[2013-10-14-NJPW-King Of Pro Wrestling] Shinsuke Nakamura vs Naomichi Marufuji

[Beast]

Watched the AXS episode featuring this and Naito vs Takahashi w/Barnett & Mauro commentary. 

I don't know the specific background leading up to this one; commentary claimed these two were partners in NOAH and Marufuji challenged Nakamura for the IC belt, but Cagematch.net shows they teamed one time. So I'm guessing this is just a unique dream match for this NJPW PPV.

Maybe I'm biased because of how disappointing the WWE run has been, but I thought Marufuji outshone Nakamura in every way. He dominated the match and if this wasn't an NJPW vs NOAH match, I'd be more annoyed that he lost. These two had fantastic chemistry for the first half with Marufuji's speed allowing him to counter just about everything, leading to a brutal piledriver on the apron early on. He works over Nakamura's neck for a while, but it gets forgotten about as the match goes on. I've also just watched the Danielson/Daniels RoH Round Robin match from '02 which is also built around neck work and this paled in comparison.

Marufuji tries twice to hit his finisher before finally doing so on the third try, but Nakamura still kicked out. Again, with the way the match was building and building (and the Shiranui happening after Nakamura hit his Bomaye from the top, but didn't cover), it seemed like the perfect end. Instead Nakamura kicked out, his his finisher again twice and got the win. Not a big fan of Nakamura's style and character; he's a natural heel but isn't booked that way here. The end seemed to tease this would continue down the line, but this was it as Marufuji didn't return to NJPW for over a year and didn't interact with Nakamura when he did.