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[2000-01-09-AJPW] Kenta Kobashi vs Takao Omori


soup23

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This was a good but ho hum match for the first 15 minutes of so. Omori isn't that engaging in me in the matwork portion and even Kobashi seemed to be kind of middling through a bit. That changed once Kobashi locked in a sleeper, choke as the final stretch was excellent here. Omori really showed good fire and Kobashi showed the appropriate restraint in having to exert himself to put Omori away but also leaving some stuff in the reserve which makes perfect sense considering what occurs with the Carnival this year. A ****1/2 finishing stretch combined with a *** opening forces me to split the difference overall. ***1/2

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  • 5 months later...

This was pretty great. I am usually not a fan of Omori at all, but I liked him from the very beginning here, taking the fight to Kobashi right away. I loved how much battle there was over every single thing, including the vertical suplex on the apron which culminated in Kobashi putting him in a sleeper and just powering him over the top rope to the middle of the ring in a tremendous sequence. I also liked the smaller detail work like how when Kobashi applied the figure four headlock and Omori tried to break that once again Kobashi's strength was too much to overcome. So they effective made clear that Kobashi was the more powerful guy of the two. In the end, it looked like Omori might get the win, with one particular close call done exceptionally well, and Kobashi's facial expressions showed he knew Omori could have had that one. The sequence after that with Kobashi doing the rope-a-dope into the finishing lariat was outstanding. In losing, and in making a better showing than expected -- with two very specific and well-timed kickouts -- Omori got over quite a bit. This may be the best I've seen him. This may also be one of Kobashi's finest performances in terms of taking a lower-ranked guy through a match and elevating him even while still going over in the end. Lots to love. ****

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  • 4 weeks later...

This was kind of slow and hard to get into in the beginning as Omori isn't someone that I've ever really cared about. This builds up though and the crowd is absolutely nuts in the ending stages of this match. They did a great job of building the crowd up and Kobashi is impressive here as he makes Omori look like he is a great wrestler that can hang with him.

 

***3/4

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 7 months later...
  • 2 months later...

Yeah this was really good. Kobashi did a great job in putting Omori over, both in his selling and also being genrous with what he allowed him to kick out of (Orange Crush bomb, half nelson suplex etc). This was perfectly solid wrestling up until around the point where Omori landed the top rope kneedrop, and then it kicked into excellent territory. Love the axe bomber nearfall, I assumed I knew the result going in but Ive gotta admit I almost bought that as the finish. Really good match that overdelivered, Im keen to watch their CC Final match to see the next chapter in their rivalry.

***3/4

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  • 5 months later...
  • GSR changed the title to [2000-01-09-AJPW] Kenta Kobashi vs Takao Omori

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