A seasonal treat, downloaded off the DVDVR boards, with the big title match that I've been looking forward to. That comes last, though. To the undercard.
Opener is a two minute affair, involving a wrestling bird-man. The three way with MEN's, Shinobu and Hiugaji is similarly light-hearted fare, with MEN's not allowing a mere professional wrestling match stop him from catching up with his reading. Amusing finish as MEN's sets up Shinobu's shooting star miles out of range, goads him into trying it, and beats both opponents in the process. I won't say anymore, because it might spoil to joke for you. Kesen Numajiro and Jinsei Shinzaki square off in a battle of two M-Pro veterans which I assume has no reason or back story. Pretty simple match, both from story and offence, neither offensive nor memorable.
Kagetora, Rasse and Shinjitsu Nohashi vs. Takeshi Minamino, ken45° & Maguro Ooma is a rematch from the September taping. I liked this a little more than that one - more coherent and felt less like just a series of moves. This match is still a series of moves, but one that I felt I could follow. Fun enough. Kagetora looked good here.
The semi-final is the Final Decisive Great Space War, which is a real thing. This is the big silly Sasuke match. There's loads of Japanese culture reference stuff that I'm sure I don't get. What I do understand is comedy brawling, which was entertaining, and Sasuke - dressed as Batman - attempting to kill himself with somersault senton onto the top of a barrel and cartwheel dives to the apron from the top. Robin wins with a cross body that could be optimistically described as untidy. This was a joy, of absurb proportions.
The main event is the title match between champion Yoshitsune and Fujita "Jr." Hayato. Going in to this, I have high expectations. I like flyers versus mat wrestler juniors matches. Actually, this is the opposite of the usual sort of match between these two styles - flyer Yoshitsune is in control for a lot of this, and the striker use his offence to launch short counter attacks.
Yoshitsune, as well as being an incredible, breath-taking flyer, does two things in this match that makes him stand out. Firstly, his flashy offence looks full of hurting. Secondly, he uses it to focus on a particular body part, and thus makes it mean something. So, we get standing moonsault knee drop, the double foot stomp from the balcony and the tilt-a whirl stomach buster, which were all wince-inducing.
Hayato is all about surviving this offence and looking for a knockout strike, which were generally and unsurprisingly Battlarts stiff. The hard-hitting nature of this match is all the more surprising given the setting. Add in some crazy spots - the german suplex escape on the apron was particularly impressive - and some really great selling, especially from Hayato, and you have a match that will definitely feature high on mine, and I'm sure many others, year end lists.
A really fun show, with a great main event. Feel free to watch also, and share this opinion.
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Agreed on the main especially, really good match, although I honestly didn't have many expectations for it, I haven't seen enough of Hayato to have had a good judgment going in and I expected Yoshitsune to be...well, himself. Instead, he was focused and like you said, his flashy stuff was pinpointed on wrecking Fujita's stomach.
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