[2016-03-19-NOAH] Takashi Sugiura vs Katsuhiko Nakajima

[GOTNW]

I've avoided NOAH like the plague since KENTA plague-the only time I ever think about them is when I wonder what exactly went wrong with the style. One of the theories I remember is that the AJ/NOAH guys took the style too far and nothing the new guys did could make the crowd care-but after seeing Zack Sabre Jr. get his matches hugely over in Differ Ariake I came to the conclusion the newer guys just have no clue how to build a match. This wasn't even the best example of that as most NOAH main events are structured worse than this one was-Sugiura vs. Shiozaki or Marufuji is just 30 minutes of repeating the same strike exchanges. Here you actually have something resembling a heat section-Sugiura has really great, reckless offence and Nakajima has improved tremednously at garnering sympathy. And they at times they really *do* get that heat from the remaining two thousand NOAH fans. But overall....the match lacks direction, and more than anything it lacks urgency. You get a spot, then a bunch of down time where nothing happens and so on, and it shows they really don't know what to do to fill so much time. The match created a lot of strong visuals and could be edited into a great highlight video-Nakajima being busted open with an unprotected chairshot in particular was something else. NOAH really does need a proper change. You can what you want about all the Sugiura and KENTA 2010-2013 main events but at least they had an identity. I have no idea whom this style is supposed to cater to. It's moving the style closer to New Japan's but just by taking away some of the tools the workers used to fill the time yet insist on the workers filling the same amount of time. Either slice 10-15 minutes off these matches or let them Dragon Suplex each other for ten minutes like they used to. There was at least a natural progression and structure in the style that required 4 finishers for a big match victory. **3/4