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[2017-04-09-NJPW-Sakura Genesis] Hiromu Takahashi vs KUSHIDA


ShittyLittleBoots

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The official time for this is 1:56. 1 minute 56 seconds. KUSHIDA jumped Takahashi as he was making his entrance, he had a gameplan - he beat the shit out of Takahashi before throwing back into the ring where he tried to go for his Hoverboard Lock right away. Once that didn't work out, Hiromu basically just destroyed KUSHIDA in very explosive fashion. Who would've thought that in 2017 we'd see a New Japan title match that goes under 2 minutes. This was so good. ****1/2

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I prefer this to their Wrestle Kingdom match, they took pretty much all the best spots from that match and organized them in a more clear and concise way. I appreciated KUSHIDA changing his strategy, it only makes sense after losing once already. His Swanton Plancha really came as a surprise, and his brief armwork was nice and violent. I loved how KUSHIDA ducked while standing at the apron expecting Takahashi to strike him to set up a big spot, only for Takahashi to throw himself into the Sunset Flip Powerbomb off the apron straight away. Takahashi nuking KUSHIDA with headdrops was fun, I wish matches like this that break the mold were more common everywhere. ***1/4

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The surprise swanton pre-bell was a nice callback to their Wrestle Kingdom match (and a helluva jump too). KUSHIDA slams the shoulder, big running drop kick. Now the bell rings and we get a couple more KUSHIDA staples to soften that arm up. But the big surprise is the vicious sunset flip bomb to the outside which is the catalyst for Hiromu to run through his finishing sequence and win. The only issue I have with the quick power match with these guys is that Takahashi/Dragon Lee did the same stuff to each other and killed themselves for 12 minutes (including a sunset flip powerbomb off the apron). So it kind of dings KUSHIDA, but I think even with the commentary you see the path for a long redemption story - which I'm totally into.

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  • GSR changed the title to [2017-04-09-NJPW-Sakura Genesis] Hiromu Takahashi vs KUSHIDA

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