Great Sasuke and Dick Togo vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru and Genba Hirayanagi, NOAH, 30th October 2010
This came of like the Sasuke and Togo Show. For twelve minutes of wrestling, I absolutely don't mind watching two of my favourite guys show off their stuff, but I really got no sense of a sustained comeback from the NOAH guys, which was odd. Sasuke and Togo come off like two twenty years veterans absolutely in control, which is exactly appropriate. Togo leads the way through a series of lightening fast takedowns early on, at a speed that suggests his imminent retirement is not due to physical breakdown. Togo always works tight, but I got the impression that Sasuke was putting a little bit extra into his kicks and stomach jabs.. There's also slight suggestion of rudo Togo, a sneering smile on occassion, but it isn't overt. The combination of this, a quick efficient pace and some nice offence drives the heat section along nicely before the finishing stretch which had enough stuff, but little nearfall overkill. Even when on defence, I find myself watching Sasuke and Togo - Sasuke's sell of the elbow to the groin was the sort of slightly absurd oversell I love him for. Somersault plancha out of nowhere, senton, top rope dropkick to the ground rounded off a decent little match in highspotty fashion.
KENTA and Atsushi Aoki vs. The Great Sasuke and Kenbai, NOAH, 10th October 2010
This match has quite a gradual build. It opens with some sensible, non-flashy matwork and submissions and everyone looks pretty even, even tiny Kenbai. KENTA and Aoki really didn't seem interested in doing anything noteworthy during the whole section beating down Kenbai (who, I think, is a masked Yuki Sato). Then it gets going more when Sasuke tags back in, and he introduces a chair which backfires twice (including a somersault senton bump right on it). This introduces a second heat section and finally Aoki and KENTA step up the pace a bit. Kenbai hits a bunch of nice spots and Sasuke does his apron somersault bump which misses (naturally) and there's a couple of really close falls that I sort of bought at the time, before KENTA levels Kenbai with a lariat and they finish him off about four times over before the pinfall.
The whole match was fine, and I enjoyed it, but KENTA and Aoki often don't give me much to write about other than variations of the theme: 'Ooo, KENTA just did a stiff kick' or 'Ooo, KENTA just did a stiff forearm' or 'Ooo, similar things about Aoki'. They seem so obsessed with being intense and stoic that they never really perform, they just do hard hitting stuff at pace, and sometimes I want more. Sasuke, on the other hand, is all about the performance. Watch him during the strike exchange with KENTA - you get the sense of the impact and increasing damage from each of KENTA's forearms, while KENTA robotically takes a shot and carries on regardless. And he shows here that it is not a choice between seriousness and performance. His early matwork looks as fluid as Aoki (who has a technical gimmick), and I liked the look and gestures he made when caught between Aoki and KENTA early on, trying to make sure he got out without taking a sneeky double team. Above everything, he's pretty unpredictable which you can't say of someone like KENTA. And only he has an ongoing career retrospective on a well-respected wrestling review blog, so the rewards are fairly clear.
Great Sasuke and Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. El Samurai and TAKA, PWFG, 22nd January 95
The most interesting part of the match's layout is how Fujiwara moves from a supporting role to the main focus of the match, which is a nice example of a match evolving from its initial premise. The early part of the match is an extension of the TAKA-Sasuke feud, and you really get the sense those guys were unleashing on each other. There's a great spot in the first half where when both Sasuke and Fujiwara runs off the ropes (which looks like Sasuke taking a cue from Fujiwara), but Fujiwara fakes out a dive while Sasuke goes flying. He then stomps around with mock disappointment in being outpaced by Sasuke.
Fujiwara spends most of the first half breaking up every pinfall or submission attempt on Sasuke. This pleased me - I never quite understand the logic of a team partner not trying to break-up every pin attempt if they could. After Sasuke finally gets out, Fujiwara takes over. As it gets closer to the end, he mostly squares off with a very game TAKA who surprises him a few times and who seems difficult to finish off. The finish finally comes when Sasuke hits perhaps three big aerial moves to keep Samurai out of the way before Fujiwara finally gets the armbar, catching TAKA mid-air in a cool-looking spot.
The match is packed for of really fun moments. I'm not sure how I felt about how it flowed together, but it's definitely worth a watch.
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