[2019-06-22-ZERO1- Fire Festival: Night Two] Daisuke Sekimoto vs Shinjiro Otani

[paul sosnowski]

Daisuke Sekimoto defends the Zero1 World Title.   Talk about it here   

 

[ShittyLittleBoots]

The big story of the match begins almost immediately with Otani going for a leg submission - there's this awesome bit in the beginning with him trying to fully lock in his sub, but Daisuke keeps on fighting, just trying to boot Otani away, but Otani ain't giving up his hold very easily, as he himself answers to Daisuke's frantic fighting w/ a couple of slaps to the stomach. Fantastic, simple struggle that really put over Otani's leg submissions as something to be scared of. Otani sure continues to go for those leg holds, and everytime he gets one in, Daisuke's selling is just amazing. His visceral roars & facial expressions are SUPERB. I thought that overall his selling was pretty outstanding all the way through. Like I mentioned, he sold the submissions fantastically, and everytime he got the control, he moved way slower than usual. A perfect example of that would be the moment where he is delivering some stomps to Otani in the corner. He is selling the fatigue & the damage Otani had done to his leg brilliantly. And talking bout brilliant stuff, the moment that actually followed was absolutely awesome - Daisuke had FINALLY got the match under control, and as he is looking to do something to a grounded Otani, the crowd starts cheering & chanting very loudly for Otani, which Daisuke also sells in terrific fashion w/ a real look of confused disgust & anger, and then he also yells something to the crowd. Not only is the old fucker doing a real number on him, but the crowd is also not giving him any sympathy. More great moments from a match that was full of them was Otani's own comeback; he worked that crowd magic to perfection by milking them to the maximum, asking for their energy before washing Daisuke's face in. Him stopping Daisuke's running lariat attempt with a goddamn SLAP to the face was absolutely wonderful as well. Then there's small moments like him trying to lock in a full nelson, which Daisuke answers to quickly by not letting that happen as he rams Otani into the corner, but Otani refuses to have that be the end of his plan, as he wants that damn full nelson in, so he goes to do it again, which Daisuke answers again by ramming him into the corner. They repeat that a few times in a row & it just low-key blew my mind in its simplicity. That's also when it hit me that the whole match was pretty much an incredible, almost constant struggle for Daisuke, and he TRULY shined in that role. Now going back to the selling - I've read that some people thought that Daisuke's selling of the leg wasn't good, but really the only few moments that somewhat annoyed me were the bridging pin & then the top rope splash, but those didn't annoy me enough for this match to be anything other than absolute class in my eyes. ****1/2

[superkix]

This was your fun Ohtani showcase match with Sekimoto playing the subtle heel monster. I liked how Ohtani used the legwork to squash Sekimoto's big comeback attempts - I liked Sekimoto trying to stomp out of the leg hold with Ohtnai hanging on and slapping his chest. Sekimoto's best selling came when he was chopping away at Ohtani and then Ohtani smacks the shit out of him. But the legwork becomes more about the transitions, and less about the actual legwork. Plenty of classic Ohtani spots, typical Sekimoto control segments (although his Sharpshooter spot is still so dumb), and some bombs to build the finish. I liked Ohtani scrambling around the ring at the end in true underdog fashion before Sekimoto ends the dream. Fun old man Ohtani match but nothing classic.