This review was commissioned by Zack over on my Ko-fi account.
Here’s something I’ve come to understand about myself through the years: the more violent a pro wrestling match is, the more forgiving I can be of a certain amount of bullshit. Which is to say that in a modern scene of pro wrestling so often built around structural and aesthetic excess, the only true way to justify that maximalism is with physical extremes. That principle is on display in full force in this scaffold deathmatch between Yuko Miyamoto and Takashi Sasaki.
This match, as with so much in pro wrestling, speaks to the idea that no critical criteria are ever set in stone and how a match reads on paper can’t always speak to the live experience. If we’re being as literal about things as we can, there’s a lot here that probably should rub me the wrong way, not the least of which would be the kick outs in the final stretch leading into what might be an anticlimactic finish. Scanning spots on paper and the experience of a thing can often be totally separate things though.
Before we get into the wilder aspects of this match, it’s important to note all the classical things that Miyamoto and Sasaki do well to set the stage. The progression of action here is fairly typical of this kind of Japanese deathmatch style, with a tightly contested and sporting wrestling exchange being used to increase anticipation for the escalation of violence once weapons get introduced. To their credit, Miyamoto and Sasaki don’t seem to phone it in with that early wrestling. The lock ups are tight, the struggle feels palpable, and they set a nice, steady rhythm that’s beautifully interrupted by Miyamoto’s first big lighttube shot.
Also worth noting is how brilliantly timed the transitions between control segments are here. Miyamoto especially deserves so much credit playing the hot, young challenger to Sasaki’s title here. He enters flanked by a bandaged up Kasai, seems locked in from the word go, and carries himself with a likeable charisma and energy that draws the Korakuen crowd to him with ease. He sells well when Sasaki’s laying in the punishment and the little asides to the crowd when he’s in control feel like an earnest drawing of energy rather than a desperate pandering. Put simply, I like the guy on this first ever outing of his I’ve watched, enough to want to see him succeed. Miyamoto uses that energy from the crowd and his innate likeability to great effect, making all of his comebacks feel rapturous and earned.
Meanwhile, all of Sasaki’s cuts are devastating. It helps too that on the offense, he does some great work here. On the striking front, hell yeah. Those precise kicks he deploys, often with the aid of lighttubes straight into Miyamoto’s skin are so great. He also lays in things like his repeated lariats just enough that when Miyamoto pops up off the mat, it does feel like a true goddamn effort.
Which brings us back to the tropes deployed here that suck elsewhere but just kind of work when it’s happening amidst lighttube dust and pouring blood. Miyamoto’s no selling of the lariats building up into his comeback works because it just looks harder to do when he’s eating that much punishment. But importantly, it does also serve another function of creating some perspective, dare I even say foreshadowing, showing the durability of the challenger that bolster some of the choices deeper into the match.
And all the most important choices center on the scaffold.
All the uses of it are spectacular, with multiple wild bumps off it and several offensive maneuvers performed off it as well. The match does a great job of making the scaffold feel like Miyamoto’s home turf. He wins the first skirmish on the top by elbowing Sasaki off it and following up with a truly disgusting double stomp. How Sasaki didn’t shit his pants on the spot taking those feet to the gut will forever be a mystery to me. Miyamoto comes back with another great spot off the scaffold, with a beautiful moonsault all the way down to the canvas. It’s such a well-established advantage for him, that by the time Sasaki makes a final climb back up to intercept him, it still feels like Miyamoto’s going to pull this off.
Unfortunately, Sasaki gains the advantage on the top and leaps off with a driver through a waiting table in the ring. Horrifying, hearstopping stuff. Screaming my head off-levels of horror there.
Miyamoto kicks out and my screams get louder.
It really should not work as well as it does. It’s excessive and really any of the scaffold bumps in this match could have made satisfying finishes all on their own. But it just works because it’s so much fucking cooler to kick out after being dropped on your head from god only knows how far up. When Miyamoto kicks out of that big driver too, it doesn’t lead into a frenzied bout of no selling and posturing either. His body spasms up but then is practically deadweight until Sasaki finally strings together enough punishment to put the challenger’s shoulders down. Does the match peak before the finish? Sure. But the peak really is only so high because of the kick out and a gracious final denoument is far from the worst thing to turn to here.
Let this scaffold be the bar then. Want your crazy kick outs to carry some real power? Fall this high to achieve desired effect.
Rating: ****¼
