Right off the bat the crowd is chanting “Ko-bash-i”. I believe this is his hometown, and his first match in it since the cancer comeback. So what does Sugiura do? He tries to get the jump on the old man. The old man? Kobashi chops and suplexes and then brawls this big kid to death. The crowd delights as they take it in the aforementioned public. Taniguchi, who plays the young lion role, shows fire in an elbow war with Marufuji. Honda in, but Marufuji takes a shot at Kobashi. That’ll come back on him. He does it again.

Morishima gets tagged in against Honda. He takes a forearm to Kobashi, who sells the disbelief and slight pain well. He does very little. Everyone just works a lock up and hold/reversal pattern hear. Early building blocks are Morishima/Marufuji cheap shots and Kobashi still being bad ass.

Marufuji is smooth as hell in there. Kobashi chops his head off on the outside the minute he can, which is roughly 9 minutes in. Pay back dished out, and Kobashi’s team takes control. Kobashi does come in for some high impact chop-n-knee action. Very nice. He also throws in a Texas Cloverleaf submission. I’m impressed and miss Dean Malenko.

Marufuji hope spot chop battle. You know Kobashi’s winning that one. It’s true he is now “Chop-Bashi” but Hogan only has the leg drop, right? Kobashi does what he does well. Some comedy is mixed in at about 15 minutes, but it turns serious again. Maru fights out of Taniguchi, challenges Kobashi with a chop, and gets bowled down. He keeps fighting Kobashi on the apron, but he’s not winning the battle.

18 minutes in Morishima becomes a force. He’s sick of waiting for a tag, so he comes in and takes Kobashi outside. He beats up Kobashi while flattening Honda and Taguchi too. Violent intense scene.
Kobashi sells for a minute then does the slow John Wayne not gonna take that-up. Sugiura ends the rally with a nice spear. A minute later the guys trapped and in a Taguchi submission. What can I tell ya. Kobashi is good an the passionate mentor, yelling at Taguchi to tighten the hold.

Morishima is a great big man, but he’s not Gordy. He shows off here, and I worry he needs to drop weight to survive in wrestling this style.

Holy crap! Sugiura takes out Kobashi with a serious Yakuza kick. We’re 22 minutes in. More heeling by the Morishima team. Taguchi is the face-in-peril. He tries a comeback that ends in a snap suplex on him and a second Suguira Yakuza kick to Kobashi. He wants in the ring so bad but the ref holds him out.

Now it’s on. Morishima is in but the hot tag is to Kobashi. This should be good. Kobashi does his chopfest in the corner which begins to look silly after 20 chops, but Morishima turns him around and unloads punching forarm strikes. Kobashi comes back to win by, you guessed it, chopping.

Morishima hits a great drop kick and then a back drop driver for a nearfall. Big lariat for a nearfall. Tease a second back drop but Kobashi gets out with a desperate lariat. Sugiura in with a awesome spear and overhead suplex on a fresh Honda. Delayed overhead suplex by Honda and both men get a twenty count. Kobashi is selling on the outside.

32 minutes gone and Marufuji and Taguchi are the fresh men in the ring. The cavalry arrives and Marufuji gets hit with 3 finishers, but his partners bail him out at the cover. The tide turns and Taniguchi takes the beating. Kobashi and Morishima on the outside beat the crap out of each other. This isn’t top level but it’s a good story.

Finish is Marufuji with some sorta of Michinoku driver on Taguchi about 35 minutes in. Good story and sets up Kobashi-Morishima and other storylines down the road. 3 ¾ to 4 stars.

Part 1 (34 minutes) (Right click to download)

Part 2 features our lively discussion of Up For Grabs and Respect is Earned II. Steenerico man up, Strong and Stevens damn near kill each other, and Tyler Black shines again on PPV. In honor of the UNSTOPPABLE Age of the Fall and our new streaming player, a meter with a stream of its own makes its return.

The match is from a NOAH house show. This was a fun nine minute comedy match clipped a few times to about four minutes of extended highlights. Marufuji is pretty awesome whether he’s tagging with KENTA, being a top Jr. Heavy or heavyweight contender, or guest staring in Ring of Honor over here in America. Kikutaro has been to ROH as well. He’s a masked comedy act that’s been paired with Mick Foley in the past, and does tours or different dates for most companies in Japan.

The great thing about Kikutaro is he does comedy homages to different famous wrestlers. He starts out here with what I assume is a tribute to his opponent. He’s backed into the ropes and holds his hands up dramatically (11 and 2 o’ clock) to show he’s not going to attack. Marufuji playfully slaps his chest before separating and doing the same. When Kikutaro backs ‘fuji up, Kikutaro quickly slaps his chest before backing off and putting his hands up in the air. Funny stuff.

Kikutaro does a poor man’s comedy Misawa move set for fun. He even gets a one count. Later he gets Marufuji on his shoulders and announces “Go To Sleep”! Unfortunately he can’t execute the move, instead doing a sit out Falcon Arrow type move. We even get the slaps and back chop along with the buuski knee.

Next Kikutaro shows us his attempt at the coast-to-coast springboard drop kick. He gets about half way. Marufuji hits his attempt, showing us how it’s done. Kikutaro has a smart idea on how to block the Shirunui. Why not just hold on to Marufuji so he can’t lead him? Exactly!

Marufuji hits it soon enough for the win. He was even kind enough to sell some of Kikutaro’s slower comedy spots. It was quick and great fun. If you have a chance see any Kikutaro. He had a fun match with Colt Cabana back in May of 2006 for ROH that’s worth going to see. This one is short enough you may not want to bother tracking it down.

After already holding two doubleshots in the UK and going to PPV, Ring of Honor continued to grow with a tour of Japan. These shows were scheduled for Monday the 16th in Tokyo and Tuesday the 17th in Osaka. Thanks to our different time zones, we have our results earlier than usual, as well as word of some strong crowds for both events. The first night in Tokyo, in conjunction with Pro Wrestling NOAH, saw:

1.Delirious introduce the show (wow, imagine that language barrier), only to get attacked by the No Remorse Corps. This led into the first match where NRC members Davey Richards & Rocky Romero defeated Jack Evans & Kotaro Suzuki

2.An unannounced match between two NOAH talent where Shuhei Taniguchi defeated Akihiko Ito.

3.An ROH-only exhibition where Jimmy Rave defeated the continually frustrated BJ Whitmer.

4.Bryan Danielson defeat young NOAH star Go Shiosaki

5.A Fight Without Honor (a typical feud-ender) where Delirious defeated Roderick Strong, finally gaining revenge for when Strong knocked him out in February.

6.Naomichi Marufuji join forces with The Briscoes to defeat Matt Sydal, Ricky Marvin, and Atsushi Aoki. Originally, KENTA was supposed to be Sydal & Marvin’s partner, but he had to sit out this weekend due to an injury.

7.Takeshi Morishima successfully defend the ROH World Title on his home turf against Nigel McGuinness. I had thought we might see Morishima’s title reign end on this show, so I’ll take a tall glass of WRONG! to go with my Sushi of Discontent.

The event the next night in Osaka was held in conjunction with the fine folks of Dragon Gate. I had thought we might see some unannounced gai jin who were in the area already for Dragon Gate’s WrestleJam Tour, including Austin Aries, El Generico, and PAC (conveniently all familiar to ROH fans), but no such luck. The card did end up looking differently than originally announced, due to KENTA’s injury and what not. Anyway:

1.Before making a scheduled title defense later in the show, Jay & Mark Briscoe retained the ROH World Tag Team Titles against challengers Jimmy Rave & Genki Horiguchi, both if which I believe are in the Muscle Outlawz faction.

2.Nigel McGuinness defeated BJ Whitmer.

3.Jack Evans defeated Roderick Strong in a Grudge Match. Big win for Evans after losing to Strong in two previous matches this year (the first of which, from “All Star Extravaganza III,” I wholeheartedly recommend checking out).

4.Matt Sydal, Ryo Saito, and Dragon Kid (all members of the Typhoon faction last time I checked) defeated Delirious, Naruki Doi, and Masato Yoshino.

5.Jay & Mark Briscoe made their scheduled defense of the ROH World Tag Team Titles against SHINGO & Susumu Yokosuka. Once again, the Briscoes man up and come out victorious.

6.CIMA, Bryan Danielson, and Naomichi Marufuji defeated Davey Richards, Rocky Romero, and Masaaki Mochizuki in what sounds like one hell of a main event.

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ROH returns to the United States July 27th & 28th, in Deer Park, NY and Edison, NJ respectively. The company is offering a different format for these shows that will likely stand out from other shows this year, which I approve of. The format is a 16-man tournament dubbed the Race To The Top Tournament. The field is made up of guys in the midcard and new to the company, and the tournament apparently promises to shoot the winner into the main event scene. Granted some of these guys have already popped up in the main event scene, and two others are already shceduled to get World Title shots at the next two shows in August, but I like the idea of giving guys outside the main events a chance. The First Round, set to take place on the 27th in Deer Park, will see (in order of how they’re listed in brackets): BJ Whitmer destroy-err… wrestle Pelle Primeau, Davey Richards vs. Jigsaw, Chris Hero vs. Erick Stevens, Delirious vs. El Generico (a match that has happened twice and should offer plenty of fun), Claudio Castagnoli vs. Hallowicked, Matt Sydal vs. Mike Quackenbush (enticing), Jack Evans vs. Kevin Steen, and Brent Albright vs. Matt Cross. The Quarter-Finals, Semi-Finals, and Finals are set for the next night in Edison.

Also, Bryan Danielson & Nigel McGuinness, after defeating Morishima & Marufuji June 22nd in Dayton, OH, will team up again to challenge the Briscoes for the ROH World Tag Team Titles on the 27th. Austin Aries, Roderick Strong, Jimmy Rave, Gran Akuma, and Daizee Haze are also scheduled to appear/wrestle in some manner on these shows. As always, ticket and venue information can be found at ROHwrestling.com. Sayanara, readers.

TNA
A genuine Total Nonstop Action house show went down April 20th in Cornette Country – Louisville, KY. The honorable James E. was in attendance. Highlights included Samoa Joe defeating AJ Styles in another well-received match, Christian Cage defending the (still) NWA World Title against Kurt Angle, and Abyss (who was announced earlier as not being there due to his beat-down on the previous night’s Impact) saving Angle from a post-match beat-down from Cage and Styles. The big news in my book was the long-speculated TNA debut of the Bashams. Long-rumored to be brought in by Christy Hemme as mystery opponents for Voodoo Kin Mafia by many others and myself, Doug Basham and “The Damaja” Danny Basham – both former Louisville regulars – came out to take Abyss’ place in a “Derby City” Street Fight against Rhino. It ended up being Rhino vs. Doug, with Rhino taking the win, but the question remains… did they really have to have one of these guys in a street fight their first time in the promotion? Granted, it’s a house show, but it just seems like more of that classic TNA overcompensation, akin to having a PPV with all cage matches and adding gimmicks to some of those cage matches. I’m hoping to see these guys on Impact soon (hopefully in a better role than Christy Hemme’s mystery team), as these guys could definitely be used to better effect than what they were stuck with in WWE. In the meantime, the Bashams have been wrestling off of TV in…

IWA Mid-South
Lots of news coming out of this small but still thriving indy, aside from the Bashams popping up on some recent shows. A big story (within IWA standards, at least) went down April 14th at a charity show the promotion held at a Shelbyville, IN high school. Well, maybe two big stories, as this show drew an impressive crowd of over 250. The one I had on my mind was Josh Abercrombie losing the IWA-MS Light Heavyweight Title to his rival, “Impact Bully” Brandon Thomaselli, in a TLC match. Abercrombie had held the title for fifteen months during this second reign of his, and even made it into a world title earlier this year. It’s going to be kind of weird with him not holding a title he’s had for so long, but with the possibility of the talented Abercrombie broadening his horizons, it’s for the best to have someone more likely to make more shows. The Abercrombie-Thomaselli feud doesn’t seem over, as on the last IWA-MS show on Saturday the 28th in Midlothian, IL, these two wrestled in a Lumberjack Strap Match (originally just an Indian Strap Match). Abercrombie was victorious, but the match was non-title as, in an odd turn of events, the champion didn’t make weight!

In between the Shelbyville show and the Midlothian show was IWA-MS’ debut show in San Antonio, TX, in conjunction with the local ACW promotion. It reportedly came off very well, with a crowd of 200 and a return date announced for August, but the show suffered from some wrestler no-shows (no Homicide, no Davey Richards, no Abercrombie) that were beyond the wrestlers’ control. Still, Low Ki vs. Hernandez (of LAX fame) went off without a hitch with Low Ki winning, and the big scheduled match between Necro Butcher and Homicide was changed to Necro facing San Antonio native and a former member of ROH’s Carnage Crew, Masada. According to IWA, fans were happy, not just because of the hometown boy, but also because these two have some heat going back to when both toured for Big Japan. The two had a hard-fought match, with Necro coming out on top following a distraction by Hernandez, and even had Masada saving Necro afterwards from a post-match attack by Low Ki and Hernandez (who were weakening Necro for the big June 30th match in Philadelphia pitting Necro & Toby Klein against Low Ki & Homicide).

Looking into May, AJ Styles is set to make his way back into IWA-MS. He hasn’t been in the company since the fall of ’04. May 11th in Plainfield, IN will have Styles take on BLK OUT member Joker, while May 12th in Joliet, IL will pit Styles against NWA World Junior Heavyweight Champion, New Japan regular, and a frequent US visitor over the next couple of months, Tiger Mask IV. If these shows draw some good crowds, I’m sure Styles will deliver. The Joliet show also features the return of Tyler Black, a young high flyer with an angry punk motif (he was the intense one to Jimmy Jacobs’ sensitive one in WSX’s DIFH team) who feuded with Abercrombie throughout most of ’05 and ’06. He was forced out of the promotion following a match on the second night of the 2006 TPI against Abercrombie where the loser leaves the promotion for six months, and certain backstage politics (Black is a trainee of Danny Daniels, a guy who has bad blood with IWA-MS and runs rival Chicago-area promotion AAW) have attributed to his absense as well. Anyway, Black is back, and he’ll be wrestling recent WWE exile Joey Mercury (AKA Joey Matthews). Hopefully, Mercury is in better shape than he was a few months ago.

In somewhat-related news, IWA-MS regulars Billy Roc, Ash, and Michael Elgin all got an in-ring look at ROH’s St. Paul, MN show on Friday the 27th. Roc and Ash were part of a pre-show six-man tag with some students. Elgin was on the main show, wrestling student Rhett Titus for less than two minutes before getting into a match with Jimmy Rave, making a surprise return after suffering a broken jaw in the beginning of March. Ash and Elgin are a regular tag team, and in IWA-MS have joined forces with the North Star Express (Darin Corbin and Ryan Cruz) and ring announcer Joey Eastman to form Joey Eastman World Wide, or JEWW.

Since I kind of shifted subjects there, let’s move on to…

ROH
Lots of news coming in now following this past weekend in St. Paul and Chicago Ridge. I’m not predicting doom and gloom, especially when looking ahead to the next few months, but the promotion is in a state of transition now that may or may not live up to last year’s standards. Colt Cabana, Christopher Daniels, Shingo, and even Allison Danger have said, “Goodbye,” or at least, “See ya later.” New names like “M-Dogg” Matt Cross, Erick Stevens, and Mike Quackenbush (yay!) are coming in to say, “Hi there!” or, “Is it okay I crash here?” trying to fill a void. The World Champion is this big Japanese dude plowing through all of our favorites. Now, it appears we’re due for a little bit of stability and some of that 2006 goodness as former ROH World Champion and possibly Wrestling Chronicle poster boy, “American Dragon” Bryan Danielson, is coming back to ROH. Having nursed his injured shoulder since losing the World Title to Homicide on December 23rd, Danielson is slowly making his way back into the ring, working some smaller indies here and there and signed for some high profile matches during PWG’s next shows, which I will cover in due time. Over the past couple of days, it was announced that Danielson will make his ROH return in June, coming to Roxbury Crossing, MA (a new venue in the Boston area) on the 8th, Philadelphia on the 9th, Dayton on the 22nd, and Chicago Ridge on the 23rd. As was already mentioned on this here site, this Chicago Ridge show is especially exciting as they announced during Saturday’s show that it will feature Danielson vs. KENTA in rematch from my favorite ROH match of 2006, held September 16th at “Glory By Honor V: Night 2.” I look forward to what the “Best Wrestler in the World” has in store for us upon his return.

KENTA, along with Naomichi Marufuji and ROH World Champion Takeshi Morishima, are all signed for the June 22nd Dayton show in addition to Chicago Ridge the next night. Before that, all three be on the May 11th show in Hartford, CT and the May 12th show back in the Manhattan Center. KENTA and Marufuji have very intriguing matches on the Hartford show, wrestling Delirious and Matt Sydal respectively, while Morishima teams with Nigel McGuinness to challenge Jay & Mark Briscoe (who seem to be in good shape; haven’t heard any horror stories after this weekend) for the ROH World Tag Team Titles. ROH is claiming that the Manhattan Center show is close to selling out, and they haven’t even announced a match yet.

These three NOAH regulars are naturally set to be a part of ROH’s big weekend in Japan, in conjunction with NOAH and Dragon Gate. In addition to these three, the July 16th Tokyo show (held in Differ Ariake) will also have Go Shiosaki – an impressive young heavyweight who wrestled on the UK shows last Augest – and Ricky Marvin – a Mexican wrestler and NOAH regular making his ROH debut. Marvin, along with Kotaro Suzuki, defeated the Briscoes earlier this year to win the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Titles.

Getting back to the Briscoes quickly, if Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin’s said-to-be-awesome match with the Briscoes on Saturday is truly their last hurrah for the promotion, then hats off to them. Looking forward to seeing the match myself, as well as more of their PWG stuff and hopefully a more permanent pairing in TNA (which was teased on last week’s Impact in that silly Bob Backlund vignette).

Oh, and how about that No Remorse Corps sign on Raw? In Nashville, no less!

Elswhere in the indies…
Over the weekend in England was the King of Europe Cup, a two-night, sixteen-man tournament with all of the guys representing a different promotion. Nigel McGuinness (representing ROH) won the tournament, defeating Doug Williams (representing Premier Promotions) in the finals. Other participants included Matt Sydal, Davey Richards, Chris Hero, Claudio Castagnoli, El Generico, Pac, and Rhino.

Fledgling promotion Fight Sports Midwest, which held its first show March 17th with matches such as Samoa Joe vs. Eddie Kingston, Austin Aries vs. Josh Abercrombie, and “Sweet & Sour” Larry Sweeney vs. Figure Four Weekly editor Bryan Alvarez, will be running their second show May 11th, once again in Portage, IN. Matches signed include Low Ki vs. Alex Shelley, Tiger Mask IV defending his NWA World Junior Heavyweight Title against Mike Quackenbush, and Josh Abercrombie vs. Human Tornado. You can get more info at the Fight Sports Midwest site, as well as buy the first FSM show at Smart Mark Video.

More ROH info? Go here. More IWA-MS info? Go here. More TNA info? Go here, of course. Want to talk to me? Leave a comment or send an e-mail. As always, cards are subject to change. Coming up soon, we’ve got some tag champs to decide upon in the Midwest and California, and I’ll provide all of the info.

ROH Champ Brian Danielson ran through everyone for one full year. KENTA came from NOAH and beat everyone, even Dragon, with the GO-TO-SLEEP. This week’s Project Danielson review is my 2006 match of the year. Enjoy your main event.

Before we begin, here is my personal scale. Other members of this site may have different ways of looking at match ratings. This is onl;y the opinion of John Philapavage, and not the entire staff of Wrestling Chronicle.com:

To me ***3/4 is a great match but missing something to get it to the next level.

*** = Good
***1/2 = Very Good
***3/4 = Great
**** = Excellent
****1/2 = Amazing
****3/4 = Near Perfect
***** = Perfect

Styles make fights, much like in boxing or MMA. And workrate or match length does not necessarily dictate a better match. Just because a match goes 60 minutes, that does not make it at least 4 stars.

Also, just because ALOT of holds are demonstrated does not mean it was the best match. That indicates it has the potential to be a great technical match, but the holds could mean nothing five minutes later to the story, and therefore make the sequence irrelevant.

Moving along, sub-genres should have there own scale. A match that really is the setting for a large angle (like a double turn, regular turn, forwarding or starting a major story) does get boasted in my rating beyond workrate. Comedy matches are not penalized for being about humor, and lucha isn’t penalized for being dance-like. If it’s over with the audience, that must be taken into account. Sometimes NOAH matches run for 20 minutes before overkill of finishers, and sometimes it looks like that, but makes alot more sense.

We strive to be worldly here on the site, so we watch ALOT of different styles from ALOT of different eras. This year’s Dragon Gate 6-man might be looked upon as 1997s Michunoku Pro Six Man in ECW. That is to say, great at the time, but just solid or a good little match now. But that’s okay, as readjustment reviews years later are fun too, and everything must be taken in context. Sgt. Slaughter vs Pat Patterson from 1983 would probably seem pedestrian now. Then again, so would Lou Thesz or some of the great World Class six man matches. But they ARE great for there time, and I’ll take into account the surroundings of the Pro Wrestling landscape.

Overall, I like to stress perspective in my reviews, make clear my tastes and how they do or don’t matter in the long run, and give details as to why I think and score the way I do. Lets move on to the matches…

9.16.06 Danielson vs. KENTA: Big match feel. Electric crowd. No Danielson comment via R.A. Bobby Cruise tonight, coupled with Danielson’s focused all business stare down at the intros (KENTA likewise), adds to the serious title match feel. No comedy tonight, fellas.
Danielson comes in with his RIGHT shoulder taped up, and the commentary of Prazak and David puts over the drama that Danielson only has one arm coming in and barely escaped Cabana in his last match.
A feeling out process to start. KENTA misses a big kick on the first lock up, slaps Danielson off the second collar and elbow tie up, and gets slapped back by Dragon off the third. Fourth go-round is a knuckle lock up that ends in the ropes with a great looking armbar and knee to the head on KENTA by Danielson. I wrote out all this out to highlight that in the first two minutes they do very little physically, but it’s intense, and ends up meaning so much more. They aren’t playing to the crowd because at first they don’t have to.
Next we actually start the story of the match, in physical terms. KENTA kicks to the shoulder and Danielson bails out. Danielson purposely only uses the left hand and comes forward protecting the right side of his body. Danielson gains control, and because he doesn’t play to the crowd (He’s focused) and is applying everything “plus 10%”, it looks like a worked shoot – in a good WRESTLING sense.
Danielson tries some submissions 5 min. in, but KENTA is right back on that Right shoulder/arm of Danielson. They go to the outside and KENTA again KILLS Danielson’s shoulder with kicks and throws into the barricade. I think I like these two match-up so much because how and when to pace things. They go first gear to third gear to first gear to fifth and it works well because of their timing.
Back in the ring for several minutes of KENTA working on the right shoulder/arm, really wrenching it for visual effect. Crowd again signals what can best be called “time code changes” and the two artists oblige, but on the ground. KENTA is being a big prick (as usual), and a keylock has half the crowd buzzing over a tap. You can see a few fans even standing for it, and yet we’ve just hit the nine minute mark.
Commentary puts over that Danielson tapped out to a McGuinness keylock a few weeks back, and I should also mention it’s been acknowledged that KENTA has beaten everyone in ROH with the Go To Sleep, including Danielson TWICE. So Danielson’s a bizzaro-face for the moment in this match structure, which only works in ROH and NOAH. (I do realize that you could say “the heel has no way to win/ babyface will finally overcome” but that’s not really how KENTA is played here, and as you’ll see, I’m not complaining.
Danielson gets a “hope spot”, only using his left hand, and gets smacked down for it. Crowd reacts huge. Still too early to bite on a KENTA nearfall. More KENTA right side strikes and subs. Danielson finally gets the advantage at the 11 minute mark. KENTA really struggles before Dragon can get his arms for a surfboard, which I felt was a strength in the Lance Storm match. Danielson finally acknowledges the crowd at 13 minutes, reclaiming the heat for the botched surfboard with a knee slam, yelling “I fucked up? I don’t EVER fuck up!” Young heels take note as he goes hard at KENTA’s knees right away and never loses the crowd. He also reclaims heel status with a figure four and grabbing the ropes for leverage. Then he refuses to break the hold. Crowd is eating out of his hand. We even get a “Dragon” chant.
KENTA comeback at the 16 min. mark by stiffing Danielson’s injured right shoulder a few times. Even in Danielson matches ROH works to give the A.D.D. generation mini hope spots and strong moves, because while KENTA and Danielson each have separate offensive stretches, the “seller” always gets in a shot or two. This is always true of the Danielson matches this year, even the more deliberately paced ones. Also, I’ve noticed the fans are actually conditioned to buy submissions more then pins . Perhaps it’s the length of time a submission gets, but a KENTA two count doesn’t get a bite, while a cross arm breaker applied moments later to that shoulder does.
18 minutes in. Cool save as Danielson’s flip off the corner over KENTA is miss-timed, but the drop-down-roll-over into the half crab gets over, and a pull to the center with a knee over KENTA’s head sends the crowd into a frenzy. It looked good and had purpose. Dragon shakes loose from a Go To Sleep tease, then hits a suplex. Again, the little things: he sells that executing the move hurt his shoulder and he’s slow to pin KENTA because of it. Chicken-wing, but no one’s buying until he adds the body scissors. KENTA escapes at 20 minutes, and from a story and layout to execution, this match has been pretty flawless. The decision to work at a faster pace until Danielson gains control, and the fact they aren’t going 60 minutes, help a lot (and I’m a fan of the Danielson pacing and his longer “niche” matches).
Danielson, who is still selling his shoulder while on offense (including not lifting his right arm before a diving headbutt), gets a lifted boot to the face. That was one of the few spots I felt looked lame in the first 21 minutes, but it wasn’t a “screw up”. A springboard dropkick by KENTA is met with a hard dropkick from Danielson, and it looked great. Good sequence, but the double K.O. count gets little heat. To show my differing tastes/opinions, they do the NOAH delayed selling/last man standing sequence with kicks, chops, suplexes, forearms, and headbutts. They both eventually go down, and I’m like “o-kay…”, but the crowd eats it up.
They go to the outside, reversals, and an AWESOME belly-to-belly by Danielson sends KENTA to the concrete. The crowd is really into the last few minutes. Danielson does his springboard plancha (No summersault today) into the crowd and hits it, to a deafening “ROH” chant. He grabs the right shoulder as he climbs back over the barricade, a fact not lost on commentary. Soon after, a KENTA fujiwara armbar out of nowhere at 25 minutes signals the move into the final stretch (or act, as I say because it’s a play with violence).
Continued right arm/shoulder submissions on Danielson are heated. I’ll try to give the rundown, but at this point just beg, borrow, and steal to get this match. I know I’m a huge Danielson mark, but see for yourself.
Danielson catches KENTA’s arm and hits a RegalPlex for two and three-fourths. Danielson hits a belly-to-back from the top, and then tries cattle mutilation at 29 minutes. At first they chant for the tap, but at the break they cheer for it not being over. Front chancery suplex, and Danielson goes up top. Sequence of the year nominee. KENTA springs up for the falcon arrow, gets sent down to the ring, and Danielson dives after him. KENTA catches him and hits GO TO SLEEP (fireman’s carry into a knee kick) for an unbelievable false finish! Danielson barely gets his foot on the rope to stop the count. KENTA looks exhausted and shocked. We’re 30 minutes in.
Danielson is noted as the first to survive the finisher all year in ROH as they both sell the damage. Brilliant protection of a finisher. A vicious kick to the shoulder and KENTA goes for the Busedu (sp?) knee, but gets rolled up with a bridge for another awesome nearfall. GO TO SLEEP tease, into a Danielson crucifix pin. No dice, so we get hard UFC elbows from Danielson. This is how he beat McGuinness and Strong last month. KENTA looks knocked out, but POWERS UP! Danielson immediately grabs the arms, tries Cattle Mutilation, and gets rolled thru just as quickly. The KENTA nearfall off the roll-thru worked even better in that spot then in the Lance Storm match. Just like that match Danielson keeps the arms hooked and hits a suplex. Kick out, but the arms are still hooked! Back to Cattle Mutilation. Doesn’t work. More elbows and another attempt at Cattle Mutilation. KENTA taps out and Danielson wins. Perfect ending, because him getting out of Cattle Mutilation again would have been complete overkill of the drama, or bordering on it.
This is the mainstream fan’s Danielson match, with a quicker and more accepted style then Danielson-McGuinness “not for everyone” matches. It reminds me of his Marufuji match in Dec. ’05, but with ten times the back story, subtext, and crowd to suck you in.
Though Danielson’s legwork mattered little in factoring into the finish (I loved it, but it doesn’t factor in nearly as much as it should in many matches), KENTA’s right arm/shoulder work on Danielson was the story and forced Danielson to overcome.
Excellent selling, great moves, good pacing, and beautiful storytelling with their bodies. This match is everything that wrestling is supposed to be, it’s humorous that one of the participants can barely speak English. Neither of them had to say a word, and the story was told. Like the first two McGuinness matches in terms of my enjoyment, but on steroids (not the wrestlers, the match). I’m leery of going five stars anytime, even for my favorite matches, but I refuse to go lower then 4 ½ stars. So if you like snowflakes, I’m giving this one 4 ¾ stars. If you’re not into Dragons Gate six-man style matches, this is your Match of the Year, and that’s saying a lot. Joe-Kobashi, Joe-Punk 2, Dragons Gate Six-man, and this match. Somewhere in there, depending on your leanings, is a five star match. Let the debates begin… (****3/4)

I’m hoping this is better then the dull draw they had on the SEM show in December. It’s not that they don’t put great effort in, and those wonderfully dull “silent heat” Japanese crowds don’t help anything, but sometimes knowing the match won’t have a real nearfall until 15 finisher/kick outs and 20 minutes in grates on even a defender of the NOAH style. I know in ROH right now I’m begging Nigel McGuinness, BJ Whitmer, and a few other guys to lay out the matches a little more realistically. Especially you BJ, you aren’t that high on the card. I digress.

Crowd is as usual asleep for this main even to start. What happened to the days when they’d chant “MIS-AW-A” or “KAW-A-DA” or “KO-BASH-I” before the signature music even hit? I’ve got a theory. It’s not the MMA boom (even that’s getting old in Japan). It’s not the pageantry of network TV (though half the time I watch MMA coverage from Japan I forget there’s a fight about to break out at there wonderful circus/Dance/Entertainment events like Pride and Heroes). Nope, it’s the lack of three syllable words. Morishima – to hard to chant. KEN-TA. Well, we’re getting closer.

In December I was thinking how crazy it was to see Danielson wearing an ROH shirt to the ring in NOAH, or an ROH graphic on G+ TV. This show they have “ROH” on the electronic board showing the match up, and one of these guys actually has a belt I watched defended in front of maybe 400 people once. Amazing. Then again, no one mentions this, but can you name another group anywhere in the modern era (1984 onward) that’s worked with all 5 of the “major” offices in Japan? Regardless of what you think is major or isn’t, I think we can all agree All Japan, New Japan, NOAH, Dragon Gate, and Zero-One are pretty much the most known names for pro wrestling in Japan. ROH has done business with each one to varying degrees of success.

We start out very UWFI early 90s. I’m waiting for Takada or Maeda to appear on my screen and slap or kick one of these guys. KENTA comes with the shoot-style kicks and open-hand slaps. Morishima throws forearm slaps. Kenta out-stiffs him. KENTA even gets control early with a back drop driver. Credit to Morishima for getting up for it. Quick kick to the face and KENTA tries a quick pin for two. No one reacts, but I appreciated the guy playing like he realizes he needs a quick shocking pin.

Morishma gets the advantage after his lariat is cleverly blocked by KENTA with a kick. Sidewalk slam. Tease of the deadly back drop driver (I get the Terry Gordy references, and I agree, but does no one remember the deadly back drop drivers of Jumbo Tsurta? His finisher is totally shades of Jumbo. “OHHH!” chants, anyone?). KENTA’s not going up that early for the big move (thank god). Morishima to the outside. His throat meets a guard rail. Who’da thought?

I know it’s Meltzer-babble (Like cliché psycho-babble, we must now all argue on message boards about parroting Meltzer’s “word of God”, and then defending it with our own opinions so that we’re overly aware of Meltzer opinion and our place to the right or the left of it) As I was saying, it’s Meltzer-babble (TM), but Morishima really does sell credibly for smaller guys. It’s rarely mentioned though, that those smaller guys are KENTA and Marufuji, who just happen to be two of the best and most credible offensive wrestlers in the world today. Credit must be spread further around the locker room.

NOAH needs Gabe Sapolsky to book. All this talent and even the match layouts tend to be a little stale and formula for my taste. I say this, and yet it’s obvious NOAH and it’s predecessor, 90s All Japan, are big parts of the Sapolsky formula as well. He just has a way to tweak it. It’s called a DIRECTION!

OH my God. Watch this match to see KENTA do a springboard Warrior’s Way (Low Ki move probably taken from KENTA or a young Muta) all the way to a dead Morishima on the floor. This, much like the Kenta-‘Fuji 10/29 Falcon Arrow to the floor is amazing to watch. Then you’ll wonder why the match would keep going on. Welcome to post-90s pro wrestling, I guess. Morishima sells it like he’ll vomit and be counted out. Me too!

Back in, KENTA can’t get Morish. Up for Go 2 Sleep, but he does each a sick Hanson-esque lariat. Its part of the Morishima charm, that decapitation thing. Lovin’ it! Morish. Goes for that stupid flying butt smash that only he can pull off and make you go, “okay, I’ll um…yeah, bought it as credible”. Here’s the best part. KENTA catches it and German suplex him. Crowd is actually fired up this early. GO 2 SLEEP! Two count. Crowd can’t be bother. Idiots, all of them! KENTA pins like Flair would cover Vader in Starcade ’93. Actually, this match reminds me of that “chop down the big bad oak tree” theme. And as much crap as I earlier gave NOAH’s layout, this has been very well produced because they’re cutting out the predictable fifth through eighteenth minutes. This from a Danielson mark. How fical we all are.

Kenta has a strong sense of urgency, which is how this should be played. Knees and kicks from him. Morishima out of nowhere w/ a killer lariat-OOOOO and back drop driver for a two count. That time everyone liked it. Me too. Morishima proceeds to beat the shit out of KENTA to the point the ref tries to back him off, and gets tossed. Purists of Puro and frustrated WWE/TNA fans won’t like it at first glance, but this rarely happens in NOAH, so it has meaning. Like when people boo a double knockout in ROH because it’s “sports Entertainment Crap” or a non-finish. Think about the fact that it’s never booked in that territory, so it’s got value from a story telling aspect. Not everything is for us to dissect as work rate geeks.

More vicious Morishima big man beatdown. KENTA tries to no-sell a back drop driver, gets a lariat for thinking about it, and a second back drop driver. The ref must have forgiven Morishima for his disrespect (perhaps he has Yakuza connections), because he counts the three for the Morishima win.

People will bitch about this being to short to main event Budakon, or that Morishima’s matches are to one sided and squash like. There’s a reason guys. Again, not everything is about even-steven work rate marathons, though I love those, and NOAH respected Sapolsky’s booking decision to make Morishima into a monster. GOOD! He is, and it’s fun to watch. This was just under ten minutes and still gets 3 ¼ snowflakes of enjoyment (stars) from me. If I’m being obnoxious and not well rounded by still giving it a workrate score, fine. Then for that segment, I RECOMMEND you view this match, especially in the context of post Morishima beating Whitmer in Feb. and pre-Morishima coming back to ROH in April. I’d love to see these two meet up in an ROH ring in the U.S. Morishima needs Bill Alfonso. Who can stop the path of RAGE!!!???

One last piece of Meltzer babble. He gave a very good rating (4 ¼ I think) to Homicide/Danielson at Final Battle ’06. We’ll be reviewing that on the site soon. I’ve heard this was an awesome ending to the Homicide storyline and a fitting title change for the greatest run of any champ, Bryan Danielson (bias, I know). Also, he gave 4 ½ stars to Morishima vs. Joe from NYC on 2/16. I was there live. This is a definite “Steal this match” qualifier and best big man match I might have ever seen. We’ll have a review or two here when it hits.