Yeah, this is one of the best sub-10-minute matches ever. It had been so long since I'd seen it that I remembered nothing about it other than the result, so I found myself getting roped into the moment by those early leg kicks just like every person in that building. Tamura slapping Vader before the bell was amazing as well, Vader then flinging off the mask and kind of tilting his head like "oh, son...I really wish you hadn't." Tamura sticking and moving felt like the obvious strategy from a shoot standpoint, but it's not always easy to make the obvious strategy come off as convincingly as this. I thought he was incredible as this undersized demon with rapid fire strikes and determination from here to the moon and back. There was this palpable sense of dread when he got backed into the corner for the first time, then Vader took a massive swing at him and JUST before it took his head off Tamura ducked and shot out into the middle of the ring. When it happens a second time Vader manages to tag him and you're thinking THIS time he's fucked for sure, but he fires back and catches Vader with a shot to the mouth and the place goes ballistic. Still, this only works as well as it does because of Vader and how he sold the progressive toll of those leg kicks. He went from being irritated by them to showing that they were actively stinging and something he wanted to avoid, and by halfway he was damn near crippled by them. His howling like a plains bear after every shot was spectacular. It's one of my favourite performances from the big man and it really shows his versatility, even if he was still very much Vader being Vader when you get right down to it. I think it shows Tamura's versatility as well, in that he'd never done anything quite like this in his career, which was still in its early stages if we're going by actual matches wrestled. Just an amazingly smart bit of work.
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