[2002-05-02-NJPW] Manabu Nakanishi vs Bas Rutten

[Jetlag]

Rutten has been quite the consistent worker in NJPW. His strikes are so crazy that you buy him just caving in Nakanishis face any second. Rutten has such an aura that anytime Nakanishi can get a move in on him is impressive. There are a few spots that they pull off much better than you'd think, and Rutten gets thrown around. Nakanishis selling in the last couple seconds was shockingly good, not something I thought he had in him. Also loved him trying to power out of the flying armbar a split second after getting caught.

[Ma Stump Puller]

Did watch this recently, amazing Inoki-Ism sprint, probably one of the best Inoki-Ism type matches I've seen anyway. Between this, the Nishimura bout and the Tana/Kanemoto stuff, Bas legit has a bunch of solid matches to easily draw back on, which makes it doubly disappointing he didn't stick with wrestling and instead we had to have Bob Sapp (who I still maintain ISN'T bad, for the record, just not world champion material) basically take his push, because he's such a natural when it comes to even the little stuff, like selling the fear of Nakanishi's slams and bombs.