[1998-06-19-FMW-King of Fight] Masato Tanaka vs Tetsuhiro Kuroda

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Shorter and faster-paced than most FMW singles matches so far. A few sloppy moments, but a good match overall. Kuroda makes a good showing, but Tanaka finishes him off decisively with the elbow.

[soup23]

Fun, B-show feeling match that is not a knock as I like seeing the case for Tanaka being a name for the promotion that can handle the top spot by how he works with guys like Kuroda. Kuroda got a good bit of offense in and they mixed up opening wrestling, some crowd brawling including the running knee from Kuroda in Korakuen which is a spot that always pops me and a hot finish with Kuroda getting some hope spots but put away with the Sliding D in the end. (***1/4)

[PeteF3]

I really liked this--I could watch Tanaka throw elbows at motherfuckers all day. Kuroda was an overmatched but very game opponent. I mostly like Tanaka for his big babyface comebacks but here he showed he could be really effective working on top, too. I'm not sure this wasn't more enjoyable than the big Hayabusa-Gannosuke matches from earlier in the year precisely because they *didn't* go all-out to make this seem "epic"--they ran through a lot of big moves and some near-falls, but it was sort of refreshing in that it was "just a match."

[TravJ1979]

Yeah I didn't like this much. A weak opponent for Tanaka.