GHC Heavyweight Championship: Takashi Sugiura(c) vs Togi Makabe
I had no idea Sugiura had the second longest GHC Heavyweight reign after Kobashi. I was curious how he did as a draw as I figured it was some short lived reign, but nope, he held the title for 581 days. The current record holder would be Kenta Kobashi at 735 days which is considered one of the best championship reigns in the history of pro wrestling and a big part of what helped get NOAH on the map for a lot of people, myself included. This match is long as fuck. Togi vs Sugiura seems pretty obvious on paper what kind of match it'll be, brawling with some technical wrestling. Probably a lot of punching, headbutts, and suplexs. I'm so glad Sugiura dyed his hair black and got rid of the weird boxer shorts. The blonde hair is such a shitty look. I actually didn't get into Sugiura until recently because I just thought his look was so shitty I wouldn't even give him a chance. It's sad, but I really do value a wrestler to have some kind of distinct look be it cool, weird, flamboyant, whatever.
Prior to this match, Makabe pinned Sugiura in a non-title match, so it definitely plays up Makabe having that on him. I only know a little bit about the events prior to this match, but I picked it up fairly quickly just from watching them in the ring. Makabe does a good job of looking like a threat to Sugiura as he's just as tough as the champion and is still on the hunt for his first world title win at this point. (He doesn't win the IWGP title until a few months later.) The camera frequently cuts to Makabe's chain resting in the corner of the ring. It's amazing how illustrious of a career Makabe was able to make ripping off Bruiser Brody. Maybe Joe Doering got inspired. Makabe starts the match off working Sugiura onto the ground while it constantly teases the chain. It's kind of strange to see a foreign object emphasized so much in a NOAH match. Misawa would have been like, 'What's this gimmicky bullshit?' The two get face to face and, you guess it, they have a forearm exchange. Who would have thunk it? The actual surprise however is how handily Sugiura wins it. Sugiura continues to beat on Makabe in the corner like he owes him money with the ref having to pull Sugiura off of him including the Engrish use of, "Let him go!" And the ref is immediately taken out by Makabe pushing Sugiura into him. Time to brawl on the outside. Does any NOAH title match post-Kobashi NOT have brawling on the outside?
I GO BACK IN TIME 5 YEARS AND I STILL CANT AVOID THIS FUCKER! Do you know what else is required in every GHC title match post-Kobashi reign? Apron spots.Makabe gives Sugiura that move where you drop them on their ankle on your knee or whatever off the apron through the table. It looks awful, so I didn't gif it. Makabe hits him in the ankle with a chair which looks a lot better, so the ankle of Sugiura is now the focus of the match. Prolonged working of the ankle by Makabe. Sugiura finally gets himself up and gets some momentum back. Throws Makabe into the corner and proceeds to charge but doesn't God Mode and realizes his ankles been worked on which sets up Makabe to cut his head off with a lariat.
Disappointed in himself for not being able to do the Yakuza kick in the corner before, Sugiura mans up and does it. Twice followed by a brutal knee. Makabe runs the ropes to hit a lariat and Sugiura counters it by just running into the corner. I think this is the smartest count I've ever seen in the history of professional wrestling. I thought it was a botch at first. Makabe whips Sugiura into the corner but Sugiura can't make it as he falls over clutching his ankle. That might be one of my favorite 'little things' spots in wrestling. When they're took fucked up to even get thrown and be carried by momentum. Makabe performs a very nice looking chopblock. Sugiura tanks a King Kong Lariat, and it looks great. Makabe is unable to get Sugiura up for a powerbomb and you even hear the crowd kind of laughing about it, so Makabe says 'fuck it. Lariat.' Then attempts it again.
This heelish action surprisingly gets a 'Ma-Ka-Be!' chant which is kind of funny.
Go doing the Misawa thing.
Sugiura fights his way out of a Spider German Suplex and repays it with a tree of woe knee. Sugiura goes for his own top rope german but Makabe fights it off. Sugiura attempts a superplex, but Makabe fights that off as well. Makabe attempts a king kong knee drop and ends up with an indy wrestling german
Makabe eats some knees and a dragon suplex but kicks out of both. Makabe regains control, but can't put Sugiura down with a king king lariat or a german suplex so he finally hits him with the spider suplex. Top rope Angle slam. Sugiura wins. Crowd pops huge.
This match is over 30 minutes long. I watched it to see how well Makabe would do in that length of a match, and neither Makabe nor Sugiura ever look anywhere close to winded the entire time. But Makabe should not be doing these long of matches and this match could have been better if it was done in half the time. A ton of it felt like filler and a lengthy match just exposes Makabe's limited moveset. I lost count of the number of lariats in this match from him . I wouldn't mind seeing Sugiura show up at NJPW randomly and challenge Makabe for his NEVER title in a rematch, but it'd definitely need to be around 10-15 minutes instead of 30+.