Hikaru Sato vs. Susumu Yokosuka

[9.0] "Easily the best junior match I've ever seen. A really good match with thrilling reversals and nail biting submissions. Hikaru Sato does a fantastic job of selling his leg the entire time but still just barely able to carry out his heavy kick based offense. The two different styles of Susumu and Sato mesh really well together. Jr. wrestling peaks when Hikaru Sato is in it."

[7.0] "Susumu Yokosuka -vs- Hikaru Sato - (AJPW Junior Title Tournament - Final) [*** 1/4] For me Sato has mostly been miss through-out his career, but for this mini-junior tournament he's been the MVP. His variation of the old school UWF shoot style worked real well with these Toryumon trained guys. Felt like there was an actual game-plan and a clash of two different styles, which made it stand-out. Worked real well for me."

[8.0] "Relatively slow start but picks up with Sato using submission attempts and Yokosuka using some excellent strikes."

[7.0] "This was very different to the main-event of Miyahara vs Jake but just as good. The first half is honestly a bit of a blur to me, since it was just a bunch of basic exchanges to set the foundations for the second half, which is when we finally got the properly impressive stuff. I loved the idea of Sato switching between his strikes and his various holds, smartly choosing one or the other based on whatever action Susumu was taking to deal with Sato's existing approach. Not only did Sato look delightfully strategic, and not only was it fun to see a wrestler so skilled in both striking and grappling, but Susumu also looked good by surviving this variety of attacks and selling so sympathetically for them. Susumu would naturally respond with his trademark wonderful lariats, leading to some great moments where Sato would challenge him to a strike battle by responding with his sharp kicks. The drama of all of Sato's leg- and arm-based holds against all of Susumu's thunderings lariats in the final few minutes was great, leading to some very exciting and convincing near falls. I was naturally invested in Sato's struggle because of his connection to Aoki (the beloved previous junior champion who passed away in June), and that added a tonne of gravity to every single near fall and false finish that either he or Susumu went for. It was ultimately deflating to see Susumu get the win, but I guess I like the idea of Aoki's teammate not necessarily getting the junior title JUST because of his connection to Aoki. Besides, Susumu is a relatively popular wrestler whose brand will draw attention to AJPW and bring further legitimacy to the AJPW junior title, and now it will be awesome when Sato (or even Yusuke) finally dethrone whoever the Junior champ is to symbolically reclaim the title for Aoki. ***3/4"

[8.0] "Really good match and in my opinion one of the better matches of the whole weekend. Sato's attempt to tap out Yokosuka while transitioning from the armbreaker into the ankle hold multiple times was a nice spot."

[6.0] "The worst match of the decade! I''ve only seen 5 so far tbf, but yeah this was pretty mediocre. Dueling kinda meandering limb work for 20 minutes and Hikaru Sato not wearing shoes not being Matt Riddle dragged this down for me ***"

[9.0] "Hikaru Sato put in a great performance here. In both his offence targeting the head and arm with kicks and armbars and also his selling where he had his leg attacked and sold it really well throughout the match. He took a while to recover after everykick and never took more than a couple of steps on it, wincing in pain whenever he did so. There were a couple of nice spots such as Sato doing the mount pin into a armbar on kickout three times and Susumu not being able to block it and when Sato finally got it fully in it was bought as a finish. Susumu wrestled as Susumu does, he was there but looked bored and nothing he did was particularly interesting, it was the reactions to what he did and what was done to him that was interesting. But being so bland and default CAW like it means he can fit into a place in a variety of match styles. He is not shit but just needs to be led to everything. Great way to start the year thanks to Sato ****"

[7.0] "One of the more unpredictable matches. Usually the Junior title is a bare basic division that's easy to follow and predict. The tournament has offered a ton of good matches and it's a tough thing to be the end all of that. The match was similar to the Kagetora match from the day before. Sato leading the match, being calculated and working for holds with Sususmu on the defensive, looking for quick counters and bombs as his strategy. It didn't peak high but the quality was consistently good from start to finish. ***1/2"

[8.0] "Sato relies on his usual offense of damaging kicks, Susumu at first chance targets his leg to try to neutralize Sato. Hikaru does great transitioning pins into submissions all match baiting Susumu into the cross armbreaker. Was really pulling for Sato, even though he will be 40 this year he is so under utilized. The big lariat gets the win down the stretch, exciting last half of the match. ****"