Minoru Suzuki & Taiyo Kea vs. Osamu Nishimura & Suwama

[6.0] "A very long title defence by Suzuki and co. I loved how Nishimura at once had no patience for Suzuki's dirty shit and immediately showed him up with a clean break despite his opponent trying for a early cheap shot. We also get some really scrappy stuff as Kea and Suwama just go right into lots of stiff strikes and brawling, which the two can generally do quite well. Did like Suzuki doing his cocky work only for Nishimura to get him in serious trouble after a hammerlock into double wrist lock transition on the mat. The typically stoic Nishimura is rattled by the interference, pulling out stomps and even choking Suzuki in a pretty uncharacteristic spot. Suzuki also gets in a rear naked choke after countering a cradle pin from his opponent, leading Nishimura to sell the effects really well as he's just trying to get that second wind, which he gets after countering a Kea suplex into a huge Enzuigiri and hot tag. We get a few minutes of just everyone hurling out stiff heated shit, with even Nishimura getting into things with his own Dory-style uppercuts. Suzuki's arm gets worked over for a while; highlights included a awesome Nishimura double wrist lock, which he keeps on even when Suzuki tries rolling around. At one point he even slaps on a side-headscissors while he's doing the hold, which looked horrific. Suzuki and co rely on doubleteaming to get the drop on Nishimura with boots and lariats generally. Suwama comes in but he is also ganged up and taken out with a second rope-assisted piledriver. Nishimura lands some good near falls with sneaky roll-ups and counters but with Suzuki slapping on sleepers to his partner, he can't do a whole lot. Kea lands some more big bombs before ending with a unusual front guillotine for the submission (didn't tap, was knocked out) win. This definitely felt a bit house-showy in places but we did eventually get some nice shit at the second half. Kea is ehh but he's good at bomb throwing and scrappy stuff, so him and Suwama really get that over (partly because they build up to a singles Triple Crown match, but still) while Suzuki and co are more-so for the ride. Nishimura gets his usual stuff over well enough and Suzuki is alright, but I felt like this was a low performance for him as he didn't really seem engaged in one thing particularly, with some arm work that goes nowhere and reliance on his typical lazy tropes to coast around a lot here. Decent defence but a bit hollow."