[2009-04-05-DDT-Judgment] Kota Ibushi vs Taiji Ishimori

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

 

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xvo0zc_ddt-kota-ibushi-vs-taiji-ishimori_sport

[dawho5]

This was better than I thought it would be. They do some athletic opening stuff, then Ibushi gets caught by a dropkick to the leg on a dive attempt and Ishimori takes advantage. I like Ishimori's working over the leg, and Ibushi sold well between moves all the way til the end. But Ibushi's comebacks were often very sprinty or flippy to the point where you could see the leg not being sold during. It's a small complaint, but it happens often enough that it works against the match. Ishimori skips a lot of his overly long setup offense late, which ehlps. Nearfalls go a little too far in the kickouts, but it's not near as much as most 2000s stuff. Also, pretty well laid out. It's not getting a vote, but it was a fun watch and worth it. Both are good at the intricate athletic sequences that border on gymnastics, but they keep that to a minimum, which to me makes the best use of those kinds of sequences.

[Alan4L]

held up way better than I expected to, I'll be honest. I rated this really really high at the time but I figured alot of that might have been based on how these two guys wowed me with everything they did back then. But Ishimori's assault of the leg was fantastic, he was unrelenting on it and had all kinds of cool ways of working the leg work into the match. The athleticism spots were still mighty impressive 5 years later.

 

Big props to this match. Probably won't make top 50 but it should make the second half of my list.