[2006-01-22-NOAH-First Navigation] KENTA vs Naomichi Marufuji

[Loss]

Talk about it here.    

 

[supersonic]

KENTA vs. Marufuji - January 22, 2006

I'll get the flaws out of the way: KENTA had room for improvement in regards to selling the left knee that Marufuji spent so much time working on. In addition, he could've added some more hope spots to fulfill this match's crowd heat potential. I also saw zero point in landing a fucking Shiranui off the apron to the floor. Marufuji almost fell apart in the closing stretch due to that, failing to lift KENTA for a Tiger Suplex, simply rolling him back in that position for the pin.

This was a great Jr. Title defense for KENTA, most importantly VERY different than his prior classic defenses against SUWA and Low Ki. Marufuji worked a headlock early to feel out and slow down the red-hot KENTA, bringing back memories of Shawn Michaels doing the same thing to Kurt Angle at WrestleMania 21. KENTA would get some back-and-forth going until Marufuji attacked his left knee and just mercilessly went to work on it.

Make no mistake, Marufuji was relentless on KENTA's left knee, neutering the few sporadic hope spots KENTA attempted, and the best part of course was him bringing out the classic figure four leglock. Put this match in front of an ROH crowd at the time and the heat would've been off the charts for that. After about 10 minutes, KENTA is able to bring the match to an even level when lifting his right leg to block an attempted corner splash, then landing a Yakuza kick, and countering a charging Marufuji with a powerslam.

KENTA was vicious, doing a so-so job of selling all the left leg work as I mentioned earlier. But that was somewhat made up for with the pacing, and more importantly in the finishing stretch which I'll get to later. I actually didn't mind KENTA landing an Attitude Adjustment style Death valley Driver out on the floor, as that protected Marufuji from a stupid head/neck drop. Once the match got to the finishing stretch after the Shirnaui on the floor, both men traded blows and suplexes, with Marufuji ducking some left leg roundhouse kicks, showing that KENTA lacked that extra fraction of speed to land them after the work done earlier. They also traded beautiful Tiger Suplex nearfalls that had the crowd rocking. KENTA eventually no-sold the earlier work and used his left leg to deliver his standard kicks.

However, KENTA showed that his left knee lacked a bit of firepower. Marufuji was able to kick out of a left leg Basaiku knee. He then kicked out of a left leg G2S. But once KENTA landed the second Basaiku knee, everyone knew it was over. I suspect the issues I pointed out earlier were taken care of by the time these two faced off again to provide the MOTYC potential they have, rather than just a great match that gets lost in the shuffle. ****

[G. Badger]

Marufuji's leg focus in 2006 is pretty varied and interesting all things considered. It was enjoyable watching him do his damage. However, I agree that KENTA essentially no-sold it. We can reason that Marufuji realized that he hadn't done enough damage to hurt or even hobbled the Jr. Champ. Therefore, he cut his losses and went forward in head/brain (?) attack mode with kicks, Shiranui's etc. 

KENTA's selling of limb work has never been great. So, all in all I'm glad that they decided to move past the leg stuff. It would have been worse if Marufuji kept going back to it throughout the match...we all know KENTA wouldn't have sold any of that either

Also, the non lift tiger suplex was meant to be more of a roll up type of move rather than a throw.

Quibbles aside, this was an intense title fight that avoids their extraneous tendencies. Not to say I don't dig the October GHC heavyweight title fight but, this is felt leaner and meaner. I thought the match was a NOAH Jr. Classic and an overlooked one at that.

 

[Makai Club #1]

This is sort of the forgotten match between the two because of how closely linked to their GHC Heavyweight Title belt later in the year. It’s easy to confuse one for the other. The match starts off well with quick action and heated flurries from KENTA. The match presents a clear stylistic difference where Marufuji is all about the unpredictable, fast paced sequences which included strikes and aerial moves whereas KENTA was a bit more simple and relied more on force than creative technique. The match also follows the classic trope of working a body part - in this case, Marufuji works the left knee of KENTA, first using the barricade. But that’s largely forgotten once the bigger spots of the match begin to flow. KENTA and Marufuji work splendidly together in that regard, naturally being able to pull off some spectacular moves that wow the crowd but still come off like a fight for a title. And unlike their reputation, the spots are built up really well - Marufuji attempted to hit a Shiranui on the apron but KENTA blocked it to try for a German which Marufuji blocked before hitting a superkick and only then could Marufuji nail the Shiranui  onto the floor. The closing stretch was excellent; KENTA hit a fisherman's brainbuster off the top, got an amazing double nearfall on the running knee and the Go To Sleep before finishing Marufuji off with another  Busaiku Knee. Just a wonderful match outside the needless limb working spots of the match. ****

[fxnj]

Best part of this was easily KENTA's initial control segment with him bitch slapping Marufuji and finding ways to disrespect him. Things quickly went downhill from there with Marufuji's dull leg work. He always struck me as a guy more interested in showing off all the moves he could do than actually caring to make it look painful, and that was the case here. After that bit of time killing, the match just becomes a blur of one big move after the other. Could be that I was just in a bad mood from the bad limb work section and KENTA making 0 effort in selling the limb work, but the big moves sequences worked here felt cooperative and struck me as a step down from what they did in the October match. I wanted to scream at the almost total lack of struggle when KENTA hit that top rope falcon arrow. Also, the amount of near falls they did got really silly. Match went way too long and I was begging for them to take it home by the end. It was entertaining watching how the audience bit on every near fall long after I had checked out of the match, though.