[2005-11-05-NOAH-3rd Great Voyage] Takeshi Morishima & Mohammed Yone vs KENTA & Katsuyori Shibata

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[dawho5]

This is an odd match. I like Shibata because he tends to bring out a certain intensity in opponents, and he does here. He also has great offense throughout. Yone's comical overselling works well during his heat segment. He is the weak link with his offense and it's not even overly bad. Just a few things completely whiff is all. Crowd doesn't seem to care even when he does hit it good though. Morishima is all kinds of great on offense with the stiffness and power. And variety. He throws probably the biggest missile dropkick I've ever seen. KENTA, well I think we all know what he does. Thing is, nothing seems to gel even with everybody bringing a good to great performance. Finishing run is all over the place, going from dead to hyper speed back to dead. In addition, it's poorly laid out. Most of the moves hit are big and look great, just nothing comes together as a whole. Won't vote for it, but a good one time watch. Finish is ridiculously brutal. KENTA is a tough little bastard to take that.

[Childs]

This was a bunch of fun, even it lacked the smart build to make it truly great. I popped huge for the few times when Morishima got angry and tossed KENTA around like a third grader. And this is my favorite version of KENTA--reckless little fucker throwing himself at men who outweigh him by 100-150 pounds. Shibata brought his requisite ass stomping. Yeah, this will sneak onto my list, even if it was just a collection of cool moments.

[supersonic]

Yone & Morishima vs. KENTA & Shibata - November 5, 2005

First time I've seen Shibata, looked pretty good here despite being green, I'd like to see him against his Caucasian mirror image Kyle O'Reilly. Looking forward to seeing more of him. The match took forever to get hot, becoming great in the last 2-3 minutes. The work was smart, but there were never any moments of building to hot tags, it was just good but nothing special until Morishima and KENTA exchanged finishers while their partners would break it up. Had the hot finish been several minutes rather than just a few, I'd have been happy to say this was great. ***3/4

[ShittyLittleBoots]

I freaking love the team of KENTA & Shibata. They were so badass here - LOVED them working over Yone, they were so great during that just beating the tar out of the man in bit of a dickish fashion. Love it. Once Yone got some offense in, he throws KENTA outside to Morishima who was just PISSED. He beat the shit out of KENTA very aggressively. Awesome. KENTA does the FIP deal, and as usual, he was fantastic in that & Morishima was tremendous working the heat on him. The finishing stretch was lovely with it becoming a game of "who can capitalize first?" as they threw some nifty bombs in there. Fantastic match & fantastic performances by KENTA, Shibata & Morishima. ****1/2

[superkix]

This was like a greatest hits match, with a lot of cool spots and moments, but no real cohesion. Yone was the lame duck and the match lost a bit of its steam when he was controlling on offense. KENTA and Shibata were a fun pairing, and pissed off Baby Huey Morishima was awesome, especially in his interactions with KENTA. After KENTA hits the tag-in springboard dropkick, his shitty little face kicks only aggravate Morishima, which leads to a beat down and Morishima tossing him out of the ring. Shibata/KENTA looked pretty great on offense but Morishima’s volatility was the best thing about this match, in my opinion. When KENTA goes to fuck with him on the apron, Morishima yanks him out of the ring and throws him over the barricade! Things slow down when Morishima/Yone are on offense, though I loved the smaller KENTA throwing himself at both guys in attempt to fight them off. Shibata worked in some good strikes and arm control on Morishima, and I loved him coming in and booting Morishima over the ropes to the outside to set up the big springboard Doomsday Device. The final stretch was a mess but the finish between KENTA and Morishima was brutal. Not a great match by any means but plenty of great moments.