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[2009-05-05-NJPW-Divergence] Hirooki Goto & Kazuchika Okada vs Takashi Sugiura & Atsushi Aoki


Loss

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  • 5 months later...

Match seemed designed to put Okada over in the standard Japanese fashion of dealing with youngsters. I drifted off a bit whenever Sugiura was in the ring, which has become a habit. He's just so one-dimensional, even if he is good at that dimension. Goto is worse because he's not as good at it. Okada was clearly still learning here, but he tries to put on a spirited performance. Aoki was just sort of...there. If you can't tell, I didn't much care for this match.

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  • 2 months later...

Takahashi Sugiura & Atsushi Aoki vs Hirooki Goto & Kazuchika Okada - NJPW 5/5/09

 

The star power in this feud sure did plummet in short order. The obvious reason to watch this match is to see how good a young Okada is. He is actually very good relative to his experience level. I love the Face Vet & Rookie vs two prick heels tag match. If Okada was paired with three better workers there was a chance for it to be the best of its genre in the 00s. His performance was every bit as good as Shiga or Miyamoto, but the other pieces just were not there. I loved early on how hard he was trying to get a single leg takedown on Sugiura, but Sugiura just no-sold. Sugiura showed his leg and said go ahead and take it. So Okada slaps him. The kid has moxy. Sugiura squashes any attempt at a takedown. Also, Okada is wicked over especially for a rookie. Besides having a very expressive face (very sharp features), I don't see what innately causes him to be that over. Eventually of course, Okada is thrown to the outside and the fun begins with Sugiura whipping Okada into the railing and generally beating the shit out of Okada. I loved his misdirect whip into a big boot onto Goot. I thought it was funny that Goto's hot tag sequence was basically the same as Sugiura's hot tag sequence from the last NJPW/NOAH match. Sugiura/Goto is a shittier verison of Kobashi/Sasaki, a much shittier version. Things pick back up once Okada gets his false finish run. He has a pretty dropkick and I loved his out of nowhere STO. You could tell he was putting a ton of effort into this match. Maybe the crowd is feeing off that. Sugiura midsirect kick to Goto jarrs Okada long enough for Aokit to hit a missile dropkick. Yes, Aoki took part in this match. Sugiura throws Okada around to "O-KA-DA" chants before polishing him off with Olympic Slam. Okada's effort and selling make this worthwhile, but just a good match. ***

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  • GSR changed the title to [2009-05-05-NJPW-Divergence] Hirooki Goto & Kazuchika Okada vs Takashi Sugiura & Atsushi Aoki

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