Mark Rush vs. Kazuo Takahashi
If you like mat wrangling, then this is the match for you. Mark Rush is a burly individual with an amateur background and for over ten minutes, he and Kazuo Takahashi jockey for leverage on the ground, with Rush using his size to his advantage. Takahashi's focus is the arm and the struggle for armbar is a reoccurring and often compelling theme of the match. There's a couple of slams throughout but this mostly takes place on the ground, and finishes on the ground, as Mark hits a powerslam and taps Takahashi with a nice snug side headlock.
Wayne Shamrock vs. Duane Koslowski
Duane Koslowski is about as Wonder Bread as they come, looking like 1990's Steve Rogers come to life. Wayne is Kenneth is Ken, and he brings a lot of aggression to this match, which I'm okay with. He tries to keep his distance with strikes while Duane looks to sneak in for a suplex. After taking a couple of shots to the head, Duane finally hits an All-American belly-to-belly suplex and tries for a double wristlock on the mat. He's able to bridge out of a choke and they get into a little spat of open hands before Duane belly-to-bellies him once again. At one point, Duane gives Shammy a love tap slap across the face and boy, does Wayne not like it. He soon finishes him off with the Shamrock Special #2 aka the Northern Lights suplex into the leglock. I want to see more Duane Koslowski.
Minoru Suzuki vs. Naoki Sano
SPOILER ALERT: This is a 30:00 minute time limit draw. However, it's one of the best time limit draws I've seen and the pace these two work throughout is incredible. Right from the get-go, they scramble around with the crowd buzzing, trying to get something locked in long enough without getting thrown off. Suzuki keeps going for the armbar but Sano isn't give him an inch. He'll slap at Sano's thigh, trying to break open the armbar, but no dice. I loved Suzuki's slap to the face>fireman's carry takeover into the armbar attempt, and when he tries for the double arm suplex and Sano resists it, he piledrives him instead. The stand-up striking feels very heated at times, and some of the open hands and palms exchanged look/sound real nasty. Exhaustion begins to rear its ugly head about 15-20 minutes in but Suzuki is dead set on getting the armbar. He hits a German suplex on Sano, but Sano is able to snag an arm off the bridge. At one point, Sano has Suzuki in a rear naked choke and Suzuki is slapping himself to stay coherent, it's great. Finally, Suzuki says "enough with the armbar" and grabs a single leg crab, but he can't maintain it and the time limit expires with them fighting over a leglock. High recommendation for this one.
Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Masakatsu Funaki
This wasn't great but it wasn't bad. It was SOLID. They work the mat to start, mostly fighting over leglocks, before Funaki starts in with the smacks and kicks, knocking Fujiwara on his ass. He comes at him with a big flurry of kicks and while Fujiwara's able to a catch a leg, he can't follow up with the leg trip and Funaki ends up taking him back down to the mat. One of the best moments of the match comes when Fujiwara's trying to get a hold of Funaki's leg while he's on the ground and Funaki pops him in the face with a defensive shin, once again dropping Funaki on his ass. Funaki doesn't let up, catching him with a hard slap in the face against the ropes and a kick to the face for another knock down. Then he unloads a barrage of body shots, open hands, kicks, but Fujiwara's a resilient and wily old fuck and won't fall. So when Funaki goes for the double leg takedown, Fujiwara snags his arm with his leg for the submission victory. Of course, Fujiwara pulls it out in the end.
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