[2023-11-19-Tenryu Project-Ryutama Cup 2023] Keita Yano vs Kengo

[Ma Stump Puller]

This was a long watch (nearly 30 minutes!) but a very solid match so it evens out. The first half felt very similar to a Mutoha grappling showcase: no strikes, lots of minimalistic wrestling and a slow pace. It still had incredible attention to detail (Keita trying for a Sugar Foot mid-transition was pretty epic) and the two focused on respective limbs to try to feel around for a weakness of some sort. Kengo throws the first strikes when he's able to snap on a kneeling shoulder crank with some actually good elbows to the head. This sets Keita off and he immediately follows up with some awesome lucha stretching alongside similarly heelish antics like stomping on Kengo's hand and doing weird unconventional stuff to try to hurt his neck (at one point he goes for I think is a 80's Andre spot for no real reason? I love it) and keep him on the floor. Was also great to see that their potentially groan-worthy generic strike exchange amounted to Kengo doing two chops and Keita immediately shutting it down by driving his head to the floor with a neat Cravat takedown; they do a second one later on that also just amounts to Keita again eating a stiff elbow shot to then go off the ropes for a middle rope lariat, further highlighting his strategy to keep this on the floor as much as humanly possible even if it means taking a shot or two to do so.

Middle half is a bit more by the numbers barring Kengo being batshit crazy and throwing himself on the middle of the apron during a backdrop to start off. Most of it was his opponent being a goofy troll/doing good work on Kengo's taped shoulder. He does get in some nice offence and generally carries himself well on the bottom as he has to use more speed to try to catch Keita out, leading to some enjoyable back and forth bits between the two. It was good to see that this was mostly unsuccessful though because he definitely felt like the weaker act here compared to Keita's maestro hold-work, so he gets to work in the background while Keita does cool stuff and drags the match forward bit by bit. There's a great bit here where Kengo has enough of his dirty antics while in a surfboard chickenwing and ends up biting him lol. Things slow down again to illustrate Kengo's mounting struggle to escape from the mountain of holds he's stuck under, building to a really solid spin on a signature Riki Choshu spot as Keita slaps on the aforementioned headlock and Kengo slowly drags himself up into countering with this spectacular delayed backdrop: the amount of articulation they got out of this in terms of showcasing the steps involved and how they communicate Keita stubbornly keeping it applied even mid-move was phenomenal (to the point where you think he might just be able to pull it off...) helped by the backdrop itself looking super smooth right afterwards. Kengo hits a equally nasty one right after and throws himself on for multiple near fall pins which leads to probably one of the more showy sequences of the match as Keita keeps trying to arch out of the pins with fancy bridges a-la Kendo Kashin style but keeps getting smashed back down for his troubles.

Eventually this leads into a particularly Robertson-lite moment as Keita snaps on a Cravat to trap the shoulders and slowly goes into a really tricked out pinning position with the hold still applied. The last few minutes are simple: yet incredibly solid, focusing on the simple concept of Kengo trying to bomb Keita to death with elbows and backdrops while mostly battling his own fatigue in the process. It still throws in some spots to pop the crowd but they aren't exhaustive and actually have some impact to them especially when the entire match has been as grounded as this has been so you don't suffer from the usual NJPW-isms of a 15 minute overkill finishing stretch. The actual finish being Kengo hammering sharp elbows to Keita's face in pure frustration when he kicks out of the brainbuster until he simply stays down for a frog splash is simple yet effective to get over the two and bookends the match itself rather nicely. Is it slow in places? Sure. Is it low on big fancy move sequences? Yeah. It's still absolutely a great match by itself though. Super grounded and incredibly well-paced with loads of attention to detail thrown in to boot, absolutely worth checking out if you're remotely a fan of particularly sizable chunks of mat-wrestling in general. It cooks good