Michinoku Pro: 19th June 2009

I watched this show, which is basically three trios matches and a title match. I have to say that I really liked the Satos tag match. The opening few minutes are a really energetic, borderline-wild brawl, they do two heat section (one on Nohashi, and one on Dick Togo, who gets to resume his role from the last show as a fantastic face-in-peril) before the finisher stretch, which was fine. I enjoy the Sato twin schtick, as I do most of the time that guys in Japan wrestle as actual heels (Yuji Hino is the other example I'd use) The other trios were more or less standard undercard lucharesu stuff - some comedy, dives, lots of moves and little of any real substance.

So to the main event. In the month of June, Sasuke wrestled two serious title matches. Not that Ridiculous Sasuke isn't a lot of fun, but a its nice to see a bit of a change. Both men bring something more to this match that most junior matches (and to be fair, most matches). Hayato "Jr" Fujita is developing into an excellent champion, with his own surly, cocky personality - watch as his stalks around the ring - and a simple but deadly moveset. He's solid on the mat and isn't afraid lay into his strikes. His role here is as the man to be beaten, and because of his strong ground game and striking ability, he requires someone to take the offence to him. Sasuke is the veteran, broken down by years of matches like this and the high-impact style of the 1990s. While he wrestles comedy matches these days, here he looks to recreate the Sasuke of the previous decade and win the title. To beat Hayato, he has to use his big moves and take big chances.

So what we get is a 90s junior in a 40 year-old body. The highspots still come, but they don't flow as fast or as smoothly as they might have done in 1994. There's less stuff in between, except selling fatigue or damage. I've got to say that the selling from both guys here is impeccable - the match lasts 28 minutes, but it doesn't feel like one of those junior matches that go on and on for the sake of creating an epic - the selling of fatigue and cumulative damage paces all the big moves, and makes each one seem like a match-winning opportunity. Neither man hops up to pop the crowd with the sort of fighting-spirit comeback that typify a lot of juniors matches, usually to their detriment.

Sasuke comes up with four legitimately insane high spots - the missed apron dive, the top rope plancha, the rope dropkick to the outside and the no hand top con giro to a pile of chairs (Hayato moved). I think it's through these highspots that the story is built - Sasuke's risk do not all pay off, but when they do, he moves closer to winning. The placing of these four spots allow the momentum to shift back and forth. Hayato remains defensive, waiting for an opportunity when one of these chances backfires to really go for the win. After the missed tope, you get the sense that the momentum has really shifted back to Hayato - Sasuke still fights away, blocking a series of strikes with a desperate arm-trap overhead suplex and pulling out his biggest moves, including the Fire Thunder Bomb, but the champion eventually overcomes this final effort with more strikes and a couple of other bigger moves (a german suplex and a plancha of his own).

Really excellent match, an obvious lock for my top 20 (it's probably a top 5 match right now) - go and watch it now.