About time we made a Puro thread seeing as there's an Indy one and it deserves a seperate thread. You can use this to discuss any Puro matches or shows, past or present.
I've just finished this awesome set so I may as well get the thread up and running with some ratings for it.
ivp's Top 25 Matches in NOAH History
Disc 1
25. Jushin 'Thunder' Liger & Koji Kanemoto vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi - January 26th 2003 - Kobe World Hall ***1/2
24. Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Naomichi Marufuji & KENTA - April 25th 2004 - Tokyo Nippon Budokan ****1/2+
23. Jushin 'Thunder' Liger vs. Makoto Hashi - March 6th 2004 - Tokyo Nippon Budokan ***3/4
Disc 2
22. Kenta Kobashi vs. Minoru Suzuki - January 8th 2005 - Tokyo Nippon Budokan ***3/4
21. Jun Akiyama & Takeshi Rikio vs. Takeshi Morishima & Muhammad Yone - April 1st 2007 - Tokyo Korakuen Hall ****1/4
20. Naomichi Marufuji & Minoru Suzuki vs. Makoto Hashi & Jun Akiyama - July 18th 2005 - Tokyo Dome ****
19. Jun Akiyama & Takeshi Rikio vs. Yoshihiro Takayama & Takashi Sugiura - April 28th 2007 - Tokyo Nippon Budokan ***3/4
Disc 3
18. Kenta Kobashi & Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Jun Akiyama & Mitsuharu Misawa - December 2nd 2007 - Tokyo Nippon Budokan ****1/4
17. Akira Taue vs. Yuji Nagata - June 6th 2003 - Tokyo Nippon Budokan ***1/2
16. Naomichi Marufuji & KENTA vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Makoto Hashi - September 12th 2003 - Tokyo Nippon Budokan ****1/4
Disc 4
15. Jun Akiyama & Akitoshi Saito vs. Kenta Kobashi & Tamon Honda - June 6th 2003 - Tokyo Nippon Budokan ****1/4
14. Naomichi Marufuji & KENTA vs. Juventud Guerrera & Ricky Marvin - November 1st 2003 - Tokyo Nippon Budokan ****1/4
Disc 5
13. Naomichi Marufuji & KENTA vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Takashi Sugiura - June 5th 2005 - Sapporo Media Park Spica ****1/2
12. Takeshi Rikio & Takeshi Morishima vs. Naomichi Marufuji & KENTA - July 16th 2006 - Tokyo Nippon Budokan ****1/2
11. KENTA vs. SUWA - September 18th 2005 - Tokyo Nippon Budokan ****1/4
Disc 6
10. Kenta Kobashi vs. Akira Taue - September 10th 2004 - Tokyo Nippon Budokan ****1/2
9. Kenta Kobashi & Kentaro Shiga vs. Jun Akiyama & Akitoshi Saito - 19th October 2002 - Tokyo Korakuen Hall ****
8. Naomichi Marufuji vs. KENTA - October 29th 2006 - Tokyo Nippon Budokan ****3/4+
[NJPW “WRESTLE KINGDOM V IN TOKYO DOME”, 1/4/11 (WPW/PPV)
Tokyo Dome
Attendace: Reports say 42000 people
0-1. World Wrestling Interpromotional Match: Wataru Inoue, Tiger Mask, Tomoaki Honma & Tama Tonga beat Yujiro Takahashi, Tomohiro Ishii, Jado & Gedo (7:33) when Inoue used the Spear of Justice on Gedo.
0-2. World Wrestling Invitation Match: Koji Kanemoto & Ryusuke Taguchi beat Kenny Omega & Taichi (8:04) when Taguchi pinned Taichi.
1. IWGP Tag Team Title – 3WAY Match: Giant Bernard & Karl Anderson (c) beat James Storm & Robert Roode and Manabu Nakanishi & Strong Man (8:36) when Anderson used the Gun Stun on Roode (4th defense).
2. ROAD TO FANTASIC MANIA: La Sombra & Mascara Dorada beat Jushin Thunder Liger & Hector Garza (7:42) when Sombra pinned Liger.
3. DEEP SLEEP TO LOSE: Hiroyoshi Tenzan beat Takashi Iizuka (11:13) with the Anaconda Cross.
4. Hardcore NJPW-TNA Greatest Showcase: Rob Van Dam beat Toru Yano (11:28) with the Five Star frog splash.
5. NO JUSTICE, NO LIFE: Yuji Nagata beat Minoru Suzuki (16:15) with a backdrop hold.
6. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title: Prince Devitt (c) beat Kota Ibushi (16:22) with an avalanche-style Bloody Sunday (4th defense).
7. NJPW vs. NOAH Battle Combustion I – Kazuchika Okada Return Match: Takashi Sugiura & Yoshihiro Takayama beat Hirooki Goto & Kazuchika Okada (12:08) when Takayama used an Everest German on Okada.
8. TNA World Heavyweight Title: Jeff Hardy (c) beat Tetsuya Naito (11:04) with a Swanton bomb.
9. NJPW vs. NOAH Battle Combustion II: Shinsuke Nakamura beat Go Shiozaki (14:17) with the Boma Ye.
10. The Absolute Exhaust: Togi Makabe beat Masato Tanaka (12:46) with a King Kong kneedrop.
11. IWGP Heavyweight Title: Hiroshi Tanahashi beat Satoshi Kojima (c) (21:57) with the High Fly Flow to become the 56th champion
Impresive attendance, although the last time they claimed 40k it was really 20, lol.
With so many matches it was expected that they wouldn't be given a lot of time, I'm glad they kept RVD and Hardy's mmatches under 12 minutes but would have liked a little more for Naka/Go and the interpromotional tag.
With Tana as champion Naito is bound to win either the New Japan Cup or the G-1, right?
Oh, and “NJPW INVASION TOUR ~ATTACK ON EAST COAST~” was formally announced with three shows: 5/13 New Jersey, 5/14 New York, and 5/15 Philadelphia. Lucky gringos...:side:
why did they give the title to Tanahashi. Doesn't make any sense to me to let Kojima win everything the last half year and now he loses to Tanahashi... I think it's Naito with a shot and then it has to be Goto winning the belt from Tanahashi.
Yeah, Kojima dropping the title so soon is puzzling. Maybe him and new Japan couldn't reach any kind of agreement in how long he was going to be around so they had him drop it to Tana.
It it makes a lot of sense when NJPW rarely has given the IWGP Champions solid runs, especially in the last few years. Maybe 1...2 defenses and on to the next guy. I am still waiting for someone to actually get the Hashimoto treatment of a lot of good defenses, even the Juniors come off as better champions for the most part to me.
NJPW/CMLL “NJPW PRESENTS CMLL FANTASTICA MANIA 2011″, 1/22/11 (Samurai! TV)
Tokyo Korakuen Hall
1. Taichi vs. Maximo
2. Tiger Mask & La Mascara vs. Tomohiro Ishii & Dragon Rojo Jr.
3. CMLL World Welterweight Title: Mascara Dorada (c) vs. Ryusuke Taguchi
4. CMLL World Middleweight Title: Jushin Thunder Liger (c) vs. La Sombra
5. IWGP Tag Team Title: Giant Bernard & Karl Anderson (c) vs. Atlantis & OKUMURA
6. Black Cat Memorial Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi, Prince Devitt & Mistico vs. Shinsuke Nakamura, Tetsuya Naito & Averno
NJPW/CMLL “NJPW PRESENTS CMLL FANTASTICA MANIA 2011″, 1/23/11 (Samurai! TV)
Tokyo Korakuen Hall
1. Danshoku Dino Dramatic Dream Team & Maximo vs. Jado & Gedo
2. Giant Bernard, Karl Anderson & Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Atlantis, Dragon Rojo Jr. & Taichi
3. CMLL World 6 Man Tag Team Title: La Sombra, Mascara Dorada & La Mascara (c) vs. Yujiro Takahashi, Tetsuya Naito & OKUMURA
4. Mascara contra Cabellera: Tiger Mask vs. Tomohiro Ishii
5. Double Main Event I: Mistico vs. Averno
6. Double Main Event II – IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Title: Kota Ibushi Dramatic Dream Team & Kenny Omega Dramatic Dream Team (c) vs. Prince Devitt & Ryusuke Taguchi
Finally, we have some idea who Tanahashi will make his V1 defense of the IWGP Heavyweight Title against but won’t know until 1/30 at Korakuen when Togi Makabe and Satoshi Kojima go to war in a number one contendership match. Kojima is the man who dethroned Makabe at Sumo Hall in October, which has grated at Makabe ever since. Makabe considers himself the number one contender after beating Masato Tanaka yesterday but Kojima wants a rematch against Tanahashi. Whoever wins that bout will face Tanahashi at February’s big show, “THE NEW BEGINNING”, on February 20th at Sendai Sun Plaza Hall.
NJPW, 1/30/11 (Samurai! TV)
Tokyo Korakuen Hall
1. IWGP Heavyweight Title #1 Contender Match: Togi Makabe vs. Satoshi Kojima
NJPW “THE NEW BEGINNING”, 2/20/11 (WPW)
Sendai Sun Plaza Hall
1. IWGP Heavyweight Title: Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs. Winner of Makabe/Kojima (1/30)
NJPW Ultimate Crush 5-02-03
GHC HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE
Kenta Kobashi (c) vs. Masachiro Chono
The mega stars of 90s AJPW & NJPW finally collide. Its something like Undertaker/Sting in USA. Great psychology and epic ending. A lot better than Misawa/Chono. ****.
-Meltzer apparently said the real attendance at the 1/4 Tokyo Dome show was 18,000. After seeing a picture of the Stadium during the main event, that sounds about right.
-There is a chance that starting next year, the traditional 1/4 show will happen somewhere other than the Tokyo Dome. It will still be a large venue, but not the size of the Dome. Makes sense since they haven't been able to really draw there in years.
-Another rumbling about NOAH going under. Take this with a grain of salt as it has been reported to go under for over a year now, but business has definitely not been ideal for the company as of late (by that I mean 2006).
That is why you see a boost in the media "voting" in terms of NOAH, this year will be a make or break that is obvious. There is a big push to get people interested in the product again, and this generation just has been the hardest in terms to please.
Quite frankly with how things are I believe it will be at least another 5 years before interest even reaches a smooth peak, again, that is if it even does. That is the way things happen, interests come up and down, just depends in what people are into. Right now "combat" sports in Japan isn't one of them.
Their main issues lies on no one to get behind, and this for wrestling/MMA/Sumo all together. No real strong champions, look at NJPW for an example their strongest champion ever is Shinya Hashimoto and no one has even gotten close to touching his reign with defenses. Japan sort of needs that type of wrestler(s) in my opinion, not a one, tow defense champion, but someone who has the it factor as well.
Look at Sugiura and how much he gains with each victory. Though this year will tell how much of an impact Sugiura can bring.
Everything other than baseball/soccer sort of looks bleak now. There is a line out that no one has really found yet that perfectly blurs traditional and new, to gain interest.
Okada looked *absolutely* awful in his match. He stunk it up anytime he was in the ring, looked weak, and his strikes have gotten worse. WTF? He couldn't even do hold the bridge on his German Suplex. Sugabayashi's comment on that he had a long way to go and that he was gonna go back to the states probably was to threaten him to get better.
Absolute highlight of that match was Takayama hitting his best Everest German in like 6-7 years, which was embarrassing because Okada totally gaffed his. The bridge and execution was absolutely picture perfect.
Other than that...
Strong Man/Nakanishi owned in the opening match and their interactions with Bad Intentions were great. Beer Money's participation in the match felt out of place, but I think their job was to bump so Strong Man could recover. Anderson: Beer Money, Nakanishi, Strong Man, Tokyo Sports, FUCKKK YOUUUUUUU!!!!!!1 Fun stuff.
CMLL + Liger match was okay. It had all the trademark spots, but it felt disjointed. The side turnbuckle pads threw off the CMLL guys and so did the lack of crowd interaction.
Tenzan/Iizuka was nothing special, just okay. Iizuka going wild during his entrance is always fun to watch though.
RVD/Yano wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, weapons covered up a lot of its flaws. Yano's extremely stiff umbrella shot to RVD's chest was hilariously funny.
Nagata/Suzuki was all sorts of great fun. Very cool opening video package on top of that.
Devitt/Ibushi went longer than I thought it would, but it ended up being a very good and enjoyable match.
Goto/Okada vs. Takayama/Sugiura. Well I already made the comment on Okada, but the rest of the match was okay. Unfortunately, Okada was in the match a lot so yeah... Goto and Sugiura's exchanges were absolutely great and Takayama kicked all sorts of ass.
I hope no one is forced to watch Hardy vs. Naito. Hardy botched a leapfrog and he was so slow and terrible in the match. At one point, it looked like he had a pocketknife in his pants and it was uncomfortable enough that he had to throw out.
Nakamura/Go was disappointing, but it was alright and what I expected it to be.
Makabe/Tanaka was intense and the ramp table spot was cringeworthy. I don't think Makabe is going to be wrestling at the ME/UpMC level for more than 2 years.
Kojima/Tanahashi was a good match. I was surprised and very happy with the amount of effort Koji put into it.
They had Borash announce for almost all the matches and it was huge error. He announced the Junior Heavyweight match as the Heavyweight title match, which caused Devitt to facepalm and he totally mispronounced Nakamura's name. He's such an amateur. Ughh....
Okada probably ended up looking worse than Hardy, honestly.
Meltzer said that there were 18,000 fans in attendance and watching the opening dark matches, the card, + Tanahashi celebration seems to confirm it. Eagle shot makes the attendance look better than it is.
Nagata/Suzuki was all sorts of great fun. Very cool opening video package on top of that.
Devitt/Ibushi went longer than I thought it would, but it ended up being a very good and enjoyable match.
Goto/Okada vs. Takayama/Sugiura. Well I already made the comment on Okada, but the rest of the match was okay. Unfortunately, Okada was in the match a lot so yeah... Goto and Sugiura's exchanges were absolutely great and Takayama kicked all sorts of ass.
Makabe/Tanaka was intense and the ramp table spot was cringeworthy. I don't think Makabe is going to be wrestling at the ME/UpMC level for more than 2 years.
Kojima/Tanahashi was a good match. I was surprised and very happy with the amount of effort Koji put into it.
I finally got the event as well the other day, I don't have a Blu-Ray burner so that is what it has not been capped.
But anyways I do have a couple recommendations from this event to go on my top list this year.
Devitt vs. Ibushi, Nagata vs. Suzuki and Kojima v. Tanahashi. Not sure on my ranking scale but they will be on the list.
--------
Also got to add from Zero1, Daisuke Sekimoto and Ikuto Hidaka I enjoyed a lot. Hayashi vs. Monoru from 1/2 was pretty good as well. All in all a good year so far, a few rotten egg's can be found already as well, but nothing is ever perfect.
JD 4/26/1998 (TWF Title)
Lioness Asuka vs. Kyoko Inoue - ** 1/2.
NEO 5/6/1998 (TWF Title)
Lioness Asuka vs. Kyoko Inoue - ****.
JD 10/17/1998 (TWF Title)
Lioness Asuka vs. Kyoko Inoue - *** 3/4+.
JD 1/24/1999 (TWF Title)
Lioness Asuka vs. Kyoko Inoue - *** 3/4+.
JD 8/29/1999 (TWF Title vs 3WA Title)
Lioness Asuka vs Kyoko Inoue - **** 1/4+.
Wow, one of the best, stiffiest and also most less known joshi feud of all-time. Nice spots, great combination of Asuka's stiff kicks and Inoue strong lariats & monster bumps!
@up - so bad, that there wouldn't be another 4/1 Tokyo Dome show...
Has anyone seen the September UK Dragon Gate shows yet? Live reviews said both events were pretty awesome, so I just wondered how they translated to DVD.
Wasn't sure if I should post this here or just make its own thread for the NJPW shows in the US but this was announced.
In addition to the following wrestlers Jado and Gedo, Jushin Liger, Tanahashi, Nakamura, Taguchi, Okada, Giant Bernard, Karl Machine Guns Anderson, Prince Devitt and Kenny Omega.
We are pleased to announce the following additions:
Satoshi Kujima
Yujiro Takahashi
Tetsuya Naito
Mitsuhide Hirasawa
Togi Makabe
Toru Yano
====================
Plus Low Ki + Homicide were confirmed for the shows by JAPW
Jushin Liger v Shinjiro Otani (NJPW 9/2/97)
--The fuck was Otani doing here? I lost sight of how good Liger is over the past few months, and I thought he was great here trying to put on a hell of a match, but Otani fucking sucked for a bit of it. Liger was going for the leg early on, and Otani ignored it, no sold it, and tried to get every bit of offence in himself. Liger was awesome, bringing Otani to the corner while Otani was sitting and dropping a dozen knees on Otani's knee. Two seconds later Otani was on offence and using SPIN-KICKS of all things. He tried to completely dominate the next bits of the match and was going for the arm, then the leg all in the space of a few minutes. The way Liger sold the knee for no more than two seconds was great, yet Otani goes to an armbar. Liger keeps going for that knee too, like "sell you fuck". otani just looked real stubborn and almost wanting to not look weak at all. Some of the exchanges were pretty nifty themselves, but it felt structered like a mess at this point. His domination section with the arm was actually pretty damn good, Liger's a top seller ever and I give a lot of props to him, but Otani seemed to be less sucky by then. He tries to get in offence at times but Otani just won't allow it. Otani had a NASTY armbar on too which I thought was his highlight of the match. he was grinding his knuckles into the elbow joint and I had hope that he *wasn't* trying to ruin the match. Liger actually gets some control in and slaps the hell out of Otani's cheek a few times. Just to make sure Oatni is short of breathing he dives on his sorry arse and powerbombs him on the outside. Otani throws him to barricade after that then dives on him himself. WHAT??? Otani be sucky part 2. They had a good ending stretch but because of the rest of the match I just didn't care about it. If there's something I'm missing here liek a backstroy or anything else than can soemone let me know? If not I didn;t think this was that good at all and it'll be a while before I bother to watch it again.
WK5 was pretty average in fairness I thought. Largely down to there being too many matches, even on a 5 hour show, and some big matches not getting enough time to develop into anything better than good.
Quick thoughts:
The 8 man dark match was a nothing match. 2nd one was better. Omega worked really hard to have a good match, great showing. Taichi looked abysmal. Completely awful.
The 3 way opener was fun. Beer Money weren't over at all. Best match on the undercard for sure.
Was really looking forward to CMLL tag but it fell flat. Dorada's botch early on hurt the match and killed the crowd a bit for it. Seemed really badly structured and far, far from smooth. Ending seemed to catch everyone by suprise. Shame cause I was really looking forward to this.
Tenzan/Iizuka was good for what it was, I just didn't care too much about it. Good brawling and logic attack from both guys. Tenzan sold his neck really well.
RVD/Tano was bad. Seemed like they were trying to use every weapon they could find rather than have a match together. RVD was over.
Nagata/Suzuki was one of the better matches on the card. Good hate and exactly what I was expecting at this point on the card. As per usual Nagata has a really good match.
Ibushi/Devitt was alright. Nice to see a high profile juniors match at the dome but then I thought they could have done better. Devitt and Ibushi throwing a top rope brainbuster and 450 out there in the middle of the match soooo randomly was annoying. Especially when it didn't get a reaction and they just carried on with the match as if it didn't happen. Don't think junior matches really work without a hot crowd and they weren't that here, or all show bar the main event I thought. Borash's intro for this was flat out embarassing. One of the best things to come out of the show was that TNA looked like total amateurs with the botchy announcer and awful champ.
The NOAH tag was a massive dissapointment. Okada didn't look good. Botched a few times too. Each guy seemed more interested in knocking the other guy off the apron rather than the guy that was in the ring. Didn't help that it only went 12 minutes but I'm glad it didn't go any longer actually.
Hardy/Naito was even worse than I'd imagined. Hardy got zero reaction. Just confusion. They showed a still shot of his belt during the match. Fucking embarassment for TNA but hey they did this, fucking halfwits. Don't see what's so special about Naito. Obviosuly not judging him on this match but he hasn't had a stand out match yet for me.
Shiozaki/Nakamura started off brilliantly with the leg work from Go but then Nakamura's selling of it was inconsistent, especially when he was on offense. His screaming to sell Go's offense was good though, Benoit esque. Could have been a MOTYC if it had as long as the main but was too short. Shame.
Makabe/Tanaka was great. The table spots were awesome and played off the build up really well. Tanaka's table bump looked insane. Annoyed that they didn't finish the match after that, even more so when they had Makabe just do a few more moves after and finish it anyway. That's the only negative I could think of for it. 2nd best match on the show.
Main event felt like a main event to a big show and both men really brought it. They made Kojima's lariat look great even though Tana kicked out of it twice. Tana looked like a fucking megastar too. Evidently benefited from having more time than the other matches.
Overall not a bad show or anything but for 5 hours viewing time you expect something a bit more from the dome show given the roll that New Japan have been on. Ibushi/Devitt was about ***1/4, around ***1/2 for Nagata/MiSu, Shiozaki/Nakamura and Tanaka/Makabe. ***3/4 for the main.
IWGP Tag Team Title: ***
Lucha-Tag: **3/4
Nagata/Suzuki: **1/2
IWGP Jr. Title: ***1/2+
NOAH/NJPW 1: ***1/4
TNA Title: ***
Nakamura/Go: ***1/2+
IWGP Heavyweight Title: ****1/4
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