Hideki Suzuki & Yoshihisa Uto vs. Ryuichi Kawakami & Kazumi Kikuta (BJW, 6/28/17)

Now, this is how you build to a title defense. This was a really good K-Hall tag match with great transitions and plenty of heat between Suzuki and Kawakami. Suzuki really wants Kawakami early on but Kawakami feeds him Kikuta instead. Since Kikuta's changed up his ring gear, he's really been impressing me with his ability to take a beating...I mean, Suzuki's clawing his face, slapping and kicking at him. He elbows the arm to set-up the armwork section for Uto and Uto fills in the black for a bit before Kawakami comes in, suplexes him onto his knee, and kicks him over to Suzuki. Hideki comes in suplexing and when he puts on the octopus hold, he really sells the effort to apply it, first grinding his elbow into the spine to get the arm, then manipulating the wrist to be able to trap it. In the details, man.

 Kawakami kicks Suzuki in the grill and then starts in with some hardass chops. Suzuki tries to block them so Kawakami starts punching him instead! Loved the elbow exchange -- some real hard shots from both guys. Suzuki manages to hit a Robinson-style backbreaker...and then just clubs Kawakami out of frustration before collapsing. Kikuta gets to shine a little bit against Suzuki in the end but Suzuki shuts him down, hitting the scoop tombstone and then that awesome falling elbow strike. In a great moment, Kawakami hits the big elbow on Suzuki and wants the tag from Kikuta to finish off the champ but Suzuki cuts off the hot tag, snatching Kikuta in a full nelson, wearing him down before hitting the dragon suplex hold, using it as a submission to finish Kikuta off. I'm loving these suplex hold submissions. Before this match, I was lukewarm on Suzuki/Kawakami at Sumo Hall but I'm all in now. Can't wait!