FEEDBACK: Pro Wrestling NOAH "Destiny" 7/18/2005

On Rewind-A-Wai #66 this coming Tuesday, we will be breaking down Pro Wrestling NOAH’s return to the Tokyo Dome with “Destiny” held in July 2005.

This event was selected by Espresso Executive Producer @Contrasoma.

The card is highlighted by the renewal of the classic rivalry between Mitsuharu Misawa and Toshiaki Kawada as they meet in a NOAH ring for the first time. As well, a dream match between Kenta Kobashi and Kensuke Sasaki.

The entire show is available on YouTube.

Post your feedback & questions related to the event and we will answer them on the show, which will be available to members of the POST Wrestling Café on Tuesday, July 21st.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0jyhPBhVbk

Pro Wrestling NOAH: Destiny
Monday, July 18, 2005, at the Tokyo Dome
*Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Toshiaki Kawada
*Kenta Kobashi vs. Kensuke Sasaki
*Genichiro Tenryu vs. Yoshinari Ogawa
*GHC Heavyweight Title: Takeshi Rikio (c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi
*GHC Tag Titles: Minoru Suzuki & Naomichi Marufuji (c) vs. Jun Akiyama & Makoto Hashi
*GHC Junior Heavyweight Title: Yoshinobu Kanemaru (c) vs. KENTA
*Mushiking Terry (Kotaro Suzuki) vs. Black Mask (Ricky Marvin)
*Akira Taue, Haruka Eigen, Jun Izumida & Takuma Sano vs. Akitoshi Saito, Masao Inoue, Kishin Kawabata & Shiro Koshinaka
*Go Shiozaki & Tamon Honda vs. Takeshi Morishima & Mohammed Yone
*Takashi Sugiura, SUWA & Masashi Aoyagi vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima, Mitsuo Momota & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi

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I remember this show well as it was one of the last major wrestling shows I saw as soon after I went off to university and watching wrestling became something that I stopped doing for several years.

Whenever newer fans express some skepticism towards KENTA or Kanemaru I always tell them to watch their match on this show.

Kawada vs. Misawa here was their weakest match though understandable as their were getting up there in years. Poor Kawada after finally showing up in NOAH would not appear there again until just after Misawa died as apparently he cut an unexpected promo after the match that went over TV time.

While Rikio was the wrong choice to beat Kobashi for the title, I always thought he was not nearly as bad as some people claimed, especially at the time. I liked his match here with Tanahashi. His issue was just that he did not of the superstar aura of a Kobashi or Misawa and would never develop it.

Things for NOAH would continue to decline after this show. Question for you guys is are there any wrestlers that caught your eye on this show you thought if they had been pushed harder immediately after this show could have changed how things ended up turning out?

Thanks!

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Some thoughts on the show:

Takashi Sugiura, Suwa, Masaji Aoyagi VS Tsuyoshi Kikuchi, Mitsuo Momota, & Katsuhiko Nakajima: Not bad but nothing too special either.

Mohammed Yone & Takeshi Morishima VS Tamon Honda & Go Shiozaki:
This match was fun but the biggest highlight was Mohammed Yone’s afro and awesome pants

Akitoshi Saito, Shiro Koshinaka, Masao Inoue, & Kishin Kawabata VS Akira Taue, Naoki Sano, Jun Izumida, & Haruka Eigen: Similar to the first match but I enjoyed Taue getting hit in the face by the opposing team’s butts. Wrestling needs more butt based offence.

Mushiking Terry VS Black Mask: This is where I started to really get into the show as both guys went out there and did some good lucha things, however, for some reason the video completely skipped over the amazing comic book styled video package for this match though it can be found on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omsOzFYckWM

Kenta VS Yoshinobu Kanemaru: What a great match, just two smaller guys puttin in that WORK. Honestly there’s not much for me to say, just watch it if you have not.

Minoru Suzuki & Naomichi Marufuji VS Jun Akiyama & Makoto Hashi: A fine match, the best part was when Marufuji went for a sunset bomb to the outside but Hashi held on to the ropes so Suzuki kicked his hand. Though what was up with the fans not singing Kaze Ni Nare, nevermind 0/10.

Takeshi Rikio VS Hiroshi Tanahashi: A pretty good match, even though Rikio doesn’t have the star power as some of the others on this show he put in a hell of an effort with a significantly less beaten up Tanahashi. Like seriously imagine current day Hiroshi Tanahashi doing 3 suicide dives in a row at that speed? Nuts.

Genichiro Tenryu VS Yoshinari Ogawa: The vibe I get from this match is that Ogawa is a shitty son/student and Tenryu is gonna set his ass straight. It’s nothing fancy but the little things like Ogawa taking the mini ladder but using to get back in the ring and Tenryu’s general grumpyness made this one very enjoyable. Also Tenryu picking up Ogawa and walking out with him was nice. There’s only one thing I would have changed. If Ogawa really wanted to be a heel he should have had his name in comic sans.

Kenta Kobashi VS Kensuke Sasaki: Holy shit. Talk about two beefy men bumping meat for over 30 minutes and never once did I lose interest or get distracted. Obviously the chop battle is the most famous part of this match but one of my favorite parts was when Kobashi dived onto Sasaki, that is the closest we will ever see a fridge fly. Man oh man I have to rewatch this soon. I am in awe of it’s pure amazingness.

Mitsuharu Misawa VS Toshiaki Kawada: In comparison to the 1992 match which is the only other match of theirs I’ve seen, it’s not as good. Misawa and Kawada are both noticeably older and slower, with Misawa looking like he’s seen better days. But I still enjoyed watching it with the knowledge of these two and their deep history together, it’s like two aged gun fighters engaging in one last duel, nothing new or fancy, just the hits.
For bonus viewing I recommend this music video by Hans Meier set to Wild World by Cat Stevens. It’s really well done. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJ5aP17NJs8

All in all a pretty great show, shame about the amount of empty seats in the stadium and the fact this was the last time Noah was in the dome, but on the bright side it is cool seeing the Tokyo Dome in a daytime setting. I would give it a 8.5 out of 10. More than worth your time.

everyone is gonna talk about the big matches and yes, they ruled. but the undercard was fun! the six man tag, most notably Haruka Eigen’s pink panties, big mullet dude’s terrible back tattoo and big mullet dude holding up an advert for noodles. Taue is now my favourite comedy wrestler of all time.

ps. have you ever wanted someone to immediately get beaten in a pro wrestling match quite like Ogawa?

pps. I was freaking out so hard during Kobashi/Sasaki that my fiancee gave me the same look Akira Hokuto had.

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Jesse from the 6

I’ve hardly watched any NOAH so I’m grateful to Mr. Lord for choosing this event. Great pick!

I absolutely loved the GHC Junior Heavyweight Title match. I knew KENTA was great in his prime but I didn’t know Kanemaru could go like that. I didn’t know the outcome of the match nor did I even know what Kanemaru’s finisher was, so I was biting on every near-fall.

The tag title match was very good; I need to watch more Marufuji. Was NOAH Suzuki’s home promotion at this time or was he based somewhere else? I don’t know much about his career between Pancrase and NJPW.

Was Rikio normally slotted in the midcard during his title reign? I know his reign is seen as unsuccessful, but was this his fault or was it the booking? E.g., Kofi Kingston’s underwhelming WWE Title run last year was partly due to him never being booked in the main event.

Take Care

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