Unknown Fire In My Soul

Naomichi Marufuji VS Prince Devitt - NJPW IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship 1/30/2010

JJZ: There are certain matches that I see online and think to myself, I've seen this before, haven't I? This is one of them. Pre Bullet Club Devitt and pre face of NOAH Marufuji meet to battle it out for the IWGP Jr title. These two work extremely well together from the jump, with a crowd that is lit to the tits to see this match. The more experienced 'Fuji takes control early while Prince uses his fire for the title to gain offense. It's like baked chicken, basic, but if cooked perfectly one of the best meals you'll ever eat. There are so many little touches in this match that I haven't seen previously from the two of them. The quality of this video makes me feel like I'm watching a VHS, which I'm enjoying. This match was so much fun to watch. Hope it pops you as much as it did me baby cakes.

CJD: You HAVE seen this match before! We've talked about our friend Mr. H, but let us not forget another good brother, Mr. B, who we've also been staying up until the sun comes up watching pro wrestling with for almost two decades! He showed us this match closer to when it happened and I remember loving it at the time. Not sure if I'm still head over heels about it, but it's a nice piece of work. Marufuji does a great job establishing the hierarchy even though the dynamic is a little weird, with the outsider Champ VS the gaijin. You mentioned last week the scope of Marufuji's career despite the fact neither one of us loved him early on. For me he hasn't quite aged like fine wine yet here, and Devitt is clearly still figuring shit out compared to now, but this is still a damn fine baked chicken dinner with all the fixins indeed.

So You Can Shine Divine, Golden Boy

Naomichi Marufuji VS Kaito Kiyomiya - NOAH 1/21/2017

CJD: So here's what I like about Kiyomiya. He makes you feel like he's legitimately trying to win his matches at all times. He finds creative ways to dig in deep on simple pinfall attempts that really hammer this point home. He's focused on selling realistically and showing believable fire in the face of nearly overwhelming adversity. And he's paid his dues in matches like this one, which reminds me so much of the right of passage matches that great AJPW talents had to go through against Tsuruta, Hansen, and Fuchi in the early 90s. Kaito performs admirably. Everything I've seen from him makes NOAH's decision to strap a rocket on him seem totally justified.

JJZ: You trying to butter me up with Kaito wearing a Sugiura shirt in the pre-match interview! Can you believe the career Marufuji has had considering our borderline dislike of him in MaruKen? I love me some young lion VS vet action. It's really interesting that you picked this match since Marufuji just wrestled Kaito for the GHC Heavyweight title only 24 hours before I watched this match. Also I'm almost positive I showed you a Harada VS Ohara match from this same show during a night when we watched wrestling together for many hours. Anyway. Loving this from the start. 'Fuji just being dickhead stiff with Kiyomiya, trying to use his speed and energy to gain offense whenever he can. Crowd is really getting behind the greenhorn here while Marufuji brings out his inner Misawa. Fantastic pick baby.