(Almost) 5-Star Match Reviews: Marufuji & KENTA vs. Minoru Fujita & Ikuto Hidaka – NOAH Differ Cup 2005

This match has been on my radar for some time but I couldn’t get around to it until now. On paper it seems like a completely forgettable match; after all, the only two guys most people might be familiar with here are KENTA and Marufuji. The former because he made it to WWE, AEW, and NJPW after his NOAH career ran its course; and the latter because pretty much every wrestler active today has either wrestled him or borrowed/stolen something he came up with at some point in their careers.

But the other reason I wanted to see what this match was all about was because of its presumed reputation. This is one of the few 2000s matches Dave Meltzer rated ****3/4 out of five, and this was during that long decade when, for whatever reason, he seemed to think there wasn’t all that much good wrestling. So if we take his rating at face value, this match got similar ratings as: Angle/Benoit at the 2003 Royal Rumble, Angle/Michaels at WrestleMania 21, Undertaker/ Michaels at both WrestleManias 25 and 26, Kobashi vs. Sasaki at NOAH Destiny 2005, and many more classics that’ve aged so well to the present day.

Yes I know, taking old Meltzer’s opinion so seriously is ridiculous…BUT from time to time he does serve as a useful starting point for people looking to find something they might like. And since Pro Wrestling NOAH was putting on some of the most exciting wrestling in the world during the first half of the 2000s, then maybe, just maybe, he was right with this match as well.

The Story

The Differ Cup is an interpromotional junior heavyweight tag team tournament named after the Differ Ariake arena, which was once NOAH’s main venue and housed their training dojo. The winners of the two-night tournament get the equivalent of $10,000.00. The idea for this tournament was for NOAH to showcase junior heavyweights and elevate them in a time when wrestlers were, by and large, getting smaller and quicker, which also coincided with the MMA boom in Japan.

Aside from KENTAFuji representing NOAH, the 2005 tournament also featured wrestlers from Kaientai Dojo (TAKA Michinoku), DDT (Kota Ibushi), and a few freelancers like Katsuhiko Nakajima and Leonardo Spanky (a.k.a. The Brian Kendrick). One of the other teams in this tournament was from Shinya Hashimoto’s Pro Wrestling Zero1 max, and it was comprised of their Lightweight Tag Team Champions, Minoru Fujita and Ikuto Hidaka.

This is usually the part where I give some brief summary of a wrestler’s gimmick, personality, style, or what they’re known for. But this time I’m opting to go into this match blind, having never seen either Fujita or Hidaka before. This way the action can speak for itself, without any preconceptions affecting the match in any way.

The Match

This took place on May 8, 2005, in the finals of the 2005 Differ Cup. Also, they have legendary AJPW referee Kyohei Wada officiating to give this match an extra layer of importance.

KENTA and Fujita start with some basic lock-ups and dodging of big strikes. A long technical chain ends in a shoulderblock stalemate. Both men collide into each other a bit more than KENTA goes for a jumping knee but Fujita counters with a Manhattan drop. KENTA immediately no-sells what looks like a nut shot got more chain grappling. Then both guys trade kicks until Fujita blocks one and lands a DDT. Fujita foot chokes KENTA in a corner and then referee Wada gets distracted with Marufuji getting frantic on the apron, which allows Fujita to hit a few facewashes.

Hidaka tags in, lands a snapmare/dropkick combo, and starts a chinlock but then throws KENTA into his corner and demands Marufuji tag in. Marufuji obliges him and we get another flashy technical exchange. We get some more smooth matwork and counter-wrestling which then becomes a showy flip exchange. That ends when Marufuji flies over Hidaka and to the floor in a sunset flip powerbomb attempt from the apron to the floor. Hidaka blocks, kicks Marufuji back, and goes for a quebrada but Marufuji pulls his feet down which makes Hidaka hit the ring apron face-first.

Hidaka wins a ringside elbow exchange and then lands a Muto flashing elbow in the ring for a one-count. Fujita tags and drops an ax handle on Marufuji’s arm. Fujita continues working the arm until Marufuji counters with a headscissor. Some more mat grappling ensues until KENTA tags in and lands stiff kicks to Fujita’s gut. He stomps on Fujita’s face and shoulders in a corner as Marufuji provides support from the apron by shoving his foot into the side of Fujita’s head. KENTA continues kicking Fujita but then Fujita counters a corner whip and counters a diving dropkick with a midair powerbomb. Hidaka knocks Marufuji off the apron and, as Fujita traps KENTA in a modified surfboard, dropkicks KENTA square in the face.

Fujita lands a series of quick leg drops to KENTA’s face and then the two Zero1 guys work over KENTA’s leg. Hidaka does some sick-looking rolling leglock that I’ve never seen before and then applies a different leglock variation after KENTA gets a ropebreak. The Zero1 guys continue double-teamming KENTA in their corner and keep him isolated even as he tries to fight them by himself. Fujita gets two off a rolling cradle and goes back to working KENTA’s leg until Marufuji breaks it up. KENTA elbows out of a German suplex attempt and lands on his feet to avoid a back suplex as well. He stagers into a corner, lands his tornado hotshot, and a springboard shotgun dropkick. So much for selling the leg.

Marufuji tags and takes Fujita to the floor as KENTA goes after Hidaka. Marufuji DDTs Fujita onto the entrance ramp and then locks him in a camel clutch, right in front of some Zero1 fans that’re booing him loudly and giving him the thumbs down.

Back in the ring Marufuji lands a jumping back elbow for two and applies a side headlock. Fujita escapes but Marufuji gets him in a sleeper right after. KENTA tags in and facewashes Fujita, amused by the crowd booing him. He then lands a snapmare and tags Marufuji who lands a springboard elbow drop and then KENTA lands a springboard…into a nonchalant heel tap to the head. Fujita falls to ringside but finds no safety as KENTAFuji continue double-teamming him. Marufuji locks Fujita in a ringpost-assisted cobra clutch and then covers for another two-count once back in the ring.

Marufuji applies another cobra clutch while staring down Hidaka until Fujita gets another ropebreak. KENTA tags in and lands a back elbow alongside Marufuji for two. Suddenly Fujita fires up and gets into a strike battle with KENTA, which is a long and polite way of saying, “I dream of broken bones”. KENTA indulges for him for a moment until he rocks him with a running lariat.

Marufuji tags in and locks in some kind of modified STF but Fujita fights out. Both guys trade strikes until Marufuji ends the exchange with an eye poke and a face stretch. Hidaka stops Marufuji from applying a Misawa-style facelock so Marufuji switches to a standing cravate hold, hitting knees each time Fujita tries fighting back.

KENTA tags in and lands both kicks to the chest and some mocking shots to the chin. Then both he and Marufuji apply a double cobra twist while taunting Hidaka, leading to more boos. KENTA goes to the top rope but Fujita cuts him off. Both guys trade forearms until Fujita lands an Aja Kong-style waterwheel suplex and then tags Hidaka. Hidaka runs wild with a diving dropkick and a tornado DDT on Marufuji using KENTA as a stand. KENTA tries kicking back but Hidaka lands a dragon screw leg whip. He locks KENTA in a Figure-4 leglock while Fujita keeps Marufuji out of the ring. KENTA eventually gets a ropebreak, lands a counter powerslam, and tags Marufuji.

Marufuji lands a corner splash and goes for a top-rope Frankensteiner but Hidaka blocks it. Hidaka dives but Marufuji dropkicks him in midair. Marufuji has KENTA hold Hidaka in the tree of woe but Fujita saves his partner before Maru can complete his coast-to-coast dropkick. Undeterred, Marufuji springboards anyway…and eats a double dropkick from both Zero1 guys.

Marufuji hits back with a double dropkick on both Zero1 guys but Hidaka answers with a wheel kick. Hidaka follows with a springboard dropkick and goes for some wheelbarrow move but Marufuji counters into a German suplex. Wait, no, Hidaka lands on his feet. Marufuji ducks a clothesline and tries a misdirection sunset flip. Hidaka rolls through into a basement dropkick. He connects but Marufuji hits one as well. Both guys go down.

Fujita tags in and knocks KENTA off the apron while using Marufuji as a makeshift stepstool. Marufuji hits a thrust kick and attempts a Shiranui but Fujita blocks and lands a Tombstone for two. Marufuji intercept a baseball slide but Fujita counters into an RKO for two. Marufuji rolls over on a corner charge into a school boy for another near-fall. He lands his own baseball slide dropkick and then tags KENTA who lands a martial arts barrage, a yakuza kick, and a springboard dropkick to the back of Fujita’s neck, all for yet another near-fall. Fujita lands a step-up enzuigiri out of nowhere and lands a charging combo for a near-fall of his own. We get another corner struggle but this one ends with Fujita landing a top-rope dragon screw. Fujita tries some kind of ankle lock/STF combo but Marufuji breaks it up.

Hidaka takes Marufuji with him to the floor as KENTA counters a charging Fujita with a spinkick to the gut. Fujita counters a fisherman buster with an Impaler DDT for two. The Zero1 guys hit a convoluted assisted tornado DDT but Marufuji breaks up a pin. Frog splash by Fujita. Two-count. Fujita traps KENTA in his combo submission hold as Hidaka traps Marufuji in a heel hook against the ropes. The dual submissions go on forever but KENTA somehow gets to the ropes.

Fujita lands his own diving dropkick to the back of KENTA’s neck followed by a Michinoku Driver for a very close near-fall. Fujita tries a superplex. KENTA blocks and flips over into a powerbomb attempt. Marufuji comes over and tries to make it into a powerbomb/Shiranui combo. Hidaka holds Marufuji in place long enough for Fujita to counter the powerbomb into a headscissor takedown. That’s followed by a multi-man face kick sequence that ends with Fujita eating double thrust kicks…for two. Bridging German suplex by KENTA. Two-count. Doomsday Busaiku Knee. Two-count. KENTA hits his martial arts rush and charges for another Busaiku knee. Hidaka pushes Fujita out of harm’s way and somehow counters a big boot into an amazing one-shoulder-lift powerbomb. Marufuji hits Hidaka with a Shiranui. Fujita drops Maru with a Michinoku Driver. KENTA lands a bridging Tiger suplex for 2.99! That was so close KENTA’s music plays for two seconds. But the match still isn’t over. KENTA charges one more time. Fujita dodges and goes for a roll-up but only gets two. KENTA lands a few more roundhouses and then connects with the Busaiku Knee. One, two, and three!

Winners of the 2005 Differ Cup after 35:24: KENTA & Naomichi Marufuji

Review

That match was absolutely insane. It was 35 minutes of total nonstop action (pun definitely intended). No downtime, no silliness, no nonsense, just bell-to-bell craziness. It started off slow and tense but then built to one of the craziest finishing stretches I’ve ever seen. It was as if all that downtime and matwork supercharged all four guys enough for them to go all out for the final fifteen minutes. I had to stop and rewind the match a few times to catch what they were doing because towards the end they were landing so many synchronized sequences one after the other. They didn’t just accelerate as the match got longer; they got exponentially faster and started condensing more and more action towards the end. It was ludicrous, packed with action, and filled with more sudden turns than a rollercoaster at Six Flags. It was impossible to predict what would happen and when or how the match would end. And while being taken for such a wild ride is a good thing for the viewer more often than not, there’s a drawback to such an ambitious and grandiose match: it makes so much of the earlier stuff useless.

Maybe it was because this match featured two promotions’ junior tag champions, or maybe the promoters bought into the clichéd notion of ‘longer = better” that has permeated wrestling for decades. Whatever the reason, the match also featured a lot of wasted motion, inconsequential matwork, limbwork that was no-sold shortly after it happened (particularly from KENTA who started springboarding seconds after having his legs worked over), and some covers and submission holds that didn’t lead to much more than light and polite applause. In other words, the middle twenty minutes had some of the longest filler I’ve ever seen in a wrestling match, and while much of it was novel and interesting, it was stretched out far longer than necessary.

As for the Zero1 guys, they honestly didn’t show all that much personality to really stand out as individuals compared to KENTA and Marufuji. Even if you don’t understand any Japanese or know either wrestler’s backstory, both of their in-ring styles paint a clear picture of who they are and what they’re about. KENTA had his moments of outright dickishness that made the pockets of the pro-Zero1 crowd channel their energy towards cheering for Fujita and Hidaka while Marufuji listened into the crowd and leaned into the heel side on the spot to play with those same pockets and get them more invested in seeing the underdogs hold their own against the favorites to win. But there wasn’t all that much personality from Fujita or Hidaka; they might as well have been introduced as “generic indy guy in pants #214” and “generic indy guy in tights #55402” and the match would still be the same. They just hit moves without feeling or emotion; and while they were both VERY good at that specific thing, they didn’t have enough passion or emotion behind what they were doing to really sell the idea that they just might win here.

That lack of personality from the Zero1 team made this match come across an exciting and wild ride that still had that same inevitable conclusion of the NOAH guys winning. Don’t get me wrong, it’s always nice to see wrestlers execute never-before-seen maneuvers and it’s even better when those moves actually mean something in the context of the match. But if all that effort proves to be meaningless because everyone can see the same outcome, then the match ends up shrouded in this overwhelming sense of futility.

Final Rating: ****1/2

This is a fun match and not a bad way to waste ~40 minutes all things considered. But I wouldn’t call it a MOTYC or anything like that, especially since 2005 was something of a ludicrously awesome year when it came to memorable matches: Kurt Angle/Shawn Michaels twice, Kobashi/Sasaki, Kobashi/Joe, KENTA/Low Ki in ROH, Styles/Joe/Daniels, and a few other TNA matches all blow this match out of the water. Hell, a tag matches with KENTA and Marufuji vs Yoshinobu Kanemaru and Takashi Sugiura that took place shortly after this one was much better and had all of this match’s strengths and fewer of its drawbacks.

So while this match stands out as an impressive match for the fact that these four guys went so long, expended so much energy, and had so many crazy and perfectly-timed sequences, it’s not anything historically exceptional. If anything it’s a footnote match that serves as a perfect microcosm of the experimental era that was mid-2000s junior heavyweight wrestling. An exciting, flashy, and at times captivating footnote, but a footnote nonetheless.

Thanks for reading.