Tuesday 11 July 2017

Hideki Suzuki of the Day #5

Hideki Suzuki v Kohei Sato (Zero-1, 3/27/16)

Killer match. Suzuki was pretty fucking sensational in this. It's not especially long for a title match (clocks in at around fourteen minutes), but he controls most of it by working Sato's arm and it is some awesome arm work. He has an array of octopus stretch holds where he simultaneously ties up a different body part while bending the right arm at horrific angles. Sato is completely helpless at points and Suzuki is crawling all over him and trying to wrap Sato's arm around his own body like a beach towel. He also throws European uppercuts and grounded knees directly to the arm, which obviously ruled. It's not often I'll complain about a wrestling match in the current climate not having a longer finishing stretch, but I thought this could've done with a few more minutes. I did like the idea of Sato rolling out a few bombs in fairly quick succession to knock Suzuki loopy, and I guess it theoretically leaves the door open for a rematch, but it felt like Suzuki maybe went down a wee bit too easily. Or maybe I just wanted the match to continue because I was diggin' it. Who knows? Either way I thought this was pretty great.

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