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 2000 was a huge year for pro wrestling. ECW's champion Mike Awesome walked out to WCW & ended up coming back to lose to a WWF wrestler in Taz. The WCW World Heavyweight title was vacated on 6 different occasions & was held by such luminaries of the sport as Jeff Jarrett, Vince Russo & David Arquette. Meanwhile the WWF championship changed hands just 6 times (Big Show to WON Wrestler of the Year HHH to Rock to WON Wrestler of the Year HHH to Rock to Angle) all year. Less amusingly, there was Masakazu Fukuda dying after taking a flying elbow from Katsuyori Shibata in the New Japan Young Lion Cup. Bret Hart retired after severe concussions. All Japan legend Jumbo Tsuruta died after struggling with Hepatitis B, which lead to liver cancer & a liver transplant that was sadly not successful. And Japan regular Gary Albright also died in a match, suffering from a heart attack in a match on an indy show promoted by his father-in-law Afa. The biggest story though was undoubtedly all but 2 of the native regulars of All Japan Pro Wrestling walking out to form a new company, Pro Wrestling NOAH because of backstage problems between booker, President & star Mitsuhara Misawa & owner Motoko Baba. And one of the men just a sidenote at the time, taking the massive leap into the dark with the stars Misawa, Kobashi, Taue & Akiyama, was a young boy called Kenta Kobayashi. It's a story that's been covered to death but 24 out of 26 native wrestlers left with Misawa, including the trainees who were impressed to be told personally of the move by Misawa & invited to join.  See him in the back row? Hiding almost, next to the freshly shaved head of Takashi Sugiura, and he'd gone to be one of the most exciting wrestlers in the world, and in comparitively little time. I make no bones about it, KENTA is one of my favourites, but the truth is I've not actually seen a lot of his stuff. So I thought it could be fun to do a thread where I just watch KENTA matches. Which matches? Well, depends what I can find and hopefully this will be a deep dive. Anyway, let's watch KENTA & talk KENTA & admire KENTA, the true leader of Bullet Club. Whether you first enountered him as Hideo Itami, star of 205 Live, as the veteran returning to his homeland of Japan last year in New Japan before turning on his close friend Shibata to join the Bullet Club or on his mid-2000s trips to the USA to work for Ring of Honor, I thought it'd be fun to have a thread dedicated to him. The idea is simple: I'm going to watch a match & then write about the match & I'll post a link & you can watch the match & write about it too & in the end all come together to agree: KENTA loving rules. I'm probably going to go through it roughly chronologically because that pleases my brain. Which...the temptation is there to jump right in with the Danielson matches or the Low-Ki match as that era of ROH is what introduced me to him (& NOAH at large) so they have a special place in my heart, plus I've not seen them in over a decade. But part of what's so interesting about all this to me is just seeing stuff for the first time too, watching him develop that cocky prick persona that defined him, seeing the first time he hits the Go 2 Sleep, seeing the first time he teams with his mentor Kenta Kobashi. Because a large chunk of his career was with Pro Wrestling NOAH a whole lot of footage is available to watch online as it exists in that sort of gray area. So whether you love Lil' K or are just someone who has seen his injury-interrupted WWE stuff, this is a perfect time to jump on board & get familiar with one of the most important wrestlers to debut this millennium. A couple of months in All Japan, 14 years with NOAH, outside dates with groups as varied as ROH & WLW in America, AAA in Mexico, WXW In Germany, Dragon Gate, Zero 1, Diamond Ring, & Osaka Pro in Japan, 5 long years in WWE & now a year+ in New Japan, there is an awful lot of footage out there, & I'm eager to give into it. As for thread rules, I dunno. Other than the normal forum rules I'm not particularly fussed about spoilers, but if someone else reading the thread doesn't want to know the exact date KENTA wins a title then be cool & at least try to avoid them. But at least to me, the journey is more important than the destination. Otherwise, feel free to post matches yourself & talk about them, regardless if whether I've gotten there yet. If you want an excuse just to rewatch KENTA vs Katsuhiko Nakajima, go for it.
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Sep 9, 2020 15:27
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 15:57 |
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KENTA's first match for All Japan was the day before his 19th birthday, in a 10 man battle royal at Korakuen Hall before the Champion Carnival began, but his proper debut came, fittingly, against the man who has gone down as his big generational rival, Naomichi Marufuji, losing in 11:27 in the opener of a nothing show in Aomori on the 24th May. The first match he had that we've got tape of is from that same Super Power Series tour, with the exodus having already been confirmed earlier in the month (the departing wrestlers would fulfill their obligations until July 20th, though really the new era of All Japan had begun on 1st July with a card that had just 6 Japanese on it, freelancers like Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Jinsei Shinzaki), 31st May 2005 against fellow trainee Makoto Hashi. (Technically a highly edited version of the battle royal is out there but I can't find it) Kenta Kobayashi vs Makoto Hashi  Makoto Hashi is one of the more experienced boys still classed as a trainee at this point, he debuted in March 1998 against Yoshinobu Kanemaru& like Kobayashi is a Junior Heavyweight in a company that really didn't value Junior Heavyweight wrestling, even by the standards of the time. He competed in the 5th edition of the Asunaro Cup (the AJPW Young Lion Cup equivalent) in 2000, losing to Yoshinobu Kanemaru in the semi-final (Kanemaru went on to beat Naomichi Marufuji to win the thing). He will go on to retire in 2011, after suffering from several neck injuries over the years. Young boy KENTA does not immediately jump out to you "future star", he's smaller than Hashi, & he really don't look like much at all. Rather than being the vicious bully he is instead little brother-ed around and has to fall back upon armdrags. His first strike isn't the stiff kicks he's famous for now but a dropkick. That said, it doesn't take long for a hint of the future vicious streak to come out, Hashi leaves the ring after the dropkick & as he gets back in Kobayashi jumps him. Still, Hashi has been wrestling for 2 years & Kobayashi has been wrestling for a week so the result isn't in doubt, & as it's a match between young boys there's nothing much to write home about. A decent little match, requisite Boston crab spot & a short but hot comeback from Kenta featuring a missile dropkick and near-fall. What is worth writing about is the crowd really get into a couple of Kenta pin attempts, believing the upset victory could happen. Ultimately though he taps out to what looked like a camel clutch following a top rope diving headbutt to the back. Is it essential viewing? No, absolutely not. But it's a fun little young boy match and clearly the fans saw something in him even at this stage because they really got into it at the end. And it is the earliest footage of a Kenta Kobayashi match I can find which is pretty notable in & of itself.
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Sep 9, 2020 15:41
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Kenta Kobayashi vs Yoshinobu Kanemaru, 9/6/2000 This is notable as it is the final KENTA All Japan match to make tape, unless something massively unexpected happens in the future. Kanemaru debuted back in 1996 but was enough of a young boy in the eyes of All Japan to be in the Asunaro Cup this year, which he won, following in the footsteps of Toshiaki Kawada, Jun Akiyama & Tamon Honda. Kanemaru was quickly to become a mainstay of the NOAH Junior division until his departure at the end 2012 back to All Japan with Jun Akiyama, Atsushi Aoki, Go Shiozaki & Kotaro Suzuki, all upset at the way Kenta Kobashi was forced out. But that's still over a decade in the future, for now he's beating young boys & almost no one else, though he is in Burning, the stable lead by Kenta Kobashi & also featuring Jun Akiyama & Kentaro Shiga. Which still puts him far above Kenta Kobayashi in the pecking order. Talking of who, this is without a doubt the biggest match of his nascent career, coming from a sold out Nippon Budokan in Tokyo, 16,000 in attendance & a show headlined by the finals of an entirely pointless AJPW Tag Team title tournament as Holy Demon Army of Kawada & Taue defeat NO FEAR of Omori & Takayama. Of course the split happens, the belts are vacated again & stay vacated until January '01.  Pretty sure Wanderlei Silva had already started doing this bit so I'm assuming KENTA has borrowed it from there  Long before he was Uncle Nobu, Kanemaru had some indyriffic looking gear Kobayashi comes out hot & leapfrogs over the referee into a dropkick. Not the smoothest spot in the world but very cool none the less & not something I've seen done too often before.  Kenta gets a headscissors out of the corner & follows up with another dropkick, this one sends Kanemaru to the outside where Kobayashi hits him with a plancha. Couple of stomps, throws him back in & goes for a pin but just gets 1. He whips Kanemaru into the ropes and tries to catch him on the rebound with yet another dropkick but Yoshinobu is smart to it & holds on to the ropes, allowing him to take control. Kanemaru applies a camel clutch & even fish hooks the nose, dastardly bastard that he is. Somethings never change. They have a very brief strike exchange but Kenta's weird looking forearms to the chest do not do much, while Kanemaru clobbers him with a European uppercut. There's a Boston crab spot that Kenta manages to escape to the ropes from & then Nobu gets a 2-count from a slingshot twisting body press from the apron into the ring which was considerably more aerial than you expect from Kanemaru. As Kanemaru chokes Kenta Kobayashi with his boot we get a nice camera shot of the Jumbo Tsuruta memorial, as he'd died less than a month before this.  Jumbo Tsuruta with I think the NWA International Heavyweight Championship title. And some bystander We get some more Kobayashi dropkicks, including a missile dropkick which gets a real good response from the crowd but he can only get a 2 count. He tries a crossbody from the top rope next, and then after Kanemaru reverses an Irish whip to the corner he tries to counter with a crossbody off the 2nd rope but this time Yoshinobu sidesteps it. He's picked up, bodyslammed & Kanemaru goes for a split legged moonsault in the corner but it's not quite enough, & then as Kanemaru tries for another bodyslam Kenta gets him in a victory roll for a 2 & a half. The veteran doesn't let Kenta consolidate control though & gives the rookie a running knee to the gut, signals that it's all over & lands a lovely looking moonsault press for the victory. Kanemaru immediately rolls out of the ring to bow in the direction of Jumbo, a nice touch to a great of the sport. Another very simple match but you expect that with his 3rd ever match to make tape. Kenta has an incredibly dropkick heavy offence & so far his dropkick is just kind of okay, but I did love the leapfrog over the ref, that's some way to do a hot start.
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Sep 9, 2020 21:57
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one of my favorite youtube videos is titled Don't Kick KENTA! and then proceeds to show why you Don't Kick KENTA!
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Sep 9, 2020 22:14
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Coaaab posted:one of my favorite youtube videos is titled Don't Kick KENTA! and then proceeds to show why you Don't Kick KENTA! That video is indeed a whole lot of awesome violent kicks. Poor Eddie Edwards should've known better.
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Sep 9, 2020 22:18
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That leapfrog over the ref spot is cool as hell, I can't think of ever seeing anything like that before. I think the first proper KENTA match I ever saw was a match against Misawa (!) in ROH in the mid-2000s which was really drat good. I think I mostly knew about him for a long time as the guy that CM Punk stole all his moves from.
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Sep 10, 2020 05:14
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KENTA was a fantastic in ring wrestler in the mid 2000s but I think the thing most people don't grasp is he had even more charisma. I liked Marufuji a bit more in terms of "guy who I want to watch great matches of" but seeing KENTA live, oh my gosh. Such a star. He still has great dick energy but back in 2006, no one had better dick energy than KENTA. He'd just stand there and look like a dick and the crowd would go wild because he was so cool. I am aware of all of the things I just typed.
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Sep 10, 2020 05:19
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i got really heated watching him just lay kicks into danielson's separated shoulder at gbhv
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Sep 10, 2020 05:24
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I wonder if KENTA would of had a better chance of getting over than Marafuji did with the 2006 GHC title run just by virtue of his great rear end in a top hat energy would of played better as Junior (at time) with the main belt
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Sep 10, 2020 05:30
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SatoshiMiwa posted:I wonder if KENTA would of had a better chance of getting over than Marafuji did with the 2006 GHC title run just by virtue of his great rear end in a top hat energy would of played better as Junior (at time) with the main belt Honestly think this wouldn't matter because ultimately the booking would still treat them as firmly less than Misawa, Kobashi and Akiyama even as their bodies broke down.
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Sep 10, 2020 09:43
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MassRafTer posted:KENTA was a fantastic in ring wrestler in the mid 2000s but I think the thing most people don't grasp is he had even more charisma. I liked Marufuji a bit more in terms of "guy who I want to watch great matches of" but seeing KENTA live, oh my gosh. Such a star. He still has great dick energy but back in 2006, no one had better dick energy than KENTA. He'd just stand there and look like a dick and the crowd would go wild because he was so cool. I definitely know I felt Marufuji was the better of the group for a while - but I knew I was kind of an outlier with that feeling by the time I got into ROH/Puro in general. KENTA was way charismatic and had a much bigger star aura surrounding him. Watching classic KENTAFuji tags are responsible for me not completely falling out of love with wrestling for a while. I don't really remember the circumstances of what was going on - but I was bored with WWE. ROH was on a downtrend. NOAH kinda was also. Felt like I just wasn't liking anything. Then I watch a series of KENTA & Marufuji tags after watching a really fun match of them vs. Misawa & Ogawa. Just an instant reminder for me that wrestling can be fun as hell. Thanks KENTA!
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Sep 10, 2020 11:53
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Kenta Kobayashi vs Satoru Asako 6/8/2000 The link is for the entire SamuraiTV cut of this show, Departure #2 from the Differ Ariake in Tokyo, the home venue of NOAH. At this point even their offices were based in this complex. One thing notable about this is that it's from a rebroadcast of this show in 2006 so it has future commentary from Naomichi Marufuji on it. Anyway, if you're watching along there's a brief in-ring promo from Kobashi before the entrances start for this match at 2:15 into the video. Pro Wrestling NOAH opened its doors for the very first time on the 5th of August for a show headlined by a big 2 out of 3 falls tag match between Akira Taue & Mitsuhara Misawa on one side & Jun Akiyama & Kenta Kobashi on the other, which instantly established Akiyama as among the top guys in a way that he hadn't gotten to be in All Japan. But Kenta Kobayashi was not on this show, his NOAH debut came in the following night, the same venue, another soldout crowd and Kenta is still at the bottom of the pecking order even in a new company, opening the show against veteran junior Satoru Asako. Asako started his career in 1991 & wrestled almost exclusively for All Japan until the NOAH split, with just one Big Japan appearance in '97. He was largely done by the end of 2001 with a final appearance in 2002 for NOAH, but at least according to Cagematch he still works for NOAH to this day backstage. He's also one third of the group NO FEAR with Yoshihiro Takayama & Takao Omori.  Not sure you can accuse Kenta of going into this with a cliche young boy fire No leapfrog over the ref in this one sadly, instead it's a very normal start with a collar & elbow tie-ups a clean break in the ropes, then a collar & elbow tie-up into a headlock takedown by Kenta countered with a head scissors by Asako & Kenta doing a very unimpressive kip-up attempt. And then doing it over again with an equally disappointing kip-up. Hey, he's green. There was a gif here of the kip-up attempts but for whatever reason the colour is just going wild on the gif and I have no idea why We get a brief bit of Kenta Kobayashi grappling, doing some almost flamboyant bridges & rolls working an armlock. It's actually quite surprising, this is heavy on grappling for what you'd expect from NOAH or All Japan. Finally we get a glimpse of KENTA after Asako rolls out of the ring of a breather, as he returns Kobayashi really starts laying into him with kicks and forearms, & though this was a relatively short bit before the veteran regained control (including a bodyslam on part of the floor that didn't have any mats covering it, that bastard!) it did feel firey. After being almost forced to kiss the foot of Asako there is a bit of reaction from the audience as Asako encourages Kenta to strike with him, but his forearms to the chest don't do much & he ends up on his back after a running boot. From here Asako is really taunting him with little kicks to the head. Kenta does get a couple of 2 counts on a sunset flip & a victory roll but he then misses a missile dropkick, and after a struggle escapes from a Boston crab. Ultimately Asako gets a facebuster & then wins with a Camel Clutch which Kenta taps from instantly. It's absolutely non-essential, except for the fact it's KENTA's NOAH debut.  Future GHC HW Champ Takashi Sugiura makes his first appearance as the young boy helping Kenta to the back. It'll be 6 more months before he makes his in-ring debut.
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Sep 27, 2020 21:04
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Kenta Kobayashi vs Naomichi Marufuji, 16/9/2000 The very first televised chapter of a rivalry that defined 2000s Junior Heavyweight wrestling & certainly defines both mens careers. So we are going to be seeing a lot of them both on opposite sides & as tag partners. If you're reading this you probably know Marufuji but in the unlikely event you don't then no one else has defined NOAH in the post-Misawa era. Be it as a junior or a heavyweight Naomichi Marufuji has been a great wrestler & a hugely important figure for the company behind the scenes, now a Vice President of CyberFight, the owners of DDT & NOAH. Sadly injuries have caught up with him now & he's not what he once was, but he does still have some excellent matches in him, just don't expect him to light up a multiman tag. All that is in the future though. For now, Marufuji is a couple years more experienced than Kenta, having debuted in August '98. His first singles win came in January 2000 over Makoto Hashi & he's picked up a couple more before the NOAH split but is 0-2 in NOAH singles appearances to this point. So it shouldn't be a huge surprise if I tell you this is Marufuji's first NOAH singles win.  Marufuji is clearly higher in the pecking order than Kenta Kobayashi, he gets a vest to wear for his entrance Kobayashi intitially gets overpowered at the start, pushed back to the ropes, but he reverses positions & instead of a clean break he pummels Marufuji in the chest. It feels appropriate that prick Kenta comes out to play right away in this match.  The first real audience response comes after Kenta gets shoulder blocked onto his back, pops back up and hits a dropkick, much better than the ones he was throwing even a month earlier. Fans always seem to appreciate a well executed dropkick. After hammerlock reversal we have Kobayashi on top on the mat, but he ends up in a head scissors, but he counters out of that with an interesting method, going for a headstand & then dropping down with his knees onto the legs of Marufuji until he breaks the hold.  Some nice agility from Kobayashi Kenta gets some time on top after the armdrag and he works the arm with a double wristlock & some albows to the trapped arm but he loses momentum after Marufuji holds onto the ropes on an Irish whip & Kenta dropkicks nothing. Marufuji clearly needs to work on his Camel Clutch because this time he puts Kenta in it & Kenta holds on for seconds & then escapes! Kenta gets to hit a crossbody from the top rope & a dropkick, & even manages a flying headscissors out of the corner. But just like in the Asako match he goes for a missile dropkick & whiffs it, allowing Marufuji to do a slingshot, but he holds on & rolls through right into a Boston Crab.  These posts aren't meant to be focused on Marufuji but this match is very much him in charge Marufuji hits with a missile dropkick & there's a quiet murmer from the fans as they assume that is that, but Kenta kicks out at 2 and it gets a good response, as does Kenta's own nearfall on a victory roll counter. This just pisses Marufuji off though and after a slap & kick to a downed Kenta he picks him up, drops him with a back suplex & gets the win.
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Oct 1, 2020 23:06
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The annoying thing is that while there's been a decent amount of early KENTA available for these first few months of his career, we're going to hit a patch where there is nothing online as far as I can find. In fact, that's it for 2000, over the next 3 months Kenta Kobayashi as he's still known is on a bunch of shows that got televised and presumably some of his matches appeared in at least clipped form but we'll have to come back tot hem if I actually get around to sourcing them. I'm especially disappointed I have to skip his first tag team match with Marufuji, against Richard Slinger & Too Cold Scorpio, & his first main event, an 8 man tag in December where he tags with Kikuchi, Rikio & his mentor Kenta Kobashi against Akiyama, Morishima, Shiga & Kanemaru. Sounds fun. The footage drought then goes into 2001, he was on a taped show in January with Kobashi vs Kikuchi & Rikio but then missed 3 months with a shoulder injury. Back in May for the Navigation With Breeze tour, one match in June, in the GHC Junior Heavyweight Title tournament first round where he lost to luchador Path Finder. And since the GHC Jr belt will be a big part of the Kenta Kobayashi story, I'll quickly outline it. Round one had the aforementioned, Tsuyoshi Kikuchi over Masashi Aoyagi, Makoto Hashi over So-Cal indy guy Jardi Frantz, Satoru Asako over Harley Race/WLW trainee Matt Murphy, with Naomichi Marufuji, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, BJ Whitmer & Juventud Guerrera all getting byes. Second round, Kanemaru over Path Finder, Marufuji over Hashi, Juvi over Asako, & Kikuchi over Whitmer. Guerrera beat Marufuji & Kanemaru beat Kikuchi and the final is available to watch if you're interested, it's a fun little match. But if you don't want to watch & just want to know the result: Kanemaru wins to be first GHC Junior Heavyweight champion Kenta Kobayashi doesn't appear on any of the other cards on the tour, again hampered by injury (from what I can find, there's a reference to a broken foot in the Observers of the time). In fact Kenta Kobayashi doesn't wrestle again because at the next appearance, teaming with Marufuji against Donovan Morgan & Michael Modest in July, he's finally KENTA. We'll pick up with the first televised match under this new name next time. But since I speed ran through 2000 thanks to there being less online to watch than I'd expected I thought I'd finish this update with some Kenta Kobayashi year 1 statistics. He wrestled 43 times in the year, 12 times for All Japan & 31 for NOAH. And as you'd expect from someone in the first year of their career in Japan he ate a lot of pins. Actually, in 42 of the matches he was on the losing side, the lone winning coming in the unrecorded opener of NOAH's biggest show of 2000, Great Voyage as he & Kikuchi defeated Scorpio & Kishin Kawabata. Well, it can only go up from here, right?
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Oct 1, 2020 23:52
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Voicing my appreciation for this thread. I didn't get into Japanese pro wrestling until a few years ago. Even back then I knew that WWE signing KENTA was a big loving deal. Looking forward to seeing more of what I missed during KENTA's early heydays.
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Oct 2, 2020 00:19
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KENTA & Naomichi Marufuji vs Scorpio & Superstar Steve As explained last time, KENTA is now officially KENTA, & his first televised match under the newly stylised name (to help avoid confusion with his mentor Kenta Kobashi) came at a very large show for NOAH, their first ever show at the Nippon Budokan, a venue which was so symbolic for All Japan. The show is headlined by the 2nd ever GHC Heavyweight Title defence, Mitsuhara Misawa defending against Jun Akiyama. But our focus is on the 3rd match on the card as 2 Americans go up against 2 promising young Japanese. KENTA & Marufuji, we know. But their opponents are Scorpio, aka ECW, WCW & WWF wrestler Too Cold Scorpio & the presumptiously named Superstar Steve, one of many trainees from the Missouri based indy World League Wrestling who turns up in NOAH. Fun fact, the first US appearances for a host of NOAH stars was for WLW rather than the much more well known Ring of Honor. A week before Marufuji challenged Bryan Danielson for the ROH World Title at Final Battle 2005 he was in Steamboat Rock, Iowa & Warsaw, Missouri. God I can't wait to get to the end of 2005 to rewatch KENTA's own ROH debut on that show, but that's for another day. Or probably another year. Anyway, the only reason that Takeshi Morishima & Takeshi Rikio vs Ace Steel & Jason Bates happened in a town of 3,000 in the Ozarks is that promotion was run by Harley Race & Harley worked a lot for All Japan in the 70s & 80s, from 1973 onwards.  All 4 guys come out individually, to their own theme songs, and notably Marufuji is already using his iconic song Hysteric & KENTA has some generic sounding rock. As you can see, our boy is now a blonde & he flips his way over the top rope into the ring for the start of this before running the ropes. Marufuji & Scorp start this one, the opening features both guys doing some pretty athletic flipping arm wringer reversals, always fun, & then there's a test of strength, Scorpio breaks it with a kick, uses an arm wringer to transition to back control & goes for a German suplex, only Marufuji floats over onto his feat easily & then there's a weird double clothesline where they hit each others arms & spin to the mat before both guys tag out. Superstar Steve bullies KENTA into a corner but ends up getting reversed into the opposite corner with an Irish whip, and then does this, before a drop toe hold once Steve stumbles out of the corner.  Immediately after KENTA whips Steve into the ropes, leapfrogs him & then on the rebound dropkicks Steve out of the ring, then climbs to the top turnbuckle for a plancha, & after getting back to his feet he shows a little spirit with a small roar & gets a decent reaction from the crowd. I forget just how flippy KENTA could get when he was young. KENTA rolls Steve back in & probably instantly regrets that choice, he whips Steve to a corner, Superstar runs up the turnbuckles & flips over KENTA before deliviering a Superkick. He follows that with a senton from the apron to the inside & then a springboard legdrop & goes for the win but only gets a 2 count. Steve brings KENTA to his corner & Scorp tags in, quickly flattening KENTA with a...standing leg lariat? Some sort of spinning kick anyway & then while he's grounded he points like he's going to do a flip & then puts KENTA in a sleeper & then follows up with a legdrop & then knocks Marufuji off the apron before tagging out again. Superstar Steve goes back to working a sleeper until KENTA gets a rope break. He pulls KENTA to the middle of the ring, knee drop to the face, back to the sleeper & then tags out again. Scorpio just throws KENTA into his own corner, he wants Marufuji & so KENTA slumps under the bottom rope. And then Scorp uses a Cobra Clutch for a bit before bringing him to his team's corner & tagging out again. On the double team there looks to be some miscommunication as Steve & Scorp whip Marufuji to the ropes, he ducks under & it looks like he Scorpio is trying for a leapfrog but instead he goes for a dropkick. It looks awkward but the crowd gasp at the spot so they obviously think it worked. Steve tries to maintain control but he gets tossed to the apron, Steve comes back in with a springboard forearm of the sort AJ would make famous. And then it's back to a chinlock. Too Cold comes back in, & this time Marufuji is able to get back on control, finally, leaping from an Irish whip to the outside then the turnbuckle & hits a missile dropkick. He then forces Scorpio to roll to the outside after a kick, follows up with a baseball slide to ensure he stays out long enough to land a gorgeous looking Tope con Giro. Back in the ring Scorpio tries for a top rope suplex, Marufuji flips over, so Scorp throws him back in the corner & hits a cannonball to a standing Marufuji. He tags out & we get a diving headbutt from Steve across half the ring & a nearfall. He does a swinging DDT & gets another 2 count & is right back out. Scorpio goes right up top for a guillotine legdrop & again can only get a 2 count. Marufuji gets a break finally when he reverses a flapjack attempt into a DDT, this was kind of the opposite of a hot tag though.  Once he's in the ring he's less sluggish, but gets folded in half with a German suplex.  Only manages a 2 count though. KENTA manages to pull off a top rope head scissors, gets a 2 count, goes outside for his springboard missile dropkick & gets another 2. Scorpio has had enough, one Kawada-style kick to the head & then an enziquiri drops KENTA & lets him tag out to Superstar Steve. They do a top rope tower of doom style vertical suplex spot, get a 2 count, Marufuji has to break it up, he's thrown out, Scorpio does a body press from one corner, Steve does a moonsault from the other, but still KENTA kicks out. In fact as Scorpio picks him up for a body slam we even get a short "KENTA, KENTA" chant. But he doesn't mount a comeback & instead Scorpio lands the 450 Splash for the win with Superstar Steve keeping back Marufuji. I will be honest, this match was too long & while there were no big botches there were lots of awkward little moments. But KENTA is back and sure, he's still eating pins, who cares? People are getting behind KENTA already. It's a very much ** kind of match, not awful but instantly forgettable.
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Oct 24, 2020 22:37
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