Scott E.’s match review series features some of the best matches in the world of pro wrestling, highlighting why they are worth going out of your way to see them. The latest edition is looking at the match between Hiromu Takahashi and YOH for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship.
The Feb. 4-5 weekend will go down as one of the best this year in all of pro wrestling in 2023. There was at least one great match per show in Japan it feels like with many of them having a match that exceeded expectations. That can be said about the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship match between the champion, Hiromu Takahashi, and the challenger, YOH. Truthfully, it was the match of the weekend that exceeded expectations the most, and much of the credit goes to the man who many have doubted time and time again — YOH.
This was the match of his career. “Direct Drive” had been trying to find himself as a singles wrestler for years now after the breakup of Roppongi 3K with SHO turning his back on his former partner. There have been flashes of YOH shining in the singles role but more times than not, he failed to have that breakout performance and many were left wondering if he had it in him. The closest he’s come as a singles competitor was in the finals of the Best of the Super Juniors in 2021, but that match was tainted by the interference of, you guessed it, SHO. It’s also worth noting that match also came against “The Ticking Timebomb” himself, whose performance in this match was almost just as much of a standout as YOH’s.
As someone who has been a fan of Takahashi in the past, I’m willing to say that his multiple injuries have led him to be stagnant more than anything else. He’s had a handful of great matches over the past few years, but few to the level that he was having before that neck injury long ago. Here was his shot for a wake-up call and he certainly answered it.
What YOH showed in this match followed much of what I believed would happen after he teamed up with Lio Rush and that was he’d find a newly added confidence. Not only did that happen, but he has a charisma to him that was non-existent for most of his singles run. The charisma equaled confidence, making the match’s focus turn from the popular champion to YOH.
Attacking the leg of Takahashi paid off for “Direct Drive” himself, as it allowed YOH to keep focused with countless, nasty Dragon Screws and would catch Takahashi slipping more times than not. But the Los Ingobernables de Japon member never fell off, even if the breakdown of his leg was beginning to take a toll on him as the match got later and later. YOH’s momentum was only going to be topped for Takahashi with a championship performance but also catching YOH if he were to slip up.
The slip-up and being caught by Takahashi would be costly for the challenger, but it’d be wrong to ignore how those closing five minutes went for him. The Sapporo crowd wanted to see YOH win and finally get that moment he has been chasing for years. To become the first of the Roppongi 3K duo to win singles gold. His Superkicks were better than ever, his reversals were able to bring Takahashi to the limit, but he was still on Direct Drive (Double Underhook Brainbuster) away from getting that victory. Sadly for him, he never got it on the champion. But we will walk away from this match agreeing that YOH has what it takes to be IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion and someday he will achieve that. The moment will be special.
YOH left it all out there and these two brought the best out of one another just as any main event title match should.
If I went into this unspoiled, this match might have been even better. And if YOH achieved the moment and defeated Takahashi, this might have been my new match of the year.
Until then, this instead will go down as a match that could very well change the trajectory of his career while it got Hiromu back to the level we have long missed from him as his fifth reign with the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship is off to a hot start.
Scott E’s Rating: ****½
WHERE TO WATCH: NJPW World
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