"The first half of this match (10 minutes) was basically all matwork, with Sano dominating Tanaka. Tanaka would reverse Sano's holds, but Sano would quickly regain control, mostly by working over Tanaka's legs. In the first half, the only time Tanaka looked in control was about 6 or 7 minutes in when he reversed an attempt at a Dragon suplex with a Misawa type 'mule-kick.' However, Sano quickly rolled to the outside to kill any momentum that Tanaka could possibly have gained," wrote Jason.

They used basically the same moves they had in their previous encounters, but they structured and built this match a lot better. It started off with a feeling out period where it was hard to sustain an advantage. They did some parity here, but the point was more that they were 100% so they had no problem avoiding and countering their opponents maneuvers. The sequences and counters were not Dean Malenko level, but they were definitely very impressive. The pacing was right for the match they were working. Sure, you needed to have some patience with this match and even then there were a few times when you were edging toward the fast forward button, but there's purpose behind taking a few moments to collect yourself and rethink your strategy when your opponent has had the answer for just about everything you've thrown at him. The crowd was really into the second half, so it's safe to say that making the moves mean something early on turned out to be to their benefit.

"The final half of the match went away from the matwork at times with some more 'pro' style sequences. Tanaka finally got an advantage with an arm bar, but Sano quickly got to the ropes and rolled to the outside to sell his arm injury," wrote Jason.

This was a beautiful sequence where Sano caught Tanaka's kick against his body, but Tanaka caught Sano's lariat against his head and immediately took him over with a dobitski udehishigigyakujujigatame (jumping takedown into a cross armbreaker). Sano was virtually in the ropes when he landed, so all he had to do was extend his leg a little bit to get to the ropes. This was important because it made Sano escaping Tanaka's finisher totally believable, and thus did not hurt the credibility of the move at all. It's the old, if he was a couple feet closer to the center of the ring then Tanaka would have won the match there.

"Perhaps thinking that going back to matwork would leave Sano in control like the first half, after a few strikes Tanaka whipped Sano into the opposite turnbuckle and followed him in, but Sano reversed by climbing the turnbuckle and moonsaulting over his opponent. Tanaka immediately tried a kneel kick, but Sano ducked and used his tombstone piledriver on Tanaka. Sano then hit a missile dropkick that knocked Tanaka to the floor, but his dominance finally ended when Tanaka stopped his pescado with a jumping kick to Sano's knee. Tanaka put Sano back in the ring, but instead of capitalizing on Sano's injury, he hit a missile dropkick for a two count and then went straight from the pin attempt into an arm bar only to have Sano reach the ropes," wrote Jason.

This part was kind of goofy because Sano sold his knee heavily before reentering the ring, but Tanaka never tried to attack it. Considering the difficulty Tanaka was having in sustaining any offensive, it's hard to justify him passing up this opportunity. The best case one could make in his defense is that he wanted to use bigger moves while he thought he had the chance, but Sano wasn't as bad off as he thought so we saw yet another quick turnaround when Sano did a go behind to escape Tanaka's Dragon suplex hold and surprised Tanaka by taking him over with a victory roll for a near fall.

"Sano was able to shake off the pain in his knee and caught Tanaka off guard with a brief flurry to set up a near submission with a 1/2 crab. Tanaka was briefly able to get a hizajujigatame, but Sano reversed into a heel hold that forced Tanaka to the outside," wrote Jason.

They did a nice job of making this near submission dramatic. Tanaka kept sliding a little closer to the ropes, continually reaching out for them with these pained expressions on his face. It looked like he might be finished, but he was able to make the ropes with a desperation lunge.

"Sano hit a tope suicida that stunned Tanaka, who was selling his knee, and nearly resulted in Tanaka being counted out. Sano saw the injured knee and used a leg lock and then tried to end it with a Tiger suplex hold, but only got a two count. Tanaka turned Sano's next Tiger suplex attempt into his flying arm bar, which was a nice desperation move that did some damage even though Sano quickly got to the ropes. Sano hit a lariat and then a German suplex hold for a near fall. Sano went for a thunderfire powerbomb, but Tanaka slipped out of it and high kicked Sano. Sano fired back with a rolling savate to Tanaka's face and tried a lariat, but because his back was turned after Tanaka ducked it, Tanaka got a near fall with a Dragon suplex hold and then went straight into a cross armbreaker to force Sano to tap out," wrote Jason.

The thing with the finish, and really any portion of the match where they were doing sequences, is everything was done so quickly and smoothly. They wound up out of position after a miss a few times, but for the most part it all flowed together really well. As is usually the case, it's more how you do it than what you do.

"This had some really good work in it, especially the matwork is always strong matwork in Tanaka's matches because he's so skilled at it. The near falls at the end worked great because it played off the build of these guys both being worn out in the match, which is the way most matches should be," wrote Jason.

When you go out of your way to show that things aren't working then something has to give. I think they should have played this aspect up more because I felt the success rate increasing was as much due to impatience and time constraints as it was to fatigued eroding their defensive skills.

"I think my only complaint was the story of Sano pretty much dominating Tanaka because Tanaka is equal to and probably a better worker than Sano at this point, but it didn't really matter because the story worked out in the end," wrote Jason.

I think to some extent you are making an issue out of something that wasn't there. Sano may have had the ball longer than Tanaka so to speak, but he wasn't doing any end zone dancing, he was just winning a battle of field position. Until the final minutes, neither man was ever taking it to the other or even able to get a sustained offense. Both men got close calls, but they came when someone countered into a potential finisher, so it was not like either was in real trouble (meaning they were fine so long as they escaped this pin or submission) or close to being out of the match. Sano did have a good run at the end, but look where it got him. Tanaka is the better of the two right now, but when you consider that Sano is the veteran and was the one who was doing the job, I think one could just as easily make the argument that Tanaka didn't put him over enough.

"Sano is a guy who could have been one of the biggest names in puroresu, but it just never happened. However, he is always respected as a credible opponent. I don't think Sano can either gain or lose anything from winning or losing wrestling matches anymore. If he does the job, he's still the same guy, but then the winner looks good because he beat Naoki Sano! And if he wins, no one looks bad because hey, he lost to Naoki Sano," wrote Gabe.

Sano made a terrible career move leaving New Japan to go to SWS at a time when he was not that far removed from one of the best junior programs ever against Liger, a program that made him at least arguably the #2 native junior in the company. After SWS folded, he toiled because he didn't have the size, charisma, or skill to get that far in worked shoots (not that UWF-I was going to give a big push to any native other than Takada anyway). Whatever aura he had was greatly reduced over the last few years because he suffered awful beatings every time he tried the real thing. At the same time though, he's been pushed strongly by the independents in works since he won the Independent World Junior Heavykyu Senshuken from Tanaka on 5/14/99, with defenses over all the Battlarts juniors before losing the title here, plus high profile wins over The Great Sasuke, Yuki Ishikawa, and SUWA since. His value in All Japan, New Japan, or NOAH would be very small right now since none or doing much of anything with juniors, but small guys that can work and have some name value are a commodity in the indies right now since, in the past 4 years, so much of the talent (including Tanaka now) has gone elsewhere for better money. Sano's ability certainly works in his favor, but seniority is ruling puroresu these days. Sano has that over pretty much any junior he's going to wrestle, so at the moment it looks like he's going to do better than splits, but he isn't a great draw and money is tight so he might not get as many bookings as he likes (or maybe he just doesn't want to wrestling many times per month anymore). In any case, he consistently gives us good matches, and in a way that's all that really matters.

Special thanks to: Jason Higgs & Gabe Bautista

19:21

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