[2012-10-08-NJPW-King of Pro Wrestling] Kazushi Sakuraba & Katsuyori Shibata vs Wataru Inoue & Togi Makabe

[cactus]

What a way to re-introduce Shibata and Sakuraba to the audience. An absolute war with a red-hot crowd. Everyone has a role here, and they play it magnificently. Laughter7 are here to kick ass and show precisely zero fucks, Inoue is the whipping boy with a belly full of fire and Makabe is here to flip people off and to receive a hot tag, so thankfully he doesn't bog this match down too much. Pretty much a squash with a few hope spots. Inoue's spear was a thing of beauty and it caught me completely off-guard. Makabe & Inoue realize they have to play dirty if they want to stand a chance. They rush the illegal Sakuraba of the apron in order to double-team Shibata, but this is only a minor setback for Laughter7 who then make quick work of the Always Hypers.

 

★★★¾

[ShittyLittleBoots]

The crowd was superb in this & really helped to elevate the match quality. Inoue was AWESOME, he was man on a mission trying to bring down the MMA invaders - all of his work over Shibata was great, even though I thought while I was watching the match that he got to do a little too much offense & that Shibata was on the selling-end of things a little too much, BUT by the end I was all about it as the crowd response to it was perfect. Really good, borderline great match. ***3/4