Takehiro Murahama vs. Black Buffalo (Osaka Pro, 7/22/00)

A terrific three-quarters of a match, with some minor issues during the home stretch. Takehiro Murahama is having one of the better debut years in recent memory, and up against Black Buffalo, you have a neat dynamic of the babyfaced shooter against the gruff brawler trying to take it to the mat. First and foremost, Murahama’s tights are incredible – peak 90’s aesthetic circa 2000. Buffalo’s takedowns aren’t pretty but they’re effective as he takes more of a smothering approach on the canvas. Murahama’s still able to sneak out a leglock through Buffalo’s aggression and when he’s back on his feet, he pops Buffalo with a kick to the hamstring, to which Buffalo smartly rolls away from Murahama. Murahama’s spunky on the mat, running through a number of holds almost as a routine (see above) before settling on an armbar. I loved his leglock counter to the hip toss. Buffalo doesn’t hold back with the open hands and short-arm lariats, and of course, he brings the chair into play. At one point, he’s standing on Murahama’s head while he’s on the ropes and then drops a leg across the back of his neck onto the ropes. Nasty. Just as Murahama starts heating back up, he kicks the ring post, which leads to Buffalo targeting the leg with a chair and figure-four leglocks. Good in-the-moment selling from Murahama but once he pops back up to his feet and starts flinging kicks at Buffalo, he blows off the legwork and then it’s business as usual as they run through their offense to what seemed like a botched finish. A bit of a jarring transition but still, a real good match worth checking out.

Daisuke vs. Buffalo (GUTS World, 4/24/16)

Buffalo did a fantastic job in his role as the dominating heel, continually cutting off the champ’s efforts to turn this thing around in his favor. I liked his use of the low blow to escape the German suplex attempt and the referee not making the count because of it. On the receiving end of Buffalo’s beatdown, Daisuke isn’t the most compelling guy to watch. His selling is okay at best. He gets busted open after a fat chairshot to the head and Buffalo proceeds to bully him for the next ten minutes or so with piledrivers, lariats, and a tiger driver. The majority of this match felt very one-sided, with Buffalo unloading everything in his arsenal and Daisuke surviving it all. The last quarter of this match was filled with big offense and a ton of kick-outs, as well as a couple of cool spots (including a deadly plastic bin being smashed over Buffalo’s head). After no selling a German suplex, Buffalo delivers a killer sliding lariat to the back of Daisuke’s neck, which could easily be the finish of the match, but nope – Daisuke holds on. He kicks out of a backdrop driver and another lariat, managing to throw Buffalo into the turnbuckles with a release German. After a dragon suplex hold, Daisuke hits two sliding elbows to finally defeat Buffalo and retain his title. Kind of a quick turnaround for Daisuke after taking the brunt of Buffalo’s offense and not really selling the long-term physical exhaustion.