Hideki Suzuki vs. Takuya Nomura (BJW, 4/10/17)

This is the master Hideki Suzuki at work, the teacher schooling the student. In the past, the Suzuki/Nomura matches played out like sparring sessions but this was the most "shoot-style" of the series. It was a glorious squash as Suzuki is all over Nomura like white on bread and Nomura is outmatched in about everything but his kicks, which he doesn't really get the chance to show off. Suzuki was in dominant, no shits given champ mode, grinding his taped wrists across Nomura's face, getting heat from the crowd for covering Nomura's mouth with his hand or teasing a straight choke. When Nomura cries out, it sounds legitimate as Suzuki bends and twists him to his will. There's a great spot where Suzuki hooks Nomura's leg in order to pry him open from his defensive position to apply a choke sleeper. When he rolls Nomura up for a two count, he catches the leg Nomura kicked out with and immediately starts manipulating it. There's no choreographed fluidity to it. Each hold looks like it's a struggle to apply.

They did a really good job of getting the crowd invested in the matwork, with the fans hopeful Nomura can get something on Suzuki.  When nearly gets a cross armbreaker on him but Suzuki uses his head to break it and spoil the crowd's anticipation. Finally, Nomura starts laying in with the kicks but the smart champ gets to a corner, then drops down to the mat to bait him in. Nomura starts kicking at Suzuki on the mat and in a nice little callback, tries and misses with that leaping double stomp. At one point near the end, Suzuki eases up on Nomura and as they fight over a leglock, he tells Nomura to fight harder. Suzuki finally ends the suffering, taking him down with the double wristlock and submitting him. I loved this. I probably enjoyed this more than most based on who was involved in the match but it felt authentic and it's fun to see a dominant Suzuki shooting on his baby-faced student.