Mitsuhiro Matsunaga vs Osamu Namiguchi 30.06.2005

Mitsuhiro Matsunaga vs Osamu Namiguchi 30.06.2005

Jon Moxley’s recent heel turn against Bryan Danielson brought on comparisons from many to the 2005 Mitsuhiro Matsunaga run in Zero-1 commonly referred to as “stop that Matsunaga”. The follow up to Moxley’s heel turn now makes said comparisons seem rather ridiculous.But what it did do was make me realise that while I've heard a lot about “stop that Matsunaga” i've never actually watched it. Both Zero-1 and Misuhiro Matusnga are blind sports for me in my wrestling knowledge. I've seen Matsunaga’s small number of BattleArts matches and two matches against Onita and as for Zero-1 i can probably count as many matches i've seen from the promotion on one hand.

All that to be said “stop that Matsunaga” is as good as everyone says it is, it made me want to watch more Matsunaga matches and more Zero-1 in general. All the matches were great but for me Matsunaga's first bout in Zero-1 is the best of them all because how unprepared everyone but Matsunaga feels. 

Matsunaga brings a level of violence to that clearly no-one in Zero-1 was expecting. from the ref who seems taken aback by Matsugane multiple stabbing in Namiguchi’s head with a spike, unsure how to deal with it and desperately trying to pull Matsunaga off Namiguchi. Tp the fans who let out genuine shrieks of horror.Then there's the man in the suit, who i don't know, who gets in the ring to try and stop this who takes a beating from Matsunaga for his efforts and then especially theres poor Namiguchi who has been fed to slaughter, no one was ready for this. The second Matsunaga starts using that spike, the promotion is out of its debt. 

This is an 8 minute squash match and dare I say it, it rivals Goldberg vs La Parka for the best squash match ever. Matsunaga is so vicious and yet cold in his attacks, carving Namiguchi face out seems like just another tuesday. Then there's Namiguchi's performance. He came prepared for a standard wrestling match and now he's getting stabbed in the face. What he's going to do, put him in an arm bar? He's stabbing you in the face. He sells both hes pain and shock excellently

 A lesson shown in the match and throughout “stop that Matsunaga” is that you're not going to beat Matsunaga wrestling your type of match, you have to play his game.

Namiguchi gets one suplex in and a submission attempt off Matsunaga getting distracted but it doesn't matter this match has been over since the bell rang. Matsunaga grabs a light bulb and delivers a sickening hit, then a punch with his first covered in broken glass and that's the match. The best wrestling creates a feeling and that's what this does. A feeling of genuine fear and a promotion that doesn't know what it's dealing with.

Also Matsunaga comes out to Flash Gordan theme and that's the coolest thing ever. i will mention this any time i review Matsunaga match

Rating: ****¼

Song it reminded of: the closet- teenage jesus and the jerks