Hiroshi Hase vs. Shiro Koshinaka

[9.0] "Cute match. There is a lot of submission work that's cool, but not really purposeful to the match story but it was still very engaging and made for a very entertaining match before the crux of the action reached its climax. Koshinaka's hip attacks work really well with Hase's offence who could turn practically anything into a uranage. The closing stretch was white hot with nearfalls and drama that even flowed. Hase doing a uranage off the second rope and on the floor probably should've been saved for a bigger match but that kind of escalation helped the match a lot. ****1/4"

[7.0] "Pretty fun match. I enjoyed the first half for all the intricacies of the grappling, though it certainly wasn't the most exciting stuff. The match picked up at the half-way point as Hase and Koshinaka began trading strikes, big power moves, and other impressive spots while also showing a lot of prideful resilience. The final 5 minutes had some very exciting near falls, especially so for Koshinaka, who was doing his damndest to throw everything he had at Hase. He came up short a few times but finally put him away after a series of glute attacks and powerbombs. This is the exact sort of match which ends JUST as its getting great. I feel that this sort of match if replicated today would have gotten an extra 10 minutes and would have ended up being a top 20 MOTY contender, because that's how hard Hase and Koshinaka were working in those final few minutes. Alas, the match was still quite good and still worth a watch. ***1/4"