Hideki Suzuki of the Day #10

Hideki Suzuki v Takuya Nomura (Big Japan, 6/29/16)

This was cool as fuck. I'd seen Nomura once before in a tag match, but this is the first time I've gotten a look at him in a focused singles setting. He works as quick young striker and throws nice hands and feet, pretty much everything landing with a smack (this is Big Japan, after all). Suzuki doesn't really work as a bully as such, but he's the bigger man and so he works as dominant grappler and throws Nomura around with some awesome wrestling. It's a ready made dynamic and it worked a treat. Some of Suzuki's takedowns in this were so great. There was one bit where he just ripped out an inside cradle from nowhere and it was probably the tightest, most realistic use of a small package I've seen in a pro-wrestling match. It had no set up and didn't look cooperative at all, but if he'd wanted to he probably could've kept Nomura tied up like that for several minutes. At another point he dropped to his back to invite Nomura to grapple with him and Nomura tried to fucking double stomp him in the face instead. And good grief will Suzuki try and bend you all the way in half with a Boston Crab. Super fun match-up. Suzuki basically working as burlier Osamu Nishimura is something I can absolutely get behind.