Go Shiozaki & Kenta Kobashi vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima & Kensuke Sasaki
NOAH 3rd Great Voyage 20055th of November 2005
Disclaimer:
This is a tag team match between NOAH ace at the time Kenta Kobashi and his protégé Go Shiozaki on one side, and on the other side is former NJPW star and then-freelancer Kensuke Sasaki and his protégé, Katsuhiko Nakajima. Sasaki and Nakajima were outsiders from Sasaki’s Diamond Ring promotion wrestling in enemy territory on a NOAH show. Sasaki was looking for revenge on Kobashi after losing to him at Destiny 2005, while Kobashi wanted to prove that victory wasn’t just a fluke. Sasaki’s protégé Nakajima was less than two years into his pro wrestling career and was only 17 years old when this match happened. Not only was Nakajima out to prove himself to his mentor Sasaki, but he also wanted to out-perform his NOAH counterpart Shiozaki, who was six years older yet had debuted six months after Nakajima.
Disclaimer:
I DON'T CLAIM ANY RIGHT TO SCREENSHOTS USED UNDER HERE.
Foreword
So I have just finished a rewatch of this match and since I plan on doing a review of the Go Shiozaki 2020 run as GHC champion next week, I thought I might as well write a quick breakdown of one of my favorite tag matches of all time. I will of course give my star rating but I warn you it's high.
The Story leading up to the match. (This is taken from someone else's review of the match I'll shout them out at the end.)
Match Breakdown
The first act: The young show promise.
The match starts with the two young stars running at each other with forearms they have a great exchange, you really see the shades of the two great wrestlers they will become.
When Kobashi tags in he and Sasaki have a great staredown and do some chops before both deciding to test each other's strength Kobashi manages to do a northern lights suplex but Sasaki gets up impatiently they then square up again and goes into the corner where Shiozaki tags in again.
He really shows that fighting spirit that he would become known for later doing chops and forearms but takes a lot of offense from the bigger Sasaki.
When Nakajima gets tagged in you really see the killer he would become with fast accurate kicks and chops but when the bigger Kobashi gets tagged in he gets dominated a lot taking a lot of punishing chops and overhand strikes.
Shiozaki gets tagged in and does a camel clutch after a dropkick but Sasaki comes to his student's aid and chops Shiozaki to the back but he answers by dropkicking Sasaki back into the corner.
Shiozaki puts Nakajima in a surfboard hold, and while the ref tries to keep Sasaki from entering the ring again Kobashi comes in and delivers a devastating chop to the elevated chest of Nakajima.
Kobashi tags in shortly after this and dominates some but Nakajima manages to get out of it and deliver a great diving front dropkick before hot tagging in Sasaki again.
The Second act: Nakajima and Sasaki dominate.
This is the first time since the start that the two veterans have been in and they go after each other hard, chops and lariats and every member of the crowd goes wild for each chop, after about a minute of chopping each other as hard as they can.
It ends when Sasaki manages to deliver a backdrop suplex to Kobashi but Kobashi gets back up right away and they continue for a bit until Kobashi does his Burning Sword chop and tags in Shiozaki. Shiozaki really tries everything to get the big man down and when he finally manages to after a series of running forearms, Sasaki gets right up and chops him down before tagging in Nakajima, the two rookies got back and forth a bit with Nakajima doing most of the offense a great moment is when Nakajima has Shiozaki in a sleeping hold, and Kobashi makes the crowd clap
for Shiozaki do get out of it by clapping himself, Shiozaki manages to get to the ropes, Nakajima tags Sasaki in again and Sasaki does a lot of lariats to Shiozaki and
pins him but at 2 Kobashi comes into the ring and kicks Sasaki of him, Sasaki then does a great running slam into the corner and pins Shiozaki but Shiozaki kicks out.
Nakajima gets tagged in and goes on the hunt but Shiozaki still fights back this reminds me a lot of their modern battles.
Kobashi really shows support for Shiozaki getting the crowd to clap for him and shouting at him, Nakajima continues to punish Shiozaki.
Sasaki gets tagged in and tries to do a suplex to Shiozaki but he fights back and after a test of strength manages to do a great suplex, the crowd gasps and Shiozaki crawls to his corner and tags in Kobashi.
The Third act: The Invaders Prevail.
When Kobashi comes he does his legendary machine gun chops to Sasaki in the corner, they go back and forth with both hitting a lot of machine-gun chops.
It ends when Kobashi manages to hit a tiger suplex on Sasaki but he stands up again right after so Kobashi does another, but Nakajima comes in and does a german suplex to Kobashi, Shiozaki comes in right after and does a backdrop to Nakajima, Sasaki gets up a does a dragon suplex to Shiozaki to send him out again this was one of the best moments in a match with a lot of great moments. The crowd gives the four men a standing ovation as they are getting up again.
Kobashi and Sasaki get back at the same time and go back and forth a bit before Sasaki manages to put Kobashi in his stranglehold submission but Kobashi gets to the rope.
Kobashi tries to fight back and goes for a running lariat but Sasaki manages to catch him in a power slam and pins him but Kobashi kicks out.
Nakajima asks loudly to be tagged in and gets tagged in he hits a diving dropkick that sends Kobashi into the corner and he does his own machine gun kicks in the corner to Kobashi.
Kobashi however soon comes back by chopping Nakajima out of the air when he goes for a dropkick then he puts Nakajima in Texas clover hold, Sasaki tries to save him by coming
into the ring and kicking Kobashi but Shiozaki gets him in a sleeper hold however Nakajima gets to the rope.
Shiozaki tags in and goes on the offense finally he is in control, Nakajima however comes back when Shiozaki climbs up on the top rope by doing a jumping kick to him, Shiozaki falls down and Nakajima capitalizes and does a german suplex for and bridges for a very close nearfall. that is saved when Kobashi comes in for the save, the veterans go outside and have chop battle something interesting is that I think this was the first time in this match that they had gone to the ringside to fight.
Meanwhile, in the ring, Shiozaki and Nakajima go back and forth and it ends when Shiozaki does a really scary german suplex to Nakajima into the middle rope corner pad, he follows up with a bridging German suplex in the middle of the ring but Nakajima just manages to kick out this was amazing.
Shiozaki followed up with a picture-perfect moonsault, but Nakajima manages to get up in time before Shiozaki expected it and hits a series of kicks to
Shiozaki before they are both knocked to the floor.
They both try to get to their own corner to tag in their teachers but Nakajima is the one that manages it first and Sasaki but Shiozaki fights back, a lot before Sasaki manages to hit a lariat and goes for the pin but Kobashi comes in and breaks it up. Kobashi and Sasaki go back and forth some but then Nakajima gets in and they do a sweet double-team maneuver to Kobashi (I don't know the name but it looks hella cool).
Sasaki hits the Tornado Bomb to Shiozaki but he kicks out at two and the crowd goes wild.
Sasaki follows up with a Lariat than ends the match 1.2.3
After the match, both teams shake hands and bow to each other a great moment.
Closing Thoughts and rating:
This match is ageless. Like many of the big matches in both Kobashi and Sasaki's careers. But this showed off the next generation of Noah Main eventers, the current stars, the two who just main event the Budokan (The same arena as this match was in) on January 1st, 2022 for the GHC Heavyweight Title almost seventeen years later.
They really created two stars in this match, they are now both two of my favorite wrestlers so I will rate this very high. Please remember that this match is special to me and I warned you in the first volume that I can go over 5 sometimes. So don't hate me too much for going a little bit Meltzer here.
Final Rating ******on the Sondre Rating.
Source for a review that I copy-pasted some of the backstory from (its also really good better than my): https://tjrwrestling.net/feature/almost-5-star-match-reviews-kenta-kobashi-and-go-shiozaki-vs-kensuke-sasaki-and-katsuhiko-nakajima-noah-11-05-05-by-alex-podgorski/
Thanks for reading! This was fun for me, I'll hope you'll read the Go Shiozaki review when it comes out in two weeks or so.
Feel free to follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/SondreBjorn
Bye <3
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