Zack Sabre Jr.

13 minutes ago, Ma Stump Puller said:

I think body-part work in a wrestling match can be done to a EXTREMELY high standard if it's taken to the natural conclusions. Guys like GENTARO/Ogawa pushed the envelope for how long you could really go just attacking a leg/arm and for the most part it was pretty damn good, even going 15+ minutes long at points with that same dynamic. Even Kenny Omega when he's actually forced to pace himself has some astonishingly strong leg selling if you give the room for that to breathe.

I kinda get what Zack is doing now though, submission workers don't really work for the Kings Road-ish style NJPW have adopted so he's a bit less focused than he could be. It definitely makes them more watchable as opposed to his NOAH stint where he would spend obnoxious amounts of time submission-chaining for no apparent benefit.

 

Oh yeah, there are definitely great matches that involve targeting certain limbs over extended periods. Like you said, it has to be done extremely well. Unfortunately, there's a lot of "limb work" today that is pointless and goes nowhere. Nothing is more frustrating than seeing someone like Ospreay forget to sell a leg that just got attacked and somehow summoning the strength to do one of his high-spot moves.