NOAH "GREAT VOYAGE 2016 IN YOKOHAMA VOL. 2" (10/23/16)

NOAH vs. Suzuki-gun: Minoru Suzuki vs. Kaito Kiyomiya

I love when Suzuki toys with the young boys. Let them think they’re getting somewhere then quickly shut them down and out when they overstep their boundaries and piss him off. Same reason I love the other Suzuki (Hideki). Give them an inch and when they take a mile, kill them. This is exactly what happened here with poor Kiyomiya. He comes out red hot with elbows but Suzuki doesn’t let it spiral out of control and hits back even harder with his own elbow shots. We get the expected rope-hung submission spot from Suzuki before he introduces Kiyomiya to some chairs. Kiyomiya sells Suzuki’s offense well enough and mounts a little bit of a comeback as he tries to wear Suzuki down with dropkicks and crab holds. But this only pushes Suzuki to the breaking point, and he unloads on Kiyomiya. Loved Suzuki picking Kiyomiya back up whenever he collapses from exhaustion only to keep paintbrushing him with slaps before ultimately ending his misery with the Gotch-style piledriver. Fun little rookie punishment match with Kiyomiya getting a bit of control time in before dying at the hands of Suzuki.

NOAH vs. NJPW Special Singles Match: Katsuyori Shibata vs. Go Shiozaki

This is a match that’s been built-up nicely since Shibata’s violent interactions with the NOAH boys and Shiozaki’s NEVER Title challenge fake out. I admit, my expectations were high going into this and maybe I was left a tad bit disappointed by the end of it but following the awesome post-match shenanigans, I’m certain this is only the first of several interactions between Shibata and Shiozaki, possibly leading to Shiozaki challenging for the NEVER Title at Wrestle Kingdom. As an introduction, though, this was a pretty fun Shibata formula match with some blatant no selling, awkward German backdrops, tons of elbows, tons of chops from Shiozaki that left Shibata’s chest raw meat red. Go’s offense can often be underwhelming but I thought everything was executed well, from the fisherman buster to that gnarly lariat -- hell, even the Go Flasher looked as devastating as it can. I thought the busted nose only added to the match, with Shiozaki sniffing back the blood. The sleeper hold into the sleeper suplex was also a neat, fitting spot given the environment and set up the finish nicely. I didn’t love this like some of Shibata’s NJ matches from earlier in the year but it was good and I’m certain they’ll deliver much more come January.

GHC Heavyweight Title: Takashi Sugiura (c) vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima

I may be in the minority here but I enjoyed this more than the Shibata/Shiozaki match and in my opinion, it was a definite improvement upon their match from earlier in the year. Nakajima’s just so good playing the baby-faced, underdog burning spirit and his selling of the injured back and selling those elbows like death really added something special to the narrative. It’s a slow burn, no doubt, and could’ve benefitted with a few minutes trimmed off the total runtime but it didn’t feel like a chore to sit through like with Sugiura’s previously defenses. Loved Nakajima almost KO’ing Sugiura early on after Sugiura tries to cheap shot him against the ropes, a nice callback to his match with Suzuki and Suzuki trying to punk him like he’s still Kensuke’s towel boy. None of that bullshit, sir. After Sugiura hits an overhead suplex on the walkway, he starts working over that injured back, at one point using a chair. Shuichi Nishinaga is one of my favorite officials to watch because he ain’t scared to get in there and cut out the nonsense. Nakajima took some nasty elbows from Sugiura but kept asking for more and eventually fired back with some of his hard kicks, building to a PK and a brainbuster for two. I feel like Nakajima’s brainbuster should be reserved as the nail in the coffin but it didn’t take away too much here and Sugiura got to hit one of his own. When the Olympic Slam isn’t enough, Sugiura tries for the top rope variation only for Nakajima to blast him with a big fat headbutt to knock him off. So great. After a couple of quick thrust kicks, Nakajima hits a smooth-as-silk deadlift German for two before connecting with back-to-front PKs, a thrust kick to the head and the brainbuster for the biggest win of his career. Let’s hope he gets a proper reign to cement his status as the ACE of NOAH. Probably the “best” NOAH show of the year from what I saw

Daisuke Sekimoto vs. Takuya Nomura (BJW, 9/19/16)

This is everything I love about Takuya Nomura, coupled with Sekimoto's solid backwork and BJ Strong intensity. Right out of the gate, Nomura tries the overwhelm strategy, hitting a dropkick, elbowing away in the corner, snapping off kicks to the chest. Sekimoto quickly squashes this and clobbers away at Nomura. But Nomura is that birthday candle you can't quite blow out on the first couple of tries. The crowd's in his corner so he keeps on bringing the fight to Sekimoto. Sekimoto starts working over his back with kicks, elbow drops, scoop slams, a camel clutch, trying to immobilize Nomura. Nomura's strikes look really good here, especially the kicks. The home stretch was a lot of fun, with the two trading elbows -- Sekimoto with his clobbering shots and Nomura throwing elbows as hard as he can. When Sekimoto catches the leg, Nomura lets loose with the slaps but as he comes off the ropes, Sekimoto catches him with a Rock Bottom-style backbreaker before slapping on his shitty Sharpshooter. Nomura holds out for a bit but the referee ultimately calls for the bell. Good stuff!

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.