1. Kyosuke Sasaki vs. Daisuke Nakamura, Kyushu Pro 9/6
Proper 20 minute shootstyle main event. Sasaki has been a bit hit or miss in Kyushu Pro, but he cut out the bullshit here and had a real U-Style worthy contest with Nakamura who's like a great 20 year late RINGS worker. Opening grappling was the best shootstyle grappling in years. Both guys were of course ultra slick, but the refusal to go for the ropes created some great counterwork and intense scrambles. Highlights include a neat Kimura counter and a credible battle of shootstyle Figure 4s. Second half was pretty great too since both guys kept internal logic consistent. For example, Sasaki was able to overwhelm and down Nakamura with a series of leg kicks, but once things went to the ground it immediately became difficult again to force submissions. Sasaki also had this sick looking choke attempt. Finishing run was pretty great with both guys grabbing submissions left and right and some dramatic near KOS. Gotch piledriver tease was tremendous as both guys sold it that you knew the match would be over if it was hit. The 1-1 situation at the end was pretty intense. I liked how Nakamura ate a head kick and fell on top of his opponent into another scramble to credibly not lose a point. Great match.
5. Keita Yano vs. Hikaru Sato, Tenryu Project 8/13
Yanos redemption is coming along nicely. This was the best striker vs. grappler match in a while. It was straight out of PWFG. Normally I associate Yano with carny matwork, but he really decided to be a makeup wearing Tamon Honda in this. Really cool dynamic in this with Yano going for fast takedowns and quirky stretches and Sato lighting him up. I've never been a Hikaru Sato fan but he was there to light Yano up and he did just dead. Brutal, brutal ending that saw both guys throwing some insane shoot headbutts and bare knuckle punches. Actual finish was a thing of beauty.
7. Keita Yano vs. Hikaru Sato, Tenryu Project 8/26
Even more esoteric match which saw both guys grappling it out for 17 minutes. If you can get into that, this was excellent. No strikes, but a perfect balance between shootstyle grappling and carny holds. Yanos chokes were great. This may have been the best actual wrestling Sato was involved in. He did some cool things like a sweeping hip throw, or busting out a cool double leg stretch (which Yano reversed in a great moment). It can be hard to just grapple and keep momentum going and not put your audience to sleep but they succeeded here. Great little match. Is Yano the best wrestler in the world now?
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