[2008-10-25-NOAH-Autumn Navigation] Atsushi Aoki, Bryan Danielson & Doug Williams vs Kotaro Suzuki, Yoshinari Ogawa & Yoshinobu Kanemaru

[Ma Stump Puller]

Really solid undercard that I enjoyed also because they mixed things up a bit instead of the usual "everyone gets their shit in, brawl, leave" standard six-man stuff. Ogawa backdrops Genba Hirayanagi on the outside early because he tries interfering on behalf of his staple mates and Ogawa's just trying to enjoy the match, so he has insta-heat with both his tag partners from the get go as that's Kanemaru's boy and he also slaps the shit out of Suzuki when he complains about it. Match itself gets a little bit cute in places (like Suzuki and Aoki do this really contrived starting sequence where they are just going from bit to bit with next to no struggle, that's always lame) but the premise of Ogawa having to contend with his own tag partners trying to fuck him over throughout is definitely unique for something like this and lends itself well to add actual heat instead of just being a series of bland interactions. Ogawa adds to the fire by clapping when Danielson gets the better of Suzuki in a strike exchange which Suzuki calls back to in a few minutes when he full on kicks Ogawa when he's trying to come off the ropes. Ogawa and Williams also get to nerd-out with tons of British Catch spots alongside counters to traditional stuff they pulled off in the past. Kanemaru goes nuts in the middle with a huge jumping head guillotine kick from the guardrail onto Aoki, which Ogawa has no part of because he's a nice guy...this time. Who impressed me the least here? Shockingly, Bryan Danielson.

He didn't really look that good here and his stuff was mostly either iffy strikes or spamming his running elbow like a million times with absolutely no urgency or fire. Even a young Aoki was more energised, maybe it's just a off day for him but you definitely didn't get the vibe of a GOAT tier contender here. He does do a springboard knee at one point so that's something at least. Last few minutes were just a burst of spots, but thrown in with solid Ogawa heat as he kept getting beaten up. That threatened a loss in places, however Aoki still ate the job to Suzuki's Blue Destiny for the finish. Williams and Ogawa do a awesome Chaos Theory/backdrop combo post-match on Suzuki when they try for a beatdown. Solid undercard outing with some drama added in to make it a lot fresher than it could have been. Ogawa is probably the backbone as to why, what with his little motions to get the dynamic over alongside enjoyable work with Williams as always, guys like Suzuki, Aoki and Kanemaru add in a really fast pace that kicks ass throughout. Smartly worked but also just as enjoyable as some of the more crazy Jr tags of the time.