Solid submission work throughout, with a great payoff in the end. Tonai is so smooth in his counter work and the way he maintains control of the arm. There's a nice big nearfall after they go back and forth with the submission attempts and Mogami is able to pin Tonai's shoulders to the mat. The crowd was invested, the matwork technically as sound as it gets. Really good match.

 

It's Kyu Mogami

 

Very cool that someone in 2016 Japan is willing to work this type of match, as it's essentially what I was hoping Evolve would be. The body of the match is mostly using basic holds and milking them out as much as possible to set the stage for the finishing stretch-most of the holds aren't anything mindblowing, but they look and are sold well, and Tonai does a couple of neat things to keep you invested in the armwork like roll WITH Mogami when he tries to counter a wristlock like that and use a cool leg pick to take Mogami down. They do a great job of building up their big moves and constantly teasing you so you can't tell which counter is gonna be the last one and the finish itself looks great and makes sense in the context of the match and the sequence that preceeded it. ***1/4