Big Japan: 26th March 2009

The undercard was pretty vanilla. Abdullah Kobayashi and MASADA vs. Ryuji Ito and Shuji Ishikawa was totally the Abby show - I enjoyed his performance, and thought the match was OK.

The main event is the now-famous lighttube and double board death matches between the team of Miyamoto and Takeshi Sasaki and the team of Takeda and Kodaka. This is the second time watching it, and it is as much of a spectacle second time around as when I watched in it April. The crowd heat by the end is fantastic, and even with a more analytical eye, it is well-merited. First thing that struck me about this match is the precision. Deathmatches can be sloppy, with poor execution disguised behind the weapons and blood. Everything here is crisp and on target, and it adds so much to the overall brutality, especially in the non-weapon spots (Takeda and Kodaka's double drop kick, for instance).

Secondly, you can't underplay how physical this was, and how much Takeda and Kodaka took (especially the latter). Isami is borderline clinically insane - each of the two big bumps (somersault senton to a table on the outside, powerbomb to a ladder landing on his head) alone were crazy, but both together in a twenty minute match is another level entirely. That's his role, and his frame and stature make him perfect for it. He's the most sympathetic of the two and the best seller. Takeda, in contrast, is much more of a fighter - he is on the wrong end of lengthy heat section, but unlike his partner, is able to fight back. The spear into the lighttubes, for example, was a really nice lead in to the (short-lived) hot tag.

Sasaki is just dominant here. I could read excessively into his performance, but he seems like a kingmaker. There's a contempt to the way he regards the young pretenders made richer by his relationship with Miyamoto - someone from the same generation as Kodaka and Takeda who he hand-picked after Yuko proved himself. It is something to see someone draw actual heel heat in Big Japan, but Sasaki manages it here, by a combination of his meaness and their sympatheticness.

Miyamoto takes the most interesting role. As champion he's expected to be more dominant than his earlier days, but what he actually he brings to this match is an essential balancing act - great looking offence (his speed is notable, as are his lariats) but also enough vulnerability to allow the opposing team a credible path to victory. In truth, Sasaki looks too dominant throughout to achieve this. I don't think there is a junior heavyweight in Japan (outside of Battlarts) who is better than Yuko.

The key spots were used well. Aside from the big Isami bumps and Takeda's bumps (I jumped when he was thrown through the middle ropes, shattering four or five lighttubes), the biggest were used by the underdogs to turn the tide, and the match built really well to them. Firstly, the double suplex to Sasaki through the lighttube board was the logical way to stop Sasaki. Secondly, the suplex off the ladder onto Sasaki and the barbed wire board, which eliminated Sasaki and set up a weakened Miyamoto for the loss, came after a nice sequence of Takeda fighting back up the ladder, Sasaki ending the hope spot (drawing boos) and then Isami battling back in to finally set up the big spot. The right ending to a perfectly told underdog battle. Sasaki's disgust at the end is great.

Obviously, watch the main event if you don't watch anything else on this show. Possibly the best deathmatch in two years.