Ikeda in AJ and later NOAH just doesn’t feel quite right and I can’t put my finger on it. That being said, the action here was good and built to a compelling finish which is nice to see with Ogawa in the mix. I think Ikeda as a tag wrestler was probably the way to best utilize him within these promotions. NR

Interesting matchup here. Ikeda doing a sunset flip is an assault on the senses of this wrestling fan. We get a little under 7 minutes of the match. I like Ogawa as a weaselly and undersized heavyweight so much more than as a junior who can work parity matches. The action is good, but it negates the best parts of his character. (I'd say the same about Ikeda in fact.) What we got didn't inspire me enough to see the rest.

I agree that Ogawa and Ikeda don't match up too well. The match was fine but Ogawa needs bigger opponents and Ikeda needs more ass-kickers as opponents.

 

Regarding Ikeda in NOAH: the best match he had from my memory was a WLW title match against Morishima that was worked pretty un-NOAH-ish. It was worked as a complete sprint and had table spots.

This was joined in progress, which made it difficult to assess. Ogawa was being dominated as usual, but then he won really easy and without cheating. If Ikeda took more damage in the parts we didn't see, the easy win might make more sense.