[1994-06-11-NJPW Dream Win V] Manabu Nakanishi vs Shinya Hashimoto

[Ma Stump Puller]

This was a treat. Nakanishi is only 2 years or so in the business, still a Young Lion but he's practically already got his whole shtick downpat as a huge dude who throws weight around.  Hashimoto establishes that well as he gets pushed around for the first minute or so in tests of strength before resorting to his signature stiff kicks to sort things out. Nakanishi tries answering with slaps but Hashimoto just beats the shit out of him whenever he tries to step up again. There was barely any actual wrestling bar a suplex for the first 5 or so minutes, it was just big Hash throwing stiff shots and his opponent having to essentially survive with occasional moments of resistance. Slowly yet surely Nakanishi gets more and more shots in and Hash has to resort to submissions to try to slow him down (including a nasty Fujiwara) but eventually he powers out of a front face lock into a huge underhook belly to belly that Hash jumps really big for, making Nakanishi look like a monster.

Nakanishi has this kind of unpolish to everything that he does that makes his offence so much better: his spears are just basically him doing running headbutts to the stomach, his big lariats are just him ungracefully throwing himself at Hash to knock him down, and he has stuff like rapid-fire headbutts and wacky German suplexes that just add to the jank, really getting over his gimmick as a big dude who relies on power instead of technique. Crowd explodes for Nakanishi applying the backbreaker/Torture Rack but Hash elbows him in the cheek to get out. I love the subtle Hash selling: he's been in control for the entire match, looming over his opponent, pacing the match his way: just kneeling down and looking concerned gets the crowd all excited because they know he's going to have to step things up to end this conclusively. And he does, finishing the match quick with a side kick to the legs, a stiff rolling wheel kick and a great jumping DDT into triangle armbar for the win. This was a short beating essentially but for what it was, I really enjoyed it. No big epics here, just two beefy lads hitting stiff shots until one fell down. Hashimoto is one of the greats when it comes to getting squash matches over and Nakanishi even this early was real fun, despite his arguably underwhelming career.