[2022-12-14-NOAH Sunny Voyage] NOSAWA Rongai vs Yoshinari Ogawa

[Ma Stump Puller]

Holy shit this match was LONG as anything, like 30 minutes long from me just eyeballing it. This is basically NOSAWA's big last singles match before he seemingly retires in the new year, we'll see if that actually is the case when it happens. As you might imagine this was basically a Ogawa carryjob (given NOSAWA sucked even when he wasn't 45 years old and carrying lots of wear and tear) so he dominates things with headlocks and the like while his opponent just kind of struggles to plod along with shitty punches or selling for the other guy. Most of the middle section is just Ogawa leading with arm work, which is as per standard pretty varied and probably the best part of this match as he finds a ton of ways to either bend or crank the arm in ways that you just don't see usually. Naturally this is all superfluous: NOSAWA just shakes it off after a few low blows to go into a ho-hum comedy spot with the ref: but in isolation, naturally it is quite good.

We get some real meh offence as NOSAWA goes for his own arm work; it isn't nearly as good or as interesting as before so it just feels weak all together. There's some more limb work in the form of leg work from Ogawa, which like before is really fun and unique, with him using the very structure of the arena alongside submissions to wear it down, alongside just booting it in places. As per the arm work before it's as good as it can be in these conditions. Doesn't help we get a long figure four spot that basically dragged the pace down even further. NOSAWA sells the leg like he's basically drunk: he can put weight on it but then shambles around like he's Giant Gonzalez when said leg is kicked, doing these cartoony punches on top of it so it just looks like he's had a few too many than anything to do with his leg fatigue. He eventually gets the advantage with some throat chops and a decent leg-slap kick after a pin attempt, but then goes for a limp kick to a kneeling Ogawa before somehow doing a worse one for a near fall. I would get them looking bad if this was in part due to selling the leg (so the execution looks dodgy, or at least has a excuse for it as he can't do the move 100%) but at the same time these are used for near falls, so if that is the case, it really isn't communicated that way.

NOSAWA falls though with a decent Shining Wizard and a cradle, but Ogawa holds the ref's hand to stop him from counting the three; this is a common spot out of him but it never fails to look cool. Ogawa then counters a second Wizard attempt into a figure four for the submission win. This wasn't great! Ogawa really tries all of his usual tricks to make this a watchable experience, but he can only do so much good if his opponent can't do a whole lot, and NOSAWA, well, can't. His selling isn't terrible when he's on the mat but his selling of the leg is dreadful and borders on cartoony at points. His actual offence throughout this entire thing was some strikes, a cradle spot he spammed four times over, and a Shining Wizard. That's it. That's all you get out of him. The rest is just him laying on the mat or bickering with the ref. It's just a really poor performance out of someone I've never really liked as a worker anyway, but this was especially egregious. The long post-match standoff between the two maybe suggests this was a Michaels/Flair (stay with me) kind of deal, maybe NOSAWA acting like the old vet who just can't go anymore and can only drag this out with his endurance; even if that was the case, it doesn't save it from just being a poor outing that does nothing for either man besides just showing how much raw effort Ogawa did on his side to make this at least watchable.