[1991-09-10-NJPW-Battle Autumn] Hiroshi Hase vs Tatsumi Fujinami

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

This is mostly Hase tying Fujinami in knots, which is perfectly fine, but it's a little on the bland side, even if it is solid. Almost every positive this match has is because of Hase.

[PeteF3]

Fujinami was definitely along for the ride here. Aside from his ridiculous fauxhawk-mullet combo hairdo, everything Hase did was great, from his working all kinds of holds to leveling Fujinami with his big offense. Cheap-ass ending as Fujinami gets his ass kicked for the whole match, gets put into every submission hold known to man, kicks out of all of Hase's finishers, then slaps on one figure four for the submission. I knew Hase wasn't winning, but geez. Still, this was a really fun, total '70s-style match thanks to more great work from Hase.

[Kevin Ridge]

Hase appears to be trying to replicate one of Sasaki’s hairstyles. Fujinami in the 90’s hasn’t been the greatest to watch for me. Actively cheering for Hase here as he seemed to be doing most of the work in match.

[Zenjo]

Much of the work was quite dry and hard to get excited over. Not bad, just uninspiring. What good stuff there was was down to Hase. 90's Fujinami is a bit of a bore.

[soup23]

I appreciated the old-school feel of most of this. I did think Fujinami's comeback and eventual win came too easy but as a lay and pray ground oriented type match, few are better than Hase in my mind and keeping things interesting and working very logical, basic holds in a convincing manner. An under the radar match for the year that you have to be in the right mindset to consume.

[garretta]

I don't know what match you guys were watching, but I thought Fujinami made an excellent underdog here. He withstood Hase's attempts to destroy his leg and came back with the resolve to return the favor to Hase, which he ultimately succeeded in doing with the help of the figure four. No, he wasn't the force of nature he'd been five to ten years earlier, but he kept up his end of things quite well. I liked the few strike exchanges we got just as much as the holds, particularly when they simply stood up and slapped the hell out of each other. Hase's execution was crisp, and he certainly knows how to apply submission holds believably. In fact, I thought Fujinami undersold the leg, considering the damage Hase did to it throughout the match.

 

We've certainly seen better, more entertaining matches from both men, but this was solidly above average.

[dawho5]

Hase did really well as the aggressor here. I didn't think he was going to win, but once Fujinami kicked out of those three ridiculously brutal uranages I was damn sure Hase didn't have anything to put him away. I honestly thought Fujinami looked better in the 2007 match I saw him wrestle than here.