Zack Sabre Jr vs Bryan Danielson (NJPW - 2/11/2024)

Round 2 of their attempt at being Inoki vs Robinson. Their last attempt failed not because of lack of talent, because of the showboating mindset they approached it with. It was a showcase, not a fight. Now they are in Japan, where the inclination to be “entertaining” to a crowd that expects that form of wrestling is less so. They have the chance to let go of that factor and just be.

The match is worked more within itself, which is great to see. The narrative of the match - Danielson working the knee of ZSJ - is more of a focus than the previous match (that is not to say the first match lacked one btw) and they were able to craft some good submission work out of it. Danielson used the ropes wisely and I liked that he built to the surfboard, using that as a hook. I think the ultimate issue of the match is there wasn’t many actual drama in the submissions themselves. The skill is top notch, of course it is, but we’ve seen plenty of ZSJ and Danielson matches where we are all screaming for the potential finish and there was very little of those within this match. I remember that 4-5 month stretch where ZSJ was having those exact types of matches in the build up to the Okada match in 2018. And this was shockingly absent of that. They didn’t get the fans to bite on a potential submission win for the majority of the match which negates the point really. Maybe I’m being harsh. The fans weren’t bored or disinterested but they weren’t begging for their favourite to win or their favourite to not tap out. And nor was I. Also I really didn’t care for the moment where they were slapping each other whilst holding each other in leg locks. The slaps were hard, as were the kicks, but that devalued the leg locks to me. This sequence should’ve been a key moment in the match drama wise and they made the hold, a very dangerous hold, seem incidental. But there are great moments in the match like ZSJ countering that double arm bar move that tapped out Okada. The crowd reacted strongly to that. The crowd really came more alive in terms of their responses late in the match, mostly when they went away from the submissions and were striking and doing flash pins. That’s not really a surprise though. And after one flash pin sequence too many, ZSJ wins the match tying the score between the two. A big win for ZSJ. One that likely sets him up for a future title challenge against Naito (or SANADA. But we’ll see).

Deciding between the two matches is tricky. It’s pointless comparing it to Inoki/Robinson because once again, I think they missed the mark by a very wide margin. But compared to the second one, this match still had more of what I was looking for but the lack of drama, poor selling (ZSJ’s selling of Danielson's kicks was strong than when Danielson was ripping his knee apart) and a rather sluggish pace, really made it a tough sell. I’ll go with this because the skill was really good and there were some more interesting attributes in this.

I would never expect these two to do a full on technical match. I don’t think that’s what their audience wants either. They think they want a technical match so they’re giving them what they think a technical match is.

I have t watched this one yet though.

vk.com/video-153174406_456245013?list=99a4fec9f211a391a0

The prematch stuff is at 2 hours and 55 minutes while the actual match starts at 3 hours 20 minutes