NOAH The First Navigation 01/07/2017 ~ The Killing Machine Challenge

Daisuke Harada vs. Kaito Kiyomiya

Really good match. Kiyomiya showing great promise here against Harada. Harada dominates the entire match as expected, attacking the lower back of Kiyomiya early in the match before testing Kiyomiya's will with forearm strikes. Kiyomiya shows loads of fight and fire but is clearly out of his element. ***1/2


GHC Junior Heavyweight Title Match
Hajime Ohara vs. Taiji Ishimori

I hate to say it could've been better because this is a very good match and I feel ungrateful for saying it but it could've been better. A slow start with not much going on lowered the quality of it imo. Eventually they kicked into action and they had a great back and forth match. Ohara focusing his attack on the lower back throughout. Ishimori bring out hi greatest hits, hitting some spectacular moves. ***3/4


GHC Tag Team Title Match
Go Shiozaki & Maybach Taniguchi (c) vs. Atsushi Kotoge & Naomichi Marufuji

If you look at the match face value, there isn't much story to it. It's mostly 4 men hitting each other really hard for 30 minutes; it was awesome. What was the story however was Kotoge holding his own against the heavyweights (after only moving up from the Juniors) which was a nice story to tell even if it's not much to go on. Kotoge put in a performance of a life time against Shiozaki, splitting him out with his famous headbutts. Taniguchi and Marufuji had some great moments including the chops on the outside. Overall, it's really good match with a simple structure. ****1/4

GHC Heavyweight Title Match
Katsuhiko Nakajima (c) vs. Takashi Sugiura

Great, great match. Nakajima vs Sugiura have yet another great match together. It wasn't better than their 2016 classic but still tremendous. Sugiura showing loads off aggression, cheating at times with the closed fist, attacking the back of Nakajima. Trying to bully him in many ways but Nakajima wasn't standing for it, laying in some nasty strikes, proving himself to be a dominant challenger and not the kid that can be picked on anymore.  ****1/2

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