[2000-10-07-NOAH] Kenta Kobayashi & Naomichi Marufuji vs Richard Slinger & Scorpio

[soup23]

Probably a bit too long for what this was but overall it was again nice to see how progressed Kenta and Marufuji are becoming. Scorpio helps flash out the undercard of NOAH with an established veteran that gets the crowd behind him. I didn’t remember much about Richard Slinger besides always thinking he had the most boring look and name in existence but he was fine here grinding it out against Kenta and Marufuji with body scissors and other mat based moves that show dominance. He kept things moving along to not make the match too mundane. The ending run was strong in giving the rookies just enough offense while retaining that they still had some growth to go to defeat a team like Scorpio and Slinger. *** (6)

[AstroBoy]

Scorpio's antics help give the early moments of this some flavor and intrigue. He looks good and has great impact on both his standing moonsault and the flipping leg drop late in the match. Slinger was adequate but didn't stand out in any way, same with Kenta here. Marufuji I thought was the one who reached a bit too much here. He was a little sloppy trying to execute spots he couldn't quite pull off, maybe a little overzealous to bust out flashy offense. A couple nice nearfalls that the young guys get to kick out of but Marufuji succumbs to a german suplex by Slinger. Pretty much the definition of an average match.

 

**1/2