Kengo Mashimo vs. Zeus

[8.0] "Zeus was all about pleasing the crowd and being a cool home town hero, but Mashimo was in it to win it - he had a strategy in mind, and he executed it well enough to force Zeus to tap out in the end."

[6.0] "A pretty good match but disappointing as a tournament semi-final. There was a nice quick pace to start, as both men ran around teasing and trading strikes. The match slowed down as both men then engaged in some brawl work and continued to show off their stiff strikes. Zeus would impress with his occasional displays of agility, including his truly trademark over-the-top-rope dive to the outside. Mashimo was heaps of fun whenever he would fire off a quick flurry of his strikes, and his persistence in going after Zeus' arm was quite engaging. Zeus would end up showing good babyface fire as he struggled to fight on following this targeting, and I appreciated how consistent he was with his selling. Mashimo's various holds were also cool because they made for a nice change of pace from the strike-vs-strike formula (even though that formula was still worked well here). Zeus continued to impress right up to the finish as he fired off his massive lariats, though he could have sold his arm better for his final lariat. His selling was great up until that point, and still great overall anyways. It just would have been nice if that one no-sell moment was avoided. The finish with Zeus stuck in Mashimo's armbar, attempting to power Mashimo up for a power move, only to fall down and have Mashimo further wrench the armbar in was very cool. This ultimately had a good story with good execution, though I can't say it was great in any particular area. NOTE: make sure you watch the full 13-minute match, as the 9-minute clipped version sadly skips a lot of Mashimo's arm work and Zeus' selling, which was one of the most interesting parts of the match. ***1/4"

[9.0] "A great match with a even greater performance by kengo, he brutally attacked zeus in an ugly manner it was not pretty it was brutal and cruel. The selling by Zeus was also good he sold his arm that it as hurting more and more as the match went on selling it consistently. The submission on the arm was built up throughout the tournament and would continue on to the final Vs kento. This was a great tournament math and even better tourney booking really elevating kengo across the tourney. ****"

[7.0] "Mashimo getting a strong push in this tournament is not something I saw coming, but it's worked really well. He took down Ishikawa and Doering of all people getting himself to this match with the Triple Crown champ, and managed to make him submit for the upset. It wasn't unearned though as Mashimo worked over Zeus's arm very well. Zeus sold it great too making Mashimo look really good. I didn't think Mashimo would make it to the finals of the tournament, but I don't mind it one bit, ****."