Sixty-Minute Sprints - On KENTA/Marufuji and Toyota/Kyoko...
Entry posted by MJH
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Sixty-Minute Sprints
On KENTA/Marufuji and Toyota/Kyoko...
On KENTA/Marufuji and Toyota/Kyoko...
I'm a huge Manami (and Kyoko as much, for that matter) fan, and certainly out of the current crop of wrestlers KENTA's one of my favourites; but really neither are cut out for going 60:00. Whereas in the days of Lou Thesz and Dory Funk when most matches were at a pace you could keep for sixty, Manami and KENTA are two people whose strength lies in their great athleticism, creativity, speed... generally the qualities for super "spot" wrestling more than anything else.
We all know the criticisms littered against Toyota through the years, but the two things she does (did) well she does (did) better than anyone. KENTA's not a "male Toyota" but they have more in common to me than they have in contrast (KENTA's crisp as anything but Toyota was incredibly sympathetic are probably the two biggest). But like with Toyota, I actually just want to see KENTA sprint. I don't know if he and Nakajima, or Marufuji, or whomever have it in them to tell the stories and structure the matches that Misawa, Kobashi and Kawada did (certainly the NOAH guys should by virtue of osmosis but there's been little real sign throughout matches) but if he's content to entertain by style then I'm happy to let him do his thing because, regardless of whatever detriments anyone might see in him, the guy is a fantastic talent who can GO.
Anyway, I figured KENTA/Marufuji was the closest modern equivalent to Toyota/Kyoko's hour draw, and so I finally got around to watching it last night. Truth be told, they're not really worked similarly at all, but they make a nice comparison.
As people reading this (assuming anyone does) will know, Manami and Kyoko basically tried to work their regular match (read: a 25-minute sprint) for the hour. They essentially put a brick on the accelerator and hoped the gas wouldn't run out. It did, and the match fell apart around the fifty-minute mark; but I can't imagine anyone matching the first fifty. In terms of "giving it all out there" (or however older wrestlers generally phrase it), I can't think of a stronger pure effort from two wrestlers ever. It puts whatever those guys are/were talking about to complete shame. On merit, there were some stronger matches that should've polled ahead in the 1995 WON Awards but it's a unique match that only the most cynical of people would take a crap on.
Whether KENTA/Marufuji have seen that match and tried to learn from it, I can't say, although I'd be surprised if they were completely ignorant of it. Either way, they wrestled the match as if having learned from Toyota and Inoue's downfall. Read: they paced themselves.
All being told, I doubt KENTA/Fuji could have worked their match for sixty the way Manami and Kyoko did. The guys' style is more intricate, more counter-based, that to simply have an hour's worth of that material memorised (ignoring the stamina issue) would seem to me impossible. But what they did by going about things this way (which on paper sounds the smarter option of the two without question) "exposed", for lack of a better term, their weaknesses.
They maintained their general back-and-forth structure which meant that if we were to segment the match, parts that could've killed time effectively weren't really used to the full (which in a match of this length is one of the most imperative aspects in putting it together). The transitions between the various "control segments" tended to be good and effective, but Marufuji could've easilly taken his five-minute segment working KENTA's knee to 10 or 12. Ditto KENTA's regular time-filling "rib work" section. Yes, we know it's not going to "carry through" right to the finish, but it doesn't necesarilly have to.
If the match is "action first" (and 95%+ of juniors stuff is and always has been) then it only has to work in that moment and be gradually dropped (ie sold for the immediate aftermath of a few minutes and gradually dropped) as opposed to immediately rendered a waste. But in the pantheon of "junior time fillers" this match overall was weak. They'd work in the odd big spot (sometimes so out-of-the-blue and out-of-rhythm so as to shock you) but aside from the planned spots and sequences that were littered about, the only real effort was in the creativity.
Now I'm not the biggest Marufuji fan, but he's unquestionably a super athlete with a very creative mind. There's always the odd few spots in his big matches that I've never seen before. The problem arises, against a guy like KENTA, that it often seems superfluous. KENTA flies so he can hit you from a greater height. Marufuji flies so he can add in a twist or spin before hitting you. And when it's Marufuji whose offense seems to dominate the match (as opposed to KENTA in the ass-kicker role) it doesn't do them many favours. Comparing the matches offensively, Kyoko was more of the ass kicker, and that role suited her against Manami. She had offensive variety and pacing that worked against Toyota without making herself look limited (an achievement unto itself) but also their characters were much more strongly developed.
KENTA's biggest weakness for me is, as mentioned at the start, an inability to generate much in the way of sympathy (especially against juniors). Now that's not to say they didn't have the crowd, because both guys are over, they gave the guys the time, and when KENTA was getting battered down the stretch the crowd were chanting his name, but it's hard to imagine transporting him back to 1992 to replace Kikuchi and it working despite, all things considered, KENTA being the more talented worker. If we say they're the Jr Misawa and Kawada, KENTA is clearly Kawada; but Kawada the focused ass-kicker, Kawada with the chip on his shoulder, Kawada the cold hearted heel, as opposed to Kawada the "sympathetic loser".
The upside to the NOAH match lies in the obvious strengths of the guys involved; the athleticism, it's creative, there's a lot of great spots, and down the stretch they've conserved themselves enough to finish with as much aplomb as any 60:00 singles match. But whilst Manami/Kyoko fell apart down the stretch to dampen to lasting effect somewhat, it remains the greater achievement (or near-achievement) and a superior match overall. KENTA/Marufuji, in a sixty minute match, I'm not sure could've had a better match than they did. If Kyoko and Manami had an extra 10-minutes of gas in the tank it's a legendary match that as is stands unique and, I guess, the nearest "singles" equivalent to what the Dream Rush main event is/was. As loathed as the end result might be in some quarters I'd love to see KENTA and Nakajima try and match it.
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