Happy New Year! Kenichiro Arai vs. GENTARO Broadway!

 

3. Kenichiro Arai vs. GENTARO Mutoha Pro 2/5/23

MD: One can make the argument that the two most important elements of wrestling are struggle and consequence. If you wanted to elaborate a bit, you could call it the illusion or perception of struggle and the narrative force of consequence. Basically, everything has to allow for enough suspension of disbelief that one can perceive real struggle between the two combatants and the things that happen have to have meaning and weight in the overall narrative. Wrestling has to create it's own seamless reality (which is different than seeming real) and then things have to matter within that reality. 

This was an amazing example of both of those elements. GENTARO and Arai wrestled for an hour. At no point did anything, even the simplest front face lock, feel like it came easy. They would grapple through four or five permeations of positioning attempts before a more familiar hold emerged. That emergent hold could be as basic as a top wristlock or as complex as GENTARO's rowboat stretch, but the process to reach that point was so grueling and competitive that each and every distinct submission attempt that was ultimately locked on felt like a massive accomplishment and also a massive threat to the recipient. That was true for every distinct reversal or escape as well, often drawing appreciative applause from the crowd. Likewise, almost every pin attempt took three or four disparate bits of leverage manipulation and gamemanship to maneuver into and because of the amount of effort and friction involved, each one felt like it could lead to a fall.

That leads to consequence. It worked here a bit like a feedback loop. Because they were putting so much effort into laboriously ensuring that every hold was its own individual strategic war, something undeniably worth fighting for, it was easy to portray the effect of even the slightest bit of joint manipulation. If snatching a hold meant so much to each wrestler and if avoiding being in a hold meant so much to each wrestler, obviously there was considerable pain and damage that would be inflicted. Moreover, and this is where things get really interesting, it meant that there was a calculated risk in each and every grasp of a limb and shift of a body. If nothing ventured, nothing could be gained, but every venture brought with it danger. 

Every hold and momentum shift in this match came out of a series of openings created and diverted through multiple attempt to gain advantage. GENTARO was more aggressive and unyielding, working three or four different positions to latch on a hold. Arai was canny and crafty, arguably the more defensive wrestler, always with a canny trick in his holster. Early on GENTARO pried a leg away and went for a takedown through multiple switches and attempts, only for Arai to come down directly upon him, knee first. The match was full of moments like that, GENTARO pressing and pressing and Arai having to devise a surprising answer. Here's another example that sums up the match well: later after GENTARO took the initial fall (again through an unyielding and continuous manipulation of one limb after another, slowly and patient), Arai became overaggressive due to the need to even the odds and GENTARO was able to capitalize. In this match, however, every advantage taken was also a potential risk. GENTARO stretched his advantage to open distance and charge Arai only for Arai to capture him in a flipping scissors hold and squeeze his way to earning the second fall of the match. Here, every attempt at offense was also a risk to be countered. 

This reminded me, as much of anything else, of the great 1983 French Catch bout between Mr. Montreal and Guy Mercier when the two of them were up there in age and putting their all into every hold as well. This maybe had more gamesmanship, whereas that was worked more in-and-out with multiple escape attempts that built upon one another. Here, past a lengthy series of headscissors by GENTARO, no one was allowed to keep such a hold for long. That was except, of course, the finishing sequence of figure-fours; Arai had obtained that monkey paw wish of an actual advantage, providing him the tantalizing hope of a kneedrop off the turnbuckles. He crashed and burned, paying for his hubris (one does not try to wrestle so big in a match this intimate) and allowing GENTARO to start on the knee. It came a price, for it provided Arai with a leg and ankle to work on as well, and the two would trade such holds back and forth up until the time limit expired. 

All in all, this was as exhausting for the viewer as it was for the wrestlers, the logical conclusion to the notion that every exchange, every touch, every torque can matter in the moment of a match, stretched out over the span of an hour. There was no point that they weren't competing, weren't struggling against one another, and all of it mattered. Here, there was always the potential of dire consequence, certainly to failure, but even to success. 

ER: I've spent much of my year writing thousands of words about 2 minute WCW matches from 25 years ago, now I am going to write just a couple hundred words on the longest match I've watched in several years, showcasing what I loved about it.  

The Mutoha ring announcer on crutches, and the way GENTARO smirks when that ring announcer with plantar fasciitis begins to call him "Arai". 

Arai's double arm barred takedown and the way he clasps his hands on his side head and arm choke; how he shoot monkey flips GENTARO like Super Dragon monkey flipping a fan or grabs a headlock and sinks down into a squat, putting his weight onto GENTARO; the way a backdrop bump hits different when it comes 45 minutes into a match.    

I like that by the time GENTARO starts working pins (around 30 minutes in) I had forgotten that this match could have even ended by pinfall, lulled into the seriousness of traditional pro wrestling moves being treated as actual struggle. 

GENTARO's grounded headscissors that looked like it was turning Arai's head grayish purple, and how he gets paid back for that tight headscissors 45 minutes later to end the 2nd fall; the way he hesitates slightly while applying a Sharpshooter and has to suddenly scramble when Arai notices that hesitation. 

GENTARO has one of the coolest cradles - not flashy, not something that would read in a GIF, but an honest cradle - not long after losing the 2nd fall, cradling Arai's left leg and forcing Arai's own weight down on him to smother him. When Arai manages to shift out of it he twists his boot over GENTARO's wrist, which might be the only underhanded act the entire hour. 

Reversed back and forth inside cradles are still going to look silly, but you can appreciate the way Arai crosses his ankles and how each man looks like they're actively resisting the momentum shifts back and forth. They show the difficulty in actually getting a crucifix pin, how much energy you would have to exert to muscle a man your own size over like that. 

The figure four battle is worth the price of admission on its own. The way GENTARO is forcing Arai's ankle down with his elbow knowing that doing so only makes Arai twist on his ankle harder, breathing life into a move we've all seen performed for our entire lives as wrestling fans, a figure four used as the culmination of an hour long match in front of upwards of 50 people in a small building in Saitama. 

2023 MOTY MASTER LIST