[2009-05-22-Apache Pro] GENTARO & The Winger vs Keita Yano & Yoshihito Sasaki

[Ma Stump Puller]

more detailed diving here??? 

This lasted 25 minutes (! ) thankfully the action made it seem much less than that when watching. Keita is in his young boy phase yet (only 2 years wrestling btw) still had a lot of the great qualities that would continue on with him; namely his authentic aggression and incredibly nerdy technical work. Both of those come best to light when he's in there with GENTARO for obvious reasons, with the two having some really awesome tricked out Iiave-lite exchanges between each other with counters to things I've never even thought of before. Such a shame that this is the only "big" taping (bar a singles match in the same promotion that rest assured WILL be covered) of these two in action because even here you felt some strong chemistry. Sasaki is a mean fucker who chops people to death and has basically only two solutions to everything in that he either slams you hard or hits you hard until the problem is solved. Even when the pair target his arm the dude just powers into a scoop slam anyway like a beast, when him and Keita are working the leg he's basically just slamming it down or sitting on it. Wrestling needs more basic hosses like this lad ngl.

Winger was the weakest as per expected given his rep yet he wasn't bad for what he was here as essentially a guy to sell and get the younger guys some shine. GENTARO was a menace as he attacked the pair while they were working on Winger and tore Sasaki's leg apart with the classic Bret routine of rope hung hip drops + turnbuckle-hung Figure-Four. They also threw in some awesome lariat shots between each other for the tag with Keita, which was shocking given Winger's work was all slow hold stuff that more or less filled time. GENTARO/Keita had some more cool hold exchanges, including Keita rolling out of a bow and arrow to snap into a side headscissors before getting rolled back into it all in the space of about 30 seconds so you can tell these two were cooking here. Really badass moment where Sasaki tries to break up a Octopus hold with a sharp chop to the back and walks off until GENTARO demands another while still applying the hold and chases him outside afterwards for a quick brawl. Generally those kind of antics made this feel a lot more hateful than it would otherwise, helped by the main players keeping that vibe up as things went further.

They threw in some wild stuff near the end like a 3 person superplex and double spear to really get over Sasaki as this huge threat, him doing the Torture Rack right after to Winger was just the icing on the cake there. GENTARO ends up costing him the victory as he manages to catch Keita in a cravat to throw him at Sasaki to stop the submission. Russian leg sweeps can't cut it and Sasaki catches G out with a really well-done mid-air spear when he tries going off the second rope that put Batista's to shame. Finishing stretch felt appropriately urgent as Keita hits some really frantic quick submission counters to try to squeeze out a win (including a sweet sleeper out of a armbreaker motion). Really liked how him and GENTARO really operated near the end, things always feeling like any small counter could push things over the edge: the sleeper exchange spot, the bottom rope rebound lariat into Fujiwara armbar, that into a improvised roll-up when Keita tries rolling up and over to escape.....everything had a sort of impact to it that you just don't see typically where it mattered a lot more than it would otherwise, helped by Keita bumping and selling like crazy as the underdog here when he'd get caught trying to wiggle away. 

They capped it off well and didn't overindulge, finishing simply by having Keita brave through a kick to the head to hit a flash bottom rope lariat for the 3.1 pin and upset. Shockingly great tag team work that never once felt like the 25-minute mark this actually was, helped by a structure that benefited a ton by having varied and dynamic performances on display. Winger is perhaps the odd-one out in terms of simply being "decent" instead of "good" yet he still carries his own and doesn't feel left out ultimately. GENTARO felt like such a incredible maestro here, balancing very crafty technical work with good limb control, feeling mostly in control of the match when he was around. Sasaki is a terrific mini-hoss that keeps himself fairly minimalistic as a statement; no attempt to go off the ropes or do any fancy shit, he's just here to hit hard. Keita is a great contrast because he settles for technical trickery, fails mostly at it against someone clearly more experienced than him, still trucks along until he relents for just throwing himself around instead lol. Absolutely worth the watch if you can search it out.