[1992-07-31-NJPW-Summer Struggle] Shinya Hashimoto & Hiroshi Hase vs Tatsumi Fujinami & Kensuke Sasaki

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Good match, but a little on the long side. I like seeing Sasaki slowly mixed in with the other guys, but he's not quite ready for long matches at this level, even though he does try hard. Good to see Hashimoto in his first match in a while on here. I'm pumped for the G1.

[Tim Evans]

Sasaki damn near broke his neck at the finish. That was sick looking.

[shoe]

I liked the bout. I agree I thought they could have made this shorter. Hash is a beast. Hase's counter to Fujinami's Scorpion was amazing. It was a holy shit moment.

[WingedEagle]

Fujinami and Hash with a nice little exchange trading strikes early on. Hash really looks like a legit immoveable object so anytime he's taken down it feels like a big deal. This was definitely too long, but I liked the booking featuring Hash & Sasaki and the finish was pretty sick.

 

**3/4

[PeteF3]

Fujinami is still relatively hidden but he's looking better than he has in a while for the quick bursts that he's in. This is worked incredibly stiff all around, with some crazy bumps off routine moves and lots of hard hitting strikes. It's a little long considering there aren't a lot of dramatic near-falls and the story, intentional or not, of Sasaki staying in too long and not tagging when he has opportunities plays into the finish, when he gets caught in a 2-on-1 and eventually beaten down. It's going to take a lot for this year's G1 to match last year's but I'm interested in seeing what they can do.

[garretta]

I didn't really feel this much. It was a well-executed match, but I didn't really feel it had a purpose other than to exist, if you know what I mean. There appeared to be some problem at the end between Shinya and Fujinami, but it wasn't apparent in the body of the match. The highlight of the match was the finish, particularly the second DDT from Shinya to Sasaki, which was about as stiff as a worked move can be.

 

I noticed at the finish that Shinya waited an awfully long time to deliver the second DDT to Sasaki. Was there some kind of communication problem? Fujinami and Hase got into quite an exchange on the outside; maybe it wasn't supposed to go as long as it did and Shinya was unintentionally distracted by it.

 

I'm looking forward to the G-1 too, particularly to see how Rude fares. Even in his more serious WCW version, he seems like he's too gimmicky a wrestler to do well in Japan. Guess we'll find out soon enough!

[dawho5]

Was not a huge fan of this, even though I agree it was perfectly well-worked.  Hash looked great as always.  Possibly a proving match for Sasaki and something to set up a rivalry between Hash and Fujinami.