Minoru
Fujita vs. CIMA |
This match was almost 50% longer than the previous pedal to the metal match, and thus they took the time to structure it a lot better. Each guy had one section that was completely focused on a body part. Unfortunately, they aren't used to actually selling, so it didn't come naturally. Also, after these focused sequences they just went to the high spots and never did any move moves that so much as touched the weakened part.
Fujita got off to a quick start, but CIMA slowed him down with the upper shotei for his pescado. CIMA didn't really hit the mark, so it was actually more like a big collision. CIMA slapped Fujita around, but when CIMA whipped him into the corner and charged, Fujita came back with a jumping elbow. Fujita went shoot style, mounting CIMA and working for an arm bar, but when it didn't work he went back to the pro wrestling style of arm moves like the armbreaker, knee drop to the arm, and leg drop to the arm. One cool spot saw Fujita go to the top like he was going to do the stupid rope walk, but instead jump off and put CIMA's arm under his leg while he was in the air so he'd crush it when they hit the mat. Fujita was able to apply the V-1 arm lock and udehishigigyakujujigatame, but the pace picked up after the later and that was the end of Fujita's arm attack.
Fujita did a nice corbata, but CIMA caught him with a kneecap dropkick the next time he ran the ropes. CIMA went to work on the knee with various submissions, and even did a swandive shiki no hip drop with Fujita's leg draped over the bottom rope.
Fujita finally came back at 11:00 out of a really contrived sequence where he countered CIMA's nadare shiki no backdrop by pushing him off the top turnbuckle. What made this ridiculous is that CIMA didn't crotch himself like he was supposed to, so instead of just crashing to the canvas, he hooked the ropes on the way down and pulled himself up so he was sitting there with the top rope digging into his crotch. Fujita then gave him the missile kick they planned on all along, with CIMA jumping off to the floor so Fujita could follow with his tope suicida.
Fujita sold his knee well before they started the next sequence, but where it would break down is that Fujita would think nothing of landing on his bad knee. He countered a whip into the corner by going over the top then kicked CIMA, DDT'd him, Ace crushered him, and gave him a ganmen dropkick (dropkick to the face) all within a 10 second span. Suddenly, he was like, "Oh yeah, I have like a knee injury or something" and magically he was hobbling around again. It was a great sequence due to the speed, but it was also out of place coming after CIMA had spent the last five minutes trying to make Fujita a gimp. Just as out of place was the following sequence where they were landing on their feet for suplexes until Fujita gave CIMA a reverse DDT.
They really picked the pace up at 13:00 with CIMA turning ruining the TAKA whip into the corner and jumping knee then swandive shiki no missile kick combo by stopping the swandive and giving Fujita his iconoclasm. Fujita stopped CIMA's mad splash with an elbow and used his own iconoclasm on him. Fujita tried for his Dragon suplex, but CIMA blocked it and when he wasn't able to return the favor by using Fujita's own move on him, he settled for Curry Man's spicy drop. CIMA tried to follow with his mad splash, but Fujita got his knees up. Hello, bad knee taking all the impact of opponent's top finishers, but no, this totally goes over Fujita's head. Instead, he sprinted to the top and did a great enzui missile kick where all his weight landed on the knee that was bad or perfect depending on the way the wind was blowing in the indoor arena. Fujita followed with a German suplex hold, and the fans were really getting into the match believing that he was going to score the upset.
Fujita was one step away from pinning CIMA, as he had him locked in position for his Dragon suplex finisher. However, in a desperation move, CIMA chopped referee Ted Tanabe in the neck just before Fujita threw him over. Where this fell apart is that Fujita followed with another Dragon suplex hold, and this time Tanabe was recovered enough that he counted 1...2...kick out at 9/10. Hmm, the last time I checked, the whole idea of a ref bump in this situation is that Fujita "beat" CIMA, it just didn't count because the ref was down. Well, when you immediately do your finisher again and the ref is able to count right away, if you still can't beat the guy then that means you also wouldn't if the ref had been in position the first time. To try to "save face," Fujita grabbed Ted Tanabe and threatened to kick his ass while CIMA recovered. As Fujita turned around, CIMA caught him with a thrust kick then used a Convict driver (like a Michinoku driver II, but holding one leg with the hand that would be on the lower person's back if the normal body slam position was used) for a near fall. The fans all cheered for Fujita. He was able to fight off CIMA's nadare shiki no brainbuster and kick CIMA before he could do his upper, but CIMA did a forward roll and jumped up into a killer upper shotei. CIMA followed with the regular version to set up his cross arm shiki no iconoclasm then hit the mad splash for the win.
This was a better match than the previous one because it had the same quality of work, but it was longer and more diverse. At the same time, it was frustrating because I thought it was going to be a great match after watching the first 11 minutes, but once they went to the spots there were too many holes mentally even though the work itself was great. The main thing is that they keep getting a little better and a little better. That said, they've become such good pure workers that you wonder how much longer that can continue before they hit the ceiling. This was a step in the right direction when it came to laying out a body, but the body needs to lead to the finish, not be forgotten about so they can show off. Part of the problem is their offense really doesn't play into the body part they decided to work on. Actually, the real problem is they are all over the body when it comes to their big moves, so there really isn't one part that can work for them given their current move set. If we aren't aiming for the highest level right away, and it's easy to forget these guys have only been wrestling a few years, really all they'd need to do to make the match they did really work is for Fujita to sell the knee when he comes down on it and for CIMA to do a move that hits the knee once in a while. Small improvements like that, I expect will be made.
17:00
Rating: |