[2008-04-27-NOAH-Global Tag League] Jun Akiyama & Takeshi Rikio vs Kensuke Sasaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[dawho5]

30 minute time limit means this won't be overlong. Nakajima does well enough with his heat segment, selling the beating pretty good. Only problem is, by the time it starts we have established that any strikes he throws that aren't kicks have no effect on Akiyama & Rikio. So the exact moment of the big comeback is pretty easy to spot. Same problem happens during the finishing run. Sasaki does fine as the hot tag, but some miscommunication during his run of not-quite-finisher spots with Akiyama doesn't do the match any favors. Nakajima gets tagged back in to have his moment in the sun, hits a nice German and goes back to being the heavyweights' toy again. Finish is fine, too many lariats, too many obvious strike exchanges with Nakajima, but perfectly good match otherwise. They don't overdo the nearfalls or kill any one guy too much. Just there's enough not right that it probably won't get a vote.

[Superstar Sleeze]

Jun Akiyama & Takeshi Rikio vs Kensuke Sasaki & Katushiko Nakajima - Budokan 4/27/08

 

The year 2008 much like 2005 seems very tag team focused from Pro Wrestling NOAH especially featuring Kensuke Office (Kensuke Sasaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima). This was a part of a round robin tournament for the GHC Tag Titles with Sasaki & Nakajima in the role of spoiler as Akiyama & Rikio have a chance to win the titles otherwise the winner of Bison Smith & Saito vs. Misawa/Ogawa would be the new champions. I am a huge Nakajima fan and am excited to continue him get featured in this project. However, Sasaki has started to show in these recent matches I have watched and much like Kobashi is devolving rapidly into a self-parody. Nakajima has not seemed to figure a way to overcome this anchor in these matches to deliver a real classic. I was excited actually for the Rikio/Sasaki showdowns because Rikio seems like the younger, slightly taller version of Sasaki. I preferred the Rikio/Takayama showdowns however as those seemed like heated clashes of a couple bulls. Akiyama also seemed to have this one in cruise control. The match was rock solid, just a bit uninspiring.

 

The opening was the best part with the bullrush and Akiyama hitting two Exploders early to try to win the match because a victory would be pretty much secure the tag titles, but it almost backfired as Sasaki recovered and blasted him with a lariat to almost win. The rest of the opening before the Nakajima heat segment was pretty tame with the only highlight being the nostalgia surfboard spot. Nakajima came in looking to pick apart Akiyama's arm. Akiyama sensed that and pulverized him with knee lifts. Akiyama & Rikio did a really good job pummeling Nakajima (the curb stomps in front of Sasaki were an especially nice touch), who sold like a million bucks (rolling into the wrong corner after a guillotine choke), but it needed some more hope spots peppered in to make the hot tag that much more heated. Sasaki came in and right off the bat seemed like he was a step off botching his armdrag and he would later dangerously botch a couple Germans. Sasaki is a actually a red herring as Rikio is able to slow him down enough that Sasaki has to tag Nakajima back in. Nakajima is awesome trying to get revenge on Rikio swatting his lariat out of the air with a kick then delivering some badass suplexes. The German looked pitch perfect, but Akiyama toppled him on the bridge. Now Akiyama & Rikio take advantage of Nakajima's smaller stature to double team him and look close to winning the tag titles. Sasaki says enough is enough is enough and he wants Rikio out, he wants Rikio out. The dangerous Germans follow. Nakajima tags out and this time it is the real hot tag. A Northern Lights Bomb spoils Akiyama & Rikio and Bison Smith & Saito would win the tag titles.

It is just a standard tag team match, but an added wrinkle of having a standard heat segment on Nakajima followed by a false finishing run on Nakajima before Sasaki cleaned house. Sasaki looked pretty bad for an execution standpoint in this match and really did off much. Akiyama, Rikio and Nakajima did enough to entertain me and sustain my interest, but not enough for me to say this is great. ***1/4