KENTA & Go Shiozaki vs. Kensuke Sasaki & Katuhiko Nakajima 6/22/09

This is my 2009 pro wrestling match of the year

I adored every part of this match, it seemed as if everything "clicked". I know there was a lot of hate on Nakajima/KENTA, but their interactions here were great. KENTA oftentimes seems out of place against juniors, but the stuff with Nakajima is always golden. KENTA's complete readyness to mix it up with Sasaki was also great. KENTA always has good matches against big men, and this absolutely brought it. I adore KENTA in the "little guy who will fight anyone" role.
Shiozaki however, made this for me. Starting off the match against Sasaki was the perfect booking move. He Immediately came out of the gate firing as if to say "I don't care who you are, what has happened, who is dead, I am Go Shiozaki, I WILL BE the ace of this company, it is my dream, and any motherfucker who stands in my way will be destroyed". The fire I saw here made me so excited, it was as if Go had finally realized his potential and was going to make sure that everyone in the ring, in the building, and in all of the world knew it. This was his showcase, and in the minutes and hours following my viewing of this match I came to the realization that NOAH may die, but Go will make sure it goes out in a blaze of glory.
I feel at this point I must address the death of Misawa and the impact it had on this match, for those uninformed Mitsuharu Misawa was the owner and top star of this promotion, who had died from a horrific in ring accident approximately 9 days earlier. He was also my personal all-time favourite wrestler. A more lenghty discussion of him is available in my blog archives (and is in fact, what made want to start a blog in the first place). It's Ludicrous to say that Misawa's death would not have affected me, the god's honest truth is that I was incredibly depressed in the days following the tragedy, but emotion is far from the only factor here. Upon multiple re-watchings this match holds up as one of most wonderful examples of pro wrestling in the last 12 months, and the death of a legend does not affect that. While I fully admit that those outside factors may have had a role in making this my favourite, I do not feel as if that is an excuse, outside factors are what make a match go from great, to spectacular.
I'm sure there was some Battlarts match somewhere that may have had more exchanging of holds and counter-holds, but that is not what makes a match great. This match was full of emotion, both because of Misawa's death, and because of the uncertainty as to the future of the company. However, i feel this is no different than peoples emotions over the Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels match that was so loved last year as well. We knew who The Undertaker and Shawn Michaels characters were, we understood the lure of "the streak" vs "Mr. Wrestlemania", we also got the match on the biggest stage of them all, these factors made it great, just as much as the emotions surrounding Misawa's death made the tag match great. It's why a very good Chris Benoit vs. Bret Hart match became great. It's why Kurt Angle vs. Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania 21 was ***** but their match at backlash was ****3/4. I still feel that overall there was no match in 2009 that touched KENTA & Go Shiozaki vs. Kensuke Sasaki & Katuhiko Nakajima quality wise, and I am proud to call it the Match Of The Year

****3/4