This review was commissioned by portablestove over on my Ko-fi account.
KENTA clearly understands that to make a dent in a mountain of a man like Yoshihiro Takayama, he’s going to need all his weight to do so. He throws himself into dropkicks right at the bell in an attempt to chop down Takayama early. The urgency that KENTA brings to the opening moments of this match serve to kick things off on a high note while also demonstrating the very obvious threat of Takayama’s size and power. From the go, the stakes of the match in a purely physical sense are clear: does KENTA have enough in him to overcome the much larger man?
There’s the implicit struggle here of KENTA moving towards becoming a heavyweight in NOAH. Besting Takayama here would certainly leave a strong impression that he was moving in the right direction. That said, he’s attempting to use his abilities and arsenal as a junior here to its maximum result. He requires distance from Takayama to get things going, often relying on springboards and running dropkicks to take the larger man off his feet.
By that same logic, when Takayama is able to close the distance, that’s when KENTA suffers. A well-timed boot from him early cuts off KENTA’s flurry and allows him to lay on some punishment. Takayama in control here is a wonder to behold. Even playing to a subdued Osaka crowd, Takayama’s striking is thunderous. Just thudding knees to the chest, clubbing blows to the back, and a great variety of closed quarter strikes in the more heated exchanges of the match. Not a thigh slap to be seen, all full contact and little illusion.
KENTA makes a great showing for himself when they get into close quarters though. KENTA’s fully game with his own strikes and they all look wonderful. The crisp on his precision kicking makes Takayama dropping from them believable, and when he’s there standing and trading with his slaps to Takayama’s face, the impact of it makes Takayama’s endurance of them all the more impressive. KENTA makes enough of a dent to force Takayama to escalate a little further than might have been expected. In one exchange, Takayama relies on a straight shoot headbutt to stunt KENTA’s momentum, but also splits open a wound over Takayama’s eye.
The smaller man gets a little too big for his breeches though. He’s able to nail a German suplex on the master of the Everest, and then pulls his knee pad down as Takayama earlier in the match likely in an attempt to hit a KO knee, but Takayama makes him pay for his attempts at mockery. In the end, power is power, and Takayama nails a combination of a Dragon Suplex and his own patented Everest German to put down the smaller man. Maybe next time, KENTA.
Still, KENTA leaves with his own moral victory though. After all, how often does a man make a mountain bleed?
Rating: ****
