Ma Stump Puller Posted May 1, 2023 Report Share Posted May 1, 2023 Other Deep Dive stuff Introduction Ogawa is one of my favourite wrestlers ever, and while I'm really happy people have realised just how good he is in working smart and enjoyable matches, there's not a lot of in-depth GWE stuff out there for him! I've been stuck in for the last while with COVID, so I basically just sat down and watched a ton of Ogawa matches back to back lol. Mostly tried to cover NOAH from the more...forgotten years, namely mid 2010's, but there's some other stuff as well. Ogawa isn't someone who has epic GOAT-tier performances often, but consistently he's working at extremely impressive levels, which I hope to illustrate here. Don't expect this to be Complete & Accurate tier by any reasonable standard, but instead a wide assortment of matches that have generally fell under the radar for a while. I'll be ranking these matches on a grade of four standards: 1. Great (fantastic, must watch/MOTYC) 2. Good (worth watching, solid) 3. Decent (alright, does the job) 4. Forgettable (bad/not worth watching) This is more of a formality so anyone who's skimming these can get a quick synopsis of what to watch and not to watch without having to read through paragraphs or try to guess how good a match is based on other ranking systems. I'll try to pace out the matches being uploaded just so there's not a huge chunk being thrown on at once. ============ Atsushi Kotoge & Taiji Ishimori vs. Kotaro Suzuki & Yoshinari Ogawa (04.12.2012) This was marketed as the big return of Ogawa; he'd been under months of recovery after a botched Bison Smith Bisontenial badly damaged his neck in pretty terrifying scenes, especially given, well, you know. Ogawa would never be the same after the injury as he'd lost so much mass (presumably from not being able to work out normally/general inactivity) that he could only work Jr heavyweight matches from then on in, so this was set up as a debut match to get that over. The match itself isn't that special outside of that fact, I thought it was decent enough. They establish Ogawa as the big player with his vast experience, but Suzuki and co also get in the usual high-speed Jr sequences you'd expect and so this never gets down to a complete crawl. Ishimori and Kotoge have the dynamic of being two good acts by themselves, however not working great as a team as they regularly get outsmarted by Suzuki and co who have better chemistry. Outside of that though this just felt like a usual spotshow without much of a story or point to it; the stuff was cool but if you don't have anything there dramatics-wise to make it interesting I tend to zone out after a few minutes. Finish focuses around Ogawa being useful as he keeps Ishimori from getting in the ring and allowing Suzuki to get the win with a few big elbows after the spot work. Nothing that interesting here but if you like the usual big fancy Jr spots as per the style of the time, you'll get some enjoyment out of this. Ogawa is clearly still getting used to being back in a ring, he never looked overtly rusty and kept up well with the younger guys. RANK: Decent Akitoshi Saito & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima & Satoshi Kajiwara (09.02.2013) Kajiwara is the forgotten Kensuke student, probably because he wasn't really one but most people assumed as such given his deep connections to the Kensuke Office lads. He's not really much to talk about apart from some basic lucha hybrid work at half-speed Ogawa gets a bit of life out of a pudgy Nakajima alongside Saito going full gear with kicks, but inevitably can't go as braindead as his opponent in that regard. The bratty kids of Kensuke try to land Saito individually but he's way too big for either of them to handle for long, so they mostly go for double team dynamics instead. This works for a good while with some nice work until Ogawa is able to handle the two with some speed and snappy backdrops to even the score. The lead for the finish was pretty simple: Saito got it in for Kajiwara as they went for their own sequences, despite some (honestly pretty shoddy) stuff from Kajiwara, he got dropped after a Saito lariat, Death Cloak, and then a big Death Sickle kick for the pin. Pretty robust tag that was super designed around protecting Nakajima, which is fair enough given what they wanted to with him even this early. Kaji is the weaker link here both in kayfabe and in reality: he's fine, I wouldn't say he wowed at all here. Ogawa and Saito put in the usual work and didn't look half-bad getting the younger workers to something enjoyable. RANK: Decent Harlem Bravado vs. Yoshinari Ogawa (10.02.2013) You might know Harlem from his current work as Andre Chase in NXT. Him in NOAH is....well, certainly a weird thing to see (though unsurprising given the era we are in) but this wasn't terrible, namely because they focused on the fundamentals and Ogawa can wrestle those kind of matches while sleeping. This was focused around Bravado's youth and speed vs Ogawa's usual cheap tricks and nasty technical stuff, trying to get pins off bending the shoulder all the way in a hammerlock and pulling at Bravado's ears to get him off the top rope, just some really great classic bits on display. There's honestly not much for me to say: this was just a smartly worked small match with two very competent workers who got the memo pretty early. Ogawa makes sure to get Bravado over near the end as he bumps big for a lariat and other big bombs, including a nice top rope European Uppercut. Eventually Ogawa gets the advantage with his slick drop-down low blow when Bravado comes off the second rope, pushing him into the ropes and then kneeling down in order to literally trip the guy over for a sneaky Rat Boy special roll-up finish lol. Nothing special for this however definitely a fun watch if you want to see Chase do some actual solid ring-work for once, and Ogawa is obviously there to lead things along and make this better than it had any right to be. Good carry-job. RANK: Good Mikey Nicholls & Shane Haste vs. Takeshi Morishima & Yoshinari Ogawa (24.02.2013) TMDK? Babyface Morishima? It has to be weird pre-NJPW merger NOAH! This was a pretty solid tag, actually. Haste and Ogawa do some good sequences as he blindsides the vet with his speed, and Morishima is obviously the big threat here that TMDK immediately set about grinding down to the mat. Good news: this means we get some psychology! Bad news: it's more or less a excuse to sit in rest holds. Probably for the best as Morishima was steadily on the decline here due to his alcoholism and had lost a lot of muscle ; not quite as bad as next year where his matches are mostly sad EVIL-tier stuff where people are interfering every minute to disguise how little he can do but you can tell he's lost a few steps from his prime. The middle part is good as Nicholls gets beat down by the two for most of it, so Morishima doing big lumpy power moves and Ogawa doing mean Southern-style punches and brawling, always a enjoyable combo. Haste's hot tag is entertaining as shit as he just hurl himself all over the place to just lay it in for Morishima, and the two manage to really get over their superior teamwork by always having each other's back and knowing how to work off the other. Morishima of course powers though the two and even lands a top rope dropkick, even if it's a bit wiffed. Him and Haste have a big guy/small guy back and forth as Morishima just throws his weight around and Haste can do little but try to wear him down with his indie-riffic leg-slaps. Finishing stretch is good enough as Ogawa tries to get the sneaky win, despite Morishima's assistance he still ends up caught in TMDK's double team Tankbuster for the conclusive pin. Pretty solid stuff all round; even though this starts slow it gets good real easily, and TMDK are solid workers despite their tendency to overdo it at points with their stuff. Morishima was the usual lump he was around this time, he felt a bit more engaged and alongside Ogawa's varied and pretty slick pace, this was surprisingly great for the last half. RANK: Good Hitoshi Kumano & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Ricky Marvin & Super Crazy (09.03.2013) Cut up slightly as the first few minutes were missing on the TV edit. This was a early prototype of the later messy Stinger/whoever else rivalries as Ogawa and co face off against the Los Mexitosos duo, who were on a pretty long run with the GHC Jr tag belts at the time, even defending them in AAA. They immediately bully Kumano as he's the weak link rookie, getting some good mileage out of some nasty lucha holds to work the back. Marvin does a super sick rolling Mexican Stretch to really hammer in their dominance as Ogawa fails to tag in and keeps getting blindsided by the numbers advantage. Super Crazy was obviously a bit slow in places but did his job just fine if a bit off in places. Eventually Ogawa gets in regardless of the legal tag and runs wild with a good pace as he goes though his usual spots, but due to not being the legal man the ref is too busy getting Ogawa out to notice Marvin using his title belt to whip the guy in the face and steal a win with a roll-up. Nothing special for a undercard, I'd say everyone worked in some decent spots to make this at least somewhat decent, and it works to build up to later things down the line. Nothing really memorable about this though. RANK: Forgettable Takashi Iizuka & Toru Yano vs. Takashi Sugiura & Yoshinari Ogawa (21.04.2013) Good lord remember when Yano and Iizuka were GHC tag champions? Holy fuck that was the dark ages of NOAH, and sadly we are right in the middle of their reign, so this was as expected quality from these two. It was actually entertaining seeing Yano and co get blindsided for once as Ogawa and Sugiura immediately start beating the pair down hard, isolating Yano to take abuse by himself. The two get this going really well with a great burst of violence and some solid chemistry as they manhandle the CHAOS duo. Yano takes the advantage with hair pulling and this turns into the usual heel formula for the CHAOS lads as they turn this into a boring stretched out heat segment on Ogawa with lots of trash brawling and the like. I can at least say the crowd were into it and Ogawa was selling remarkably well, even if the ref just looked like a insignificant ass just standing there as the two cheated aplenty, even right in front of him. Sugiura's hot tag was crazy loud and he just abused and threw around Iizuka here despite the dude being all banged up by this point. The finish is the closest we ever get to a Ogawa/Yano singles match as the two exchange some surprisingly robust roll-ups, a extended backslide tease between the two allows Iizuka to run in with the Iron Finger, attack Ogawa, and for Yano to get the cheap win with said backslide. Nothing good here, I'm afraid. The NJPW guys are immensely limited and as much as I like Yano as a stupid tourney spoiler, he was pretty insufferable at this point given his limited ring-work and lack of actual heel heat for said antics, which were mostly cheap gags. That style works for a G1-style tournament; not for a daily week by week match standard, and Iizuka is.....washed, to put it nicely. Ogawa and Sugiura try to make this as solid as possible and it really felt like they were trying to showcase just how crappy their opponents were by contrast, but I can't in good faith recommend this. RANK: Forgettable Genichiro Tenryu & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Masao Inoue & Takeshi Morishima (11.05.2013) This was for Kobashi's Final Burning event, and of course it wasn't really all that serious given Inoue is here and mostly in the spotlight Tenryu is done physically by this point and can't do anything apart from hang on the ropes and a few punches, so this was all done to smart work instead of going full tilt, though that didn't stop Morishima trying to bust his hip with some of his huge spots. Inoue is great at his usual shtick as the match builds around him being a shit to Tenryu early with a sneaky eye rake on the apron and knowing he's fine because he has Morishima to fall back on, but of course the poor guy just can't keep it together to actually win a match so things quickly fall apart. Ogawa makes Morishima look like a complete monster as he just gets thrown all over the place, while he does the opposite with Inoue by bullying the poor sap for the most part. Inoue's comedy stuff is great, his selling is just so animated as he crumbles and falls over himself whenever there's even the slight chance of him doing something impressive. Him and Ogawa build up a second rope clothesline remarkably well as Inoue takes multiple attempts to land it properly, and when he does there's a good reaction. Despite Inoue even landing his goofy wind-up lariat, he easily falls to a Tenryu chop into Ogawa School-Boy for the conclusive pin. This was cleverly worked, but not that great unless you really like seeing Inoue comedy spots. Ogawa carried most of this given Tenryu was in no real condition to do much of anything, so that's a bonus. RANK: Decent Kyle Sebastian vs. Yoshinari Ogawa (17.05.2013) Cut slightly by about 3 minutes. Sebastian is a trashy Canadian indie worker who was picked up during the decline days of NOAH for only one tour, so this is fairly rare stuff. He does a silly dance sometimes and that's basically the gimmick. While it might work in DDT, not so much here. The start was generic arm work between the two and mostly there for Sebastian to get in some offence. The weird part is Ogawa's bit, which has him take control when Sebastian seemingly tweaks his leg off a leapfrog spot. From then on in Ogawa mostly takes control while Sebastian gets in the occasional bit of offence while no-selling the leg issues when he has to do his spots, typical sloppiness there. He lands some generic offence including a dropkick and a top rope crossbody, but despite his weak stuff Ogawa is still standing and keeps going back to the leg. This pays off in the finish as Sebastian tries for a flashy moonsault to dodge Ogawa's elbow in the corner but in doing so he tweaks it more and ends up stumbling to the floor, allowing Ogawa to snap on his Figure Four for the tap out victory. Nothing undercard showing and mostly Ogawa carrying with his pacing and general work. Sebastian isn't really that good (like, at all) for this standard of quality, feeling like a sore thumb by comparison. Didn't really get much from this at all. RANK: Forgettable Kyle Sebastian & Slex vs. Yoshinari Ogawa & Zack Sabre Jr. (30.06.2013) Pretty good for a opener. Slex is the guy most people know: Kyle Sebastian is a job guy they got from Canada. This is the first match where Ogawa and Zack are teaming up; they already have a fairly good connection given Ogawa trained the guy. Baby Zack is still iffy in places but him and Slex have a mostly smooth technical exchange, and Ogawa seems really energised here as he moves well and his stuff is fairly on the money to keep up with the faster pace. Slex and Zack by far have the best exchanges here though: these two really got something going here between Zack's slick technical pace and Slex's big bombs and spots. Sebastian's big thing was basically just spamming dropkicks, though he does do a cool moonsault at one point. Ogawa was the slowest, obviously, and he did struggle somewhat with the sprinty pace that this was going at, even if he was still quite good when it came down to it. They worked this into the finish as Ogawa couldn't get the job done and Zack's way too busy going at full tilt, ending up knocking out Ogawa with a Sick Kick attempt, allowing Sebastian to get a quick roll-up and the big upset. Ogawa shows his maturity by kicking Zack's ass post-match: for many tag teams this would be the end of their partnership, funnily enough this is just the beginning for these two lol. Good sprint, a bit too spot-focused and not much selling to find, but it did well in showcasing the shaky foundations of the Zack/Ogawa partnership as opposed to a more tight-nit duo, which will continue to endure for the next two years. RANK: Decent Roderick Strong & Slex vs. Yoshinari Ogawa & Zack Sabre Jr. (20.07.2013) Ogawa and Zack still aren't quite on good terms as Ogawa refuses to shake Sabre's hand during the pre-match. The starting sequences are good for separate reasons: Sabre has some nifty technical stuff and him and Strong work particularly well together while Ogawa has to eat shit as Strong destroys him with his signature hard chops. It's cool to see Ogawa try to do Kobashi spots where he's trying to push though the pain to try to get his stuff in, he's absolutely NOT Kobashi, he can't hit hard enough to do much of anything, and so he's sent all over the place and selling his ass off. Ogawa finally gets in something when he sneakily rakes the eyes on a pinfall attempt, but he has to quickly tag out after Strong threatens chopping him even more red than he already is. We get some miscommunication spots as Ogawa and Zack can't bring down Strong and knock each other over in the process, allowing the other duo to get in a big flying kick and Slex hurling himself over for a dive to the outside. Slex works over the back with some basic but fine enough stuff, Strong adds some great flavour with a big double Gourdbuster and nice strikes. They amp up the disrespect to really get the crowd rooting behind Zack as he bumps good and gets over the eventual hot tag. The hot tag sadly wasn't that hot as Ogawa's stuff is a bit meh; nothing bad by his standards but it didn't really have any fire behind it to really get anyone interested. I don't know what was up with Strong's arm as he kept looking at it multiple times: was he working injured or something? Not sure, but something was definitely up given he kept going back to it. Slex gets in to do a bunch of cool stuff before Zack jumps in for some awesome tricky counters and big kicks to the legs and arm to disable the guy and ground him for a armbar. Strong gets overeager as he runs all over the place to land moves while Zack uses all of the goofy WoS spots he can to keep him under control. I did like them reincorporating the miscommunication from before as Ogawa and co don't mess up this time, but Ogawa still gets mad when Zack can't get a proper roll-up applied lol. Strong and Slex have a awesome double team bit where Slex powerbombs Zack into Strong's knees in a nasty bump. Zack has to fight for the finish himself as he hurls huge strikes to save the day and catches Slex in a cross armbreaker/leg lock, forcing the tap-out. Ogawa is still mad post-match and beats his ass again as per standard. This was full of solid action and actual reliable selling as Zack gets a full showcase to essentially get over that alongside his technical work as well: he can be a bit insufferable in places with how little he communicates struggle for his bits, however he was tolerable here. Ogawa by design doesn't do a whole lot, but his work is also impressive for what it is as he gets over just how out of his depth he really was, and how dirty he had to get in order to survive. RANK: Good Masao Inoue vs. Yoshinari Ogawa (04.08.2013) Wasn't anything special but a fun little comedy match. Inoue is a guy I wish people would get a closer look on because he's really great at working ring psychology and knowing where to be a goofy idiot and when to get the crowd to rally behind him. He was never a "good" wrestler in terms of workrate, but that's not always needed to be a solid act. Him and Ogawa have a easy rapport that gets them a easy match as a result, based around Ogawa being a bully and Inoue being the underdog that has to rely on eye rakes and trying (and failing) to do moves. There's some great slapstick with Inoue getting his groin abused aplenty and stumbling over trying to get back in the ring to escape a count out loss when Ogawa tries to throw him to the very end of the arena. Inoue gets his shit in near the end with some clotheslines and a terrible shoulder charge from the second rope. When he tries again for one Ogawa just moves casually out of the way lol. It was cool seeing Inoue slapping on a rear naked choke, but Inoue is too dumb to notice that his shoulders are pinned to the mat and so loses the match. As I said, it's not really a workrate match: Inoue is way too gone for that: it's a functional comedy outing that never threatened being anything more than it was. RANK: Decent Jushin Thunder Liger & Tiger Mask vs. Yoshinari Ogawa & Zack Sabre Jr. (07.12.2013) Ogawa and Zack's first title win, and it's a pretty flush match! It was fun to see Ogawa as a hometown babyface against the NJPW invaders, and they do a good job in balancing the heat of the NJPW duo with some actual good ring-work alongside it. Liger playing the cocky heel also rules as well because, well, Liger. He works to mock Ogawa by stealing all of his usual Ratboy antics, so he targets his leg and just keeps at it with nasty holds and stomps, even borrowing his figure-four to try and add the ultimate insult by tapping him out with it. Tiger Mask IV kicks hard and.....well that's about it, really. Him and Zack have a good little dynamic with the young lad consistently getting beat around the place whenever he tries to save Ogawa from a particularly mean submission, but outside of that the guy is his usual boring self. Zack goes mad and does a double suicide dive for his hot tag and almost brains himself on the mat because of how crazy he is, thankfully went off fine. He sticks mostly to his usual M.O. of arm work, especially given Mask's bad arm is a perfect target for it. Him and Liger do a cool top rope Frankensteiner reversal into a roll-up, which was pretty nifty. The lead for the finish is good also as Ogawa leads one last charge against the duo, but he finds himself overwhelmed by their sheer numbers by this point and takes some big near falls to get the crowd hot, including a big top rope Butterfly Suplex from Mask IV. Liger arms one last big palm strike, but Ogawa snaps on a last-chance roll-up where he pretty much just throws every bit of force left in his body to try to keep Liger to the mat, and it works! He cheats out a big win once again despite everything against him. This suffered from a few issues: Tiger Mask IV is just not that good, for one: and there's some definite lulls here. That said, this was still a good late-Liger performance, and Zack and Ogawa are a really consistently flush duo that definitely deserved the feel-good win given how much they threw on the table here. Probably the first Zack/Ogawa performance that was properly good on both ends in terms of them feeling like a actual unit, though it also isn't the last either. RANK: Good ======= That's pretty much it for the first part until I finish up my watching. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ma Stump Puller Posted May 5, 2023 Author Report Share Posted May 5, 2023 Part 2. Forgot to rank some matches, will be added here. ========== Jushin Thunder Liger & Tiger Mask vs. Yoshinari Ogawa & Zack Sabre Jr. (28.07.2013) I actually forgot to watch this the last time; namely because, well, it's a four-minute brawl to a No Contest, then a reset, then the restarted match lasts even shorter at only two minutes. Not exactly the most memorable. I get why given Liger and co were the champs and you don't want a overt loss for the challengers to be later down the line, so this was about the only thing they could have done. So yeah, this was basically almost all just brawling on the outside until the ref counts both teams out, Liger gets on the mic to talk shit, and then the match restarts. Ogawa had a lot of fun just throwing hands and going for a big sprint here. The crowd are also uber behind Ogawa as even stuff like mask-pulling gets big chants from them. There's a great little bit where Liger throws Ogawa to the ropes to set up a palm strike, Ogawa stops himself, looks around for a second like "heheh not falling for that one" but then eats shit anyway when he tries running at the guy anyway lol. I don't know if it was a botch or a actual spot, but either way the two covered for it really well. Liger and Ogawa have a pretty heated back and forth where Liger just uses vintage Fighting Spirit to power though all of his usual tricks, however Zack gets involved to stop him getting the spinning powerbomb. He works the last minute with Tiger Mask IV and.....eh it's ok. Mask hits hard, but he struggles with Zack's weird WoS spots and there's one or more times where things don't look particularly smooth. They work the Zack/Ogawa dysfunctional duo dynamic into this as Mask gets the Tiger Suplex, but then lets go when Ogawa tries to break it up with a lariat, hitting his partner instead. Zack is out, and with a few kicks and a actual Tiger Suplex he gets pinned easily. Ogawa....doesn't kick Zack's ass this time and actually helps him to the back, so at least there's progress in that regard. Anyway, it's basically four minutes of a fairly tame brawl and then a semi-engaging sprint, so.....not really that interesting, to be honest. The Liger/Ogawa stuff is great (man why didn't we get a actual match between the two?) Tiger IV is his standard self and Zack is quite good, mostly because he's selling (which he's great at doing given how lanky and light he is) and doing fancy roll-ups, both of which he's quite adept at. Nothing great, but a alright build to the title match above. RANK: Decent Vs Hajime Ohara (16.09.2013) Ohara is a complete and utter dick but sadly he's a very smooth wrestler at the same time; it's almost frustrating to see such talent belong to such a scummy guy. They worked the first half mostly purely around hammerlocks and Ogawa doing his dirty antics what with pulling on the tights and trying for a sneaky early flash pin. This stuff was crisp and the two were familiar enough to make such a daunting prospect (doing minutes of hammerlock transitions...and making them interesting at the same time) quite easy to watch. Ohara finds his mark working on the lower back, thereby we have a pretty simple dynamic around the two going back to these respective weaknesses for the advantage. I did like how they incorporated said work into the match: we'd have moments where Ohara would struggle with a suplex due to his effected arm, or he'd hurt his arm off just Ogawa kicking out of something, but have to ignore the pain to try for the pin again. Despite Ohara's big backbreakers and signature Tres Fleurs submission being successfully applied to work on said lower back, Ohara has to resort to roll-ups when all of that fails to get the job done due to Ogawa's general ability to sneak out of stuff. We get a really solid minute of just non-stop roll-up attempts until Ogawa hooks the leg off a attempted La Magistral in order to get in a sneaky three count and the successful win. All in all I'd say this was pretty great; it's wrestled in the standard Ogawa-low impact style but done in a way that still really gets the crowd into it near the end. Ohara still manages to shine well with his mix of lucha and puro elements blending nicely to really get this to the next level. All in all, fantastic. RANK: Good W/ Daisuke Harada vs Genba Hirayanagi & Hajime Ohara (05.10.2013) Starts off with Harada and Ohara doing some feeling out, but of course Hira is here so this immediately goes into comedy-shtick mode. Ohara and Ogawa work quite well together with some lucha/hybrid work between the two, while Harada goes for a more conventional hard-hitting pace laced with occasional heel work by the No Mercy lads. Harada works the middle from under, but when Ogawa gets in he can only squeeze out a few of his signature spots before Ohara takes over again with some really cool modified backbreakers. Ohara sticks on his Tres Fleurs until Harada breaks it up, he still manages to counter a Ogawa Enzuigiri into a good-looking Backstabber. Hira comes in basically just to eat the pin as Harada and co beat him up a bit until he tries for his usual groin spots, then having Harada land his hip toss into knee spot into a German suplex for the finish while Ogawa keeps his partner from getting in. All in all, pretty decent undercard work, even if I think Hira really drags down these matches with his few spots and minimally good work. Ohara despite being a scummy piece of shit is sadly a pretty good wrestler, probably being the best here in terms of looking good with both of his opponents. It is what it is. RANK: Decent Now we are back on track! Felt harder than it was. Vs Atsushi Kotoge (23.12.2013) Smartly worked match where Kotoge's speed is paced against Ogawa's experience. Kotoge has some cool spots and plays the generic Jr act pretty well. Ogawa in turn spends the first half struggling to keep his opponent in check until he sneaks in his signature dropdown low blow when Kotoge comes off the second rope, and then focuses on his leg for the middle half. Ogawa goes from bumping and desperately trying for a advantage with cheating to confidently torturing the guy in holds, because, well, that's his best feature. Last third were just the two going back and forth with signature spots until Ogawa tries for a backdrop, but is instead cleverly reversed into a fancy rolling half cradle for the surprise pin. Ogawa seems pissed, offers a handshake; Kotoge tries to beat him to the punch but Ogawa just beats his ass anyway. It's fine for a build-tag to the BRAVE series later on next year, however I don't think this was particularly that great, with both guys playing it safe bar a few cool moments as per standard for a Christmas show. RANK: Decent Vs Mohammed Yone (05.01.2014) Yone is about as interesting as plain white bread at this point in his career but Ogawa drags him to something half-decent. I do like how they got all of his shtick over right at the start just to establish that as just not being that effective on a huge heavyweight like Yone, so Ogawa instead had to use some underhanded tactics and good arm-work to try to equalise things. I liked how they both established how much of a advantage it gave Ogawa as he went from being pinballed around to being able to throw around Yone and keep control despite the size difference. If you like Ogawa control sequences then you'd probably just love this given there's like nine minutes of just straight control work and Ogawa keeping in charge with whatever he can throw out. Yone does his Korakuen Hall brawling shtick as per standard, goofy running lariats and all. Last third was disappointing as Yone pretty much no sold all of the arm work just to spam lariats and then win off a Kinniku Buster for a no-frills finish. I don't get why NOAH had this epic fixation in trying to push Yone when his huge Disobey push already failed, especially given all he really has at this point is a cool leg drop and a decent lariat. He's just really not all that good, and probably half of the reason why this was so Ogawa-dominated. His stuff is good and he works at a logical pace, but there's only so much he can do with this lump. RANK: Decent Bobby Fish & Jonah Rock vs. Hitoshi Kumano & Yoshinari Ogawa (25.01.2014) Jonah and Fish despite both having some considerable experience in tag matches have almost no chemistry with each other whatsoever, but it was fun seeing Ogawa be the dominant Jr tag champ that had to carry the rookie against two fairly dangerous threats. Despite some shakiness by the rookie Kumano as expected, the Gaijin lads carried him though their stuff and he didn't seem all too lost at the end of it, even getting a few moments to shine by his lonesome. Fish is just there as a typical indie worker of the time (pointless limp kicks, unfocused wrestling style, etc) Jonah was still reliable if not quite all together there by this point. Match as a whole was ok enough: Ogawa and Jonah have a cool David/Goliath situation near the end that was definitely worth watching, honestly Fish kinda dragged it down with his needless focus on kicks, of which the finish was just him limply kicking him with the tip of his foot for a "KO" victory. Sure. RANK: Decent W/ Mitsuhiro Kitamiya vs Hajime Ohara & Kenou (08.02.2014) This mostly exists to get over the new pairing of Ohara/Kenou as this is actually the first ever match Cho Kibou-Gun (the stable NOAH gave Morishima so he didn't have to work long exhausting singles matches) will have as a definitive unit. This is also a lot more brawl orientated to get over their new heel antics, with Ogawa getting that over as he tries and fails to fight off the pair in a pre-match scramble outside. They hone in on his mid-section as their target of choice with a mix of punches, kicks, and even some weapon spots, using kendo sticks to ram it further. Ogawa sells well and mixes things up to work a more scrappy Memphis-pace what with a focus on lots of punches and strikes, as well as some really great scrappy selling in holds. They also focus on the shoulder for some fairly slow stuff, but it never gets to the point of blanking out of the match completely. Ogawa gets occasional pockets of offence with some nifty counters, however he's still beaten up anyway. Ohara throws out his cool backbreaker variations, Ogawa gets a tricky comeback and we get a surprisingly enjoyable Kita comeback as he throws meaty slams and even a top rope dropkick. He still gets beaten up though as per standard. Ogawa comes in to save the day a few times, including a really crafty little spot where he hip tosses Kenou into the ref accidently, which was one of the more unique ref bump spots I've seen. Ultimately Ogawa is way too busy beating up Ohara with a kendo stick to care about the actual match, which ends flatly with Kenou just applying a bog standard grounded clutch submission to win the match. Post-match is really chaotic as a ton of Jr guys come out to brawl before leaving. This wasn't ever that impressive, but for a "small things" match where there was more of a focus on getting a heel dynamic over rather than fancy spots, it did the job quite well. Ogawa puts the two over big and he never really feels in control even when he's on top, especially when he ends up getting beaten down anyway. It definitely felt like his assignment was to get these two over as heels given they'd have a title match in a month, mission accomplished in that case. RANK: Decent W/ Zack Sabre Jr. (c) vs Hajime Ohara & Kenou (08.03.2014) The start was good as Cho Kibou-Gun run the pair down with a ambush, with Kenou using the streamers to choke out Ogawa. The duo work over him for a bit until he's able to turn the tables by shoving Ohara into his partner and allowing for the quick tag out, but Zack by his lonesome can't handle the two so he also gets beat up. A lot of the first half is slower paced, focusing around the heel duo working the numbers game alongside cheating to keep control of things. Their work isn't explosive, but it's still solid enough: seeing Kenou work in some nasty stiff kicks and a springboard foot-stomp worked to get over their meanness. Zack sells well, and his little moments where he uses his technical experience to escape or evade offence were effective in showing that he wasn't just helpless the whole time and actively trying to claw back. Ohara is massively overshadowed by his partner but he's fine as the reliable B-player. Kenou already is pretty good, showing a lot of personality in how he gloats and messes with the pair, throwing in some cheating when things get too risky for him. Ogawa gets in his usual shtick, his experience lends well to the smaller things: his apron work in getting outraged with the duo when they cheat, his hot tag, and his big selling for Kenou all work to enhance the general match as a whole greatly once you notice how much he actually does. The middle half has Kenou get worked over with a range of suplexes before he's able to slip out of the two with his fancy kicks. Zack and Ohara have a dumb Jr-style sprint, but I thought it was pretty awesome as Ohara tried to keep things under control but got wrecked by Zack's crazy flips and submissions. Ohara's big shine moment of the match is doing these weird inverted backbreakers and shit that didn't look particularly great, but weren't terrible. Final few minutes have a ref bump and Kenou and co using kendo sticks with them even doing their own 3-count lol. Kenou gets bashed with the stick after Ogawa snatches it off him and Zack goes for a great Dragon Suplex and Sick Kick for a near fall. When Ohara kicks out they quickly scramble on the mat with Zack winning out with a inverted Fujiwara Armbar for the win. Pretty good for post-Misawa NOAH quality I'd say, with Kenou and co proving to be solid heel additions to the roster. Zack is a bit shaky in places but his submission spamming tendencies are kept to a minimum, instead being used sparingly to enhance the drama of the match. Ogawa kept things together and generally was as solid as he usually was, with a lot of good small bits to keep things going. The only big issue was that this was a heat-based match and this didn't have a lot of that, mainly due to the far bigger matches afterwards, but that's the reality of a Jr division sadly. RANK: Good W/ Zack Sabre Jr. (c) vs Atsushi Kotoge & Taiji Ishimori (21.03.2014) First match between BRAVE and the technical lads, and it's probably the most ambitious of the three matches given a lot of the early exchanges are just WoS sequence aping between the four men for a long while. Ogawa bumps for the two babyface flip dudes until Ogawa catches a kick off Kotoge on the outside and Zack hits him flush with a running apron kick in turn. From then on in the two control the pace of the match with lots of decent enough arm work on him, building up the hot tag. Zack is more conventional while Ogawa works more dirty antics, both are enjoyable in their own ways. Comeback is a bit weak with Kotoge randomly no selling after a dropdown low-blow to hit a calf kick, but Ishimori and Ogawa have a decent enough sequence where he runs wild with big spots until Ogawa throws him groin first into the ropes after a superplex attempt. Zack follows up with....more arm work! Shocker. His stuff was fairly good though as he twisted and bent Ishimori's arm in painful looking ways without it actually being that painful. Because of how light Ishimori is (keep in mind he's like 5'3 and super leaned out) Ogawa can just throw him around with ease, which is what he does via key-lock spamming for a great visual. Zack keeps throwing the guy in the air to wangle his arm more, and Ishimori uses that to get in a cool counter into a sunset flip in mid-air. The second half is more conventional as BRAVE go for spots while Ogawa and co start to settle for more impactful stuff. They play up Zack's usual tricky pins with the two babyfaces managing to get in some nifty near fall counters when he tries to get cocky and abuse his fancy mat-work. It's also really great how Ogawa incorporates tag psychology into things, spending a fair chunk helping Zack get submissions, setting up the arm for more work, interfering and brawling to protect submission attempts from getting broken up, like it isn't crazy complicated but Ogawa working proper teamwork into this is immensely refreshing as opposed to just running around. He works the last section as BRAVE are just all over the two with double team stuff, but he uses some smart counters to get around their speed. His hubris is his downfall as he lands numerous backdrops on Ishimori, but keeps delaying the pin to gloat and do more, and eventually he's is able to counter a fourth one with a flash pin for the upset and the titles. Post match has everyone shake hands until Ogawa just socks Ishimori with the title belt and busts him open hardway for a nasty look afterwards. Anyway, I thought this was fairly good: it lacked tension for a while but picked up once in the control sequences, with the spots paired up well with the intelligent grounded stuff. It's all paced around Ogawa being a shit and just not knowing when to quit, which has been his M.O. since forever. Zack is iffy but outside of his bad-looking strikes he was solid enough and worked well with the formula, especially with the faster duo where he could be a bit more creative. RANK: Good W/ Zack Sabre Jr. vs Atsushi Kotoge & Taiji Ishimori (c) (12.04.2014) Ogawa has been terrorising BRAVE for a rematch for the tag titles, so they ended up getting one while Zack noticeably didn't get involved with any of his antics. This match is a bit more chaotic because of that fact; there's some brawling at the beginning and things are generally paced around a more aggressive style as everyone gets involved trying to throw hands around. Ogawa spends most of the match selling and bumping for the BRAVE duo as they especially gang up on him, getting in lots of fairly decent offence. Ogawa is great as well as he throws in little moments where he'll just be a shit regardless of being on the wrong side of beatings. Zack gets in his usual weird mix of grappling with bad looking strikes, but he toned that down in favour of double team moves and more aggressive limb work, with a especially fun sequence with Kotoge's arm in danger from the two just bending and twisting it with a wide assortment of holds and spots. Not so much of a fan with Kotoge's really dull stuff; guy has a few spots in him but other than that it's just a lot of silly headbutts and the occasional big move. Ishimori's hot tag wasn't really that hot and his need for the big fancy spots does dull after a while. Will say him and Ogawa is a solid pairing as always, as is Zack as they battle for submissions against flash pins. Last five minutes were just a bunch of spots over and over, but I can't say it wasn't enjoyable seeing Ogawa pull out every trick in the book to try to steal this, and Zack's Chaos Theory variation into a Dragon Suplex was very lovely stuff. They repeat the spot from the first match where Ishimori counters the Ogawa back suplex into a roll-up, but that gets reversed into a cradle for the conclusive pin and the titles once again for the hotshot booking! This is probably the best match of the BRAVE trilogy: there's no big lulls minus the small brawl at the start and this never got crazy out of hand like the other matches ended up being. BRAVE are fine enough, I just can't get into the kind of stuff that they like doing, the wild spots with little psychology isn't that great after a few minutes and I tend to zone out after enough huge big spots are done back to back. Zack and Ogawa were reliable as always, with Ogawa especially getting some really quick and fluid work despite the dude being 48 here, if you can believe it. Zack looked good even if I always hate his leg-slap kicks he kept doing around this time; it'd still be a few years until he realised those just didn't go with his grapple-heavy style. RANK: Good W/ Zack Sabre Jr. vs Hitoshi Kumano & Super Crazy (20.04.2014) Fine enough for a opener. Kumano and Zack have a exchange that lasts for basically half of the match itself, working a lot of WoS-stuff as you'd expect, but Zack also is able to carry Kumano reliably though them and also get over the dynamic of the match; namely that his need to show off with more and more complex holds and transitions is costing him the advantage as Kumano focuses on reliable fundamentals instead. The middle work has Ogawa and co work on the head with a series of successive cravat variations, which I thought was really nifty for a control sequence and worked to their strengths without breaking the bank. Kumano gets a decent comeback as Ogawa bumps big for him and Crazy gets in to do his usual bit for a minute or so, moving well and getting good reactions with his spots. Zack and Kumano finish off with some basic work and even a few teases at a win for Kumano with some amateur-wrestling roll-ups, however Zack is just way too fast and experienced to be that threatened and quickly finishes him off with a half-Nelson suplex that Kumano just no-sells afterwards; not sure if that's just bad selling or what, looked goofy. Undercard match this definitely was, and it was fine enough as that: Zack gets to show off a good bit and Ogawa is as smooth a wrestler as per usual, so this was fine for a nothing showing. Crazy gets his stuff in and Kumano was fine for his experience level if a bit stilted in places. RANK: Decent W/ Zack Sabre Jr. vs Daisuke Harada & Genba Hirayanagi (27.04.2014) Obviously Ogawa and Zack aren't in much danger from the Jr goon squad of No Mercy and the match more or less is self-aware of that as Harada does generic hold-exchanges with Zack and Hira has to do dirty stuff to outclass Ogawa, but Harada quickly gets poked in the eye and dragged in the corner for some arm-work. The two do some cool joint control shtick, even having Ogawa do a modified jawbreaker using the arm as leverage (! ) which was awesome. Harada undershoots for a dive to the outside right after all of the arm sequence is done, but Zack is smart enough to still take most of the impact anyway by moving before the dude crashed on the outside. Hira working serious wrestling stuff is boring as sin, thankfully he isn't in for long. Zack lands one of his usual wacky running Sick Kicks to Harada mid-run, we get a Ogawa hot tag with a backdrop, but Harada counters the second and Hira interferes to bring things back in control. Ogawa and Zack both bump big for Harada and get him over, and he in turn gets to show off with a second rope double foot stomp and a funky hip toss into knee strike bit that was particularly cool. Hira comes in to do his weird DDT-tier comedy shtick all about balls and grabbing them...I mean sure? It's better than him working seriously so I'll take it. Ogawa gets his own back with the dropdown low-blow spot, Zack follows up with some truly terrible kicks (like these were especially bad, just woeful) before Hira catches one for a omega slow transition into a Dragon Screw. Zack looks much better when he's bending his hand off when he tries for a diving headbutt, and he bumps great for a top rope dropkick. Last minute and a half is just the classic "let's all just run in and do spots" routine, with it predictively ending with Zack tapping out Hira with his Jim Breaks Armbar after Hira tries escaping from a key lock. This match wasn't really that memorable, being more of a build-focused affair to Zack/Harada being a thing in a few months. Nothing here really grabbed my eye apart from some occasional nice moments, but otherwise it just felt a bit plain and by the numbers. Probably being a bit harsh here but this was so plain for the most part. RANK: Forgettable W/ Genichiro Tenryu, Shiro Koshinaka vs Hajime Ohara, Maybach Taniguchi & Takeshi Morishima (13.06.2014) Oh boy trio Cho Kibou-Gun matches, so enjoyable. Started off with a outside brawl (of course) while Morishima and Tenryu faced off. This matchup was awesome in 2005, decent in 2009, but in 2014 it's just really sad given Tenryu can barely get around with his busted hip and back, Morishima has completely declined from even last year due to his alcoholism. The first minute of this was just Tenryu leaning in a corner while Morishima struggled to climb up and land terrible punches, so you knew what you were going to get going in. And of course because this is a Kibou-Gun match there's endless interference, the ref doing jackshit, and general stagnation. I really liked how Tenryu sold with utter terror when Morishima tried for a early backdrop; he's not even pretending he's all cool about it now, he's just scared for his life and clinging to the ropes to survive. Morishima at least sells for the guy's still stiff chops and punches. Koshi was cool with a apron hip attack as well and seemed energised to be there. Basically this entire match is just Tenryu getting "worked" over with lots of laying in the ropes or laying down slowly falling to the mat. Someone more arty might be able to speak of the great struggle of age as Tenryu's spirit struggles against his failing body to battle against these three, but in reality it's just a lot of laying around and universal boredom. Tenryu finally gets the big comeback with a lariat and tag to Ogawa, who goes though his usual routine of bits. Koshi runs in for some fun hip attacks, great stu-oh wait Kibou-Gun just had another interference spot to slow this down again, joy. Finish has everyone brawl (well "brawl") and a cool trio spot of a Tenryu throat chop, Ogawa backdrop and Koshi hip attack and powerbomb for the win on Ohara. Basically just a nostalgia pop as Tenryu by this point could do barely anything but Baba-lean on the ropes and throw strikes but he at least tries to give the crowd something to bite on. Ogawa didn't really do anything special for this and Koshi was the only one who felt actually energised and ready to go, and his performance reflected that given how well he looked here. Heel trio were bleh, Ohara is bleh, Maybach is goofy, and Morishima is just sad to watch. Should be Forgettable but Koshi's superhuman efforts drag this up to something better. RANK: Decent ======== I'm watching a match with Kikutaro next time. Sigh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ma Stump Puller Posted May 7, 2023 Author Report Share Posted May 7, 2023 Part 3. ======== W/ Zack Sabre Jr (c) vs Atsushi Kotoge & Taiji Ishimori (05.07.2014) Ogawa's again been a little shit since rewinning the titles, so title defence happens here I guess. BRAVE are the generic high-flying babyface troop while Ogawa and Zack are the experienced champs who focus on their usual ground-game of matwork to try to edge things out. Ishimori is insanely light on his feet, him and Zack also have some solid chemistry that comes out well with their even exchanges: the bit where Ishimori tries for a big leapfrog and Zack springs for his leg mid-run is just so slickly done that it's almost unreal how fast they got that without any awkwardness or stupid telegraphing. He does a cool sliding moonsault to Zack on the outside, Ogawa in response just starts throwing lads into railings and/or the apron lol. The heat segment in the middle comes from Ishimori's bandaged arm being worked on by the pair with some typical stuff, so Zack goes for his bad strikes and fancy holds while Ogawa just generally has cooler and more effective spots to pull out of his bag. Also him just full on close-fist punching Ishimori while he's in a Cravat rules, more of that from wrestling please. Kotoge's comeback was generic shit, mostly just spots and superkicks, even if his big slide out of the ring into more stuff was cool. Ogawa bumps big for BRAVE but makes sure to get in the occasional counter or clever move to keep in the game like a flash backdrop or his cool dropdown low blow bit, stuff like that. Zack gets in his goofy kicks and holds with Ishimori and co; this bit was basically just tons of spots again with little actual meaning behind them, enjoyable but not much beyond that. Cool 450/Killswitch combo by the two for a near fall, Zack hits a Dragon Suplex on Kotoge for a no sell, random headbutt and second Killswitch gets the win and the titles back. Ogawa is pissed post-match and backdrops Zack, though they'd still team up afterwards. This was decent enough with some good bits in it, but a lot of this match just turns into really boring spot to spot to spot sequences without much tension or thought put into them. Some of the spots were cool but others just felt unnecessary, and Zack's tendencies to just spam as much as humanly possible without much rhyme or reason is felt immensely here: unlike in other matches where it was contained, he just let loose with just a wild assortment of shit being thrown at the wall and seeing what sticked. It felt like Ogawa's sections were the only bits where this felt cohesive and not just all about that. It's only really so high because I rather enjoyed what it was, even if it was pretty hollow; for a match with two teams with a big history and hate this just felt like a dime a dozen showing, and I really have to square that on BRAVE only for just not getting much fire out of this. RANK: Good W/ Zack Sabre Jr vs Genba Hirayanagi & Kikutaro (21.07.2014) Boring Kikutaro-style unfunny shtick for 10+ minutes, joy. I do like how Ogawa has none of this stupid comedy mess and just wrestles a regular match, just adding in more meanness by trying to take his mask off; it actually works, giving us a very rare look into Kiku without his mask on as he rages at the ref for not getting Ogawa off him. Probably the only funny spot was when Kiku got caught in a Tree of Wow and Hira tried to get him out, for Ogawa and co to trip him up and drag his ass right next to Kiku's face lol. Other than this could've been on any DDT undercard in the last 8 years and you'd be equally as unimpressed then as I am now, just lots of gross-out humor and groin grabbing. Finish was fun with Zack countering a La Magistral into his own roll-up to get the pin on Kikutaro to mercifully end this. It's a Kikutaro match, so automatically this is going to be low scored just because I don't think he's particularly that good at what he does. Ogawa and Sabre were all game to play along for the most though, so it was innocently bad at least. RANK: Forgettable W/ Mikey Nicholls, Shane Haste & Zack Sabre Jr vs Daisuke Harada, Genba Hirayanagi, Quiet Storm & Yoshihiro Takayama (24.08.2014) As per most eight-man tags this was a mess of people just coming in and doing stuff without much substance. At one point Takayama comes in literally just to do one move (a simple backdrop) and leaves; that's the level we are dealing with here. No Mercy beat down on Zack for the first half so that everyone gets in their shots, including Taka just dragging the lad outside to throw him into commissary tables and shit lol. Thankfully no one sold for Zack's shitty strikes so that was avoided, because oh boy some of them stunk here despite his best efforts. That's until Taka (of all people! ) takes a Vader-tier bump off a second rope Euro Uppercut that, of course, wiffed. TMDK came in for some fun Taka doubleteaming before No Mercy members caught up with them. They worked some house-show tier stuff with Harada and Hirayanagi that while entertaining wasn't that interesting ultimately. Ogawa finally got in one minute before the finish, and it was against Quiet Storm so erm, not exactly his shining moment. Hira works his usual comedy routine near the end as Zack and TMDK struggle with his special......groin grabbing. He gets bullied as you'd expect. Zack no sells a lariat to land a pretty bad PK for the pin, immensely flat reaction. Just par for the course for matches like these, there's some shtick but it's mostly just everyone working at half speed. Nothing interesting at all and I immediately forgot about it as soon as the bell rang. RANK: Forgettable Vs Jinzo (06.09.2014) ....the Yugioh card? No it's actually another future WWE guy (Cruz Del Toro in the fed) and this is his only NOAH run. Really robust sprint that barely went five minutes. This is about as close as you are going to get to a Yoshinari Ogawa lucha-match as he basically just went at full tilt for most of it, getting knocked around by his younger and faster opponent until smacking him with a punch mid-dive out of the ropes in a surprisingly brutal bit. Middle half is a quick control segment as Jinzo had his arm worked, he fought back, Ogawa even tried doing Misawa-style spinning elbows but got foiled with a big backflip kick. Jinzo does a awesome Coast to Coast dropkick while Ogawa was in the Tree of Woe position, looked sharp. He tries to out-speed Ogawa with spots until he gets nailed with the dropdown low-blow spot, and from then on in it was just a matter of backdrop, armbar, and a funky abdominal stretch reversal into a Nishimura-style cradle for the easy roll-up win. Nothing crazy about this, just a easy to watch opening match that went by in no time, probably because again, it wasn't that long. Quite enjoyable and both men worked well with the other, not much else to add. RANK: Decent W/ Masao Inoue vs Daisuke Ikeda & Mohammed Yone (21.09.2014) It's the battle of the wonky Engrish tag teams as "Mohammed Bombers" (unfortunate) fight against "Establish one's Styles" (???) in a goofy little match. As you might imagine it's a very Inoue-paced outing with him mostly being in the ring getting beaten up by the two. It was fun seeing Ogawa be the babysitter having to get Inoue though everything, trying to motivate his ass to actually try but of course failing massively. The comedy was enjoyable and we did get some decent work near the end with Ikeda and Yone being his usual janky self with big lumpy leg drops. There's a especially good bit near the end with Inoue setting up the lariat with his usual arm spinning, but Yone takes so long to actually get up that he hurts his arm doing it lol. Despite Ogawa's best efforts Inoue just can't get anywhere, and he eventually falls to a Kinniku Buster by Yone. Obviously this wasn't going to have any seriously great moments in it, however for what it was, I think it overdelivered in that regard. Everyone did their roles well and even though it was obvious that Ikeda was taking a big day off here, he still puts in at least enough work to not drag this down. Kinda a shame that he was working at such a low pace here and busting his ass elsewhere in Fu-Ten and the like. RANK: Decent W/ Pesadilla, Super Crazy, Zack Sabre Jr vs Hajime Ohara, Hitoshi Kumano, Kenou & Mitsuhiro Kitamiya (08.11.2014) Everyone else on the card is working the Global League, so this is thrown in the death slot as the random Jr heavyweight eight-man outing before the big matches. Only lasted nine minutes thankfully. Sadly they wrestled this in such a way that the guys who actually can wrestle worth a damn (Ohara/Kenou) refused to wrestle the first half, leaving the random rookie Kumano to get worked over. Ogawa and Zack have a solid control sequence as they bend and twist the arm in all sorts of ways, Ogawa especially playing up the dynamic by dragging Kumano's arm over to the two to tease them about refusing to tag in, dangling it like bait on a line. Eventually Kumano gets a comeback with a dropkick and Codebreaker and makes the hot tag....to Kitamiya instead. Him and Super Crazy don't work well at all as we immediately get a flub, otherwise Crazy just does his usual spots with no real input from the big guy. Pesadilla is a generic lucha-act that's only here because Crazy is his uncle and basically got him a spot as well; he's really unremarkable in the ring aside from some generic bits that really don't stand out a whole ton and he quickly falls into the background. Kita gets in a big comeback with two big spears on him and Crazy, landing the hot tag to Kenou who literally does a single kick before everyone just runs in to do signature stuff and brawl to the outside. Ref bump, Kenou and co use the kendo stick, but Pes dodges and Ohara eats it instead. We get a cool spot where Kenou uses the stick to trap his arms together so that Ohara can then land a running double chop before Kenou finishes Pes off with a fairly limp Dragon Suplex for the win. Fairly nothing match that was mostly there to get over Cho Kibou-Gun as asses, which you knew already. Rookies were a bit off but otherwise were decent in their roles as the whipping boys of the troop, Ogawa and Zack are probably the best out of the bunch here as they got some dedicated time to work their usual stuff into things while also really throwing themselves into getting over the heels as well when it came time for them to do so. Sadly I think this just wasn't worth the watch ultimately. RANK: Forgettable Vs Mitsuhiro Kitamiya (16.11.2014) Easy rookie squash for the undercard. Ogawa masterfully works this around the headlock for the first few minutes, actually making headlock takeovers and counters into headlocks look impressive. Honestly and not even kidding I'd say Ogawa is one of the GOAT's when it comes to working a headlock; he knows how to crank the hold when it matters, he never gives up position easily, he has a few nifty tricks to keep applying it, like he gets so much out of so little that it's actually crazy; this alongside the 2022 Kaito match are like the peaks of headlocks in wrestling in my mind. Kitamiya doing dropkicks and agile stuff was crazy to see given the brawling conventional work he's far more inclined to do these days. He's got a mean spear and a cool Cobra Twist variation in him as well, who knew? Ogawa gets the guy super over as well as he wiggles and struggles to keep control with Kita throwing and hurling the guy around despite his best efforts, he even counters the backdrop into a crossbody. Kita's mistake is trying for another one as he ends up getting rolled up into a really good School Boy where Ogawa just throws all of his weight on to really make it look as effective as possible: it also got over just how desperate he was to finish this as quickly as he possibly could: a stark contrast to the start where he was hanging around in a headlock and toying with the prospect. Really solid for a no-stakes match like this, Kita is already quite well-ironed and Ogawa really works with him to get a solid performance here. Can't lie, majorly impressed. Ogawa really loves his rookie squash matches it seems. RANK: Good Vs Hiro Saito (Dradition 19.11.2014) I'm adding the promotion here because this is one of Ogawa's rare indie outings outside of his full-time NOAH commitments. Saito was obviously way beyond being able to actually hold his own in a match bar the very basics and a senton (I mean the guy was 53 here) so Ogawa had to drive this as best as he could, and we get a....more or less Dradition-tier showing as per standard. The first half was really slow protracted 80's style where they just grabbed holds and occasionally threw a strike to make the audience wake up. The two work a competent pace in that style for sure and there's some decent bits if you are a fan of that, but with Saito's lack of speed it just doesn't work for me at this point. Saito got to get his spots in as he runs over Ogawa with his scrappy brawling and looked fine, I guess. Ogawa had to cheat for this 50+ year old, which was definitely amusing if anything at all. I did like Saito getting his own back by just spamming eye pokes to spite the guy. Saito does a second rope senton, which was impressive for his age and wear and tear.....and that's about it for spots as Ogawa rolls him up when he shows off for the crowd. Pretty much just nothing, but if you like the more slower style that Dradition has and/or can enjoy Saito slowly beat someone up, this is probably for you and only for you at that. I found this pretty dull, more or less just Ogawa bumping for a vet until the finish. It's a bit annoying to see him only wrestle Saito and not someone like Fujinami, which would have been a interesting prospect. RANK: Forgettable Vs Naomichi Marufuji (23.12.2014) Was bizarrely amazing?? Maru was currently the big champ after nearly a decade and so he wanted to further put his stamp on things by beating his old tormenter in the form of Ogawa. For me, Ogawa is one of the few guys that can make Marufuji matches actually work for the most part (instead of just mindless spots and bad kicks, usually both). Sadly after some enjoyable early exchanges of holds we go right into Maru's usual clutches as he spams his chops, thankfully this is cut short as Ogawa leaves the ring and teases going altogether until he can try for a cheap shot; he's not playing Maru's game of standing around and trading. Maru gets caught with Ogawa's signature dropdown low blow when he comes off the top rope, and so Maru then leaves. Ogawa like a shithead doesn't stop the ref from counting but actually encourages it to try for a cheap win lol. We get more comedic shtick even with Ogawa working the bad shoulder of Maru, including arguing with the ref and using the ring bell to rattle the guy. The actual meat is really quite good as Maru gets thrown around a lot, but you can tell that Ogawa is desperate to keep control with lots of key locks and other nifty holds to ground this down to the mat, as well as anything dirty he can muster to keep Maru away from his chops and kicks, his most dangerous weapons. His stuff is especially scrappy as you know he's especially threatened by getting turned into red meat by the chops, which they establish early as vicious. When Maru explodes later on in the match with a few kicks Ogawa is spooked, quick to react with as many backdrops as possible to try to end things quick, but inevitably his best attempts only get near falls. It's really great to see how they showcase that loss of control as Maru just keeps pushing and Ogawa keeps trying to wrench the arm, but it's just slowly getting less and less effective as he pushes though to that exact breaking point where Ogawa's arm work isn't even getting anything done, he's just scrambling for nothing at this point, Maru has completely out-psyched him. Maru uses flashy stuff but it's to progress that exact point instead of just being there for the sake of it. Finish was fun as Ogawa tried to get a desperation roll-up but got outsmarted and rolled up himself for the pin. Really refreshing to see a logical Marufuji match where he doesn't look he's half-assing it; despite the comedy-driven start this got super solid quickly and we got to see a more protracted pace out of him where he had to think about things beyond "what's the next big thing I can jump off/flip?". That's all thanks to Ogawa who makes the match work as the crafty vet who only has his smarts to rely on alongside a not exhausted assortment of cheap tricks and his wide range of holds to try to save his ass from impending doom. It's the first match here deserving of Great status in my mind. RANK: Great W/ Hitoshi Kumano & Zack Sabre Jr vs El Desperado, Taichi & TAKA Michinoku (18.01.2015) The beginning of Suzuki-Gun being a consistent plague on NOAH cards for the next few years, yep this is not the stuff at all. We start off with Kumano getting bullied, but Zack ties TAKA up in knots as revenge with some cool arm-work alongside Ogawa until Taichi uses a chair to smash Zack with while he's coming off the ropes and cement their early advantage. The trio work the middle half on Zack with the usual comedy heel sthick, which while fresh right now will quickly get tired and old given it's the same shit you will be seeing from them from here on out if you bother watching back this far. Despy is nothing like his amazing later self: instead being a slow, pretty plodding heel who doesn't really have much to interest in terms of moves or anything, really. He doesn't even bother to wrestle without a shirt on. TAKA and Zack have a alright back and forth as Zack apes some Saint spots to try to get the better of the guy before just going for his strikes instead. Ogawa's hot tag is awesome as he attacks the trio, gets Taichi pissed so he can drop-toe hold him onto TAKA's face, and then throws Despy right out of the ring in a big bump. TAKA eats a backdrop/eye poke and Enzuigiri, but lands a flush calf kick in response when Ogawa tries to capitalise. Kumano comes in for his 30 seconds of shine before the heel duo cut him off: I thought there was at least some drama with Despy getting caught in a few amateur-wrestling style roll-ups, but then he gets ganged up on, Despy lands a terrible spear before doing his old Guitarra de Angel powerbomb to finish things up. For a introduction to the Taichi/TAKA/Desperado trio it does the job, and Zack and Ogawa basically hard-carry most of this given the heel trio are far slower and resort to just goofing off than trying to win the match most of the time. Kumano is the obvious fall guy for them; I'd say he looked fine for a generic rookie and had some good fire in the end stages. All in all, alright but never got properly good, mostly due to the slow middle and general lack of interest. RANK: Decent W/ Hitoshi Kumano vs Hajime Ohara & Kenou (24.01.2015) This was mostly to establish Kumano as a rising star, which is unfortunate given how his career goes. He still looked solid enough for a rookie and the Jr tag champs are generous enough to give him some room before dominating the middle half with the usual heel in control routine. They have some good stuff as they belittle and try to break down the rookie with deliberately basic moves like a single leg Boston Crab and the like. Ogawa gets in for a short hot tag before Ohara manages to tag him with a good tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. Cool seeing Ogawa be the one in danger as Kumano has to break him out of particularly dangerous holds. Kenou is awesome; explosive offence, but he also gets some big bumps, super animated in a good way. Cho Kibou-Gun pull out the ref bumps and usual weapon spots, but Kumano manages to of course escape from a kendo stick beating, and Ogawa gets some good reactions finally getting his own back with a few of his own to the pair. Stellar finishing stretch as Kibou-Gun pull out some brutal double team spots until Kenou gets the win with a running PK. Really quite high quality for a B-show as Kumano got to show off just how solid he was, and unlike a lot of Kibou-Gun outings the heel control work actually was varied and good for once, keeping a good steady pace without defaulting to just sitting in holds forever. Ogawa is more or less the glue that keeps everything on track as he works for the big comebacks and gets the rookie some good breathing space to shine for the crowd while throwing in his occasional bits here and there. Very well put-together, quite solid. This compared to the last match is night and day. RANK: Good W/ Zack Sabre Jr vs El Desperado & Takashi Iizuka (08.02.2015) Oh boy another short Suzuki-Gun match, sure hoping the quality is going be go-oh wait Iizuka is here never mind. It was funny seeing Ogawa and co attempting to do clean and measured arm work on the guy as he shambled around until he got a eye rake and Despy ran in for interference. Ogawa sells for ages as the duo do some typical lazy brawling and heel control shtick. Desperado is as crappy as usual with his long side headlocks and eye rakes, each taking turns to be the most overused in this whole thing. Ogawa eventually gets a decent comeback with a DDT and Zack runs wild with uppercuts and a fancy springboard kick. Big brawl, Suzuki-Gun lose via DQ after Iizuka gets the iron claw out and starts poking people with it. Dire, dire stuff. I don't know if I can even hawk any Iizuka matches in good faith with all of this shit under the surface. RANK: Forgettable W/ Jonah Rock & Zack Sabre Jr vs Hide Kubota, Masashi Aoyagi & Yasu Kubota (11.02.2015) Oh shit Masashi Aoyagi randomly showing up for a NOAH opener, cool stuff. He showed up for NOAH stuff for a bit as this was supposed to be his retirement year but in classic wrestling fashion he was still working cards until his sad passing last year. Kubota brothers are the usual plodding selves. Ogawa and Zack work their limb-targeting routines on them until Ogawa gets caught with a flush dropkick, and we get him vs Aoyagi! Actually this bit ruled, Ogawa got his ass kicked by Aoyagi's still sharp kicks and had to use a DDT to escape his wrath. Zack works against the Aoyagi twins with strike exchanges, which he inevitably loses. He gets worked over until dodging a top rope senton splash, with Jonah getting the hot tag and the win with a corner splash to both of them, a cool lariat, and then a really-off Flatliner for the pin, was a flat finish for sure. Anyway, it was fun seeing Aoyagi do his stuff, even if he was pretty old by this point and restricted to basically just kicking stuff hard, which fair credit to the guy, he can still do that very well. Everyone else puts on a competent performance, even if I think this was yet again another Zack/Ogawa carry given Jonah was more or less only here for the very end and the Kubota twins weren't really doing it for me as typical sleazy indie guys with baggy attire and less than interesting work. There's a better Aoyagi match coming up soonish that I think is WAY more valuable than this, needless to say. RANK: Forgettable ======== Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ma Stump Puller Posted May 9, 2023 Author Report Share Posted May 9, 2023 Part 4 ========= W/ Zack Sabre Jr vs Katsuhiko Nakajima & Mohammed Yone (22.02.2015) I actually did dig the start of this as Nakajima and Zack had a few minutes of slow grappling. It wasn't anything special, but Nakajima actually looked good with his shoot-ish stuff given his weird MMA background and Zack got to twist him around in WoS fancy spots and the like. Yone gets jobbed out as Ogawa grabs his leg mid-run for a cool ankle lock set-up and so him and Zack go to town on that thing. It's amusing seeing Yone, who had just a few years ago beaten big main eventers, was a co-leader of a stable and even drawn with Kawada (well 2010 Kawada, but still) had now been reduced to being dominated by essentially two Jr heavyweight guys, which is typically a no-no in hierarchy-based feds like these. Ogawa and co do some pretty standard limb work, with great cut-offs of the ring and them occasionally having Yone break out with strikes before just scrambling for his shitty leg again, and of course this ends badly as Ogawa's hubris to try to overpower him with punches goes badly. Nakajima gets back in for some usual kick routines, but him and Zack have a nice little exchange, with the highlight being Zack doing a based Shiga-style tornado DDT into armbar. Yone comes in to basically just get his ass kicked more as his leg gets wrecked again, but he gets to do some lariats and a kneeling kick eventually, as well as landing the finish with a Kinniku Buster on Zack for the big pin. Pretty robust midcard outing: Yone is pretty useless as he usually is but he's thankfully mostly not doing much of anything, so instead we get to see the guys who can actually work, well, work here. Nakajima doesn't really go far out of his usual ballpark at the time, landing big kicks and mostly just sticking to that. Ogawa/Zack are a solid duo as always, with some really snappy technical stuff between them as they focused on working smart against their higher-up opponents on the card. RANK: Decent Vs Hajime Ohara (27.02.2015) Yeah the presentation looked like this took place in some random ass warehouse/local theatre they hired out for like, 2 hours at best. The footage looks like shit, the camera is fixed to the middle, and the match takes place on a stage with literal boxes littering the background view to the ring. It honestly made this even more funny to watch as the match itself was fantastic. Ohara is a Lucharesu guy and Ogawa is a nerdy British Catch worker, so the two naturally clashed here with a lot of grappling, bizarre moments of Ogawa and co being tied up in four different directions, and generally a solid pace that never let up. This doesn't have any magical big fancy spots to get you hyped up, but as a straight-forward grappling session it was tremendous, and because of Ohara's skill we got to see Ogawa pull out some really nifty British-style holds and cranks to get the job done in contrast. It really felt like these two went basically "fuck it" and went all out with a uber protracted pace to try to mix things up. Ohara spends most of this on top via working the back, and Ogawa has to crawl back into this with his usual smart counters and work to try to take back the match. Ogawa sold especially well here as he just made Ohara look great, bumping big and animated for his work whenever he was in charge. They somehow make the Backstabber as a move look devastating as well. The last few minutes are entertaining enough Ohara looks really confident going into a possible win, but his big Tres Fleurs is foiled as Ogawa rolls into a reverse Victory Roll for the spoiler win. Despite Ohara again being super scummy he and Ogawa do have a solid match for what it is, and while the second half is more conventional and loses the fun dank indie-feel of the first half, it's still good enough to be quite well regarded in my mind. If you want a more strictly technical match out of Ogawa than even his usual assortment of stuff, this is definitely for you. RANK: Good W/ Katsuhiko Nakajima vs Mikey Nicholls & Shane Haste (08.03.2015) Basically a short TMDK outing to get them over. Ogawa had some really enjoyable sequences with the two revolving around holds and counters to said holds, as well as selling well when he was on the backfoot, justifying his antics later on in the match; both guys get a lot out of him despite the match only being 10 minutes long in total, definitely some solid opening exchanges. Nakajima kicks hard. We got some nice work in the middle half as Ogawa pulls out the old dirty antics, namely some brawling, full on stomping on Haste's face, and bunching up his hair to then pull it all in one go. Nakajima shockingly does some stuff other than stiff strikes as he sells for Nicholls' hot tag after some minutes of getting worked over. Ogawa and him have some fun interactions as Nicholls had some truly goofy bumping, literally jumping out of the ring after getting hit with a low blow and flinging Ogawa in the air when he tries to kick out of his backdrop. Finish was a bit messy as everyone just ignored the rules and started doing stuff regardless of who was legal; Ogawa manages to almost get a comeback via dual eye-pokes and a near fall School Boy after dodging Nicholls' lariat; he tries to snap for another via a headlock takeover, but instead gets impressively powered up into a Mikey Bomb for the finish. Good stuff for a undercard; even the fairly one-dimensional Nakajima actually did more than the usual shtick he just endlessly tries to get over, namely that he kicks hard. TMDK seemed energised and Ogawa was definitely the MVP with how he got both guys into enjoyable sequences. Not necessarily a amazing match for the workrate, but mostly for the great pacing between the goofy B-show antics and the serious stuff. You really get to see how Ogawa got his rep as a ring general from material like this. RANK: Good W/ Jonah Rock, Super Crazy & Zack Sabre Jr vs Captain NOAH, Katsuhiko Nakajima, Mohammed Yone & Taiji Ishimori (15.03.2015) Captain NOAH's debut, so you know this shit stunk ass. Jado is about as mobile in 2015 as he is now, so you get generally really bad slow-mo wrestling while everyone bumps around him because he's the booker and so no one wants to cross him proper. Other than that this was basically just a dull house-show match with as many people as possible to stuff the card, but with only 10 minutes for a 8-man it means you can't have any story outside of movez.....and this was mostly just that alongside the comedy stylings from the mind of Jado, so erm, about as solid as you expect. Ishimori gets the pin on Crazy with a 450 Splash, the only impressive spot of the match. Dogshit, fresh and pure. RANK: Forgettable Vs Super Crazy (28.03.2015) One of the descriptions for this match on Cagematch described this as "two tricksters who want to curl each other in different ways." and I really love that description so I'm using it here. Ogawa works his usual strong and steady technical work while Crazy uses his lucha technique to outpace him in turn, so the match is basically those two going back and forward for control as two clever vets trying to outclass the other. Outside of Crazy sweating buckets here (seriously, does the guy have a problem or something? Even just laying on the mat he's sweating up) his stuff was flush and never went that over the top for lucha standards, even if he was never going to sell the arm long-term that Ogawa was focusing on for most of it. He does wiff a second rope moonsault though pretty badly near the end. Ogawa gets blasted for most of the second half until Crazy tries for three moonsaults (each from the bottom/mid/top ropes) the third being dodged. Crazy plays dead to try to snap Ogawa up for a roll-up (a trick he's used in the past to steal wins) but Ogawa simply plants his hands down to catch the shoulders mid-transition and steals the stolen win. Nothing special about this but there's a lot of fun work here for a nothing undercard. The two don't really click specifically well though, bit of a shame. RANK: Decent Vs Dragon JOKER (Tenryu Project 03.04.2015) Probably the match of the night, to be honest. JOKER and Ogawa spent the first five minutes just rolling on the mat and doing slick technical work until Ogawa started pulling out his old Rat Boy tricks to work on the arm, then we got some brawling, turnbuckle smashing, and Ogawa being a dick by stomping on the exposed shoulder of JOKER with some nasty targeted work. There's some cool little bits like Ogawa using the ref to balance himself during a sunset flip attempt or doing a weird reverse key lock with arch that I've never seen someone do before. They got a ton of mileage out of Ogawa doing his usual control sequences, namely with a lot of motion, action, and never sitting in one hold for too long. You see JOKER closely get edges (a few strikes here, a counter there) until the big explosion of offence with a masterful spinning heel kick out of a roll, which got a big reaction. JOKER gets his own back by grabbing on a corner rope-hung armbar in the corner on Ogawa, and we also get a ton of really frenetic back and forth stuff as Ogawa keeps pulling for the arm submissions to try to keep control of things, but then getting screwed because JOKER now also had his own counter holds, etc. Despite kicking out of two big backdrops, JOKER quickly gets caught in a tight armbar that he simply can't escape from, forcing the tapout. This was a pretty simple structure, but I think it really held up, with the change of scenery helping with a fairly compact crowd really getting behind this. No small part to Ogawa, who works a masterful job making most of the grinding and fairly unimpactful technical stuff look fantastic, while JOKER also does his part to make this solid with his fluid bumping and incorporating that arm work into his own stuff later on as well. No shock that we'll see this guy in NOAH a few years later as a day 1 Stinger ally, this time unmasked. RANK: Good Atsushi Kotoge, Katsuhiko Nakajima, Naomichi Marufuji & Zack Sabre Jr vs Brian Breaker, El Desperado, Shelton Benjamin, Taichi & TAKA Michinoku (19.04.2015) Very very messy Suzuki-Gun paced match, but that's obviously going to be expected from a bloody 10-man tag. This had Jr heavyweights randomly assorted with some heavyweights in the form of Breaker and co with not a lot of actual sense put into it. This is also partly a build match for Ogawa/Zack's title shot against TAKA/Desperado, so they get that over as soon as possible by having TAKA get beat down by the two with some cool double team arm work. There's some fun house-show style spots like Benjamin's scoop slam being so full of beef that TAKA and the lighter guys on the apron jump for it and fall off the apron, as well as Taichi goofing off with a hammer, alongside Desperado and co calling everything a "Axe Bomber" from a back elbow to a big boot lol. Breaker is a lump who does next to nothing, no idea how this guy was earmarked for the Fed with such a unremarkable look; all this dude does is ape Steve Williams; he's most definitely not Steve Williams, either by his roid belly or with his shoddy wrestling. Other than that, predictively this was mostly Suzuki-Gun dominating over Nakajima, who does a dropkick and hard kicks like he basically always does, because he's just so, so bland, especially around this time. Maru is in to do lazy chops and try to get his lariat over, but naturally you'd never buy him actually doing much with it so it just goes like a wet fart. Taichi and Kotoge get their impending title match over with a small exchange that's of course not that good as neither man was exactly having epics around this time. Finish has everyone come in for a messy brawl, ending with Kotoge beating the odds and catching Taichi with a flash pin off pulling his trunks for leverage to a remarkably loud pop. Despite the finish, the match itself was really bog standard lazy B-show stuff, with some people here not even tagging in like Desperado and the like. Fine of previews and as a build match, but as a result of the structure this was always going to be messy: the fact the match itself focuses a lot on guys like Breaker and a lazy Maru definitely don't help things. Weak stuff. RANK: Forgettable W/ Hitoshi Kumano & Zack Sabre Jr vs El Desperado, Taichi & TAKA Michinoku (25.04.2015) Same match from the January 18th show, only with slight changes, like Zack/Ogawa working the leg of TAKA instead of the arm, and Kumano is the one worked over in the middle half instead of Zack. Heel antics were funny in places (like they took turns doing these really goofy stomps at one point on the poor lad) but you know, it's the same match, so like, not much to really mention. The NOAH guys got more shine as Despy jobbed to all of their stuff, ultimately it ends with the same finish: Kumano tries for roll-ups, but he gets caught and pinned. Same match, only I'd say this one might be a bit better given the shorter length and not as much focus on slow heel control segments, always a bonus. Still a lazy rethread though. RANK: Decent Vs Genba Hirayanagi vs Masashi Aoyagi (26.04.2015) NOAH would occasionally do these goofy triple-threat matches for their smaller shows, so here is one of them. They wrestled the old fashioned formula of "one guy leaves and the two in the ring do a regular match" deal, though they also played around with that concept by having Hirayanagi be a little shit trying to double team on people and/or leaving to let the other two beat on each other, both to absolutely no success. He'd get the occasional move with someone before they'd beat his ass as well. Ogawa/Aoyagi is fun as the two exchanged strikes, Ogawa mostly doing the selling. The finish is simple as Hira throws Ogawa out, but he silently sneaks back in to snap on a School Boy and steal the win while he's getting the crowd amped up. Fun comedy sprint that was pretty innocent; everything went off well and while this is basically just a bunch of 1 v 1 matches rolled into one, it's sturdy enough with Hira's goofy comedy alongside Ogawa/Aoyagi being the serious guys trying to beat everyone around them up. Enjoyable for what it was. RANK: Decent W/ Atsushi Kotoge & Zack Sabre Jr vs El Desperado, Taichi & TAKA Michinoku (30.04.2015) Suzuki-Gun shtick is never that interesting, but I guess this was alright for a 10 minute jaunt. The heels did their usual standard rudo act with lots of brawling, belt shots, and selling for the babyface natives when push came to shove. Ogawa had to sell his ass off for these goobers and he did so in his usual standard great way, always getting the initiative for the hot tag while getting over their threat well. His Hogan-lite comeback with the finger pokes and pro-style punches wrecking all of the heels was enjoyable enough. Kotoge gets in to do all of his big spots as the heel trio fail to take him down, and this basically just devolves to everyone brawling until Desperado's chair attempt is missed and we get a cool Zack/Ogawa combo with a backdrop into half-Nelson suplex, with Zack snapping on the Article 50 reverse Fujiwara armbar for the quick tapout. It's decent for what it was (even though the NJPW guys were lazy as shit) and a quick and easy watch. RANK: Decent W/ Captain NOAH, Mikey Nicholls, Shane Haste & Zack Sabre Jr vs Brian Breaker, El Desperado, Shelton Benjamin, Taichi & TAKA Michinoku (19.04.2015) Basically just the exact same match we got on the 19.04.2015 show, only they replaced Marufuji with Jado so predictively this wasn't very good, though we get TMDK for Kotoge and Nakajima, better trade. I thought Zack and Ogawa going for cravat work was cool, as was Ogawa dragging TAKA down to the mat and punching him while in said hold, which is always cool regardless of it being repeated as a spot like four times at this point. Zack also gets fancy with rolling cravat holds as well to keep this fresh and interesting. Good chunk of this was dedicated to just mindless Suzuki-Gun style brawling and the same spots from the last match, even down to Zack being the man working from under for most of the middle half. I will say that Nicholls makes Brian Breaker about as good as we've ever seen him, and that's definitely something given the guy isn't exactly top quality. They finish with Captain NOAH doing a shockingly cool rope-hung DDT and making Despy tap out in the Crossface, but with a ref distraction, Taichi using the tag belts as a weapon, and a shitty frog splash, he quickly jobs as a result. All in all, same match as before, wasn't impressed then and I'm certainly not impressed now. RANK: Forgettable W/ Zack Sabre Jr vs El Desperado & TAKA Michinoku (c) (10.05.2015) This is for the Jr Heavyweight belts and....yeah as you'd expect this is a rather iffy match. Desperado is years away from the performer he will become and TAKA is more than content doing the bare minimum, so I felt like this didn't have a high bar going in. The first 5 have Zack and Desperado do some basic technical work, mostly around Zack being able to dominate with his WoS-shtick, but he also throws in some little bits to shake it up here and there that aren't just random bad strikes out of the blue. Desperado really isn't much to talk about and he mostly spends the beginning selling for both him and Ogawa as they focus on his head with cravat-variations. TAKA gets in and that same thing happens, only dual arm work instead. This goes on until Zack is tripped up from Desperado and dragged outside, meaning it's time for the BS slow brawling section. Ogawa works from under as Suzuki-Gun gang up on him, I did enjoy how he throws out the occasional punch or kick to really struggle, surprisingly gave me Hansen-lite vibes off it with how scrappy he tried to make it. Such a shame though that TAKA and co just stink the place up with boring "heel" wrestling and control spots, you've seen these a thousand times over and they still aren't that interesting. TAKA and Ogawa have a goofy exchange over eye pokes, with a counter neckbreaker and Enzuigiri giving Ogawa the hot tag to Zack, who follows up with equally goofy Euro uppercuts and his limpy kicks with no force behind them. He also does some contrived arm work, teasing a tap out from a Northern Lights/cross armbreaker transition but then having Desperado interfere. TAKA acts like his arm is broke from the hold....but it's a ruse, him using it to get a eye poke, a superkick, and then a Michinoku Driver. Desperado does the only good move he's done all match with a regular frog splash, which gets the win. Lame, which is a shame given the Ogawa/Zack duo could do quite solid matches but keep getting crummy opponents who positively refuse to have good matches with them. TAKA phones it in, Desperado is pathetically lazy around this time, the fact these two were even champs at all tells you the dire, dire state of NOAH in this state, at least the Yano/Iizuka pairing were a bit unique. RANK: Forgettable W/ Jushin Thunder Liger vs El Desperado & Taichi (09.06.2015) This was pretty much by the numbers for the Suzuki-Gun Jr guys. Ogawa and Liger as a duo is incredibly intriguing but it doesn't really factor into this much; they don't have any cool moments of double team work or dynamics, mostly keeping to themselves. The match itself is fairly simple: the Suzuki-Gun guys work heel shtick, Liger and co get comebacks and fun stuff in turn. Liger spends a good portion of the early section trying to get Desperado's mask off but gets wacked with a chair and so has to work from the bottom again. There's a good amount of trashy brawling that adds nothing but it helps get some heat on this match as Ogawa has to play the frustrated hot tag who keeps inadvertently giving the heel guys the advantage by distracting the ref when he gets outraged about their cheating, because they just end up cheating more when he does that lol. Liger can do this kind of match sleepwalking and it feels like he is as he mostly sells low-key for them and spends most of this on the floor. Ogawa's hot tag is solid as you'd imagine and him and Taichi have a fun chemistry that lets them get away with some goofy sequences. Desperado is mostly featureless bar a really cool Vertebreaker variation near the end. The finish is gimmicky as Taichi tries to use his GHC Jr heavyweight belt, but hits Desperado instead and Ogawa capitalises with a roll-up, so it protects those two while letting them take a loss. All in all, pretty by the numbers. Taichi is most definitely a required taste at this point and time as he was immensely limited, and Desperado is just as lazy a worker as he's always been throughout these watches. The match was a fun little outing but I can't help thinking Ogawa and Liger were wasted here given how by the numbers the whole thing felt. RANK: Decent W/ Genichiro Tenryu & Yoshihiro Takayama vs Masao Inoue, Naomichi Marufuji & Yuji Nagata (13.06.2015) I wonder who's taking the fall, such a mystery Cool to see Tenryu for his last NOAH match before retiring: unlike some of the other matches in earlier years it seemed like he was in good shape....well, good shape for a ex-sumo of 65 with decades of wear and tear anyway. It was a bit of a slog when you had Nagata and Taka in doing really dainty kicks to the other, and there wasn't ever a big moment where this got heated. Inoue was fun as the guy taking most of the beatings; if you like his sort of comedy then this'll definitely be a positive. Tenryu despite barely being able to get around without a big weightlifting belt and one hand on the ropes at all times is still a all-timer when it comes to facial expressions, strikes, and making every small thing he does matter. The way he brings some of his old self back to really put over Maru as his successor when it comes to sharp ass chops was a nice touch, and probably the closest Kobashi-impression I've seen out of the guy yet with a ton of vulnerability on his part. Shame about the terrible rolling wheel kick right after to Nagata though, but I don't think that can be helped, the dude's 65. Seeing him struggle to land a lariat without falling over was a bit depressing. After that we get a lull for the finish as Inoue comes in to tease a win, but of course things go badly wrong and he quickly gets blown up by some triple teaming, a sloppy Taka knee and a big Everest German suplex for the finish. Outside of the Tenryu stuff though no one really was doing much interesting, shit Ogawa was in this for maybe a minute at best and just hung around on the apron most of the time lol. If you are looking for GWE Ogawa in action then this is a bust, but as a late-Tenryu showing I think it really worked and gave us the last proper stiff exchanges left in him before hanging up his boots. RANK: Decent ========= Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ma Stump Puller Posted May 14, 2023 Author Report Share Posted May 14, 2023 Part 5 ========== W/ Masao Inoue vs Akitoshi Saito & Shiro Koshinaka (19.06.2015) Ishingun never die!!!! Match was alright. Ogawa was doing petty bullshit to really put over Koshi's big hip attacks when he got control, which was a nice touch. I thought the two had a good rapport throughout, going for a WAR-style scrappy pace with not a lot of holds and more focused on strikes. Inoue spends ages predictively selling his ass off for the pair in the middle half, crowd bit into the comedy routine well and he got some good reactions. Eventually Ogawa and co get the advantage with eye rakes and Inoue actually does some moves, including his terrible lariat. Tag psychology kinda goes out the window near the end as Inoue just...stays in for the last half despite Ogawa being there for the tag all the time, he just doesn't go for it for some reason. Koshi does a good top rope hip attack, Saito ends things with a Death Cloak and a Death Sickle kick for the finish. Easy undercard that didn't really threaten much in terms of quality; it was all about Inoue for the most part so things were mostly going at a mild pace. I feel like Koshi and Ogawa could probably have a good singles match though, even if this late in the game. Ogawa babysitting Inoue is one of the funnier random pairings of this time, so if that's your thing then this'll do the trick like the rest of their outings. RANK: Decent Vs. Minoru Suzuki (01.07.2015) Was dreading this but then realised that this was still around the time that Minoru was actually having good matches. The theme of this event was "Suzuki-Gun vs NOAH" (every singles match was a NOAH native vs one of the members) and the main follows the same as the plucky vet steps up to the invading NOAH champion. This was about the only year left where Suzuki was at least tolerable, even if this title run was WAY too long and actively buried half the roster in the process. To rag on something else for a bit, Ogawa's best matches ever come from dragging guys who typically have conventional formulas into unconventional situations thanks to him. Think of his infamous Kobashi GHC match where he turns the whole thing into a melodramatic heel/face dynamic. Think of his Kakihara match where he takes a shoot-style guy and drags him into his catch-wrestling game. Like these, Ogawa drags Suzuki into playing by his tune. This starts off with some minutes of early grappling, with Suzuki surprisingly being on the backend as Ogawa is way too tricky to handle and keeps getting around his stuff to focus on the arm; Suzuki isn't really used to Ogawa's tricky transitions so he struggles to keep up because Ogawa isn't going by the usual rules of a Suzuki match where the person either tries to out-shoot or out-strike him. Suzuki cheats by using the ropes to trap Ogawa's arm for a rope-hung cross armbreaker spot, one of the few times where it didn't seem contrived. He gets the advantage with brawling and also focusing on the arm, mostly either with stiff kicks and strikes. Ogawa's selling is solid as he takes a beating from Suzuki who dominates with submissions, trying to crank and break the arm and hand and not giving a inch. Ogawa gets a comeback with his punches and usual counter-heavy style to get in his usual spots when things got too hairy. First half was enjoyable, the second is amazing. They had a solid pace going for the last few minutes as Suzuki kept trying to break Ogawa down but would keep getting caught in some really amazing flash pins that were built around countering Suzuki's most obvious moves like the sleeper and Gotch Piledriver, with Suzuki flying at points with how much he was getting outfoxed: Ogawa's gameplan was to basically catch him out in the process with one of these, which makes sense given how much of a advantage it gave him earlier. They don't work of course, and Ogawa gets caught in a nasty rear naked choke after a big backdrop, having to use the ref as leverage to escape the hold and survive; while he caught the champ off guard, Suzuki is a quick learner. He actually puts in tangible effort with his own stuff, including a dropkick (! ) and he has a awesome spot where he deadlift-counters a Small Package attempt with a front guillotine. Ogawa can't escape and Suzuki can wear him down just enough for the piledriver this time, getting the win. This started simple but turned into a fantastic Ogawa-style sprint by the second half, with tons of intelligent counters and flush work in general. Seriously top-notch stuff despite the length, if you can find this please give it a watch. Easily one of Ogawa's MOTDC, but Suzuki was game to work as well despite the rather unconventional style this ended up being. RANK: Great W/ Super Crazy & Zack Sabre Jr vs Akitoshi Saito, Mikey Nicholls & Takashi Sugiura (10.08.2015) I actually thought this was quite high-bar for what was essentially a C-show sprint with no stakes. Zack and Sugiura have some decent rolling on the mat and submission exchanging as Sugiura is way too relentless despite Zack's best attempts to escape and/or apply his own holds (including a double ankle lock reversal) Crazy and Nicholls have a slower, more comedy-driven sequence as Crazy got underestimated and Nicholls paid for it, and Saito/Ogawa was Ogawa having to outpace the bigger Saito with his speed and experience. Zack sucked with his stupid limp kicks (especially seeing he was doing them to Saito, who could absolutely blast him out of the water) Nicholls and him have a more enjoyable pace revolving around counters into pins and vice versa. It was cool seeing Sugiura (the biggest star here by far) be generous enough to be the guy bumping for the three near the end, especially Crazy with his usual good lucha-spots to boot. Everyone runs in at the end to do their signature bits: despite Crazy throwing on some near fall roll-ups, he eventually falls to Sugi doing a crazy Frankensteiner out of literally nowhere for the quick pinfall. Enjoyable undercard outing where everyone got to show off their work and be home quick at the same time. No one was really the weak link (apart from Zack's terrible PK's grrrr) and it felt really compact for what it was trying to do. RANK: Good W/ Masao Inoue & Yoshihiro Takayama vs El Desperado, Minoru Suzuki & Takashi Iizuka (19.08.2015) A match built around a forgone conclusion, however it wasn't that bad, even though the Suzuki-Gun antics made this unbearable in places. Brawling was decent as everyone got their licks in before Ogawa sold big for the heel trio as they did their usual stuff. Suzuki tried to add in some limb work but lol Iizuka ain't doing nothing to that leg, he's all about just choking spots and making the ref look like a ineffective ass. Taka comes in for the "hot" tag but this is 2015 Taka so it's all just terrible slap-clubs to the back or a Butterfly suplex, take it or leave it. Poor guy can't even do a PK without struggling, I just feel bad for him at this point. Him and Suzuki do a striking exchange that ends with Taka winning, Inoue comes in for a lariat for a near fall. It seems like he's finally going to do it as Ogawa and Taka beat up on Suzuki for him to just sweep in and finish the job...Suzuki grabs a sleeper out of his attempt to snap on a backbreaker and that's basically it for the guy. Despite having Inoue in the match, he's not actually doing a whole lot beyond the start (to fumble around) and finish (AKA to job) which was a shame. Suzuki-Gun antics are tiring and Suzuki was just in complete auto-pilot here, not as bad as his later NJPW and indies stuff but still poor; watching the singles with Ogawa to this was like two completely different wrestlers. Despy was shoddy as usual and Crazy Izu was pretty much just there to cheat. Ogawa was probably the best in terms of selling and actually getting over stuff in the match, though with a old Inoue and Takayama at his very worst that's not exactly a high point. RANK: Decent W/ NOSAWA vs Kendo Kashin & Kenichiro Arai (02.09.2015) Time wasting to start off with.....awesome. Arai's gimmick is that he's a alcoholic, essentially. Poor taste and something you definitely wouldn't get away with now? Very much so. That said, him and NOSAWA have a surprisingly half-decent fish out of water sequence. Ogawa definitely carries him in the technical department when they face off. Arai stumbles around and uses that to his advantage to confuse his opponents; it's basic stuff but looks fine for what he's trying to do. Arai gets his arm worked for a bit by the two as Kashin just does his usual thing. Ogawa does some great work onto the arm like only he can, making it look nasty and at times primal in how he just throws it around with no care in the world. Kashin vs Ogawa is as per expected, some decent work but I found them to be a bit all over the place. We get a repeat of the scoop slam/aluminium can bit from Kashin's DDT material after a messy outside brawl and it's the same thing, just with NOSAWA; it's a really silly spot and I have no idea why Kashin just carries around aluminium cans around, but with everything else going on it just breezes by. Arai betrays Kashin after he takes the advantage for no reason but Ogawa also gets pissy after getting hit with a accidental clothesline from NOSAWA, resulting in a messy finish where Ogawa and Kashin slap on small packages at the same time, but the ref counts Kashin only so he wins by technicality. Fine enough as a Kashin-style undercard outing but there's nothing really worth checking out here unless you want to see some goofy comedy alongside hints of maybe getting good before just never reaching that next gear.. While I would be morbidly interested in what a Kashin/Ogawa singles match would even look like, this definitely isn't either man's best moment for judging that lol. RANK: Forgettable W/ Zack Sabre Jr vs Mikey Nicholls & Mitsuhiro Kitamiya (05.09.2015) This was clipped to five minutes out of the original runtime of ten. Ogawa spends a good portion selling for the duo as they throw and splat him around. Even this early Kitamiya is a entertaining little hoss who's yet to grow into the force of nature he'll be in a few years. Nicholls is the same mediocre presence he always is in singles matches, nothing different here: as much as he's good in TMDK he doesn't look that good outside of it at all when Haste isn't around. Zack played the little guy to Kita well as he had to move and duck around the place to get around his mass advantage, which was a nice touch to his usual arm work spots; there was actual struggle as opposed to him just casually running though spots and sequences with no issue. Finish was random as fuck as Ogawa and Nicholls just fought each other for a bit, Nicholls ran over him with a lariat or two before getting powered out of a roll-up into a Mikey Bomb for the clean pinfall loss, a finish they repeated from the 08/03/2015 match; while it worked there because of the action prior, here it was just so abrupt that it harmed the match as a whole for me. It had some good moments in it, but with only five minutes shown and Nicholls kinda just not doing a whole lot for me this was basically all just a Kitamiya showcase. Not a bad thing, just not anything that interesting. RANK: Decent W/ Takashi Sugiura & Zack Sabre Jr vs Minoru Suzuki, El Desperado & TAKA Michinoku (10.09.2015) This was mostly a build-based match for Sugi/Suzuki, so a lot of this was dominated by the presence of those two while the Jr guys mostly filled in the blanks. TAKA/Desperado did their usual heel stooging in the middle half, with Ogawa and Zack having some really good moments to shine. These included a double cross armbreaker row-boat spot (which was goofy, but in a good way) Zack doing fancy arm wrench transitions and Ogawa just stomping the shit out of TAKA's shoulder and bending his arm way back for more damage. Standard stuff, but still pretty solid. Outside of that, we got the usual Suzuki-Gun cheating antics, though it was cool seeing Zack interact with Suzuki years before the two will be hanging around each other; Suzuki's bully routine is by the numbers, but I still thought it worked for what it was. Ogawa gets a cool hot tag but it's all about Sugi as he goes into a long extended stiff striking exchange with Suzuki again for what felt like forever. Strikes looked good, but there's a degree in which I can handle these before I just start to blank out, and this was getting dangerously close to that. Suzuki tries his usual spots but his former stable-mate is way too knowledgeable to get caught with any, leading to a dub spot off a German suplex. Finish comes off a messy brawl as Sugi runs over TAKA with a running knee, double spear and Olympic Slam for the win. As I said it's a basic build-match, but I didn't think it was bad, just mostly by the numbers. There's some decent work here but the mileage will vary depending on how much you can tolerate long-drawn out sequences, because oh man this has them aplenty. RANK: Decent W/ Zack Sabre Jr vs Kota Umeda & KUDO (14.09.2015) Good lord Zack looked like shit with this bowlcut lol. I forgot how bad it was at the time. Anyway, this was a DDT/NOAH crossover that I was shocked to see was actually quite decent! Ogawa and KUDO had a two minute exchange purely focused on super basic arm wrench transitions, counters to double wrist locks, and some fancy stuff; typical Ogawa-style work, quite good for what it was. Umeda is really just your standard generic DDT midcarder; some spots, some terrible modern tendencies, etc. Thankfully he spends most of the match being worked over by Zack and co's nifty old-school technical work, using the turnbuckle, using the ropes, and pulling out a lot of solid limb-focused offence on the leg. Even Zack was tolerable as he mostly kept to the stuff he's really solid at (bending limbs and getting over fairly unimpactful work with measured, controlled moments bit to bit) as opposed to what he isn't (throwing poor strikes). We get a long control segment, crowd gets surprisingly loud for Ogawa wangling a Figure Four and then the inevitable Umeda comeback as he manages to drag out a dropkick. KUDO's comeback was basic: mostly focused on kicks and his signature knee strikes: solid enough despite some minor delays, and Ogawa makes the guy look like a killer with his sell-job. However....this sadly went rough for the last third, and not because of any wrestling-based issue, but because KUDO fucked his leg almost right (tore his ACL, to be exact) after during a regular jawbreaker spot by Ogawa, falling right down to the mat with no warning. Ogawa tries for a DDT, but his leg gives out again and he falls over. KUDO is, well, done at this point. He can't even stand. In less experienced hands, this could've been a deer in the headlights moment and incredibly awkward. Ogawa knows what he's doing though: he works the injury into the match, taunting and mocking his injured opponent, and deliberately positions himself in such a way where KUDO can just "push" him over to his tag corner for Umeda to finish the match. It still looks akward given the guy can't stand, but Ogawa masterfully handles the situation once he understands what's up. He works the leg of Umeda like before but Umeda then no sells so that him and Zack can do a stupid "me hit harder" kick exchange for no bloody reason. Umeda pretends to be Shibata with his stiff kicks and corner dropkick, but gets kicked off when trying for a springboard with a cool low-kick by Zack. KUDO had balls for crawling in to break up a pin on one leg: of course this was all for nothing as Zack just got him in a modified single-leg Achilles Tendon to tap him out. If KUDO was healthy and could've worked the last bit, I think this might have been very solid as the build suggested, especially as the pace was starting to get better and better from the start of his hot tag. Sadly it wasn't due to the injury, and some other issues (inconsistent selling, Umeda being not great) meant this just wasn't able to take off properly despite some good moments. Zack and Ogawa were still pretty good, however there was just never a point here where the match got to that next big gear. RANK: Decent W/ Zack Sabre Jr. vs Masamune & Taiji Ishimori (19.09.2015) Wow a match where Ogawa/Zack have actual opponents that don't rely on crappy "heel heat" boring control segments, shocker. Masa and Ogawa work careful technical work on the fundamentals while Ishimori and Zack work a Dragon Gate style big sequence before then choosing to try to lock up, because psychology. We got to see Ogawa work a Nishimura-style extended surfboard stretch so 5+ stars though. Middle half is strong as the two go into the usual Cravat spamming on Masa. Zack gets a bit too cute going for shit and forgets to make it actually seem like a struggle, something Ogawa clearly understands with his own work; it's this match in particular where that is really illuminated in a big way, Zack just casually throwing himself around while Ogawa makes every little thing deliberately feel more laboured than it actually is. Ishimori gets a decent hot tag on both men, as well as some contrived stuff here and there; mostly seems flush though, especially with the always-great dropdown low blow Ogawa does. It's the Zack show for the last third as he takes on Masa, who has some nifty stuff like a bottom rope Tiger Feint kick to the head or a chunky side-suplex. Zack and him do more spot to spot stuff until the finish has him slap on the Jim Breaks Special for the quick and effective tapout. This was very much PWG-inspired as a lot of this was just spot to spot with not much actual meaning behind it but when Ogawa got in things got grounded and actually paced better because he just refused to play that style here. Not to say prime Ishimori flinging himself around is fun and all, however that for a whole match would tire. Zack is still really needing a fair bit of work but his technique is clearly there in a big way, and he's a solid partner here against the more fancy-footed foils. Quite solid. RANK: Good ========== Zack v Ogawa is next! That's a match that I'll definitely have fun talking about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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