Friday, February 12, 2016

Tomohiro Ishii vs. Katsuyori Shibata (NJPW, 2/11/16)

A macho tale of the thresholds of pain tolerance and how to break them. Maybe not as cringe-inducing as their Wrestle Kingdom 10 match-up but perhaps a more complete round of friendly violence. Shibata mocks the neck chops early on, which leads to an extended forearm battle. The "suplex me" sequence is silly but for this kind of manly competition, it totally works. Shibata chops the spit out of Ishii's throat and he sells like he's about to die -- Ishii was great throughout. Shibata took a sensible approach and tried to choke out/pass out Ishii, which made the finish extra special. The headbutts to the chest were a little easier on the ears but not that final spurt with the Shibata spinning backhand and subsequent slap-the-shit-out-of-each-other battle. The crowd was hot, commentary was vocal, CJ Parker was looking on from ringside. All in all, a great night for a fight. An inch above the WK match.

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