[2017-05-25-BJW] Hideki Suzuki vs Hideyoshi Kamitani

[superkix]

Hideki Suzuki as BJW World Strong Heavyweight champion has been my favorite thing in 2017 and this match brought out the best iteration of Hideyoshi Kamitani -- the fired the fuck up baby-faced underdog. This was easily Kamitani's best singles performance since his awesome match against Okabayashi last year. The way he waylays Suzuki with his big boy weight early on and when Suzuki's finally able to counter something with his Billy Robinson-style backbreaker, it feels huge. The overall sense of struggle in this match is fantastic and there's such a raw, brutish aesthetic to the exchanges. The way Suzuki traps limbs, bending and laying into the holds with all his weight. There's a great visual of an exhausted Kamitani hanging onto Suzuki's waist, trying to lift him or fired off tired strikes, only for Suzuki to keep beating him down. Suzuki's striking in this match is unreal -- some of the best European uppercuts and elbows I've seen thrown in a pro-wrestling match. At one point, he hits a running elbow that looks like a baseball player swinging a bat. Again, this match has the little Suzuki nuances that makes him such a cool champion -- the little knees here and there, the nasty counter to the stretch plum, slipping into an octopus hold when he notices Kamitani struggling to stand. Kamitani's unable to deliver the backdrop hold but he does improvise and hits rolling uranages, which was cool to see. He doesn't have enough in the tank to finish off Suzuki and Suzuki's submission finish was unexpected but really neat. A brutal battle and easily one of my favorite matches of the year.

[soup23]

Splendid match, the sense of tension between these two was off the page and overall each transition felt like a monumental accomplishment. Suzuki has become my favorite thing in Japanese wrestling as he can mix in the throwback style with modern trends rather flawlessly. Kamitani felt like a underdog throughout the match but also one very confident in his abilities and not afraid to go to the brink to claim the title. ****1/4

[Maciej]

Another great match in what is shaping up as one of my favorite title reigns in a while. Kamitami just using his big boy strength to try and tear Hideki's head off and run into him a bunch is great, and I agree with everything said above about the wonderful Hideki Suzuki. Also, I really love wrestlers making faces that indicate they've just realized things are about to go wrong, and Suzuki makes a terrific one here as he's trying to hold Kamitami's arms extended behind his back (like some sort of double-arm octopus, maybe, except he's in front of Kamitami; I'm sure someone here could describe this better than me), but then loses his grip on one of the arms and shows on his face that he realizes how bad that is right before getting clobbered with a lariat to the back. I love it.

 

****1/4, if you told me that I'd like both of Suzuki's first two defenses even more than the two Sekimoto matches I wouldn't have believed you, yet here we are.

[ShittyLittleBoots]

Terrific stuff with Kamitani showing great fire + focus on his onslaught & Hideki being brilliant as always, targeting Kamitani's back throughout the whole match & selling his ass off for the youngster as well. ****1/4

[Tawren]

I'm really digging Hideki Suzuki. I think this wasn't as good as his match vs Okabayashi from earlier this month but still really good. "Big boy strength" from up-thread is an amazing phrase for Kamitani and I 100% agree. This match has great tension and builds to a strong finish. As I said in the Suzuki vs Okabayashi 5/17 thread, I haven't seen enough BJW and every match I watch makes me want to see more especially in the strong heavyweight division.

 

Good finish but kind of out of nowhere, I suppose that works for Suzuki's weird throwback style. This never quite gets to the next gear for me but absolutely worth watching. I understand they have a rematch in Nov 2017 so I'll watch that soon too.

 

***3/4