The Puro Review: Pro Wrestling NOAH: Great Voyage

I just have to plug the tape dealer I got this particular show from. If you live anywhere near the UK then the Pal Taper is a great tape dealer to go with. I got this show for just five pounds, for example.

Pro Wrestling NOAH: Great Voyage (Dec 2000)

After Mitsuharu Misawa defeated Jumbo Tsuruta in their feud during the early 90’s to become the ‘ace’ of AJPW, he soon rose to a position of power in the company. As the decade progressed, his influence became more and more overwhelming and towards the end of the 90’s, as the quality of AJPW declined, Misawa rarely lost matches. New stars needed to be created, but with a company ace who would never put them over, this was a virtually impossible process. At the turn of the century, two huge events in the world of puroresu would change Misawa and AJPW forever. In January 1999, Giant Baba, the owner of AJPW, died, and the ownership of the company was passed to his wife, Motoko Baba. Misawa was appointed with the position of president within the company, but this honour would bring about the second major event. In May 2000, a disagreement leads to Misawa being voted off the board of directors by the other executives of AJPW and an argument with Motoko Baba is the result. Unsatisfied with his loss of power, Misawa quits his job with AJPW along with six other wrestlers who are buddies with Misawa. Days later, in June 2000, a press conference is held where Misawa and 23 other AJPW talents announce their leaving of AJPW and the forming of Pro Wrestling NOAH, a new company run entirely by Misawa himself. They took most of the big talent from AJPW as well as many promising undercard wrestlers, leaving AJPW crippled and in need of help. NOAH held two opening shows in August 2000, ‘Departure I’, and ‘Departure II’, which showed promise. The main event scene was pretty good, it couldn’t really fail given the talent, and the undercard at least showed promise. Four months later they held their first truly big show, Great Voyage. The main criticisms leveled at NOAH was Misawa’s booking and the lack of an interesting undercard, could Misawa prove his detractors wrong with this show?

My version of Great Voyage is approximately two hours long with the first three matches shown but drastically clipped down. There is another version available which is in the range of around three hours, which doesn’t feature the first two matches at all, but has everything else complete. The three hour version also features wrestlers entrances, which my version does not.

Let’s get started…

Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & KENTA vs. Scorpio & Kishin Kawabata

Kikuchi is a veteran and has one arm massively bandaged for this match. KENTA is a junior version of Kenta Kobashi complete with orange trunks. Scorpio is the well known perennial US independent wrestler (2 Cold) Scorpio. Kawabata, finally, is a bit of a no-name drifter, so let’s guess who’s going to be doing the jobbing here. KENTA and Kawabata start off and garner some heat with slaps before KENTA hits a dropkick and tags in Kikuchi. They do some comedy double-teaming and Kikuchi hits some rolling suplexes for 2. We clip and Scorpio is tagged in. He tries some of his old swifty-ness but it looks a bit hokey because he’s really getting quite old now. Scorpio dominates KENTA and Kikuchi for ages, hitting some decent stuff, including a moonsault and a lovely enzuiguri. We clip again and Kawabata is in against Kikuchi, hitting some very standard offence. Kikuchi gains the upper hand though, and as KENTA deals with Scorpio using the high-flying stuff he hits a couple of backdrops. Scorpio tries to break the pin with a slingshot leg drop, but Kikuchi sees him and moves, leading to Scorpio nailing his own partner and getting beaten out of the ring by a KENTA dropkick and springboard plancha. Kikuchi hits a german followed by the FIREBALL BOMB for the pin on Kawabata (told you he would job)! What they showed was decent enough I suppose, but Scorpio dragged it down by showing his age. Kawabata is a bit dull, but both KENTA and Kikuchi still have plenty of worth to NOAH, and their stuff was good. Looked to be an average match, but I can’t rate it of course as it was too clipped.

Rusher Kimura, Mitsuo Momota & Makoto Hashi vs. Jun Izumida, Satoru Asako & Haruka Eigen

This is one of those semi-comedy tag matches where ancient veterans entertain the crowd with nostalgia and some age-based funny stuff. There is only two guys here you need to be concerned with, Hashi and Izumida, both of which are young and could still mean something to the company. Since I wasn’t watching puroresu in the 80’s I have no idea who the rest of these guys are or what they did. Luckily, the match is clipped to virtually nothing, so I don’t have to review it properly and get all their names wrong. We get some entertaining stuff though, like someone chopping his opponent in the corner many, many times, a big giant swing spot and some odd bit where one of the guys spits at the audience. At the end the old guys get out of the way and let the youngsters do their stuff for the finish as Izumida pins Hashi after a HUGE lariat, and I’ve just watched an entertaining batch of clips.

Kentaro Shiga, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Takeshi Morishima vs. Masao Inoue, Takeshi Rikio & Takashi Sugiura

All these guys are fairly young and could easily still have worth for NOAH. They are mostly still rookies, although Shiga and Inoue have been around in AJPW for donkeys years they too have never really progressed anywhere near the top of the card. Morishima and Rikio kick us off by beating the living snot out of each other with PURORESU SLAPS and other elements of great big man offence. These two guys seem like future stars here to me as they exude a sense of charisma you can’t train to get in wrestling. Sugiura comes in against Shiga and OWNZ the veteran on the mat with a variety of highly impressive amateur wrestling moves, great stuff. Inoue tags in but we clip to Shiga controlling Sugiura with a boston crab, and he turns it into the walls of jericho (puroresu version) before tagging out to Morishima and letting the big man take control. Kanemaru tags in but loses control of Sugiura via a snap suplex and Inoue is tagged in to clear house. Probably should have let Rikio take that job instead of Mr. Bland. Inoue controls Kanemaru and tells his partners to take care of the other team so he can try his submission finisher; the torture rack. The plan fails, however, and the hod is broken. Kanemaru, being the punk he is, low blows Inoue off a german suplex attempt and hits a LOVELY springboard moonsault press before tagging to Morishima. Rikio is tagged in against him and the big rookies collide once again! Rikio deftly SLAPS Morishima down and follows with a bear hug into a suplex. Sugiura is tagged in and he hits DA SPEAR! He tries another but meets a kitchen sink for his trouble! Shiga comes in but misses a corner charge and gets THE AMATEUR BACKGROUND BELLY-TO-BELLY~! In a display of AWESOME power, Sugiura picks Shiga off the mat and tosses him around like a rag doll! Absolutely brilliant stuff and the crowd are going mental for Sugiura as he locks in a JUJIGATAME! Sugiura tries for a german suplex again but Shiga reverses with a WAKIGATAME! Rikio makes the save but Shiga’s team deal with the opposition and triple team Sugiura in fine style, being complete punks about it. The crowd rally behind Sugiura but it’s to no avail as the punks keep the other team occupied and Shiga locks on a jujigatame of his own to make Sugiura tap out.

I got a whole lot to say about this one, although I’m still not going to rate it due to the large chunk clipped out. Firstly, Rikio and Morishima are really quite good. They’re big and have the power advantage so their offence looks great and really stiff, but they’re also young so they have the speed to keep things interesting. They are great talents and their current run together as tag team champions, under the team moniker ‘Wild II’, is reward for that. Shiga and Kanemaru are good, talented, junior wrestlers. I personally think that Shiga is the perfect little guy for those typically puroresu tag match main events. Inoue is a bit old in the tooth and is probably not going anywhere on the card, so I don’t really care about him. Sugiura though… good lord this man should be a future star. This was one of his first matches in NOAH and he was already HUGELY over with the crowd with his legit background and great matwork. The crowd just loved him and really were going mental when he was on offence. They wanted to see him win… so Misawa had him tap out in one of his first matches. Genius.

Naomichi Marufuji & Tamon Honda vs. Kodo Fuyuki & Tetsuhiro Kuroda

Marufuji is another young hopeful in NOAH with a possibly bright future, so we’ll see what Misawa does with him here. Marufuji starts off against Kuroda and Kuroda exerts his dominance over the rookie with a CHOP, a lariat and some posting to begin with. He beats Marufuji around the outside until our rookie manages to round house kick him over the barrier into the crowd. He follows up with a SPACEMAN QUEBRADA into the crowd! The audience go mental for Marufuji! Back in the ring, Honda and Fuyuki come in. They establish that they both have very hard heads with a long exchange of headbutts, none of which are really sold too much, until Fuyuki goes heelish and lands a low blow. The crowd doesn’t like it. Kuroda comes in after Fuyuki beat on Honda some more and tries to headbutt Honda, but of course he hurts himself and Marufuji is tagged back in, and enters with a SWIFT slingshot elbow drop. He gets a dropkick and a snapmare into a chinlock, but Kuroda tries to throw him off, only to have Marufuji keep hold of the chinlock! The ropes are made and Kuroda tags out to allow Fuyuki to beat up Marufuji with lots of HARSH kicks! Marufuji sells the headbutt in a brilliant fashion before Fuyuki tags out again and Kuroda deals death with a NASTY DDT on the ramp! Kuroda charges, but Marufuji meets him with a ‘RANA ON THE RAMP! Great stuff there from our rookie. Honda beats Kuroda up further on the outside with a DDT on the concrete before throwing him back in the ring to allow Marufuji to get a 2 ѕ out of it all. Another snapmare and a DEFT elbow drop gets another 2 ѕ and Honda is tagged in, getting an EVIL backdrop immediately for 2.9! Honda chokes him to death before Marufuji comes in and gets a great rolling head lock, but it is broken by Fuyuki. Marufuji tries to pick him up but Kuroda is unconscious so he is forced to pin him for 2.9 instead! Kuroda feels a bit more pain before managing to dump Marufuji across the ropes and tag in Fuyuki. He deals with Honda and reverses a ‘rana into a powerbomb for 2.9! Fisherman’s buster gets 2.999! Marufuji ducks a charge and manages to force Fuyuki to tag out. Kuroda gets dropkicked upon entering the ring and takes a GORGEOUS missile front dropkick for 2.9! Kuroda tries to come back, but Marufuji’s quickness is too much and he gets a SWIFT rollup for yet another near fall! He puts Kuroda in a corner and they hit a version of the poetry in motion before Marufuji hits a lovely german suplex for 2.9999! He hits Kuroda with a beautiful springboard reverse DDT, but Fuyuki breaks the pin to audience disapproval. Honda tags in and tries for another german suplex, but Fuyuki runs in and lariats Honda down before tagging in officially. He puts Honda in the eastern stretch but Marufuji manages to break it just before Honda would have had to tap out! Kuroda deals with Marufuji while Fuyuki hits a LARIAT for the victory on Honda!

I just don’t get it. I just don’t understand Misawa’s booking. This match was pretty good, with a decent level of intensity and fun brought from all quarters. Everyone tried their best, but it was Marufuji who clearly stood out as being a great star in the making. Much of the match was an exhibition for him, it was all really fun to watch when he was in control, and the crowd were very into him all the way through. Fuyuki, by comparison, tried his hardest, but is old and one dimensional, plus, the crowd hate his guts and not in the good way. So who gets the pin on a big show? Who gets a finisher over? Fuyuki of course. Yes, Mr. Misawa, that makes perfect sense. This match, overall, was decent, but unfocused. Some great spots and some good, traditional, tag team structuring gets… 63%

Daisuke Ikeda & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Akitoshi Saito & Masashi Aoyagi

It’s Misawa’s little pals versus the ancient martial arts guys, oh the fun. Saito shouts at Misawa’s pals and they attack before the bell as a result. Saito goes down and they double team Aoyagi for a while before turning their attentions to Saito, only to get beat up with STIFF kicks for their trouble. Weight of numbers help Ogawa and Ikeda for a while but Saito hits a NASTY double lariat to bend them both in half! Saito hits more stiff kicks, but makes a mistake in trying for an exploder and gets an eye-rake from the heelish Ogawa, and a trademark backdrop to boot. Ogawa finally gets on the apron to give us a tag structure, but it’s less than a second before Ikeda tosses Saito out and Ogawa goes outside to whip him into the rails. There was literally no point to doing that as Saito was tossed straight back in directly after. Ikeda gets some stiff kicks of his own before tagging in Ogawa for some of his dull offence. They do some nicely constructed double teaming before Ikeda gets on the apron, leaving Ogawa to do nothing but punch, and sell punches in a goofy manner, until he realizes he’s an idiot and tags back out to Ikeda. He tries stiff kicks again, but Saito’s got FIGHTING SPIRIT and they exchange stiff kicks until Ikeda comes out on top with an especially evil elbow smash! I really need to get myself some stuff from the BattleARTS promotion (now defunct), where Ikeda was king. Saito is picked up, but battles back and gets a gorgeous leg lariat to the head to put Ikeda down and Aoyagi is tagged in! He gets some really weak martial arts offence, pretty poor because he’s very old, but Ogawa interferes long enough for Ikeda to get the upper hand and beat down both his opponents. Slam, and Ikeda goes up top, but flies into a stiff kick as a result and gets his head kicked in for a cover, but Ogawa breaks it up. Saito deals with Ogawa and him and Aoyagi get DUAL STIFF KICKS on Ikeda to lay him out. Ogawa tries to save but is mothered by Saito while Aoyagi gets 2 ѕ and tries a tiger driver, only to have Ikeda reverse for a kneeling arm bar. Saito breaks that up but takes a great ENZUIGURI from Ogawa (appears to be the only thing he can do right) to put him out! Aoyagi kicks Ikeda in the head to make him groggy, but Ikeda PUNCHES him in the head on instinct for 2.9! Ikeda hits a lariat, but Saito breaks the pin only to be taken to outside by Ogawa once again, allowing Ikeda to lift Aoyagi for the DEATH VALLEY BOMB and the pin!

That was quite a fun match, lots of stiff kicks which I find really entertaining. Saito and Ikeda looked the best here, with Aoyagi being reasonable but too old, and Ogawa just looking completely out of place in the match as he has no martial arts skills. I enjoyed the match, but the crowd were not into it at all and this does hurt the overall impression. There was also a complete lack of build, and I suppose, at the end of the day, it was just a load of kicks… 37%

Akira Taue vs. Yoshihiro Takayama

Taue is stoic as always, but Takayama looks arrogant and gets in Taue’s face, only to be gently pushed away by the veteran. They hook up and stumble into the ropes, but Taue gives a clean break, much to Takayama’s surprise. They hook up again and end up in the ropes again, but Takayama does not give a clean break, slapping Taue in the face! The veteran looks mortally offended and comes out fighting with a BABA STRIKE! Takayama fires back, but Taue ducks a strike and lands a HARSH NODOWA OTASHI! Taue stands on Takayama’s head, squashing his face into the mat, before shoving him on to the apron and trying the nodowa otashi from the apron to the floor! He can’t get it though, and hits another Baba strike followed by a bog boot to send Takayama to the floor. Taue peels back one of the mats and DDT’s Takayama on the concrete before putting him on the apron again and trying for that nodowa once again! He can’t quite get it yet though, and tries the big boot again, but Takayama hits him with a big boot of his own at the same time! They both tumble into the ring, but Taue still has the advantage and hits snake-eyes before whipping Takayama into a dropkick for 2! Wow, Taue can still jump. He locks in a nice, stretchy, submission hold, but the ropes are made. Short-arm lariat gets 2 but Taue can’t get the suplex, and Takayama reverses it for a wakigatame, but is forced to switch to a jujigatame attempt. Taue wont allow it for a while, but Takayama eventually manages to lock it on, and Taue sells surprisingly well before reaching the ropes! Takayama works the arm over with STIFF kicks and an arm-breaker before whipping Taue to the corner and laying in a jumping knee smash for 2 Ѕ! Taue fires back with a trio of really NASTY big boots before hitting the capture suplex! A leaping big boot and the NODOWA OTASHI gets 2.9! Taue tries for the dynamic bomb, but Takayama gets a back body drop instead only to feel a hooking clothesline for his trouble. Taue hits yet another nodowa, but decides not to cover, instead trying for another one. Takayama fights back however and completely KO’s Taue with a kick to the head for the pin!!

I have quite a bit to say about this one too. This was definitely one of Taue’s ‘on’ moments. There are times when you suspect that Taue is overrated as a worker, and has been carried by the awesome opponents he’s had, but there are times when you can see he’s putting the effort in, and this seemed to be one of these times. When he’s putting the effort in, as I say, he has the ability to make subtle facial expressions that really add to the match, and that happened here. Takayama I also like as a worker, I think he is underrated and has the potential for really good matches in him. As a result this was a pretty good match in my opinion, and it told a decent story, with the veteran teaching the younger punk a lesson by trying to inflict as much pain as possible, but the young punk eventually proves himself by knocking out the veteran. Unfortunately it was too short to really tell the story in full. I think Misawa should have gone for doing a full blown early 90’s AJPW veteran versus youngster match, at least twenty minutes long. Every bit of this match could have been extended a little bit, especially the arm work, and Takayama should have been allowed to get plenty of really near falls before knocking out Taue. So, this was a decent match, but way too short to really go anywhere… 64%

Shinya Hashimoto vs. Takao Omori

Omori is a guy who was a rookie at the same time as Akiyama, but, without the luck Akiyama has had, he is still languishing in the mid-card and could be argued as one of wrestling’s greatest underachievers. Hashimoto is an NJPW guy, once one of the top men in that company, and he is hated here as an outsider by the NOAH crowd. They start with a handshake, which surprises the crowd, but it isn’t long before they are exchanging PURORESU SLAPS with each other. This seems to be a popular part of the NOAH style, as a lot of the matches on this card have begun with slaps to build heat. Just an observation. Omori pulls out his trademark european uppercuts to pop the crowd, and they continue to exchange various forms of nicely stiff strikes until it degenerates and they wrestle each other to the ground in a heap. Hashimoto gets heat from the crowd for not breaking immediately, and they get back to a vertical base which allows Hash to grab a headlock and gain more heel heat for some nasty punches. After a slam and an elbow drop, Omori fires back with strikes, but they exchange yet more slaps, both showing FIGHTING SPIRIT and communicating the hatred well with the messiness of the match and the stiffness of the strikes. Hashimoto backs Omori into the corner and the referee has to use his own body to try and separate them, but Omori gets a massive PUNCH, forcing Hash to back off. More good conveying of emotion there. Hash comes back with a barrage of really HARSH kicks, looking to have knocked Omori out, but he manages to answer the ten count, only to get beat down a little more. As Omori tries to stand, Hashimoto tries to kick him back down but Omori really shows the FIGHTING SPIRIT as a new admiration seems to come over Hashimoto’s face. He eventually puts Omori down with a NASTY kick to the jaw, and tries to go for the brainbuster, but Omori pushes him off and into the corner! He collapses with exhaustion, and is wobbly on his feet, but NAILS Hashimoto in the corner with the AXE BOMBA! Hash strides out of the corner, but Omori meets him with a second AXE BOMBA for 2 ѕ! Omori brings the moveset with a DRAGON SUPLEX for 2.9! He tries for another axe bomber, but Hash chops the arm in mid move! He beats Omori down with strikes and finally hits the evil BRAINBUSTER for the win!

The heat for that match was just ludicrously huge and this really helped the overall impression the match left on me. The crowd were really, really into Omori, but he was made to look pretty weak here, despite that showing of spirit towards the end. A win over this veteran here might have really helped him, but Hashimoto took a win he could have probably done without, although this could be more to do with politics between NJPW and NOAH than any bad booking from Misawa. The match itself was a traditional, old style, fight. The wrestlers communicated the emotion and the hatred between each other very well and they had started to tell a good story when the match length cut them off. Overall this match was a lot of fun but that was all I’m afraid… 61%

Mitsuhara Misawa vs. Vader

Wow, Misawa has been wearing the same tights for ten years. Just another observation. They start by locking up, but that goes nowhere, so Vader spits at Misawa, Misawa shows him the finger and they get into a NOAH trademark slap exchange. Misawa breaks out of that with the elbow strikes, and Vader comes back with some of his own. Vader tries a couple of punches, but they are ducked and Misawa charges for a roaring elbow… but that is ducked and Vader hits a DISGUSTING RELEASE GERMAN! Wow, Misawa lands on his head once again! Misawa takes ages on the outside to recover from that, and so he damn well should. Back in, Misawa ducks a lariat, but the elbow smash meets the vader attack, and both go down! Vader is up first and he administers a mugging to Misawa in various corner of the ring, just pummeling him to death, and finishes with a short-arm lariat. Much to the surprise of everyone, Vader manages to hit a NASTY powerbomb at this early stage of the match for 2.9! Vader works the arm on the mat for a while until Misawa manages to break out and attack him in the corner with elbow strikes and a dropkick. A german suplex gets some semblance of revenge on Vader for the earlier release variant, and Misawa hits the tope elbow smash. That annoyed me slightly. They keep doing moves, like the release german, the powerbomb, and Misawa’s german just then on Vader, that have no build towards them doing them. They don’t try and hit them, they just do, and when they do hit them, they mean nothing because they haven’t been trying for them. Misawa does his flip over the ropes spot and hits another tope elbow from the apron. They go back in and Vader starts to get the upper hand, but Misawa reverses a strike into a jujigatame attempt! They work it in very well until Misawa finally gets the hold on! Vader escapes quickly with punches though, only to take the rolling elbow followed by the roaring elbow! You see, although those trademark moves popped the crowd, there was no point to them. You can’t just throw trademark moves at your opponent and call it a good match, that’s just a form of mindless spotfest, which is what this is turning into. Misawa works over the arm a bit more, but Vader reverses and tries for another german. He can’t quite get it because Misawa was expecting it and his arm hurts, so he lifts Misawa off his feet and powerbombs him instead. That was slightly better, but why the powerbomb? If he can’t hit a german how come he can hit a powerbomb? Bad psychology. Vader mothers him and hits a chokeslam for 2 ѕ, but Misawa reverses the pin into a reverse jujigatame! The chokeslam was yet another silly move out of nowhere, but I don’t mind the arm work at all. Misawa elbows the arm into submission, but Vader PUNCHES him in the face! That made me laugh, the way Vader just stood there and took the punishment until he decided he had had enough and punched Misawa right in the head, great stuff. Vader moves Misawa into position and hits the CELESTIAL SPLASH… but he hurts his arm and can’t cover! He moves Misawa slightly and goes up top again to hit a MOONSAULT FROM THE SECOND ROPE for 2.999! Misawa fights back and beats the arm and head of Vader before nailing him before nailing him with a series of roaring elbows for the pin!

Well lets see here. Absolutely nothing happened in this match until the arm work on Vader began. The big moves they both hit in the early portion of the match were pointless, meant nothing in the story being told and served only as vehicles to make the crowd interested. It could be argued that these moves told the story that Vader was stronger than Misawa, which would have lead to Misawa working the arm as a desperation measure, but Misawa seemed to be doing just fine without the arm work. The arm work itself, however, was good, well constructed and sold decently by the rapidly aging Vader, but this portion of the match was watered down as well with pointless trademark moves that helped no one. The arm work also did not factor too much into the match, although it did save Misawa at various stages, which was good. Overall this match was entertaining, but it was really held back by the lack of meaningful offence… 45%

Kenta Kobashi vs. Jun Akiyama

After Kobashi broke off from Misawa to become a challenger for the triple crown in AJPW, he needed a second to back him up in tag matches, and he took Jun Akiyama under his wing. They became the successful tag team known as The Burning and lifted the double tag titles on several occasions. During these years of friendship, while Kobashi was trying to win the triple crown, Akiyama was pursuing his own quest of growth, fighting to prove himself by defeating Misawa. In early 2000, that dream finally came to be reality at the climax of the Excite Series tour as Akiyama pinned Misawa with the Exploder 98. However, directly after that match, Kobashi finally finished his quest, and beat Vader to win the triple crown. Akiyama wasn’t pleased, as he felt that his win over Misawa was overshadowed by his mentors win over Vader, and, although The Burning did split up that night, Akiyama contained his anger towards Kobashi until August 2000. At NOAH’s first show, ‘Departure I’, Kobashi teamed with Akiyama for the last time. After winning that match, Akiyama turned on his friend with a backdrop suplex. The next day, at ‘Departure II’, Akiyama defeated Kobashi in a singles match with a front neck lock to become the ace of NOAH. This is Kobashi’s shot at revenge, and possibly the last one he will get as his knees are near to being injured. Kobashi knows this and he is determined going into this match, he must get revenge here…

They lock up and Kobashi backs Akiyama into the ropes, but Akiyama wont allow a clean break and elbows Kobashi. This only serves to annoy the veteran and he kills Akiyama with a HARSH chop! Akiyama works a headlock, but gets shot off and they both try a shoulderblock but neither goes down. Jumping knee is blocked by Kobashi, a chop is blocked by Akiyama but Kobashi finally goes down to a dropkick. He pops right back up again though and nails a shoulderblock, forcing a stand off! Akiyama tries some strikes, but Kobashi beats him down with chops and Akiyama is forced to realize that he wont get the job done with elbow smashes. Akiyama tries a test of strength next, but Kobashi looks to be winning it, so Akiyama breaks out the flashy stuff with a quick reversal, and speedily flips Kobashi over with a northern lights suplex. Akiyama gets a sleeper on the mat from it, but the ropes are made. Kobashi looks REALLY annoyed now and shoves the referee out of his way to chop the hell out of Akiyama’s neck! He beats down his former friend into the corner and hits the ROLLING CHOP! He pulls Akiyama to the outside, looking to hurt him now rather than beat him, and whips him into the rail. Akiyama tries to be quick and reverse the whip, but Kobashi’s experience shows and he reverses it back to send Akiyama into the rail. Akiyama gets the upper hand off a quick kick, sending Kobashi over the guard rail, and brings him back to ringside to dump him, harshly, face first on the barrier. He brings Kobashi back in and elbows the hell out of him in the corner, getting revenge for those chops earlier. He hits the jumping knee and takes Kobashi out on to the ramp, delivering a DDT there, on the outside, just to be a punk. Akiyama takes a run up, and charges all the way down the ramp, finishing with a body check on Kobashi to put him down again. He tries to suplex Kobashi back into the ring, but Kobashi’s experience shows through again, and he reverses for the DELAYED SUPLEX on the ramp! Kobashi just wants to hurt him some more, and tries for the rolling chop, but Akiyama blocks and attempts the exploder off the ramp! Kobashi has experience though, and blocks it, reversing into a HORRIBLE DDT on the ramp! He continues to work on the top of Akiyama’s head with a guillotine legdrop and another NASTY DDT, which Akiyama sells better than any I’ve ever seen! It only gets 2 ѕ, however, and Kobashi hits the facelock, really wrenching it in! There is look of panic and pain on Akiyama’s face as he seems to slip into unconsciousness, but Kobashi only gets a 2 ѕ from the pin attempt. More chops to Akiyama, and Kobashi whips him. Akiyama tries for a flash reversal, but Kobashi shows experience again and catches him in a headlock! He gets a neck wrenching suplex from it for another near fall and back Akiyama into the corner for more chops. He whips Akiyama again, but it’s reversed and Akiyama tries another flashy move with a jumping knee, but Kobashi blocks it once again and goes back to the facelock. This is great storytelling, Akiyama keeps trying to beat Kobashi with quick reversals and flashy moves, like Misawa used to beat Jumbo Tsuruta way back in 1990 and like every young guy has beaten a veteran with in AJPW since then, but Kobashi sees it coming and takes Akiyama down with methodical beatings. He goes into a reverse headlock so Akiyama tries to shoot him off, but Kobashi shows the experience once again and denies it. Akiyama next tries to break out of the hold with a backdrop, but Kobashi keeps the hold on, even after taking the move, in a nice touch! Kobashi completely mothers Akiyama on the mat with the hold, getting several near falls with it, before they break it up by going into the ropes and Kobashi chops him some more. Akiyama reverses a suplex attempt, and the quick reversals work for once! Akiyama knows they wont work forever though, and so he quickly dropkicks the messed up knee of Kobashi! Kobashi writhes in pain on the mat, but manages to reverse a lariat with the HALF-NELSON SUPLEX! Akiyama no sells though, and hits the EXPLOIDER! Kobashi no sells that though, but gets knocked out of the ring with a jumping knee! They both lay around being dead for a while to sell the big moves, which I felt were a bit pointless used there, although always entertaining to see. Akiyama goes to the apron and starts to become methodical, perhaps, with a leaping kick to Kobashi’s arm! He continues the arm work by putting it in front of his knee, and leaping off the apron into the guard rail, sandwiching Kobashi’s limb between the steel and the bone! Back in, Akiyama wrenches in a NASTY kneeling arm bar and, once the ropes have been made, takes Kobashi to the corner and works the arm further there. This is also a nice little plot progression, Akiyama has realized that Kobashi’s experience makes him very tough to beat with flashy stuff, so he’s trying to beat him on his own turf, with methodical, evil, limb work. Akiyama beats the arm, Kobashi tries to fight back using his healthy arm, but it’s no use and Akiyama takes him down into a jujigatame attempt! He pulls on the arm, but can’t quite get the hold locked on, and so switches to another arm lock and brings the pain with that instead. He switches to the jujigatame when Kobashi is too hurt to resist, but the ropes are made quickly. Akiyama uses some techniques that Kobashi has used before to take out Misawa’s arm, the arm breakers over the turnbuckle, the wrapping of the limb round the guardrail and beating it. Akiyama continues to bring the pain with arm breakers on the inside, but Kobashi reverses one with the healthy arm for the HALF-NELSON SUPLEX! Kobashi takes Akiyama out to the ramp and tries a powerbomb, but there isn’t enough power in his arms to lift him, so Akiyama manages to reverse with a back body drop. Kobashi comes back with the ROLLING CHOP, but it hurts his arm to perform the move. Nevertheless he manages to perform the half-nelson suplex on Akiyama on the ramp! Although that was a nice, sick, bump, the move was completely unnecessary in the context of the match, Kobashi shouldn’t have been able to do it due to the injured arm anyway. Akiyama lay on the ramp, motionless, and Kobashi could have got the count out from that, but he doesn’t want it to end that way, and so breaks the count and goes to fetch Akiyama. He tosses Akiyama into the ring like a rag doll, but it still takes him some time to hit the powerbomb for 2.9! He lifts Akiyama with a suplex into a neckbreaker for 2.999! Kobashi tries the lariat, but Akiyama reverses and tries an exploder… but Kobashi reverses that and tries another lariat… but Akiyama hits a jumping knee to the arm in mid-lariat… but Kobashi no sells and hits the LARIATOOO!! That last jumping knee hurt his arm too much though, and he cannot cover Akiyama! He finally makes the cover for 2.9999! Slam, and Kobashi goes up top for the moonsault, but Akiyama catches him and nails a POWERBOMB from the top! They both struggle to their feet, and Akiyama hits him with a jumping knee to the back before taking him to the apron and trying and the exploder from the apron to the floor, but Kobashi reverses it and they tumble to the outside in a heap. Kobashi recovers, but Akiyama is already on the apron, and nails a jumping knee from there to the back of Kobashi’s head! Akiyama peels back the ring mats, brings Kobashi round, and nails the EXPLOIDER on the concrete! Akiyama could have got the count out from that, but he stops the count and brings Kobashi back into the ring and says ‘that’s all’, before nailing a double arm DDT! Akiyama goes up top and hits a flying fist drop to the back of Kobashi’s head! EXPLOIDER… but it only gets 2.9999! Akiyama tries to lock in the front neck lock, but Kobashi keeps denying it until Akiyama manages to lock it in… but Kobashi’s feet are already in the ropes! Once they both reach their feet, Akiyama hits him with another jumping knee to the back and tries for another exploder, but Kobashi keeps denying it until Akiyama grabs his arm, forms a pumphandle with it and nails the EXPLOIDER ‘98 for 2.999999!! Akiyama covers again in disbelief, but its only gets 2.99999! Kobashi is put up top and Akiyama tries his hardest to hit the exploder from the top, for that surely would finish Kobashi off, but Kobashi hits him with a LARIAT off the top and Akiyama lands on his head! Akiyama sells the head injury from earlier as both men are KO’d. Kobashi recovers first and hits another LARIATOOO for 2.9999! Kobashi has to reach deep inside to finish this one off, and he nails the BURNING LARIATOOO for 2.999999!! Kobashi tries another burning lariat, but Akiyama fights back with an elbow, only to take a HARSH ROLLING CHOP! There is only one move left for Kobashi to use, Kobashi knows it, the crowd knows it, all the viewers at home know it, Akiyama would know it if he was conscious. Kobashi puts him up top, hooks Akiyama into a torture rack… BURNING HAMMER!! Kobashi covers and it’s all over!

That was 35 minutes of two guys beating the hell out of each other and using everything they had to get the job done, and it was very entertaining as you would expect. The spots they did were great fun, really stiff all the way through and often played a part in the story of the match. The plot was good and consistent until the end, with the play on the AJPW convention of youngster versus veteran a very clever and interesting facet to the story. However, after Akiyama’s arm work finished, they sort of forgot about the story and resorted to endless finishing moves to complete the match. I think this is a shame as, although the big moves are entertaining, if they are done without meaning, as some of them were here, then there is no point to them, like in Misawa / Vader earlier. However, this match was no where near as offensive as that match, thankfully, and most of the time they kept themselves on the straight and narrow as far as the story is concerned. Good effort too, from both guys, with Kobashi especially putting literally everything he had left into the match, a fact proved by the fact that, after this show, Kobashi took a long time out with a knee injury. Overall, this was a very entertaining match, with a great story, that only fell down with a couple of unneeded head dropping spots and bad selling of injuries in the last couple of minutes… 86%

Overall

A pretty good show overall, with each match being reasonably entertaining. There are some stand out future stars in the mid card which could really turn into good money for Misawa’s company, but I just hope that Misawa’s booking doesn’t completely ruin their chances. As I write this, however, Yoshinari Ogawa, one of the worst guys on this card, is the company’s world heavyweight champion, and Akiyama and Omori, two of the guys who could have took NOAH into success in the main events, are stuck in the mid-card. The only thing right about NOAH at the moment is Rikio and Morishima as tag champions. Back to Great Voyage though; this show is a good introduction to NOAH, and has one of the best matches the company has produced as it’s main event. It’s worth getting then, definitely, although not essential, and it’s certainly not one of the classic shows in puroresu history.

Jake Metcalfe

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