[2017-03-27-AJPW] Jun Akiyama vs Hikaru Sato

[GOTNW]

Akiyama was an amateur wrestler and we rarely see that side of him, here he and Sato basically decide to work a shoot style match, and it's neat. Akiyama uses his amawres base to control Sato and manages to constantly feed him various leglocks and armbars and then escape from them. Even Akiyama's regular offence like the Exploder and the Necklock get a more shooty vibe, as he deadlifts Sato in a Armlock counter for the former and grabs a standing one before sweeping Sato's foot for the latter. The crowd buys into submission nearfalls, they put over their peril and it works. I also got a kick out of Sato using a Seoi Otoshi to take down Akiyama, which is totally what an outpowered and outsized person would do in such a situation. ***1/4

[Jordan]

Yeah this was nice. Great drama created for the submissions and cool to see Akiyama work this way. I'll add that I loved how determined Akiyama was to win here with the guillotine. And of course he still has the best knees in the business.