Go Shiozaki vs. Hideki Suzuki
As soon as I heard about this match, it excited me big time. Hideki Suzuki can be cotoviersal depending on your stylistic preference but I think he is different enough to give NOAH that much needed variety that they lacked in both the undercards and in matches.
It was interesting seeing Go try and muck it up on the mat with Hideki. Go isn’t exactly renowned for his grappling skills, he is more of a hard hitting striker if anything but I think he did solid enough. I think he was better on the defensive side of things more than offensively but he was a good match for Hideki. Hideki was his usual self. Hideki holding on the cravate whilst Go tried to slam him, flipping go over onto the crowd was a cool little spot. Hideki locked on some gnarly submissions too, like what sort of looks like an inverted version of an armbar. Hideki does some good extended work on the arm throughout the match which does occasionally perk up the crowd into buying a submission win. Go sells the desperation of him wanting to get out of the hold well, too. One thing that I did love in the match is how occasionally they would pepper each other up with some stuff strikes like Hideki’s brutal kick in the corner that came out of nowhere. The match got a great bursts of energy and intensity once Go started making a comeback in the middle of the match. His chops looked and sounded horrible to take w/ Hideki adding the little touch of trying to block them only for Go to chop him in the head instead. Only flaw with that was that Go did it with the arm that was worked on by Hideki. Which leads to another flaw of the match. They decide to switch up the targeted limb which is fine but its forgotten entirely with Hideki never really going back to the arm and Go not selling it all that well. The match then ends in a draw which, whilst flat, was also a shock to me, you don’t really see draws outside of Round Robin Tournaments these days but I think it was a good booking choice. Keeps one of your big names and one half of your tag champs protected in Go and keeps Hideki protected for any future feud he may have with Kiyomiya, Nakakima, etc.
A very good match overall. Definitely could’ve worked the switching of the targeted limb by Hideki better and I would’ve preferred a better run to the draw rather than it just ending like it did. But it was a good, stiff battle that combined both guys strengths well. ***3/4
Global Junior League 2019 Final Match: HAYATA vs. Tadasuke
I’ve watched nothing of the Junior League leading up to this. I should and I likely will later when I’ve got nothing better to do. But I love both guys. I also loath Tadasuke’s hair colour. It’s been months, maybe a year since he’s had it and I’ve still not gotten used to it.
The match starts off with the usual junior standoff match but things soon escalated with a nasty powerbomb on the apron by Tadasuke which was a great transition into Tadasuke working on the back of HAYATA. Tadasuke locked on some boston crabs and hit a lovely backbreaker. HAYATA doesn’t really sell the back though, like AT ALL but he has some nice, cool pin covers. There was a great spot, although the execution looked awkward as hell w/ Tadasuke having to stand there dazed after HAYATA kicked him and was struggling to get to his feet, where Tadasuke hit a pounce of all things whilst HAYAT was attempting to do a move. Tadasuke has some great powermoves like the spinning touture rack that AJ Styles pulls out from time to time. HAYATA had some nice cut offs like when he caught Tadasuke coming through the ropes with a hurricanrana that drove Tadasuke’s head into the canvas (I can’t recall the same of the move, if it has one). The finish, however, was botched. HAYATA hit the same aforementioned hurricanrana into the canvas but messed up the execution and then he had to do it again because it was the finish. Shame. The finish besides that kinda came out of nowhere, too.
The match did come across as the two just trading moves which was a fun experience to watch, if I’m honest. But the fact that they made Tadasuke working on the back a major component of the match at the start and then dropped it was very annoying. ***1/4
As soon as I heard about this match, it excited me big time. Hideki Suzuki can be cotoviersal depending on your stylistic preference but I think he is different enough to give NOAH that much needed variety that they lacked in both the undercards and in matches.
It was interesting seeing Go try and muck it up on the mat with Hideki. Go isn’t exactly renowned for his grappling skills, he is more of a hard hitting striker if anything but I think he did solid enough. I think he was better on the defensive side of things more than offensively but he was a good match for Hideki. Hideki was his usual self. Hideki holding on the cravate whilst Go tried to slam him, flipping go over onto the crowd was a cool little spot. Hideki locked on some gnarly submissions too, like what sort of looks like an inverted version of an armbar. Hideki does some good extended work on the arm throughout the match which does occasionally perk up the crowd into buying a submission win. Go sells the desperation of him wanting to get out of the hold well, too. One thing that I did love in the match is how occasionally they would pepper each other up with some stuff strikes like Hideki’s brutal kick in the corner that came out of nowhere. The match got a great bursts of energy and intensity once Go started making a comeback in the middle of the match. His chops looked and sounded horrible to take w/ Hideki adding the little touch of trying to block them only for Go to chop him in the head instead. Only flaw with that was that Go did it with the arm that was worked on by Hideki. Which leads to another flaw of the match. They decide to switch up the targeted limb which is fine but its forgotten entirely with Hideki never really going back to the arm and Go not selling it all that well. The match then ends in a draw which, whilst flat, was also a shock to me, you don’t really see draws outside of Round Robin Tournaments these days but I think it was a good booking choice. Keeps one of your big names and one half of your tag champs protected in Go and keeps Hideki protected for any future feud he may have with Kiyomiya, Nakakima, etc.
A very good match overall. Definitely could’ve worked the switching of the targeted limb by Hideki better and I would’ve preferred a better run to the draw rather than it just ending like it did. But it was a good, stiff battle that combined both guys strengths well. ***3/4
Global Junior League 2019 Final Match: HAYATA vs. Tadasuke
I’ve watched nothing of the Junior League leading up to this. I should and I likely will later when I’ve got nothing better to do. But I love both guys. I also loath Tadasuke’s hair colour. It’s been months, maybe a year since he’s had it and I’ve still not gotten used to it.
The match starts off with the usual junior standoff match but things soon escalated with a nasty powerbomb on the apron by Tadasuke which was a great transition into Tadasuke working on the back of HAYATA. Tadasuke locked on some boston crabs and hit a lovely backbreaker. HAYATA doesn’t really sell the back though, like AT ALL but he has some nice, cool pin covers. There was a great spot, although the execution looked awkward as hell w/ Tadasuke having to stand there dazed after HAYATA kicked him and was struggling to get to his feet, where Tadasuke hit a pounce of all things whilst HAYAT was attempting to do a move. Tadasuke has some great powermoves like the spinning touture rack that AJ Styles pulls out from time to time. HAYATA had some nice cut offs like when he caught Tadasuke coming through the ropes with a hurricanrana that drove Tadasuke’s head into the canvas (I can’t recall the same of the move, if it has one). The finish, however, was botched. HAYATA hit the same aforementioned hurricanrana into the canvas but messed up the execution and then he had to do it again because it was the finish. Shame. The finish besides that kinda came out of nowhere, too.
The match did come across as the two just trading moves which was a fun experience to watch, if I’m honest. But the fact that they made Tadasuke working on the back a major component of the match at the start and then dropped it was very annoying. ***1/4
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