[2015-07-01-NOAH Northern Navigation] Minoru Suzuki vs Yoshinari Ogawa

[Ma Stump Puller]

Other Deep Dive stuff

Link to match since it's very based

Was dreading this but then realised that this was still around the time that Minoru was actually having good matches (when he gave a shit, anyway)

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. In effect, it's the title reign that probably added to that impending burnout Suzuki would get after this year since his matches would always the same dry ass main event attempts at epics from a guy who really wasn't all that good at them in the first place.

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 you'd see from 80's South; completely different from any other title defence Kobashi had and by a fair amount at that. Think of his Kakihara match where he takes a strictly shoot-style guy and drags him into his dirty catch wrestling game. Like these, Ogawa drags Suzuki into playing by his tune; the match is as a result much better for it. 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 his arm; Suzuki isn't really used to Ogawa's tricky transitions since Ogawa isn't going by the usual rules of a Suzuki match where the person either tries to out-shoot or out-strike him for the starting exchanges. Ogawa is doing neither, instead relying on classical wrestling fundamentals and experience. Suzuki eventually relents by cheating via using the ropes to brute-force Ogawa's arm for a ropehung cross armbreaker spot; one of the few times where it didn't seem contrived. He gets the advantage with brawling and by 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 to ensure he doesn't lose the lead again. 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 bombs like the sleeper and Gotch Piledriver, with Suzuki flying at points with how much he was getting outfoxed: Ogawa's gameplan was to basically completely throw him off 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 and quickly starts to get a handle on what Ogawa is trying to do. 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 a single Gotch to get the pin. This started simple and did threaten to be a more slower affair but quickly turned into a fantastic Ogawa-style sprint by the second half, with tons of intelligent counters and flush work in general from the two aiding to a incredibly fun encounter driven by lots of cool styles-clashes against the two.

Seriously top-notch stuff despite going sub-15, hell this is better than most stuff that has double the length lol. Easily one of Ogawa's MOTDC and probably one of the last truly fantastic heavyweight matches he'd have in his career.