Don Fyre has such a good look, long hair or short, and he came off like a big badass here, but gave Koji Kanemoto enough to keep this interesting for the most part. Kanemoto isn't one to back down from a fight and I like that he stepped up to Frye, smacked in the face, and then immediately gets belly-to-belly suplexed down and put into a submission. Frye's limbwork was real grunty and calloused, which is obvious when you take a look at him, but Kanemoto's a sly cat and will grab a leg when he can. He lands a moonsault onto Frye's back off the missed spear and Frye lets loose a terrific F-Bomb when Kanemoto's got him in a leglock before he boots his way out the hard way. Then he clobbers Koji with a few elbows and submits him with a leglock.
Satoshi Kojima vs. Shinjiro Ohtani
Both entrance themes rule -- what a transition period 2000 was. I really liked the hot opening with the hard open hands exchanged and Ohtani going after the elbow/lariat arm and getting in some of his signature spots. But when Kojima takes over on offense, he more or less blows off the armwork and just shows off his dominance to the point where he attempts his own facewash...and fails. I liked the Koji Cutter spot off the missed spinning heel kick and Ohtani's reaction to the nearfall off the dragon suplex hold was great. Other than that, Kojima kind of stunk it up.
Kazunari Murakami vs. Takashi Iizuka
I love the visual of Takashi Iizuka running down the rampway toward the ensuing chaos in the ring...and then immediately getting pummeled and taken out by Murakami. Whenever Iizuka is able to get a submission hold locked on, it feels like a big deal and while the groundwork is rather simple, the struggle conveyed from both sides really adds to the gritty feel of the match. Iizuka being a dope on the ropes, not letting go and then pounding Murakami in the back of the head was great. I think this could've benefited from being shorter but whatever, we got Murakami trying to goad Iizuka back to his feet after blasting him with a kick, and the slack-jawed looks of Inoki and Fujinami at ringside. As the match heads home, you can really see the frustration in Iizuka's strikes and when he's able to get the choke sleeper on Murakami, it's huge. It's hard to put a rapid dog to sleep but Iizuka snags him off the ropes and finally puts him down. Good stuff.
Shinya Hashimoto vs. Naoya Ogawa
Slimmed up and shaved down Shinya Hashimoto is oddly reminiscent of Monster Morning himself, Manabu Nakanishi. This was pretty damn great in the way they were able to keep the lines blurred. Early into the match, Naoya Ogawa is being real shitty and brash with his knockdowns and then gets caught off guard with that Hash legsweep from the outside, which allows Hash the opportunity to lay into him to the point that Murakami has to come into the ring in Ogawa's defense. The reactions Hashimoto elicits from the fans with his takedowns are awesome as he keeps trying to cut out Ogawa's legs. I thought the STO struggle and escalation of impact was done really well, with Hash first countering with the DDT and then just kicking the shit out of Ogawa's leg in frustration before Ogawa is finally able to put him down after the choke sleeper > STO combo. Pretty awesome match.
