The Ideal Performance – Cube’s Loving Review of 3 Personal Classics.
With my previous article covering my September Legacy Reviews, the monthly series I do where I write about the historical matches I watch each month, it inspired me to create this list too. This article is essentially a window into my mind on what I look out for and enjoy in professional wrestling. If you would like an analogy, this is the type of tea I would choose in a restaurant or what I would brew at home when I want to really enjoy my evening.
This is a collection of three individual contests which I believe represent what I love about the sport of professional wrestling the most, I feel that both of these matches, although being different in style, truly show off wrestling in a way that I believe to be the best thing that I think it can be. They are not my highest rated matches I have ever seen, for me personally that would be Omega/Okada 2 (I know, original), but they’ve brought me both a true and real emotional response from their match, and a feeling which other bouts I have seen before have failed to get from me.
These 3 matches are:
- Katsuhiko Nakajima vs Kento Miyahara – NOAH One Night Dream 2023
- Do FIXER vs Blood Generation – ROH Supercard of Honor 2006
- Kana and Io Shirai vs Ayumi Kurihara and Yoshiko Tamura – NEO Summer Stampede 2010
For me, all 3 of these matches show the exact type of wrestling which I think is the perfect example of why I love what goes on in wrestling encapsulating my love for the inside the ropes action and the theater and dramatic side of Professional Wrestling. All three matches left me in some form of speechlessness, from either the spectacles we saw in the 6-man tag, the violence of Katsuhiko Nakajima in the NOAH match or the pure power and drive from Ayumi Kurihara in her tag match. Obviously spoilers for all 3 of these matches, so you have been warned, but I think it was obvious that would be the case.
Katsuhiko Nakajima vs Kento Miyahara – NOAH One Night Dream – 07/15/2023
Although this match happened this year, I wanna talk about it anyway, as I know many people in the wrestling community have all rated this match around the 5-star mark, and the Wrestling Observer giving it 5 and a quarter, I firmly believe this match will be a classic well into the future, and will be one of the matches new fans will turn to, to find out the beauty of Japanese wrestling.
This match was beautiful in all the ways Professional Wrestling can be. Their story is that of true dedication, that the commentators did an absolutely brilliant job, I came in knowing nothing about either, and now I feel like I’ve watched all their matches, they told us about the twos history, the 3-0 record from Nakajima, their tag history, their contrasting backgrounds, Kento being from AJPW and their ace, Katsuhiko being the NOAH ace etc etc. Then the match took place, minutes of straight staring at each other to really show their emotion, then slow wrestling, and then exploding into kicks, boots, resilience and power. This is all I want from pro wrestling, a true contest of what professional wrestling can be and how it can truly tell a story with just fighting, they went at each other and came out both different men, a match which is simple in ring, but deep with connection.
Do FIXER vs Blood Generation – ROH Supercard of Honor 2006
This match features two teams of Dragongate legends inside an ROH ring, this is the definition of a historic match for Dragongate, one of their only 5-star matches, and I think it’s the perfect match to get a taste of old Dragongate. All these guys are awesome straight away within the first five minutes of the bell, they’re all so unbelievably fast, and at the beginning I immediately love Masato Yoshino, he’s great throughout the match, but his best parts are at the start, very great rope runner like Takeshita nowadays and some truly amazing skills with strikes and maneuvers, a true spectacle to begin this 6 man tag with.
This was also my introduction to Dragon Kid, a wrestler I’m very fond of now, current DG Open The Triangle Gate champion (as of October 7th) and during this match he is pulling out all the fancy moves you can name, very nice to see in ‘06, shows that the speed and flips has been going for decades, and to be honest Dragon Kid has got to be one of the “flippiest” wrestlers I’ve ever seen, and I utterly love it.
Genuinely some of the best wrestling moves I’ve ever seen took place in this match, in terms of realism and quality, like the rolling fisherman busters from Saito, which I was in awe of, the axe-handles, sentons and corner somersaults from CIMA, I had no idea how good this guy makes simple moves look. This match featured some of the literal best tag team maneuvers I’ve ever seen in a wrestling ring littered throughout all of this match, like the triple-flip dropkick, who even thought of that.
To me, this is true tag team wrestling, teamwork displayed at its finest, top-notch competition all around. Dragongate Rules are the best type for team matches, where anybody can tag in at anytime without any physical tag, as long as the other man exits, I think it keeps the fast-paced action going without the need for hot tags, but the hot tag can still be utilized if the performers want it. Dragon Kid heading up top to perform the electric chair top rope hurricanrana has to be one of the greatest spots I’ve seen in all of wrestling too, I was in genuine awe from it.
Literally all of that match I found myself gasping and had my mouth open for a good few moments, it was very nice to see Dragon Kid get the pin too, he truly displayed himself perfectly and got the focus for a lot of the match, what a good springboard finish and all around what an absolutely incredible performance, these guys really know how to put on a match and make a crowd pop to such a loud level from just quality wrestling and a bit of basic crowd work. I had to watch it again because I was dumbfounded, and I want to watch every single other guy in matches, singles and tags again. The match led me to go and find the Doi vs Danielson match and a bunch of CIMA and Dragon Kid matches, also Yoshino was awesome, and I know Saito is still going, I’ve seen him perform in GLEAT, and every single person in this match got put on a pedestal, nobody left this match weaker than when they came in to it, and the Ring of Honor crowd lapped up every second of action.
What an absolutely wonderful and awe-inspiring match, I have so much to say about what went down and how I believe it to be one of the greatest matches ever, but I can’t get it all out, this is what professional wrestling was meant to be, something easily digestible, something fun but something dare-devilish, something which has such high quality basics that the entire match is a masterclass in technique and that style of wrestling, and honestly I could say this match is one that represents the reason why I love wrestling.
Kana and Io Shirai vs Ayumi Kurihara and Yoshiko Tamura – NEO Summer Stampede 2010
I feel this match is one which really shows off how violent Kana is, a comment from Reddit really sums up this match “there’s stuff, and then there’s attempted murder”.
I consider Kana one of the best wrestlers for the way that I view wrestling, and I think I will have to write a separate article on her and my opinions on her. Poor Ayumi’s knee, that’s the basis behind this match, it’s quite literally the perfect example of working a limb in wrestling, by the end her knee was no longer with us. Kana could not let that leg live, couldn’t let it heal or breathe at all, Ayumi did a dive in the first few minutes, and it slammed into the floors of Korakuen Hall, and you could see the amount of pain Ayumi was in from it.
Then it was just down to Kana, she literally had it in submissions the entire match for such long periods of time and Io would join in with kicks and elbows on the knee as well, and I winced every second of it. Yoshiko could do nothing to stop it, struggling to tag in, and when Yoshiko did finally manage to get in, that was Ayumi’s only solace to try to get the knee some rest, then hobbling around it was quite funny but also messed up to see.
This match highlights the violence of Kana in a way I think is perfect to explain, as though it’s similar to her matches with Meiko and Arisa, this feels entirely real, like the knee injury was a mistake that Kana wanted to then make the whole center of the match.
Shirai is in this match too, but she plays a supportive role to Kana, adding in her usual offense and flying flow, with one missed cartwheel dropkick which took away from the realism and made me laugh a little, a good reminder of the fact we’re watching wrestling.
Kana and Yoshiko’s kick punch and back fist battle was awesome, striking and satisfying fighting between both of them – and then somehow with the will of an undefeated, forever driven competitor, Ayumi tags herself back in, and straight away her leg is being murdered again.
Despite all of the torture against it, she powers through, shifting weight off it and managed to drop Io solidly on her neck with multiple different suplexes to win the match for her and Yoshiko despite all that she went through. Literally incredible for her to get through that knee injury, madness of a match, showcasing all 4 competitors in such a light that they could all come away with a higher stock.
Once again, a big thank you to all who read this article, and I hope to see you all again soon! I appreciate you all for reading my reviews of these matches, these are truly the matches I find are the most spectacular or ideal performances I’ve ever seen, and definitively explain my taste in wrestling. Expect some more reviews coming soon, and stay tuned for next month’s watch list!
Let me know on Twitter/X (@BCubePuro) about any other wrestling matches, albums, movies or games you’d like me to write about next! See you later!
About Author
