[2023-03-09-NOAH] Chris Ridgeway vs Yoshinari Ogawa

[Ma Stump Puller]

Loads of fun: I love watching Ogawa singles matches because he mostly gets to show off his talent that you usually don't get to see much in the usual trashy tags he shows up in and it's still a ton of said talent despite the guy being 56. With the build from the Muto show I expected this to be a short brawl but thankfully we get a smartly worked match where the two got over their hate for the other while actually wrestling and not doing sloppy brawls on the outside and/or blading, because, you know, you can get over those things without the need to just do that all the time. Ridgeway isn't much look-wise however his wrestling is really sinister and calculated, focused around little mean moments like hair pulling to maintain momentum on a headlock or doing a inverse Dragon Screw to mess up Ogawa's knee. Ogawa sold great and really got over his younger opponent as being a lot to handle, ultimately only getting the advantage when Ridgeway tries taking him outside and exposes his arm to a few nasty stomps. Ogawa works the leg outside but not much comes of it as they mostly go for the arm instead. They threw in some heated stuff on the outside as the two threw each other around. The bit in the ring where Ogawa tries for his usual eye pokes and Enzuigiri counter only for Ridgeway to snap his leg into a ankle lock was really well done, as was him sticking it on the ropes for a vicious stomp afterwards.

The bit later with the Cravat holds into the arch and rolling Achilles Tendon was masterful, amazing old-school work right there. Ridgeway getting even meaner when he tries to break Ogawa's finger when he attempts a escape with his arm and forcing a rope break was also a solid addition. Ogawa's only chance is to focus on the damaged arm, but every attempt to do so is swiftly answered. The two steal stuff from the other as Ridgeway applies a figure-four and also stops Ogawa from trying to bend his finger in a nice little touch. Ridgeway even does a cool little modified version of the Ogawa Enzuigiri when his leg is caught, only it's a rad knee strike to the head instead. Last 2 minutes were tense as anything as Ogawa tried to pull off a upset with the usual Rat-Boyisms but Ridgeway just had him cornered with the bad leg and a few incredible technical reversals and a sustained ankle lock get the tap out. This was a pretty solid showing from the two that also really got over Ridgeway as a dominant technical force while showing how much he's learnt from his former mentor in how much he overtly pulled from his playbook here to get the win. Ogawa always brings matches back down to this really great WoS-lite format where holds and submissions actually matter, it's great. Definitely worth the watch; if every NOAH card just had Ogawa working singles matches he'd probably get something great out of all of them, somehow.