[1989-03-15-NJPW] Takayuki Iizuka vs Minoru Suzuki

[Jetlag]

Pretty damn good young lion match. This was the earliest Suzuki I‘ve seen, but he was already firmly into the shootstyle thing. Lots of cool slick matwork with Suzuki locking in some clinical looking armbars and doing some really cool stuff, like turning a Fujiwara armbar into a pin. The cool thing was that they didn‘t make it look easy, both guys had to fight even for something like a snapmare. Watching this made me wonder how either guy would have done on a different career path, e.g. Suzuki staying in NJPW and Iizuka doing shootstyle. The last couple minutes rule with Suzuki hitting big throws and a great looking corner dropkick while trying to fend off Iizukas Sambo leglocks, while both guys are laying in the smacks. Good shit.

[superkix]

Yeah, this was solid. Suzuki is already so slick here, and the sense of struggle throughout was great. Iizuka fighting for the snapmare, Suzuki working through various armbar setups and takedowns, Suzuki's selling of the leg as Iizuka goes after it in the second half. Of course, this builds to Suzuki's comeback with a sick high corner kick to the dead, that big dropkick, and some neat judo throws. They slap it out before Suzuki hits the armbar takedown>armbar for the submission.