[2000-03-19-NJPW] Kensuke Sasaki vs Satoshi Kojima

[soup23]

Probably my favorite Kojima match ever and Sasaki is really having a great start to the year. This featured some great limb work from Kojima in the early going where he looked aggressive and like a shark going after his prey. I really appreciated the factions hanging on the outside and threatening to intervene but never fully doing so. The back end of the match was a bomb fest but a highly dramatic one and I was in pure elation when Sasaki secured the victory. A great match that I would love for New Japan World to put in full. ****1/4

[Loss]

Tremendous match, with a lot of the elements that I think a world title match should have. Felt very old school in some ways, but with an extra half-second of urgency that made it more contemporary. The cadence of the match was really unique and I enjoyed that. Sasaki's selling was nearly perfect for a champion at that level, and I only say "nearly" because while selling his leg and doing his comeback, he executes a top rope huracanrana. The whole time, I'm watching him set up and thinking "Don't do it, don't do it, awww, man, you did it." I also liked Kojima grabbing Sasaki's arm desperately near the end, abandoning his strategy completely in a last-ditch effort to try something to stay in this thing, but Sasaki overcoming him and getting a hard fought win. One thing I'll say about Sasaki's selling is that you know a wrestler has done his job when you can watch and almost feel his pain, and that's how I felt watching this. Kojima's offense was spot on. Really, really good. ****

[Moonsault Marvin]

Sasaki was really compelling in his selling, and continues to have a good year 2000. A nitpick was Kojima's dragon screw of the right leg instead of the injured left leg. The match built well to its conclusion. Good match.

[ohtani's jacket]

Sasaki's unexpectedly good 2000 continues. I don't know about anyone else but when I think of Sasaki I don't think of sustained body part selling but that's what we got here. There were more than 10 minutes cut from the match so it probably didn't go at quite the clip that it seemed but I was still impressed with Sasaki's measured comeback. I didn't really like his pose before the finish and wondered where he got the energy from but that was a minor quibble in an otherwise rock-solid title match. Sasaki may be a top 5 guy in Japan at this point.

[Seabs]

It's hard to tell exactly how good this was with it being JIP so far in but this definitely felt like the back end of A really good big Japanese style main event match with both guys really bringing it and putting in great performances. It's kinda weird watching so much clipping on this Japanese stuff and realising that wrestling fans who only start venturing into Japanese Wrestling in the last couple of years will never feel the struggle of viewing a great match get killed by clipping or having to wait months for a match to get dropped by Lynch of IVP if it ever does at all.

[superkix]

Such a great match with a concise and engaging story, good selling from both guys, and an exceptional performance from Kojima. Loved his early Koji Cutter counter to the lariat and his grunty follow-up legwork, which includes these awesome diving chopblocks and a tree-of-woe knee lariat. My favorite moment of the match comes after Sasaki withstands Kojima's lariat and straight up punches him in the face. Chono and crew jump the apron like "What the fuck, ref?!" but Sasaki doesn't care and punches Kojima again. They show off some fighting spirit with ragdoll German suplexes and one count lariats but the exhaustion definitely plays into the finish, with Kojima unable to go back to the leg or hit the Northern Lights Bomb.

[tbrett]

This came out of nowhere for me. When I first started watching I was disappointed that it was JIP but I can see why it was included on the set. This was an awesome match and looks like it could be even better if it was shown in full. The build was great and you could feel the heat between the two. The legwork was great and they were working pretty stiff making everything look really good. The selling was fantastic, I can clearly see Kojima becoming a star in this match. Usually I don't rate JIP matches but I can safely say that this is at least **** if not higher.