I Called Him Yoshinibu Kanemura For Years

Disobey (Kotaro Suzuki/Yoshinobu Kanemaru) (c) VS Gedo/Jado - NOAH GHC Jr Tag Championship 10/3/2009

JJZ: Every time a NOAH match from the this era is in front of me I assume I've seen it. But I'm pretty damn sure I've never seen this before. I've always love the NJPW VS NOAH stuff. The crowd is always extra energized and you can feel the heat through the screen. The bloodshed in this match is the vein of the story. It's a basic storyline line played to perfection. The heels slowed the match down and drained the babyfaces' will. While the home team brought spirit and excitement with everything they did. The comeback from Kanemaru was edge of your seat viewing. Jedo and Gado really made me hate them. I honestly wanted Suzuki to spike the fuck out of either one of them. I really liked the finishing stretch and hope you do as well.

CJD: This match took place 4 months after Misawa died and in some ways the shadow of that tragedy feels more important to the match than anything else that happens in it. I guess that's how NOAH was in general for a long time afterward, but something about this match with the combo of Suzuki and Kanemaru, a dream team of their junior division, Kotaro one of Misawa's top students, going up against the evil invading heat machines in a bloody proving ground type match. This felt like a catharsis for the crowd in a time they badly needed any sort of diversion. And I think Gedo and Jado milked every last drop out of that situation. To the point that watching it now and expecting something more in the vein of the early 2000s NJPW VS NOAH feud, I did feel like this was a little too deliberate. But for the crowd that night, on a tour called Misawa Always In Our Hearts, it was probably just right. Suzuki was a great hot tag here bringing that fire. Kanemaru probably loved the chance to play face in peril after watching Kikuchi make an art out of it for years and years on the apron. And man did he get some color. I bit on a few nearfalls too, this match definitely took me on a ride. It didn't blow me away but not every match needs to. Fun watch.

El Diablo Is To Blame

Jun Akiyama/Makoto Hashi/Yoshinobu Kanemaru VS Shinjiro Otani/Kazunari Murakami/Tatsuhito Takaiwa - NOAH 12/2/2006

CJD: You've got me feeling those mid 2000s puro feels right now. It seems to me that by the end of the decade Japanese wrestling settled into a landscape that is largely still the same today, but what a ride it was from 2000-2006. These 6 men put in some serious work in that era and this cast of characters plus a classic NOAH 6 man undercard match plus hot interpromotional action and this is about as 2006 as a match can be. We were watching so much NOAH in this time period that either one of us may have seen this match. But I checked my notes and I don't think I ever played it for you at least. And it didn't jog any memories and there's a headbutt that I certainly won't ever forget after watching this time. Not 2021 approved, that's for sure. This is the Murakami I'm used to. This is the type of Otani and Akiyama performance that has both perpetually fighting for spots in my all-time top 10. This is Hashi fighting from under like only he could. This is my kind of pro wrestling through and through and I have a sneaking suspicion it's in your wheelhouse as well.

JJZ: Man, this was the golden era of NOAH. When was the last time you got excited to watch a puro six man? I tried really hard to watch all the NOAH and NJPW six man matches that should have been good over the past few years and they always fell flat with a tempered crowd. But this ain't that. This is heat and anger and toughness and stiffness. Six wrestlers all wanting to put on a bust ass match that no one would be able to follow. This match was full of ass clinching spots and strikes that left me saying "that's gotta hurt!" to myself. I don't know if this was the main event of the show [editor's note - it wasn't] but it should have been. Super fun stuff.

Nobody Likes Minoru Fujita

Yoshinobu Kanemaru/Takashi Sugiura (c) VS Ikuto Hidaka/Minoru Fujita - NOAH GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship 3/5/2006

JJZ: This match is a journey. It has it all. Highs, lows, great technical wrestling, sloppy wrestling, Southern style tag wrestling and Japanese junior fast paced wrestling. I don't like Fujita. At all. But the other three wrestlers made up for it. This was in the heyday of NOAH and I was so glad to see a packed house with four wrestlers working their asses off.

CJD: I watched this way back but was spoiled by the state of puro at the time and kinda glanced over it. I took it for granted especially with so much good tag wrestling happening in the NOAH juniors division. And as you mentioned, Fujita is the drizzling shits, so it was always easy to gloss over his matches, even when tagging with Hidaka. Going back and looking at it through fresh eyes gave me a new appreciation for it. Hidaka is such a great dance partner for Kanemaru & Sugiura. The structure they put together made you feel like your went on a journey and just like my Hidaka match for you, the finish totally surprised me in the best way possible. This is the first time you've given me a tag match and I can't wait to see who I'm going to go with between Kanemaru and Sugiura!