Daisuke Sekimoto vs. Hideki Suzuki (BJW, 3/5/17)

Hideki Suzuki rocking the purple for his big title match. I love Hideki Suzuki. He's one of the most engaging wrestlers to watch in the ring but works in such a cool-headed, almost nonchalant way, reserving most of his energy to unleash these micro-explosions of offense throughout. There's very little downtime with Suzuki and his spontaneity is incredible as he's quick to take advantage of an open door. The small package on a doubled over Sekimoto, the sleeper hold off the pin attempt, and kneeing Sekimoto off when he tries to cover him. Because Suzuki's such a maestro on the mat, I think I underrated him as a striker but he throws great strikes -- some of the best snap elbows and I love the way he lays into his uppercuts.

This story was technique vs. power, with the hyper-alert challenger taking the powerhouse champ a few clicks past empty. Suzuki immediately sells Sekimoto's strength in their first lock-up but he's able to shows off his ring smarts early on with some take downs and ground control, leaving Sekimoto huffing. When he tries to strike with Sekimoto, it backfires and Suzuki aborts by belly-to-bellying the wild Sekimoto over the top rope. Suzuki chills a minute and then sinks Sekimoto with an elbow on the outside. They do a really good job of teasing Suzuki's suplexes, whether its the double arm or the dragon suplex, and when he tries for the first, Sekimoto counters with a side suplex.The match loses a little bit of steam when Sekimoto takes over on offense but he's still as intense as always and heats up to a double suplex of his own. There's some great counter sequences and ultimately Suzuki comes back out on top and starts targeting Sekimoto's head and neck, drilling him with a scoop piledriver and some nasty deadshot elbows.

This became a war of attrition as they empty bombshells and slug away at each other in exhaustion. This is where Suzuki's energy reserve comes into play as he tries to capitalize on Sekimoto's lack thereof. He's finally able to deliver the dragon suplex but it's not enough to put the champ away. Sekimoto collapses into Suzuki with a lariat for two and hits a sitout powerbomb for another nearfall. Suzuki's selling when he's getting rocked with Sekimoto's beefy elbows was great and he's able to come back with some brutal strikes of his own. In the end, they're both so drained, they don't even have the energy to effectively execute their respective finishers. Maybe this wasn't the match I was hoping for but it became a match I really enjoyed. There wasn't a particularly loud crowd but that's been the trend with these BJW Strong Heavyweight title matches. I won't be shocked if Sekimoto retains in their rematch but Suzuki came away looking like a true badass.