Featured photo by @NAPP0Nx_x_x
On a match filled to bursting with strong matches, this is the one that stood out the most. Kazusada Higuchi is on an absolute tear as one of the best wrestlers in the company. Between his absolutely fantastic title match against Jun Akiyama and his excellent run with the Tag Titles, Higuchi has been a key focus of the company all year and he’s delivered pretty much every time.
Meanwhile, Yoshimura’s trying to build his momentum back up after spending the first quarter of the year out of action. There’s a little history between these two as one of Yoshimura’s last matches before taking time off involved him and Yuki Ueno dropping the Tag Titles to Eruption. Though I’d enjoyed Nautilus’ Tag Title reign in 2020 a lot, it was really that Tag Title match that made me a big fan of Naomi Yoshimura.
As we want from these two, it’s a delightful beef boi battle. There’s a healthy amount of chopping in this match which these two excel at wonderfully. Two big dudes with heavy hands throwing shots is always going to be worth watching, if you ask me. There are hints of Higuchi daring Yoshimura to test him and Yoshimura does well to meet that challenge. He hits just as hard and even knocks Higuchi down on occasion.
Perhaps the best shine that Yoshimura gets though is the fight he’s able to put up once Higuchi locks in the Brain Claw. Yoshimura tries to strike his way out of it but Higuchi can fight with the best of them. Higuchi headbutts Yoshimura down and drops him with a huge elevated Brain Claw Slam to get the three.
A great match, beef bois doing beef boi things.