[2001-07-14 NOAH] Mitsuharu Misawa & Naomichi Marufuji vs Jun Akiyama & Yoshinobu Kanemaru

[fxnj]

I was hoping to watch all the 2001 Misawa/Akiyama GHC build, but apparently there's a 6/24 tag I can't find where Akiyama pins Misawa with a wrist-clutch Exploder and challenges Misawa on the mic afterwards. Anyway, this is about 2/3's of a really solid build-up tag. Akiyama/Misawa work some impressive amateur style grappling exchanges. The juniors deliver the eye-popping action, albeit with some minor sloppiness. Am I crazy or is this the best Marufuji ever looked? There was insane speed on his spots even compared to a few years later, he took some nutty bumps for Akiyama on the outside, and I got a kick out of how he sold all of Akiyama's holds like death. Coming into Marufuji's work from his stuff in the late 2000's/early 2010's, I always thought he was kind of shit, but watching this I can see what Misawa saw in him. Anyway, this is NOAH so there's a dead crowd throughout most of the match and there's a point where it's obvious they're artificially extending the Marufuji beatdown to fill a 17 minute time slot when this would have worked better as a 12 minute sprint, but I enjoyed it.