Michinoku Pro: 5th September 2009

All I have from this show, at present, is the main event, but as I tend to enjoy Michinoku Pro undercards without feeling the need to over analyse them, it's not that much of a problem.

So, this is a Tohoku Jr. Title match between champion Fujita 'Jr' Hayato and challenger Ou Kobushi. Kobushi returned at the last TV show, and now he gets a title match. I don't know him, but a little research reveals he debuted in 2008 in openers, so as this is a return match after a lengthy absence, this would be consider a mega-push by any standards.

In the Sasuke match in June, Fujita is the secondary character to Sasuke's broken down ageing junior attempting to compete with the new generation story. This match, however, is all Fujita's. After the inital water-testing exchanges, the first ten minutes of this have Kobushi looking strong, and this is made by Hayato's selling. It's not delayed, first-I'll-fight-back junior type selling either - it's each strike is carving in my chest, this hurts type selling, right from the beginning. I loved the distance he attempted to put between them in the first half, especially where after being rolled back in the ring, he rolls straight out the other side. It really helps the pacing and impact of a strike based match if they can be spread out. I never got the feeling of becoming desensitized to striking during this match.

The second half starts with one short comeback. Pleasingly, the early damage remains a constant, even during the brief moments of quick activity. By dropping, fatigued and clutching the chest after a series of kicks or rope running, these feel like desperations spots, and unlike the thousands of other times this is said, genuinely conveyed a story of fighting through the pain (the secret, it turns out, is actually demonstrating the "pain" part, as well as the "fighting" part). There's a point, nearer the end, where Hayato seems to say "enough". He has a great pissed-off face, swings a kick and invites Kobushi to kick back. Often when these exchanges are done, it seems contrived - here it seems designed to remind the audience who the champion is, and is used as an actual turning point in momentum, rather than an exhibition of stiffness. Each strike is sold, which again distinguishes it from lots of these types of spots.

I loved the final run of Fujita offence. I don't want to undersell the fact that I thought Kobushi more the decent throughout, and this is demonstrated best in the finish. He eats a load of nasty offence, and sells the damage like he's done, which makes his kick out of the knee strike impressive. Often, in junior type matches, a finisher kickout is ignored by the guy on offense, who will just go for another move, and another, until something else happens. Fujita looks genuinely aggrieved and disbelieving that he didn't win. The knockout finish, given the match, was really appropriate - the first head kick was brutal, and basically won the match - Fujita staggering, knocked loopy sell tells that story, and Ou looks, in that moment, ever inch champion-elect. The follow-up roundhouse served merely to finalise it.

It many ways, this is a very simple match. The movesets are stripped down to just to most effective weapons - the kicks, stomps, submissions and a couple of suplexes. For a strike-based match, each strike or series of strikes felt important, rather than filler. The ways they are used tell a strong story, and the individual performances, particularly (but not only) the selling of damage, give credence to that story. I am sorely tempted to call this my match of the year. I can think of no other match in 2009 which is so viscerally impressive, yet so smartly worked and excellently performed.