[2022-10-30-NOAH] Masakatsu Funaki vs Kazushi Sakuraba

[Ma Stump Puller]

Technically very solid but I get why this is so divisive. Funaki can still go when he wants (like seriously, the dude looks pretty good for someone in their 50's when he's bothering to actually wrestle and do stuff that isn't just weaker material from his AJPW days) but Sakuraba was never a amazing wrestler, just a very gifted technical worker; even back in UWFI and Kingdom this was the case more or less. At this point he's just kind of there, a lot of good mat-work but with none of the showmanship or psychology that Muto had to make that grounded style click (obviously he doesn't wrestle shoot-style, but you get the point, his work feels more impactful despite it functioning mostly as filler with limited importance) lots of just hold wangling and shoot-style fundamentals with the occasional Sakuraba goofy moment. But yeah, the crowd were IN to this as soon as the bell sounded and they started going back and forth, definitely one of the hotter matches in terms of just people shouting and stuff.

The mat-work was intelligent but nothing that made me go " wow" it just felt like these two having a exhibition more or less than a battle for one of the biggest titles in NOAH, which has felt like that a ton with Funaki matches generally, it's just a prop that Funaki has before and after the match. Saku was a bit all over the place here but if you've actually watched his PRIDE stuff then you know it's par for the course for that lad. There wasn't much build-up for the end, it just had Saku get mauled in stand-up by Funaki's sharp kicks and palm strikes before he slapped on a side-Darce for the quick win. It's definitely a bit weird but I didn't think this was that bad, just lacking in tension.

Saku as much as I love the mad lad for everything he's done in MMA and beyond is admittedly kinda washed these days and felt lethargic here (gassed up pretty quick, which wouldn't matter that much if this wasn't a three minute sprint) as opposed to Funaki who was very much on point, loved the front Grovit he randomly threw out near the end for a submission attempt. I wish we at least got a few more minutes of these two mat-working but I get what they were going for here, it just felt lacking in actual content: the general rule is that if you are going for a super short sprint/early finish, you need to make the actual sprint be at least interesting or with some undercurrent of tension, like it could end at any point like a Fujita match or whatnot. Maybe don't structure big title bouts like early PRIDE undercard matches lol. This is definitely one of those matches that I can get people liking in a specific context, but it just doesn't translate well at all for me.