Gaffney Mat Chronicles Volume 2: All Aboard the Ark

Hard to talk about Pro Wrestling's arc since the turn of the millennium without mentioning Pro Wrestling NOAH. From its creation, deriving straight from the story of Noah in the Bible, under the stewardship of the late Mitsuharu Misawa in 2000, through its highs in the middle of the decade. To Misawa's tragic in-ring passing in 2009, and to the Yakuza accusations a few years after that, set them back tremendously, and preceded several high-profile departures in the years to follow, such as Kenta Kobashi (who was released in a money-saving effort), KENTA, and Takeshi Morishima, who medically retired.

The mid-2000s era of NOAH has some of the best wrestling that I've ever seen, period (Kobashi-Misawa '03, Akiyama-Kobashi '04, Kobashi-Sasaki '05, KENTA-Marifuji '06, etc.), but I haven't seen a ton of NOAH tag team matches, historically speaking. That changes here. This week, we're reviewing a star-studded bout in the Budokaun in 2005, and then a...well...tag team match that happened just several weeks ago in Korakeun Hall for the GHC Tag Titles.

Genichiro Tenryu & Jun Akiyama vs. Go Shiozaki & Kenta Kobashi, NOAH Encountering Navigation Night 15 (4/24/05)

Wanted to match up on tag team matches this week, so we booted up the ol' cagematch gimmick to find something in NOAH's history that popped me, and boy did we ever in the form of Genichiro Tenryu and Jun Akiyama vs. a very young Go Shiozaki and Kenta Kobashi, the latter of whom is probably my all-time favorite with the more I've gotten a chance to see him these last several years. This bout isn't so much about him, though, as even in defeat, this is one that really centers Shiozaki, who would of course become a massive part of NOAH through good and bad, for the next two decades before his departure last year.

But let's be real, I'll take some Tenryu graps, especially old man Tenryu graps, any day of the week, and he's AWESOME in this match from the jump. A not-so-significant bout here, as this would be the first time Tenryu and Kobashi would share a ring since a trios match in the middle of the All Japan World Tag League back in 1989. This is also just about two full months after Kobashi's final ever World Title reign ended in this same building to Takeshi Rikio, and would be the third of 15 total times Tenryu would wrestle in a NOAH ring. A big time for NOAH, and especially Kobashi, given what he goes on to do vs. Kensuke Sasaki and Samoa Joe later in the year, arguably two top 10 matches ever.

All in the first three minutes here, we get Tenryu going into an immediate chop exchange with Kobashi the moment the referee is done patting him down, they spill to the outside, where Tenryu whips him into the barricades, and then does the patented table throw to Kobashi, who no sells to Tenryu, who of course, is poker facing all of this. Then, once things get settled in the ring with Akiyama and Shiozaki, Tenryu grabs a water bottle, gets off the apron, goes around the entire length of the ring to throw said water bottle as hard as he physically can at Kobashi. We're practically at 3.5 stars. Then Kobashi snaps and gets after Tenryu on the outside with the machine gun chops so hard that his chest starts bleeding like crazy. This, my friends, is the game that I love.

Again, though, this match is really about Shiozaki more than it is about Tenryu or Kobashi. A wide majority of this match is Shiozaki, who's only been out of the NOAH dojo for about nine months by this point, attempting to match up with a pair of former multi-time World Champions, largely failing to do so, but definitely endearing himself to the fans in the Budokan for his efforts.

There are some fun sequences here where Shiozaki essentially gets little bro'd by Akiyama during some strike exchanges, then a bit later he's struggling on the outside and getting hit with the 20 count, and Kobashi is animated trying to help him rally, and then near the finish, there's a hilarious moment where Shiozaki gets Tenryu down with some heavy slaps and attempts to get a moonsault off, and Tenryu gets up and rips him off the turnbuckle by the back of his hair, and then hits him with a crazy mean lariat. However, he showboats on the pin, only gets a two, but quickly gets a powerbomb off for a three with Akiyama holding Kobashi back on the apron.

I mean, this was an absolutely fantastic tag match with an equally great crowd that was with this one the entire way. Hard to really say anything else, it's '05 NOAH in the Budokan, and it lives up to the billing.

The Gaffney Rating: 4.75 Stars

BUSHI and Tetsuya Naito (Los Tranquilos de Japón) vs. HAYATA and KENTA for the GHC Tag Team Championships, NOAH Legacy Rise/Jr. Tag League (2/11/26)

Having at least somewhat of an idea of how physically diminished Tetsuya Naito has become the deeper we get into the 2020s, I had no expectations coming into this GHC Tag Title match, and while this wasn't a complete disaster like I was concerned it would be, I'd be lying to you if I said this was "good."

This one starts out with Naito and KENTA doing some light crowd work and then exchanging some liontamers, and it's more or less just a whatever match from here on out up until the end. It would be hard not to bring up Naito botching a tornado DDT off the middle rope to KENTA, who actually does a pretty good job saving things before they get it off on a second attempt, but that's certainly a spot to try for a guy in Naito whose knees are cooked.

We then get to some shenanigans with BUSHI breaking out the black mist, which ends up leading to a run-in from LTJ understudy Angel Reyes, who goes for a tope, clips the top rope, and ends up catching the apron on the way down, but luckily not a lot of it. Still a very scary moment in any case. That does, however, lead to BUSHI nailing MX (codebreaker off a tope rope leap) for a rather anti-climactic win.

It's a match, it happens, in Korakuen Hall no less. These are undeniable facts, folks. I don't know what the fix is for Naito at this point, and I think it's more complicated than just "watching the later Keiji Muto years tape", but it can't be this for as much as he's been through physically. He's certainly an asset in Japanese wrestling, given that this show at Korakuen was sold out largely on him, even though OZAWA was off the card, but he needs to find something stylistically that can help him hold up better. Nice to see KENTA, though.

The Gaffney Rating: 2 Stars