[1997-08-01-NJPW] Shinya Hashimoto vs Kazuo Yamazaki

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Offense -> Hesitation -> Struggle -> Flared Tempers is pretty much the layout. Weirdly, there's a ref bump, then Hashimoto locks in a cross armbreaker and the ref isn't there. He finally gets back into things in time for Yamazaki to submit. I really enjoyed this.

[Kevin Ridge]

Hash back to kick some ass I hope. It is a struggle against Yamazaki though. Good but I'm hoping Hash can get himself through these MMA guys.

[Childs]

We're not calling Yamazaki an MMA guy are we? He started his career in New Japan. Anyway, this was another intense match between these two. I loved Yamazaki's focus on Hash's midsection in the early going, and they produced some hellacious strike exchanges. Hash was an all-time master at these short, violent matches.

[Kevin Ridge]

You're right. I shouldn't be lumping Yamazaki in with MMA. I had meant the shoot guys like UWFI, Rings, etc. I view them as an alternative. But I'm just against how much the shoot stuff became part of NJPW going forward. And I'm not a fan of Hash being caught up in it against the likes of Ogawa.

[soup23]

I like the chemistry with these two. Hashimoto does a great job being methodical and smart with the structure of his matches to a certain extent but them not feeling boring. Yamazaki was breaking out all sorts of nasty submissions especially the arm and hand focused one that he was turning Hash's hand over with. the ref bump was kind of weird but Hash was able to lock in the cross armbreaker and get the submission. This match feels like a good litmus test for #100 at the year end. I enjoyed it a good deal.

[Zenjo]

This was worked semi shoot style, although I don't recall any ref bumps in UWFI. NJ had just about the worst refs in Puro btw. Plenty of stiff strikes and submissions, with both fighters bringing the intensity. They'd given themselves a strong base but the finish was weak. It felt like half a match. They'd deliver on the promise in next years Climax.

[PeteF3]

Pretty good match with a borderline-nonsensical finish. It's OK if you want to establish "shit happens" and that refs can get bumped but it doesn't automatically mean a screwjob, but I don't know if that was really NJPW's intention or not. These two always have great chemistry but even ignoring the booking I thought their '96 matches were better and tighter.