1. Masa Takanashi vs. Fuminori Abe, Gatoh Move 7/13/2021
This is the kind of weirdo match that is right up my alley. Over 30 minutes of almost all inventive grappling on a mat in front of 10 people. I'm a big fan of Takanashi and he's the reason I checked this out, but Abe looked great too. Loved all the quirky holds and pins, especially Abes grovit to a small package or double armlock. Everything had just the right amount of struggle for it not to look like an exhibition. Takanashi just came back from a pretty bad leg injury and much of the early grappling is him trying to prevent Abe to get to the leg, and later Abe just demolishing him by twisting up the leg and working it over with punches and kicks. Abe looked really good both doing shootstyle rolling leg locks as well as making pro style moves like a spinning leg bar look painful. Loved Abe booting Takanashi through the window. Takanashi sold the fuck out of that leg work and then made an intelligent comeback working Abes arm. There was one extended full nelson sequence that felt a bit random but also like a struggle and Abe immediately landed another hard kick to Takanashi as soon as he got the advantage. Finishing run had the usual excellent counters and submissions from Takanashi and Abe landing more hard kicks and punches to his skull. A seemingly paralyzed Takanashi trying to make one last comeback was pretty epic and the double armlock nearfall was just amazing and the best shit I've seen in a wrestling match all year. I'm no expert on Gatoh Move but I'd wager this has to be the best match that group ever ran. I mean, run this back in a MUGA ring in 1999 or something and you'd have an obvious classic.
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