[2008-12-12-Michinoku Pro] Fujita Jr Hayato vs Yoshitsune

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Graham Crackers]

I'm happy to see that those good Mpro singles from the last chunk of the decade still hold up 5 years later. I prefer this and Hayato's matches with Sasuke to the Kenou series because of the impressive physicality and huge bumps. This one is just brutal. I remembered the focus on Hayato's midsection but I forgot how nasty it was and I definitely forgot the visual of those welts developing on Hayato's stomach. It does go a bit long but the "cool stuff" in this one is actually cool enough to keep me interested in this.

[dawho5]

These guys definitely did a lot of things right. The rib work by Yoshitsune was exceptional early. Hayato's comeback was really well-done. They work this incredible apron sequence where Yoshitsune backflips out of a German and lands perfectly on the apron. That is some fucking precision right there. Then they do some ECW stuff, which is okay. Then they work a 18 minute finishing run that goes way too far over the top. Don't get me wrong, lots of it was really impressive stuff, but these long sequences of false finishes just for the point of having them have gotten more out of control as the decade wears on. Dial it back about ten minutes and get a few good nearfalls each and I would have voted for it.

[Alan4L]

Wow enjoyed this WAY more than I did at the time and I was a big fan of it then. Hayato's got such a special charisma, it's a shame that M-Pro hasn't been able to create more guys for him to wrestle over the years. What's more of a shame is how wasted Yoshitsune's potential was. He looked so great here and I can't think of any other match he ever had which was anything like this.

 

Hayato holding him upside down before deliverng that kick may be one of my favourite spots of the whole project. I reckon this will have a spot in my top 50.

[Superstar Sleeze]

After reading the comments, I was afraid of this going really long especially when you see the video is a total of 38 minutes long. However once you cut out intros and post-match, the match is 25 minutes and really did not think there was much in the way of overkill especially relative to NOAH at the time.

 

Tohoku Junior Heavyweight Champion Yoshitune vs Fujita Jr Hayato - Michinoku Pro 12/12/08

 

Fujita Jr Hayato is a name I have heard bandied around for the past couple months as leading the Michinoku Pro revitalization having about one great match a year from 2008 up until now. From my understanding, the only reason he has not had more is due to a dearth of opponents not because of an inconsistent skill level. Hayato is a shoot-y style junior with lots of kicks, good matwork, a choke out submission, can fly when necessary. His real hallmarks are he is an amazing seller and brutal, violent muthafucka. Yoshitune is one of the coolest looking masked wrestlers I have ever seen with a really cool costume. I thought his strikes were dogshit, but he kills any of the Dragon Gate guys in how well he flies and when he times his highspots. He was amazing at your standard high-flying spots (Shooting Star Press, moonsault press to floor), but he had some fantastic highspots that would be over like rover in America. I loved the balance on top rope superkick to Hayato and the run the top rope dropkick. Between the costume and the spots, he seems like someone who get over really fast with children and lovers of great acrobatics.

 

Yoshitune establishes that he is going to use his speed early to avoid Hayato kicks and matwork. He busts out a 619 and a Space Flying Tiger Drop early to get that blood flowing. He starts throwing Hayato into the apron. Hayato does a great job selling his midsection throughout the match. Yoshitune may have sucked at striking, but he was great at hurling his body at Hayato. I loved the moonsault where he landed with his knees in Hayato's midsection. I love the M-Pro throw people into chairs spot and Hayato takes over on Yoshitune. The main flaw in this match is that the Hayato control segments come off as too much like an exhibition because Yoshitune is not really selling nor is he struggling. He is just letting these submissions and throws happen to him. In a match with so many great spots, my favorite may have been, Hayato preventing Yoshitune from diving off a balcony onto him by hurling a chair at him with pinpoint accuracy. They fight on the balcony with Hayato losing and eating a double stomp to his injured abdomen. Great, great wrestling. Yoshitune much like Ultimo Dragon is better on offense because he is so breath-taking and because he blows at selling and hope spots. So in the ring things are way more entertaining with flying around, but with the purpose of attacking the midsection and Hayato selling like a champ. Hayato gets knees up on Super Quebrada. He unloads with a big knee and spear leading to the guillotine choke, but Yoshitune makes the ropes. Yoshitune gets one last run with all his big spots before Hayato takes advantage of him whiffing on a head kick then annihilating him with kicks, knees and suplexes .

 

They worked a great match that felt really fresh because it is the opposite of how air vs ground matches are worked. Instead of grounding Yoshitune and building to the big spots. Yoshitune overwhelmed Hayato with his aerial assault, but had a target that being the midsection. A lot of high flyers fly around, but it does not seem like they are doing damage, but Yoshitune was hurling his body with a specific target. Hayato to his credit made this all the more worthwhile by really selling the injury. Once he made the comeback you knew Yoshitune was at a disadvantage because Hayato's arsenal is loaded with knock out blows where as just does not have that. Also, the way it was worked prevented the "high flyer blows off selling to do dives" criticism. The main flaw was that it still felt too much like an exhibition to me when Hayato was on offense because Yoshitune was not really all that good at anything else besides high flying. Hayato's midesection gave Yoshitune's offense a sense of purpose, but I don't think they did enough with it to develop Hayato's offense around compensating for it. Honestly, I thought Dragon Gate would be more like this: eye-popping spots with some good work around it. M-Pro totally kills the standard fare Dragon Gate (only really high end DG was better than this.). This is exactly my kind of juniors match great acrobatics, a well-defined styles clash and strong surrounding work to prop up those big spots. ****