Found Footage Friday: SOLAR~! IN~! JAPAN~! AZTECA~! JIRAIYA~! DRAGONS~! SKULL REAPER~! URA~! ITO~!

Hiroaki Ura vs. Yusaku Ito Sportiva 2/6/19

MD: Sebastian sent this one on to us. He described Ura as in his black trunks roookie stage but very talented. That tracked. He started out with very basic holds to just try to contain Ito and I had the sense Ito was taking him lightly and letting him sow his wild oats a bit, ready to shut him down when he'd had enough. Ito didn't turn things around early enough though. Instead, Ura was able to pry a leg off and start to do real damage with it. Throughout the match, especially after the tide turned back the other way but even before, I had the sense that Ura was like the dog that caught the car at times; once he got it, he wasn't entirely sure what to do with it. He was going off desperation and instinct and throwing anything he could. It meant that when he shifted away from the leg and to broader offense. It didn't work so well for him. Ito, on the other hand, was entirely deliberate. If he couldn't get a hold, he jammed an elbow down onto Ura's skull once and then took it. He'd block him and turn him right into a hold. The finish is him shutting Ura down with a decisive motion to hit a Michinoku Driver. The damaged leg is a wedge that Ura could use to get back into things though. He also had a potent explosiveness able to zoom across the ring while Ura was stumbling in his selling. When they moved into strike exchanges, it had fighting spirit how I particular like it, with staggering and recoiling, and a struggle to push forth and some really spirited screaming from Ura. This was inevitable, of course, but they did a very good job in not quite making it look so. 

Solar I/Dragon Yuki vs. Azteca/Jiraiya KAGEKI 7/13/13

MD: This had been thought lost but it's just been out there where no one knew to look for it. I think it was on the Azteca 20th anniversary show. Here, you have Solar in his most exhibition-y, touring mode, but somehow more so. He's so over the top here with poses and flexing and pandering to the crowd that it's almost transcendent. Especially because he backs it up. It's in one fall so the structure is kind of loose, in as you get exchanges early with a lot of motion and everyone getting to pair with everyone else, things building to some relatively big dives including a huge Yuki flipping senton off the second rope to a grounded Azteca on the floor, and then the matwork which actually gets some room to breathe, with the pairing of Solar and Jiraiya particularly great. It was a little weird to go into the matwork after the dives but what I was watching was so enjoyable I didn't mind too much. It both gave rationale for no one to break things up as Azteca and Yuki were still recovering and also sort of felt like a tercera where teams trade submissions once they were there to save their partners. In a lot of ways, this was Solar at the very height of his old man powers, completely confident in his own skin almost to the point of bombastic parody. But he still went hard to celebrate Azteca.

Solar I/Azteca vs. Azul Dragon/Skull Reaper A-ji KAGEKI 7/14/13

MD: I was a little worried this was going to be more of the same but it really wasn't. Dragon and Reaper came in full rudo, ambushing to start and using their second to cheat to take back over when the opportunity arose. It meant that there was a lot more heat. The previous match was celebratory but in a good way, certainly structured like a real match. This didn't have anything quite as tricked out but there was a lot more animosity to draw upon. When Solar and Azteca fought their way back, there was some of that posing and pandering (but in the best way, of course), but the rudos kept it from going overboard by keeping the pressure on. That's not to say it wasn't without levity. The commentators (and Azteca) watching it back got a real kick out of Skull Reaper nonchalantly taking out the ref to break up a pin. It all built to Solar quebradors as you'd imagine followed by a simultaneous Solar submission and Azteca splash. Fun stuff but I did miss the matwork of the other match.