Shinjiro Ohtani vs. Masato Tanaka (ZERO1, 7/13/01)

These two dudes seemingly had a whole slew of matches together in ZERO-ONE, many of which were, at the very least, GOOD matches. This one is a personal favorite because it's compact and simple yet smartly worked without overstaying its welcome. Tanaka is a pudgy little house of fire to open, putting Ohtani on the rocks until Ohtani dropkicks the knee and starts working the holds. When Ohtani ties the leg up in the ropes, the fans let him have it and he basks in their boos. Tanaka's selling is terrific throughout the match, as he tries to boot and slap his way out of a leglock to no avail. When Tanaka starts to build some momentum, Ohtani ducks an elbow and hits a German suplex hold for two. And then he goes back to attacking that knee, keeping his holds locked in even after a rope break. Loved Tanaka hobbling over on one foot, trying to cut Ohtani off on the top rope before eventually superplexing him off, which sets the stage for the bomb-heavy finishing stretch. Tanaka goes on an offensive run, trying to finish Ohtani off with the Diamond Dust but Ohtani survives, dumping Masato with a couple of release dragon suplexes before putting him away with the Spiral Bomb. Good stuff!

Alexander Otsuka vs. Takashi Sugiura (ZERO1, 4/18/01)

Two bald machine suplex machines, scrambling around the mat in a slick shoot amateur fashion, looking for the first suplex while simultaneously avoiding getting suplexed on their head. Of course, I'm going to love this, especially with one of those machines being total package, Alexander Otsuka. The other machine, Takashi Sugiura, is no jabron and he fires off the first suplex with a belly-to-belly. Otsuka is able to take him down with the front necklock but Sugiura deftly bridges out and works into a front mount, where he just starts slapping Otsuka silly. You wonder, why is Otsuka taking all these slaps but then he gets up to his feet and headbutts the shit out of Sugiura, blood trickling down from his forehead as he smiles at Sugiura. What a MAN. They first trade headbutts, the blood spattering everywhere, and then suplexes, with Otsuka hitting a deadlift German and Sugiura with a cool rolling gutwrench. At this point in the match, Otsuka's a mess but when Sugiura tries for another gutwrench suplex, Otsuka picks the ankle and grounds Sugiura with the leglock, ultimately snagging a kimura for the submission victory. This was radical.

Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama vs. Shinya Hashimoto & Yuji Nagata (ZERO1, 3/2/01)

News flash: Jun Akiyama rules. He rules now, he ruled then, and he's the standout of the inaugural ZERO1 main event. I really liked the opening between he and Yuji Nagata, but more importantly, I loved Akiyama harassing Hashimoto on the apron, only to get German suplexed from behind by Nagata. Once Hashimoto gets the tag, he batters Akiyama out of the ring and Jun's a little hesitant to return. The exchanges between those two are the most heated throughout the match. Akiyama and Nagata have fun throwing Exploders and taking each other's signature submissions. Misawa's fine here and gets in his usual spots but I would've liked to have seen his exchanges with Hashimoto be a little more...grumpy. Everyone drops some bombs toward the end but Hashimoto is more concerned with Akiyana than winning the match -- even after Misawa pins him, Hashimoto immediately goes back to attacking Akiyama before all hell breaks loose. FUN STUFF!

Shinjiro Ohtani & Tatsuhito Takaiwa vs. Hideki Suzuki & Keisuke Okuda (ZERO1, 7/30/17)

Sometimes you don't need a bloated 30+ minute "epic" and the old standby story of a promotion nobody getting put in his place by the promotion's surly dad is plenty. This ticked a lot of my personal preference boxes when it comes to a pro-wrestling match: grumpy old dude (check), disappointed tag partner (check), a well-sold beatdown (check), Hideki Suzuki (check). Ohtani looked his best here and right out of the gate, he's got zero time for Okuda, laying it in with nasty slaps and knees, shoving Okuda's kicks out of the way in order to dish out more punishment. Takaiwa played the gruff uncle to Ohtani's dad role, being a little more reserved with the bomb-throwing but still kicking ass. And Suzuki, despite not getting much in-ring time, ruled here as reprimands his own partner with shitty little kicks and motivational smacks. I thought Okuda took the beating well -- that facewash to the outside looked especially rough -- and when he got the revenge tag, he brought the fire to Ohtani with some terrific machine gun-style elbows in the corner. He goes on to mock Ohtani by walking through the chops but that doesn't impress the old man, who in turn, dumps Okuda on his head not once...but twice with a release dragon suplex to put him away. Good stuff.

Hideki Suzuki vs. Kohei Sato (Z1, 3/27/16)

Hideki Suzuki works the arm like a full-time job. He cranks away, armwhips, stomps it, knees it, methodically destroying it with holds and strikes. Suzuki keeps cutting off Sato's offensive rebuttals, continuing to focus his efforts on working the shit out of Sato's poor arm. And Sato sells it pretty well, eventually switching to kicks after failing to use the arm to strike. But when he tries for a piledriver, Suzuki takes him right back down to the mat with an armbar. Suzuki throws a couple of suplexes, Sato gets a quick German suplex hold off of a Suzuki European uppercut. Suzuki tries to strike with Sato and Sato responds with headbutts and a big elbow strike. A piledriver and follow-up German suplex hold were enough to get the win. Loved the armwork by Suzuki but the finish was definitely anti-climatic. I would've liked to have seen the arm work play a bigger role in the end, as it took up 3/4's of the match. The double arm suplex wasn't sold as the potential "Game Over" finish like it has been in his last few matches, and for having been in control for most of the match, Suzuki seemed a little too easy to put away in the end as defending champ. Solid 3/4's but the finish leaves a lot to be desired.