[2022-03-23-CAPTURE International] Naoya Nomura & Super Crafter U vs Kosuke Sato & Rikiya Fudo

[corwo]

I’m only familiar with Sato, one of my favorite prospects in BJW, and Nomura, who defected from AJPW not long ago. Crafter is a masked wrestler who, as far as I can tell, is a CAPTURE trainee. Meanwhile, Fudo is an utter tank of a man. Crafter and Nomura get into a brief spat before the bell over who will start the match, but the former prevails.

Crafter has all kinds of flashy tricks in his arsenal, including a jumping spin kick. Sato’s feistiness is on full display as he kicks at Crafter as he’s showboating for the crowd. Sato found himself on the wrong end of a sleeper and used his team’s first escape. Crafter tries to get fancy with a dropkick, and Sato simply sidesteps him. There’s nothing like a well-placed kick to the gut from Crafter to get Sato to break a hold. Wholesale tags to Nomura and Fudo follow, and the elbow strikes start flying. Nomura charges in with a spear, and it barely moves Fudo. Realizing his slam will only keep Nomura down for 9, Fudo decides to start clubbing Naoya in the face. Nomura lands a second spear and immediately transitions into a sleeper to pick up the first fall.

Crafter comes in hot, but Fudo charges him with a shoulder tackle that knocks him loopy, allowing Fudo and Sato to pick up the second fall. At this point, it feels like any move can end the match.

The match continues with a flurry of dropkicks from Sato to Crafter, with Kosuke showing more aggression. I’ve mentioned this elsewhere, but if BJW can tap into that side of Kosuke, they could have a star on their hands. Nomura tried to spear Fudo again but caught with one of the darndest lariats I’ve seen in a minute. Sato came back in and got into a slap fight with Nomura. Nomura got caught in a sleeper, but Crafter broke the hold. Still, Sato wouldn’t relent, but he got hit with a Brainbuster, and Nomura locked in a modified chokehold for the win. Fudo was livid and went after Nomura post-match, with the two having to be separated.

This is one of those “blink-and-you’ll-miss-it” type matches with so much cool stuff going on at all times. You had Crafter’s showy mat work, Nomura trying to spear the tar out of Fudo and Fudo barely budging, and Sato trying to prove his worth against the veterans of the scene. The falls could’ve easily felt rushed, with the whole match clocking in at just over ten minutes, but it was structured so well that it didn’t matter. Strongly recommend checking this out.

[Ma Stump Puller]

Seconded corwo's review, this is a fantastic outing for something that went the length of a typical WWF HEAT main event. Everyone gets the memo and there's next to zero wasted movement between the four, which is truly what makes this so damn fun to watch. Here's my own review for reference:

Spoiler

A two out of three falls going only 10 minutes is already based but having lads like Nomura and Crafter scrap it out is a very nice bonus! Him and Sato start off with some good scrambling on the mat, Sato using his Judoka background to topple and knock over Crafter while he settles to trying to cripple him with some vicious kicks. Really unique front roll by Crafter in back mount to snap on a RNC attempt before doing a random ass dropkick out of nowhere lol. Right after he does a cool sliding kneebar takedown that forces Sato to hustle his way slowly into double wrist lock threats before failing a cross armbreaker and eating a disgustingly rough gut kick. Fudo comes in and pretty much immediately starts trying to re-retire Nomura with really nasty forearms, leading to the pair scrapping and it ending with Nomura landing a nice stiff spear to the stomach. Fudo follows up with some Vader shit including a shoot splash and a disgusting kick to the back that just sounded off throughout the place. Nomura has some good scrappy selling, eventually winning out with a second running spear into RNC for the first fall. Thought it was sold realistically as well as Fudo basically wakes up after 10 to 20 seconds barely even knowing what happened, going right back into throwing shots. Crafter tags in to throw some kicks until Fudo gets him up for a real nasty front slam that has him selling his stomach before getting shoved into the railings.

This causes him to get counted out for a TKO by the ref; like how they present it as maybe a legit injury by Crafter's uncharacteristically vulnerable selling and by how the ref and other members of REAL BLOOD try to drag him off, only for him to relent at the last second to carry on scrapping. Sato has some terrific intensity as he hollers and screams bloody murder trying to crank Crafter's head in guillotines, couple teases at a possible push but no dice. Last minutes being focused around Nomura and Fudo was definitely the right choice since Fudo was doing his best Wilkins Jr. impression with stiff ass headbutts in mount and standing while Nomura was having to just withstand everything being thrown at him. He does a awesome job building up the tension as he just barely manages to scrape by (and even needs Crafter's help in points! ) needing every bit of effort just to stand and stay responsive. Sato is insanely focused on finishing him off with stiff ass PK's and focus back on the killer guillotine chokes; arguably what seals his fate since it lets his opponent get a snap suplex/double wrist lock for the conclusive tapout victory.

Really well put-together for a match as compact as this: you get everyone's roles and styles here pretty much just from the first couple of minutes watching, but most importantly you get really fantastic action within that compact space. No one lets up here, there's all sorts of vicious blows and malice all across the board, especially with Fudo/Crafter who just seem like sociopathic killers here mostly just to rattle skulls rather than "win a wrestling match" cuz that's lame, right? Nomura looked similarly good, having a impassioned performance that really made me wish he wasn't so injury-prone since a guy like this could really shake up AJPW if given the chance. Sato for a relative unknown looked strong here as the youngling just messing people up with dropkicks and Judoka antics. All in all a VERY strong match with some incredible violence.