Ibushi needs to stop putting off surgery, yesterday.
A review of the match, from Cagematch (for what it’s worth):
[0.0] “If you are reading this years from now as someone who wants to check out some of the worst rated matches on this site out of perverse curiosity or for a cheap laugh, you have been warned in advance that there was nothing remotely curious nor funny about this. Whoever booked this should be blackballed from wrestling, and any doctor that cleared Kota Ibushi should lose their medical license. He came into this match with a broken ankle, broken hand, and not fully healed shoulder, all because he has refused surgery for two years straight. Despite this, NOAH decided to bring him in for a 33 minute main event on their biggest show of the year. Ibushi was visibly in a ton of pain with every step he took, and he only made it worse by breaking his other ankle halfway through. And even then, the ref refused to stop the match. Ibushi couldn’t do anything, and I mean anything, except occasionally use kicks and forearms. This is a guy who once almost retired because he “only” had a good title match, and here he looked like he was about to quit from pain and despair. Poor Marufuji looked like he would rather be anywhere else. I am appalled and disgusted that this match was greenlit by a company that should have no shortage of medical resources and standard practices. Those in charge of NOAH have no concern for the welfare of those who wrestle under their banner. Shame on them.”
He came into this match with a broken ankle, broken hand, and not fully healed shoulder […] and he only made it worse by breaking his other ankle halfway through.
What in the actual fuck?!
Ibushi, Marafuji, NOAH, no one smart was involved in this fucking decision.
Ibushi’s comments before this match sounded insane but not out of line with what people like Kenny have said before, while putting on barnstormers. It wasn’t clear just how much Kota really was underselling the amount of damage he was hiding.
What a waste of a once-in-a-lifetime matchup.
I hope Kenny can sit Ibushi down and smack some sense into him about getting damn surgery and fixing up his problems. He went from putting on bangers against Speedball in GCW to an absolute embarrassment of a main event for NOAH in…*checks* fucking hell literally 9 months lol.
Man that’s a sobering number isn’t it.
Took 9 months to make him, and 9 months to destroy him.
Painful to watch. Can’t imagine the pain he’s in.
I hope this is a wake up call to him that he needs to get surgery and take time off. Ibushi has incredible talent but obviously he’s not the same injured.
Damn, that’s rough to watch. What’s his issue with getting surgery?
Ibushi is a world class athlete. He’s put on performances that most wrestlers dream of. The man has worked in numerous companies, been champion, enough good things cannot be said about Kota Ibushi.
But I cannot stress hard enough that Ibushi is really, really, realllllly fucking dumb. Like, Mayu Iwatani is known to be a klutz, Meng is known to be able to kill you if he wants to, and Kota Ibushi is known for being real damned dumb rofl.
lmao that’s nuts. But even stupid people know to get surgery. Im wondering if he’s afraid or something…
I’m only halfway through the NOAH New Year card at the moment (ZSJ just entered the ring) but so far the first half has been pretty decent.
I’d say the issue here is more on Ibushi than NOAH tbh, the guy is absolutely bonkers. His GCW debut match included him almost murdering himself with a dive onto a table.
You aren’t wrong lol Ibushi is a nut, but NOAH isn’t out of the blame game. Any and every pro wrestling promotion (especially one of NOAH’s size) is supposed to have a medical team clearing people to wrestle just like anywhere else. The fact that they either don’t, do and didn’t check him out properly, or do and didn’t give enough of a shit cause Ibushi went ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ is a big fuck up. Legit went into the ring with a broken ankle.
Oh I agree that NOAH aren’t blameless, but it was probably a case of Ibushi being like “I can do this, I’m like 90% healthy!” and them thinking that the 10% is like bruised ribs or ring rust or something, and not a broken fucking ankle.
He was on an AEW show in November, was he as banged up then? I only really remember him doing that ridiculous bicycle spot, cycling really slowly around the ring with a pipe in his hand.
Technically yeah? I mean his shoulder injury still isn’t really healed as far as I know, since hes refused surgery for it and most (all?) of the matches hes worked lately have been multiman I think. Whether he had his other problems them, no idea.
