Assorted NOAH

 

Makoto Hashi vs. Takeshi Rikioh, NOAH 3/3/2001

Really good little match. What made it good was that both guys did some actual neat wrestling and not just stiffing each other and doing shoulderblocks all the time. That would‘ve been good, but we got something more complex here. Hashi is outgunned at the beginning, so he decides to wrestle Rikioh down. Normally the wrestling in these heavyweight matches is insanely simplistic, but Hashi did a neat job working over Rikiohs, hitting neat headbutts and locking in a cool rolling neck crank. Rikioh also had this nasty move where he dragged Hashi over his shoulder. When Rikioh was clearly wobbly from Hashis chokes, he came back by almost shattering Hashis eardrum with a big slap. He then tried ripping Hashi in half with a boston crab that would‘ve ended most rookies. The crowd sensed this and got behind Hashi big time. Some actually neat bearhug work ensues, and Hashi makes a really good comeback gradually working his way back in while selling the back work. Last few minutes were on fire with Rikioh trying to shut down Hashi with brutal sumo rushes and lariats. Also, there were some ungodly slaps throughout.

Takashi Sugiura & Tamon Honda vs. Yoshihiro Takayama & Takao Ohmori, NOAH 1/18/2001

Sugiura was less than 10 matches into his career at this point, so he was in his singlet and using a more amaresuish style. And damn you wish he had kept working like that his whole career because he was awesome in this, really taking it to No Fear and twisting them in knots while not backing down. The ending with him throwing Takayama around before getting caught with a nasty kitchen sink was awesome too. Everyone else was kind of doing their thing, but I was surprised that Ohmori looked pretty good. He was working in almost a heel technician way to isolate Sugiura and hit a really nice dropkick and thrust kick. Takayama didn‘t and Honda didn‘t do a ton but they were solid and Sugiura was the real story of the match, anyways.