Alan's NOAH Rewatch Wrestler Of The Week

[Alan4L]

Alright so going to try to do this on a weekly basis. Let's see how long I can keep it going. Idea will be a short little spotlight on a particular wrestler. No real reason for who I select aside from who I want to write about.

With that said.....


WEEK 1!!!!

RICKY MARVIN



NOAH's adopted luchador. You weren't really sure how he ended up on the green mat, nor why he ended up staying there for so long, but damned if he wasn't a fun guy to have around. Super versatile. He could wrestle anyone on the roster and have it be entertaining in a different way. Ricky was a wrestler you just couldn't take your eyes off as you never knew what he was going to do.


Matches you should watch:

This 5 minute sprint against KENTA is one of the best matches of it's kind you'll ever see. A Joe Lanza fave!




Ricky & SUWA form an odd couple tag team to go after KENTA & Maru, and boy do they bring out the best in each other.




This is early Ricky in NOAH and he's rough around the edges but he provides an incredible pinball for Modest & Morgan who were awesome here. Super fun little guys vs. big guys dynamic.





Gut instinct finishing range:

20-25. I don't wanna commit to any higher than that, but it's not out of the realm of possibility that he does. The only knock against him is that when he wasn't on, things could go terribly awry (who can forget that plancha onto nobody!), but when he was on there was nobody as fun to watch.

[Joe Lanza]

2007 he was outstanding

[ChutiyaHogaTeraBaap]

The only knock against him is that when he wasn't on, things could go terribly awry (who can forget that plancha onto nobody!), but when he was on there was nobody as fun to watch.

Wasn't the plancha (actually "pescado" but I digress) more of Go Shiozaki's fault for being out of position ?

[Alan4L]

The only knock against him is that when he wasn't on, things could go terribly awry (who can forget that plancha onto nobody!), but when he was on there was nobody as fun to watch.

Wasn't the plancha (actually "pescado" but I digress) more of Go Shiozaki's fault for being out of position ?

probably but he was out of position onto THE OTHER SIDE OF THE RING. I mean just take a quick glance Ricky, there's nobody within an acre of where you're diving!

[Alan4L]

2007 he was outstanding

every 2005 match of his I'm seeing I'm blown away by. He seems to have been great that year.

[Alan4L]

WEEK 2!!!

TAKESHI MORISHIMA

The son of Terry Gordy and a lovely Japanese lady! He came into (most of our) hearts in 2006 when he had a great match at Budokan against Misawa. He built on that with a star-making performance a few months later in a tag with Takeshi RIkio against KENTA & Marufuji. This caught the eye of Gabe Sapolsky which of course lead to his fondly remembered run in ROH. Truth be told, his best and most consistent work was under the ROH banner where he was booked with more thoughtfulness than he ever got from NOAH's scatter-brained match-making.

But he did do some incredible things on the green mat over the years, and as I'm finding out, alot of it was before his 2006 breakout. Morishima was a super fun guy to watch all the way back to 2001 where he and Rikio formed the super fun WILD II tag team. Young raw-boned dudes who liked to through shoulder blocks! He formed a great team with Mohammed Yone as well and they had some super fun matches along the way. As his career developed it was clear that Mori was best suited as a tag team wrestler or in single matches against guys who were smaller than him that he could bash around the ring. Anything over 15 minutes in singles matches was usually a gamble especially when in their with other heavyweights. He had some great sprints though, especially with KENTA and Marufuji.

Matches you should watch:

Baby KENTA vs Baby Mori:
http://theditch.com/MorishimaVsKENTA8-15-01.avi















Gut instinct finishing range:

10-15. His later years keep him away from the top ten for me but from what I'm seeing from his early years I think he will have to be top 15 at least.

[Joe Lanza]

There is a tag match where Morishima tosses Kota Ibushi around like he has no time for his flippy twink shit, and it's amazing. Ibushi tags in, Mori throws him back into his corner, and Ibushi promptly tags out. At least that's how I remember it.

[DylanZero]

Wild II Mori was always my favorite iteration of him and it really felt like the sky was the limit for him. I have talked to people that know him but that 3 year run where he had a botched title reign, his WWE tryout where he faced a harsh (and unfair) reaction from the WWE brass, & Misawa dying really killed his confidence big time and he never had any passion again. Then his body failed him and it was a shame to watch by the end.

His peak you could easily make a top 3-5 case in NOAH history. But the consistency just wasn't there and his time was up for the above reasons too soon. Still, his great stuff was great and he tried really hard and got it earlier than most. Would highly recommend his match vs Ikeda for the WLW Title in '04, where I think he showed there was a lot there. The match Joe mentioned was in Bug Mouth Loud with Marufuji vs. Ibushi & Shibata and not only was Morishima blowing off Ibushi when he was still green and skinny as hell awesome, his interactions with Shibata were even better and it's a shame they couldn't have had a big match in NOAH at some point before Shibata's hiatus.

I don't buy him or his style being necessarily better against smaller guys, in that he has proven a bunch of times he can be awesome against Heavyweights in singles, tag, and multiman matches...who are the right guys. The reason his matches against smaller guys are so fondly remembered is because NOAH's Juniors were far superior in talent than the other heavyweights who were always past their prime or just not interesting opponents for the big man and that was another way they kind of let him down more than him being bad. (Then again, he also once had a good singles match against Izumida (~!) at one point in 2004 so I really point to lack of confidence/motivation/health as the main factors in why things went south.

Also bonus points for having one of the best theme songs in NOAH history at one point with "Inside the Heat Beats". Even changing from that could have been an underrated reason he got worse. Never should have changed from that.