Minoru Tanaka vs. Sanae Kikuta
Sanae Kikuta was in RINGS?! Oh, apparently this was his sole appearance. Fun match do Kikuta grappling the fuck out of Tanaka, so it was better than Tanakas usual match. Kikuta tapped him pretty quickly too.
Alexander Otsuka vs. Chris Haseman
This was awesome. They actually made Otsuka wear kickpads for this. Haseman is a big beastly dude. He throws really fast savate kicks, and is pretty aggressive and uncooperative on the mat. Otsuka doesn‘t really wrestle like his BattlARTS self here and you get to see him throw some strikes he normally wouldn‘t. He really connects hard with some palm strikes and even a big thai knee, but Haseman splits his brow open. It builds to a pretty great second half with some great heated slugging it out and fighting to the ropes. The finish is totally awesome as Otsuka escapes a number of shoulder discolating arm holds from Haseman and cranks in an armlock of his own. Haseman makes the ropes but can‘t get up. It feels like Otsuka took on a monster here, and he broke that monster.
Wataru Sakata vs. Dominic Delaney
I assume Delaney is a kickboxer. He can throw kicks and hands but on the ground he has to go for the ropes pretty much immediately.
Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Elvis Sinosic
Yes, Tamura vs. A soviet shooter named Elvis! This started out fun. Elvis was this lanky guy who could grapple. Then Tamura decided to stand up and brutalize Elvis. Just tagging him hard with low kicks and open hands over and over again. That seemed like a 5 minute section of just Tamura circling around this guy and hitting him hard. Then Elvis makes a move and accidentally eye pokes Tamura. Tamura then takes him down and just ends the match cranking an armlock. Guess Elvis did something Tamura didn‘t like there.
Masayuki Naruse vs. Willie Peeters
Stiff non-cooperative looking shootstyle. Peeters works this like a great amateur wrestler who knows only one submission hold. He completely dominated Naruse on the ground and countered all his takedown attempts, but when Naruse rolled on his back Peeters would let him stand up. Naruse even gets a bloody nose and bloody lip from a failed takedown attempt. I liked Peeters immediately palm striking him in the mouth and then locking in a nasty facelock. Naruse keeps shooting for takedowns that always get reversed, and really has nothing on Peeters here. The camera keeps cutting at Maeda in the crowd and I‘m sure he would kick Naruses ass backstage. This was great when Naruse got fired up and laid into Peeters with strikes, but that was like 30 seconds of the whole thing. Naruse, why did keep going for those takedowns? You should‘ve realized you had no chance with them after he sprawled on the first 20. They also kept stopping the match due to the blood until they finally stop it at 17 minutes while Peeters never once looked in trouble. I enjoyed this, especially the sprawl show from Peeters, but it could‘ve been so much more.
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