Prior to the opening match the entire locker room emptied to pay tribute to Mitsuharu Misawa, with NOAH's Atsushi Aoki and Tsuyoshi Kikuchi standing in the middle of the ring with a picture of Misawa. They didn't dwell on this moment too much on the clipped TV show but it seemed like a nice tribute from what was shown, all of the big names seemed to be out there, so yeah.
1. Nobuo Yoshihashi vs. Tsuyoshi Kikuchi. Kikuchi came into this match looking particularly surly, ready to kill the young man placed before him. Yoshihashi got a few pot-shots in but he was usually pulverized mere seconds after. Yoshihashi is the quintessential jobber, a man who never really looks particularly impressive, rarely shows any extraordinary skill or charisma, and 100% of the time is pinned. At least Kazuchika Okada's showing something in his jobber phase, I've never really seen anything out of Yoshihashi. With that said, at least he's not Mitsuhide Hirasawa. Anyway, true to form, Kikuchi responded to any Yoshihashi resistance by pinning him in 5:28 with the Fireball Bomb. Pretty bland but it was the opener between a young lion and an old guy so what more could you expect?
2. Taichi vs. Ryusuke Taguchi. Taichi upset Taguchi in the BOSJ group stages with the Black Mephisto, now they shall do it again! There was an AWESOME bit right at the beginning where Taichi was all "Come on, surely a good old fashioned hand shake isn't below you!" so Taguchi was all "Alrightythen". Then Milano Collection AT, Taichi's mentor (for the lack of a better term) is all "Hey now, Taguchi! Shake my hand too", except when Taguchi shook it Milano gripped his hand, leaving Taguchi wide open to get superkicked. The kick looked awesome and the spot was tremendous. And the best thing? IT WAS THE FINISH. TAICHI WON IN 1:28. Taguchi was absolutely DISTRAUGHT at this. They then all bantered back and forth over the microphone but who cares. You could say "But you buried Taguchi!", but they really didn't. The short match got Taichi and Milano over as crafty, cheating yet loveable bastards and built them up as a duo, leading to future matches with Taguchi and Prince Devitt. Good stuff, in my opinion.
3. Best of the Super Juniors 2009 ~ Semi-Final: Atsushi Aoki vs. Koji Kanemoto. As noted earlier, Aoki is from Pro Wrestling NOAH. To be honest, I didn't expect him to make it to this point in the tournament but it's kinda cool. This match brought a very interesting dynamic in the NOAH vs. NJPW feud, as NJPW's Kanemoto was the home-town boy (well, home-promotion) and should have be getting the support, but Aoki's hard to hate here just because of his promotional alliance (fresh off the Misawa thing). Kanemoto's also a major league dickhead when he wants to be. However, in the end the crowd never really seemed to have a 100% favourite. There were chants for Kanemoto but it was closer to a "We want Kanemoto to win!" reaction than a "We want Kanemoto to beat the NOAH guy" one. Aoki brought the fight early and things went out into the crowd where Kanemoto seemed to get the upper-hand. Aoki got back into it by targeting Kanemoto's left arm with a few particularly nice moves, building towards his beloved armbar! Things eventually broke down into submission duels with Kanemoto constantly clamping the ankle lock on until Aoki finally passed out in 6:27. A longer match would probably have been better but they did cram an awful lot into that six and a half minutes and the crowd response for the submissions suggested to me that they didn't mind it too much. It wasn't a "sprint" like you might call a Dragon Gate match or something like that, but they didn't stick around and wait for you to get bored, which was good. I also really liked the fact that Aoki didn't tap out here, it made him look pretty credible on a good stage by holding on until he physically couldn't last any longer.
4. Best of the Super Juniors 2009 ~ Semi-Final: Prince Devitt vs. Kota Ibushi. And the western internet puroresu fans explode with pure joy! Who wins? They win! Devitt seemed to get worked over mostly for most of this match (which must appeal to those who criticise Ibushi for his shoddy selling), often showing signs of life with some nifty kicks. Ibushi did an AWESOME moonsault to the floor, his usual fare but this time he flew clean over the rail and took Devitt along with him. Eventually Ibushi started doing his flips and all that nonsense to get nearfalls, getting quite a reaction, until Devitt started a proper comeback with an overhead kick and a brainbuster, getting an outright advantage since the opening moments of the match. Ibushi missed the Phoenix Splash but somehow survived the Prince's Throne (the fireman's carry into a double knee gutbuster), so Devitt debuted the Shingata (New) Prince's Throne for the win in 8:14. For the record, the Shingata Prince's Throne is a Canadian back rack turned into a double knee gutbuster. I really enjoyed this match because Ibushi basically got to the point where he had Devitt. He'd kicked his ass for perhaps 7 of those 8 minutes but Devitt kept going and had enough to come back and win. You could wheel out the other major criticism about Ibushi aside from the iffy selling point: He does all the same spots. This is true, he seems to repeat a good few spots in most matches, so they're not gonna seem quite so special after a while. However, if that really irks you, chances are you probably shouldn't ever watch a Kota Ibushi match because it's unlikely that he's gonna be changing, and you're probably gonna be annoyed. This match was very much like Aoki vs. Kanemoto in that they really didn't waste any time (which is smart, considering two of the four had another match later on) and just like Aoki vs. Kanemoto, I thought the match being sub-10 minutes worked in its favour. Both of the semi-finals acted as the starters before the main meal that is the tournament final.
5. Tiger Mask IV, AKIRA & Jushin Liger vs. YAMATO, Black Tiger V & Jado. You know, that's just what this show needed right now. HOT BLACK TIGER ON TIGER MASK ACTION. Liger and YAMATO also had a wee little issue going into this stemming from BOSJ where YAMATO wiped the floor with Liger, pinning him in mere minutes with the Gallaria. They also interacted in Dragon Gate in CIMA's return match from his neck injury. From what I recall, they botched a powerbomb and it looked quite bad. Well, something must be up because Liger powerbombed YAMATO again in this match and it also looked kinda lame. Tatsuhito Takaiwa seriously has to be the least charismatic Black Tiger of all time. I have no idea why they chose him. At least Rocky Romero cursed like a sailor. Things picked up for approximately 30 seconds when he and Tiger Mask brawled away from ringside, then AKIRA rolled Jado up for the pin in 3:48, which was probably the most satisfying outcome realistically available. This was just your usual NJPW midcard tag nonsense, nothing to see here really. The Tigers had a big pull-apart involving a million men afterwards and not one man could have cared. Well, apart from when Tiger Mask got cocky and started shoving Liger, who threatened to destroy him and his stupid mask. Hopefully. The pull-apart sold me more on Jushin Liger vs. Tiger Mask than Tiger Mask vs. Black Tiger, but you could probably sell me more on unanaesthetised castration than Tiger Mask vs. Black Tiger.
6. Shinsuke Nakamura, Toru Yano, Takashi Iizuka, Tomohiro Ishii & Karl "THE MACHINE GUN~!" Anderson vs. Togi Makabe, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Wataru Inoue, Tomoaki Honma & Milano Collection AT. That's a whooooole lot of bodies, folks. Basics: Makabe hates Yano and Nakamura. Tenzan used to hate Makabe but hates Iizuka more. Ishii and Inoue hate each other. Iizuka hates everyone. Honma hates himself. LOADS OF HATE. Appropriately, everyone brawled around the ring for ages to start before Milano, Ishii, Inoue and Anderson decided that they should probably try and have a wrestling match sooner or later. The story of this match was the heels basically keeping "The Unchained Gorilla" chained, preventing any of Togi Makabe's tag team partners from tagging him in. The fans seems really into it when he finally did get the tag and ran wild on both Nakamura and Yano. However, that was not the true highlight of this match. The true peak of this match came when Makabe tagged out and IN CAME TOMOAKI HONMA, who ran immediately into a boot from Nakamura and was killed. He did try a Buff Bagwell-esque comeback before getting pummelled by every heel and pinned by a Nakamura Landslide in 13:14. Makabe went after Nakamura with his chain after the match but ended up walking right into a Yano chairshot and powerbomb, setting up their match for down the road. This was actually alright, to be honest. It was never gonna be a standout match because these 6/8/10-man tag matches on the tours never are, but this one had the hot Korakuen crowd and it had a well-done story so it's hard to really expect any more. I'm not at all a fan of Wataru Inoue, especially since he decided he wasn't a junior or whatever the case may be, but he does have some cracking chemistry with Tomohiro Ishii (who's MADLY underrated in my opinion), and their exchanges in this match showed that.
7. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Hirooki Goto & Kazuchika Okada vs. Manabu Nakanishi, Yuji Nagata & Mitsuhide Hirasawa. See the previous two for general thoughts, just a standard tour match helped by the crowd heat but nothing overly fancy. There was some good stuff early between Nakanishi and Tanahashi with Nakanishi aping Tanahashi's dragon screw. THE POWER OF MUTO COMPELLS YOU. Tanahashi returned the favour later, and their interactions throughout the match were totally acceptable. Nakanishi even did a missile dropkick! Also good was the stuff between Goto and Nagata, but that's kinda stating the obvious with those two. However, the MVP of this match was clearly Kazuchika Okada, who took a right kicking at several parts of the match which built to the moment where Nagata had Goto in a hold and Okada leapt into action, stomping Nagata to get him to break. Nagata released the hold and just... LOOKED at Okada, and frowned at him. Less anger, more curiousity as to why Okada would do such a thing. Anyway, moments later, true to form, Hirasawa was pinned in 12:47 by Goto's Shouten.
8. Best of the Super Juniors 2009 ~ Final: Prince Devitt vs. Koji Kanemoto. Yeah, pretty awesome on paper, right? You BET it was, as you can tell by the review below veering into severe play-by-play territory. The early going was pretty slow with Kanemoto trying to snag the ankle a few times, but things REALLY picked up when Devitt attempted his tope con giro for the first time. Kanemoto moved well out of the way and Devitt killed a young boy and IT RULED. This lead to a VERY close count as Devitt only just snuck in at 19, crawling right into a barrage of Kanemoto kicks. Devitt then tried his tope AGAIN and AGAIN he missed (but only just) and Kanemoto's reaction kinda suggested he was supposed to hit it that time. What really struck me was how the crowd reacted to Devitt even hitting the ropes. They shrieked at the audacity and insanity of this wacky Irishman. Whether he was supposed to hit the dive or not, he then showed a perfect display of improvisation by setting Kanemoto up on a few chairs in the crowd before jumping off the apron over the rail and performing a double stomp. If he just decided to do that on the fly, he rules. Even if he didn't, he rules. For much of the match after this it was mostly Kanemoto dominating with kicks and a moonsault or two with Devitt reminding him of his continued existence with moves such as a second rope lungblower and a top rope double stomp, establishing Devitt as the underdog but an underdog with quite a bite. Just as Devitt began to edge ahead Kanemoto went to the ankle lock with SUPER EXTRA MEGA CRANK but somehow Devitt made the ropes, and that was a brilliant "nearfall" (or whatever the submission equivalent is) because Kanemoto locked it in and scissored the leg, Devitt nearly made the rope, Kanemoto pulled him back away from the ring, then finally Devitt made the rope. Another ankle lock battle lead to an AWESOME strike exchange mid-hold, with both guys trading punches and slaps and eventually knocking each other out. What eventually did the trick was a tiger suplex, a HEAD KICK OF DOOM and a WICKED figure-4 ankle lock, earning Koji Kanemoto the title in 19:55. I really enjoyed this match, but there must be something wrong with you if you didn't think this would be good on paper. Koji Kanemoto is at his best nowadays when he's playing the punk veteran who likes to slap and kick youngsters around and put them in their place, whereas Prince Devitt is in my opinion one of the best babyfaces around today, and probably one of the most enjoyable guys to watch in the entire world, so these two had some obvious chemistry. I'll admit, my initial reaction when I read the result was "WHAT, why did Prince Devitt lose", but after seeing it, it REALLY didn't matter because the guy looked like a star even in defeat. Furthermore, he's got this tag team with Ryusuke Taguchi in the junior tag division so they can get pushed there while Kanemoto goes after the singles belt, so it should all work out fine in the end!
Overall, I really enjoyed this show. I managed to watch it all in one sitting (which says a lot with all of the new puro that seems to get released nowadays, it’s hard to stick with one thing!) and although it wasn’t your usual top-to-bottom star-studded top of the range New Japan show, it was a fairly notable Korakuen Hall show. Korakuen is the best venue in wrestling today, in my opinion, and this show was exactly why. I think the tournament matches would have been impressive anywhere, they just happened to be that much more impressive because of this crowd, but I’m not sure how much I would have enjoyed the undercard if it had been in, say, the Tokorozawa Citizen Gymnasium Sub Arena (which allegedly exists). If you get a chance, check out all of the tournament stuff because that’s all very good stuff, particularly the final. Oh, and Taguchi vs. Taichi. Duh.
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