[2001-01-04-NJPW-Wrestling World 2001] Satoshi Kojima vs Kensuke Sasaki

[soup23]

Great match and opener to a tournament.  They start off fast to try to win early since they will have to wrestle three times to win it all. Kojima completely eats the guardrail on a tope LA park style and is bleeding above the eye.  From there, Kojima is focusing on the arm of Sasaki and it becomes a battle of whether, Sasaki can muster enough power and will in that arm to weather the storm of the attack.  Overall, it was a great contrast and Sasaki gave an admirable Misawa-esque sell job in showing that his arm was wounded but he had to fight through or he wasn’t going to accomplish his final goal.  It was the weapon he came into battle with and if he lost, he lost with dignity.  Overall, he is able to succeed but Kojima was the perfect foil for the quarterfinal round. **** (8)

[AstroBoy]

I was much lower on this and wasn't wild about it.  Decent war of attrition and Kojima's tope was nuts but the effects of the armwork just felt arbitrary even if sold well.  Just didn't click all the way for me.

***

[superkix]

I thought this was really good.  Kojima busting himself open on the tope was gnarly, as mentioned, but I thought the armwork was great and consistent, with good selling from Sasaki as he tries to survive and battle back with his injured lariat arm. I liked Kojima turning the Tornado Bomb into the armbar, and then catching the lariat attempt only to slam Kensuke's arm into the turnbuckle. Sasaki unable to hit the North Lights Bomb due to his injured arm allows Kojima to spike him with the modified Michinoku Driver in a cool spot. I thought the use of the crab hold to finish off Kojima was weird but the lead up to that, with Sasaki not dying to everything Kojima was dishing out, was compelling.

[Calvin]

This is everything I would've wanted out of these two in this setting. It was compact, connective, and had no wasted motion whatsoever.

***1/2