[2010-11-28-EXIT Pro Wrestling-Wanabee] Fugo Fugo Yumeji vs Keita Yano

[Ma Stump Puller]

Complete batshit insanity as per expected from EXIT events. These two are battling with chains as ropes while in some dodgy basement with a camera setup that feels like some garbage CCTV from 1993 recording. The first half is focused firmly around holds. Fugo is not really a hold guy whatsoever and is a rather weird/unconventional opponent for Keita in this regard, but he still has the tools alongside Keita's milking of said tools to make this work as a concept. Fugo wasn't complex when it came to what he did in this section; mostly just grabbing ankles/arms or necks and going from there, while Keita would pull off some typically tricked out counters to show off his advantages. It's nothing awful and the two do get a good feeling for the other after a while of wangling. Fugo gets pissed after a good 15/20 minutes of tense grappling, unleashing a gross headbutt while in mount alongside slaps to really rattle him, firmly establishing the real start of the peak here.

What helps a ton is that the low quality + the sheer bizarreness of the setting lends itself to a very fine layer of imagination being able to creep in when you're actually watching this. For instance, Fugo throwing on a tight headlock to drag Keita down to the mat would probably look fairly mediocre by its lonesome if it was in a well-lighted area with an actual good quality camera recording, but in here it looks like Keita's whole face is getting squished thanks to the visuals being scuffed, adding that sleazy backstreet feeling to everything that makes it twice as dangerous. They play off each other well here as Keita tries to match Fugo in sheer violence, mostly fails to do so as he simply doesn't have the sheer violent energy to really test him there. We get a good bit where that's reflected by Keita losing his cool trying to submit a deadweight Fugo and letting loose with his own headbutts, only to end up losing all of his advantage because those same reckless headbutts ended up doing more damage to him than his opponent. There's a good theme of frustration wherein Keita as the young kid is getting pissed and impatient with multiple moments like the above where he just pushes his luck way too far and ends up seriously hurting because of it.

The finish is abrupt! Keita is being knocked around for close 10 counts with vicious strikes, forcing him to hit a real abrupt backdrop on Fugo after some struggle and getting a desperation armbar on him for maximum dramatics, really invoking some Inoki vibes as he just manages to squeeze out a victory out of a match he was seemingly outmatched in. It's a bizarre feature that definitely builds itself inherently towards alienating most people even trying to watch due to the quality (let alone the wrestling) yet still has lots of endearing stuff in it. Both guys carry a ton of intensity and the work done is nothing fancy but said intensity just helps that a ton to get it over. It's a more interesting encounter for Keita because he simply isn't able to show off as much because his opponent sandbags him on the fancier IIave material forcing him to get more simple and focus on selling: something that I think he's still great at anyway. Really good gritty work that you should absolutely attempt to watch at some point.