[1998-03-31-BJW] Yoshihiro Tajiri vs Ikuto Hidaka

[Jetlag]

About 12 of 21 minutes shown. Too bad because this looked like some of the best junior action of the year. The lucha vs. Shootstyle matwork they did was just beautiful – so smooth and Tajiri knew exactly to go into desperation mode whenever Hidaka locked in a hold. These are of course two guys with high end movesets and spectacular spots galore, but everything made sense and they never got overly cute.

[9 Corpses Hang in the Mist]

Usually prefer grittier grappling, but this was just so silky smooth without feeling over-choreographed that I would have been perfectly happy if the entire match had simply been them working this lucha-shoot style matwork.  Alas it is not to be, BUT the state-of-the-art junior wrestling they replace that excellent opening with is just as good.  Interestingly I see direction connections with this match and the matches Bryan Danielson and Low Ki would have together a few years down the line.  Highly recommended for fans of those particular matches.

 

Thanks, jetlag, for reviewing this by the way.  Otherwise I wouldn't have watched it let alone even knew it existed.

 

 

[MikeCampbell]

The lucha and shootstyle matwork was a blast to watch, and Tajiri was mostly great about selling his leg after Hidaka singled it out. The one thing that took me out of this was that Hidaka never seemed to come across as being a genuine threat to Tajiri and the title. It's great that he can seemingly cross kneelock him at will (the German suplex to cross kneelock was sick!) but, I never got the feeling that Tajiri was in any real imminent danger of losing the title here.