KENTA

So I'm finally able to catch up on some of the NJPW I've been missing, and holy fuck this feud. The match in question that I watched was Laughter 7 vs. Inoue and Togi Makabe. Someone on /wooo/ posted up a decent run through of the story and I figured I'd share it with you all and then my thoughts on this most fantastic of matches.

Shibata, like it was already mentioned in this thread, used to be an upcoming star in mid-00's NJPW, but then left due to backstage shenanigans to join a failed off-shot promotion, did a bit of freelancing and then went into MMA where he got his shit kicked in. He re-emerged in NJPW at the G1 Climax finals this August, together with JMMA legend Sakuraba, wanting to bring the martial arts part of Strong Style back that he thinks NJPW lost after Inoki left. NJPW management doesn't took that to kindly, seeing Laughter7 and their style as throwback to the late Inoki years, were terrible booking and putting MMA fighters over Wrestlers hurt the company and nearly killed it. The current NJPW roster issued challenges to them and ultimately Wataru Inoue, the former tag partner of Shibata during their young lion years, got his wish granted to face off with them. First he and the young lion Hiromu Takahashi got a shot at them, resulting in a squash.

Now on to the match itself. First off this crowd is SUPER hot. That helps everything. They hate Sakuraba, and they loathe Shibata. They love Inoue, and they LOVE the idea of Makabe being a part of his team and fucking these assholes up. Inoue clearly doesn't quite match up to Sakuraba but holds his own against the less experienced Shibata, his former tag partner. Now, Inoue/Makabe is not a common place tag team, so they try their best but ultimately are two singles guys fighting a true blue tag team. Sakuraba/Shibata work together wonderfully to put down the shoddy duo and really lay in the stiffness and dickery.

Makabe proves to be a good choice for Inoue though, as he's able to clean house on more than one occasion. The only problem is Laughter 7 have more experience and are more cunning than Makabe, so they double team him often and keep him out as much as possible, even though they know in their hearts that Makabe is little more than a nuisance. And really, that's all Inoue is too. The constant barrage of single and double moves leaves both competitors with little to no momentum throughout the match, and makes their much wanted win over Laughter 7 a hard task. however, the sparks are clearly there at times and Inoue might be able to get the upset win over his former partner.