[2020-06-16-NJPW-New Japan Cup 2020: Night One] Tomohiro Ishii vs El Desperado

[SmartMark15]

There are many ways to have a great match in the COVID-era. The best approach, of course, is not to try and remind all promoters out there that holding shows anywhere in the world even now is grossly irresponsible. That’s #1 which probably makes Roman Reigns the actual Wrestler of the Year with Sami Zayn at a close #2.

Barring that, workers can try to focus on a more technical matbased approach. Daniel Bryan, Drew Gulak, and Timothy Thatcher have shown how effective this can be. Matwork is something that requires so much focus and attention to begin with that it often drowns in lively crowds. Played to a mostly empty arena, a viewer at home has the chance to zone in on the action. Truly elite level workers can combine this kind of detailed oriented work with the larger, more bombastic spots that can dazzle people into forgetting the emptiness.

Ishii and Desperado don’t do that here. Instead, they just brute force their way into greatness.

Early on, it’s exceedingly clear that neither Ishii nor Desperado have made any adjustments to their style. It’s pretty clear that this is the match they would have worked if they were in front of an audience. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that but there are some things exposed by that choice. Desperado’s early heat segments lose a lot of steam because he’s preoccupied with taunting and posing for a crowd that isn’t there. He works a much slower and methodical heat segment than befits the empty arena. It doesn’t work because no one’s in the room to fill the dead air with boos.

Luckily Desperado’s in there with Ishii and that guy will just beat four stars out of anybody. Ishii brings his usual fire and brutal offense to this but this time gets to add limb selling to the work. Where I know Ishii much more for his ability to subtly portray cumulative damage, I thought his limb selling was done exceedingly well here. Hell, we even get a mid-powerbomb crumble spot which might be one of the best things I’ve seen in wrestling all year.

The real meat of this match is the lengthy extended finishing stretch where Desperado pulls out every trick he knows to try to put Ishii down. It’s incredibly convincing too. There’s exposed turnbuckles, low blows, and of course the bad knee. But the big man just won’t stay down. Ishii is a force of nature and it’s always a wonder to see him work when the gears are switched on. Stiff strikes and brainbusters. I loved it.

[SmoothS]

I loved this match as well. Tomohiro Ishii is one of the greatest workers of all time, and he has learned so well from Puroresu Legends, Riki Choshu & Genichiro Tenryu, and it always shows. Of course Ishii is going to approach the match with his usual straightforward, honorable warrior style... that is the polar opposite of El Desparado who is anything but a straightforward honorable warrior. He will cheat, undermine, & weasle his way around anything, thus taking advantage of whatever opportunities present themselves. He did an excellent job of attacking Ishii's exposed knees (to set up for the Stretch Muffler), taking the corner padding off to have another way to weaken Ishii, taking advantage of the referee as he always does. Just a master of shenanigans. Ishii is straight up, one of if not, the best seller in wrestling today, he is so believable, appropriate, and even knows when not to sell as well. The structure layout here was amazing and sucked me right in. Finally Ishii hit the Running Lariat off the ropes, and the Brainbuster and got Despy up out of there. One of the best matches of June 2020 for sure. ****1/4

[ShittyLittleBoots]

I can appreciate Ishii's (always tbh) extremely good selling, and the legwork did give the match some charm & identity, but as an overall package, it didn't do a whole lot to me. Felt like a generic Ishii match with a different opponent, BUT to immediately backtrack that statement a little bit, as mentioned, the legwork did somewhat freshen things up & there was one genuinely fantastic moment in the match in Ishii's comeback when he just ran through Desperado with that shoulder tackle, making this definitely not a COMPLETELY dull & forgettable affair all in all. **1/2