KENTA © vs Takeshi Morishima – NOAH
GHC Heavyweight Title Match
01/05/2014
No-one has a crystal ball and can tell the future. Whenever a wrestling company makes a choice to change any title, let alone their World championship, they obviously hope that their new champion works out. Whether that means in terms of storyline, drawing or in ring action, it is unlikely that a promotion has ever stuck a world title with no legitimate reasoning supporting that.
With Takeshi Morishima, NOAH knew what they were getting when they chose to have him end KENTA’s almost year long reign as GHC Heavyweight Champion. KENTA had had an incredibly dominant year, defeating wrestlers who called NOAH home, as well as Toru Yano and Yuji Nagata, outsiders from NJPW. In doing so, he had become the first GHC Champion to ever defend the title eight times in one calendar year. With many men already defeated and brushed aside by the champion, who better to step up than the guy who had dropped the belt to him in the first place? A man who had held the title for almost a year himself back in 2012?
When KENTA and Takeshi Morishima stood opposite each other on the 5th of January 2014, having collectively spent the past two years on top of the pile, to what extent could anyone predict that by January 2015, neither man would find themselves a member of the NOAH roster?
To the match itself. Though Morishima had slimmed down a lot since his run on top in 2008, he still held a reasonable size advantage over the champion. However, nine title defenses in a row can only build up your confidence, and the early going saw Morishima overwhelmed by a fired up, and somewhat cocky, champion. Several times Morishima had to bail to the ringside, overwhelmed by numerous strikes and not able to utilise his bulk to work over KENTA.
NOAH’s big match style over the years has often revolved around big, and some could argue dangerous, spots. The match doesn’t overdo these, though a DDT on the wooden floor is the move that gives Morishima his initial control. This finally allows Morishima to begin to use his size to control his opponent, landing a butt splash at ringside and getting a two count off of a big splash. His size is only one feature of his offense though, as he showed with a top rope dropkick that sent KENTA flying across the ring.
The match could be accused of being somewhat pedestrian up until now, but as KENTA fires up, the pace also quickens. A top rope double foot stomp gets a two count after a boot and a dropkick in the corner has the bigger man downed. KENTA even utilises the Go 2 Sleep twice; one time grazing the arm, the other time catching the chest. Though not completed accurately, this use of his main finishing move twice built an air of desperation – did KENTA have the big guns to dispose of Morishima? This feeling only continued to develop as the Game Over submission isn’t enough to force Morishima to tap.
A desperation backdrop driver earlier in the match had only managed to get Morishima a two count. The second backdrop driver of the contest, following a lariat that swatted KENTA out of midair and a second one for good measure, was enough for Morishima to regain his world title. Not content with just becoming a new champion, Morishima used the post match interview to turn heel, forming a new stable by turning on his team mates in Brave to become the leader of Choukibou-gun alongside Mayback Tanaguchi and Kenoh.
A match that felt underwhelming feels somewhat prescient of the following year’s developments for Morishima. Losing the title to Yuji Nagata a month later without making a title defense is one thing; being forced into retirement in April due to health concerns at a relatively young age was completely unexpected. With KENTA leaving NOAH for WWE at around the same time, the two men who had led the company for the previous two years as champion were no longer.
