[2003-07-19-AJPW-Summer Action Series] Kendo Kashin vs Ryuji Hijikata

[Ma Stump Puller]

Hijikata has always been kinda of a mid-card act: technically competent, a Battlarts vet with tons of experience; yet always struggling to engage with his bland charisma and look and generally held back by his lack of depth as a worker in regard to that. This jr heavyweight title shot is one of his bigger accomplishments all things considered, and it's a match that I generally quite enjoyed for what it was trying to do. I liked Kashin trying to mess with him early on with goofy antics and just getting his ass kicked afterwards for his troubles after underestimating his striking advantage. Kashin takes the advantage in the mat-work; I love how much he makes his opponent uncomfortable here: knees in the neck, raking the eyes, pulling the hair, shoving his hand into his neck and squeezing: all designed to disorientate and get out of his more straight-laced submission attempts, turning the match into more of a fight than a pure-grappling affair. There's a roughness to this that I actually somewhat appreciate at times as Kashin can't always get his usual routine in and has to struggle around some fairly decent roundhouse kicks and mat work and while the two don't work really smoothly with each other, that actually tends to benefit more than harm the sequences here as they feel more gritty and well-earned as opposed to just going from a to b with no struggle. 

There's a great bit where Kashin tries for his top rope cross armbreaker and Hijikata just takes his head off with a meaty stiff flying kick and a good looking Fisherman Buster that the audience bit for with the near fall. A few bombs later and Kashin eventually takes the win after countering a second attempted Fish Buster into a small package transition before stepping into the armbreaker which nabs him the win. For something that wasn't really anything spot-heavy, I surprisingly enjoyed this a fair deal: Kashin sells and bumps hard for his far less popular opponent, gets the audience pumped up for his near falls and manages to work a logical heel approach, even going out of his comfort zone a few times, and in doing so it's by far one of Hijikata's better non-Battlarts showings given that fact. It's short as well, which for me always tends to make a match better than worse. Solid defence, pretty sturdy Kashin-style performance.