Cero Reviews NOAH Cage War 2021
Posted: Jun 30th, '21, 15:14
NOAH Cage War 2021
June 26, 2021
NOAH TV Studio, Japan
Bull Nakano is on commentary for the show, there are not many cage matches in Japan, this is actually NOAH's first, and Nakano is one of the few wrestlers with cage match experience in a Japanese promotion.
Manabu Soya vs. Kinya Okada - 5/10
For what should had been a bit of a squash match, Okada got soo much offense on Soyal, at points, he had a couple of combos that looked completely dominant. At the end, Soya ended up winning, but Okada looked fantastic.
Kai Fujimura & Yasutaka Yano vs. STINGER (HAYATA & Yoshinari Ogawa) - 4/10
I don't know why this match was even here, Stinger will be in the battle royal anyway, so I think they should had just given this time to Fujimura and Yano on a singles and another match in the card. The match wasn't bad, but it's an Ogawa match and I just find it hard to get into them, especially against rookies in a meaningless match.
8-Man Tag Team Elimination Match
Sugiura-gun (Kazunari Murakami, Kazushi Sakuraba, Kendo Kashin & Takashi Sugiura) vs. Funky Express (Akitoshi Saito, Masao Inoue, Mohammed Yone & Shuhei Taniguchi) - 4/10
This was a struggle to watch, it went about 20 minutes and it was all slow. Story was that FE eliminated all of Sugiura-gun early, with the exception of Sugiura himself, only for Sugiura to survive most of the match and then eliminate each one of the FE one by one until it came down to Sugiura and Taniguchi, which should had been the match all along.
I usually complain when multi-man elimination matches don't get enough time, but given the layout of this match, this could had been done in half the time, especially because they're over the top rope eliminations.
There was also an incredibly huge botch here that maybe I missed why it happened, but I hated it. Sugiura clotheslined his own partner Kashin on the ropes, but Kashin didn't initially go over, and so he just tossed himself out. So what I saw was Sugiura trying to eliminate his own partner, and his partner eliminating himself.
Kaito Kiyomiya & Yoshiki Inamura vs. M's Alliance (Masaaki Mochizuki & Naomichi Marufuji) - 7.5/10
When it comes to M'a Alliance, Mochizuki and Marufuji may as well be one of the better combination there is (Masato Tanaka would be the best I think), and thus we had a pretty good match. Even knowing that Inamura and Kiyomiya were surely losing, I was still attentive and excited for the match. The one thing that did catch me off guard was that it was Inamura that took the pin, and not Kiyomiya as has been the case for most of their matches. Yet nonetheless, it is still a Kiyomiya loss.
GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship #1 Contendership Battle Royal
Ikuto Hidaka vs. NOSAWA Rongai vs. Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Kotaro Suzuki vs. Nio vs. Daisuke Harada vs. Hajime Ohara vs. Tadasuke vs. Yuya Susumu vs. Hao vs. YO-HEY vs. HAYATA vs. Eita vs. Seiki Yoshioka vs. Junta Miyawaki - 7/10
This was interesting, while this was every man for themselves, this still felt like a stable warfare, since we had Los Perros del Mal de Japon, STINGER, Kongoh, and Momo No Seishun Tag, all in the same match, same ring. Because of that, the action was pretty good at times when the ring would clear, it would come down to 2-on-2 action or so, and you could watch the spot without issue. Problem was when everyone would return to the match and it would become a clusterfuck like every other battle royale in history.
The match eventually came down to HAYATA and the returning (and only surprise of the match) YO-HEY. They had a great little match at the end. HAYATA had been low key built for this, he had been picking up some wins for STINGER, but I was still somewhat surprised he took the win, I figured they would want to get Los Perros out there more and since I wasn't expecting Kotoge to lose the title, I figured YO-HEY challenging would had worked.
Hair Vs. Hair Steel Cage Match
Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Masa Kitamiya - 9/10
This was freaking brutal. As mentioned earlier in the review, cage matches are not that common in Japan outside of lesser deathmatch promotions, and even then, it's rarely seen. For that reason alone, these guys knew they wanted to go all out and make this a memorable one, even when taking place in the NOAH studio with no live fans there.
The match was mostly back and forward, with Nakajima working the leg and Kitamiya working the head, and his head for that matter, and that's where I felt the match was a bit too much, because Kitamiya has been making a name for some incredibly brutal shoot headbutts where he usually ends up busted open the hard way. The same Shibata headbutts I thought we had learned not to do when Shibata had to retire, so between that and some nasty top of the cage spots, I started to think more about the real life health of these guys and not the actual match. At one point Kitamiya hit a top cage senton into nothing, and on another spot, Nakajima hit a dropkick from the top too, taking a flatback bump. So all things combined, both guys ended up all bloodied.
Post-match - Nakajima accepted his fate and sat to get shaved. Kitamiya cut his hair down, but it was Kenoh, at the request of Naka that finished the job after Kitamiya had walked away.
Seeing Kenoh have to watch this match, I really got the feeling that this is all a Nakajima plan to destroy Kongo from within, that has already alienated Inamura and Kitamiya, and I believe Soya is next, as Nakajima has nominated him as his new tag team partner, and eventually, it all comes down to Kenoh and Nakajima being the final two left in Kongo, and then you can make a magical thing of reuniting the stable against Nakajima, but that will come in a long time.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
NOAH had a really packed weakened and this was only the start. This wasn't a packed show by itself, I'd really only suggest you watch the main event, for the wrestling, the brutality, and the uniqueness of watching a Puro cage match. That's not to say the show was bad, it was worth watching if you're trying to get into NOAH and have the time.
June 26, 2021
NOAH TV Studio, Japan
Bull Nakano is on commentary for the show, there are not many cage matches in Japan, this is actually NOAH's first, and Nakano is one of the few wrestlers with cage match experience in a Japanese promotion.
Manabu Soya vs. Kinya Okada - 5/10
For what should had been a bit of a squash match, Okada got soo much offense on Soyal, at points, he had a couple of combos that looked completely dominant. At the end, Soya ended up winning, but Okada looked fantastic.
Kai Fujimura & Yasutaka Yano vs. STINGER (HAYATA & Yoshinari Ogawa) - 4/10
I don't know why this match was even here, Stinger will be in the battle royal anyway, so I think they should had just given this time to Fujimura and Yano on a singles and another match in the card. The match wasn't bad, but it's an Ogawa match and I just find it hard to get into them, especially against rookies in a meaningless match.
8-Man Tag Team Elimination Match
Sugiura-gun (Kazunari Murakami, Kazushi Sakuraba, Kendo Kashin & Takashi Sugiura) vs. Funky Express (Akitoshi Saito, Masao Inoue, Mohammed Yone & Shuhei Taniguchi) - 4/10
This was a struggle to watch, it went about 20 minutes and it was all slow. Story was that FE eliminated all of Sugiura-gun early, with the exception of Sugiura himself, only for Sugiura to survive most of the match and then eliminate each one of the FE one by one until it came down to Sugiura and Taniguchi, which should had been the match all along.
I usually complain when multi-man elimination matches don't get enough time, but given the layout of this match, this could had been done in half the time, especially because they're over the top rope eliminations.
There was also an incredibly huge botch here that maybe I missed why it happened, but I hated it. Sugiura clotheslined his own partner Kashin on the ropes, but Kashin didn't initially go over, and so he just tossed himself out. So what I saw was Sugiura trying to eliminate his own partner, and his partner eliminating himself.
Kaito Kiyomiya & Yoshiki Inamura vs. M's Alliance (Masaaki Mochizuki & Naomichi Marufuji) - 7.5/10
When it comes to M'a Alliance, Mochizuki and Marufuji may as well be one of the better combination there is (Masato Tanaka would be the best I think), and thus we had a pretty good match. Even knowing that Inamura and Kiyomiya were surely losing, I was still attentive and excited for the match. The one thing that did catch me off guard was that it was Inamura that took the pin, and not Kiyomiya as has been the case for most of their matches. Yet nonetheless, it is still a Kiyomiya loss.
GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship #1 Contendership Battle Royal
Ikuto Hidaka vs. NOSAWA Rongai vs. Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Kotaro Suzuki vs. Nio vs. Daisuke Harada vs. Hajime Ohara vs. Tadasuke vs. Yuya Susumu vs. Hao vs. YO-HEY vs. HAYATA vs. Eita vs. Seiki Yoshioka vs. Junta Miyawaki - 7/10
This was interesting, while this was every man for themselves, this still felt like a stable warfare, since we had Los Perros del Mal de Japon, STINGER, Kongoh, and Momo No Seishun Tag, all in the same match, same ring. Because of that, the action was pretty good at times when the ring would clear, it would come down to 2-on-2 action or so, and you could watch the spot without issue. Problem was when everyone would return to the match and it would become a clusterfuck like every other battle royale in history.
The match eventually came down to HAYATA and the returning (and only surprise of the match) YO-HEY. They had a great little match at the end. HAYATA had been low key built for this, he had been picking up some wins for STINGER, but I was still somewhat surprised he took the win, I figured they would want to get Los Perros out there more and since I wasn't expecting Kotoge to lose the title, I figured YO-HEY challenging would had worked.
Hair Vs. Hair Steel Cage Match
Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Masa Kitamiya - 9/10
This was freaking brutal. As mentioned earlier in the review, cage matches are not that common in Japan outside of lesser deathmatch promotions, and even then, it's rarely seen. For that reason alone, these guys knew they wanted to go all out and make this a memorable one, even when taking place in the NOAH studio with no live fans there.
The match was mostly back and forward, with Nakajima working the leg and Kitamiya working the head, and his head for that matter, and that's where I felt the match was a bit too much, because Kitamiya has been making a name for some incredibly brutal shoot headbutts where he usually ends up busted open the hard way. The same Shibata headbutts I thought we had learned not to do when Shibata had to retire, so between that and some nasty top of the cage spots, I started to think more about the real life health of these guys and not the actual match. At one point Kitamiya hit a top cage senton into nothing, and on another spot, Nakajima hit a dropkick from the top too, taking a flatback bump. So all things combined, both guys ended up all bloodied.
Post-match - Nakajima accepted his fate and sat to get shaved. Kitamiya cut his hair down, but it was Kenoh, at the request of Naka that finished the job after Kitamiya had walked away.
Seeing Kenoh have to watch this match, I really got the feeling that this is all a Nakajima plan to destroy Kongo from within, that has already alienated Inamura and Kitamiya, and I believe Soya is next, as Nakajima has nominated him as his new tag team partner, and eventually, it all comes down to Kenoh and Nakajima being the final two left in Kongo, and then you can make a magical thing of reuniting the stable against Nakajima, but that will come in a long time.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
NOAH had a really packed weakened and this was only the start. This wasn't a packed show by itself, I'd really only suggest you watch the main event, for the wrestling, the brutality, and the uniqueness of watching a Puro cage match. That's not to say the show was bad, it was worth watching if you're trying to get into NOAH and have the time.