Friday, December 24, 2021

A Very MUME Christmas

 

Hiroshi Watanabe & Yasushi Sato vs. Manabu Hara & Raito Shimizu, Mumejuku 1/13/2020


What a Christmas present from the guys at Mumewhatever (apparently this group has undergone multiple names from Mumei to Mumetoha to Mumejuku but I‘m filing them all under Mumejuku)! Just a wonderful matchup. Watanabe and Shimizu start this with some solid hold for hold exchanges, before things spice up with Hara vs. Sato. That section was just magical, just the right combination of shootstyle grappling vs. Satos tight veteran pro style holds. Then, Hara brained Sato with a sick kick that was way stiffer than what you‘d expect a 50 year old guy to take to the back of his head. The whole match had a surprising level of stiffness as later Sato busted out some stiff elbows and clocked Shimizu with an absolutely nasty shoot headbutt. As usual with Sato matches there was some neat psychology. For example, Shimizu kept reversing his gutwrench suplex attempts into his own, until Sato spotted it and hit a really neat counter where he fell on top. Another neat detail was Watanabe being wobbly after being in Haras triangle choke despite being able to break the hold. Satos springboard crossbody as also way prettier than anything you‘d expect from him. Second Sato/Hara section was really great too. I loved how Sato hit a Terry Funk style punch combo to Shimizu, but then immediately was overwhelmed by Haras shoot striking. As always, Sato makes great use of the russian leg sweep. Watanabe also looks really spry here including hitting some great suplex and carrying the ending section with his selling. Another absolute gem from this crew. I also have no idea why Hara isn‘t signed to a major company as he‘s in insane shape and looked great.

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