[2016-04-03-BJW] Shuji Ishikawa vs Shinobu

[GOTNW]

This was fun as expected, it's always a joy to watch Big Dog vs smaller guys and Shinobu is a pretty good in the role of a junior who will just die but can pull off comebacks with insane highspots. This wasn't the greatest thing ever but there was a lot of good stuff in there like Ishikawa using his strength to brush off any serious attempts of obtaining control Shinobu had and the general intensity Ishikawa brings in any match he's in. One of my favourite moments in this match was when Shinobu hit Ishikawa with a series of elbows and was about to run the ropes to do the classic spot where he takes the bigger man down but Ishikawa just grabbed him from behind and killed him with a sleeper suplex. I wasn't big on Shinobu pulling the top rope to transition into offence and didn't really buy his Asai Moonsault, at least kick the guy in the face before jumping on him. Some stuff was a little rough around the edges but the finish was excellently build, Shinobu uses an Armbar as his flash finish and has beaten the biggest names in Big Japan with it and I loved how they tied that in to Ishikawa getting more frustrated and just killing Shinobu with shoot headbutts for the finish. A strong ***.