NOAH The BEST ~ Final Chronicle 2020 ~
Kenta Kobashi on commentary tonight!
Opening Video - Great. Lot of focus on Sugiura vs Shiozaki and Kenoh vs Sakuraba. It was a lot of play about this being the big final hurrah of NOAH's 20th anniversary celebrations.
Good fire by Yano, but his striking is not that impressive. Okada didn't really do much, but he won with a Fisherman Suplex.
Good match. Kongo was really underwhelming, but I enjoyed the babyface side of things, especially Kotoge and Miyawaki's hot tag.
Post-match - Harada and Tadasuke had a little face off, likely building to a title match.
This was super fun, the well established smaller speed team vs a pack of powerhouses and the most vicious man in the promotion. FT had the advantage when they could dodge and attack on their opponent, or when they couple double/triple-team them, but as soon as any of them would get caught or cut off, Kongo would gain control. At the end, all of FT managed to cut off Nakajima, but he came back and got the win for his team.
GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Title Match
Another good, well wrestled match, that still failed to get me excited for Stinger or SdO. And talking about Salvaje, he did get more time to showcase and he looked good for the most part, but then, at the end of the match, when Suzuki is coming close to win the titles, SoD betrayed Suzuki, as is tradition in the NOAH Jr's division. NOAH has me desensitized in this type of thing, but I was incredibly annoyed of the sequence of debuting Salvaje in such an underwhelming way, only to turn him, unmask him, and have him become someone else's lackey in a matter of days.
Finish itself saw Suzuki come close to taking out Ogawa, but SdO superkicked him, stereo superkick along with HAYATA, and then Ogawa finished him off for the pin.
Post-match - SoD unmasked and revealed to be Susumu Yuya, best known from FREEDOMS, who I had only seen like twice (unmasked) in my life and liked what I saw. Good for him joining NOAH, but talk about a shit debut.
After that, NOSAWA and his masked friend teased joining Stinger, but then for the swerve on the swerve, they attacked Stinger, helped Kotaro, and I guess we now have a new faction backing up Suzuki. They'll probably turn on him next show, right?
GHC National Title Match
This was the best to be done between these two. Match was short, but it used some of both men's strength's. Sakuraba dominated Kenoh in the mat and slightly in a striking battle early on, but then Kenoh took out Sakuraba's arm with kicks. They did some chain wrestling and submission work towards the end until Sakuraba had a pretzel locked, forcing Kenoh to rely and tossing himself over Sakuraba for a roll up. The shoulder was clearly up, but I don't think it'll become anything.
As much praise as I've said, I don't think this did any good for either, Kenoh's win was weak as Sakuraba lost by roll up. I guess at least Sakuraba did more damage.
This was super fun, old vs young, legends vs up-and-comers. Everyone looked great with the exception of Mut... who just can't move that well anymore, his knees don't work so good, so it makes snap moves, or rolling around, or taking bumps, all that stuff look weak and slow, it's visibly an effort for him.
The rest was great, Inamura was the MVP of the match, it really felt like he was the focus of the match towards the end, him and Miyamoto had some great stuff towards the end. Funaki and Kiyomiya had some good stuff together, Marufuji and Taniguchi had a nice little striking battle, and beyond that, it was just good wrestling all around.
At the end, Inamura, thanks to some German Suplex help from his friends, pinned Miyamoto.
Sugiura vs Shiozaki Video Package - Really dramatic, made you feel old if you've followed Sugiura or Shiozaki since they were younger.
GHC Heavyweight Title Match
Holy Fuck! This was freaking fantastic! A 52 minute war between two guys that respect each other, but that won't stop until they're put down the hard way. Sugiura worked over Shiozaki's arms and shoulders, which were already taped up, but also a little bit of head. Shiozaki destroyed Sugiura's chest with chops while also hurting the neck and head, all towards going Lariat crazy for the win.
This was nicely paced, they played around with the pace and intensity here and there, allowing each big move/spot to really sink in. The selling by both was top notch, especially Shiozaki selling his arm and hurting after every chop, and Sugiura's selling of the lariats towards the end, where he is a boulder that won't go down, but it's stumbling to stay up.
Post-match - Old man Mut... came out and challenged Shiozaki for a title shot, Go accepted. This is gonna be Shiozaki's biggest test of this fantastic title reign, he's arguably been one of the best wrestlers and champions this year, almost back to back 10/10 matches, but now he's going against a man that is up there in age and has no knees. If Shiozaki can get a good match out of Mut..., there will be no doubt of Go's greatness.
Afterwards, Shiozaki cut his winner's promo saying He Is NOAH.
Great show by NOAH, a brutally fantastic main event, a great semi-main, and an undercard full of good stuff. Definitely go watch the main event.
Opening Video - Great. Lot of focus on Sugiura vs Shiozaki and Kenoh vs Sakuraba. It was a lot of play about this being the big final hurrah of NOAH's 20th anniversary celebrations.
Kinya Okada vs. Yasutaka Yano - 4.5/10
Good fire by Yano, but his striking is not that impressive. Okada didn't really do much, but he won with a Fisherman Suplex.
Momo No Seishun Tag (Atsushi Kotoge & Daisuke Harada) & Junta Miyawaki vs. Kongo (Hao, Nio & Tadasuke) - 5.5/10
Good match. Kongo was really underwhelming, but I enjoyed the babyface side of things, especially Kotoge and Miyawaki's hot tag.
Post-match - Harada and Tadasuke had a little face off, likely building to a title match.
Kongo (Katsuhiko Nakajima, Manabu Soya & Masa Kitamiya) vs. FULL THROTTLE (Hajime Ohara, Seiki Yoshioka & YO-HEY) - 6.5/10
This was super fun, the well established smaller speed team vs a pack of powerhouses and the most vicious man in the promotion. FT had the advantage when they could dodge and attack on their opponent, or when they couple double/triple-team them, but as soon as any of them would get caught or cut off, Kongo would gain control. At the end, all of FT managed to cut off Nakajima, but he came back and got the win for his team.
GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Title Match
Stinger (HAYATA & Yoshinari Ogawa) (c) vs. Kotaro Suzuki & Salvaje del Oriente - 6/10
Another good, well wrestled match, that still failed to get me excited for Stinger or SdO. And talking about Salvaje, he did get more time to showcase and he looked good for the most part, but then, at the end of the match, when Suzuki is coming close to win the titles, SoD betrayed Suzuki, as is tradition in the NOAH Jr's division. NOAH has me desensitized in this type of thing, but I was incredibly annoyed of the sequence of debuting Salvaje in such an underwhelming way, only to turn him, unmask him, and have him become someone else's lackey in a matter of days.
Finish itself saw Suzuki come close to taking out Ogawa, but SdO superkicked him, stereo superkick along with HAYATA, and then Ogawa finished him off for the pin.
Post-match - SoD unmasked and revealed to be Susumu Yuya, best known from FREEDOMS, who I had only seen like twice (unmasked) in my life and liked what I saw. Good for him joining NOAH, but talk about a shit debut.
After that, NOSAWA and his masked friend teased joining Stinger, but then for the swerve on the swerve, they attacked Stinger, helped Kotaro, and I guess we now have a new faction backing up Suzuki. They'll probably turn on him next show, right?
GHC National Title Match
Kenoh (c) w/Kongo vs. Kazushi Sakuraba - 7/10
This was the best to be done between these two. Match was short, but it used some of both men's strength's. Sakuraba dominated Kenoh in the mat and slightly in a striking battle early on, but then Kenoh took out Sakuraba's arm with kicks. They did some chain wrestling and submission work towards the end until Sakuraba had a pretzel locked, forcing Kenoh to rely and tossing himself over Sakuraba for a roll up. The shoulder was clearly up, but I don't think it'll become anything.
As much praise as I've said, I don't think this did any good for either, Kenoh's win was weak as Sakuraba lost by roll up. I guess at least Sakuraba did more damage.
Daiki Inaba, Kaito Kiyomiya, Shuhei Taniguchi & Yoshiki Inamura vs. M's Alliance (Keiji Mut..., Masakatsu Funaki, Naomichi Marufuji & Yuko Miyamoto) - 8/10
This was super fun, old vs young, legends vs up-and-comers. Everyone looked great with the exception of Mut... who just can't move that well anymore, his knees don't work so good, so it makes snap moves, or rolling around, or taking bumps, all that stuff look weak and slow, it's visibly an effort for him.
The rest was great, Inamura was the MVP of the match, it really felt like he was the focus of the match towards the end, him and Miyamoto had some great stuff towards the end. Funaki and Kiyomiya had some good stuff together, Marufuji and Taniguchi had a nice little striking battle, and beyond that, it was just good wrestling all around.
At the end, Inamura, thanks to some German Suplex help from his friends, pinned Miyamoto.
Sugiura vs Shiozaki Video Package - Really dramatic, made you feel old if you've followed Sugiura or Shiozaki since they were younger.
GHC Heavyweight Title Match
Go Shiozaki (c) vs. Takashi Sugiura - 10/10!
Holy Fuck! This was freaking fantastic! A 52 minute war between two guys that respect each other, but that won't stop until they're put down the hard way. Sugiura worked over Shiozaki's arms and shoulders, which were already taped up, but also a little bit of head. Shiozaki destroyed Sugiura's chest with chops while also hurting the neck and head, all towards going Lariat crazy for the win.
This was nicely paced, they played around with the pace and intensity here and there, allowing each big move/spot to really sink in. The selling by both was top notch, especially Shiozaki selling his arm and hurting after every chop, and Sugiura's selling of the lariats towards the end, where he is a boulder that won't go down, but it's stumbling to stay up.
Post-match - Old man Mut... came out and challenged Shiozaki for a title shot, Go accepted. This is gonna be Shiozaki's biggest test of this fantastic title reign, he's arguably been one of the best wrestlers and champions this year, almost back to back 10/10 matches, but now he's going against a man that is up there in age and has no knees. If Shiozaki can get a good match out of Mut..., there will be no doubt of Go's greatness.
Afterwards, Shiozaki cut his winner's promo saying He Is NOAH.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
Great show by NOAH, a brutally fantastic main event, a great semi-main, and an undercard full of good stuff. Definitely go watch the main event.