Note; I generally just put comapny name and date in brackets instead of show/PPV name or whatever. Not sure why, I find it easier and I can be a perfectionist when coming to that sort of useless thing. Same goes for names, I'll pretty much always write "Rey Misterio Jr." not "Rey Mysterio", "Eddy Guerrero" not "Eddie Guerrero", "Davey Boy Smith" not "British Bulldog". Again, I don't know why and I'm not sure if it was even worth noting. Whatever
Mitsuharu Misawa v Yoshihiro Takayama (NOAH 15/4/01)
--Takayama’s a beastly human being. That’s why instead of trying to get the crowd behind him by using fighting spirit and trying to be a rip-off of the 90s All Japan heydays, he just fucks his opponent’s up with heavy thrusting kicks and run-across the ramp knees. While in a Greco-Roman knuckle power struggle he just like down at him like he’s an inferior being and yells at him. Not anything Japanese either, just a big monstrous Andre-the-Giant-like “ARghH”. I’m on a BIG high for the guy right now and it hasn’t been three weeks since I’ve seen my first ever match from him. Take nothing away from Misawa, even in 2001 he was the fucking man and could do what he always did, but Takayama’s such a treat since I seldom here (read, whatever) his name mentioned. One spot was tremendous where he just DUNKED Misawa into the table outside the guardrail. And the crowd weren’t all “OHHRRRR *clap clap clap*” like they usually are for something like that, they were just “OHRRRRR” with a couple of feminine “Misawa!”s thrown in there. He ends up making Misawa bleed from God knows where and Misawa’s win seemed that much bigger. Every time Takayama actually fell to the mat seemed like a biggish deal and something that could only be done through minutes and minutes of wearing him down. Misawa’s elbow flurry was the bomb. Best match of 01? I think so. Why couldn’t they put THIS on the NOAH set?
Mitsuharu Misawa v Jun Akiyama (AJPW 27/2/00)
--I’m low on Akiyama, and his seeming obsession with early-match forearms wars are bothersome, so I was thrilled when Misawa put an end to it early by thrusting five elbows at him and smashing him up full pace. Wasn’t long before Akiyama had mist of the match under his control, and as much as I’ve been low on the guy, and a much as I think he got too much of the offence, he was great. He seemed determined to be the King of All Japan for the past decade and he was a vicious fucker while doing so. There was a teased spot where he’d do his Exploder finisher on the apron (which is a ridiculously dangerous thought), and I’m waiting for Misawa to get him back in the ring. Then he actually DOES IT. Misawa’s neck seemed fucked and Akiyama was kneeing him and wrenching it galore. Misawa was literally rolling on the mat in agony at one point Misawa was furious and when he had the strength to pull out a move he dropkicked Akiyama’s neck and got it in a couple of submissions. He was blindly twisting and tugging and trying to screw up Akiyama’s discs. Akiyama was brilliant as well, wriggling around like he was in the jaws of a dinosaur. Akiyama I thought got back in offence too early but I guess there wasn’t *that* much behind Misawa’s own offence to let him stay down for longer. He was in full-blown fight-back mode and went straight back to Misawa’s neck. Finishing stretch if that’s what it can be called was pretty marvellous. Akiyama hits an Exploder after kicking out of a German and two Tiger Suplexes, and Misawa gets up from it straight away, Akiyama drives Misawa down again and while he attempts to get up both guys just collapse. Akiyama hits two fuckin’ more Exploders after that. Sounds like a Kurt Angle-like finishing period in writing but it was awesome. Probably not even in my top three for the year, but fantastic match.
Kenta Kobashi/Yoshihiro Takayama v Mitsuharu Misawa/Jun Akiyama (NOAH 2/12/07)
--Glad I watched this again because I thought it was great. Knowing it Kobashi’s return from cancer of all things gives more than enough justification for the crowd going bezerk for him. Takayama vs. Akiyama is about to start and Akiyama points toward Kobashi and Kobashi’s nodding and gets tagged in. Takayama was awesome in the match, btw. There wasn’t much of him, and that’s what I mean by awesome, he wanted to make sure Kobashi was the central theme and did his best to not steal the spotlight. He tagged Kobashi in when the crowd were about to explode already, he followed Kobashi’s orders, held the ropes for him, it was a great addition. Misawa was kind of doing the same, interfering when Tak was in trouble while Kobashi was in so the crowd booed him and got way more behind Kobashi. Akiyama was all right, but he seemed pretty adamant to get more offence in than needed. There was a part where Kobashi chopped at his chest for a straight minute and instead of selling it like he was in a war he just made a face like he was purposely doing nothing about it for the sake of crowd enjoyment or something. I guess that’s a noble reason and everything to have your chest painted red like that (it looked pretty damn painful), but he just yelled after it and all that shit. Misawa winning was a shock. Imo ahead of any match on the NOAH set so far.
Akira Taue v Yuji Nagata (NOAH 6/6/03)
--Nagata was being a pussy near the beginning. Taue tried to chokeslam him off of the apron and he was being all wimpy about it so Taue decides to punish him by pulling the mat off of the floor and chokeslamming him there. He barely jumps and acts like a pussy. Damned pussy Nagata pussbag pussy puss puss. I’m awaiting the punishment Taue will give him in the ring and he pounds and stomps him like hell. Nagata basically controlled most of the rest of the match and did some real good arm work, but I was really pulling for non-pussy Taue to win. The crowd booed Nagata at a couple of points too and they weren’t high on him the whole match. He looked like a good heel but I got the impression he was a legit pussy for not selling those chokeslams properly. Nagata’s best spot was having Taue in some kind of crossface/headlock move and telling the cameramen outside the ring to snap all the photos they could. I was spiritually killed when Taue gave up in an armbar variation but the match was really really good altogether.
KENTA/Naomichi Marufuji v Yoshinobu Kanemaru/Makato Hashi (NOAH 12/9/03)
--I haven’t really enjoyed the top 25 MOAH matches set, but it’s more of a “disappointed they aren’t above good” rather than a “they’ve been shit” in regards to the matches. None of the matches have been “bad” and the last two were great. This here is one of the worst matches I’ve ever seen. I don’t want to watch gymnastics you incompetent fucks. Hashi was okay but any hope he had of saving this finisher kick out no sell fest was killed with the other three idiots making Kurt Angle look like the best seller ever. I want to wipe this from my brain forever. If I was Mitsuharu Misawa I would have gone up to KENTA/Marufuji/Kanemaru after the match and said the Japanese equivalent of “great match guys. You’re all fired”.
Maybe more to come depending on what I find. This is excluding WCW for now since I'm wokring on something (very slowly) with other people somewhere, but I'll be posting that next.
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