[2013-12-28-Pro Wrestling Wallabee- The Victory Show #5) KEITA In The HOUSE vs Manabu Hara

[Ma Stump Puller]

This is a LONG ass match, going past 30 minutes if you can believe it. Hara, however, is a damn good guy to be working a match of this length and incredibly apt as a opponent given he faced and defeated Keita in his debut match. This is as you can imagine very mat-focused match as a whole. The matwork is really good but there is a ton of it, also doesn't attempt to make it anymore palpable either. Hara generally is the better grappler until Keita gets one of his tricked out leg-holds (think it was a inverted figure-four? ) to damage it, allowing him to get some leeway in by targeting said leg and forcing Hara to counter before grabbing something better instead like a arm or the head. This works until his opponent decides to start using strikes, which drastically changes things and adds in some good danger from any attempt to run in for takedowns. There's this awesome bit where Hara seemingly sprawls out a Keita takedown only for him to lead his foot in so he could stick his knee right on his ankle bone for a no-hand toe hold, absolutely great shit there. Keita keeps up the control with general limb work while Hara can still rely on just beating the piss out of him when it mattered and focusing on his own leg work which he could supplement with his vicious low kicks for knockdowns. The match at times becomes essentially the two in knots trying to batter the other person's limb without getting wasted on their own part, and really, is there anything better in wrestling?

I also thought that Keita's leg selling in places was way better than it needed to be. The way he'd hop around and keep the bad leg out of striking range or even drop potentially winning submissions because the leg just wasn't good enough to support his weight is a novel concept that definitely has few applications in actual wrestling matches, let alone one without a ring or ropes. Most of the time you just see the person just sell in the holds before shaking their leg a bit and going right into full speed sequences; no such thing here, thankfully. Seeing the guy even pull out William Regal throwbacks out of pure frustration was a treat as well, trying to backfoot boot him on ref breaks and practically begging him to shake his hand so he could mangle him back down again. Hara definitely ruled here as well with his explosive kicks, basically pasting Keita whenever he'd get the chance with strike combos. The second half does have some erratic stuff thrown in by Keita especially (which did somehow take away from the intensity these two had done well to establish) but they brought things back to greatness in the closing moments as the two brawl with strikes, throwing out closed fists and whatnot.

Keita manages to land a modified GTS where he drops the knee on Hara's back before following up with a stiff ass lariat. His hubris, however, becomes his undoing during the finishing stretch. He interrupts the ref count to try to finish him off with a head/arm choke into pin before Hara smoothly rolls around for a armbreaker. Keita ends up stuck in a triangle choke when he attempts to escape, throwing in some dramatics as he falls over trying to power out of it and ends up getting choked out for the submission loss to Hara....again.

As a match it's really quite something with a unique styles clash between the more refined/strict Bati-Bati Hara vs the more Llave Keita resulting in a ton of really great engaging technical work between the two. They both respectfully bring their best here, though I think in terms of individual performances Keita did slightly better; his selling and sheer aggression at points to try to score the win felt real and absolutely fuelled by struggle to defeat someone who is in many ways the opposite of himself: a conventional clean-cut striker. Hara is a good foil for that unique dynamic and his strikes are mostly solid, yet he seemed a bit more generic by comparison. It works for the match though, making this a real easy watch despite the heavy amounts of grappling thrown in. Definitely watch this even if the prospect of watching a ringless match seems weird.