Yoshinari Ogawa vs Naomichi Marufuji
This was pretty bad. Ogawa's stranglehold counter was NIFTY and would have made Johnny Saint proud, and the finish was neat, but everything else was mediocre and the interference from the seconds was weak. However it was less offensive than the usual Marufuji match, so there was that.
Kotaro Suzuki vs Genba Hirayanagi
Wow this was just a total mess. I thought Genba may have been able to make this fun with his heel antics, but after watching this it's crystal clear he isn't cut out for high profile singles matches at all. Ths was just boring beyond belief most of the way, with some parts being all over the place. His table bump was cool but really what was the point of it? Another shitty lengty juniors match.
Yoshihiro Takayama/Takuma Sano/Katsuhiko Nakajima vs Go Shiozaki/Shuhei Taniguchi/Taiji Ishimori
This was solid but not without it's flaws. Takayama is probably the only NOAH guy these days who seems consistantly good, and Taniguchi has grown from one of the worst to one of the best guys on the roster (not that that's saying much, as most of the roster are shitty). The Takayama/Taniguchi exchanges were easily the highlight, offering both hard-hitting action and the vet vs upstart dynamic NOAH is so sorely missing these days. Nakajima also kicked Taniguchi's face off with a sick kick at one point. But Go brought nothing once again, and the Nakajima/Ishimori exchanges were the usual mediocre junior shit. Everything involving Taniguchi was good, everything else less so, and I never thought I'd be saying that.
Takashi Sugiura/Akitoshi Saito vs Giant Bernard/Karl Anderson
This was pretty rock solid and more proof Sugiura is better suited to tag wrestling than singles. The gaijin managed to keep the heat and make the beatdown on him look like a beatdown. The action was pretty consistant without any real luls, and it always felt like an uphill struggle for Sugiura and Saito, which is exactly what it should have been in order to set up Bernard for a title shot.
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