Kenichiro Arai vs Shunsuke Sayama, FREEDOMS 5/22/2019
Really freaking good match. Sayama is a relentless kicker here, and Arai does a really nice sleazier Fujiwara performance taking him apart. His takedowns and holds came across as really forceful and he looked like he belonged with a shooter. Some really nasty armlocks and finger bending from Arai, and I loved how he constantly went for the piledriver. Sayama laid into him good. I really liked how Sayama was able to sink into a choke and then kick a dizzy Arai in his bald head, but then his feet gave out because Arai had twisted them up previously. Match had a relentless pace and they never really let up. Strong recommendation.
Kenichiro Arai vs Keita Yano, VKF 2019/10/31 - GREAT
It's the battle of the sleaze grappling gods! Really fun old school type match as you expect. They do some good stuff working around a full nelson hold for a while, and Keita looks slick as a cat. Arai does an almost Flair-like performance mostly getting eaten up by Yano and bumping for him. Yano is pretty great at eating someone up since he has so much cool shit he can do. Once in a while Arai would do something sneaky, like jab him in the throat or nastily bend his wrist to gain control, but Yano would cradle him or tie him in a submission pretty quickly. I wanted there to be a little more aggression and nastiness but this was a middle of the card match not some kind of epic main event, so it was pretty good for what it was.
Kenichiro Arai vs Susumu Yokosuka, Dragon Gate 10/6/2023
Immensely fun match. This was supposed to be some kind of revival match for the old Toryumon class, but actually Arai comes in carrying the Haoh title and does a full on 70s technician performance, cranking headlocks and cravates. There was some of the old hard headed drunken master Arai in there, and that is fun too. I love how Arai will turn a basic hold like a headscissor or hammerlock into a holy shit spot. Also loved the work around the Tiger Suplex, the build to the top rope jawbreaker etc. Yokosukas more explosive offense is cool in contrast to Arais big brain technical shit. Very very nice match and another case for the variety of match Arai can pull off. Lengthy technical epic, wrestler vs shooter, sneaky stooging heel, the man is like the swiss army knife of the Japanese idies right now.
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