soup23 Posted November 29, 2017 Report Share Posted November 29, 2017 Burning and No Fear are all exploding in one match. Akiyama and Kobashi start off and Jun backdrops Kobashi 10 seconds in. The young punk has learned from his mistakes the night before. They stare each other down and get violent as the crowd erupts again. No Fear then gets a go and while it is a step down from the previous encounter, it is still pretty damn great with Omori winding up with his uppercuts and Takayama not holding back at all on his kicks. After an extended feeling out process from there with a nasty test of strength and Takayama and Kobashi having a go, Sterness takes over and goes to work on Kenta. Running knees for both members in the corner and sending Kobashi into the guardrails. Kobashi is able to reverse the guardrail attempts and hits chops to show he is pissed off. Omori is also worked over for an extended amount of time. This wasn’t at the tip top level of the tags we saw in AJPW in the 90’s but to me it was only a step behind and is actually comparable to something like the Burning vs Ogawa/Misawa tag from October 1999. Ending run is really heated and this is where some people may be divisive. Omori pleads with Kobashi to go for the Burning Lariat and then he takes it out on Kobashi. One Takayama German later and Takayama has pinned Kenta and No Fear is reunited. We get a backstage promo hopefully explaining Omori’s reasoning but it was pretty suspect. Either way, this leads to a great scene of a pissed off Taue coming out and having to be restrained from taking Omori’s head off. Backstage, Taue throws a trashcan at Omori and Kobashi is stomping around all pissed too. This aint ya mommys Kings Road. **** (7.8) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ohtani's jacket Posted June 3, 2018 Report Share Posted June 3, 2018 Well, this wasn't awful. It was perfectly acceptable meathead power wrestling. The match sagged in the middle as matches often do when there's a hot beginning and a hot finish but No Fear beating the crap out of each other was worth taking a look at. Then they staged another angle. I guess they are going for a 1980s All Japan feel with these chaotic finishes. Taue taking his shirt off has to be the least intimidating enforcer moment in the history of professional wrestling. And the backstage segment was weak. Taue threw the vending machine trash box at Omori and all these cans spilled on the floor. Listening to people step on them was grating and the entire thing was poorly filmed and poorly staged. It's not like they've had a lot of experience doing this sort of stuff so I can forgive that but there's no way that these are hot angles. Necessary perhaps (in terms of a different direction) but not great by WWF or CMLL standards for 2000 era booking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AstroBoy Posted June 30, 2018 Report Share Posted June 30, 2018 After the hot start this really lagged in the middle. These guys are familiar with each other, no need for a big slow feeling out process, particularly at this point of the Kobashi and Akiyama feud. The booking at the end was fresh to me and this NOAH booking has been just dynamic enough to set it apart. Plus that indelible image of Taue in stiff ill fitting jeans and no shirt. ***1/4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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