Daisuke Sekimoto & Yuji Okabayashi vs. Shuji Ishikawa & Kohei Sato (BJW, 5/28/15)

Time limit draws can be tiresome. The pacing can be off, there's often a lot of needless filler to eat up minutes and the action can feel subdued. Not here though. All four guys put their bodies through hell and back for the duration of the match. Uber-stiff and brutal at times, it was well-paced and organic, sometimes feeling a little too real, as both Sato and Okabayashi get busted open the hard way. Things got a little chaotic and messy at times, but it never got out of control and they always reeled the action back in. I liked the early struggle by Sato with the cross armbreaker and Sekimoto trying to power out to his feet, forcing Sato to re-think his strategy and attack the leg. 

Okabayashi was a beast in this and the strike exchanges between he, Sato and Ishikawa were nuts -- those Sato elbow shots were especially nasty. There's one point in particular where Okabayashi blocks Ishikawa's headbutt with his hand and then nearly lariats him out of his boot. But Ishikawa would exact his revenge toward the end of the match hitting one of the gnarliest headbutts on Okabayashi I've seen. 

Sekimoto did a great job selling the beat down Twin Towers issued out. No matter how hard he fought back, they kept swatting him back down. At one point, they block his double lariat attempt and pound him with stereo headbutts. There's two different lay out spots with all four men but they didn't necessarily feel shoehorned it, more like a steady build toward the bomb fests. By end of this thing, Sato and Okabayashi are on wobbly knees slugging it out in desperation. Okabayashi hits one final powerful lariat, trying in vain to get the pin over and over again before the time limit expires. What a tag team match and a modern strong style classic! 

Virus vs. Hechicero (Lucha Memes, 5/15/16)

Silky smooth matwork and transitions, with such fluidity to the reversals and counters. One of my favorite moments of the match, which may seem minor, was the way Virus maintained arm control even when Hechicero was kipping up to his feet in an escape attempt. The progression from the grappling to the striking to some of the bigger spots, like Hechicero’s Muscle Buster or the great rope-hung dropkick, felt natural, building to a finish that brought the match back to its roots. The hammerlock counter into the submission finish was a pretty awesome display of power from Hechicero. As a largely non-lucha guy, this is the engaging kind of match I can get behind. Some of those 2-out-of-3 falls matches can feel little disjointed and take away from the momentum and build. 

Daisuke Sasaki vs. Yukio Sakaguchi (5/8/16)

Daisuke Sasaki is one of the smarter indie workers in Japan and a personal favorite of mine. A few hiccups aside, this was a pretty good match with some little things from Sasaki that added to the narrative. Yukio with zero respect for Sasaki in this. There's some cat-like action to start with Yuji swinging for the fences with his kicks. He wants this on the ground and Sasaki does his best to try and stay on top. Sasaki goes in with this defensive stance and in a great moment, Yukio tries to take off his arm with a kick and then promptly knees the fuck out of him. Sasaki works the underdog role against Yukio's ground-and-pound shoot-style approach. Yukio drapes him in the corner for the running knee but Sasaki smartly slips out to the apron and catches him with a dragon screw legwhip into the ropes. When they do that spot again, it's in a way that makes sense. There's a couple of nonsensical set-ups and stalling in this but nothing too offensive. Yukio's strikes look really solid and impactful in that snappy Shibata-like way. When he's got Sasaki in the choke sleeper, he smartly traps the arm and forces him to use a foot for the rope break. 

Sasaki's good at stringing together his offense in a realistic way. For example, Sasaki comes back with a dragon suplex, a superkick and fisherman driver for two before quickly transitioning into the crossface hold, not giving Yukio a moment's relief. Some great selling from Sasaki as well, especially when Yukio is blasting him with knees. There's a little bit of tomfoolery leading to the finish as Sasaki tricks Yukio into kicking the ref before hitting a deliberate low blow and a diving elbow drop, only to realize the ref is still down. A funny moment but one that made sense for the match, as Sasaki seemed like he was in danger of losing his title and desperation set in.  He then goes on to hit a beautiful dropkick, a top rope Pedigree and the super indy Vietnam Driver II for the win. Fun stuff!

Daisuke Sekimoto vs. Shuji Ishikawa (BJW, 3/31/15)

Good Lord, this match. I never had a chance to view this last year for whatever reason but wow, what a manly modern spectacle. Sloppy at times and a wee bit overkill, it wasn't the elusive "perfect match" but it felt perfectly organic and brutal. I mean, everything looked brutal in execution. And it has one of the best false finishes in recent memory. Sekimoto is the yoked workhorse who won't lay down for the champ. Great heart and energy, great selling for the most part, especially in the facials. He wrestles with this sense of urgency throughout. I loved the early suicide dive after Ishikawa gets extra saucy with his elbow shots. And Ishikawa is such a great super bully champ in this, constantly cutting Sekimoto off at every opportunity and just laying into him fully with everything in his arsenal. The full nelson ring post smash was nuts and I genuinely felt bad for Sekimoto's head and neck as Ishikawa went took him to Murder Town. At one point, Ishikawa's got him in a full nelson lock, and Sekimoto is screaming and powering his way out and Ishikawa headbutts any hope he had of escaping to hell. 

One minor grievance: Sekimoto's Scorpion Deathlock looks like shit and it always seems to come out of nowhere. There's no logistical build to it. Anyway, he has such a great crab hold that looks way more devastating and makes sense for his style of offense. The final stretch of this thing was pretty epic. After Ishikawa goes on a mini-run after kiboshing another Sekimoto comeback, Sekimoto clobbers him with a lariat counter to the running knee, They trade suplexes, clash lariats, and then Sekimoto pulls away with his meat cleaver chops, a gamengiri, a lariat, and a big deadlift German suplex hold for HUGE nearfall. The crowd is fully invested at this point, Ishikawa's mouth is bloody, Sekimoto can't believe it. We get the dying breath of the great champ here, as Ishikawa pulls out every brain-scrambling move in the book and still can't beat Sekimoto. In a great moment during the final slapoff, Ishikawa unleashes a flurry of slaps and the only way Sekimoto can stop him is to just punch him in the face. Ishikawa gets a last gasp one count after a lariat, but a second lariat and a deadlift German suplex hold are too much. Doesn't get much better than this when it comes to modern strong style. 

Daisuke Sekimoto vs. Ryuichi Kawakami (BJW, 6/30/13)

This is what I wanted out of this match. Kawakami is this hyperviolent ball of spitfire and Sekimoto works in this sort of frustrated energy with his facials, the way he looks at the ref, some of his offense choices, like switching from the crab to the STF and the snake eyes into the German suplex. He also really sells well for Kawakami's offense, which gets epic in his last gasp run. I really like the way they open with the aggressive, almost frantic back-and-forth grappling. Kawasaki more than held his own in the slugfests with Sekimoto. His elbows looked brutal and Sekimoto sold them in a staggering way. They play human bumper cars awhile and Sekimoto unleashes these cleaving chops but when he tries for the gamegiri, Kawakami blocks it and unleashes hell on him with suplexes and a gnarly snap Emerald Fushion for a nearfall. Kawakami doesn't know what else to do and in their final elbow battle, he's able to stun him with a shot but Sekimoto hits this massive reaction lariat! Even in his final death throes, Kawasaki shows this sense of desperation as he so close to the ropes as Sekimoto is deadlifting him...yet, too far. Awesome stuff! 

KUSHIDA vs. Jushin Liger (5/3/16)

For the most part, I really liked this match and the callbacks to their recent tag team matches. Liger's still so good at what he does and it was great seeing him show off a little in the beginning with the stretches. KUSHIDA switched on arm killer mode early on and it played a significant role building to the finish, thanks to Liger's selling. There was great continuity as KUSHIDA sold the leg damage on the tilt-a-whirl landing and for the most part, kept it up throughout. Liger's such a rudo leg bully, bashing it against the guardrail and ringpost, then hitting a fucking brainbuster onto the explored floor before waiting for the count out back in the ring. I liked the dramatic trip up by KUSHIDA at 19. Some of KUSHIDA's mid-match glitz felt shoehorned in but it was brief and they went back the story after Liger countered the moonsault and cinched in his own Hoverboard Lock, although the Liger armwork wasn't as compelling as the legwork. I liked when he grapevined the ankle lock to prevent KUSHIDA's escape and a desperate KUSHIDA grabs onto Liger to try and break up the hold. The last leg felt somewhat rushed at times. After a big Liger nearfall off the brainbuster, KUSHIDA hits the rolling elbow and gets in the Hoverboard Lock for the submission victory. Really good juniors match and probably second to Lee/Kamaitachi's NJPW match, although that's a different beast entirely.