Kentaro Shiga Matches

 

Kentaro Shiga vs. Yoshihiro Takayama, NOAH 8/19/2000

This ruled. Basically a semi shootstyle bout with Shiga trying to get underneath Takayama for a flash submission, and Takayama being a monster crushing him everytime he hit back. This was still early NOAH where Akiyama had choked out Misawa on the debut show so all submissions were hot nearfalls. There were even some savage bare knuckle punch exchanges. Awesome 7 minutes, young and hungry Shiga was great.

Kentaro Shiga vs Takao Ohmori, NOAH 10/7/2000

Another really cool, crafty Shiga performance. He was working this like Regal, spending 5 minutes going after Ohmoris arm in cool ways, with Ohmori doing a nice job that he really doesn’t want to get pulled into Shigas armlocks. Not many have named Takao Ohmori as a great wrestler in 2000 but he does look mighty fine here. I loved how he chucked Shigas annoying ass over the top rope like a piece of shit and his big dropkick and thrust kick looked great. Last couples minutes were really good with Shiga busting out some Kenichiro Arai in Mutoha level stuff like an awesome flying headscissor into an armbar, a cool straight jacket pin and throwing punches. Really cool finish too where Shiga powers out of a full nelson but gets flattened by the Axe Bomba.

Kentaro Shiga vs Daisuke Ikeda, NOAH 10/8/2000

I like this little run of singles matches Shiga was getting in 2000. He continues to try his submission master act, but Ikeda is stubborn and Fujiwara trained so Ikeda keeps reversing him. NOAH Ikeda is always a bit weird to see him engaging in rope running and some of the weird things he tries (he hits a suicide dive in this) but his reversal to Shigas leglock was spectacular, and he hit one absolutely disgusting kick on Shiga. Pretty fun.

 

Kentaro Shiga & Tamon Honda vs Jun Akiyama & Yoshinobu Kanemaru, NOAH 3/17/2002

A 13 minute match that felt like a 5 minute sprint. Really good stuff here, you get the usually fun Shiga vs. Akiyama interactions where anytime Shiga gets the upper hand it feels epic, plus an insanely fired up Honda. Honda running in early to save Shiga and bust Akiyama with a huge Dead End in like the first 2 minutes was awesome. I really liked how they set your expectations for Akiyama to end up getting worked over but avert them. Shiga eating a piledriver on the ramp while Honda was unable to help him was also great. I also loved Hondas hot tag tagging Akiyama with hard clotheslines, and how Akiyama and Kanemaru would constantly attack his bad knees to cut him off. We get another cool Olympic Hell spot, and Honda averting another Akiyama assault in cool fashion. Shigas constant submissions were great and his deadly finishing move was completely unexpected. It felt like a big stepping stone for Shiga.