Takashi Sugiura vs Kensuke Sasaki-NOAH 23.7.2011.

This is a lot closer to how many japanese matches are worked these days than the Kensuke matches I’ve recently reviewed, partly due to when it took place and partly due to who he was facing. There isn’t a lot to it-there’s a million strike exchanges which make up almost the entire match, Sasaki overwhelms Sugiura in the beginning, beat the shit out of him and Sugiura gradually comes back before the match finishes in total parity with a double KO. Lacking the other ingredients needed to reach greatness, but it’s still fun two see two guys just shitbeat each other without any eye-rollingly dumb spots, and these two sure brough the violence, and also varied their striking combinations a lot, particularly as the match went on, and appropriately finished it off with shoot punches. It is telling of how poorly Sugiura protected his offence that winning a strike exchange got a significantly louder reaction than his Dragon Suplex. Kensuke using elbow strikes once a year and them then being sold like death brings me joy. The German Supex popping up in a 2011 match won’t surprise anyone, but this match felt chaotic enough that it hardly mattered. There are probably inherent limitations in a match where you limit how much the input variables can matter, but this match isn’t relevant enough to thoroughly analyse that. ***1/2

Kensuke Sasaki vs Osamu Nishimura-NJPW 20.3.2001.

Most of the match is worked in Nishimura’s style, lots of matwork and spots you’re used to seeing in his matches like the neck bridge test of strength and so on, Sasaki mostly plays along and occasionally utilizes his strength to escape Nishimura’s holds, which is the only thing setting it apart from the usual Nishimura sequences. The finish leans more towards Kensuke’s style, as he takes the initiative and starts rocking Nishimura with bigger moves while Nishimura tries to avoid them and utilize his throwback techniques like Cobra Cluthes, the Octopus Stretch, Inoki’s low kicks from the Ali fight and so on to fight back. Both guys are good at whey to but it felt like they needed a few more years of seasoning to really mesh in a way that could produce greatness. ***1/4

Kensuke Sasaki vs Yuji Nagata-NJPW 4.1.2004.

You don’t see a brawling bloodbath in the Dome every day, a very intriguing match and definitely worth a watch. There is no wasted movement in the opening as they immediately fire at each other with slaps and forearms, but the match really picks up once they start bleeding. Sasaki catapulting Nagata into the ringpost with a Lariat to the neck ruled and the ringpost shots themselves were well done too. Face punching makes for good wrestling, Nagata’s selling can often verge into silliness, but it was oddly fitting as he was selling dizziness from blood loss. Kensuke not even going for covers and just nuking Nagata with Lariats and repteadly punching him ruled, and provided a nice alternative to Nagata kicking out of a million moves. Nagata’s flash High Kick was the perfect transition into the finish, you could totally buy Kensuke getting careless and not sensing an inch of threat from Nagata, and he followed it up with a nice flurry to seal the deal. I could see the finish bothering many but I like it, too many times you see guys just laying in holds before letting them go or providing an unsatisfying transition out of it, if there was ever a time for a match to end by two minutes of a Nagata Lock IV it was after he kicked someone with significant blood loss in the head five times. ****

Shinya Hashimoto vs Kensuke Sasaki-NJPW 9.4.2001.

I remember hearing about this match, I think I read an old article from SSS Stuart which depicted it as a disaster and shit on the booking and the Inokiism in it. Luckily I’m way too into absurdism to care about who wins in pro wrestling (especially in a fifteen year old match) and the way it was described really made me want to see it. Honestly this might be the best Hashimoto-Kensuke Sasaki match. I’m not sure how many matches they’ve had against each other but of the top off my head I can think of a Hash IWGP Title defence vs. Power Warrior, one in the Dome and a G1 match and I would have this one above all of them. It’s billed as a “no rules deathmatch”, that doesn’t mean you’re going to get garbage spots and heavily gimmicked stuff, just more punches to the face and also a very clever submission spot built around the stipulation. Hashimoto comes out wearing boxing gloves and man do these two beat on one another, they throw a lot of nasty shots in close range and while clinching before the match evolves into ridiculous bomb throwing. I could see the uniqueness of the pacing and (somewhat of) the finish throwing some folks off but I really appreciated them. It’s esentially a proto-Futen match. ****

Kensuke Sasaki vs Genichiro Tenryu-NJPW 15.8.2004.

The world’s strongest 54 year old man clashes with a “Muscle Volcano” in one of my favourite sprints. It’s funny, I mainly remembered the match for them busting out a bunch of junior offence, and on a rewatch that ruled too, but I also noticed other things that made the match as badass as it is. Tenryu’s facial expressions when Kensuke corners him and starts pounding on him are a thing of beauty and really remind you this man is old enough to be a grandparent, particularly how he’d act like he was out of breath after being Lariated on the neck. Kensuke winding up for a Lariat and then eating a punch just as he was about to execute it ruled and the counter flash finish was great and caught me off guard yet again, and as great as Tenryu is that kind of quick counter really feels like the onyl way he could beat Kensuke at this point. Hectically kicking the air while being pinned can look silly but it was absolutely fitting here. Bonus points for Tenryu continuing to sell after the match. ***3/4

Kensuke Sasaki vs Leatherface-IWA Japan 31.8.2004.

IWA Japan has to be the best promotion no one ever talks about, the magnitude of the bizarness of the matches they would book cannot be put into words. Here they book Kensuke Sasaki against some weird cosplayer, maybe Leatherface was the Abyss of IWA Japan. Kensuke comes out wearing a shovel because, hey, it’s IWA Japan! He then proceeds to hit his stuff and go over in three minutes. I like Kensuke’s offence a lot and will gladly watch him beat up a backyarder with funding. Leatherface will tell his grandchildren about the time he hit a neckbreaker on Kensuke Sasaki. **3/4

Kazuyuki Fujita vs Kensuke Sasaki-NJPW 9.10.2004.

The promo video for the match is great-they show Kensuke playing with his sons, and him and Hokuto talk about his role in the family, Fujita as a pro wrestler/MMA fighter, being a monster champion, the risks of facing him and so on. The match lasts for only two and a half minutes, as Fujita pins himself in a sleeper to lose the belt. They exchanged some nice shots while the match lasted but the angle itself is so much more fascinating. Kensuke is pissed, not happy he won that way whatsoever, as Fujita seemingly threw the match. That is more of a result of all the backstage politicking that was taking place at the time than a result of some geniously planned angle, but it does make one wonder how something like that could be used for storyline purposes. Divorced from all the emotion and rage fans at the time experienced my observation was that it was fun and unique, though obviously not a good business model. But, you do get to see Kazuyuki Fujita make Kenesuke, his wife and his children cry, and for everything else there’s Mastercard. ***

Kazuyuki Fujita vs Kensuke Sasaki-NJPW 8.10.2001.

Ah, the glorious period of New Japan when wrestlers were forced to shave their heads and wear gloves. It is always interesting to see what conclusions workers came to when doing matches like these. Kensuke’s Lariats and Strangle Holds aren’t exactly shooty, but they don’t feel *that* out of place in these hybrid matches either, and certainly give the match a unique flair. There’s a lot of face punching, which is enjoyable on its own but these two find smart ways to incorporate them into transitions as well as make it look like a struggle-you’ll see dodging, shoving, blocking and so on. Kensuke’s great timing maximized the value of his flash attacks and hearing the echo of the Dome crowd is always a special feeling. Fujita‘s side mount knees were a nice callback to what he was doing in PRIDE at the time and the TKO finish was worked about as well as it gets. ***1/2