Fujiwara Will Restore You The Years the Swarming Locust Has Eaten, The Hopper, The Destroyer and The Cutter

Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Akitoshi Saito vs. Alexander Otsuka & Daisuke Sekimoto, Dradition 11/19/13 - EPIC

PAS: WARish slugfest which was one of the more enjoyable Puro matches of 2013 (which is admittedly a low bar with FUTEN being MIA). We open up with Fujiwara and Otsuka ripping it up on the mat, with Fujiwara doing some very cool arm escapes. After that they get up and try to bust each others eardrums with slaps. Saito and Sekimoto pretty much spend the match exchanging crowbarish forearms and clotheslines. Sekimoto has some selling issues as usual, but was mostly fine and he and Saito pounded on each other into my heart. Otuska did a dope snap german suplex on Saito and every time he and Fujiwara were in the ring together was great. Could have used a better finish, but this was a blast to watch.

ER: I'll be honest, two minutes in and I kinda already knew I was going EPIC on this one. It would have to have royally fallen apart, but it didn't, and ended up being one of my absolute favorite matches of the last year plus. Fujiwara is 64 here (and really looks older, visually) but he sure doesn't work like he's elderly. The mat tradeoffs between he and Otsuka looked as fast and prime as anything he did 30 years ago. Otsuka is really fun on the mat when he gets caught in something as he always rolls and thrashes around wildly, and Fujiwara is always so good at holding onto somebody's limb for dear life, knowing it may be his way out of the match. Once they got into a punch/slap exchange I was off my rocker! Fujiwara was really dishing some blows, and when Otsuka reared back to slug him Fujiwara stopped his momentum with a battering ram headbutt right to the stomach. Such a great momentum killer that somebody needs to steal (now that Spike Dudley hardly works anymore). He gave Sekimoto one later in the match that was maybe even better.

 We all knew Sekimoto was the likely reason if this match ended up being a letdown, but he doesn't gum up the works too bad. He had a couple eyeroll-y "pop right up screaming after taking offense" moments, but most of the time he was tossing off stiff clotheslines, deadlift suplexes and getting chopped in the neck by Saito so for the most part he was fine. Saito looks just as good as his NOAH prime over a decade ago. His spin kicks are sharp and on point, and really deliver so much more force than any other wrestler's spinkkick. He and Sekimoto have some beastly exchanges including an extended stiff shoulderblock sequence. My favorite exchange between them was Sekimoto going for a big clothesline and Saito blocking it with a single overhand right chop, like he was aiming to just cut that arm off. Then he delivers two open-handed chops to the side of Sekimoto's neck to bring him to his knees. So badass. It looked like he was breaking down and dismantling him with one arm. Fujiwara at one point comes in with the coolest block I've seen, as Otsuka was aiming to break up a pinfall and Fujiwara flies into him, taking him down by the arm into an armbar. I've never seen anything from Legend The Pro-Wrestling so this is the first I've seen of Fujiwara opposite Otsuka and it was magnetic. Two guys that matched up perfectly together. That the rest of the match stands up quality-wise is just a sweet bonus. Go watch this now.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE FUJIWARA