NJPW Wrestling World, Tokyo, Japan
The DOME SHOW! It’s Yuji Nagata and Kensuke Sasaki! Being honest I do not know whatever story there is here and I don’t care. It gets across quickly that these two fucking hate each other and want to fuck shit up. Oh, God. My memory just got triggered of what this IS. Oh, brother, let’s GO!
Nagata and Sasaki want to get at each other before the bell, both have to be physically restrained. We are talking death stares during the name intros. Bell sounds and they are just beating the absolute shit out of each other immediately with open-hand slaps and Nagata putting together a kick combo and some knees, then an overhead belly-to-belly.
They go out to the floor where Sasaki involves a chair and gets his head busted open with knees, then takes an exploder on the floor. Nagata gets his head busted open when Sasaki lariats him in the back of the skull and into the ring post. They went out OK. They come back in both busted open pretty bad.
So they start punching each other in the fucking face, then trading headbutts. After an extended, vicious excahnge of strikes, Nagata goes down and that man is LEAKIN. Sasaki bites the wound and just keeps beating the shit out of Nagata, who is pouring blood. There’s a great overhead shot with Nagata down and battered, and Sasaki standing over him at a remove:
Sasaki hits a brainbuster, then it’s back to pummeling Nagata, but Yuji gets some life with a high kick to the mush, and now Sasaki is busted open just as badly as Nagata, the two of them complete messes.
I remember now a lot of people not liking the finish, which is Nagata locking on the Rings of Saturn for about a full minute before the match just has to be stopped. It doesn’t get any big reaction in the Tokyo Dome, and I get thinking it feels anticlimactic. But I think it’s good, and sort of a perfect final, drawn-out visual and statement on one of the most truly visceral wrestling matches I’ve ever seen.
Tape Machines Are Rolling 
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