[1994-06-18-RINGS] Akira Maeda vs Volk Han

[superkix]

Kind of a tale of two matches because the half of this match before the stoppage was really good. You have Han kicking Maeda in the face to start, dominating with submission holds and Maeda's great in-the-moment selling to rally the fans. Maeda's able to down him with a high kick but Han slides in for his signature standing single leg. Maeda pisses off Han with repeat leg kicks and when Han lays into him with strikes, he ends up poking Maeda's eye and they stop the match. When they restart, there is a lot more stalling, Maeda's more hesitant, his takedowns look really weak like he's scared of getting hit again. Some of the groundwork is cool like Maeda's controlling of the choke sleeper and Han's cool arm-and-leg trap submission. They trade some shots toward the end, Maeda grabs the leglock for the submission, and wins. But he really shouldn't have.