re: Official Puro Match/DVD Discussion Thread (NO SPOILERS)
NOAH - Great Voyage in Tokyo 2011 Vol. 4
Masao Inoue & Kento Miyahara vs Mikey Nicholls & Shane Haste
The fans really didn't seem to give a damn about the gaijin team, which is a shame because I'm a fan of them, even if this was quite a poor match from them. Very dull.
*¾
Takeshi Morishima & Yutaka Yoshie vs Akitoshi Saito & Mohammed Yone
Saito performs an Iron Claw Slam on Morishima in honor of his fallen friend and tag partner, Bison Smith. When it appeared that Saito had the match won, Morishima kicks out and Saito gets flattened by Yoshie, which was quite funny considering it was just after the emotional tribute to Bison. Satisfactory big man match.
**½
Kenta Kobashi & Kensuke Sasaki vs Takuma Sano & Shuhei Taniguchi
Taniguchi's going to be a star one day and I was hoping he would get a pinfall over Kobashi to elevate himself, but Kobashi was the real star of the match. Even as he reaches the end of his career, he puts on a good match and even participates in a 'Tower of Doom' move. That's real fighting spirit. I wouldn't mind seeing Kobashi get one last GHC title shot before he calls it a night.
***
Kotaro Suzuki, Atsushi Aoki & Taiji Ishimori vs Yoshihiro Takayama, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Genba Hirayanagi
A really fun juniors match..... with Takayama there. Jokes aside, Takayama fitted in this match surprising well, even if it did look like a freaking giant next to all those juniors. This match features one of the worst selling of a 619 known to man. Silly Takayama.
***¼
Naomichi Marufuji vs Takashi Sugiura
The first singles match of Marufuji I've seen and I came into this with very low expectations, after reading all the criticism Marufuji gets. Marufuji's flippy nonsense did annoy me in the beginning of the match, as it felt very unnecessary, but as the match progressed, I felt that it complimented the match. Marufuji gets absolutely murdered by some of Sugiura's elbows, which makes Misawa's look like a light slap. This match was a nice mix of stiff strikes and high flying moves. You can't go wrong with that.
****
GHC Jr. Heavyweight Championship
Ricky Marvin vs Katsuhiko Nakajima
I never knew Marvin was such a fantastic seller. I was expecting a really quick match with little selling and Marvin sold his leg like a champ. Marvin continues to be awesome and hit a sick spinning plancha all the way into the crowd. He also hits a Bisontennial in tribute of Bison Smith, which even though it was extremely dangerous taking in account Marvin's height, it made me mark like a little girl. I can't say I've seen a better junior match than this in 2011.
****¼
Triple Crown Championship
Jun Akiyama (c) vs Taiyo Kea
Considering this was Akiyama's first defense and it's not even at an AJPW show, it's very obvious who wins this. It also didn't help the match that it had to go up after two solid MOTYCs. But all that aside, it was an enjoyable watch and it served it's purpose which was to plant the seeds for the future AJPW vs NOAH feud.
***¼
GHC Heavyweight Title
Go Shiozaki (c) vs. KENTA
Now this was truly epic. The match was so epic that it made the often silent Ariake Colosseum blow it's roof off. When KENTA kicked out of a number of Go's lariats and even no sold one, the crowd erupted. I do wish the match went on a bit longer though. I'd probably rate the match higher if I went in spoiler-free, but it didn't take away from the match too much.
****¼
Overall:
Even if you're just a casual fan of modern-day puro who just catches the big title matches on Youtube, I'd still recommend downloading this show. It has three(!) MOTYCs and the 3 hours just fly by.
Last edited by Cactus : 12-11-2011 at 10:24 AM.
|
Official Puro Match/DVD Discussion Thread (NO SPOILERS)
.
