[2010-05-13-VKF] GENTARO vs Yoshiaki Yago

[Ma Stump Puller]

A good showing of GENTARO in his Bret-phase of technical brilliance against the uber-sleaze kickboxing MMA dude in Yago. The start of this was good tense grappling with the pair as they messily tried to grab for chokes and headlocks, occasionally getting tied in knots trying to submit the other. GENTARO does a good job guiding this around by working as the smaller man, having to consistently find clever ways to catch his bigger/meaner opponent off-guard. He typically has to try to attack limbs like the legs or arms to take away Yago's base and force him to work from under on the mat which comes into his biggest strength here. Yago feels like a bit of a crowbar here in that he's a bit all over the place in times and doesn't have the cleanest work in terms of anything he does but that works into his presentation as the less-refined yet still dangerous foil pretty well here, so it wasn't too much of a turnoff. Occasionally he does something REALLY awesome like a Robertson-lite back suplex backbreaker or just punching his opponent in the chest or face, so you can't really go wrong with that.

Yago seems to focus on the back during his little control stint in the middle half while GENTARO threw out a awesome amount of focus on attacking the leg in different ways to take back control, really keeping the coherency of the match together as he kept having to change things with his speed and agility to keep in the game. The crowd do get into the two getting over the Cobra Twist as the big scary move in Yago's arsenal that could win the entire match, GENTARO spending multiple occasions either having to struggle for dear life or just barely escaping from it by tying up in the ropes. When it gets cleanly applied it does get a tap out but there's a lame ref bump to ensure that Yago looks good without actually winning (which I despise as a "thing" in wrestling, it just doesn't work most of the time because it makes the guy who's supposed to look competent instead seem like a complete fucking dumbass for dropping the hold to lightly tap the ref's shoulder a couple of times). We still get a nice sequence of submission chaining out of Yago though so the spot isn't completely derivative. GENT throws a bunch of good bombs for near falls, a punch to the stomach from Yago again taking back control. The finish is built to make Yago again look like a killer as he tries for the pumphandle slam but GENTARO just barely manages to counter into a tight head/arm clutch 3.1. roll-up to win the whole thing.

This felt like a match mostly made solid by GENTATO's efforts in regards to putting over Yago as a big threat that he with all of his technical tricks couldn't really handle. There's good control spots where he does keep things together, it never feels like he's completely safe and you get reminded that aplenty here because when he screws up the momentum swings right back to the bigger guy. Yago here in places looked like a good worker; I could totally understand why he wasn't a bigger thing though. He has the size, the background, he's just kinda flat when it comes to actually backing up his hoss appearance with actual hoss shit. His shots are typically really unconvincing pats to the shoulder or head, occasionally he hits great when he's actually trying to punch but it mostly feels like he's holding back immensely due to his background, which is a common problem with ex-MMA guys because they just can't be coached to work a punch when they've spent decades doing it one way lol. Definitely a mixed bag of a wrestler, which makes it much more significant that a guy like his opponent could carry him to something as fairly solid as this. Pretty solid lower-end GENTARO carry, but still a worthwhile watch for the guy.