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[1998-04-30-FMW-Fighting Creation] Hayabusa vs Mr Gannosuke


Loss

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  • 2 months later...

This was the best FMW match so far by a long shot. Gannosuke continues to impress as the best worker in the company. We get a lot of body part work from both guys and a nice, slow build to a hot finish. I love Gannosuke's armbar-pinning combo thing he always busts out. I also really appreciate the pacing of this, because it makes the match feel appropriately big. This isn't at all on the level of the best Choshu-Hashimoto or All Japan matches, but the epic feel of it does recall those matches. If there is a negative, it's that this isn't Hayabusa's best night. He does a good job selling overall fatigue, but blows off a lot of body part work and messes up a top rope rana. I also don't think this was the intent, but the sneaky low blow from Hayabusa and Gannosuke's consistent selling really babyfaces Gannosuke with this crowd. I love Gannosuke doing the northern lights bomb and trying to put all of his weight on his good leg for a pin attempt, then realizing after doing it that was not going to feel very good. You kind of get the idea that if his knee hadn't been so weakened, he could have executed a stronger pin right then and won the match. But it wasn't to be. The spirit of this was right, and Gannosuke had his working boots on enough to put this firmly at the "great" level for me. But I'm finding Hayabusa inconsistent, even when I think he has great matches like this one. The post-match celebration is very World Class with Hayabusa fans excitedly getting close to the ring.

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Given that FMW used to be the 3rd biggest promotion in Japan it's surprising how indyish it often felt. I guess that it was a smaller concern once Onita, and to a lesser extent Kudo had hung up their boots. Plus it was so frequently imitated by smaller promotions trying to replicate its success.

 

Hayabusa had such a great image. I've yet to see the evidence that he was better than good level as a worker. I'm not sold on Gannosuke yet. I would assume his knee was legit injured here. It would be bizarre to sell that small amount of legwork for such a long time otherwise. There was no shortage of ambition here, going full out for the epic title match. They produced some good moments but very sloppy in parts also. They'd have had a better quality match by reigning it in a bit.

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Man, I just can't get into these Hayabusa main events. I don't know if I've developed a block about it or what, but they all feel the same to me. I like Gannosuke a lot, and he did some nice groundwork and selling here. But it all led up to the same old string of big moves back and forth, with no wit or intensity to the transitions.

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I side more with childs here. Gannosuke was game and had some cool key moments but Hayabusa was not really worried at selling the arm work and that made the finishing stretch a lot less dramatic than it should have been. Disappointing given the atmosphere and how game Gannosuke was. (***1/4)

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  • 1 year later...

I really dug the atmosphere here of a big-time, serious match for the gold. And I respected what they were trying to do, at least, basically running an FMW version of a lucha title match with dry body part work building to big bombs at the end with a glorious feelgood celebration. But like with Childs and soup, they just didn't get there for me. The early body part work is sound and focused but still dull, and the transition to the big moves at the end doesn't really feel earned, nor do many of the transitions down the stretch. There are a lot of good near-falls here and some plays off their previous match, which is always appreciated. But Hayabusa still blows stuff and still doesn't really seem fundamentally sound. He's spectacular and charismatic but as an overall worker I still think Tanaka utterly smokes him and Gannosuke is better too if only because he has a better grasp of the basics. Even among matches I've qualified as "more to be admired than loved," I've seen better on these sets.

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  • 1 month later...

Gannosuke has been a surprise for me so far this year. Here I am 1/3 of the way through 1998 and never thought I'd have enjoyed the FMW stuff as much as I have. Some of it is okay, but this was really good and I look forward to watching some of this stuff back to back before moving on to May in an effort to shore up my MOTYC stuff.

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  • 3 months later...

FMW World & Brass Knuckles Champion Mr. Gannosuke vs Hayabusa - FMW 4/30/98

 

I just met you and this is crazy...but I love Mr. Gannosuke! All-star performance by the bleach blond badass from Japan as he carries Hayabusa to a great match. I very seldom call a match a carry job, but Hayabusa just is not doing it for me, but luckily he has the magnificent Mr. Gannosuke in there with him. Hayabusa has literally zero fire and no panache, which is crazy to say because he is almost all high flying. His highspots just feel there for me.

 

Good beginning of the match as Gannosuke makes Hayabusa pay for his high risk offense early. Hayabusa gets a quick dropkick to the knee. Hayabusa's leg work is solid, but it is Gannosuke's awesome committed sell of this leg work throughout the match that makes this work. All the way to his last nearfall on a Northern Lights Suplex with a bridge, Gannosuke sells the leg by bridging on one leg. Gannosuke gets an armbar takedown when Hayabusa tries to take this uptempo and goes to work on the arm. He does a terrific job even though Hayabusa will blow it off, which is fine because it is the arm. Hayabusa uses a springboard dropkick to the knee as his transition, well done but the Asai Moonsault does not hit. Gannosuke tries to put him away but his knee keeps flaring up and this allows Hayabusa to hit some of the laziest superkicks you will ever see to transition to a nice dive to the outside. He does have a very pretty 450 splash that climaxes his first finish run. Gannosuke has a lot of trouble hitting any move because of his knee especially the Gannosuke Driver (I assume that's the name). He eventually catches these really slow kicks to hit a dragon leg screw and Gannosuke Driver. They blow something off the top rope badly so Gannosuke just starts selling the knee...smart man.

 

HEY! A nice Hayabusa superkick and ballshot, wicked Tiger Suplex by Hayabusa! Falcon Arrow...boooooooo! Hayabusa wants the Phoenix Splash, but Gannosuke has too much life. Hayabusa tries something springboard and gets swatted out of the sky. Go Gannosuke Go! Gannosuke ballshot and powerbomb!!! 1-2-NO! Psychology seemed a little backwards there, but liked the symmetry though the ballshot should have been better respected. This is the point of the awesome Northern Lights sell. Hayabusa hits a NASTY headrop Dragon Suplex and then the very cool Phoenix Splash.

 

Definitely the best of the finish stretches as it progressed very nicely and Gannosuke's selling added a lot and you could not tell who was going to win. I liked Hayabusa needing a little extra to get that Phoenix Splash. Gannosuke looked great here. Hayabusa was all over the place in this match and his lack of fire really brings the match down. Gannosuke's performance and strong dramatic finish stretch is enough to call this great. ****

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  • 1 year later...

I'm not a huge fan of these "poor mans AJPW" type matches. It's all very formulaic, being long, having some body part work and a slew of big moves being thrown, but nothing they did really drew me in. Gannosuke looked good, selling his leg very well (not that the legwork wasn't pointless and boring), and I liked how he caught Hayabusa with the Gannosuke Clutch in the middle of a boring control segment to wake the fans up, I also liked how he just punched a flying Hayabusa in the face. Still this felt extremely long and they didn't have any great ideas for the big move trading.

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  • GSR changed the title to [1998-04-30-FMW-Fighting Creation] Hayabusa vs Mr Gannosuke
  • 2 years later...

Just days after losing to Jinsei Shinzaki, Gannosuke is ready! (I’m so bitter about this and it happened 23 years ago lol. It’s only right to be upset about painfully stupid decisions). And again, this pairing doesn’t captivate me. This was just another Poor man’s King Road match with some quality but not nearly enough to interest you in such a way that they intended. Gannosuke had some sparks of quality but he wasn’t that great on offence either. His strong points in the match were his selling. **3/4

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