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Post by Control21 on Jun 13, 2023 19:51:58 GMT -5
I'm surprised this match hasn't been nominated yet. I had to double check to make sure, but wow, I'm late to the party here. This is an excellent match that appears to get slept on. KENTA in his prime is up against a young and upcoming Nakajima and the result is something special. This match goes for 40+ minutes, but the structure and pacing is almost perfect. Nothing feels lost or sluggish while the match takes place, and there is a feeling of a 90s AJPW-style build up for the first 15-20 minutes, which then gives way for a very hot closing stretch with the crowd firmly behind their homegrown talent in Nakajima. A jam-packed Korakuen Hall makes the last 10 minutes or so feel special. The submission spots really had me sold, and I thought the selling was much better than I expected. Definitely worth checking out. ****3/4
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Post by fxnj on Jul 8, 2023 19:11:43 GMT -5
These KENTA/Nakajima singles bouts actually holding up has been a surprise to be sure, but a welcome one. Watching this really took me back to being a teenager practicing KENTA's kick combos after marking out to his matches. That bit of nostalgia tripping aside, this actually is a really well put together match that plays to these guys' strong kickboxing talents whilst drawing inspiration from their heavyweight mentors and avoiding the annoying tropes of post-2000's wrestling. The match benefits greatly from actually having a sense of escalation with the first half largely being focused on Kobashi/Sasaki-esque kick exchanges and submissions focused around bodypart work. That doesn't sound great on paper, but the kicks are delivered super hard and with great technique, and the submissions are all pretty stiff with some struggle behind them. KENTA even finds a way to make the shitty John Cena STF look halfway-decent by grinding his forearms against Nakajima's cheek bones. Shockingly, the bodypart work isn't forgotten and actually plays into the latter half. I was dreading the stretch run, but I got pretty big into it due to the attention paid throughout to moveset escalation, plus the focus on selling, counters, and momentum shifts over 2.9 count spam. The falcon arrow on the outside and work surrounding that was pretty neat with some great selling by KENTA.
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Post by elliott on Sept 30, 2023 12:29:52 GMT -5
Having trouble gettign this one to load for some reason, will try it again at some later point maybe. Feels like one I should skip.
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