Osamu Nishimura vs. Hiro Saito (MUGA World, 8/2/06)

Osamu Nishimura is someone who deserves a lot more love. In our modern energy drink-fueled world, I can understand why a guy like Nishimura can't quite capture the short attention spans of the "more is more" pro-wrestling fanbase. He's so detail-orientated and methodical that if you aren't paying close enough attention, you'll miss out on some of the more clever nuances. Same thing with a guy like Hideki Suzuki, who gives every little movement meaning. Nishimura is a fantastic conveyor of struggle and exhaustion and I think against a bruiser like Hiro Saito, it works so well. Saito immediately wants to get Osamu out of the ring and onto his chair-swinging thug level but this is MUGA World, Hiro. Saito's armwork is real grunty and he uses his head and knee to exert more pressure on Osamu. The standing surfboard escape sequence was fun and when Osamu's finally able to reverse it, Saito just walks over into the ropes to break the hold. Osamu's alternating side headlock wrenches are great and he makes really smart use of the Irish whip to get Saito back into the headlock.

Saito starts working over Osamu's neck, often using the ropes a lot to guillotine him, but when he tries for a piledriver, Osamu uses a back bodydrop hold to try and pin Saito down. Osamu goes after the leg with some awesome elbow strikes to the knee and the final few minutes of the match see him cranking away on Saito, using a sickle hold and these cool falling elbow strikes to Saito's knee. Saito's in the moment selling was really good here. After Nishimura misses a diving knee drop, Saito delivers a German suplex hold but the injured leg gives out so he delivers a second German and is able to maintain the bridge for the three count. A cool finish that came out of nowhere. This was definitely a "less is more" type match but the crowd was into it and it's definitely worth checking out.