Masahito Kakihara vs. Takaku Fuke
Young Kakihara is already showing signs of what's to come with the immediate slap after the handshake. Kakihara's lightning-quick with his kicks and slaps and Fuke does all he can to try and slow the whirlwind down, at one point catching a leg and countering with a cool capture-style powerslam. Once Fuke's got him on the ground, he's able to send Kaki crawling to the ropes by targeting the legs, supplementing the holds with an occasional kick or knee to the face. He's able to catch him in a guillotine choke, smartly trapping the legs to prevent the break. There's plenty of takedowns and scrambling around the mat throughout, with Kakihara finally securing a head-and-shoulder-lock for the submission win.
Masakatsu Funaki vs. Akira Maeda
Loved the flurried slap-action to open and the frantic way Funaki counters out of the rear waistlock to ground Big Boss Maeda with the wakigatame, really cranking it on like he's fixing a leaky pipe. They convey good struggle for control and for the most part, Funaki's able to roll with a lot of Maeda's punches so to speak...you know, except for when Maeda is repeatedly rocking him kicks on the ropes. But I like that even when they're on the mat, Funaki is still trying to drive home a few knees and boots. Maeda's able to execute a beautiful German suplex hold but it doesn't do much to slow down Funaki, who comes at him with some good hard smacks, busting Maeda's nose. He slows him down with some focused legwork and plants him with a nasty capture suplex but still, Funaki keeps coming until eventually Maeda has to choke him out. Really great match.
Nobuhiko Takada vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara
Aside from his sometimes heavy striking, Takada doesn't do a whole lot for me, especially on the mat, but when he's paired against Fujiwara, I find myself more invested in him as a performer. He sells Fujiwara's awesome lunging headbutts like a million bucks and what I love about the headbutts is that can come from out nowhere and quickly turn the tide of the match. Fujiwara's methodical here in that he'll try to manipulate a limb into a hold but when there's struggle, he'll shift to another body part entirely. He's a real danger on the mat, and Takada recognizes that -- at one point, Fujiwara's able to reverse a leglock and Takada freaks out with boot shots in an attempt to escape. Of course, we get the classic grinning Fujiwara here, brushing off Takada's kicks and hanging out in the corners. Takada tries chopping out Fujiwara's leg and then starts trying to knock him with with kicks and knees but Fujiwara uses the corner as a home base to keep from falling. But when Takada's corner strikes get to be too much, Fujiwara slumps to the canvas in a fantastic moment, still managing a smile when he makes it back to his feet. Fujiwara's able to knock Takada down with another headbutt but ultimately, the old dog runs out of downs and Takada's finally able to get the TKO victory after a knee strike. Another terrific match.
