A true gem!! Hayabusa & Shinzaki vs Misawa & Akiyama! Wow!!!
Mutoh and Misawa steal one another’s finishers.
Mutoh does the Emerald Flowsion and Misawa replies with the Shining Wizard!
Misawa & Marufuji vs Kobashi & Shiozaki (21/06/2008 NOAH UK show)
I randomly asked about this match, and it turned out that it actually happened. How awesome is that? =P Two legends teaming up with their respective protégés.
Starting out with Kobashi & Misawa getting most of the crowd chants, Marufuji and Shiozaki to a lesser extent. Marufuji rocking a new gear and trying to interact a lot with the crowd who seems to love him. (His luggage was stuck in Paris, that explains the gear LOL)
Wannabe chops from Marufuji to Kobashi which serve no purpose other than angering the man!
Loving the Go go go go go go chants :D
Really fun match throughout. Gives the UK audience a live insight of what japanese wrestling is about, with a grain of humor!
Mitsuharu Misawa & Kotaro Suzuki vs Naomichi Marufuji & Takashi Sugiura (11/26/2006 NOAH)
Nice match. Nothing stands out really. Just posting it because I love seeing Marufuji teamed with Sugiura, or Minoru Suzuki for that matter. He looks better with them imo, his talent stands out more with no overshadowing. We get a better tag action out of Maru/Sugiura than Suzuki with his mentor Misawa!
Misawa & Ogawa vs Marufuji & KENTA (4/25/04 NOAH GHC Jr tag titles)
Just when I think I’ve found the best tag match ever, I stumble upon another match that sets the bar even higher. And this is exactly why I won’t be putting ratings to these Marufuji matches until I’m done with them all.
I’ll keep it very simple: young lions KENTA & Marufuji get their asses constantly handed to them by the veteran Misawa and his student Ogawa, but keep fighting back. The fire that these two display is unbelievable, their agressiveness on the ring is only matched by Misawa’s powerful elbows, and Ogawa’s smart in ring tactics. I’ve always said that KENTA circa 03 to 06 is the best KENTA, Marufuji however improved a lot since this match.
One of the best tag matches you’ll ever see. In ring psychology at best as Misawa refuses to sell to any of those punks lol!
Sit back and enjoy poetry in motion!
Mitsuharu Misawa & Naomichi Marufuji vs Kenta Kobashi & KENTA (26/01/03 NOAH)
The type of match I’m particularly fond of. Misawa and his student Marufuji vs Kobashi and his student KENTA.
While Kobashi and Misawa are relatively more efficient here, because the match dates from 2003, Marufuji is always as vibrant and hard working as you know him, especially when trying to counter the very big and more experienced Kobashi. The one that stands out in this match is KENTA, not because he’s wearing thighs, lol, but because this is the best KENTA I’ve seen so far…
It’s a relatively short but great tag match, worth watching to see how the friendship/rivalry of Marufuji and KENTA all started…paralleled by that of Misawa and Kobashi.
