THE SECOND NAVIGATION 2008

March 2, 2008

KENTA . . . finds himself across the ring from a spunky junior underdog, the same role he’d been in only a few years previously.

Naomichi Marufuji . . . puts on a finish that’s worthy of pretty much any highlight reel imaginable, in an otherwise unremarkable tag titles match.

Takeshi Morishima . . . throws everything he has at Misawa in order to finally become the GHC Champion, but ‘everything’ doesn’t appear to be too much.

KENTA KOBASHI/TAMON HONDA/KENTA vs. YOSHIHIRO TAKAYAMA/TAKUMA SANO/ATSUSHI AOKI

Aside from a few bits of goofiness from Kobashi and Takayama, and the fact that it was stretched out a little bit too long, this looked like it would have fit right in during the All Japan glory days. The Kobashi/Takayama hatred was the clear centerpiece, but everyone managed to contribute to the proceedings in some way and the result was quite a fun ride, even with the expected result. After a short feeling out process where everyone gets a chance to show some stuff off, Kobashi’s team takes to working over Aoki and the match picks up a good three notches. Kobashi and co. are as dickish as you’d expect while working the kid over. Kobashi even digs out a Texas cloverleaf and stretches him out. Aoki’s selling wasn’t anything amazing, but it fit the situation just fine, all Aoki needed to do was to get the tar beaten out of him. Takayama gets a hot tag and cleans house for a second and after a quick segment with Kobashi getting control of the match, he tags in KENTA to try his hand with Takayama, and the roles reverse. KENTA finds himself the victim of some nasty revenge spots for what his team did to Aoki, and KENTA has always been one of the best sellers in the company, so what was already pretty good suddenly becomes pretty damn great.

Some may not care for KENTA’s comeback that leads to his tag and kicks off the finish run, but it worked in its own way. KENTA had his midsection punished pretty good, between Takayama’s knee strikes and elbows as well as Sano’s diving stomp. So, it seems odd for KENTA to take over Takayama with a suplex before tagging out. But there were a couple of occasions when it seemed like KENTA was about to make a comeback only for Takayama to cut him off to keep working him over, so it makes sense for KENTA to be get one over on Takayama and finally get out of the match. But it’s the Takayama/Kobashi exchanges that make this match. They act like they want to rip each other’s head off, and neither one of them minds taking an absurdly stiff shot if it means they get to give one back. Again, they get a little goofy a couple of times. Takayama counters the half-nelson suplex with a DDT and Kobashi pops right up and gives Takayama a DDT of his own, which gets no sold in turn. But they make up for that a minute later when Takayama levels Kobashi with a knee strike that keeps him down for a minute. Takayama charges for a running knee and runs into a lariat that gets a good near fall.

It shouldn’t be a shocker to anyone that it’s Aoki who winds up dropping the fall, but he puts up a good fight before he finally goes down. In a way, watching KENTA try to put him away feels like KENTA has come full circle. It didn’t seem that terribly long ago that KENTA was the spunky kid throwing everything he had at guys like Kanemaru or Hashi or Michael Modest trying to stay alive. The crowd erupts when Aoki manages to dodge the Busaiku and surprises KENTA with an O’Connor roll, and when KENTA kicks out and Aoki switches to a juji-gatame, it seems like he might just pull off the upset. But KENTA’s partners intervene and while the heavyweights are busy fighting each other, Aoki escapes a Go 2 Sleep but runs himself right back into another one and KENTA scores the win. The match may have ended at that point but Kobashi and Takayama aren’t finished with each other yet and keep fighting on the ramp, leading to the locker room emptying, along with KENTA and Honda, trying to keep them apart. It’s not quite as batshit crazy as what Brody and Hansen were doing in their heyday, but it’s not far off either. Why this was never followed up in any meaningful way is beyond me. The upcoming Global Tag League was right there to keep things going between them, but Kobashi wasn’t involved in the tournament. A GHC Tag Titles feud between Kobashi/Honda and Takayama/Sano would not only have made the titles more interesting than they’d pretty much ever been at that point but would have also been a great way to help ease Morishima into his new role. ***1/2

NAOMICHI MARUFUJI/TAKASHI SUGIURA © vs. JAY BRISCOE/MARK BRISCOE (GHC Tag Team Titles)

Speaking of reasons that using the tag titles as a backdrop to a Kobashi/Takayama feud would have made them more interesting… this match. This isn’t all that different than the junior tag titles switch from the previous January. It’s not that nothing happens, the match is close to thirty minutes long after all. But when you factor in what happens versus what happens that feels important, the match takes a nosedive. The heat segment on Marufuji probably should have been the high point of the match, but it wasn’t anything special. The Briscoes don’t show a fraction of the intensity that either team in the previous trios match did when working over the junior opponent and, considering that Jay and Mark had spent the better part of the last year having wars with Steen and Generico and then Age of the Fall, this is a big failing on their part. Mark hobbling after hitting Sugiura with the Doomsday Device because of his time spent in the ankle lock seems like a positive, aside from the fact that there was a decent lapse of time between the hold and the Doomsday Device (including a Doomsday on Marufuji) where the time in the hold didn’t hamper him in the least. Of course, it doesn’t help that Marufuji and Sugiura aren’t a whole lot better. Marufuji acts like Mark’s head scissors is about to put him out, requiring Sugiura to run in and break it up, but he takes a big lariat from Jay and just jumps up like it’s nothing. The Budokan fans clearly know the score as well, seeing as they don’t really bother to wake up until about twenty minutes in when the big moves start coming out, and it’s for no reason other than the match has been going on “long enough” that the finish should be coming soon.

This match is probably best known for the finishing spot, and for good reason. Marufuji and the Briscoes pull it off seamlessly. If it happened in WWE or TNA, it’d be shown in every highlight reel or video package for at least the next couple of years. The only thing that really makes it look exposing is that Jay sets up Marufuji for the Doomsday quite a bit closer to the ropes, which is explained by Mark being hobbled after the one to Sugiura. But, as great as that was, it’s about thirty seconds of a match that lasts almost thirty minutes. They have their fair share of cute moments and good sequences, like Mark’s escape from the Olympic slam and Sugiura outsmarting him into the ankle lock, and Mark and Marufuji having their little agility standoff (even with Mark’s quebrada being badly blown). So, this clearly isn’t devoid of anything good outside of the finish, it’s just frustratingly lacking in story or theme. Apparently NOAH just isn’t the right setting for Jay and Mark, because their matches with Aries and Strong are evidence of just how great they could be during this time frame.

This is what NOAH spent pretty much the entirety of 2007 building toward. Misawa spent the year turning back old rivals, plunky underdogs, and monster foreigners. Morishima’s 2007 was spent tear-assing his way through ROH, having wars with Bryan Danielson and Nigel McGuinness, and vanquishing the various ghosts from his past; save one: the man across the ring from him. But this epic passing of the torch isn’t all that epic. It isn’t marginally different from the other important wins that led Morishima here. The biggest takeaway is the simple fact that he wins, but he doesn’t do so in any sort of dominant manner. The opening stretch actually isn’t that bad, and seemed like it was setting the stage for something pretty good. Morishima shows some aggression and challenges Misawa to do the same, and Misawa responds with an elbow that sends Morishima to the floor, and then follows him outside with an elbow suicida. Morishima teases a powerbomb (the same spot that caused their last match to go off the rails) but Misawa back drops him out of it, and then does a senton off the apron. But Morishima doesn’t show that level of aggression again or do anything to give the impression that he’s trying to push Misawa, the way that Marufuji and KENTA had both done in their matches.

Both men have their moments of good work, Morishima’s sleeper into the sliding lariat was something of a surprise, and doing his own dive to the floor was a great revenge spot for the elbow suicida. After far too long of being “treated” to the battle of elbow versus lariat it was a good sight to see Morishima outsmart Misawa by hitting a lariat while he was in the middle of the rolling elbow. As frustrating as it was to see Misawa digging out the Emerald Frozion, which wasn’t necessary in the least, at least he was smart enough to have Morishima elevated in order to get to it, rather than having to see Morishima go up for the spot, the way that he did for the G2S and Pole Shift. Aside from the one stupid pop up sequence they have, nobody can argue that Misawa didn’t sell for Morishima. No, it wasn’t anything amazing on the level of peak period Kawada, but when Morishima hits something big Misawa is down for an appropriate amount of time with a pained expression on his face. However, those good moments are counteracted with silliness like the seemingly eternal battle between the lariat and the elbow. Yes, they’re each man’s main strike, but, to say that they fall back on them quite a bit would be an understatement. When Misawa decides that he’s ready to take over, it doesn’t matter what Morishima had been doing, he hits an elbow or two and then he’s in control. When it’s Morishima’s turn, he just fires back with his lariat to take over the match. One of Misawa’s last offensive spurts was capped off by an Emerald Frozion and running elbow combo for a near fall. Morishima gets up and hits a lariat of his own and starts acting like he’s completely refreshed. The pop up sequence would have been awful no matter the circumstances, but it’s made even worse because it follows Morishima getting a run of offense that included a running powerbomb and a jumping kick. They trade off their strikes and nobody stays down for more than a millisecond. Misawa surprises Morishima with a back elbow that stuns him and then charges for a running elbow and runs into a lariat, and only then do they decide to sell.

Aside the first few minutes when Morishima shows some anger and tries to challenge Misawa, we don’t see anything else from either man to continue that theme or replace it with something else. Morishima’s idea of building up for his lariat and backdrop is with other lariats and backdrops. His first backdrop isn’t even worthy of a cover. He hits the suplex and then waits for Misawa to get up so he can do a running lariat and that’s somehow more worthy of a pin attempt. The “attempt” at the backdrop on the apron is pretty much a waste. Even if he were to pull it off, both of them would fall to the floor, and, nobody believes that Misawa is going to take a bump of that level at this point. The finishing sequence is Morishima hitting the lariat counter to the elbow, hitting another running lariat, and then a backdrop for the pinfall. Aside from the elbow counter, he doesn’t do a thing to show that he’s truly able to outwrestle or outsmart Misawa. Morishima doesn’t look like much more than the guy that was able to suck up what Misawa had to throw at him, and fire back enough to finally keep the old man down. Why should it be impressive that Morishima kicks out of the Emerald Frozion and running elbow? At this point everyone has kicked out of them! A more effective sequence could have gone like this: After countering the rolling elbow, instead of falling back on the same sequence of moves that hadn’t helped him yet, Morishima lets his anger out and throws Misawa into the corner and hits a running splash and then a series of lariats (think the Kobashi chop flurry), and Misawa is so stunned from the onslaught that he’s easy prey for the backdrop Or, instead of kicking out of the Emerald Frozion and then getting hit with the running elbow, Morishima could be smart enough to *avoid* the big move, especially when sliding down from the Frozion puts him right into position for the backdrop. Hell, Morishima could even dig out the Amaze Impact, in a little nod to his own past. Instead of Misawa tossing out the same spots that he always does, that never win for him the first time around anyway, Morishima could have been the guy to do something different. But instead of doing anything like that, where the man that’s supposed to become the man is able to look like he deserves the distinction, they just plug Morishima into the same old tired Misawa formula.

Aside from the fact that there’s no head drops and nothing as insane as a Tiger suplex off the ramp, there’s not much at all that differentiates this from the 3/03 match with Kobashi; the last time Misawa tried to pass the torch. NOAH may not look at ROH as anything more than a place to send young guys on excursion, or a source for foreigners. But his ROH run, specifically the matches with Danielson, showed exactly how good of a monster heel that Morishima could be. Maybe NOAH was already too far gone for Morishima to make any difference but cutting him off at the knees yet again certainly didn’t do him, or the promotion that he was expected to carry, any favors.

Conclusion: As enthusiastic as I was going into this, it’s hard to not come away disappointed. Even the unexpected greatness of the trios match is tainted by the notion that it didn’t have any meaningful follow up.