[2009-20-11-AJPW-Pro-Wrestling Love In Taiwan] Osamu Nishimura vs Suwama

[Ma Stump Puller]

I found this on AJPW's old Gaora channel on YT (which is long since been defunct) alongside a bunch of gems during a period of time that is infamously hard to get footage from in the first place. This is from their taping of a Taiwan house-show in the finals of a one night tournament; Nishimura got by easily with two fairly short matches while Suwama grinded out two long matches in which he seemingly injured his leg on the second round.

I was happily surprised that these two went as hard as they did for a worthless tournament that didn't even matter much. They could've easily stuck on the brakes and coasted, but thankfully this was not the case and we got yet another really good outing from the two. The starting sequences established Nishimura's technical advantages over Suwama who despite his amateur credentials could only sprawl and defend, while Suwama was the stronger of the two that could hit much harder. Nishimura tries to strike exchange with him, inevitably has to go for Suwama's taped up leg with kicks. The spot right after with Nishimura struggling over said leg to try to grab on a flash Cobra Twist was surprisingly compelling as Suwama had to drop to one knee and was subsequently punished with some really mean Dory-style Catch mangling as he struggled to escape. Dude stuck Suwama in a double-wrist toe-hold, how can you not love that? Nishimura kept chaining submissions whenever Suwama would get close to the ropes, eventually one becomes too many and he fails applying his figure four so said ropes are reached. Good starting stuff that established the stakes of the match from the get-go.

Good control segment of Suwama trying for strikes while standing up only for his opponent to hammer on his legs with unclean work, dirty breaks, and consistent focus on messing up Suwama's injury for good heat when he couldn't win with shots alone. Nishimura doing the Inoki crab kicks will never not be a awesome spot and Suwama sells it great by just crumbling to pieces as soon as it happens. We get some count out teases as Suwama keeps getting messed up on the apron and struggling to walk around, followed by big top rope knee drops. Second figure four alongside some compelling emotive work as Suwama's buddies and the ref tease calling off the match by throwing in the towel while he just begs them not to do so, cool babyface energy that got a BIG reaction from the crowd, as did him eventually reversing and escaping from the move. The way that they afterwards expertly work up the tension of Suwama trying for a suplex with his busted leg is just masterful, and it pays off as he's finally able to get a lead in this match. Last five minutes were super fun as the two exchanged holds and counters; the ankle lock counter to the spinning toe hold, Nishimura trying to spring back up with one leg to then be answered with a vicious German suplex, etc etc. Suwama finishes the job with a furry of lariats, Nishimura gets one or two near falls with roll-ups before finally being put down with a Last Ride.

Again, this was seriously high quality for a random B-show and really showcases why Nishimura even at this point could be a insanely good worker when allowed to actually cook. Suwama spends most of this selling and bumping for control segments and it never feels dull while Nishimura's limb work is super varied and gets over his desperate need to keep the big guy grounded by any means, even if it means bending the rules to do so. I think they did a solid job at working around the story of Suwama's leg injury given he didn't actually do a whole lot here bar sell for a good long while, meaning we really get to see how he handles emoting and getting over the stakes to a mostly unfamiliar crowd. I'd say mission accomplished in that regard considering the great responses they were getting here. Another great showing to add to the list of matches between these two.