[2022-02-12-NOAH Step Forward] Kaito Kiyomiya vs Yoshinari Ogawa

[Ma Stump Puller]

Not as good as their 2021 classic, but this was still really quite something to behold. A 40 minute match for 98% of wrestlers over 50 would be a very daunting task, but Ogawa just casually does it on a random B-tier show. he's been a pain in Kiyomiya's ass since he lost to the guy last year, being one of the few guys who can reliably stop him in his tracks, including a time limit draw last year. This defines Kaito as learning from those mistakes and adapting through given he easily sends Ogawa flying with a bunch of high-speed offence early on and quickly shows off his improved ring skills. Ogawa has to play every trick in the book to survive, pulling out some remarkable spots for his age and showing some insane cardio by keeping up with the young lad for the whole duration of this match; he could've easily pulled a NOSAWA or Muto and sat on the mat for most of it with super slow paced stuff, but they didn't do that here. Ogawa is also a master of working holds and counters, always making sense from a in-ring perspective but maintaining a good rhythm throughout that keeps the crowd engaged in the action. Seeing him somehow get a ref bump from a arm wrench on the ground by pulling him into the hold, or making multiple headlock takeovers fresh and exciting by engaging them in different sequences of counters when Kiyomiya tries to escape in a multitude of ways, either with eye pokes or big leaping headscissors is just genius pacing and a lot different from simply sitting in a hold for minutes on end; despite the start being mostly holds, it goes by incredibly easily.

There's also some great fire from Kiyomiya in the later halves as he endures Ogawa's tricks and manages to not just overpower him with his explosive strikes and offence, but he manages to finally outsmart the crafty vet at his own game, frustrating him to the point where Ogawa just openly kicks the dude in the groin out of frustration. While there's no real narrative for the start beyond Kaito being way too fast to handle, Ogawa eventually hones in on Kiyomiya's arm for leverage and works over it for a good duration here, with some pretty brutal work done throughout. As Kaito gets more and more fired up throughout this, enduring the submissions and firing back big elbows despite having one arm to work with, Ogawa has to pull out bigger and bigger moves to keep on top: hurling him out of the ring violently with a arm wrench toss, or slamming his groin into the ring post for a near count-out victory. Kaito eventually gets on top and Ogawa has to pull out some tricky counters to simply stay in the game, even calling back to his famous Akiyama 1998 sprint in places with spots taken directly from there in how he tries to creep some roll-up attempts: it all feels desperate, and the longer it goes on the more you can tell Ogawa is losing all control here and just resorting to anything and everything to keep a hold of things.

Eventually Kiyomiya has to go to new lengths to obtain the win, focusing on brutal Tsuruta-style jumping knees and most remarkably, using a Cattle Mutilation as the finish. Fantastic babyface work from Kiyomiya throughout as he balances vulnerability with pure Kobashi-lite fire when Ogawa is tormenting him, as well as some great mat-work and agility. I would probably grade their first encounter slightly higher, but this is still really well paced and worked throughout, felt nothing like 40 minutes. Gritty, nasty technical masterclass that perfectly showcases why both men are so well regarded, even if there's no big "spot" to really go crazy about. It's just a very lean match that manages to pace itself perfectly, which in the age of 30+ "epics" that slog along is a godsend. Really stellar stuff.