[2017-06-04-NOAH] Katsuhiko Nakajima vs Mohammed Yone

[GOTNW]

This is a battle of two kickers (well, Yone is a kicker when he's motivated enough to be one) on a Misawa memorial show, and you get exactly what you'd expect. Aside from the opening sequence, there aren't really any differences in the type of work throughout the match-they almost immediately get to striking at each other, with the intensity and urgence being the main difference depending on when it took place. They in their shots nicely, the control segments aren't huge, but Yone does get tangible control over the match and at point Nakajima just goes berserk, mounting Yone and just killing him with forearms, setting off the finishing stretch. Yone's Lariats throughout the match looked great, Nakajima is great at using his kicks as cut-offs (espeacially in the later portions of the match) and the double slap spot was very cool and almost surprisingly fresh. They managed to get the crowd invested in the match without forcing an epic or going needlessly long, which was probably the right call for a "smaller" title defence. ***1/2