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!
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