[2005-07-18-NOAH-Destiny] Takeshi Rikio vs Hiroshi Tanahashi

[Superstar Sleeze]

GHC Heavyweight Champion Takeshi Rikio vs Hiroshi Tanahashi - NOAH 7/18/05

This is a very distant third to Kobashi/Sasaki and Misawa/Kawada which clearly drew the Tokyo Dome and the largest crowd in the Dome for the year even though New Japan ran the Dome three times in 2005. Perhaps I am misconstruing the situation but my read was that Rikio’s victory over Kobashi was supposed to be a generational shift but instead was a generational flop. To the point where I can’t think of an American comp. This would be like if Cena or Batista flopped so bad in 2005 they never heard from again. This really goes to show you it is all about promotion. Winning the Top Title in a Promotion doesn’t make you the Man. NOAH was definitely still Kobashi’s promotion with Misawa a solid #2. Putting Rikio third on depth chart and I would argue Tenryu/Ogawa was not far behind made the belt feel midcard and that Rikio had graduated to Top Guy status. Kobashi should have in my opinion successfully defended against Sasaki here and dropped the belt to Akiyama at the next show. Akiyama could and should have been the bridge to the next generation he taken for granted as already a made man but I think he never had true blue Ace run and he had it in him. To me that is what sunk Misawa’s Ark.

The match itself does itself no favors. This match reinforces the conclusion from Nakanishi match that Tanahashi was not yet a ring general. With a veteran, Tanahashi could have great matches but with a peer or less the matches struggle to be better than average. I thought this was better than the Nakanishi match but ultimately forgettable and really not something that needs to be seen. 
 

The early chain wrestling nominally establishes the speed vs power game with Tanahashi getting a crossbody and roll-up. Tanahashi employed the same slapping strategy here as he did against Nakanishi I don’t if he was trying convey cockiness or get under Rikios skin but similarly to Nakanishi Rikio uses power to gain an advantage. Again there’s no charisma here. There no feeling of Oh No You Didnt or You Done Gone Fucked Up like you would if Kobashi or Hashimoto was in the Ring. Tanahashi used a sleeper pretty effectively and goes for the Dragon version. Rikio gets his own Dragon. This is where the match is better than Nakanishi, Rikio being trained in King’s Road style at least has cool offense like the top rope crossbody, jack hammer and buckle bomb. Tanahashi gets a reverse crossbody. Three suicide dives by Tanahashi consolidate the advantage but each one looks worse than the last. Tanahashi runs through finish sequence but this proto finish sequence is nowhere near as good as the one he would develop in 2007 a scant two years after this. Sling Blade is his big near fall. Rikio hits a clothesline and now it is his finish stretch. Slaps, Powerbomb, Zidane style headbutt which was cool and a Tejana Bomb finishes it. 
 

Pro wrestling by the numbers. No struggle, no urgency, no wrinkles, no interesting character work. Just fine. ***