90s New Japan Heavyweights (part 3)

Shinya Hashimoto v Vader (New Japan, 7/19/91)

You know what you're getting out of these two and this started exactly how you'd want, with much clubbering and potatoing and so forth. It's not often Hash comes up against a bigger bruiser than himself so this match-up has a cool dynamic already built in. First five minutes ruled and probably made up my favourite stretch of the match. There was a point where Vader was just peppering him with soup bones, throwing jabs, raining down holy hell, and as Hash comes up for air he's spitting blood like "okay so we're doing this, are we?" I don't think there's ever been anyone better at conveying defiance in the face of insurmountable odds than Hashimoto. Misawa had the stoic resilience, where you figured he always had one more big comeback in him even after he'd run through his nine lives and more. You knew Lawler was dropping the strap and someone was taking a whipping when he did, but there's a human element to Hashimoto that you can't really get in America. Something understated. You see him struggle through every comeback and you know by looking at him that he's a man who will not be denied. My favourite moment of the match came towards the end as Vader was - for about the fifteenth time - just hammering him about the head with shots. He started throwing nasty fists to the cheek bone and wound up for what probably would've been a knockout blow, but Hash raised both arms to block it and reeled off about six rapid punches to Vader's jaw. It was an incredible spot, one where you knew the man of honour had been pushed past his breaking point and was willing to stoop to Vader's level. Beyond the brutality I liked how they added in a layer of arm work. Vader clotheslines the ring post initially to give Hashimoto an opening and for the most part I thought he sold it well throughout. It was Hashimoto's inroad and he spent a good while using it to chop down that big tree in front of him. There was a point where I thought they'd dropped it and I started wishing they'd done more with it, but they came back to it again in the back half and used it to build some real drama. Hashimoto doing a fucking rolling armbar would've been sensational on its own but the fact it played into the larger narrative was even better. They did sort of meander for a couple minutes in the middle, with Vader going to a kneebar and Hash maybe flirting with going after the leg himself, but before long they went back to beating the brakes off each other and as a central theme it worked pretty dang well for them. You know what you're getting out of these two. This was all of that.