Go Shiozaki vs Masa Kitamiya 29/08/2019 Review

This was a match in the block stage of the 2019 NOAH N1 victory tournament.

Masa Kitamiya is a gem of a wrestler who has mostly gone under the radar up until last year. Whenever he is in the ring, he brings such an amazing energy to the shows which really helps to get you hooked into it and this was no different. This match may not matter in the bigger picture but it really adds to the narrative of the final stage of Go taking on absolutely everything that NOAH throws at him throughout this tournament which is the final stage in his redemption before the beginning of his “I AM NOAH” arc. The first act is done rather well where both men try to take control one by one but the momentum shift happens whenever they try to get a bit too overzealous. One of those was Go trying for a brainbuster from the apron to the floor and Masa counters as he just smashes Go's knee onto the apron setting up the story of the match really well. From there he just brutalises that knee and while Go's selling isn't anything out of this world, it's just about servicable enough and his moveset not really needing a lot of running means that it doesn't hurt the match much. Shiozaki is such a good babyface in peril because his facial expressions are so good that you really can't help but cheer for him. His comebacks are really effective because his offense has a lot of weight around it. But one thing that really makes this match good is that it's always Kitamiya in control. Go never gets an extended period on offense plus Kitamiya's DDT no sell and hulking up spots are amazing and really work well to tell the story of this sheer brute force that just doesn't stop coming at Go no matter how hard he tries. While I did feel that the finishing stretch is where the bloat of this match is, it could've been shorter but I still really love the moments where Go is completely out of it so it does not take away a lot from the bout. It's not about Go beating Masa as much it is about him surviving here as Kitty comes out looking like an absolute star. It's not a blowaway MOTYC but there is definitely lots of good stuff to unpack here.