[2005-02-06-Dragon Gate] Maasaki Mochizuki vs Ryo Saito

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tnv1IhcwlJs&feature=youtu.be

[dawho5]

One of two things needed to happen for this to be more than good. Saito needed to not work over the legs or Mochizuki needed to act like somebody had worked over his legs. His offense is 90% kicks, so maybe the former. Saito impressed me again with his performance here. Mochizuki throws nice kicks for sure and hits a massive dive. Saito teasing the dragon suplex over and over works really well when it comes out. Finish is pretty well-worked, maybe a bit rushed. I'd put it in the 50 range.

[Vinnie B]

I always mean to watch more DG as it seems to hit a lot of favourite parts of wrestling. I was not into the first few minutes at all. I liked how Saito worked over the leg, and that got me back in. I appreciate how they went back to the leg a few times, but Mochizuki just no sold it all the way through. I thought they built this a lot slower than I was expecting, which was good. They do go all out balls to the wall with no selling and nearfalls at the end, which was fun. Mochizuki looked like he absolutely kicked Saito's head off at the end. Another good match without really ascending into great territory. *** 1/2

[Makai Club #1]

This is so rad. Saito attacks Mochizuki's legs but Mochizuki is like "I'm still gonna kick you" so Saito starts hitting nasty suplexes and slaps, Mochizuki kicks Saito in the head and busts his nose open and then knocks him out with a kick to the jaw. The match is clipped by around 7 minutes but the rest is all action with some great back and forth wrestling. You could find flaws in Mochizuki’s selling but there were a few very subtle limps and gasps of pain when he kicked. And of course, the clipping may have clipped out the best part of the selling. Great match. ****