Kaito, The Agumon (Kaito Kiyomiya, Volume 1)

So I really like Pro Wrestling, but I haven't been watching a lot for it lately. Blame Grad School, blame work, blame the pit of despair and self loathing depression's sunken me into (but mostly that last one), but I just kinda stopped after the G1 this year. So I want to try and kick my ass into watching it again. So instead of trying and failing to cover big shows...I'm just gonna watch wrestling. Sometimes it'll be a single wrestler, other times a string of title defenses, and sometimes I'm just gonna watch random matches during the week. Fuck it, I don't have a format anymore.

Ask literally anyone who I'm friends with or have talked to for more than 5 minutes at a wrestling show, they'll tell you I love Pro Wrestling Noah. I don't know why. Maybe I like the little guys. Maybe it's the fanatical fan-base. I got in just as Suzuki-Gun and New Japan's booking influence was heading out, so a lot of my opinions on the company are skewed compared to contemporary fans. I never knew KENTA in NOAH, or Morishima, Kobashi, or Akiyama. I call Takashi Sugiura and Naomichi Marufuji "Uncle". I consider Junta Miyawaki, Yosiki Inamura, and Kinya Okada my Young Boy class (and occasionally think of myself as being in that class. If you tell me you've never even briefly fantasized about being a wrestler, you're lying). So I'm hoping to use my new style to watch literally as much NOAH as I can, as well as some good 90s All Japan to kind of grasp where NOAH's roots came from.

So, Kaito. I...I don't know how I feel about Kaito. My emotions are mixed. There's something about him I don't like, but everyone else loves him so I find myself grudgingly biting my tongue. I guess I'm hoping to use this and future entries on my blog to suss out what it is I don't like about him. So thanks for coming with me on this journey, for the three of you who didn't violently close the tab to this blog.

Vs. Minoru Suzuki, Great Voyage in Yokohama Vol. 2,10.26.16
Look at Kaito here. So tiny, so full of hope.

Suzuki's gonna crush him like an orange.

This match is from the first whole NOAH show I ever watched, the same show where Katsuyori Shibata and Go Shiozaki went 20+ minutes and Katsuhiko Nakajima won the GHC Heavyweight championship (Put a Big Ol' pin in this match, we'll be coming back to it and the following title reign one day.) I remember liking the whole card, but besides the two above mentioned matches, Suzuki vs. Kaito was the match I remembered the most vividly. Probably because I love any time Minoru (rocking his old theme here) takes apart Young Boys on a whim. The same proved true in this match, but Kaito honestly got more offense in than most trainees usually do against Suzuki. After a flurry of offense and trying his hardest to stand up to The King, Suzuki brutalized him with strikes for a good 30 second stretch, which includes Kaito being stood back up to take more by Suzuki more than. A great mauling.
**1/2

NJPW Destruction in Kobe: A Solid End to the Destruction Tour

The insane Weekend of wrestling ended for me with The Destruction show in Kobe. Well, that's a bit of a lie. I watched it in parts at work. It was slow, but I definitely think it helped me enjoy the show a bit more. Four hours is still a lot of wrestling to intake, no matter what company it is. Regardless of that factor, I think Kobe still brought a more than adequate ending to the trio of shows that needed a good ending more than anything.


Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Hirai Kawato vs. Tomoyuki Oka and Katsuya Kitamura
We got to hear Tenzan's theme in this match, which was a plus. Apparently, according to English Commentary, Kitamura and Oka are now known as Monster Rage. Which I guess makes Oka the Rage. I drool over these two a lot, but Kawato is definitely my favorite Young Lion at this point. I've really warmed up to him, and his personality is really defined at this point. Hirai is hungry and determined to get that first, defining win of his career. He didn't pick it up here, Tenzan put the Anaconda Vice on Oka and it was over, but one day he will. Maybe it'll be in the Young Lion's Cup?
*1/2

NJPW Destruction in Hiroshima: A Leap Beyond Fukushima

Before you even begin this review, let me assure you, Fukushima has now been rendered mute. Every match in Hiroshima was mechanically and performance-wise superior. I bear no ill will to those men on the previous show, several factors were working against them. But, enough of the negatives, let's continue the New Japan Summer tour with the war between Suzuki-Gun and Taguchi Japan.

Spoilers; Suzuki-Gun got wrecked. For real this time.

CHAOS (Hirooki Goto, Jado, and YOSHI-HASHI) vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Jushin Thunder Liger, and Tiger Mask IV
Liger's music played his team in this night, so we didn't get to bask in Tenzan's musical glory this time. CHAOS played the heels in this match, and both Goto and HASHI were very uncomfortable in the situation. Jado was excellent in the role, as he should have been. Speaking of the former two, clues are lending to them being World Tag League partners every day, which I'm not a fan of. But I already talked about my love of Ride The Lightning last time. This was a stock 6-man otherwise, still better paced than the opening tags from Fukushima. Action broke down before YOSHI tapped Tiger Mask out with the dreaded Butterfly Lock.
*1/4, the extra quarter was given because they're trying to keep that submission strong.


Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale and Leo Tonga) vs. Taguchi Japan (Juice Robinson and David Finlay)
Kevin Kelley was hinting that Juice and Finlay may be teaming up for the World Tag League this year. I am 300% in for this team of leg warmers and dreadlocks. Again, this match was better than the match from Fukushima mechanically, but it didn't have the same charm of Fale teaching Leo how to be a monster heel. Tonga got Stunned then Switched. Simple process, Juice/Omega will be pristine.
*1/2

The Road to Ring of Honor: Death Before Dishonor XV

In just a few days, Ring of Honor airs their 15th incarnation of Death Before Dishonor. All four of ROH's titles are scheduled to be defended ,with guaranteed five men wrestling twice tonight. The card coming up looks like it'll be insane, putting the best the company has to offer into the spotlight. In this preview, I'm hoping to go beyond what Wikipedia could tell you. It'd be easy to say "this man started here and did X, before Y." Instead, I want to help any casual viewer on the fence of watching Ring of Honor's product get into the matches easier. Less to inform, more to contextualize. With that in mind, let's start from the bottom, and work our way up.



The Kingdom (Matt Taven, TK O'Ryan and Vinnie Marseglia) vs. The Briscoes and Bully Ray
Winners receive a Ring of Honor 6-Man Tag Team Championship shot later that night.
The Kingdom are finally back to full strength after TK shattered his leg on an Asai Moonsault months ago. The original 6-Man Tag Team Champions of Ring of Honor, what must have been huge plans for this trio were cut drastically short. Now, those plans may be going full steam ahead again. The only thing that stands in their way is the Team of Bully Ray and the Briscoes. With the winners going on to face the champions later this same night, I think that Bully, Mark, and Jay win here to fall valiantly to the Bullet Club. On the other hand, The Kingdom winning here could lead to them taking their belts back from a weakened Club should the card fall that way. This'll be fun chaos one way or another.

Destruction in Fukushima: A Lukewarm Start to September

Well, here it is. Falcon Arrow Emporium is open for business. And it's first presentation is this? Well, work with what you got I guess...

 The first stop in the Destruction tour ended up being a real below average show. It wasn't that the matches were overall bad, just most were painfully average. It didn't help that the crowd seemed non-existent for most of it. The arena was at about one-third capacity, and it sure as hell sounded it through the card. On a card that needed all the help it could get, a lack of heat for anything impacted the presentation hard, as we shall see.

Hirai Kawato and Yuji Nagata vs. Shota Umino and Manabu Nakanishi
The opening match saw the continuation of the random Nagata/Nakanishi blood feud that has developed in the past month. If you watched either of the "Road to" matches involving these two and the Young Lion Army, they were all better than this match. The G1 proved that Nagata can easily still go, whereas Nakanishi is a serious detriment to most matches. The Third Generation members are able to slow their paces down to his and still deliver an alright match, but the rest of the roster suffers from trying to keep down. As it stood, most of the match was either Nagata/Umino or Nakanishi/Kawato. Hirai is still my favorite Young Lion, and needs to be moved up from this kind of match. Nagata eventually made Umino tap to the Crossface-Nagata Lock

1/2*, if Umino and Kawato spent more time in the ring together the rating could have been higher.