Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Yoshinari Ogawa (NOAH 9/7/2002)
IT SAYS GHC CHAMP ON OGAWA'S SHORTS!!! This is about the quintessential Ogawa match, as swamp monster Takayama is coming after him and Rat Boy has to weasel his way out of this without getting murdered. Ogawa is so great in the opening, throwing punches and eye pokes like a ratty, sleazy heel mini Jerry Lawler. Takayama puts a fulls sized ass beating on his undersized ass and about 5 minutes in the match, it seems like Ogawa is done already. Ogawa makes great use of the TREE OF WOE~! does a mighty great control segment on Takayama. My favourite thing about Ogawa here was that everything he was able to do was capitalizing on something else, he was never merely running through his offense. Takayama gets in a SINGLE BLOW which is enough to almost put Ogawa on the shelf and we get a brief but awesome finishing run built around Takayama throwing bombs and Ogawa throwing Rat Boy'isms. Ogawa's bumping was great here as he was just flying around for Takayama and Takayama himself did a great job putting over the champ as a champ.
Jushin Liger & Minoru Tanaka vs. Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru (NJPW 8/29/2002)
NOAH vs. NJPW! Everyone acts like a heel! Liger is a disdainful prick!
Kikuchi gives a top level performance! Tanaka and Kanemaru actually add
to the match! I dunno, this was very enjoyable. Liger pummels the hell
out of the NOAH guys and acts like a bastard, while Kikuchi is equally
fired up and takes some murderous bumps and hits. The most amazing thing
about the match is probably that it works while Minoru Tanaka and
Kanemaru are in it. Those guy tend to be lousy, but they are effective
here. Don't be fooled Kanemaru is still Kanemaru and has no presence
whatsoever, while Tanaka falls into get-this-shit in territory at times,
but Kanemaru hits his moves well and Tanaka heels it up nicely, so
their stuff comes across as less dull than usual. The heel moves and
chippiness aswell as some really fun, borderline Monterrey-like
sequences keep it entertaining the whole way and they end the thing at
the right time. I dunno if all that is merriting of all-time classic
status but it's one of the better 2 vs. 2 junior tags I've seen in
japanese wrestling that's for sure.
Genichiro Tenryu & Nobutaka Araya vs Kazushi Miyamoto & Taiyo Kea (AJPW 4/27/2002)
These WAR revival in AJPW Tenryu performance are always a highlight when
it comes to 2000s puro. No dumb shit, just a lot of fire and disdain at
play. Miyamoto wants to stand up to his much tubbier, bigger opponents
and as a result gets his nose busted and kicked in the face a bunch.
Bully Tenryu is always great, but Miyamoto looked seriously good here
aswell. His selling was pretty nuanced – I mean he was probably legit
taking a lot of pain, but he even made glancing individual blows look
really hurty. His comebacks looked good, and he was able to pull off a
parkour spot that actually looked cool. Kea is someone who just never
reaches greatness, but he was energetic and always there to put a
thudding kick on Tenryu when it counted. Tenryus facial expressions and
selling were out of this world as usual, anytime he took a blow that
knocked him off balance he would look like a teacher in a high school
comedy that just got pie faced. Tenryu casually strolling over to teach
Kea a lesson while Araya and Miyamoto were fighting is why he's special.
I found it almost comical how cooled down Araya was compared to
everyone else here like this was just another tuesday. He looked good
raking Miyamotos bloody nose a bunch and taking a massive bump on a
german suplex for a fat aging guy.
Shinya Hashimoto vs Masato Tanaka (ZERO1 3/2/2002)
Tanaka disrespects the belt, and Hashimoto makes an example of him. This
is among the greatest squash matches of all time, as Hashimoto looks
like an unstoppable killing machine, and Tanaka looks like the gutsiest
dude on earth for surviving. Tanaka is „deathmatch tough“ so you buy him
surviving all the punishing blows and maybe decking Hashimoto with a
potatoe of his own. Him being unable to hold on to a sleeper simply
because he took a beating to every part of his body was pretty great
aswell. Still this was all about Hashimoto destroying a poor fella. He
may be the best ever at utilizing a basic karate chop to look like a
badass.
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