[2005-01-08-NOAH-Great Voyage] Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs Tatsuhito Takaiwa

[Vinnie B]

Pretty sure I've never seen Takaiwa before. These guys don't mess around at all. Four main segments each controlled by one wrestler then a brief finish. Takaiwa looked really good. His transition into control was cool - essentially just saying 'absolutely not' to any Kanemaru high-flying stuff, dropping him with a superplex and falcon arrow. His 6 powerbombs in a row looked awesome as well. Lots of high impact offence. I probably would have enjoyed this more in 2005, but I still liked it a fair bit. ****

[ohtani's jacket]

This was a good match. It was Takaiwa so there was some no-selling, but it was all in the name of high stakes drama. I've always had a soft spot for Takaiwa as he was part of some of the first matches I downloaded from the internet back in the days when it took 36 hours and several disconnected attempts to download anything. I love his unavoidable journeyman look that even a shaven head can't disguise and his earnestness to be the best possible worker that he can be. A bit like Kanemaru really. In this case like vs. like produced something good and gets the thumbs up from me.