[2019-04-04-GCW-Josh Barnett's Bloodsport] Josh Barnett vs Minoru Suzuki

[ShittyLittleBoots]

There were some points of the match where I lost interest for a while, but the highs of it were so high it couldn't be anything less than great overall. The smacktalking between them, Suzuki's slowly-turns-his-head-to-the-camera-side-to-reveal-his-sadistic-smile -moment & the last 10 minutes or so were absolutely amazing. ****

[nivvad]

Fuck me for not thinking Josh Barnett of all people would have one of the best matches of the weekend. Suzuki was on a higher level here than he usually is, and yeah his performance met that incredible expectation, but Barnett stole the show in my opinion. His selling and urgency to not get captured in a submission was great, and his big bombs had awesome impact behind it. Definitely did not need to go into overtime if they were just going to go to another draw, but still a great main event to a great show, ****1/2.

[Childs]

They were on their way to having a classic, but it came apart a bit in the last 10 minutes. I like Suzuki's schtick, but I really like it when he's pushed to do something more, and Barnett pushed him early. The chair stuff and the forearm exchange were less interesting, and I was not a fan of them doing the extra time only to finish in a draw anyway. Still a cool spectacle on top of an engaging top-to-bottom show, but they left a little on the table. 

[Tenese Sarwieh]

A marvelous back and forth battle with great transitions and stiff strikes making these two come out looking like world beaters at the end.

[aaeo_]

The last ten minutes are entertaining in a goofy way but I thought it detracted a lot from what was a pretty great match beforehand. They go way overboard and Barnett even throws a rolling thunder kick just for the sake of it. One of the most interesting things about this match is how much it's like a 70s Inoki match (down to the time limit draw and overtime) but in half the time and with Suzuki doing goofier faces.

[Cap]

Loved this match. I agree that they sort of lost the plot near the end, trying too hard to make it magical and not just letting it be magical.  The thing is, they sort of win me back with it and I get lost in the nonsense again. This is a match that probably coulda been an all timer if it remained a little more focused, but it also wound up being white hot and it is hard to argue with that.

****1/2 - Its sort of at the boarder between this and 4.75. I'll try to give it a rewatch. Regardless, this is in my top 3 MOTY so far.

[superkix]

The early tradeoffs on the mat were very good, and the cool little Suzuki nuances added to them - I especially liked his punch to set-up the leglock. And Barnett's good at throwing his weight into the exchanges - him tossing Suzuki like a sack of potatoes to get out of that snug side headlock was great. When Suzuki is forced to wrestle, he's still top-notch. His transition into the crucifix kneebar was slick. But the match stumbles a bit following the piledriver tease and doesn't have nearly the same chaos factor at Takeda/Gresham until they're wildly slapping each other to a draw. The highs are high enough and it's probably Suzuki's best singles performance of the year.