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.