The first match in NEW history faces off a shoot style legend and one
of the most notorious japanese MMA fighters of today. When you choose
to work a mat-based shoot style match in a more conservative manner,
with not many nearfalls and highspots, it's not uncommon to see it
become uninteresting. These two absolutely nailed it. Aoki seems to
intuitively *get* pro wrestling-their sequences just seamlessly flow. It
is like a lucha title match, except wacky lucha holds are replaced with
armbars and leglocks, and the use of realistic guard positions almost
makes it like a high end jiu jitus exhibition. Almost-because the match
retains a certain flair of catch wrestling you'd want a Fujiwara match
to have, in that how they utilize their joints to put pressure on their
opponents makes for a significant aspect of the match, but they also
pull guard, block transitions, use ankle picks and so on, giving the
match its own unique feel rather than just copying an old style.
Fujiwara tones down the goofiness-there's no ramming his head against
the pose or cracking jokes, but he can't help but fake a handshake and
blast Aoki with some headbutts (which looked great, and way better than
some he was doing 25-30 years ago, no holding his opponent's head with
one hand, just a quick straight motion). Not something I'd imagine
people who aren't big on the style would be blown away with, but I doubt
NEW is gonna for them anyway. ****
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