Michinoku Pro: 29th April 1994

This is a commercial tape which just has the second Shinzaki vs. Great Sasuke match. The first half an hour has a bunch of clips focusing on Shinzaki, bits from previous matches, bit of him being a monk in a monk place, some training. It would be fair to say that this is really all about Shinzaki - more on that at the end. Anyway, big match feel is inevitable.

Sasuke's entrance music is the greatest music I have no idea the words for yet still sing along to in a borderline-racist way. The match starts off great, Sasuke attacking with both men still wearing their robes, eventually diving off the top in a weird half somersault, half headfirst dive which could have gone very wrong. It settles down from there, with a nice little mat section. I liked Sasuke's perserverance taking Shinzaki with his arm, fighting to maintain position, kicking Shinzaki's legs from under him as he tried to get up. After Shinzaki outpowers Sasuke and takes control for a bit, Sasuke resets and that's when this really gets going. He half-catching him with a couple of SPIN FLY KICK's, but follows up with a long series of nasty kicks to the head and the face. The dynamic then completely changes, with Shinzaki on the back foot and Sasuke unleashing his entire arsenal. I liked all the nearfalls, each move visibly took its toll on both men. Nearing the end, Sasuke manages two space flying tiger drops, but on the second one Shinzaki catches him on the way and turns it into a powerbomb. This scored an impressive 0.8 on the Sasuke scale of skulldeath, which was followed by a Vader-Cactus like powerbomb on the outside. Completely nuts.

Shinzaki gets in a few highspots (including a praying quebrada) but the match was pretty much done after the two powerbombs, giving this a definitive and satisfying ending. The slightly odd thing about this match is the story. Shinzaki is the all-conquering heavyweight of the promotion, yet Sasuke is more than his equal here, and not just through risk taking - he's faster, better on the mat and more violent in striking. This nearly pushes Shinzaki into an underdog role by the end.

Still, I thought this was really great - the oddness in the story of the match isn't a bad thing, just a curiousity. I mean, I completely get the story of the match, it's just not perhaps what you would expect - it didn't have the stop-start awkwardness of the first match, great highspots, really good selling from both guys. 2010 juniors should imitate this match structure a lot more, instead of all this your-turn my-turn stuff.