Mitsuo Momota vs. Haruka Eigen
Daisuke Ikeda vs. Tsutomu Hirayanagi
Takuma Sano & Minoru Suzuki vs. Takashi Sugiura & SUWA
Tamon Honda & Takeshi Rikio vs. Akitoshi Saito & Masao Inoue
Kenta Kobashi & Go Shiosaki vs. Scorpio & Dakota
Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa & Shiro Koshinaka vs. Takeshi Morishima & Mohammed Yone & Kishin Kawabata
Naomichi Marufuji & Kotaro Suzuki vs. KENTA & Ricky Marvin
Jun Akiyama & Kentaro Shiga & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Akira Taue & Junji Izumida & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi
Kentaro Shiga & Mitsuo Momota vs. Kishin Kawabata & Haruka Eigen
Takuma Sano & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Dakota vs. Akitoshi Saito & Masao Inoue & Tsutomu Hirayanagi
Yoshinari Ogawa & Shiro Koshinaka vs. Tamon Honda & Daisuke Ikeda
Scorpio & Minoru Suzuki & SUWA vs. Takeshi Morishima & Mohammed Yone & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi
Mitsuharu Misawa & Takashi Sugiura & Mushiking Terry vs. Kensuke Sasaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima & Mushiking Joker
Takeshi Rikio & Akebono vs. Kenta Kobashi & Junji Izumida
GHC Junior Heavyweight Title Match: KENTA vs. Naomichi Marufuji
GHC Heavyweight Title Match: Jun Akiyama vs. Akira Taue
Mitsuo Momota & Kikutaro vs. Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Haruka Eigen
Takuma Sano & Atsushi Aoki vs. Kishin Kawabata & Tsutomu Hirayanagi
Akitoshi Saito & Masao Inoue vs. Akira Taue & Junji Izumida
Low Ki vs. Kotaro Suzuki
Takeshi Rikio & Naomichi Marufuji vs. Doug Williams & Ricky Marvin
Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa & Takashi Sugiura vs. Bison Smith & Nigel McGuinness & Dakota
Kenta Kobashi & Tamon Honda & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Takeshi Morishima & Mohammed Yone & KENTA
Minoru Suzuki & SUWA vs. Jun Akiyama & Kentaro Shiga
Haruka Eigen Budokan Last Match: Tamon Honda & Kentaro Shiga & Mitsuo Momota vs. Yuhi Sano & Jun Izumida & Haruka Eigen 9:00
Low ki & Mushiking Joker & SUWA vs. Dakota & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Mohammad Yone 12:21
Nigel McGuinness & Bison Smith & Doug Williams vs. Dark Agents (Masao Inoue & Kishin Kawabata & Akitoshi Saito) 14:38
Takeshi Rikio vs. Yoshinari Ogawa 8:19
Naomichi Marufuji vs. Akira Taue 13:23. Taue's good attitude made the match. Rather than sulking that it was time for another younger guy to go over on him and sabotaging the match, he decided that if this was to be his swansong, he might as well make every effort to have one of his final memorable singles matches. Taue really came through for Marufuji here, putting together a match that accentuated Marufuji's athleticism, and allowed Marufuji the heavyweight to still be his junior self. When the big man vs. little man match is done right, as it was here, it allows the little man to transcend his size, to make it irrelevant. Taue was a beast, totally manhandling Marufuji early. I was annoyed by how he was overdoing his selling, especially given Marufuji hadn't really done anything to him yet, but he toned it down after the start and gave a genuinely solid performance. Marufuji took control with a dropkick to the knee when Taue was on the apron half through the ropes and a Tanahashi style Dragon screw in the ropes. This was the equalizer, and Marufuji would try to use the knee injury to regain control when they were in transition, including a great spot where Marufuji backflipped out of the nodowa and hit a kneecap dropkick to take over. As the match progressed, it was pretty clear Taue was calling upon his sprints against Misawa pretty heavily, though any association to their series is a good thing. Taue had a few awkward moments, but they worked really well together, telling simple stories and playing off each other's offense. They built heavily around the nodowa, with Marufuji countering it and giving Taue one of his own, but Taue's most damaging offense being a wicked nodowa into the ring post. This Marufuji counter set up the shocking finish where Marufuji landed on his feet for the nodowa otoshi off the top and was able to get past Taue via flash pin. ****
Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Takeshi Morishima 18:35
Kenta Kobashi vs. KENTA 21:57
GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Title Match: Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Takashi Sugiura vs. Minoru Fujita & Ikuto Hidaka 26:51
GHC Heavyweight Title Match: Jun Akiyama v Minoru Suzuki 28:15
Dakota vs. Akihiko Ito
SUWA vs. Atsushi Aoki
Haruka Eigen Retirement Commemoration Match: Masao Inoue & Mitsuo Momota vs. Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Haruka Eigen
Takuma Sano & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Akitoshi Saito & Kishin Kawabata
Mohammed Yone & Takashi Sugiura vs. Akira Taue & Shuhei Taniguchi
Takeshi Morishima & Takeshi Rikio vs. Jun Akiyama & Junji Izumida
Kenta Kobashi & Tamon Honda & Kentaro Shiga vs. Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa & Ricky Marvin
Mohammed Yone & Daisuke Ikeda vs. Tamon Honda & Yoshinori Ota
Minoru Suzuki & SUWA vs. Akira Taue & Atsushi Aoki
Takeshi Morishima & Takeshi Rikio vs. Scorpio & Keith Walker
GHC Heavyweight Title Next Challenger Decision Tournament Round 1: Masao Inoue vs. Shuhei Taniguchi
GHC Heavyweight Title Next Challenger Decision Tournament Round 1: Takuma Sano vs. Junji Izumida
Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa & Ricky Marvin vs. Doug Williams & Nigel McGuinness & Eddie Edwards
Jun Akiyama & Kentaro Shiga & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Akitoshi Saito & Takashi Sugiura & Kishin Kawabata
KENTA & Naomichi Marufuji vs. Kenta Kobashi & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi
Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Yoshinori Ota
Masashi Aoyagi & Kishin Kawabata vs. Mitsuo Momota & Kentaro Shiga
Jun Izumida & Shuhei Taniguchi vs. Akihiko Ito & SUWA
Takuma Sano & Takashi Sugiura & Akira Taue vs. Nigel McGuinness & Scorpio & Keith Walker
Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Eddie Edwards & Doug Williams
Takeshi Morishima & Takeshi Rikio & Mohammed Yone vs. KENTA & Naomichi Marufuji & Ricky Marvin
Masao Inoue vs. Akitoshi Saito
Tamon Honda & Kenta Kobashi vs. Jun Akiyama & Yoshinobu Kanemaru
Yoshinori Ota & Ricky Marvin vs. Akihiko Ito & Mitsuo Momota
Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Takashi Sugiura & Shuhei Taniguchi vs. Atsushi Aoki & Jun Izumida & Kentaro Shiga
Tamon Honda & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Kishin Kawabata & Akitoshi Saito
Takuma Sano & Akira Taue vs. Eddie Edwards & Scorpio
Takeshi Morishima & Takeshi Rikio & Mohammed Yone vs. Nigel McGuinness & Keith Walker & Doug Williams
Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. SUWA & Minoru Suzuki
Kenta Kobashi vs. Naomichi Marufuji
GHC Junior Heavyweight Title Match: KENTA vs. Taiji Ishimori
GHC Heavyweight Title Match: Jun Akiyama vs. Masao Inoue
Akihiko Ito & Jun Izumida vs. Mitsuo Momota & Shuhei Taniguchi
Bobby Fish vs. Atsushi Aoki
Masao Inoue & Kishin Kawabata & Akitoshi Saito vs. Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Takuma Sano & Akira Taue
Takashi Rikio & Takashi Sugiura vs. Jun Akiyama & Kentaro Shiga
Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Ricky Marvin & Scorpio
Tamon Honda & Kenta Kobashi vs. Jason Bates & Bison Smith
Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Low-Ki & SUWA vs. Taiji Ishimori & KENTA & Naomichi Marufuji
SUWA & Akihiko Ito vs. Mitsuo Momota & Atsushi Aoki
Junji Izumida & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Low Ki vs. Masao Inoue & Kishin Kawabata & Ippei Ota
Akitoshi Saito vs. Jason Bates
Scorpio & Bison Smith & Bobby Fish vs. Akira Taue & Takuma Sano & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi
Jun Akiyama vs. Shuhei Taniguchi
Takeshi Rikio & Kentaro Shiga & Naomichi Marufuji vs. Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa & Ricky Marvin
GHC Junior Heavyweight Title Match: KENTA vs. Takashi Sugiura
GHC Tag Team Title: Takeshi Morishima & Mohammed Yone vs. Kenta Kobashi & Tamon Honda
Tamon Honda & Masao Inoue vs. Akitoshi Saito & Kishin Kawabata
Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Ricky Marvin vs. Takuma Sano & Akihiko Ito
Jun Akiyama & SUWA & Atsushi Aoki vs. Junji Izumida & Kentaro Shiga & Ippei Ota
Takeshi Morishima & Mohammed Yone & Takeshi Rikio & Go Shiozaki vs. KENTA & Naomichi Marufuji & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Takashi Sugiura
SUWA vs. Yoshinori Ota
Mohammed Yone vs. Akihiko Ito
Charly Manson & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. El Angel & Taiji Ishimori
Takeshi Morishima & Takashi Sugiura vs. KENTA & Go Shiozaki
TAKA Michinoku & Ricky Marvin vs. Naomichi Marufuji & Atsushi Aoki
SUWA & Masao Inoue vs. Mitsuo Momota & Yoshinori Ota
Abismo Negro & Charly Manson & Psicosis vs. Oriental & Taiji Ishimori & El Angel
Takashi Sugiura & Kotaro Suzuki vs. Takuma Sano & Atsushi Aoki
Mohammed Yone & Takeshi Morishima vs. Kentaro Shiga & Jun Izumida
KENTA & Naomichi Marufuji & Takeshi Rikio vs. Go Shiozaki & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Tamon Honda
Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Akitoshi Saito & Kishin Kawabata
Akira Taue & Ricky Marvin vs. Jun Akiyama & Yoshinobu Kanemaru
Mitsuo Momota vs. SUWA
Abismo Negro & Jun Izumida & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Atsushi Aoki & Oriental & Mohammed Yone
Dark Agents (Masao Inoue & Kishin Kawabata & Akitoshi Saito) vs. Tamon Honda & Takuma Sano & Kentaro Shiga
Katsuhiko Nakajima & Akira Taue vs. Yoshinari Ogawa & Yoshinori Ota
El Angel & Taiji Ishimori & Mushiking Terry vs. Charly Manson & Mushiking Joker & Psicosis
Go Shiozaki vs. Minoru Suzuki
Naomichi Marufuji & KENTA vs. Wild II (Takeshi Morishima & Takeshi Rikio) 30:00. The fans took this junior vs. heavy match seriously. They were not only really into it, but seemed willing to accept Marufuji & KENTA as wrestlers who could compete in any weight class. The heat combined with the intensity of the performers (mainly KENTA) went a long way toward making the match work. It was interesting seeing how Marufuji & KENTA went about taking on the bigger men. Marufuji tried to use surprise, guile, quickness, and athleticism. He'd slide through their legs, duck their lariat, kick them in the knee, and then try to knock them over. KENTA refuses to even consider slighly backing down from anybody, so he just stood toe to toe and blasted away. Marufuji's classic little man vs. big man tactics were more plausible, but KENTA's style was far more entertaining. Marufuji was good, but not at his best, and it was mainly KENTA vs. Morishima that was really good. I liked Morishima here because he showed a nice mix between his normal overpowering big man style and some junior style moves. He'll never be the most skilled or graceful, but Morishima was at least able to adjust well to the opposition. Rikio, on the other hand, showed as little diversity as ever and was pretty much dead weight. He didn't kill the match, but Rikio standing on the juniors and bowling them over isn't my idea of top shelf Marufuji & KENTA. I felt this was a well booked and successful match because it reinforced the idea they've been getting across on 2006's big shows, proving that Marufuji & KENTA could be taken seriously at this level. ***1/2
Yoshihiro Takayama & Kensuke Sasaki vs. Jun Akiyama & Mitsuharu Misawa
Taiji Ishimori vs. Atsushi Aoki
KENTA vs. Yoshinori Ota
Takeshi Morishima vs. Mammoth Sasaki
Mohammed Yone vs. Go Shiozaki
Naomichi Marufuji & Mushiking Terry vs. Mushiking Joker & SUWA
Taiji Ishimori vs. Yoshinori Ota
Tamon Honda & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Mitsuo Momota & Naoki Sano
Takeshi Rikio & Mohammed Yone vs. Kishin Kawabata & Akitoshi Saito
Mitsuharu Misawa & Mushiking Terry & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Mushiking Joker & Kentaro Shiga & Akira Taue
Takeshi Morishima vs. Masao Inoue
KENTA & Naomichi Marufuji vs. Jun Akiyama & Atsushi Aoki
GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Title Match: Minoru Fujita & Ikuto Hidaka vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Takashi Sugiura
Kotaro Suzuki vs. Ippei Ota
Mohammed Yone & KENTA vs. Takuma Sano & Ricky Marvin
Takashi Sugiura vs. Taiji Ishimori
Akira Taue & Mitsuo Momota vs. Akitoshi Saito & Kishin Kawabata
Takeshi Rikio & Takeshi Morishima vs. Scorpio & Joe Legend
Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Tamon Honda & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi
Naomichi Marufuji vs. Masao Inoue
Jun Akiyama & Kentaro Shiga & Yoshinbou Kanemaru vs. Bison Smith & Keith Walker & Ace Steel
Mushiking Terry vs. Atsushi Aoki
Akitoshi Saito & Masao Inoue & Kishin Kawabata vs. Scorpio & Joe Legend & Ace Steel
Tamon Honda & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Takuma Sano & SUWA
Kentaro Shiga & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Mohammed Yone & Ippei Ota
Akira Taue & Go Shiosaki vs. KENTA & Katsuyori Shibata
Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Bison Smith & Keith Walker
Takeshi Rikio & Takeshi Morishima vs. Yoshihiro Takayama & Takashi Sugiura
GHC Heavyweight Title Match: Jun Akiyama vs. Naomichi Marufuji 27:29. Marufuji should be the perfect opponent for Akiyama since Jun has long wanted the big heavyweight match to be more similar to a concussive junior style match. Surprisingly, they showed a good deal of restrainst, actually keeping it more under control than the typical Akiyama vs. Misawa or Kobashi. While a good thing in and of itself, the fact that Marufuji tried to do a heavyweight match rather than Akiyama doing his typical quasi-junior match was perhaps a bad thing, as in the end, the match wasn't really Marufuji or Akiyama. You knew they lacked the psychology, but when you took away the craziness, it became somewhat pedestrian, both for Budokan main event and even their own standards. The match did have enough of the speed and athleticism to be Marufuji. It started really well with the quick action leading into Marufuji's knee attack. Akiyama came back countering Marufuji's charge with a back body drop over the top onto the runway. They seemed to lose their way after this, or rather, they generally lacked any particular direction and had no idea where they were taking things. The match didn't tell a story or have any particular focus. If anything, it was built around Marufuji's shiranui, but that move isn't particularly over due to it's lack of credibility, so the variations were greeted with relative silence whereas Marufuji's other favorite moves, for instance the thrust kick that's his setup for the shiranui, got consistently good reactions. The athleticism did set it apart from other GHC Heavyweight matches, and Jun did a few different things to fit, for instance a nadare shiki Frankensteiner that got a huge pop. Even though they sometimes don't really work, for instance, Marufuji's shiranui over the guard rail today, I love how Marufuji is always thinking of new ways to do things. He wanted to knock Akiyama off the apron to the floor, so he did a short swandive missile kick, which wasn't dangerous for him because he was able to push off Akiyama so he'd land in the ring. Marufuji wasn't ready to win the title push wise, but they decided to toss it on him anyway. In the typical halfhearted booking, they concocted some series of counters so Marufuji could beat Jun without really beating him. It might have looked awesome if they could have pulled it off as it was so intricate, but they wound up just sort of doing things as fast as they could, so it sometimes broke down, and generally didn't come off. I would have no problem watching this match a couple more times, as it was never dull, but I was hoping for more than goofy fun. ***1/2
Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Go Shiozaki vs. Jun Akiyama & Atsushi Aoki
Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Kentaro Shiga & SUWA vs. Makoto Hashi & Tamon Honda & Mitsuo Momota
Takuma Sano & Akira Taue vs. Are$ & Scorpio
KENTA & Takeshi Rikio & Mohammed Yone vs. Masao Inoue & Kishin Kawabata & Akitoshi Saito
Yoshinari Ogawa & Kotaro Suzuki vs. Nigel McGuinness & Ricky Marvin
Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinori Ota & Takashi Sugiura vs. Manabu Hara & Kazunari Murakami & Katsumi Usuda
Naomichi Marufuji & Takeshi Morishima vs. Doug Williams & Murat Bosporus
Extra match: Tsutomu Hiranayagi vs. Shuhei Taniguchi
Makoto Hashi & Tamon Honda & Shuhei Tangiuchi vs. Tsutomu Hiranayagi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Kentaro Shiga
Are$ & Murat Bosporus & Scorpio vs. Masashi Aoyagi & Masao Inoue & Kishin Kawabata
Yoshinari Ogawa & Yoshinori Ota & Kotaro Suzuki vs. Atsushi Aoki & Ricky Marvin & Takashi Sugiura
Jun Akiyama vs. Tsuyoshi Kikuchi
Takeshi Morishima & Mohammed Yone vs. Naomichi Marufuji & Go Shiozaki
Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Kazunari Murakami
SUWA & Akira Taue vs. Nigel McGuinness & Doug Williams
KENTA & Akitoshi Saito vs. Takuma Sano & Yoshihiro Takayama
Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Tsutomu Hirayanagi vs. Mitsuo Momota & Atsushi Aoki 9:46
Yoshinobu Kanemaru & SUWA vs. Ricky Marvin & Taiji Ishimori 10:33
Tamon Honda & Shuhei Taniguchi vs. Scorpio & Murat Bosporus 12:10
Doug Williams & Nigel McGuinness & Are$ vs. Masao Inoue & Kishin Kawabata & Ippei Ota 16:27
Akira Taue & Kentaro Shiga vs. Akitoshi Saito & Go Shiosaki 11:43
Takeshi Morishima & Mohammed Yone vs. Jun Akiyama & Makoto Hashi 14:38
Yoshihiro Takayama & Takuma Sano & & Takashi Sugiura vs. Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa & Kotaro Suzuki 25:57
GHC Heavyweight Title Match: Naomichi Marufuji vs. KENTA 35:34. These two very clearly surpass their previous best every time they wrestle each other. They decided to just be themselves, so they were in full junior heavyweight mode despite Marufuji's heavyweight title being on the line, but that was the wise decision because by relaxing and adding new riffs to the numerous aspects that make this a great rivalry, they were able to not only once again set a new standard for themselves, but put themselves in the conversation when you think about the better matches and rivalries, particularly of this decade. Heavies of juniors, they lacked nothing in the stiffness and intensity departments, which were top notch by any standard. The work was off the charts, and the match was just insane with too many wild and innovative spots to list. A couple spots didn't work, including a top rope quebrada to the floor from Marufuji that saw his neck smash the guard rail and his foot (or knee?) bust KENTA open, but when you have the rare individuals who have the chemistry, athleticism, and skill to try spots and sequences that others wouldn't dream of, much less dare, that's an acceptable, occasional downside. The crowd might not have been the biggest, causing Misawa to make the wrongheaded, shortsighted panicy decision to immediately put the title back on himself, but you can't put one of the least interesting undercards in the history of Budokan sports beneath two essentially new headliners and expect any different. Maybe some people stayed away because something in the league with the best the NJ juniors could ever offer isn't their idea of an AJ/NOAH Budokan main event, but the fans in the building were reacting to every single spot. ****3/4
Kotaro Suzuki vs. Ippei Ota
Kentaro Shiga vs. Tsutomu Hirayanagi
Takeshi Morishima & Ricky Marvin vs. Makoto Hashi & Shuhei Taniguchi
Takashi Sugiura vs. Go Shiozaki
SUWA & "brother" YASSHI & Shuji Kondo vs. Mohammed Yone & Taiji Ishimori & Atsushi Aoki
NOAH & ZERO-1 MAX: Atsushi Aoki & Taiji Ishimori & Yoshinori Ota vs. Ikuto Hidaka & Osamu Namiguchi & Shota Takanishi
Katsuya Kishi & Kikutaro & Muneki Sawa vs. Manabu Hara & Tsutomu Hiranayagi & Kappa Boy
El Dorado: El Blazer & Jumping Kid Okimoto & Milanito Collection at vs. Brahman Kei & Brahman Shu & Manjimaru
Kaientai Dojo: JOE & Mike Lee Jr. & Mr. X & Yasu Urano vs. Yuji Hino & Saburo Inematsu & SUPER-X & Yuu Yamagata
DDT: Danshoku Dieno & Kota Ibushi vs. Daichi Kakimoto & KUDO
NOSAWA & Minoru Suzuki & Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Takeshi Morishima & Kohei Sato & Shuhei Taniguchi
Katsuhiko Nakajima & Go Shiozaki & Takuya Sugawara vs. HARASHIMA & KAZMA & Ryoji Sai
Kishin Kawabata vs. Tsutomu Hirayanagi
Masao Inoue & Junji Izumida & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Takuma Sano & Mitsuo Momota & Shuhei Taniguchi
Kentaro Shiga & Taiji Ishimori & Atsushi Aoki vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru & SUWA & Shuji Kondo
Yoshinari Ogawa & Ippei Ota vs. Doug Williams & Wade Chism
Akira Taue & Tamon Honda vs. Jun Akiyama & Makoto Hashi
Bryan Danielson & Bison Smith & Eddie Edwards vs. KENTA & Ricky Marvin & Akitoshi Saito
Mitsuharu Misawa & Kotaro Suzuki vs. Naomichi Marufuji & Go Shiozaki
GHC Tag Title Decision Tournament Round 1: Takeshi Morishima & Mohammed Yone vs. Takeshi Rikio & Takashi Sugiura
Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Ippei Ota vs. Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Taiji Ishimori
Kentaro Shiga & Kishin Kawabata vs. Junji Izumida & Mitsuo Momota
Akitoshi Saito & Masao Inoue & Tsutomu Hirayanagi vs. Tamon Honda & Masashi Aoyagi & Atsushi Aoki
Yoshinari Ogawa & Go Shiozaki & Ricky Marvin vs. Doug Williams & Bryan Danielson & Wade Chism
Takeshi Rikio & Takeshi Morishima vs. Jun Akiyama & Makoto Hashi
Mohammed Yone & KENTA vs. Bison Smith & Eddie Edwards
Naomichi Marufuji & Takashi Sugiura vs. Mitsuharu Misawa & Kotaro Suzuki
GHC Tag Title Decision Tournament Semifinal: Yoshihiro Takayama & Takuma Sano vs. Akira Taue & SUWA
Kentaro Shiga & Go Shiozaki vs. Junji Izumida & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi
Akitoshi Saito & Masao Inoue & Kishin Kawabata vs. Akira Taue & Tamon Honda & Tsutomu Hirayanagi
Bison Smith & Wade Chism & SUWA vs. Takeshi Rikio & Takashi Sugiura & Atsushi Aoki
Doug Williams & Eddie Edwards vs. Yoshinari Ogawa & Shuhei Taniguchi
Shinjiro Otani & Kazunari Murakami & Tatsuhito Takaiwa vs. Jun Akiyama, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Makoto Hashi
Mitsuharu Misawa & Mushiking Terry vs. Naomichi Marufuji & Mushiking Joker
KENTA vs. Bryan Danielson 25:21. Extremely effective slow paced match in Danielson's style. In fact, one of the most believable junior matches. The selling was awesome, and they suitably restrained themselves with Danielson making KENTA pay every time he tried to use a running sequence to open the match up. Danielson was on top of his game, wrestling with calculated and precise brutality. He does nothing by accident, and today he viciously debilitated KENTA's left arm. Danielson hurt his knee on a dive, and never forgot it the rest of the match. This wasn't the typical selling where he hopped around then grabbed his knee; he actually was unable to do a lot of what he wanted the way he wanted because the knee wouldn't allow it. For instance, he could do a German suplex, but couldn't hold the pin. It was just a fantastic job of altering his wrestling style to fit his physical status. Unfortunately, KENTA was kind of exposed in this match. He was able to follow Danielson, but looked really out of his element and really didn't add anything. Basically, he could react well enough to go along, but he wasn't really comprehending what was going on to the point he could think or improvise any touches of his own. He couldn't even come up with anything to abuse the knee. This was nearly a great match anyway because Danielson was so fantastic, but should have been a great match because KENTA should find a way to bring some of his skill to the table to go along with his commendable willingness to try to do something out of the ordinary. ****1/4
GHC Tag Title Decision Tournament Final: Takeshi Morishima & Mohammed Yone vs. Yoshihiro Takayama & Takuma Sano
Tamon Honda & Junji Izumida & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Kentaro Shiga & Kishin Kawabata & Mitsuo Momota
Yoshinari Ogawa & Ricky Marvin vs. Daisuke Ikeda & Masao Inoue
Takeshi Morishima vs. Go Shiosaki
Jun Akiyama & Makoto Hashi vs. Akitoshi Saito & Shuhei Taniguchi
Akira Taue & Mushiking Terry & Taiji Ishimori & Atsushi Aoki vs. SUWA & TARU & Shuji Kondo & "brother" YASSHI
GHC Jr. Heavyweight Tag Title Match: Takashi Sugiura & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. NOSAWA & MAZADA 26:06
Takeshi Rikio & Mohammed Yone & KENTA vs. Yoshihiro Takayama & Minoru Suzuki & Takuma Sano
GHC Heavyweight Title Match: Naomichi Marufuji vs. Mitsuharu Misawa 25:32. Misawa vs. Jun a decade later. It was an excellent match because Misawa knows he isn't near what he used to be physically, and was willing to go along for the ride, adding some of the mental things he does well such as structuring the match and selling. Though Misawa still wasn't up for any real psychology, he is one of the best wrestlers at segmenting a match, so even though the match didn't tell a story as a whole, all the individual parts were entertaining and effective. Misawa is also a diverse enough wrestler that he can work his style, making slight alterations so it's Marufuji's style too. For instance, they did the requisite elbow exchanges, but Marufuji would win them because he'd use his quickness to change them up, catching Misawa with his lariat or kneecap dropkick. Misawa was selling for Marufuji from the outset, but Marufuji really took over Dragon screwing Misawa in the ropes, which began a lengthy though fruitless knee attack. As with the juniors, this played a minor role in the second half of the match, which simply showcased the excellent work and highspots of Marufuji. Though Marufuji lost, Misawa went way out of his way to put him over, allowing him to kick out of an avalanche style Tiger suplex '85 and emerald flowsion before catching him in an avalanche style emerald flowsion. ****
Taiji Ishimori vs. Yoshinori Ota 9:23
Kotaro Suzuki vs. Atsushi Aoki 12:11
SUWA vs. Tsutomu Hirayanagi 7:10
Kikusan Hansen vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru 4:47
Ricky Marvin vs. Mohammed Yone 10:23
Takeshi Rikio vs. Shuhei Taniguchi 11:37
Naomichi Marufuji vs. Go Shiozaki 15:25. This isn't a match of the year, but then you shouldn't really expect that when the man who just lost the GHC Heavyweight title meets up with an upstart who hasn't even been wrestling for 2 years. Within that context, it was a really nice story match where both men showed a lot of skill. Marufuji dominated working the arm that Go injured on the ring post. He was extremely focused and showed a nice variety of technical moves, throwing in the occasional well themed highspot such as an Otani style swandive knee to the arm while Go was holding the top rope. Go finally seemed to make a comeback, but he had to release the bridge on his German suplex because his arm hurt too much. Go had a little offense here and there, but never fully seemed in control. Eventually, they had a striking showdown, and Marufuji did a nifty although I'm not sure perfectly executed manuever where he caught Go's lariat and spun into a Tiger driver armbar that he actually got the submission on! I was so excited that all this smart wrestling didn't result in the usual finish where the guy just wins with their finisher, which of course has nothing to do with what they've been doing the entire time. This wasn't a super effort, but it was a really consistently good house show match that's a great example of how to be consistently interesting and effective without killing yourselves. My only complaints are it didn't need to be this one-sided, and it feels like the midcard match that it is. ***
KENTA vs. Takeshi Morishima 20:00. Really good, highly competitive big man vs. small man matchup. Morishima made the match by refusing to play the size card. Sure, he tossed KENTA around and used his girth to his advantage, that's his or at least Terry Gordy's style, but he didn't cop an attitude and refuse to sell much for KENTA because he's less than half his size. Instead, he let KENTA give him a good ass kicking with all his powerful strikes. The match started off great with KENTA coming out firing until Morishima leveled him with a lariat. Morishima got a near fall with a big backdrop, but KENTA came back with his go 2 sleep for a near fall. The match slowed momentarily from there, and never really regained the dynamite intensity of the initial segment, although it was at least good throughout. They picked things up on the outside with KENTA putting the boots to Morishima, and a little later with Morishima hitting two DDT's on the ramp. Morishima began to use his size advantage, knocking the wind out of KENTA by jumping on his stomach, but KENTA came back with a powerslam of all things. They continued to go back and forth, playing more or less even. Morishima may have had a 5 to 10% advantage, but you never felt like he had KENTA beat, or was ready to win. The time limit was a little short, but I felt as though it was actually a good finish as the match was about the two up and coming stars playing equal. ***1/2
GHC Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Tatsuhito Takaiwa vs. Takashi Sugiura 22:31. A punishing battle of the power juniors. It was the opposite of Marufuji vs. Go, all effort and desire but not much skill and technique. Neither guy was going to be able to step up and carry this, so it meandered for a while then turned into a fun match when they started hammering each other. It wasn't pretty, in fact somewhat clumsy, but they pulled out all sorts of suplexes, bombs, and drivers, and the impact on those was also very impressive. Takaiwa had two really killer moves, a jackknife powerbomb off the ramp that actually drew a few boos I think for being too nasty and an avalache style Takaiwa driver. Sugiura pulled out a few different things as well such as a rolling Dragon suplex and KENTA's go 2 sleep, though neither were confidently performed. Takaiwa was totally in his element, but Sugiura always seemed to be pressing to match him, as if he knew he needed to deliver added wallop but wasn't quite coordinated enough to do it gracefully. ***