BY MISAWA! EVERYONE LOSES THEIR SHIT! WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED!!!!

That’s what we like to call in the business, “in medias res”. I have been trying to stay away from just doing play by play but that sequence has been burned in my head and it is one of the all time great sequences. I think what makes this match so great is that KENTA & Marufuji know they are the big time underdogs in this match, but they still believe in themselves without ever getting cocky once. They rush Misawa & Ogawa at the bell, but the Indomitable Emerald Elbow proved to be too much for them. The control segments by Misawa & Ogawa are great. Misawa & Ogawa are such an engaging odd couple. It is the hard-hitting Misawa and the underhanded Ogawa each controlling the young upstarts in their own way. I love the transition from this blowout to a competitive match. In 15 seconds, Marufuji hits a Sliced Bread on Misawa on the ramp and Kenta wipes Ogawa out with a knee and just like that KENTAFuji is right in this thing.  Don’t play with your food, Misawa & Ogawa. The resulting finish run is just an amazing fireworks spectacle of an insane bombs that I could never do justice. It is each man playing their character to perfection that makes this finish stretch so sweet. It is a great veterans vs young lions match with all the fixins. And to think this was not even the best match that night…

When I first discovered Youtube in 2006, I was a kid in the candystore this is one of the first videos of Puroresu I ever watched. It was love at first sight. I love Kenta Kobashi!

#3. GHC Heavyweight Champion Kenta Kobashi vs Yoshinari Ogawa – 11/01/03

Is there a more appetizing match on paper than Kenta Kobashi The Destroyer vs Rat Boy? It is the perfect match because there is nobody’s ass you want kicked more than Ogawa and there is nobody you rather do said asskicking than Kobashi. Some matches you can just predict exactly what will happen just based on the opponents. Kobashi is going to dominate early. Ogawa will do something underhanded to gain the advantage. He will take cheapshots and shortcuts to maintain his tenuous grasp as he desperately tries to survive all the while making Kobashi madder and madder. Until Kobashi just explodes in an effusive fury of closed fist punches! You know what sometimes I want a match to be exactly what I predict because the predictable is what makes sense and when you make sense you make dollars. When you have two characters that are so damn good at being who they are, Kobashi The Destroyer & Rat Boy, then execution of that story is going to be the treat.  It is a vast departure from the NOAH house style. This feels straight out of the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis, TN with the liberal cheating, blood and closed fist punches.  If you have never watched this match, watch this match!

#2. GHC Heavyweight Champion Kenta Kobashi vs Yoshihiro Takayama – 4/25/04

NOAH Match of the Year, 2004

This match is from the exact same card as the Tag Title match two slots above. The fans that night sure as hell got their money’s worth! If there was ever a time for a tie it would be between this match and the following match. I thought about doing a tie, but then I realized one match had to come after the other match. I couldn’t write my reviews on top of each other after all! Originally, when I was voting for the Best of Japan 2000-2009, I had this match above the match that follows. The more I think about the more I realize influence and historical import matters to me. I think that’s my tiebreaker. Misawa vs Kobashi had been building since Misawa and Kobashi became a full-time tag team in 1993 and it also kicked off the epic Kobashi title reign. So this match is a badass match, but the other just has more oomph due to history, but this is splitting hairs.

Kobashi had been champion for little over a year at this point, but had not really been tested. This was his stiff challenge. Takayama is bigger, had shoot credentials and is a former IWGP & GHC Champion. In some ways, Kobashi wrestles like the underdog reminiscent of how he wrestled Hansen in the early 90s when he was a young buck. He is going for big bombs early to win the match. Is it desperation or is it confidence? It is hard to say. The result is not it ends up with Takayama burying the knee in the midsection because Kobashi leaves himself open to the counterattack. Kobashi switches gears to working holds trying to use Takayama’s weight against him sapping the big man’s energy. This is a far more effective strategy has Kobashi is setting up his big offense using the holds. I love the urgency of Kobashi throughout this. It really puts over how credible a threat Takayama is. The match is famous for the amazing heat segment. When Kobashi tries to chop his way out of trouble, it is bye bye arm. Takayama wants to take the arm home with him and Kobashi is in full sell mode. Kobashi is such a  great seller, so emotive. The finish stretch is amazing: Takayama throwing every suplex at Kobashi, Kobashi gritting his teeth through the pain to kick out and even hit lariats. It is so powerful. The big man may have punched himself out. When Kobashi signals for the moonsault, the crowd goes bezerk! Like you need to watch this match for that one spot if nothing else because that is pro wrestling. I love that he finishes the match with moonsault (on the face!) because his right arm is so banged up he cant hit the Burning Hammer so he needs a suitably big bomb to win the match that does not involve the arm. If Misawa vs Takayama is quintessential Misawa, this is quintessential Kobashi. Strong fundamentals based work that respects the size and ability of his opponent, a dramatic heat segment filled with amazing selling and a gangbusters finish run. The part the crowd loses its mind for is a simple fist pump that is pro wrestling.

#1. GHC Heavyweight Champion Mitsuharu Misawa vs Kenta Kobashi - 3/01-03

NOAH Match of the Year, 2003

I have said it before and I will say it again. The torch was not passed on this night. It was seized! What do you say about a match this epic that was literally a decade in the making. I guess I will start with that lived up to the insane expectation everyone had for this match. Misawa and Kobashi were no spring chickens. They may have already had the greatest match in pro wrestling history on 1/20/97. There 1998 and 1999 matches are nothing to sneeze at either. So where the hell do you go from there? It is a testament to these two amazing pro wrestlers that they managed to create such a special, emotional match. It is Misawa’s Last Stand as the Man. At this point, I cant remember if it was me or my co-host on Tag Teams Back Again that likened Misawa to Michael Jordan. His gimmick is that he is the Ace. He is the Man. No-nonsense, ultra-serious, resilient and best at his craft. People had defeated Misawa in the past for champions, but no one had ever BEAT Misawa. It was almost like the title losses of the 90s were just heat segments in Misawa’s career before the inevitable comeback. The difference with this match was there were no more comeback. Ok, ok, he won the GHC Title again, but work with me here, there was no coming back to feeling like he was The Man again, that luster was lost forever, which makes his GHC Title reign in late 2000s feel all the more desperate and hollow. Taue, Kawada and Akiyama all defeated Misawa for championships, but it was Kobashi that defeated Misawa for the right to be called The Man. It is so apropos that in this match, it is Kobashi who mounts the impossible comeback. The spot of the match is Misawa’s Tiger Suplex from the ramp to the floor. Kobashi is out. Emerald Flowsion. 1-2-NO! After years and years of making comebacks and putting people away, it is now time for Misawa to taste the medicine he made so many others taste. That sinking feeling in his stomach that he is not going to win and his opponent is about to make the superhuman comeback. The Burning Hammer reigns down on Misawa and Kobashi seizes the mantle of The Man!   

With NOAH done, lets take a look at what else was going with puroresu in the early 2000s, we look at all the other Japanese promotions from 2000-2004 namely New Japan and All Japan Pro Wrestling! The completion of the WWF 1993-1997 countdown is scheduled for Friday. I have not forgotten.