Daisuke Sekimoto & Yuji Okabayashi vs. Hideki Suzuki & Takuya Nomura (BJW, 9/22/16)

My dark horse team of the tournament -- rookie phenom, Takuya Nomura, alongside his trainer/mentor, Hideki Suzuki, taking on STRONG BJ. Going into this, I knew Suzuki/Nomura had zero chance of winning this thing but that didn't stop Nomura from giving Sekimoto and Okabayashi hell. I loved his fire in this match, especially in his initial exchange with Okabayashi, where he stuns the big boss with elbows, kicks, and a headbutt. Okabayashi chops him down and makes the tag out to Sekimoto, having had enough of Nomura's spunk. Nomura keeps bringing it no matter the odds, never letting Strong BJ bully him too much. Suzuki didn't get too much time to shine here but he and Sekimoto did have a fun exchange which resulted in some suplex throws. Hell of a performance from the young Nomura, who ultimately took the fall for his team after a top rope suplex/frog splash combo from Strong BJ. 

Konosuke Takeshita vs. Shuji Ishikawa (DDT, 8/28/16)

The last time these two met in singles action, it was a sub-five minute match, in which Takeshita defeated Ishikawa in a short spurt of bomb-tastic offense. This match, in a lot of ways, is similar to that shorty but goody – an epic-style bombfest that was red hot right out the gate. After Ishikawa powerbombs Takeshita onto the apron early on, it becomes painfully (literally) obvious that Takeshita will have to empty the tank and tap into his reserves in order to keep the title. They go back and forth, trading strikes and throwing bombs. Takeshita gets a run of offense, including a dragon suplex and Blue Thunder Bomb, but when he tries for the deadlift German, an exhausted Ishikawa elbows his way out and hits a cool backdrop-style backbreaker onto the knees before locking in a cloverleaf hold. Ishikawa, more or less, targets the back throughout, trying to deplete Takeshita’s fiery energy. Fatigued, Takeshita tries to fight back but can’t and Ishikawa sees the weakness and looks to finish the job with a sleeper hold, transitioning into a sleeper-style slam and a running knee for a two count. 

There’s a nice call back to their tag match from earlier in the year when Takeshita tries taking him down with those cheap plastic lightsaber lariats and finally manages a wind-up lariat to level him. Takeshita nearly puts the big dog down with a deadlift German but Ishikawa won’t die. In a great moment, Takeshita goes for the arm trap but Ishikawa busts out and hits a big Fire Thunder Driver! Takeshita’s desperation to hold onto the belt is bleeding into the final stretch with his strikes, to a point where he just starts punching Ishikawa in the face! In the end, the champion’s will to survive is strong, as he takes just about everything in the big dog’s arsenal, but ultimately, Ishikawa is able to hit the Giant Slam to become the new KO-D Openweight Champion. Great finish, with both guys dog-tired but still slugging away, having poured out everything into this match. Hard-hitting action from start to finish, with very little downtime. I’m a little sad to see Takeshita’s reign end, as I was hoping they would build to a rematch between he and Endo, but I’m a big fan of Ishikawa so we’ll see what he does with the belt. Super fun match!

Toshiaki Kawada vs. Hiroshi Hase (AJPW, 5/2/99)

Dipping into the archives with this one. I like both of these guys a whole lot but this wasn’t great. This was Kawada’s first match back from injury and while there was some decent drama surrounding the forearm, especially after Kawada hits the lariat, I felt like they could have milked it a bit more here. Lots of early fire right out of the gate and some great selling from Kawada after Hase plants him with the uranage but then they slow things down…a  lot. The ground game wasn’t all that compelling and when Hase switches his focus to Kawada’s leg, Kawada more or less no sells it to land a bunch of kicks. I loved Kawada trying to slap his way out of the giant swing and the sheer-drop brainbuster finish was molten hot but otherwise, a disappointing match-up considering the two guys involved. 

Tetsuya Naito vs. Kenny Omega (8/13/2016)

This match was ridiculous in all the best ways possible. I'm not a fan of Kenny Omega and although some of his silly histrionics pop up, I thought this was easily his best performance and his selling was, for the most part, top-notch. I could nitpick a few of his bonehead decisions like hitting the fisherman buster onto the injured knee, but he did a lot to balance that and show the effects of Naito's impeccable legwork. The high drama surrounding the One-Winged Angel played out really well and Omega did some small things that I appreciated, like actually trying to protect himself against the elbow shots and hitting that knee counter to the kneebreaker attempt. Naito was so good here, being the unbearable thorn in Omega's side as he attacks the leg at any given opportunity. His facials are always great and you gotta love that shit-eating grin during the final slap battle. I wish I had stayed spoiler-free heading into this but even knowing the end result didn't affect my enjoyment of that finishing stretch, which was absolutely nuts and beautifully overkill. Fun fun fun! 

Tomohiro Ishii vs. Kazuchika Okada (NJPW, 8/6/16)

On paper, I wasn’t overly excited about this match-up but Ishii is such a maestro in the ring, crafting a really fun underdog tale (although I don’t know if I would call a stone pitbull an underdog) and making Okada’s offense look like a million bucks (i.e. the guardrail-hung DDT). There’s something satisfying about watching Ishii bully Okada with chops, boot scrapes and headbutts. Okada realizes he can’t hang with Ishii in the striking department so he’s got to tap into his movez database to try and defeat him. Okada is fine here, he gets in his usual spots, but Ishii elevates this thing to another level. Little things like the chop during the Rainmaker post and stomping on the foot to get out of the tombstone piledriver attempt. And that finishing stretch was something else, with Ishii ducking and dodging the Rainmaker attempts before landing the big headbutt and ultimately pinning the champ following the brainbuster. Great stuff.

Yuji Nagata vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima (NJPW, 7/30/16)

My girlfriend watched part of this with me and asked "are they really slapping each other?" Yup. Hard. This was a lot of fun, with Nakajima heeling it up early on and getting the jump on Nagata. Both guys sold so well, especially with Nakajima taking some of those knees, and Nagata wasn't holding anything back. Stiff elbows and knees and that slapfest near the end was a great way to cap it off. Grumpy Nagata is the best and the ref can hardly contain him. I liked Nakajima's leg-based strategy, sometimes using it as almost a cheap means of getting out of a hairy situation. If he can take out the old man knees, he can avoid the old man knee strikes. He's able to turn the tables in his favor and finish off Nagata with the PK > brainbuster combo. As good as this was, it suffered from some pretty bad camera work. Nakajima's matured so much and I would love to see him out of the NOAH cesspool and into New Japan. 

Kento Miyahara vs. Jun Akiyama (AJPW, 7/23/16)

This was easily Kento Miyahara's best title defense, and probably his best match of the year so far. It's still a Kento Miyahara match though. Still the same "ace" tropes, the convenient selling, the no-sold superplex rush, but the dynamic between he and Akiyama made this feel special. The grizzled ace that never was, love tapping Miyahara on the face like "let's do this, kid." And the new cocky ace returning the favor like, "here we go, old man." The danger of the front necklock was built well into the match as Akiyama does a number on Kento's neck in preparation, like his piledriver, a reverse DDT on the apron, and a brainbuster. I love his elbow strikes to the neck. Miyahara's selling was okay at best, but he sold in other ways that helped flesh this thing out. The aftermath of the apron spot and Miyahara just barely making it back into the ring only to be met with a running knee and deep front necklock. Great stuff. Akiyama brings the best out of Miyahara's performance, and he was near perfect in this. The risky headbutt during the elbow exchange, his disbelief in Miyahara surviving the EXPLODER '98! and his sad final stand (not literal), crawling through the knee strikes until Kento finally puts him down like a lame horse with last shot. Miyahara's hardest fought defense and a damn fine performance from Akiyama.