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Hiroshi Watanabe vs Kazuhiro Tamura, Mutoha
6/20/2010
Upon
watching this the first time I thought this might be one of the 10
greatest wresting matches I’ve ever seen. Maybe even top 5. I may
be overrating it slightly, but it’s a really damn great match.
Obviously,
there was a big hype around last years GENTARO/Arai match. I think
this bout here gives that match a run for it’s money. Don’t get
me wrong, GENTARO/Arai is a completely unique beast. In that match,
they did things in a
completely different way and succeeded. This bout between Watanabe
and Tamura here is much more conventional and energetic with lots of
high-impact offense throughout, but aiming for similar grand scale.
It probably has much more mainstream appeal than the more esoteric
Arai/GENTARO. As such, I would like as many wrestling fans as
possible to check this out.
The
main reason why the match works so well is the contrast of Kazuhiro
Tamura to Hiroshi Watanabe. Kazuhiro Tamura is shooter-type wrestler,
with punishing kicks and a style of matwork that means he will go for
the kill right from the get go. Hiroshi Watanabe with his shaven
head, black trunks and boots and deceptive physique is as close to
the picture of a classic no frills technician as you can get.
Stylistically the match they go for is reminiscent of an 80s New
Japan vs UWF wrestler vs shooter match. And because of the 2/3 falls
match format, as well as the unrelenting nature of both wrestlers,
this becomes an epic struggle.
The
second reason why the match works is that they do not hold back.
Often in a long match, especially a 2/3 falls match that is going to
be strategic, wrestlers will noticably hold back and resort to
obvious time killing. That is not the case here, as right away Tamura
is kicking away at Watanabe and going for dangerous submissions like
straight armbars on the ground that can believably decide a fall even
after just 5 minutes. In contrast Watanabe is very much an old school
type catch wrestler here, not afraid to snatch a kimura lock, and
coming up with lots of neat counters. Watanabe sticking to his guns
and focussing on trying to catch this modern day shooter with this
50s/60s style holds and flying kneedrops was really great. With
Tamuras explosiveness it makes a really great aggressor vs
counter-wrestler matchup. And because of the 2/3 falls rule, a finish
can plausibly occur at any time, which makes this edge of your seat
stuff throughout.
There
are some moments where they kind of take breathers – Tamura tries
locking Watanabe out of the arena for a countout victory, but
Watanabe re-enters through the other side in a fun graceful moment
that kind of
caps off the first ark of the match. There are great moments strewn
throughout the match. Tamuras punishing kicks and relentless
submission attempts keep the intensity high. There is a moment where
he keeps kicking away at Watanabes leg that looked absolutely
painful, and another kick to Watanabes sternum outside the ring that
looked and sounded so bad I’m sure it would go viral if it happened
in a 2024 AEW ring. Later Watanabe fires back with no hands headbutts
and an absolutely nasty enzuigiri. He
also hit pretty much the greatest flying neckbreaker drop ever at one
point. The
biggest moment of the match though is the kick that Watanabe gets
blasted with in the jaw
towards the end. It looked to have knocked his soul out of him, and
then Tamura blasted him with another and fell him in one of the most
epic near KO’s that Ive ever seen in a wrestling match. The fact
this went down in a small martial arts gym in front of roughly
50 people is
nothing short of mindblowing.
Tamuras
explosiveness is great. When Watanabe finally gets a fall over him,
Tamuras reaction is to just run it him and go for another big
dropkick. His energy looked to be boundless, and it was meeting
Watanabes boundless tenacity. They go incredible hard in the last 10
minutes, without coming across as trying too hard, mixing up some
amazing submission and pin attempts and counters aswell as callbacks
to previous falls. It was a very good crescendo for match with this
kind of grand scope. While most of the match is energetic, they don’t
throw out too much too early, so even smaller moves like Tamuras 2nd
rope headbutt or Watanabes Cobra Twist felt epic when they happened
so close to the time limit.
After
the match, Watanabe is in the ring, and he can hold a speech without
using a microphone because the arena is so small. I hope Watanabe got
some credit for this match. The bout was truly magnificient and
fascinating. It felt like an epic struggle, and it was interesting
throughout. At no point did it feel self indulgent or forced. By the
end I was kind of rooting for both guys. It almost makes me wish
there were more matches that go 60 minutes, as
so many interesting facets of their game developed throughout the
fight, but
then again most wrestler are nowhere near as good as these two.
An
outstanding achievement.
Hiroshi
Watanabe & Kousei
Maeda vs. Hideya Iso & Shigeo Kato (Mumejuku 12/20/2009)
Another
genuine gem. This went 60 minutes and was more MUGA than MUGA.
Watching this, I didn’t know it would be a draw, and I couldn’t
tell that it was going to be a draw. They were using a lot of
basic holds, but doing them in a way that they could plausibly set up
a finish. I kept thinking “yeah, this is gonna lead to the finish…
no wait”. That, to me, is how a draw should feel.
Watanabe once again looked pretty great throughout this. Really dug the section
where Kato twisted up his legs while he kept coming up with counters.
I also really liked how Kato at one point refused to enter the ring,
as if he was disappointed with Hideya Isos performance, so Iso went
back to twist up his opponents with some cool amateur moves. Another
great moment was an almost completely spent looking Iso locking in a
Romero Special out of nowhere to a nice ovation from the crowd. I
haven’t seen this Maeda before, but he looked solid, and he
produced another highlight when he took offense to Kato slapping him
and kicked the shit out of Kato. Kato after eating headbutts on the
ground doing a Flair flop was another neat moment. The match was full
of cool moments like throughout that made little things feel more
meaningful and kept me engaged in the match. Figure 4 work in the
last 10 or so minutes was epic and felt like a Destroyer match. Parts
of this were slightly long and I will admit that this probably
could’ve been clipped down to a better 45 or 30 minute match, but
still. The fact they did this for an audience of like 40 people and
it came out so well is insane.