Last night's NOAH show was without question amongst the greatest wrestling shows ever in Europe. It featured two of the best matches of the year (anywhere in the world) and had several other matches which were extremely enjoyable. I've often found with NOAH wrestlers that they respond to an enthusiastic crowd more than any other wrestlers in the world. They really seem to step up their game to a tremendous degree when they are met with such a response, and that is definitely what occurred last night. I've seen every taped NOAH show this year and none of them were near the quality of this (not even either Budokan show).

Pre Show Match: Bubblegum, El Ligero, Luke Phoenix beat Dave Morales, Mark Haskins, Zack Sabre Jr.

A fun match to get the crowd warmed up. This was booked by the UK organisers of the show and I think it might have slipped under the radar of the NOAH contingent because they did alot more than you would normally see on a match at this point on the card on a Japanese show. It worked well though as all 6 guys worked very hard. Luke Phoenix in particular looked great. Bubblegum got the win for the babyface team.

1. Atsushi Aoki vs. Joel Redman (15 minute time limit draw)

This was more the NOAH style opening match. Very basic with lots of excellent chain wrestling. Redman showed alot of promise and looked like the kind of guy who would develop into a very good wrestler if he got a tour of NOAH. I've always liked Aoki but seeing him live really heightened my opinion of him, he's a great wrestler. Good opener to the main show.

2. Tsuyoshi Kikuchi/Junji Izumida beat Wade Fitzgerald/Martin Stone

Fun, fun match. Kikuchi and Izu's comedy got over great. The British guys did well and were great foils for the NOAH wrestlers signature spots. Izu pinned Fitzgerald with a TKO neckbreaker after around 10 minutes.

3. Nigel McGuinness/Doug Williams beat Takashi Sugiura/Kotaro Suzuki

The first really great match of the night. Doug and Nigel were unbelievably over. Sugiura looked tremendous with the crowd going nuts for some of his signature moves. The last few minutes are all about Suzuki getting destroyed by big moves, but the Brits not being able to put him away. Nigel hit an awesome lariat right before the finish and they finally finished him with a double team Tower Of London.

4. Bison Smith/Jun Akiyama beat Takeshi Morishima/Muhammed Yone

Akiyama and Morishima were bigtime over. Huge star reaction for both. This was a good heavyweight tussle which the crowd were way into. Smith ran down the ramp to hit a flying tackle over the ropes which everyone loved. Morishima's gear didn't arrive and he was wandering around Coventry trying to find gear all afternoon (he ended up wearing shooter style boots and shorts). He was struggling badly with an ankle injury but still tried his heart out, much to his credit because he really was in alot of pain. Finish was Bison hitting the Bisontennial on Yone.

5. GHC Junior Tag Titles: KENTA/Taiji Ishimori beat Bryan Danielson/Eddie Edwards

One of the best matches of the year, no doubt. Danielson turned himself heel when he got the Final Countdown cut before the chorus because "only American deserve to sing along to his theme music". From that point on he was booed like crazy and KENTA became a gigantic babyface. Edwards got destroyed in the early stages with some vicious strikes by KENTA, but that may have been topped by the subsequent heat gotten on Ishimori as Danielson worked him over in such a way that nobody could take their eyes off the match, it was so enthralling and engaging. Eventually Taiji made the tag and from that point on it was crazytime. Tons of huge moves and great nearfalls. Everyone in the crowd was losing their minds by this point. After around 30 minutes of amazing action, KENTA got the win with a BRUTAL Go2Sleep on Edwards (who had the match of his career by the way). Prolonged standing ovations after the match and a huge "Ishimori" chant which he seemed genuinly moved by.

6. GHC Junior Title: Yoshinobu Kanemaru beat Jay Briscoe

Briscoe got one of the biggest pops of the night for his entrance. They had a tough task in following the prior match, but I thought the did well. The crowd was not dead by any means. The match was kept relatively short which was definitely a good move as there was still a big match to come. Briscoe looked the more impressive of the two, with all his big moves getting over bigtime. Finish was a brainbuster by Kanemaru after probably something like 12 minutes.

7. Mitsuhara Misawa/Naomichi Marufuji beat Kenta Kobashi/Go Shiosaki

Nothing I can say about this match in this report would do it justice. The spectacle as a whole was something nobody there will ever forget. The entrances for Kobashi and Misawa were spectacular and authentic. There were those big flags on the entrance way, the streamers, the music, everything. I got a chill down my spine when they introduced Kobashi. The match itself was amazing. Between his charisma, crowd interaction, bumping, timing and everything else, Naomichi Marufuji looked like the best wrestler in the world throughout this thing. It was a pleasure to see him live (oh and like Morishima he had no gear so he went shopping that afternoon too). The match was easily the stiffest I have ever seen in person, Misawa's chest was a mess by the end. Kobashi hit two earth shattering spinning chops, Go hit a million earth shattering regular chops, Misawa hit some brutal elbows and Marufuji hit some awesome kicks (which actually he may not have touched anyone with!). Other highlights included big half nelson suplexes by Kobashi, a Tiger Driver by Misawa and a Shiranui by Marufuji. Finish came at around 28 minutes with the Pole Shift on Shiosaki. This was possibly the best Kobashi match since his return and the perfect way to end a perfect show. Long standing ovations and "NOAH" chants that Kobashi soaked up before he made his way backstage and the show ended.

Meet & Greet Notes

A TON of people turned up for this and I figure they made a killing on merch. The queue to get in was long but once you got in it was really laid back and well organised. Everyone I talked to seemed to get what they wanted out of it. All the wrestlers were extremely accomodating with Kobashi in particular looking like he loved every single second of it. He was in his element. In one of the highlights of my day, I got him to sign a picture I had from my favourite match ever, his 1992 All Asia tag match with Furnas and Kroffat. He honest to goodness marked out for the thing and kept saying "WOW" repeatedly (he stared at it for a at least a minute and I was wondering if I was even going to get it back!). This event should be used as a template for any other company doing a meet & greet in the future (although not every group will be blessed with a group of wrestlers so cool and entusiastic about doing it).

{plug}