Takuya Nomura & Fuminori Abe vs. Hikaru Sato & Takuya Wada (AJPW, 8/11/19)

Another dope Astronauts match with plenty to love on. Abe getting caught with the open hand early from Sato and his staggered sell, the intensity of the Nomura/Wada exchanges, which lead to nasty slaps and corner headbutts. And Wada's Northern lights suplex is snappy as hell. Loved Sato going nuts on Nomura with the ground-and-pound, and then Nomura German suplexing Sato as he's reaching out for the tag. Another cool spot came with Abe catching the double wrist-lock off the German suplex hold by Wada, slickly keeping it cinched in through Wada's struggled efforts. Abe's so smooth -- loved his set up to the cross kneebar on Sato before turning that into a legtrap German l. Fun mix of shoot-style and pro-wrestling with a motivated Sato turning up the heat and Abe getting plenty of time to shine. Abe and Nomura are a blast - a bit like modern day Fujiwara and Maeda. Same energy.

Hikaru Sato vs. HARASHIMA (DDT, 11/14/10)

Dueling limbwork, anyone? You know I'm all about it when it's pulled off in a smart way. This match manages to do just that, with Sato priming the arm for the jujigatame and HARASHIMA trying to alleviate Sato's kicks by working the leg. This follows the traditional DDT "Main Event" template, with scrambled matwork to start, bouts of snug slap and kick exchanges, and the sudden escalation into bigger offense. The slaps are especially stiff, as Sato's lip gets busted, and HARASHIMA's legwork gets nasty at times with some of those targeted kicks. When HARASHIMA's got him on the ground in a leglock, Sato grabs the hair and HARASHIMA returns the favor just because he can. Sato's able to go back to the armbar, transitioning into a triangle and as HARASHIMA begins to power out, Sato uses the ropes for a rope-hung armbar, choking HARASHIMA to the point of foaming. Sato's outside running PK takes a lot out of him, which allows HARASHIMA to dropkick the leg out from underneath him on the apron to regain control. They start exchanging signatures and counters, go back-and-forth with the strikes, with Sato at one point straight punching HARASHIMA, and in the end, when HARASHIMA springboards in, Sato catches him in the armbar. The final struggle is terrific, with HARASHIMA trying to boot his way out, then grabbing onto the referee, before finally giving up. Niiiice.