gordi Posted September 13, 2007 Report Share Posted September 13, 2007 So, it's going to be Samoa Joe vs. either Misawa or Marufuji for the GHC Title as the Main Event. I'm insanely happy about this, mainly because... I'm going to be there LIVE! I'm getting married in Japan in November... and my wife-to-be was willing to book my ticket so that I can be in Tokyo for the Budokan show before heading down to her mom's place. (We'll also be going to see Dragon Gate in Kyushu for their shows around the November Sumo Basho... which we'll also be attending). I know that it's trendy to bash Joe's wrestling lately... but I am quite sure we'll see some of the old Joe outside the confines of TNA. I know that Misawa is a broken down old man now... but I still got goosebumps just seeing him live for the first time in 2004, and I really hope that he's still the champ for the show, because seeing him in a main event title match would be a dream come true even if it's about a decade too late. Even if it turns out to be Marufuji vs. Joe, I'm still going to be pretty excited to see it. Between this, Loss' DVDs, and Danielson vs. Pierce at a local indy show... I'm becoming a flat-out pro wrestling fan again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Dog Posted September 14, 2007 Report Share Posted September 14, 2007 I'd say Marufuji has a 100% chance of not being the GHC Champ for that match. He was a pretty poor draw as champion last year and I doubt they'd risk pairing him up with a foreigner for this show. Plus this is Misawa's big last run. He's going to get 8-10 defenses in before losing the belt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeCampbell Posted September 14, 2007 Report Share Posted September 14, 2007 Yeah, unless NOAH wants to shock everyone by putting the strap on Joe, don't bank on Marufuji being champion. There's almost zero chance of NOAH running a Budokan with a poor draw vs. a 1st time outsider on top. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gordi Posted September 14, 2007 Author Report Share Posted September 14, 2007 Yeah, unless NOAH wants to shock everyone by putting the strap on Joe, don't bank on Marufuji being champion. There's almost zero chance of NOAH running a Budokan with a poor draw vs. a 1st time outsider on top. I agree, Misawa vs. Joe makes the most sense. I just don't want to get so hyped up to see it that I end up being disappointed if it's anything else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gordi Posted October 1, 2007 Author Report Share Posted October 1, 2007 The potential card has been announced: NOAH, 10/27/07 Tokyo Nippon Budokan 1. Akira Taue & Go Shiosaki vs. Yoshihiro Takayama & Takuma Sano 2. Takeshi Morishima, Mohammed Yone & Atsushi Aoki vs. D-Lo Brown, Buchanan & TAKA Michinoku 3. Jun Akiyama & Shuhei Taniguchi vs. Akitoshi Saito & Bison Smith 4. GHC Jr. Heavyweight Title: Mushiking Terry © vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru 5. GHC Heavyweight Title: Mitsuharu Misawa © vs. Samoa Joe Matches 1 & 3 are, I assume, part of the GHC Tag Title Tournament. Taue and Takayama laying it into each other should be quite a treat. Seeing TAKA bounce around for Mori will be cool, as well. It's nice to have two title matches on one card. I wonder if they'll toss in the Tag Title Finals as well. That'd make three! Misawa is my second-favourite pro wrestler of all time, and Joe is my second-favourite current US-based pro wrestler... but even more is the dream of seeing a world title defended in Budokan Hall as the Main Event of a big card. The cherry on top: the undercard booking looks to be way less random than usual for NOAH. I'm obviously pretty happy about this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Unholy Dragon Posted October 2, 2007 Report Share Posted October 2, 2007 Joe vs. Kobashi was a ton of fun, and super-intense. Even if Joe and Misawa hit half that, it'll be a good time. Really fun looking undercard too. NOAH's having a pretty good year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jingus Posted November 4, 2007 Report Share Posted November 4, 2007 So, Misawa vs. Joe is on youtube now. And no, it isn't even near half as good as Joebashi. Misawa looks terrible, like he caught mononucleosis in the middle of the tour. The match goes about twenty minutes, but literally more than half of it is spent sitting around in various holds. Misawa's entire offense consisted of elbows and rest holds at this point. I'm pretty sure I could count on my hands the number of bumps he took during the whole match, and still have enough fingers left over to make a bunny rabbit shadow puppet. Joe also looked nervous and tentative, like he was afraid to use half his usual high-end offense on the old guy; it was a far cry from his super-enthusiastic performance in the Kobashi matches. They also did that annoying thing where they went straight into the finishing sequence with no buildup at all. One second they're doing armbars, the next it's kicking out of musclebusters and emerald fusions, before the inevitable "Misawa pins someone younger than him with an elbow" finish. I'd heard about how broken-down Mitsuharu was now, but whoa Jesus I had no idea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Dog Posted November 4, 2007 Report Share Posted November 4, 2007 Well, what do you expect really? Misawa is really broken down and he needs the right opponent to drag something good at him or just be willing to stand in the middle of the ring and let him stiff the hell out of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Evans Posted November 5, 2007 Report Share Posted November 5, 2007 Joebashi? Damn you Jingus for making that name. Misawa/Joe wasn't horrible but it wasn't great. Misawa shouldn't be wrestling anymore. Or at least full time anymore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Dog Posted November 5, 2007 Report Share Posted November 5, 2007 Yeah, Misawa needs to be doing that special attraction 6-8 matches a year with maybe 1 singles match a year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Dog Posted November 5, 2007 Report Share Posted November 5, 2007 Also I thought it was fucking lame as hell that RoH did a time limit draw with 1 of the 2 matches that Misawa wrestled here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gordi Posted November 5, 2007 Author Report Share Posted November 5, 2007 Misawa was DEFINITELY hurt going into the match. Still, it came across very well from my seventh row floor seats. The crowd was fully into it, which I understnad didn't come across well on tape. Live, it was intense and it felt like it meant something... but Misawa was hurt, Joe was holding back a bit, and the ending was kind of abrupt. Still, it was a long way from being a terrible match. I haven't seen the online version, but I'm not exactly shocked that it was probably much, much better live. The GHC tag title match was great. It's well worth seeking that one out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jingus Posted November 5, 2007 Report Share Posted November 5, 2007 Obviously being there live is gonna make a huge difference. On tape, the crowd sounded subdued, like they only popped a couple of times. But I'm sure watching it in person there's an added electricity that just doesn't come across to someone watching at home. I do agree that Misawa needs to be doing the Baba/Tsuruta "graceful fade away into retirement via tag matches" at this point, if that match was typical of his outings now. I hope it was just a temporary injury, but he really looked terrible, way worse than in even the Morishima concussion match last year. Joebashi isn't an original from me, I've heard several people refer to that match that way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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