[2023-05-16-Tenryu Project] Hikaru Sato vs Kouki Iwasaki

[Ma Stump Puller]

Super solid main event, yet another example of Sato having a super great title run but it being slept on because he's not in NJPW and thus might as well not exist lol. We got a great juxtaposition between Sato's shooty-work and Iwasaki just going full pro-style with a furry of strikes and bombs early to try to just run Sato over and end this as soon as possible. Sato's usual technical work did not have much of a strong effect, with his submissions regularly countered or his strikes turned into more slams. This more faster-paced focus worked masterfully: we see that as the two get the crowd amped up for, of all things, a Orton-tier side headlock. It was impressive how much of a lead he had over Sato, regularly dominating with sharp kicks or just breaking the champ down with whatever he could muster. Eventually Sato has to rely on him overshooting on a attempted apron big boot to hit him with a stiff ass headbutt and a really cool rope-hung Octopus Stretch to finally make a breakthrough. We get some typical work as Sato adds the pressure with multiple flush jumping kicks, being able to finally focus on the arm with shots to the shoulder alongside slowing things down with submission wangling.

They did a great job with the last few minutes via communicating urgency; both men were massively fatigued so any big submission or strike could've convincingly been the finish despite the two braving it out as much as possible. We got the typical stiff forearm strike exchanges, only these were actually good because they hit each other hard/progressed well into Iwasaki's boots being the big factor into him winning out when they hit a impasse on them. Sato countering a running corner knee strike to go into a stiff ass powerbomb was a awesome bit. They did a good job getting Iwasaki over as he basically bombed Sato to near death regardless of all of the arm damage before once again fumbling near the finish line (in this case pausing due to his shitty arm) which in turn gives Sato enough breathing room to counter a pin off a German suplex into a deep double wrist lock for the tap-out.

Great title defence here: they balanced a more frantic pace with enough nuance to still keep you interested outside of the action. It helps that this skips the big match filler bullshit tropes and immediately goes into impactful mat-work paired with some great strikes and counters to balance the books. Another top notch match by Tenryu Project, who knew?