This is the finals of NOAH’s annual junior heavyweight round robin tournament. As someone who doesn’t watch a lot of (or any) NOAH, I can’t provide you too much context outside of that. I only know Dick Togo from his appearance at ECW’s first pay-per-view back in 1997 as well as one of his matches from DDT from the last decade. Meanwhile, this is my first time seeing anything from Daisuke Harada so I’m approaching this match pretty much entirely cold.
And what do you know? It delivered.
Harada starts things hot, going for the quick win. It’s a smart strategy given that both men had already wrestled once that night and the sooner they can finish things here the better. The veteran Togo gets the advantage by attacking Harada’s leg. Togo does it well, utilizing the ring post and the barricades to get damage in, and Harada sells to match the damage that Togo dishes out.
It’s just good limbwork all throughout. Pepper in some dope Dick Togo punches and some sweet elbows to the gut from Harada and you have some great strikes to help move things along. Then the bombs look great too with Togo hitting a sweet tope con hilo to the outside as well as a pair of Pedigrees. Harada constantly goes for his bridging German suplex, but never quite gets the leverage he wants because of his bad leg. Love the rule of threes at play here with the bridging German as Harada tries to find the strength to execute it properly.
This is an awesome match that I really enjoyed. Liked it even better than the Go Shiozaki-Kaito Kiyomiya GHC Heavyweight Title match from the start of the year. Is NOAH a thing I have to pay attention to now?
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