[1998-12-08-MUGA] Hiroyoshi Kotsubo vs Katsushi Takemura

[Jetlag]

Another decent grappling match, altough they ran out of ideas. Match should've gone 8 or 7 minutes and would've been good, at 11 minutes it felt slightly bloated. I was surprised that Kotsubo didn't stink it up, he kept things moving, had a really nice stiff punch combo and won the match with a olympic leg screw into ankle hold that was pretty boss.

[Jetlag]

I rewatched this on a whim and I decided it was a lot better than I initially thought. Nothing GREAT, but perfectly good undercard semi-shootstyle that was actually exciting here or there. The weird thing about the 90s MUGA is that it's like shootstyle with 80s NJPW psychology and tropes; in this case they do spots like the "roll to the floor while in a leglock then slap the shit out of eachother" or "piss off the other guy to lure him into a trap". The grappling early on looked good and the bout had a nice escalation, starting with Kotsubo frustrating Takemura and then pissed off slaps and stomps ensue. I think Takemura went to mexico and then came back as generic heel, he should've stayed a grappler then he might have had a better career. Maybe not in New Japan, but gotten a nice indy run out of it. I echo my previous thoughts on Kotsubo and his punch combo and screw ankle hold, this might be his finest performance ever - which absolutely doesn't say much, but he seemed to be carrying this and it was a nifty enjoyable match.