Pro Wrestling Love vol. 8: Best of Pro Wrestling NOAH 2005-2009 (KENTA, Jun Akiyama, Kenta Kobashi)

Hey Yo Stud Muffins & Foxy Ladies,

Ratt was totally bitchin last night! They are such a badass metal band and see Juan Croucier still do all his dancing tricks with his bass brought a big smile to my face. Thumbs up!

Pro Wrestling Love vol. 8:

The Greatest Matches of Pro Wrestling NOAH 2005-2009

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 eighth volume of Pro Wrestling Love is the Top 6 countdown of the best matches to take place Pro Wrestling NOAH from 2005-2009. We pick up where left off in 2004 with NOAH. 2005 was still peak NOAH with the Kenta Kobashi reign winding down and their last Tokyo Dome show. The Dome show was headlined by the 90s New Japan vs 90s All Japan dream match of Kenta Kobashi vs Kensuke Sasaki and the return of Toshiaki Kawada as he squares off against archrival Mitsuharu Misawa. Kobashi had dropped the GHC title to Takeshi Rikio the first of the new generation to win the belt, however he proved to be a bust. By 2006, NOAH was in a precipitous freefall with Kobashi out of action due to cancer and now new talent that could lift the business. Eventually, Misawa put the belt back on himself. It was that dire of a situation. We end in 2009 because that is their year of the tragic in-ring death of Mitsuharu Misawa. Rest in Peace, Misawa.

Ratings: As of right now, I would say the top two matches have a shot at making the list, but are probably on the outside looking in.

Now thats what I call a POP!

Honorable Mentions

GHC Heavyweight Champion Takeshi Rikio vs Akira Taue - Budokan 11/05/05

One of the loudest crowd pops in the history of Puroresu when Taue wins the GHC Championship. Remember how badly the Budokan wanted Taue to unseat Kobashi last November, well they are still into Taue. They are over the moon when he wins the championship here.

Kenta Kobashi vs Kensuke Sasaki – Tokyo Dome 7/18/05

Mitsuharu Misawa vs Toshiaki Kawada - Tokyo Dome 7/18/05

The last gasp of NOAH as they are still able to draw a huge crowd on the back of 90s stars as they reprise the Kawada vs Misawa feud (they had not wrestled since 2000) and the 90s dream match of Kobashi vs Sasaki. The problem was that it was now 2005 and their lack of new stars would extremely problematic in the long run. Misawa vs Kawada is a nostalgic Greatest Hits match. I just saw Ratt last night. It is akin to that seeing a great 80s band run through their Greatest Hits. It is fun, but it does not have the same zing as something present. Kobashi vs Sasaki is something I should really revisit. I thought it was a little too excessive in the fighting spirit and macho pride spots, but it is definitely something important enough that it should be mentioned.

Kenta Kobashi & Go Shiozaki vs Jun Akiyama & Genichiro Tenryu - Budokan 4/24/2005

Kenta Kobashi & Go Shiozaki vs Kensuke Sasaki/Katsuhiko Nakajima - NOAH 11/5/05

NOAH in 2005 was the rebirth of tag team wrestling with Kobashi slowing down he was put in more tag matches. These are some of the best tag matches of the decade and there is still one more to come in the Top Six. Tenryu is in NOAH and this is his last run where he can still put on classics, which is pretty amazing since he debuted in the late 70s! This is also the debut of the Boy Wonder and one of my favorite 2000s wrestlers, Katsuhiko Nakajima who is a true gem of junior heavyweight. I got to see him live thanks to Ring Of Honor in Detroit in 2009.

Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue vs Jun Akiyama & KENTA - NOAH 10/03/09

The Misawa tribute match. Wrestling touches on a lot of human emotions. Joy, anger, fear, pride and envy to name a few. The biggest emotion it often misses is sadness and its cousins depression and grief. The early emotions are red, passionate, intense emotions and make for energetic experience. It has trouble with blue emotions and I hope that we see more of this in pro wrestling as it evolves to really progress. This is perhaps the best sad match ever. It is a somber mood. Misawa is dead and Kobashi is so injured he can't pay tribute to his friend. They use that sadness to weave an excellent story.

GHC Jr. Heavyweight Champion KENTA vs Kotaro Suzuki - NOAH 1/25/09
The NOAH Match of the Year, 2009. KENTA The Junior Destroyer takes on the cheating, cowardly punk, Kotaro Suzuki in a very entertaining match. I would say this overachieves as Suzuki has never impressed, but he is the straw that stirs the drink in this match. It is his over the top heeling that draws you in. You really wanted to see the hard-hitting, explosive KENTA comeback and when you get it. It is truly glorious. We will see an even better version of this style of match featuring KENTA later in the coutdown.

The Top Six NOAH Matches from 2005-2009

TAKE THAT DREAM!

#6. GHC Heavyweight Champion Takeshi Morishima vs Kensuke Sasaki – Budokan 9/6/08

NOAH Match of the Year, 2008

If you treat your opponent with the respect he deserves, then the match will be respected. Sasaki paints his unlikely masterpiece with young GHC Champion Takeshi Morishima who never quite panned out to the high expectations placed upon him. Kensuke Sasaki is a great wrestler, but one who needs a fellow great wrestler to have a great match. Most of the time, Sasaki is in there with works of greater talent. It is not totally his fault his generation was stacked with Hashimoto, Mutoh, Hase, Tenryu, Kawada, Kobashi and Akiyama. Still, the one thing always missing from his resume was him carrying a match proving he could be a ring general. This was that match.

Sasaki is a power wrestler through and through but he is a little on the short side, very stocky though. Morishima is a big boy. What Sasaki does so well is put over Morishima’s size advantage. He does not wrestle a fighting spirit match where they trade blows in the middle of the ring. This is not a King’s Road match where they trade bombs down the stretch. This is a smart match where Sasaki recognizes Morishima’s biggest asset his size, puts that over so that becomes the hook of the match. Can Sasaki the Legend survive and find a way to defeat the Monster champion or will he succumb to his girth? Like I said before when you have fans asking themselves questions in the match that’s when you got them. Compare this to the Misawa match, Morishima was plugged into Misawa formula and you would think that Morishima was just Kawada 2.0. Except, Morishima looks like a dude who ate Kawada. So when Sasaki began the match with his usual power-oriented strategy he was thwarted by the simple fact that Morishima is fucking huge. Sasaki does a great job selling for this monster both physically and psychologically. Morishima is really overwhelming the veteran. Sasaki has one hope and that is the young Morishima makes mistakes. Those rookie mistakes haunt him as he has a nasty habit of telegraphing his moves allowing the veteran Sasaki to capitalize. But when Sasaki falls back into his routine of power wrestling, Morishima literally squashes him. Morishima is wrestling this match like a monster and really looks like he is going to fulfill his potential. Sasaki has a new strategy go aerial and attack Morishima from the high ground. This strategy pays dividends and allows him to finally hit his Northern Lights Bomb, but Morishima kicks out! Sasaki is exasperated, really great selling from him. He hit the Monster with his best shot and still could not get the job done. Morishima goes high risk and crashes & burns on a moonsault. That is the opening Sasaki needs. He fells the Beast with a lariat which feels like a huge victory. Sasaki dictated the pace so well and he really put Morishima over. Morishima wrestled with conviction. They did a great job created situations where Sasaki could make inroads on Morishima. It is a barrage of Lariats and a Northern Lights Bomb that win the day for Sasaki. TAKE THAT DREAM!

#5. Kenta Kobashi & Yoshihiro Takayama vs Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama 

Budokan 12/02/07

NOAH Match of the Year, 2007

To me the most emotionally moving match of Puroresu in the 2000s. Kobashi triumphs over cancer (there was no way he was going to job to cancer) and returns to the ring in an amazing tag team match. It was a conquering hero’s welcome for Kobashi. Fans chanting “Ko-Bash-I” and Tamon Honda crying on commentary. I would argue you connect separate the emotion and content of the match. It is so fueled by Kobashi’s return that it propels this match into a 2007 Match of the Year Candidate. Misawa and Akiyama were natural foes for his return match, but his partner on the surface seemed to be an odd choice. It was his rival and eternal heel Yoshihiro Takayama. Takayama did a great job cheerleading and playing to the crowd to get Kobashi involved. Kobashi showed some ring rust early on and was a little sluggish. What makes this match so great is that the Kobashi The Destroyer of the mid-2000s is gone. Misawa caught Kobashi good with an elbow and all of sudden we are teleported back to 1993 and it is sympathetic Kobashi playing face in peril to the two greatest offensive wrestlers of all time. When you add in the cancer factor, the sympathy levels were just off the charts. You were just begging for Kobashi to make that hot tag to Takayama and then rejuvenate himself enough to become Kobashi The Destroyer and win the match. A great moment in the match is that as Kobashi is turning the tide on Akiyama, Misawa  comes in and quashes it with elbows to a chorus of boos! Hot tag to Takayama! It is short-lived but cool to see as Misawa blows him out of the water with an elbow. Takayama vs Akiyama is interesting because we never did get to see them in a high-profile singles match. That would have been a barnburner. Another great moment is Takayama could cover Akiyama, but he knows this match is about Kobashi so he tags out instead. Kobashi runs through his Greatest hits. The crowd is roaring and I am beaming with a smile so big as I watched it too. Takayama tackles Misawa and Kobashi hits a moonsault on Akiyama. Kick out and then they pan to Honda crying. Eventually Misawa & Akiyama overwhelm Kobashi and Misawa hits the Emerald Flowsion. If there was ever a time to break from the time-honored tradition of the returning wrestler doing the job in Japan, now was the time. The fans wanted to see Kobashi win and that was a silly booking decision. This also doubles as Misawa’s last great match of his storied career. I thought he was the second best worker (Kobashi’s face in peril was incredible) he was just a cold, stoic, remorseless badass in this match. The last hurrah of the Misawa vs Kobashi rivalry.

#4. KENTA vs. Bryan Danielson – NOAH 12/02/06

Exactly, one year before KENTA and Bryan Danielson had a tremendous traditional wrestling match. One thing you may have noticed from these countdowns is the dearth of gaijin talent. From Rikidozan through the 90s, gaijin especially from America played a big role in Puroresu. By 2000 they were mostly gone for the landscape and puroresu became very native heavy. This has changed in recent years thanks to the Bullet Club in New Japan but for most of the decade it was Japanese vs Japanese. Danielson is a student of pro wrestling and loves puroresu. I am sure it was a real treat for him to get to wrestle for NOAH and to wrestle one of the best junior heavyweights of the 2000s in KENTA.

If you can reign in KENTA and make him work for his offense, then you can get a great match out of him. KENTA has all the tools to be one of the best of all-time, but he doesn’t use them smartly. Danielson is a great ring general and knows how to make KENTA work for it. This is a great example of a tempo-based psychology match. KENTA wants to work that million mile per hour style and Danielson is trying to stymie him. Early on as KENTA is revving up Danielson gets a simple hiptoss and converts that into a cross armbreaker. That’s excellent wrestling. Quash the early momentum and lay some groundwork for an arm-based attack. Danielson was tremendous in working the arm. Danielson uses this as a setup to hit a diving headbutt and then a monster splash over the guardrail on KENTA but in the process hurts his knee. That’s the spot I always remember from this match. It is such a great turning point. Danielson was doing great on the ground, but felt he needed something extra to beat KENTA. When he goes high risk, he pays for it with a bum wheel. The finish stretch just flows beautifully building on the great ground work they laid in the beginning. Danielson powers through at first and tries the Crossface Chickenwing, but KENTA picks the knee and gets a Texas Cloverleaf and now Danielson is hurting. So when Danielson goes for Cattle Mutilation he cant hold it. Now KENTA can roaring back with his big ass kicks and knees. Danielson try as he might cant withstand this onslaught and loses to Go 2 Sleep. I love strategies and this is a match of strategies. Danielson blows it when he goes high risk after wrestling a great conservative match. I love how it does not immediately lead to Danielson taking heat. He is fighting through the pain and KENTA had taken more punishment up until that point. You see KENTA making in roads, but Danielson is still in the driver’s seat until his leg gives out. Then KENTA finally EXPLODES in great KENTA fashion. Just awesome escalation throughout the match really built to a fever pitch.

#3. GHC Heavyweight Champion Akira Taue vs Jun Akiyama – Budokan 01/22/06

NOAH Match of the Year, 2006

Just as the top match of this countdown is the grand sendoff for the King’s Road Tag Style, this is the sendoff for the King’s Road singles style. Kobashi’s cancer scare, Misawa’s poor health and Kawada’s winding schedule meant these two were the last of the Five Pillars of Heaven. The September tag match is a great lead in to this match as it really makes you want to see singles match between these two. In the feel-good moment of 2005, Akira Taue wins the GHC Championship raising the stakes of this match.

After his loss to Kobashi in the Dome, Akiyama disappears in the last half of the decade. Yes being a part of three of the best matches of the decade seems like disappearing when you do nothing in between. However, in this one match, Akiyama wrestles like it is 2000 fighting with urgency and focus. The focus was the head and neck of Taue where he was throwing knees like Misawa would throw elbows. As I have said before Taue is the King of Efficiency. There are no overwrought sequences. He has one goal win the match. How is he going to do it? Nodowa Akiyama to Hell and retain his title. We begin with a  nice little Taue shine diving to the outside showing how much this championship means to him. Taue worked the match smartly and builds nicely to his first Nodowa attempt but it is still early as Akiyama counters. The spot of the match is Akiyama wiping Taue out with a knee from the apron from behind. This sets up the excellent heat segment on the head and neck of Taue. Akiyama takes a page out of 2001 Mutoh’s playbook using the dropkick to the knee to set up a knee to the head, but that only gets two. Akiyama tries a running knee on the ramp, but Taue nails him with a big boot. NODOWA OFF THE RAMP! Game-changer! I loved that moment as it totally changes the complexion of the match and just like that Taue is back in it. Taue runs through his big offense lots of Nodowas and a Dynamic Bomb cant get it done. The drama is at a fever pitch with Akiyama responding with Exploders. They play off the September tag with Taue hitting a Super Nodowa when Akiyama had been trying a Super Exploder but Taue does not have enough to cover like he did four months ago. Akiyama ends up kneeing him in the head and eventually Taue succumbs to the onslaught. Two of the all-time greats going out having a balls to the wall match where the key is they are always struggling to win the match and put themselves in the best position to win. The entertainment of the fans is a by-product, the true goal is to win the match. I love how they put over the high stakes of the match when Akiyama knees Taue in the head on the first Super Nodowa attempt. Taue knows he needs that home run shot to win, but in order to hit it has to sacrifice the offensive position. It is a really cool moment. They take it home with Akiyama winning the match because of the groundwork he laid with the head/neck work and Taue not being able to overcome it.

GET 'EM JOE!

 

#2. GHC Jr. Heavyweight Champion KENTA vs SUWA – Budokan 09/18/05

It is the battle of Caps Lock: KENTA vs SUWA! The best KENTA matches are ones where he has to earn his offense whether it is the cheating heel tactics of a Kotaro Suzuki or the technical wrestling of a Bryan Danielson. You want to see KENTA go through some trial and tribulations before he explodes into his hellacious comeback. No one was better at that than SUWA in this match. SUWA turned in a career performance as he was a heel’s heel in this barnburner. He tore up the scroll that is always read before NOAH title matches. Sacrilege!  He blasts KENTA with a ring bell! The ref is forced to DQ him. SUWA is parading around knowing he beat up the champ. Joe Higuchi, the old dude that reads from the scroll, gets so hot that he takes off his suit to trade hands with him. The crowd goes wild for this! It is one of those moments that transcend time, language and culture. When a old man gets so fired up and is ready to put a punk in his place that always gets over. He throws the turnbuckle pad at the ref. He openly punts KENTA in the nuts. The ring crew and young boys are irate. The match has been restarted because everyone wants KENTA to destroy this prick but he has taken too damage. Now SUWA is openly flouting the rules. What are they going to do? Disqualify him again? This is an amazing heel performance that really needs to be seen to be believed. A man who has no cares in this world is always a dangerous man. SUWA hits that big dropkick that Finn Balor lifted from him and KENTA takes a gnarly bump for it. SUWA looks to finish him off with a Pedigree when KENTA reverses into a GO 2 SLEEP! GO KENTA GO! Loved the closed fist exchange here it works so much better than chops. KENTA OBLITERATES SUWA with kicks to the head and an exploding knee and just like that KENTA vanquishes the prick. It is the easiest story to tell. Asshole bully, SUWA is a total jerk and gets a ton of heat on himself then badass, asskicking babyface, KENTA The Destroyer roars to a satisfying conclusion when he kicks off the asshole’s head. I love this match! And to think this is not even the best match on the card…

#1. Kenta Kobashi & Akira Taue vs Genichiro Tenryu & Jun Akiyama – Budokan 9/18/05

NOAH Match of the Year, 2005

What if Tenryu did not leave All Japan in 1990, is this a match we get in 1996 instead of 2005? Perhaps, but that is the dilemma I face. Undoubtedly, this is a great match, even in NOAH’s weakened state in the last half of the first decade of the 21^st century, to be selected as the best match is still high praise. I ranked it #8 overall of all Puroresu matches to take place between 2000-2009. Yet find myself not wanting to include it in my Top 100 because it does not feel consequential. It is four of the greatest of all time (all four I ranked in my top 25 in the Greatest Wrestler Ever poll) but they are all in the twilight of their careers. This would be Tenryu’s last great match. Taue had a couple more gems in 2006 before fading away. Kobashi would have his cancer in 2006 and while he would have great matches afterwards it would never be the same. The youngest of the four, Akiyama, never reached his full potential as a star of a major promotion as he would flounder in NOAH before a resurgence in All Japan, but never a Budokan level draw that was expected of him. So the match feels more like the end of the road than a part of the greater pro wrestling narrative. I would not call it nostalgic. To me Misawa vs Kawada from the Dome in 2005 was nostalgic and so was the Misawa Tribute match. It was on the border of being passé, but the four characters are larger than life and can still suck you in. This and the Taue vs Akiyama match from four months later are a fitting end to the King’s Road.

Regardless, let us rejoice and be glad because these four old timers put on a helluva match and Akira Taue’s resurgence during this time period was excellent. This plays off the earlier Kobashi/Tenryu tag in April, but Kobashi has subbed in Taue for Go Shiozaki in return for excellent results. Clearly indicative of  a larger NOAH problem is that subbing in an old dude clearly improves a match over the young buck. In the April match, Tenryu’s chest ended up looking like a murder scene as Kobashi had chopped him so hard that ripped open his pecs. So Tenryu does a great chickenshit heel routine. I don’t blame him one bit. Frustrated, Kobashi sics Taue on them and he has Tenryu & Akiyama reeling. Then Kobashi tags in and he is now licking his chops (pun fully intended). Tenryu backpedals and tags in Akiyama. Akiyama thinks he will fare better against Taue so he takes a cheapshot at him. Taue DEMANDS to be tagged in to avenge this. Taue goes BEZERK on Akiyama! Crowd goes wild! Kobashi and Tenryu finally square off. Tenryu makes fighting spirit spots work because it actually sells how painful they are. His facial expressions are great. The match was so heated and chippy I loved it. So much trash talking. There was a point where Akiyama/Kobashi were supposed to nose-to-nose but Akiyama accidentally headbutts Kobashi and draws blood. I love it. Kobashi/Taue work a great control segment on Akiyama focusing on the neck. When Tenryu does get in, it he is who is licking his chops. Big melee fracas that is reminiscent of the big King’s Road tags of 90s with tons of bombs. They even do a miscommunication spot which is very rare in Japan where Taue accidentally big boots Kobashi. Taue vs Akiyama absolutely kill it in the final minutes. Akiyama teases a super exploder, but it is Taue with a Super Nodowa that wins the match. You can count to a million, Jess!

Tenryu was the cagey veteran that picked his spots perfectly. Kobashi was a big gun that could turn the tide of the match on a dime, but never overstayed his welcome. He was taken out by his partner he was able to save Taue a couple times, but couldn’t do much late in the game. Akiyama was the best seller of the match, but also the firecracker of his team. What more can be said of this Taue performance? He looked like a superstar and gave an intense performance. A great finale to the King’s Road tag team style!

  

Next time, we close out the first decade of the 2000s by looking at the best matches to take place in Japan from 2005-2009 not from Pro Wrestling NOAH!

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. 

Pro Wrestling Love vol. 4: Best of Pro Wrestling NOAH 2000-2004 (Kenta Kobashi, Mitsuharu Misawa, Jun Akiyama)

Hey Yo Stud Muffins & Foxy Ladies,

I love BIG! Big production values, big riffs big solos, big hair, big smiles and even bigger EYES! ;) ;) Wooo-hooo! Does anyone do bigger in pro wrestling history better than Pro Wrestling NOAH?

Pro Wrestling Love vol. 4:

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 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 fourth volume of Pro Wrestling Love begins 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.

GOAT

Honorable Mentions:

Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama vs Mitsuharu Misawa & Akira Taue – 8/5/00

Kenta Kobashi vs Jun Akiyama – 8/6/00

The main events of the first two shows of Pro Wrestling NOAH’s existence. Please see the Misawa vs Akiyama match review for why these matches are important.

New Japan (Jushin Liger & Wataru Inoue) VS NOAH (Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru) – 2/17/2002

New Japan (Jushin Liger & Takehiro Murahama) vs KENTAFuji – 7/16/03

Two matches in the Jushin “Thunder” Liger invades NOAH storyline that make the NOAH junior division.

GHC Heavyweight Champion Kenta Kobashi vs Jun Akiyama – Tokyo Dome 7/10/04

The main event of the first NOAH Tokyo Dome show and it features the biggest possible matchup of NOAH. With Kobashi vs Misawa over, this should have been the feud of the future. I am not super high on the Kobashi vs Akiyama match up. I do think they tend to bring out their worst tendencies of over doing the bombs and false finishes, but still this match cant be denied as an entertaining fireworks show.

GHC Heavyweight Champion Yoshihiro Takayama vs Mistuharu Misawa – Budokan 9/23/02

In order to kick off the epic Kenta Kobashi reign, Misawa needs to win the title to drop the title to Kobashi and so they go back to Bleach Blond Giant of Japan as the transitional champion. Misawa and Takayama have a great dynamic. Takayama is the perfect Misawa opponent because he is such an asskicker so Misawa can really show his resiliency and ability to make a comeback in dire circumstances.

The Seventh to Twelfth Best Matches of Pro Wrestling NOAH in 2000-2004

#12. GHC Heavyweight Champion Kenta Kobashi vs Tamon Honda - 4/13/03

Kenta Kobashi’s first title defense of his epic GHC title reign comes against former Olympic wrestler (1992), Tamon Honda. Honda is an example of NOAH’s diversity and versatility compared to All Japan. Honda was a long time All Japan pro wrestler (debuted in 1993), but never rose above the midcard. In NOAH, he was able to get a crack at the biggest prize in the promotion at Ariake Colosseum.  In addition to showing NOAH’s range as a promotion, it demonstrates Kenta Kobashi’s range as a pro wrestler. NOAH is well-known for its big bomb, firework spectacle, false finish galore, emotional, high drama matches. Honda wrestles a more minimalist style that focuses on Olympic style takedowns and suplexes. Sometimes, I feel Kobashi’s critics forget how good Kobashi can be at wrestling fundamentals. Another example of this can be seen in his match in 1997 against Hiroshi Hase. In this match, Kobashi adapts to Honda style to have a great championship match that plays to Honda’s strengths and makes him look good while still feeling like The Man.

Kobashi has been a challenger to the throne for so long that old habits die hard and he still brings the offense to Honda early on. Normally in a championship match, a challenger is one that is aggressive because he has something to prove, wants to get into the champion’s head, and the champion’s advantage where a draw goes to the champion. Kobashi is an offensive juggernaut and in his mind the best defense is a good offense. I love his headlock so much and how he uses holds to set up his big offense. However, when you are on this aggressive it leaves yourself open to counterwrestling. Olympic wrestler Honda is an excellent conunterwrestler is able to use his wrestling acumen to takedown Kobashi with a massive German suplex from over the ropes onto a ramp. Honda settles into a groove to work over the arm, which would take away Kobashi’s greatest assets: the chop & lariat. Kobashi is such an excellent seller especially during the cross-armbreaker and it really makes people believe Honda has a chance. Honda manages some big nearfalls placed around German suplexes and submissions. However, he is just outgunned by Kobashi The Destroyer, who fights through the pain to hit Lariat after Lariat until Honda succumbed to the GHC Heavyweight Champion. Really strong title defense by Kobashi working underneath making Honda look like a million bucks and really a display at how effective Kobashi can be working holds and selling.

#11. GHC Heavyweight Champion Mitsuharu Misawa vs Akira Taue – 5/18/01

Misawa won the inaugural GHC Championship in April of 2001 defeating the Bleach Blond Giant of Japan, Yoshihiro Takayama in an instant classic. His first title defense is against old foe, Akira Taue. Nobody will confuse this match for their classics in 1995, but this match is fabulous in regards to economy and efficiency. It briskly advances an elegant narrative in less than 15 minutes (for NOAH that’s a downright sprint!) to a great climax.

As this is the first Misawa match I am reviewing for Pro Wrestling Love, I will give some quick tips about Misawa. He takes a lickin’ and keeps on tickin’. His favorite way to get out of a jam is elbow his opponent really hard in the face. Taue has been wrestling Misawa for about decade at this point and he is not going to fall for Misawa’s elbow tricks. He has Misawa well-scouted and is just suffocating him. It is just boot after boot to the head. Taue is hitting big bombs like the Nodowa from the ramp to the timekeeper’s table and the Dynamic Bomb. Taue is just on fire in this match. This is total Misawa in a groove match where he is hitting his hope spots with vigor, but Taue has an answer for everything. The Taue Backdrop Nodowa gets two and it is at this point the end is nigh. Misawa roars back with elbow after elbow to obliterate Taue and set up the Emerald Flowsion. It is tidy and efficient wrestling.  

#10. GHC Heavyweight Champion Mitsuharu Misawa vs Jun Akiyama – 7/27/01

Jun Akiyama’s mega push began in February 2000 when he defeated Misawa in the Budokan in a massive upset that was reminiscent of Misawa’s upset of Jumbo in June of 1990. The mega push of Akiyama  continued at the first ever NOAH show where Akiyama defeated Misawa and Taue in two straight falls and then turned on his partner, Kobashi and put him out. The very next night on the second NOAH show, Akiyama choked Kobashi out with his new guillotine choke submission. Just like that Akiyama was the hottest star in Puroresu. Misawa was not completely different than Baba he still wanted to give Akiyama that big moment so first Misawa had to win the GHC Championship so Akiyama could beat him for it.

Thus this was supposed to be the crowning achievement of Akiyama’s career defeating Misawa in the Budokan for the biggest prize in NOAH. I am not going to complain about the follow-up booking, but instead focus on this stellar match. I love the beginning of this match because even though Misawa is the champion and he is a notorious slow starter, Misawa comes out elbows blazing fighting through all of Akiyama’s offense. In my mind, this is a direct consequence of Akiyama beating him the last time they were in the Budokan in February 2000.  There were so many times where Akiyama would get a big move like a dropkicking Misawa off top rope or Misawa totally crashes and burns into the floor on a missed elbow (similar to the February 2000 match) into railing that would usually lead to a heat segment, but in this match Misawa would not be deterred and he just kept rocking Akiyama with the elbows. Don’t get me wrong, Akiyama got his fair share of Exploders, but Misawa just kept coming forward. I love how they were making each other earn their offense Even after the missed elbow to the floor, he hit a crazy Super Tiger Driver from the Top Rope! That spot really stuck with me and Misawa is too damaged to cover. I love the finish. It is these two badasses in two corners opposite each other both exhausted and in pain. As they charge at each other, you know who can pull the trigger first will win the match and it is Akiyama with the high knee. It takes his choke and the Wrist-Clutch Exploder to win this championship. I love the story of this match compared to the February 2000 match. Misawa is so offense-minded here and it is Akiyama forced to be in Misawa role, absorb the punishment and keep plugging away. It demonstrates Akiyama’s resiliency. In a lot of ways, it was rope-a-dope. Misawa runs out of gas and the younger Akiyama is able to pull the trigger and hit the knee and follow through to win the match.  

The White Hot Puroresu Superstar of Early 2000s

#9. Jushin Liger & Minoru Tanaka vs Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru 4/7/02

Another two crucial differences between Baba’s All Japan and Misawa’s NOAH were NOAH’s Open Door Policy and the promotion of junior heavyweight wrestling. NOAH working with New Japan would have been impossible while Baba was alive because of the Baba/Inoki rivalry stemming from their JWA split in 1973 that resulted in All Japan and New Japan. Here, we see not only NOAH working with New Japan by bringing in the legendary Jushin “Thunder” Liger, but also the junior heavyweights are placed in a prominent role. Under Baba, the All Japan did have a junior heavyweight division centered around Fuchi, Kikuchi and Ogawa, but it was a midcard division that was never placed prominently on TV or the card. Misawa strove to change this to add variety to his shows and looking to capitalize on the success of New Japan’s junior heavyweight division under Jushin Liger. This Liger/New Japan invasion of NOAH was herald to the wrestling world that NOAH would be taking junior wrestling seriously. This became a heated blood feud throughout 2002.

A lot of critics would tell you I am underrating this match and the entire series really and I think some would go as far to say this is a contender for the best NOAH match of the front half of the decade.   I would tell them being the ninth best match of NOAH during their hot streak means it is a damn great match! I like this match the best of the trilogy because to me it has the most intensity and the best payoffs. The beginning of matches are important to me and what better way to begin a match than a Jushin Liger PALM STRIKE! The New Japan boys are such great traditional heels in this match as it does feel closer to an American match than a Japanese match for that reason. Jushin “Nature Boy” Liger and NOAH Official Tommy Young-San have a heat argument, there is great ref distraction, there is cocky one foot pinfall attempts, there is flipping off Kanemaru as they work their laser-focused heat segment on Kikuchi’s arm. I really enjoyed Minoru Tanaka in the early 2000s with his cocky charisma and great explosive submissions and I don’t have a clue why he fell off the face of the planet after 2002. To me what really takes this match to the next level and makes it truly special is the testicular psychology they employ. Kanemaru has a propensity to kick up his leg and kick his opponent in the balls. However, you got to get up pretty early in the morning to get one over on Liger who avoids the ballshot and hits his own ballshot! Kanemaru sells it like death. The NOAH young boys climb on the apron to protest! So Liger taunts them and palm strikes one to hell. Liger is the best. Minoru casually walks over and kicks Kanemaru in the balls in the Shattered Dreams position. Kikuchi is a great hot tag. He personifies house afire here! Tackling everything in sight. Then this is the payoff to end all payoffs: Kanemaru drop toeholds Liger in such a way that he headbutts Minoru in the nuts. That could be the single best spot in the history of wrestling. Kanemaru definitely has a set as he goes after Liger’s mask ripping it open and going after Liger’s eyes. The intensity was off the charts great. I thought the finish run did not match the intensity and creativity of the beginning. Instead they trade suplexes and submissions. The first 3/4s of this match are on the level of the Midnight/RNRs in the way they are able to weave drama and comedy so effectively in this match. The testicular psychology is something that cant help but put a massive smile on your face, but at the same time be so gripping and dramatic. It is a shame the finish did not match the uniqueness of the beginning of the match.

#8. Kenta Kobashi vs Jun Akiyama – 12/23/00

NOAH Match of the Year, 2000

Focus, focus, focus. In the year 2000, Akiyama has victories over the two biggest stars in Puroresu, Misawa and Kobashi. Can he finish the job and beat Kobashi again? The key to those victories is focus. You take what is given to you and don’t let up. From there, Akiyama has to weather this inevitable comeback and then unleash a barrage of Exploders to win.  There are two things working against Akiyama in this match: Kobashi is pissed he got choked out in the last match so he starts red hot and Akiyama’s pride at the end of match. In the previous matches, Misawa’s elbow and Kobashi’s lariats were rendered powerless by Akiyama’s tenacious work. Here, Kobashi has tremendous fighting spirit working through the arm injury and that is Akiyama’s demise is that Kobashi won’t be denied.

I love how Kobashi is raging mad at the beginning and Akiyama tries retreating and standing tall to no avail. Kobashi is a man possessed.  There is so much great selling from Akiyama as Kobashi is working on the neck. They actually make a headlock credible finish based on the tenacity of Kobashi and the selling of Akiyama. It is the dropkicks to the knee that afford Akiyama the opportunity to go after Kobashi’s arm to take away Kobashi’s lethal lariat and bruising chops. The arm work by Akiyama is textbook execution and Kobashi’s selling is amazing. Kobashi needs a knock out blow to turn this match around. He fights through the pain and musters up a half-nelson suplex. This is not something Akiyama had to come back from the previous matches. Yes Misawa & Kobashi hit hard, but this is the first time he was really rocked and knocked out. However, Kobashi’s arm is still messed up and not allowing him to fully capitalize. Kobashi goes for a move that does not use the arm, but Akiyama turns that into a powerbomb and now the playing field is levelled. Akiyama nails an Exploder on the concrete and Kobashi is out. This is where Akiyama’s pride gets the best of him. He should have collected his countout win, but he stops the ref’s count and wants the pinfall. This would efface all doubts and Akiyama would take his rightful place in the sun. It is too late now, Akiyama can hit all the Exploders he wants, but Kobashi has recovered and he won’t go down. Kobashi is exhausted collapsing on the mat but you can feel that Kobashi comeback. Lariats and then you know where this must end: Burning Hammer! I do think there were gratuitous suplexes and I thought the finish was a little overdone. Kobashi coming back from the Exploder on the concrete was a little much even for me who loves the crazy big style of NOAH and Kobashi.  This is a very NOAH match, a 35+ minute epic with a ton of major momentum shifts and big false finishes. It takes a you on a wild ride and it is fitting blowoff match for this heated feud.  

#7. GHC Heavyweight Champion Kenta Kobashi vs Akira Taue – 9/10/04

Taue! Taue! Taue! It is amazing how emotional Japanese wrestling can be. Akira Taue had become so beloved at this point that the crowd was cheering him on even as he was dominating Kobashi. It is customary in Japan to cheer for who ever is getting beaten up to raise their spirits. Of course, Kobashi is a very popular wrestler and an all-time great babyface, but that is how much this crowd wanted ‘ol Taue to win his one last shot at glory so they thought (Taue would win the championship in late 2005 to raucous pop). In my opinion, the Kobashi title reign had climaxed with Akiyama in the Tokyo Dome in regards to booking, but not in regards to great matches because this match is a blast. I would describe Kobashi’s title reign as having a long falling action before its final resolution in a loss to rookie bust, Takeshi Rikio.

Remember how Kobashi kicked Honda’s ass at the beginning of that title defense, well Taue don’t play that. Taue just boots off the apron and Taue dives on top of him through the ropes. It is off to the races and Taue came to kick ass. I love Taue because he is awkward and ungraceful. So when he dives to the outside it is just a total raw mess.  Kobashi goes for the old chop his opponent’s chest so that it looks like purple ground beef, quite nasty. For his part, Taue targets the injured knees of Kobashi. The beginning of Taue’s finish run is a wicked Nodowa on the ramp. This leads to a huge Taue bombfest that whips the crowd into a frenzy. It is not actually the Nodowas and the Dynamic Bomb that make me buy into all this. It is the missed moonsault by Kobashi that has me hook, line and sinker. Can Taue do it? Can he pull it off? The Taue-rana out of a powerbomb got a massive pop and I popped too. I felt bad for Taue and his fans after that nearfall. Kobashi lariat signals the death knell and the crowd is silenced. It all leads to the mutha of all finishes the Wrist-Clutch Burning Hammer! To me this is the great emotional story of the old gunslinger that has always been the fourth man on the totem pole trying to defeat The Man with full crowd support behind me. Taue leaves it all in the ring, flying through the ropes, attacking the knees and then chokeslamming Kobashi from eight million different angles. Kobashi is the man at making you believe the Impossible Dream can come true. Kobashi and the crowds were fatigued as the sun was setting on this historic title reign.

We continue the NOAH countdown and the question on everyone's mind is will it be Kobashi vs Misawa or Kobashi vs Takayam that finishes number one?

KENTA Speeds At Night: #12 KENTA vs Bryan Danielson - Pro Wrestling NOAH 12/02/06

Hey yo Stud Muffins & Foxy Ladies,

Commitment is the key to a successful, happy life. Trying to be everywhere will result in you being nowhere. Trying to do everything will result in nothing getting done. You have to commit to your goals, develop a strategy and execute on that strategy in all aspects of your life. I think a perfect representation of commitment in a wrestling match pits KENTA against Bryan Danielson in a match from Pro Wrestling NOAH that took place on December 2, 2006. In the match, Danielson is committed to the strategy of grounding the ultra-quick KENTA by working the arm, which has the added benefit of setting up his preferred submission hold focused on the arm. However, at a key point in time he has an opportunity to take a big risk by diving over the top rope into the crowd, if he lands he will assuredly win the match, but a bad fall could be his demise. Danielson, a daredevil, abandons his strategy, in doing so jams his knee on the dive giving KENTA an opening. Danielson quickly tries to return to his strategy but the aforementioned submission hold requires bridging which he can no longer do because of his bad knee. As you will see in my post-script, a lot of people would assume KENTA would target the injured leg of Danielson, which he attempted. However, that is not KENTA's forte and actually got KENTA in trouble. KENTA excels at fast-paced, bomb throw, kick your head off style. KENTA stayed true to himself and committed to his strategy. Used the injured leg, to set up his big kicks to the head and won the match. You see from this match one wrestler did not stay committed to his strategy causing himself an injury while the other wrestler took a licking, but kept on ticking and through commitment to what brought him to the dance took the victory home. Stay committed to your goals and strategy (re-evaluation based on new information is of course necessary also) and success will be yours.

 



KENTA vs Bryan Danielson - NOAH 12/02/06

This may shock a lot of people but the amount of matches I have seen Bryan Danielson wrestle as Bryan Danielson is probably only a handful and the vast majority are live. I was just never one to really ask my parents for money to buy wrestling or any item for me. Of course, my Dad would take me to the matches when they came to town and usually one 1-2 PPVs a year, but other than that not much. This mentality would continue into college. I always saw live events as special exceptions and would go to ROH whenever they were in town, but never felt that my limited college money should be spent on indy wrestling. I am hoping to change this in the near future and really hunker down and watch some golden age ROH. This match gives me hope that really is all that it is cracked up to be because Danielson was amazing in this match.

As I said in the SUWA review, the one constant in great KENTA matches is make KENTA work for it. Don't let him work his million mile an hour match, but make him sell and build up to that frenzy. What is interesting is I really feel like 2013 Daniel Bryan and mid-00s KENTA are really similar in working style. Bryan is better at building a match and slowing it down on his own accord. However, he has been prone to blowing off selling to get his shit in and his real selling point in the ring is his million miles an hour pace. Having not seen a lot of Daniel Bryan as Bryan Danielson, I was interested if they were going to try break the moves/minute record or something. I was very pleasantly surprised at how well this turned out.

The one odd thing to get out of the way is that the crowd is dead throughout the majority of the match. Was this one of Danielson's first tours in Japan? Were they just unfamiliar with him? The feeling out process is slower than I expected and very mat based where Danielson seems to have the advantage. KENTA looks to pick up the pace, but Danielson gets a hiptoss and converts that into a cross armbreaker. Excellent wrestling as KENTA is more as home with an uptempo pace so Danielson wisely slows it down and at the same time damages the arm. KENTA freaked out that Danielson almost got a submission victory actually slows down the match with a chinlock in a way to reset the match because he has been outclassed thus far. Once Danielson get back on top he is just working that arm relentlessly with all sorts of crazy submission moves. KENTA hits a snap powerslam and is still selling. Danielson's answer to KENTA is a Robinson backbreaker and a diving headbutt. I get a little worried here because they move quickly into a roll-up barrage when the diving headbutt was such a big spot. Danielson continues to go for home runs as he hits a huge splash to the outside over the guardrail on KENTA, but in the process hurts his knee. 

 

After the big dive, Danielson sells the knee kipping up on one knee after a missile dropkick, but KENTA had taken more punishment up until that point. So Danielson started back on offense with the missile dropkick. The knee messes him up a bit and KENTA hits a guillotine DDT, which he usually does not expect his opponent to sell (ala the Harley Race piledriver) so he looks to follow that up with a springboard move, but Danielson catches him with a German and then goes to lock on the Chickenwing Crossface (having had worked on the arm). There is a great struggle over this hold and here at his first real chance to pick the knee KENTA does. He applies the Texas Cloverleaf, but Danielson makes the ropes and when Danielson does put on Cattle Mutilation he cant hold it because his bad knee. There is an excellent headbutt vs kick war and Danielson was throwing some Garvin like nasty headbutts. Danielson goes for the Crossface Chickenwing again, which would avoid bridging on the bad knee and almost assuredly secure the victory, but KENTA fights like mad to get out of it. The next time KENTA gets on offense he goes back to Texas Cloverleaf, but gets countered into a pinning predicament. After that Danielson is relentless with a barrage of Cattle Mutilation. He attempts to hit a Tiger Suplex/Cattle Mutilation combination, but KENTA is able to bridge one into a pinfall. Awesome spot! At this point, KENTA has solidly got his ass whipped. He gets an Ace Crusher and quite naturally starts bust out his big guns: Exploding Knee and Kicks. Danielson's last stand is a roll-up barrage, but KENTA is stringing together too many kicks at this point. He hits the Go 2 Sleep to secure the victory.

I love this match as a game of strategies. Looking at this from a kayfabe perspective, Danielson is a better all-around wrestler. KENTA thrives in the uptempo game and with his kicks. Danielson stymies him early and never really lets him get going. Danielson is working the arm effectively, but does not have the knock out blows like KENTA so he goes for big gambles like the diving headbutt and the big splash, but this costs him his knee, which messes with one of his best submissions: Cattle Mutilation, which requires bridging. KENTA goes after the knee, but he is not very adept at working over body parts and nearly gets burnt with a cradle counter to a Cloverleaf. So KENTA has a fucked arm, has been getting his ass beaten and cant really take advantage of the knee, but has an opening with an Ace Crusher. So he goes to what brought him to the dance, big fuckin home run swings right at Danielson's head. KENTA always has the puncher's chance and he landed some big ones late. Danielson should have stuck to the arm game plan, but got lured away with big gambles then ended up ruining his chances to apply Cattle Mutilation. If only he was able to get that Crossface Chickenwing. Larry Z would have been proud at this exhibition of the human game of chess. My match of 2006 so far! ****1/2

 

P.S.

 

Discussion between me and a poster at PWO:

 

Poster: Early and mid-match were really good.  Both worked smart and kept it simple.  Then it falls apart for me.  Danielson does a big dive and hurts his knee.  He makes it exceedingly obvious that his knee was hurt during that dive.  KENTA...decides we're going into a suplex nearfall sequence.  Danielson is still selling the knee, and KENTA's one move that targets it is the Texas cloverleaf.  Then we move on to more nearfalls.  Actual finish and the few moves leading directly up to it was pretty god, but once again the need for big suplex nearfalls when the match had another perfectly logical way to go kills me.

 

My Response: I disagree with the finish ruining the match. After the big dive, Danielson sells the knee, but KENTA had taken more punishment up until that point. So Danielson started back on offense with the missile dropkick. The knee messes him up a bit and KENTA hits a guillotine DDT, which he usually does not expect his opponent to sell (ala the Harley Race piledriver) so he looks to follow that up with a springboard move, but Danielson catches him with a German and then goes to lock on the Chickenwing Crossface (having had worked on the arm). There is a great struggle and here at his first real chance to pick the knee KENTA does. He applies the Texas Cloverleaf and when Danielson does put on Cattle Mutilation he cant hold it because his bad knee. The next time KENTA gets on offense he goes back to Texas Cloverleaf, but gets countered into a pinning predicament. After that Danielson is relentless with Cattle Mutilation. KENTA is able to bridge one into a pinfall. At this point, KENTA has solidly got his ass whipped. He gets an Ace Crusher and quite naturally starts bust out his big guns which are the his knee, kicks and G2S. I don't take meticulous notes, but I don't think he ever hit a suplex in the post-dive portion of the match. He was working the Cloverleaf, but almost got bit. If I am KENTA and I got my arm fucked and I don't really work the leg and I am getting my ass kicked, if I have an opening I am hitting my home run shots. My cross-court forehand in tennis is a lot better than my down the line. If I want to access to a righty's backhand, I need to hit a cross-court backhand or create a inside out forehand. There is a lot of time I want to work over someone's backhand, but it is a limitation in my game to work it over. When I start to get down, you best believe, I am hitting the big cross court forehand even if their forehand is pretty decent. I don't fault KENTA for relying on what brought him to dance. He gave it a try to work over the knee, but it almost bit him when Danielson got a two count on a small package.

Ablaze Once More: #13 Kenta Kobashi & Yoshihiro Takayama vs Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama - Pro Wrestling NOAH 12/02/2007

Hey yo Stud Muffins & Foxy Ladies,

One of my many New Years Resolutions is to publish more content on pro wrestling. I write numerous reviews almost daily on prowrestlingonly.com (celebrating its tenth birthday! Congratulations Charles!) as Superstar Sleeze, which is also my twitter handle (@superstarsleeze). I want to take those reviews and start organizing them and really spotlighting the matches that really showcase the intricacy, depth and beauty of professional wrestling.

All Hail Kenta Kobashi!

The easiest way to organize is through lists. I want to compile lists of the greatest matches for a given time period and promotion/geography. I am not as much a completest and perfectionist as some wrestling fans. I live by Voltaire's words "Search for perfection is the enemy of good.". That being said, I still want to make sure I watch all important matches before I release lists. My one problem is I am the opposite of  obsessive compulsive and have a hard time watching one era continuously before I want to switch gears. Thus I am starting with the Best of Japan something I have published before, but I never really gave it the time it deserved on this blog.

I will explain the year system at a later date, but this first series will look at the Best of Japan has to offer between 2003-2007. I am going to highlight the top 13 matches from this time period in Japan. Here are the other 9 matches that were given at least ****1/2 as honorable mentions.

22. AJPW Jr. Heavyweight Champion Shuji Kondo vs Katsuhiko Nakajima - AJPW 2/17/07

21. GHC Heavyweight Champion Kenta Kobashi vs Jun Akiyama - Tokyo Dome 07/10/04

20.  IWGP Heavyweight Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Shinsuke Nakamura - NJPW 12/10/06

19. Akira Taue vs Yuji Nagata - NOAH 6/6/03

18. GHC Heavyweight Champion Kenta Kobashi vs Tamon Honda - NOAH 04/13/03

17. Kenta Kobashi & Go Shiozaki vs Kensuke Sasaki/Katsuhiko Nakajima - NOAH 11/5/05

16. Kenta Kobashi & Go Shiozaki vs Jun Akiyama & Genichiro Tenryu - Budokan 4/24/2005

15. IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuyuki Fujita vs Katsuyori Shibata - NJPW 7/19/04

14. IWGP Heavyweight Champion Yuji Nagata vs Togi Makabe - NJPW 07/06/07


New Years Day is a day of hope. No match in my mind represents hope like Kenta Kobashi's return match to Pro Wrestling NOAH in the hallowed Budokan Hall on December 2, 2007. Kobashi, who played the hero his whole career, had vanquished his toughest opponent, cancer and now was returning to the place he truly loved, the squared circle. Kobashi is one of those wrestlers that when you watch him you wrestle you can see the love and passion he has for the craft. We have the opportunity to watch Kobashi mature and develop not just as a wrestler but as a man. From the boy that was manhandled by Stan Hansen through the early 90s to finally overcome the loudmouth Texan bully. From being the junior partner of Mitsuharu Misawa in the mid-90s, constantly in peril to finally ascending to his place in the Sun seizing the torch from Misawa in 2003. He became Kobashi The Destroyer a world beater that went on an amazing two year title reign in mid-2000s. Cancer cripples even the mightiest of heros. But in true Kobashi's fashion he made his fiery, burning comeback and defeated his greatest adversary. With that victory, he earned the opportunity after twenty months to return to his home inside the ring and join his rivals, peers and friends.  He was no longer Kobashi The Destroyer of the mid-2000s and he had come full circle back to the vulnerable hero in peril beaten down, but never out because that fire inside him always burns. His story is one of hard work, dedication, passion and most importantly hope. The hope that no obstacle is insurmountable, no goal out of reach and nothing that cannot be destroyed by A BURNING LARIAOTOOOOOOOOOOO!

Down but never out!



13. Kenta Kobashi & Yoshihiro Takayama vs Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama -

Pro Wrestling NOAH Budokan 12/02/07

"Do not be afraid for I am with you."

Emotionally, there is no more moving 00s puroresu match than this. It was a conquering hero's welcome for Kenta Kobashi. The fans chanting "Ko-Bash-I" before the match. Tamon Honda crying on commentary. Kobashi teaming with one of his great rivals against two of the fellow All Japan Five Pillars in his return match from cancer. Regardless of how I felt about Kobashi from 2005 and 2006, I had an ear-to-ear smile seeing Kobashi again. I mean it is not like Kobashi was going to job to cancer.

I would argue you cannot separate the emotion and content of the match. The match is so fueled by Kobashi's return that intangible propels this match into a 2007 Match of the Year Candidate. Takayama was so surprisingly good at being a cheerleader and playing to the crowd to get Kobashi involved. I don't know if Kobashi was selling the after effects of cancer or if he was actually severely weakened because I found his shine sequence a bit tepid and even sluggish. At first, I was exclaiming "Poor Akiyama!" because it seemed like he was made to be the jabroni of the match. I was beginning to think that emotion would not be able to sustain the heat of the match.

Misawa catching Kobashi with an elbow as he comes off the top is when the match goes from good to excellent in really quick order. Kobashi is no longer Superman and all of sudden we get 1993 Kobashi playing face in peril against two of the greatest offensive wrestlers in history. Save for the Kawada/Fuchi heat segment on Iizuka, I can't think of a better face in peril segment in the 2000s in Japan. Kobashi as a face in peril is just so timeless. Even though it is 2007, we have not seen vulnerable Kobashi in so long and it is so refreshing.  When you add that Kobashi was coming back from cancer, the sympathy levels are just off the charts. I loved that when Kobashi seems to be turning the tide on Akiyama, Misawa comes in and elbows Kobashi to a chorus of boos!!! Takayama has to hold Misawa on the top rope to allow Kobashi to hit a superplex and tag out to Takayama.

Takayama as a hot tag is so awesome to finally see. It is so short-lived because Misawa blows him out of the water with an elbow. I really loved the Takayama/Akiyama sequence and would have loved to seen them mix it up in a high-profiled singles match. Takayama could have gone for a cover on Akiyama, but he knows that the crowd wants Kobashi and he tags him in. Kobashi runs through his spots to great crowd reaction and I was beaming right with them. Misawa saves Akiyama again, but Takayama tackles Misawa so that Kobashi can hit the moonsault on Akiyama. Kick out! Honda crying! From there, Kobashi gets another nearfall on Misawa with the Burning Lariat, but eventually AKiyama and Misawa were able to overwhelm the weakened Kobashi. Misawa could not score the win with the Emerald Flowsion, but he secured the victory with a Super Emerald Flowsion.

So the time honored tradition continued with the returning wrestling doing the job with the rationale being ring rust and having to earn his return. Kobashi is at his absolute best as the underdog and for the first time since the 90s he is in the role he was meant to play. Takayama was great at being a badass, but always showcasing Kobashi. Akiyama was thankfully not a total jabroni in the match even though he was the one that Kobashi could get over on. As good as Akiyama was as a dick, but my God, Misawa was excellent. It is not his best match in the 00s, but I thought it was his best performance since February of 2000 against Akiyama. He was so cold and calculating, He did  not care that his ex-partner and his friend was returning from cancer. He was here to win. He was not going to take it easy on Kobashi. All the factors came together to produce an amazing tour de force. ****1/2

Post-Script from Second Viewing: It was the feel good match of the 2000s in Japan and I know it is a time-honored tradition that "he who returns" jobs, but fuck Kobashi should have won. They chanted Kobashi during Misawa's theme during the exit. If there was ever time to break with tradition, it was now. The crowd was just on fire for Kobashi. I was going crazy for a second time for the moonsault. What a reaction! Takayama was destroying everything, Akiyama was kneeing everything and Misawa elbowing everything. I never thought I hear Misawa get booed AND Takayama cheered for suplexing Misawa. Crazy! I loved Kobashi showing vulnerability and being that never say die Kobashi of the 90s.