Sanshu Tsubakichi & Hiroshi Yamato vs. Daisuke Kanehira & Touki Hatano (?)
Fun as hell CAPTURE opening match which reminded me of those FUTEN opening matches where everyone dials up the stiffness, cuts out the bullshit and gives their best. Really really dug Yamato once again, who went barefoot into this therefore accentuating his Tarzan Boy-ish feistiness and Carl Greco-like grappling more. He may have been the best guy in the match, busting out cool flash submissions, a really great belly to belly suplex where he crunched the other guys spine against the guardrail before throwing him, and he worked hard in the second half bumping his ass off on that stiff mat and throwing out another big headbutt. He also shows good timing. The other guys are obviously limited but the CAPTURE format really allows them to shine. First half had some solid shootstyle grappling and the second had everyone busting out a few cool things. Hatano is a young kickpadded HEAT-UP guy and solid grappling and trading hard blows. I liked a handful of things he did on the mat and he had good fire. Tsubakichi is a lot of fun as old veteran guy throwing cool body shots and hitting an STO, he also almost caved in a guys face with a big enzuigiri at one point. Kanehira is obviously limited but I was surprised by him busting out some pretty cool shit in the second half. This was really good, honestly and I should check out more Yamato I think.
Rikiya Fudo vs. Keisuke Goto
This is a good match up! Fudo is consistently a highlight on these CAPTURE shows brutalizing everything in his path, and Goto is pudgy and feisty. This was as enjoyable as the match up promises, Goto running into a brick wall and Fudo just trying to take his head off. Fudo may also be the best guy in the world at using his weight, his basic side choke looks like it would really crush your ribs in. Goto does one or two nifty things and the „CAPTURE matches can end at any move“ rule makes this a really fun 5 minutes.
Kazumasa Yoshida vs. Mizuki Watase
Yoshida is a BJW guy who I think replaced Kosuke Sato on this show. This was largely solid but unspectacular with a few crazy moments, these guys are hardly brilliant on the mat and don‘t quite have the true CAPTURE reckless lunacy down when standing up, their elbow exchanges felt very stale BJW-ish as they took turns hitting each other. That said there were a few great moments, especially loved Watases senton against the guardrail, as well as the crazy head drop throw. And the finish was rotten stiff. I was iffy on parts of this but the big moments here got them on my good side.
Hokuto Ohmori vs. Takahiro Tababa
Ohmori is an AJPW guy who really doesn‘t feel on the level of the other guys on this show, imagine Jun Akiyama working CAPTURE in 1998 and getting outclassed by Nihao or Basara. He‘s really nothing on the mat and kept going for misstimed rolling elbows. I enjoyed Tababa brutalizing him with a kidney-stone-crushing spin kicks and some more vicious hits to the face. Not much to see here aside from Tababas kicks and his big bump for Ohmoris falcon arrow, but even we saw that bump in the opener.
Super Crafter U & Naoya Nomura vs. Koji Doi & Kuma Arashi
This was some good big boy basement shootstyle. I imagine I probably won‘t enjoy Doi and Arashis act in a regular wrestling promotion but the CAPTURE basement shootstyle dungeon setting adds a bunch of rawness and unpredictability to make their beef boy act compelling. I was surprised Doi looked pretty good, almost Nakanishi esque, he engaged in some good heavyweight shootstyle exchanges, took punishment and dished out some insane jaw cracking elbows and lariats. Crafter U and Nomura have formed NEO BLOOD and they are such a fun unit, I continue to enjoy Crafter Us tricky grappler who can dish out punishment act, and Nomura just constantly going for the kill with his spears is insanely entertaining. Arashi looked good as a powerhouse out of his element against the shootstylist Crafter, he also had a big senton that may have been the most violent on the show. Doi catching Nomuras spear was also a really good „guy tries to bulldoze but gets caught“ spot. I‘m not sure I really want more AJPW guys to show up in CAPTURE but this was insanely effective with the simple powerhouse vs. Shooter story and the match had plenty of brutality, actually made me want to see a Doi singles match vs. Nomura or another CAPTURE guy, which I really didn‘t expect going in.
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