Kota Ibushi vs. Davey Richards. A possible "Match of the Year" candidate?

On April 8th %26amp; April 13th, the Boston area will be flooded with wrestling from, TNA %26amp; WWE, but in the middle on April 11th, Ring of Honor will be putting on a show with what could easily be "Match of the Year".





Davey Richards: This up-and-comer on the independant scene may still be pretty new, but he's already seen great success. He's won tournaments in ECWA %26amp; PWG, and has won championships in 5 federations. Highlights of his career so far include having show-stealing matches with the likes of CIMA, KENTA, %26amp; Roderick Strong. ( http://youtube.com/watch?v=N-8s92qgD_c%26amp;f... )





Kota Ibushi: This Japanese Jr. Heavyweight was a virtual nobody from the DDT promotion, untill he was brought in for a tag-team tournament in NOAH last summer. He (with his partner Marufuji), faced-off against KENTA %26amp; Ishimori, in a match that some say deserved the "match of the year" award for 2007. ( http://youtube.com/watch?v=Z2RtIN63SU0 )





So, in Boston, on April 11th, these two up-and-comers collide. Do you think they could put on a “Match of the Year”?

Kota Ibushi vs. Davey Richards. A possible "Match of the Year" candidate?
I'm not familiar enough with either man to give a real opinion, so I wont take up too much space.





I've seen little of Richards, but what little I have seen, I've liked. My only problem is (and Richards' problem for that matter) that he's just too generic for his own good. Sure, he's got some good moves, but there are better recognized stars out there, like the men you mentioned; Strong, KENTA, and CIMA. Davey's always been the Jannetty of those tag teams, the lesser recognized face, and if any tag team pairing was meant to put him over, it failed in my eyes. I know this sounds kind of superficial, but even for indie smarks, I think this match will go down in the annuls of this year without being remembered 3 months from now simply because it's not tied into a pair of recognizable faces. Sure, Davey's been loyal to ROH, but he's never made that big breakthrough, and therefore he doesn't have much of a loyal following.





Same goes with this Kota character. He's just another face from Japan that ROH flew in for kicks and giggles. Once again, people claim he deserved MotY last year, and once again, I'd deduce he didn't get it because he's not a recognizable face, even within the indie smark circles.





I just sense, even with the appreciation of "good wrestling" in ROH, that this match will go down as an undercard footnote due to people's ambiguous feelings towards either man. It's also left to question how well they'll work with one another.