[2018-05-13-Coward Pro] Sen Nakadai vs Keita Yano

[Ma Stump Puller]

more detailed diving here

San Nakadai was a legit Pancrase guy who never seemed to get anywhere bar opening act for what seemingly was a fairly infrequent career. he now has the Yakuza tats to go along with his wrestling persona as a dangerous MMA guy who will kick you in the face if need be. There's a fascination with such a matchup with someone like Keita who typically had to sprawl with fairly giving Bati-Bati guys and not legit fighters. Is it warranted? I think so in this case. 

You see that unique matchup become apparent as Keita tries doing his little tumble roll at the very start and Sen almost by instinct tries kicking him while he's down there lol. Generally the early exchanges have Keita super apprehensive to commit to anything as his opponent does outsprawl him on the ground and catches him right in the face with a weird standing face wash off a high kick, forcing him to take a break right afterwards. It really feels like he's super ineffective in this matchup against someone who has no time for his BS and just wants to turn this into a mean brawl than a wrestling match, something that his opponent is not particularly great at. Of course Sen also does some goofy ahh nonsense like a random springboard axe handle (???) I mean it's cool, just seemed out of the blue for someone like him. 

They did a good job working in Keita's big break being him taking advantage of Sen's aggression to force the ref to break them up, letting him sneak in a sucker punch and chop block in turn in a cool bit. Similarly decent limb work afterwards as Keita balances attacking the leg alongside his usual quirky tendencies, throwing in the occasional lucha spot or punch to the face. Sen also kinda has that Bas Rutten selling down where he doesn't waste time laying in holds for too long, always trying to throw in some agency to make the submissions have more sense to them than otherwise by either trying to get around it or reaching for the ropes. When Keita hunts for the leg while he's in the corner he ends up socking him in the face despite him still having hold of the leg and egging on some slaps to get Keita prone for a sick knee to the head while he's balancing on one leg, real awesome spot. His short-arm lariat thrown out after is surprisingly good as well for his experience level. 

Finish was really simplistic: Keita caught a running PK, tried taking the leg again but ended up getting slapped into a big chokeslam for the pinfall. For what it was? I think this was fairly decent. I feel like there's a better match between these two conceptually that we simply don't see that's more heavy on the shoot-style sprawling and brawling that the first half had built in fairly well. At the same time, however, I can understand why they went for a more varied performance given they weren't exactly working with stakes or anything. For what its worth it's still intriguing by its lonesome and Sen Nakadai is shockingly quite good for a non-wrestler with minimal experience, throwing a ton of snug strikes and getting the memo down here. Keita isn't necessarily carrying here but he does do the bulk of the big selling and the whole structure (he gets beaten up for ages/dramatic counter/limb control/back and forth) feels like something he'd cook up as it is rather similar to some of his other material. All in all, fun stuff.