[2010-11-20-AJPW] Joe Malenko & Osamu Nishimura vs Masakatsu Funaki & Minoru Suzuki

[Ma Stump Puller]

"Incredible technical masterclass as expected from these four. Nishimura has made it his mission to bring Joe Malenko back into the promotion that arguably made him and his brother the acts they would become, and Funaki/Suzuki need no introduction. Even Suzuki, a chronic underachiever who phones aplenty was bringing his A-game here. Joe Malenko also looked really sturdy despite his age (45!) and his lack of experience, what with this being his first match back since 2000. Loads of "little things" moments shattered throughout as the four mix in a lovely blend of Catch/shoot-style with occasional splatters of cool pro-style moments like Nishimura/Funaki stiffing the shit out of each other with elbow smashes. There's a great spilt here between the more old-school styles of the first pairing and how that style interacts with the more contemporary proto-MMA shtick that Funaki and co throw out. You have Nishimura getting his ass beat by Funaki's striking advantages, having no real way to defend himself against such a blitz of furious kicks/submissions alongside having to Fujiwara his way out of the beatings by just taking them until a opening crops up. You got Joe Malenko doing all these epic Gotch-transitions and throws while Suzuki's got the knowledge to find ways out of them and into his own signature work and vice versa. The bit where Malenko counters his sleeper with a Cravat is just lovely, something you'd never see even these days. It truly felt like a subtle Dory moment of brilliance ripped right from the 70's to today.

Fatigue also played a huge part in how the match was formed as we get tons of struggles over holds. Never felt like it was "easy" or "loose" when it came to simply sticking on stuff, there was always a undercurrent of struggle to everything and the feeling that any sort of advantage could easily be lost if someone managed to get a breakthrough. This also translated into the general structure of the match as Nishimura sold amazingly for a extended beating by Funaki, mostly with his razor sharp kicks to the stomach and chest. Watching him drag himself around to escape Funaki's tricked out leg submissions and almost pathetically having to hurl his whole dangling upper body just for a wiff of the ropes felt rough as anything, making his brief moments of hope where he'd snap on a signature flashy roll-up much more impactful than what they would be if this wasn't a factor. Suzuki's work wasn't as convincing, simply because he just doesn't have any real striking work to make me think much of him: going from Funaki's killer kicks to worked forearms and little stubby knees is most assuredly a downgrade and I'm not going to hear otherwise.

Some good fake-outs here and there: the match ending on this never-say-die struggle with Malenko getting a toe-hold out of the RNC and never letting go of it even when Suzuki kept putting more pressure on the choke felt awesome. As a welcome back for Joe Malenko I don't think you could've done much better; he looked pretty solid despite some relative slowness (given his age that's warranted) and it felt like he never left to be honest. Nishimura doesn't have a lot of epic technical moments as this is more of a defensive/sell-heavy instance for him, getting to show off his compelling struggle to keep the team together despite his general disadvantages compared to his opponents. Suzuki is a bit more ehh (especially near the end) but he does put tangibly more effort into this as a whole so I can't complain too much, solid bully. Funaki was amazing; it's such a shame we don't have more of this version of him after AJPW because dude was a beast here. Incredibly nasty strikes and very fancy grappling moments galore, absolutely a highlight of this when he's able to just let loose with capable hands who can translate his relatively blank showmanship into something tangible for the match I.E. Nishimura making it all about him taking the blunt of it and still carrying himself forward despite the pain with as much stoic energy as possible until the very end where he's just screaming a ton. Good stuff, further proof that the Pro-Wres era of AJPW was assuredly much better than people act it out to be.