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Post by club on Mar 21, 2024 15:30:01 GMT -5
Shinjiro Otani vs Kazushi Sakuraba - NJPW - 06/17/96 From the Skydiving J show with Liger/Dick Togo. Might like this better. Both may end up on my next list. Stage is set early when Otani gets German'd on his head. They proceed to have a most intense 8 minute back and forth fight. Part of the beauty is that every big strike, submission and suplex felt like a potential match ender thanks to the UWFi dynamic. The match came off as a fight both guys were trying to win - as opposed to cool stuff to entertain a crowd - whilst still doing cool stuff that entertained the crowd. Popped when Sakuraba had the temerity to try to finish Otani with a Scorpion Deathlock. www.bilibili.com/video/BV1ja4y1a76i/?spm_id_from=333.337.search-card.all.click
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Post by Control21 on Mar 21, 2024 22:46:11 GMT -5
2nd. This was always one of my favorite Sakuraba matches. Insanely fun. I would also recommend checking out his match against Tokimitsu Ishizawa from 12/10/95
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Post by elliott on Mar 28, 2024 0:33:53 GMT -5
3rd
Super little match. Both guys work together beautifully. Makes you wish we had 3 more of these.
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Post by makaiclub on Mar 31, 2024 8:51:15 GMT -5
It’s amusing to read the Observer and see Dave say Sakuraba wasn’t in Otani’s league considering he will be a massive star in Japan in a few years. And then you consider how good he was in this match. He adapted outside of the UWFI rules really well. His submissions remained the same but his selling, use of more high flying moves were him adapting to the environment with Otani also adapting to Sakuraba. It was a great mix of styles between two technical masters. This was surprisingly the shortest match of the night but it was wonderful nonetheless. ***3/4
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