Osamu Kido vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara

[7.0] "Another fine mat wrestling exhibition from these two. The style works for me, but others may find it a bit dry. 3.5*."

[6.0] "Kido spends his time pre-match lifting heavy ass weight, Fujiwara spends it trying to break the hand of I think was a very young Tatsuo Nakano (? ) though I could be easily wrong given his face was obscured. Priorities, people. This is definitely one of those matchups that people are going to be hit or miss on because it's mostly two middle aged uncles rolling around for pretty much the entire match. Sure, it's two of arguably the most refined mat-workers in living history, sure Fujiwara is one of the greatest wrestlers ever, but again, it's a lot of rolling about. If you're a grappling nerd like me then this is going to be good, for anyone else possibly interested in something aside that it's not going to really pander to you much. I guess they were kinda conscious of that, because Fujiwara does add in some explosive spots to mix things up (alongside a lot of his signature tricks that keen eyes will particularly notice, like him rubbing his elbow into Kido's back to expose his head for a facelock) and to make this a bit more fresh. It was also cool to see a prototype Sugar Foot attempted by Fuji despite it being unsuccessful. We get a solid Achilles Tendon exchange as the two try to outmanoeuvre each other on leverage, ultimately having to get back up to their feet after hitting a brick wall on progress. Kido gets a slick Sakuraba-style double wrist lock off Fujiwara taking the back, getting a loud yell from the guy in response. Good scuffle Fuji trying to get past Kido's unbreakable submission, but only ends up stuck in side mount, really getting the crowd amped up for the potential tapout. Builds well to Kido trying for the classic Robertson headscissors when Fuji tries to escape, only for him to go up and over for a Achilles Tendon. The two try for strikes, Kido landing a low kick and Fuji trying for some jabs before relenting for more mat stuff. The finish was simple but effective, running around Fuji trying for a double wrist to bait Kido away from defending against his actual play: a cross armbreaker, which forces the submission victory. As I said, if you love this stuff it'll be pretty good all things considered; these two put on a fairly low-impact mat clinic focused around a limited yet surprisingly compelling range of submissions and suplexes. It's definitely a match that plays into the "the struggle in the move is better than the struggle of the move being applied" debate because this was mostly just the two jousting in holds for advantages."