NOAH 2002 DVD VHS
PRO-WRESTLING NOAH Tapes Videos

Pro-Wrestling NOAH NOAH's Voyage #33 2/16/02 & #34 2/23/02 The First Navigation, 2002 taped 1/6 Tokyo Differ Ariake
-1hr 50min. Q=TV Master

Rusher Kimura & Mitsuo Momota & Yasuhiro Suzuki vs. Haruka Eigen & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Kishin Kawabata

Donovan Morgan vs. Matt Murphy

Akira Taue & Makoto Hashi vs. Yoshinari Ogawa & Naomichi Marufuji

Takao Omori & Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Mitsuharu Misawa & Takuma Sano

Muhammad Yone vs. Daisuke Ikeda

Juventud Guerrera vs. Richard Slinger

Michael Modest & Bull Schmitt & Bison Smith vs. Akitoshi Saito & Kentaro Shida & Yoshinobu Kanemaru

Tamon Honda & Masao Inoue & Jun Izumida vs. Takeshi Morishima & Takeshi Rikio & Takashi Sugiura

Pro-Wrestling NOAH on G+ Encountering Navigation 4/7/02 Tokyo Ariake Colisseum
-2hr 50min. Q=TV Master 1

GHC Heavykyu Senshuken Jiki Chosensha Ketteisen: Akira Taue vs. Takao Omori. Basic hard hitting match. Short and faster paced with Omori being very aggressive. Good back and forth action. Taue did a lariat suicida. ***

GHC Tag Senshukenjiai: Takeshi Morishima & Takeshi Rikio vs. Manabu Nakanishi & Yutaka Yoshie. Stiff brawl. Nakanishi was at his most brutal, hitting harder than I can remember him laying in to Tenzan. The whole match was striking though, and there wasn't much technique or diversity to it so it became tedious. Of course, that it went on for like 25 minutes was also played a big part in the monotony. This is the only style Yoshie can do. Well, he's still not any good, but at least his weaknesses aren't too apparent. Morishima got a bloody nose. The NJ team had negative charisma, but the fans were behind Wild II, so in this case it didn't matter much. **1/4

GHC Heavykyu Senshukenjiai: Jun Akiyama vs. Yoshinari Ogawa. Ogawa wrestled with fire and energy that he's never shown before (or at least not in many many years). Exciting fast paced match with all kinds of nice sequences and counters. Opened with a great quick sequence that culminated with Ogawa ducking a lariat and planting Akiyama with a DDT. The problem with this match, I mean beyond giving an "honored" heavyweight title to a career junior heavyweight jobber, is Ogawa was so outclassed that Akiyama nearly took him out in 4 minutes. I realize Ogawa is the underdog that survives on his counters, but I can't imagine many people are going to want to drop $50 or more to see a champion that's lucky to last 5 minutes with the real top heavyweights. Granted Ogawa turned the 2nd exploder that would have put him out into a small package for the startling mega upset win, but how many times is that going to work? Just look at how many wins Ogawa has in his career against the real stars for the answer. There was a huge reaction to the finish this time because everyone was so surprised, but in Ogawa's defense he did get big reactions after the shock wore off. Exciting match, but NOAH big shows are pretty much one long supposedly excellent main event and this went just 4:19. **1/2

Kentaro Shiga vs. Akitoshi Saito. Style clash. Saito wasn't as stiff with the wirey Shiga. Fans weren't into ths at all. Never came together and was barely adequate. *1/2

Daisuke Ikeda & Muhammad Yone vs. Yoshihiro Takayama & Takashi Sugiura. These guys didn't work that well together. Sugiura had to sell since he's the young one, but that's not exactly his forte. He did throw everyone around early, but that's his only offense right now. Takayama came in after a little while and made short work of the opposition. *3/4

Jushin Thunder Liger & Minoru Tanaka vs. Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru. Liger vs. Kikuchi with Kikuchi in his prime would have been awesome, but obviously Kikuchi has been far beyond gone for ages. This wasn't the big letdown that it could have been though because Liger is so damn smart. Liger & Tanaka kept Kikuchi away from all the situations that would make him come off as a 50-year-old. Kikuchi's counters are in slow motion, but he can still fight with intensity. Since Kikuchi was the one that got beat up, Kanemaru was able to make the hot tag and carry his team offensively. Match was always heated, but the fans really got into the match at this point. Liger didn't sell that much for Kanemaru, who just isn't on the level and everyone knows it. Since the outsiders Liger & Tanaka were uncharacteristly dickish, the fans were really into it when they did indeed sell. Kanemaru ripped Liger's mask. Liger is so much more intelligent than the any of the NOAH wrestlers these days, and that's how he had the best match even without particularly good opposition. Easily the most heated and intense match of the night. After the match, there was a big brawl between the NJ & NOAH juniors. ***1/4

GHC Junior Heavykyu Senshukenjiai: Naomichi Marufuji vs. Makoto Hashi. Marufuji had blown his knee out against Scorpio a few weeks earlier, but he seemed like his usual self for almost the entire match. Hashi did a reverse DDT on the apron. What made this much deadlier than if he did it in the ring is that there was no apron under Marufuji's shoulder and Hashi went down to the floor to "dislocate" it. Hashi followed with a headbutt off the apron to the shoulder, but Marufuji started selling his knee injury. At the time I thought he wanted to change the focus, but perhaps this is where it started bothering him? In any case, Hashi controlled much of the match, which didn't help the quality. He's something like Tenzan minus the size and stiffness. Just after 18 minutes Marufuji's knee just gave out. I mean, it was like his healing potion wore off and he was back to not being able to put any weight on it so he just collapsed. No one seemed to know what to do. Marufuji obviously couldn't continue, but he was supposed to win the match, so in the end Hashi got the win but not the title. **3/4

Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Kodo Fuyuki. Fuyuki had that much less stamina than normal due to his health problems, so Misawa wringed his arm for a few minutes. After 4-5 incredibly dull minutes it was pretty good with a bunch of "big" moves. Fuyuki used a chair in the ring, setting it up in between the top/middle rope and whipping Misawa into it. He put Misawa on a table outside the ring and Kanemura put Misawa through it with a diving body press. Match had no story or drama and the selling was nothing special. Misawa tried harder since it was about the end of the line for his buddy Fuyuki. **1/2

NOAH NOAH's ark 6/14/02 taped 6/2/02 Tokyo Differ Ariake
-1hr 55min. Q=TV Master

Akira Taue & Rusher Kimura & Mitsuo Momota vs. Haruka Eigen & Jun Izumida & Masashi Aoyagi

Masao Inoue & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Tamon Honda vs. Kishin Kawabata

Takuma Sano vs. Kotaro Suzuki

Takeshi Rikio vs. KENTA

Takeshi Morishima vs. Makoto Hashi

Yoshinari Ogawa & Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Daisuke Ikeda & Mohammad Yone

Jun Akiyama & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Takao Omori & Takashi Sugiura