Daisuke Sekimoto & Yuji Okabayashi vs. Shuji Ishikawa & Kohei Sato (BJW, 5/28/15)

Time limit draws can be tiresome. The pacing can be off, there's often a lot of needless filler to eat up minutes and the action can feel subdued. Not here though. All four guys put their bodies through hell and back for the duration of the match. Uber-stiff and brutal at times, it was well-paced and organic, sometimes feeling a little too real, as both Sato and Okabayashi get busted open the hard way. Things got a little chaotic and messy at times, but it never got out of control and they always reeled the action back in. I liked the early struggle by Sato with the cross armbreaker and Sekimoto trying to power out to his feet, forcing Sato to re-think his strategy and attack the leg. 

Okabayashi was a beast in this and the strike exchanges between he, Sato and Ishikawa were nuts -- those Sato elbow shots were especially nasty. There's one point in particular where Okabayashi blocks Ishikawa's headbutt with his hand and then nearly lariats him out of his boot. But Ishikawa would exact his revenge toward the end of the match hitting one of the gnarliest headbutts on Okabayashi I've seen. 

Sekimoto did a great job selling the beat down Twin Towers issued out. No matter how hard he fought back, they kept swatting him back down. At one point, they block his double lariat attempt and pound him with stereo headbutts. There's two different lay out spots with all four men but they didn't necessarily feel shoehorned it, more like a steady build toward the bomb fests. By end of this thing, Sato and Okabayashi are on wobbly knees slugging it out in desperation. Okabayashi hits one final powerful lariat, trying in vain to get the pin over and over again before the time limit expires. What a tag team match and a modern strong style classic! 

Daisuke Sekimoto vs. Shuji Ishikawa (BJW, 3/31/15)

Good Lord, this match. I never had a chance to view this last year for whatever reason but wow, what a manly modern spectacle. Sloppy at times and a wee bit overkill, it wasn't the elusive "perfect match" but it felt perfectly organic and brutal. I mean, everything looked brutal in execution. And it has one of the best false finishes in recent memory. Sekimoto is the yoked workhorse who won't lay down for the champ. Great heart and energy, great selling for the most part, especially in the facials. He wrestles with this sense of urgency throughout. I loved the early suicide dive after Ishikawa gets extra saucy with his elbow shots. And Ishikawa is such a great super bully champ in this, constantly cutting Sekimoto off at every opportunity and just laying into him fully with everything in his arsenal. The full nelson ring post smash was nuts and I genuinely felt bad for Sekimoto's head and neck as Ishikawa went took him to Murder Town. At one point, Ishikawa's got him in a full nelson lock, and Sekimoto is screaming and powering his way out and Ishikawa headbutts any hope he had of escaping to hell. 

One minor grievance: Sekimoto's Scorpion Deathlock looks like shit and it always seems to come out of nowhere. There's no logistical build to it. Anyway, he has such a great crab hold that looks way more devastating and makes sense for his style of offense. The final stretch of this thing was pretty epic. After Ishikawa goes on a mini-run after kiboshing another Sekimoto comeback, Sekimoto clobbers him with a lariat counter to the running knee, They trade suplexes, clash lariats, and then Sekimoto pulls away with his meat cleaver chops, a gamengiri, a lariat, and a big deadlift German suplex hold for HUGE nearfall. The crowd is fully invested at this point, Ishikawa's mouth is bloody, Sekimoto can't believe it. We get the dying breath of the great champ here, as Ishikawa pulls out every brain-scrambling move in the book and still can't beat Sekimoto. In a great moment during the final slapoff, Ishikawa unleashes a flurry of slaps and the only way Sekimoto can stop him is to just punch him in the face. Ishikawa gets a last gasp one count after a lariat, but a second lariat and a deadlift German suplex hold are too much. Doesn't get much better than this when it comes to modern strong style. 

Shingo Takagi vs. Masaaki Mochizuki (Dragon Gate, 11/1/15)

As a junior heavyweight-style match, this was pretty fun stuff. Shingo Takagi is the king of bombz, and the current Open the Dream Gate champion. I've always liked the fire he brings to the ring, and I think he'll only get better the older and more experienced he gets. Masaaki Mochizuki got his start in WAR and BattlArts, so he likes to kicky-kicky and submit. He's the aging ring warrior here, and man, he takes a fucking beating from Shingo. Mochizuki wrestled smart as if he was aware of the danger Shingo poses to his well-being. The arm work was okay but really, it wasn't going anywhere in a DG match. Mochizuki's kicks were not kind to Shingo and at one point, he wrecks Shingo with a kick to the head in the tree of woe position. Shingo looked strong and his power movez looked legit, but this was the Mochizuki show, and he made Shingo look that much stronger. The finishing stretch where a frenzied Mochizuki is just trying to survive was the highlight of this match. Shingo blasted him with Pumping Bombers, a big-time Made in Japan, and ultimately, the Last Falconry, but Mochizuki didn't let his age slow him down and he can still outwrestle most guys 20+ years his junior. High energy and high emotion -- I give it a definite seal of approval. Shingo being this unrelenting beast of a champion is something I've wanted to see and I hope he gets a lengthy reign.