Matches to Check out

[Pegasus Kid 0]

I may have seen KENTA vs Danielson but it might have been an earlier match.

I was referring to their match this past weekend. I wasn't aware there was another one but I'll have to look for it.

 

Hawk; do you know when the Title Unification will be released on DVD? What's the word on the quality of the match?

[Guest CWMwasmurdered]

I was wrong, I don't think they've wrestled before, or if they did I haven't seen it. I had downloaded a few matches from ROH involving NOAH stars and thought I saw Danielson Vs Kenta among them but it was KENTA Vs Low Ki and Danielson Vs Lyger and Danielson Vs Marufuji.

[Hawk 34 0]

I may have seen KENTA vs Danielson but it might have been an earlier match.

I was referring to their match this past weekend. I wasn't aware there was another one but I'll have to look for it.

 

Hawk; do you know when the Title Unification will be released on DVD? What's the word on the quality of the match?

 

The general word is that it blew the first two matches completely away and judging from the highlights, I believe it.

 

ROH still has to release "Time To Man Up" and "Fight Of The Century", before

"Anarchy In The UK" and "Unified". I'll say the first week of October, just before the Cleveland/Detroit double-shot.

[Just John 0]

Some of these are for straight match quality, others for significance (i.e. high name value, title change).

 

NOAH 2005-2006 Recommended Viewing:

 

* = Above Average Recommendation

** = High Recommendation

 

Kenta Kobashi vs. Minoru Suzuki (1/8/05)

Kenta Kobashi vs. Takeshi Rikio (3/5/05)

Kenta Kobashi & Go Shiozaki vs. Jun Akiyama & Genichiro Tenryu (4/25/05) *

KENTA & Naomichi Marufuji vs. Ikuto Hidaka & Minoru Fujita (5/8/05) *

KENTA vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru (7/18/05) *

Naomichi Marufuji & Minoru Suzuki vs. Jun Akiyama and Makoto Hashi (7/18/05)

Kenta Kobashi vs. Kensuke Sasaki (7/18/05)

Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Toshiaki Kawada (7/18/05)

KENTA vs. Minoru Suzuki (8/27/05)

KENTA vs. SUWA (9/18/05) *

KENTA vs. Mushiking Terry (10/28/05)

Naomichi Marufuji & Minoru Suzuki vs. Jun Akiyama & Shiro Koshinaka (11/5/05)

Kenta Kobashi and Go Shiozaki vs. Kensuke Sasaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima (11/5/05) **

KENTA & Katsuyori Shibata vs. Takeshi Morishimia & Mohammed Yone (11/5/05) *

Takeshi Rikio vs. Akira Taue (11/5/05)

Akira Taue vs. Takeshi Morishima (12/4/05)

KENTA & Ricky Marvin vs. Naomichi Marufji & Kotaro Suzuki (1/8/06)

KENTA vs. Naomichi Marufuji (1/22/06) **

Akira Taue vs. Jun Akiyama (1/22/06)

Naomichi Marufuji vs. Akira Taue (3/5/06) *

Takeshi Morishima vs. Mitsuharu Misawa (3/5/06) *

KENTA vs. Kenta Kobashi (3/5/06)

Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Takashi Sugiura vs. Ikuto Hidaka & Minoru Fujita (3/5/06)

Naomichi Marufuji vs. Kenta Kobashi (4/23/06) **

Jun Akiyama vs. Masao Inoue (4/23/06)

KENTA vs. Takashi Sugiura (6/4/06)

Kenta Kobashi & Tamon Honda vs. Takeshi Morishima & Mohammed Yone (6/4/06)

KENTA & Naomichi Marufuji vs. Takeshi Morishima & Takeshi Rikio (7/16/06) *

Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama vs. Kensuke Sasaki & Yoshihiro Takayama (7/16/06)

KENTA & Katsuyori Shibata vs. Akira Taue & Go Shiozaki (9/9/06)

Jun Akiyama vs. Naomichi Marufuji (9/9/06)

 

Some random ROH stuff to see (Admittedly, I'm not as well-versed here):

 

Samoa Joe vs. Kenta Kobashi (10/1/05) **

Bryan Danielson vs. Roderick Strong (11/5/05) *

Bryan Danielson vs. Naomichi Marufuji (12/17/05)

KENTA vs. Low Ki (12/17/05) **

Bryan Danielson & Samoa Joe vs. KENTA & Naomichi Marufuji (3/25/06)

Do Fixer vs. Blood Generation (3/31/06) *

Bryan Danielson vs. Homicide (6/3/06)

KENTA vs. Roderick Strong (6/23/06)

KENTA vs. Davey Richards (8/5/06)

 

I assume Joe/Danielson, Marufuji/McGuiness, and KENTA/Danielson are also must-see when they're released.

[Pegasus Kid 0]

I haven't seen a lot but I've seen some of these and figured I would lend some insight. Take of it what you will...

 

Kenta Kobashi vs. Kensuke Sasaki (7/18/05)

I wasn't sure what to make of this match on the first go around. Truth be told I knew it was great but I didn't think it to be the classic that a lot of others were pimping it to be. You can't deny the sheer physicality of the match. They literally beat the hell out of each other. The extended chop sequence wears thin but serves a larger purpose in showing two monster wills that don't want to relent to the other. I'd say it lives up to the hype going into it but I wouldn't put it in my Puro top 5 for the year.

 

Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Toshiaki Kawada (7/18/05)

Bah... completely underwhelming match. I suppose this match could never live up to what people expected of it. It reminded me a lot of the latter years of AJPW where the story was lost amidst a sense of "how can I kill you?" Watch their earlier stuff and forget anything and everything they've done from since GAAAAAANZO BOOOOOOMB!

 

KENTA vs. SUWA (9/18/05) *

If there was a thread called "most fun match of 2005" this would absolutely be my number 1 pick. A fantastic match with SUWA taking the role of asshole to a level I have never seen (and remember I named another great wrestler Bitchmaster). Great physical back and forth with true hatred from KENTA vs the true jackass that is SUWA. Highly recommended. Low end MOTYC? Hmm...

 

KENTA vs. Naomichi Marufuji (1/22/06) **

The best match these two have had against each other. It's back and forth with a great crowd, a logical build and big moves to

finish. I have no complaints about this match whatsoever and it's my junior MOTYC.

 

KENTA vs. Kenta Kobashi (3/5/06)

Naomichi Marufuji vs. Kenta Kobashi (4/23/06) **

I lumped these because I watched them back to back. These are both great matches but there's a problem and it's such a big problem that I can never truly recommend them. I have zero doubt in my mind that Kobashi will lose. If you can't suspend disbelief then the match is doomed to fail from the start. It can be truly great as a match but it will never be more than that. It's a shame too because Kobashi really lets these kids do their thing (though I felt he cut off KENTA far too much). If Kobashi ever comes back and faces Marufuji and they had the exact same match, I'd probably be into it far more than when I thought of him only as a Junior.

 

KENTA vs. Takashi Sugiura (6/4/06)

This is the title change. I'll be frank in saying I don't much care for this match. The first fifteen minutes FUCKING SUCK. KENTA completely sandbags the hell out of this thing and really could care less. It doesn't help that you could hear crickets in throughout the arena for how quiet it was. They manage to pick this up off the insane apron spot and then kick it into fourth gear from basically park. So much for build, let's just kill each other. When you look past the no selling some of it is pretty enjoyable. The ending does rock the house and with Kurt Angle gone, we'll need guys like Sugiura to run sequences like that. Not top 5 of 2006. Maybe not even top 10.

 

KENTA & Naomichi Marufuji vs. Takeshi Morishima & Takeshi Rikio (7/16/06) *

I'll be blunt in saying I loved this match. This is big men vs little men at its finest. KENTA & Marufuji are all "we're small so we're going to pick away at you with lots of shots and double teams" and the Takeshi's are all "we're fucking huge and we're going to take your shit and then beat the fuck out of you." There are a couple of things that really set this match apart though. First off, everyone is fired up and ready to go. Special props go out to Morishima, who had a fire lit under his ass from start to finish. The second big thing (at least in my eyes) is that the juniors never came across as being inferior or having no shot at winning. That sense of disbelief allowed me to fully immerse myself into the match. The crowd is very lively and nuked for the last 1/3 of the match, making it all the better. I'm not a fan of the type of finish but it makes both teams look great and of course calls for a better re-match down the line. Definitely something worth going out of your way to see. MOTYC without a question.

 

Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama vs. Kensuke Sasaki & Yoshihiro Takayama (7/16/06)

I hated this about as much as I loved the big vs little match. These four just never clicked and the match was 25 minutes of "you hit me, now I hit you" with very little flow or story to latch on to. The crowd really wants to get behind it but they don't know who to cheer for (except for Takayama playing guy in peril and the hilarious Kobashi tribute chops). Even the hot ending isn't that hot and Sasaki, who brought all the energy when he was in there, wasn't even a factor down the stretch. I'm sure there are 10 NOAH matches this year that kill this one in terms of hard work, story, heat, and overall enjoyment. Don't bother...

 

Jun Akiyama vs. Naomichi Marufuji (9/9/06)

I watched this one twice. Once a few days ago and just this afternoon. The second viewing definitely helped. It's a simple enough story. Marufuji is the best of the juniors and has to overcome the big odds. Akiyama plays his role very well. He is the power over Marufuji's speed but he respects the kids offense and doesn't just smoke him whenever he feels like it. The first half is solid enough but doesn't lead anywhere (so much legwork and it didn't even lead to a hot false finish). There's some really creative spots in there too including the rail Shiranui and Akiyama's corner Exploder Suplex. The match only really gets the super steam in the last 3 or 4 minutes, which is odd for a 26 minute match. The crowd just doesn't care about the earlier stuff and then you see the Akiyama Lock and know that it's all coming to a head so they pick up the noise. As a viewer, I'm with them in that I am interesting but not jumping out of my chair until the end though and that doesn't bode well when you're thinking of a MOTYC. I'm hoping they keep the belt on Marufuji for a few title defences. It'll build his image as a viable threat to heavies and with each subsequent defense the crowd (and this viewer) will be able to take him more and more seriously as a champ who can hang with the big guys. I'd recommend watching it but don't freak out if it's not the super crazy match you would think from these two.

 

I'll update this list as I see more material from the list.

[Just John 0]

The Kobashi/Sasaki and Misawa/Kawada matches are recommended for significance primarily.

 

The Kobashi vs. KENTA and Marufuji matches are good no matter how you look at them. I don't think you were supposed to get the vibe that either of them had a better-than-slim hope at winning. Kobashi's still the #1 guy, but I think each guy got something out of fighting him.

 

KENTA showed drastic improvement from his 10/9/04 attempt. The main thing that kept it from looking like he might be able to pull off the win was him botching the G2S. If he hit that, then the 3 KO kicks, then the busaiku, I think he would've had a quality near fall. He got something from also damaging Kobashi's arm to the point where he got the WC Burning Hammer instead of a routine midcarder kill.

 

Marufuji got a lot from his match, so much that he was automatically credible enough to get GHC title consideration. He looked incredibly smart and crafty as he managed to keep Kobashi off his feet for a good chunk of the match. He also had a very hot comeback starting with the blocked throat chop that really got the fans behind him. Starting his demise with a top-rope half nelson suplex was a good toughness-credibility builder too.

[Hawk 34 0]

Some of these are for straight match quality, others for significance.

 

NOAH 2005-2006 Recommended Viewing:

 

* = Above Average Recommendation

** = High Recommendation

 

Kenta Kobashi vs. Minoru Suzuki (1/8/05)

Kenta Kobashi vs. Takeshi Rikio (3/5/05)

Kenta Kobashi & Go Shiozaki vs. Jun Akiyama & Genichiro Tenryu (4/25/05) *

KENTA & Naomichi Marufuji vs. Ikuto Hidaka & Minoru Fujita (5/8/05) *

KENTA vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru (7/18/05) *

Naomichi Marufuji & Minoru Suzuki vs. Jun Akiyama and Makoto Hashi (7/18/05)

Kenta Kobashi vs. Kensuke Sasaki (7/18/05)

Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Toshiaki Kawada (7/18/05)

KENTA vs. Minoru Suzuki (8/27/05)

KENTA vs. SUWA (9/18/05) *

KENTA vs. Mushiking Terry (10/28/05)

Naomichi Marufuji & Minoru Suzuki vs. Jun Akiyama & Shiro Koshinaka (11/5/05)

Kenta Kobashi and Go Shiozaki vs. Kensuke Sasaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima (11/5/05) **

KENTA & Katsuyori Shibata vs. Takeshi Morishimia & Mohammed Yone (11/5/05) *

Takeshi Rikio vs. Akira Taue (11/5/05)

Akira Taue vs. Takeshi Morishima (12/4/05)

KENTA & Ricky Marvin vs. Naomichi Marufji & Kotaro Suzuki (1/8/06)

KENTA vs. Naomichi Marufuji (1/22/06) **

Akira Taue vs. Jun Akiyama (1/22/06)

Naomichi Marufuji vs. Akira Taue (3/5/06) *

Takeshi Morishima vs. Mitsuharu Misawa (3/5/06) *

KENTA vs. Kenta Kobashi (3/5/06)

Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Takashi Sugiura vs. Ikuto Hidaka & Minoru Fujita (3/5/06)

Naomichi Marufuji vs. Kenta Kobashi (4/23/06) **

Jun Akiyama vs. Masao Inoue (4/23/06)

KENTA vs. Takashi Sugiura (6/4/06)

Kenta Kobashi & Tamon Honda vs. Takeshi Morishima & Mohammed Yone (6/4/06)

KENTA & Naomichi Marufuji vs. Takeshi Morishima & Takeshi Rikio (7/16/06) *

Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama vs. Kensuke Sasaki & Yoshihiro Takayama (7/16/06)

KENTA & Katsuyori Shibata vs. Akira Taue & Go Shiozaki (9/9/06)

Jun Akiyama vs. Naomichi Marufuji (9/9/06)

 

Some random ROH stuff to see (Admittedly, I'm not as well-versed here):

 

Samoa Joe vs. Kenta Kobashi (10/1/05) **

Bryan Danielson vs. Roderick Strong (11/5/05) *

Bryan Danielson vs. Naomichi Marufuji (12/17/05)

KENTA vs. Low Ki (12/17/05) **

Bryan Danielson & Samoa Joe vs. KENTA & Naomichi Marufuji (3/25/06)

Do Fixer vs. Blood Generation (3/31/06) *

Bryan Danielson vs. Homicide (6/3/06)

KENTA vs. Roderick Strong (6/23/06)

KENTA vs. Davey Richards (8/5/06)

 

I assume Joe/Danielson, Marufuji/McGuiness, and KENTA/Danielson are also must-see when they're released.

Using Joe Vs Kobashi, as a starting date you have throw in…

 

Roderick Strong Vs James Gibson (10/2/05)

Kenta Kobashi and Homicide Vs Low Ki and Samoa Joe (10/2/06)

Bryan Danielson Vs Roderick Strong (10/29/05)

Bryan Danielson Vs Chris Hero (1/14/06)

Bryan Danielson Vs AJ Styles (1/28/06)

Bryan Danielson Vs Jimmy Rave (2/25/06)

Bryan Danielson Vs Roderick Strong (3/31/06)

Austin Aries and Roderick Strong Vs Matt Sydal and Samoa Joe (4/28/06)

Bryan Danielson Vs Nigel McGuiness (4/29/06)

Austin Aries and Roderick Strong Vs The Briscoes (6/3/06)

Samoa Joe Vs KENTA Vs Bryan Danielson (6/17/06)

ROH Vs CZW-Cage Of Death (7/15/06)

BJ Whitmer Vs Necro Butcher-Barbed Wire (7/28/06)

Bryan Danielson Vs Nigel McGuiness (7/29)

 

-

 

It does look like I'm a Danielson mark, but he really has pulled off one incredible title reign and I still haven't seen his last two matches with Nigel, the 60 minute draws with Cabana and Joe, as well as the obvious great match that he had with KENTA.

[Ravenbomb 0]

the second Samoa Joe vs. CM Punk match from Joe vs. Punk II is a great match as well

[Hawk 34 0]

the second Samoa Joe vs. CM Punk match from Joe vs. Punk II is a great match as well

 

Well, that's well documented but I figure everyone has gone out of their way to see that. I know that I'm in the minority, but I loved pt. III just a bit more. I liked the quicker pace and I loved the story. I'll concede that the second version was vastly superior in quality, I just felt the finale was so well done.

 

Very similar to the Flair/Steamboat '89 series (which it is often compared to).

[Pegasus Kid 0]

I updated my last post with a few more matches I watched in the last 24 hours or so.

 

Morishima/Rikio vs KENTAfuji = Tag MOTY IMO

[Ravenbomb 0]

speaking of Punk, I love his hour draw with Delirious from IWA-MS to death. I'd give it ****+ out of pure entertainment value and ingenious psychology (Punk ringing the ring bell to make Delirious freak out and let go of the armbar, for example)

[Hawk 34 0]

I wanted go ahead and tell you, since I know you guys actually *get* quality is that Nigel/Danielson at Unified (which I just got this afternoon, and finished) is hands down the MOTY and I say that with knowledge of the great stuff from NOAH and other high quality ROH matches this year and I can’t imagine anything beating this, with the possible exception of the Nigel/Marufuji match . So if you haven’t ordered Unified, you need to. Joe Vs Danielson, FOTC is also worth a strong consideration to. I’m going to do a full detailed report of a ton o f ROH shows over the past few months in a future blog, but I wanted to really pimp this deserving match.

[The Mandarin 0]

Super Dragon vs. Kevin Steen in a Guerrilla Warfare match is tremendous. The first 5-10 minutes are MOTYC stuff. I showed it to my buddy and he kept asking if it was real. It's a fat guy in a singlet fighting another fat guy wearing a silly mask. Fuck yes. Kinda loses its steam around the time they start working in a table ( ) and the suplex or whatever through said table was unnecessary, but the end recaptures the viewer's heart. So disgusting.

 

My personal favourite part was the way

they threw those tin cans at eachother. Those things make blood-curdling noises when thrown high-speed at another man's skull. One can had pictures of teddy bears on the side, FWIW.

[Pegasus Kid 0]

I sat down to watch KENTA vs Marufuji GHC Title Match. I've seen a few threads around the net with the usual MOTYC and praise that tends to come with singles matches between these two. First of all, this match is long. Like 35 minutes long. I had my doubts about these two going that length of time. A lot of their moves are very taxing on the body and putting themselves through that kind of punishment for that length of time could have led to problems executing down the road. I'm happy to say that their bodies held up, though I wonder at the price.

 

These two really kill each other. There's a very big "ooohhh aaahhh" factor from start to finish. Some of it they do to each other, other times brought on by their own recklessness. Marufuji's Quebrada over the railing will really make you cringe. He literally catches his neck on the rail going over. I thought he might have crushed his Larynx pulling it off. Other moments, like the Apron Falcon Arrow now in use as my avatar, are highly punishing moves that really didn't get the due respect. There have been many a spot in NOAH big matches where a monster move gets the nail biting 19 count and in this case it didn't even reach that point. The idea of brushing aside the big move for retaliation has never been something I enjoyed, this being no different. There are points where these two completely disregard impact (rolled through rampway German Suplex? COME ON!). It harkens back to the Big Four brushing aside monster shots and eventually collapsing to applause. It's not believeable and I don't care for it.

 

The story is simple and effective. It very much reminded me of Kawada vs Kobashi. KENTA plays the Kawada role, just annihilating Marufuji with one punishing kick, punch, suplex, after another. Marufuji is Kobashi. He's 1993 high flying crying like a little girl because of the pain but suck it up because he's tough Kobashi. It's 35 minutes of KENTA killing this guy and Marufuji finding a way to suck it up and holding on to the will to win. You know just by the theme of the match how the outcome will be. It's simply not balanced enough to put any doubt in your mind that the champion will retain. A loss with this kind of theme would have been a glorified squash. The only answer is to have the champion persevere through all the punishment and still hold his title.

 

I recommend going out of your way to see this match. It's high impact, innovative wrestling with all the usual big near falls and a nuclear crowd. I don't know if it deserves MOTY honours but I watched this very late last night and may not have really taken it all in. A second viewing will probably help with my decision on the matter. For now I'll throw ***3/4 at it.

[theintensifier 0]

Danielson vs. KENTA 12/2/2006

[UseTheSledgehammerUh 0]

Drake Younger / Danny Havoc / Vortex series of matches from CZW '06-'07.

[Timmy8271 0]

Los Villanos and Negro Navarro vs Solar 1, Dos Caras Jr. and Heavy Metal AULL 11/2/06. Probably the best Heavy Metal match in about 7 years.

 

Blue Panther and Tarzan boy vs La Mascara and Hijo Del Santo sometime in 2006.

[mysterious_w 0]

Rob Van Dam vs. Dan Kroffat (AJPW World Jr. Heavyweight Championship 09/06/1995)

 

It may lack the RVD chair antics I always enjoy, but this has the best actual workrate of any RVD match apart from the Jerry Lynn encouters I've seen. Some very good transitional stuff here, plus this Kroffat guy is very good also (Never heard of him before, apparently popped in up 96 Survivor Series). And RVD does a 450 splash, which I have never seen before.