[2007-07-21-BattlARTS] Munenori Sawa vs Hayato Jr Fujita

[superkix]

This was pretty good but like a lot of BattlARTS matches, all over the fucking place and hard to keep track of. After a heated opening of slaps and kicks, Hayato throws a few suplexes, looking for his hanging guillotine. Meanwhile, Sawa spends much of the match trying to lock in the figure-four. Tons of strikes, with Sawa getting busted open at one point, but he's finally able to ground Hayato with the figure-four. Hayato tries slapping his way out of it but Sawa keeps applying the pressure until Hayato submits.

[Clayton Jones]

This felt a bit like a young lion's match, where pride is on the line above all else, basically a contest of who blinks first. It had good amount of pro wrestling flair for a BattlArts match, similar to when guys like Hidaka or Ibushi work there. I liked the approach Sawa and Fujita brought even if it felt like a bit of a work in progress. By the end they packed a lot into a relatively short match without doing a ton, and delivered a great conclusion.