Talk about it here.

This was a total blast. Fujiwara puts on kickpads in the beginning of the match and decides to use his kickboxing. Really had the feel of Matt Serra breaking out his highkick, as Fujiwara just has a shit eating grin on his face the whole time he is landing axe kicks, high kicks and Tiger Mask style spin kicks on the befuddled Sumo dude. Lato does get some offense including an awesome rush where he lowers his head and gores Fujiwara like a bull. Finish was great as Lato bulls Fujiwara into the corner and pops him with shots, Soronaka breaks them up, and Fujiwara points to the ref and says something, and when Lato is distracted smacks him with a high kick. "Hey look over there...BAM"

This is Fujiwara making mincemeat of a guy who looks like a monster but is totally outclassed. The spot where Fujiwara sort of grazes Kirawarik with a kick and catches him off guard is great. The surprise angles at which Fujiwara can sneak in a kick are a lot of fun. The rhythm of this is off kilter and Fujiwara keeps catching him with kicks at points in the match where you don't expect it based on the pacing or their positioning, which is what makes this fun. The finish is just an exclamation point on that. Short but fun.

Lato is a big fat dude who gets a few openings which just serve to piss Fujiwara off, and he eventually kicks him into oblivion, and even busts out a spin kick that looks hurtier than 90% of Nobuhiko Takada's output with that move.

Lato is a big fat dude who gets a few openings which just serve to piss Fujiwara off, and he eventually kicks him into oblivion, and even busts out a spin kick that looks hurtier than 90% of Nobuhiko Takada's output with that move.

Fujiwara was a kickboxer, or at least trained as one. Which makes his willingness to be a punching bag against Maeda, Takada et al. especially generous.

Fujiwara looked like he was having fun out there beating down an inferior opponent. He’s the total aggressor in match and sticks mostly to using kicks. Lato’s size must made for a big target for Fujiwara.

Fun seeing a Fujiwara squash essentially after all the other shoot style matches felt even. This wasn't dragged out for 35 minutes, but after hearing about Backlund vs. Race, don't show this match to Parv. I thought it was good fun myself.

Lato is a big fat dude who gets a few openings which just serve to piss Fujiwara off, and he eventually kicks him into oblivion, and even busts out a spin kick that looks hurtier than 90% of Nobuhiko Takada's output with that move.

Fujiwara was a kickboxer, or at least trained as one. Which makes his willingness to be a punching bag against Maeda, Takada et al. especially generous.

 

I have since been disabused of this, FWIW. My statement was based on bad Wikipedia info.

A total squash for Fujiwara, as Lato looked completely confused as to what to do out there. If he hadn't been able to make a few suicide rushes, this would have been over a lot sooner. This was only the second shoot-style match I've seen end with a TKO, and easily the most lopsided one I've seen to date.

Yeah, this was a lot of fun. I really liked the spot where Fujiwara was talking to the ref and quickly side kicked Lato in the head. Priceless.

This was a fun shootstyle squash. Would that make it a poorly booked fight then? Also, as somebody who has been trained to throw kicks, you don't ever want Fujiwara kicking you. His form is really, really good and I'm guessing Lato was hurting more than a little after this.

Lato's a big lad and he brings a lot of power, but he's no match for the pure skill of Fujiwara. Lato's only able to get an advantage when he out powers Fujiwara and when he rushes him near the end. Despite only goes shy of six minutes and being rather one sided, they cram a lot of action into this and worth a watch.

★★★¼