paul sosnowski Posted January 10, 2019 Report Share Posted January 10, 2019 Kaito Kiyomaya defends the GHC Heavyweight Title from Korakuen Hall in Tokyo. Talk about it here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tetsujin Posted January 11, 2019 Report Share Posted January 11, 2019 Kenoh was great here, his attitude and vicious offence added a lot. These two will be huge stars in NOAH in the next decade, they have the charisma and in ring potential, but right now they need to improve some things like short-term selling, escalation, or Kaito's elbow strikes if they wanna produce great big title matches. This was good, with even really good moments here and there, but not great in general. ***1/4. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nivvad Posted January 12, 2019 Report Share Posted January 12, 2019 One year to the day of their first title match, only this time their roles are flipped. I don't think I loved the match as much as their first, but it's damn close up there as a worthy rematch. I found Kenoh's work on top to be a little bland, but his comebacks and sequences were awesome to say the least. Kaito really grew up here as well as he finally took it to Kenoh with his own intensity. As I have said before this is the NOAH youth and its pretty great, ****1/4. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boss Rock Posted January 12, 2019 Report Share Posted January 12, 2019 This was good but definitely not on the level of their title match last year. While that match came off as urgent war between two guys trying to prove that they're the future of NOAH, this one felt more like your typical, slow-building title match. Really took a while to get going but Kenoh still brought a lot of violence with his kicks. In fact, Kenoh came off as a much bigger star in this match than Kiyomiya. Don't get me wrong, Kiyomiya is good. His offense is crisp and he's clearly athletic (those dropkicks were Okada-esque). But he still comes off as too much of a bland rookie when compared to the more fiery and intense Kenoh. Still, the second half of this match was a lot of fun and was filled with your typical big bombs and strikes. Just not their best effort. **** Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richeyedwards Posted January 12, 2019 Report Share Posted January 12, 2019 One year after their previous world title match in Kaito's first match back from excursion he faces Kenoh again in a big first test of the 22 year olds title reign. This was a great match. I really liked the match in which Kaito won the belt but this was a step up from that. Here they worked the whole match from go around trying to win, there was not that much of any wasted time as they worked a very back and forth match where they were going for big stuff from the off. Crucially however, they did not hit said big moves and would have to go back to them later, Kaito went for the Tiger suplex around just over ten minutes in, he kept going for it but only managed to hit it at the very end. I also liked how conclusive the finish was. Kaito survived what was thrown at him and managed to win by stringing together offence not just one big move, he did not take any of Kenoh's finishers because he simply avoided them, he did not allow himself to be in the position to be hit by them. There was no doubt that on this night that kaito was the better wrestler, there was no fluke about this victory just like how at this show last year their was no doubt that Kenoh won as he had knocked Kaito out. Kenoh was, as always brutal. His kicks and in particular one set of slaps elicited gasps from me. He attacked the neck and head of Kaito whenever he got on offence. The selling of both men was good throughout with the one exception of the apron dragon suplex being forgotten about just afterwards with Kaito shortly back on offence which I was not a fan of. This was a great match and the best one of 2019 so far must watch ****1/4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Makai Club #1 Posted January 13, 2019 Report Share Posted January 13, 2019 This really encapsulated the progress not only Kaito has made over the past year, but Kenoh too. Kiyomiya's offence in the early parts of the match looked so fluid and you could see the confidence Kaito now possesses. He is playing to the crowd, not thinking twice about doing something. He feels and looks like a champion now. Kenoh turned from a very good wrestler to a great one over the year, his chemistry with Kiyomiya has grew and so did his wrestling. The early parts of the match Kenoh began working on the ribs of Kiyomiya. Hitting nasty kicks to the ribs, jumping knees towards the region but Kiyomiya began getting to the match more and the two started to have more than a back and forth battle. They picked their spots to hit the big moves well, in my opinion. They didn't waste one big move after the other. There was tension, a struggle in everything they did. They built towards the big moments like the nasty dragon suplex on the apron and Kiyomiya doing the Emerald Flowsion and made them count. They matched each other and had a compelling match w/ striking, reversals and suplexes. Excellent contest. ****1/4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.