May 1997

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Naoki Sano aka Takuma Sano aka Yuhi Sano transitions with ease into Kingdom from UWFi. Hard-hitting opening minute and a pretty hot lead up to the finish. Sano kicking and suplexing is the best Sano and he does the former here, murdering Sakuraba with those rolling solebutts...I mean, the one in the corner was like a shotgun. Sakuraba has some slick movements on the mat but it isn't Sano's forte, so the groundwork is pretty boring and messy at times, but I guess that adds to the shootiness of this. They pick things back up in the final minutes with Sakuraba hitting a German suplex into the rear naked choke to a big reaction. Sano tries to finish Sakuraba off with the cros…

Loved this match-up in UWFi and it's still a blast. Tons of big strikes and competitive groundwork and of course, Anjo being a dick. There's a moment when Kakihara tries to cinch the leg on the ground and Anjo straight up drops his knee into Kakihara's face and starts pounding away. He grabs a pretty gnarly looking armbar but can't fully cinch it in and Kaki's able to respond with a rear choke. Loved Kaki's straight punch to Anjo's face and Anjo's reaction. Then he gets head kicked but of course, Kaki misses the wheel kick per usual, which leads to Anjo getting some retribution. The finish was a lot of fun with underdog Kaki surviving the deep choke and armbar but when Ka…

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I can't believe this didn't had a topic. An amazing shoot style with big moves hybrid match, with super stiff action and great selling. Ikeda being a dick and Otsuka making him pay for his excess of confidence was a great story. Loved the transitions here: Otsuka being able to block one of Ikeda's very dangerous kicks and giving him a dragonscrew, the desperate russian leg sweep, the lariat countered into a Fujiwara armbar... Everything was put together in a very smart way.

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