NOAH Mitsuharu Misawa Memorial 2021 ~ Forever In Our Hearts ~

HAO vs. Seiki Yoshioka - 6.5/10

Nice little opener, it was fast paced and full of back and forward action. Hard to say that one looked better than the other, because they both looked good, especially given the finish with Yoshioka getting a quick reversal pin on HAO.

Junta Miyawaki, Kaito Kiyomiya, Kinya Okada & Yoshiki Inamura vs. Kongo (Kenou, Manabu Soya, Nio & Tadasuke) - 7/10

Ok match, pretty basic. Miyawaki was the babyface in peril, Inamura got the hot tag and ran wild until he met up with Soya and cut him off. Okada got a second hot tag and paired up with Kenoh, in a really great showcase for Okada, but after all of Kongo jump in and quad-team Okada, Kenoh got the win.

Post-match - Kiyomiya's descend into madness continued. Kenoh cut a promo on him to bother him even further. After Kiyomiya was gone, he cut a promo on Takagi, saying Kongo would defend NOAH from DDT.

Opening Video - While the previous matches aren't dark on the streaming services, this is when the ABEMA show starts, so we got the opening video, talking about Misawa. Some of tonight's wrestlers talked about their matches and Misawa.

GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship Match
HAYATA & Yoshinari Ogawa (c) vs. Daisuke Harada & Hajime Ohara - 7.5/10

Even if this was for the tag titles, this was all about Ogawa vs Harada. HAYATA and Ohara did a lot, but it felt that no matter what, things would come back to Ogawa and Harada antagonizing each other.

This was a really good match, but it was incredibly long for the position of the card it found itself in. It was about 3 minutes short from 30 minutes, and it's only the 3rd match (1st for ABEMA) in the card. So the time doesn't hurt the match, it was worked like a main event, but it does create a feel for the rest of the show, that it's going to be a long and overwhelming card.

The match itself had Ohara be in peril for some time, then Harada was in peril, with HAYATA and Ogawa destroying his leg, with the match's heat being built around that leg. We had some tornado stuff before it came down to Harada and Ogawa again, with the latter getting the win with a German bridge. The reaction was big, maybe because Ogawa and HAYATA's reign had already been 190 days, but I also think that people didn't see the German as the finish until it was.

GHC Tag Team Championship Match
The Aggression (Katsuhiko Nakajima & Masa Kitamiya) (c) (w/Kongo) vs. Funky Express (Mohammed Yone & Shuhei Taniguchi) - 8.5/10

This was another 20 minute plus match, but this time around, it felt way unnecessary, the whole match was a vehicle to the post-match angle, and while the match was quite good at times (Kitamiya vs Taniguchi or Yone's final minutes), Yone and Taniguchi as contenders didn't have anyone on the edge of their seats, not for the action, nor for the potential title change. Having said all that, 10 or 20 minutes, this was pretty great.

Match was mostly Kongo dominance until Nakajima accidentally took out Kitamiya with a kick and allowed FE to recover and double team Nakajima for some time. At the end, it came down to Nakajima and Yone, with Yone getting a couple of good near falls and a lot of offense, almost knocking out Nakajima, but in the last minute, he gave Nakajima time to recover, who got him with some stiff looking kicks, a vertical spike, and Nakajima picked up the win. V1 for The Aggression.

Post-match - As they celebrate, Kitamiya just jumped Nakajima with a Sambo Suplex. All of Kongo, Kenoh included, have no idea what is going on. Kitamiya said that he is disappointed in Nakajima's performance, he can't trust him, nor he can't stand the idea of this pair up. Kitamiya said he disliked Nakajima for the last 10 years. He told Kenoh that he was out of Kongo. The next title defense is gonna be awkward. In hindsight, NOAH really took their time for his angle.

At this point, Kitamiya and DDT's Okatani are being taken out of the Kongo vs DDT match, and will have a singles match at CyberFight Fest instead.

GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship Match
Atsushi Kotoge (c) vs. Yuya Susumu - 7/10

Really good match, past paced, full of action, really refreshing to see two young guys going at it, but it also wasn't anything newsworthy, just a good basic match. Susumu looked good, but from the start, you knew he stood no chance against Kotoge.

Post-match - Everyone came out. Yoshioka challenged, Hidaka challenged, Tadasuke challenged. Kotoge told everyone that he'll fight them all in a rumble match. Even the people who didn't challenge got a shot. He said that he plans to elevate the title. I hope they have someone ready for after that rumble, someone not involved in the rumble.

GHC National Championship Match
Takashi Sugiura (c) vs. Kazushi Sakuraba - 9/10

This was awesome, the only thing missing from this match was some UWF point rules. Former tag champions colliding for the National title. It was a battle of a technical mastermind versus a powerhouse, where Sugiura had a lot of trouble keeping up with Sakuraba until Sugiura stopped trying to mat wrestle or strike Saku, and just started going all powerhouse pro wrestler. At the end, Sakuraba was hurting, but he slowly started to come back, with commentary reminding us that Sakuraba has an incredible capacity to fight and withstand pain for loong amounts of time

Post-match - Sugiura and Sakuraba shook hands, but suddenly, DDT's Danshoku Dieno and Sasadango Machine walked down to ringside. Sugiura told them they have no right to step in a NOAH mat. Dieno and Dango came for an answer to their challenge for a match at CyberFight Fest. They didn't want a YES or NO, rather, what type of match they wanted to be in. Options were a Dizzy Bat match (which would make them trend on Twitter), or a Sagi/Saku title match.

Sugiura accepted the challenge. Dieno and Dango stepped in the ring and got in their face. Dieno didn't pull down his pants, I think that was a success.

Kenta Kobashi joined the commentary just to watch Danshoku Dieno come out.

Marufuji vs Mutoh Video Package - This was Marufuji talking about Misawa with a bunch of photos from their past, building the Marufuji vs Mutoh match as Marufuji regaining the title, really giving me vibes that Mutoh is an invader that took the title from the promotion. Great stuff.

M's Alliance (Keiji Muto & Masato Tanaka) vs. M's Alliance (Masakatsu Funaki & Naomichi Marufuji) - 5.5/10

Marufuji came out with Misawa's Tiger Mask and he looked badass.

This was a sleeper until Tanaka jumped in. Mutoh started against both Marufuji and Funaki with mat wrestling that I wasn't sure if it was them being methodical and technicians, or if it was just Mutoh getting a breather 3 minutes into the match. Later on, we did get a better pair up between Mutoh and Marufuji, with Mutoh going after Marufuji's knee, and actually getting quite close to the win, hitting a Shinning Wizard, but thanks to Funaki, Marufuji came back. Tanaka and Mutoh regained control with a second Shinning Wizard, and with a Figure 4, Mutoh tapped out Marufuji for a second time, days before their title match.

Commentary sold it that Marufuji likely gave up this match to save himself for June 6, but also sold it that Mutoh now has the approach to Marufuji well established. Not the best match, but perfect build up.

Mitsuharu Misawa Video Package - Show ended with a long Misawa video. We have anther Misawa Memorial show coming up on the 13th.

OVERALL THOUGHTS

Good show overall. That almost 30 minute match early on really made it feel like it would drag, but it got better. It was a weird mix of being a good go-home show for CyberFight Fest, but also some stuff with the Jrs, it felt like THIS was their CyberFight Fest. Sakuraba vs Sugiura was the match of the night.