They tieup once, but nothing happens. Maeda starts unloading with some shots then nails a nice spinning leg lariat. Maeda quickly vertical suplexes Choshu for a one. Maeda slams Choshu for a one. Maeda locks the rear chinlock (!) on. My favorite move! Choshu fights his way up and we get a clean break. Choshu leg takedowns Maeda then Maeda gets an arm takeover. Maeda works the arm casually with armbars. Maeda starts pounding on Choshu and gets an elbow drop for another one count. Maeda backdrops and legdrops Choshu for another one (?). Odd! Maeda goes back to the rear chinlock (!) and then to figure four sleeper. Choshu gets out and back elbows Maeda. Choshu slams Maeda and locks on his own figure four sleeper, but Maeda gets rope. Choshu gets a vertical suplex for a one and follows with a hammerlock hold. Choshu eventually tries for a cross armbreaker, but Maeda fights it and hip tosses Choshu. Maeda goes for his own cross armbreaker, but Choshu gets out of it. Choshu gets a leg grapevine/chinlock. Choshu lets go and starts kicking at Maeda's leg in the corner. Out of nowhere they start exchanging shots. Choshu catches a leg, takedowns Maeda, and goes for his Sasorigatame (Scorpion Deathlock), but Maeda gets rope.

Choshu locks on the rear chinlock. Maeda fights back up, but Choshu shoulderblocks him down and reapplies the rear chinlock. Choshu kicks Maeda and signals for the lariat. Maeda ducks the riki lariat and nails a bulldog lariat for barely a two. Maeda follows with another spinning leg lariat for a 1 count (?). Maeda vertical suplexes Choshu for another 1 count. Maeda nails a belly to belly suplex for a barely a 1 count. Choshu reverses a waistlock and destroys Maeda with his BACKDROP SUPLEX. Choshu locks on the SASORIGATAME. Choshu lets go and levels Maeda with a RIKI LARIAT! Choshu goes right back to the SASORIGATAME. Maeda fights as hard and as long as he can. MAEDA! MAEDA! MAEDA! Choshu is declared the victor! Good match! The heat is what made this enjoyable to watch. Everything they did was simple. The match did have flaws though. There were no real near falls. There were actually more one counts than two counts for that matter. Choshu seemed like wasn't willing to be competitive with Maeda. And the match simply was too short. For some reason the rest holds were not as annoying as usual. Nonetheless, they were still restholds. **3/4

The fans hyped for this one. Here we go! Maeda gets the advantage and wristlock backdrops Fujinami. Maeda locks on a hammerlock hold, but Fujinami backdrops Maeda and goes for a cross armbreaker. Maeda escapes and locks on a leg lock, but Fujinami gets rope. They both exchange a kick. Maeda fireman carry takedowns Fujinami and locks on a side headlock. Fujinami leg scissors out of it. Maeda arm takeovers Fujinami and locks on a cross armbreaker. Fujinami escapes, but Maeda blocks a crab and gets another leg lock. Rope break! They go into a knuckle lock and Maeda surprises Fujinami with a dropkick. Sequence occurs. Fujinami ducks a spinning leg lariat and lariats Maeda down. Fujinami locks on the half crab. People are screaming! Fujinami works the leg with a grapevine. Maeda comes back though with another leg lock, but Fujinami gets rope. Maeda immediately locks on the leg lock. Good legwork! Fujinami finally gets rope! Maeda then starts leveling Fujinami with KICKS TO THE HEAD! Ouch! Fujinami takedowns Maeda, but Maeda gets rope. Maeda ends up rolling outside with a leg lock (?) on. Maeda then continues the assault with several more vicious kicks to the head!! Fujinami looks done! Maeda snapmares Fujinami and locks on a crossface chickenwing. Maeda transitions into Cross Arm Scissors. Fujinami fights it and locks on a quick bow & arrow. Fujinami kicks at Maeda and nails a sick jumping piledriver for a two. Fujinami blocks a Dragon Suplex! Maeda holds on with the full nelson and slaps Fujinami. Maeda delivers some more kicks to Fujinami's hurt leg. Maeda locks on the rear chinlock. Fujinami gets to the ropes though and we get a clean break. Maeda levels Fujinami once again with THREE KICKS to the face! Maeda locks on the cross armbreaker, but Fujinami gets rope again.

Maeda follows with two kicks, but Fujinami blocks a third with a leg sweep. Maeda comes right back with a thrust kick. Maeda goes for the dragon suplex again, but Fujinami reverses the waistlock. Maeda goes into the fujiwara armbar from there! Just like in the video games! Fujinami gets rope. The CROWD is hot. Maeda get some kicks, but Fujinami catches one and delivers a german suplex for a two. Fujinami gets two kicks of his own. Maeda blocks a kick and eventually CAPTURE SUPLEXES Fujinami for a near fall. Maeda kicks Fujinami down and locks on the side leg lock, but Fujinami gets rope again! Maeda tries to hip toss Fujinami outside, but Fujinami holds on and they both tumble outside! They both roll back in the ring at the same time. Fujinami blocks a kick and locks on a SASORIGATAME! Oh man! Maeda gets rope as well. Maeda kicks at Fujinami's leg in the corner and destroys Fujinami with a sick SPINKICK. Fujinami immediately GUSHES OPEN from it! Maeda follows with his DRAGON SUPLEX for a 2 1/2 count. Maeda snap suplexes Fujinami for a near fall. Fujinami blocks a spinning leg lariat with a reverse leg lariat of sorts. Fujinami is just a bloody mess!! The 10 count is issued and neither of them make it up. DRAW! What a match! The heat was good. The psychology was awesome. The work was top notch. The pace was kinda slow, but the match was going long so that can be forgiven to a point. The finish was too abrupt. The spinkick by Maeda caused the finish from what I have read. The kick totally busted open Fujinami. It was a brutal sight. I wish their had been an actual winner. Great effort that is for sure. ****

*They shake hands after.

This match uses the five knockdown rule to decide the winner. They both look for kicks early on. Maeda catches Takada in the head with a sick kick. Maeda avoids Takada's kick to the head. They exchange a kick to the thigh. Maeda almost nails Takada with another kick to the head. They tieup. Maeda works the arm. Takada tries for a cross armbreaker, but Maeda blocks and locks on a leg lock. Takada tries for a keylock. They exchange stiff kicks. Maeda takes over Takada and gets a keylock. Some mat wrestling occurs. Takada gets a facehook, but Maeda reverses it and goes back to the leg lock. After some mat wrestling, Maeda manages to get a fujiwara armbar, but Takada gets rope! Takada headlock takeovers Maeda and gets a quick leg scissor. Takada locks on the keylock, but Maeda escapes. Takada gets a leg lock of his own, but Maeda escapes. Maeda then starts destroying Takada with HUGE KICKS to the HEAD! Takada fights back with punches, but Maeda comes right back with kneelifts and a sick kick the knocks Takada down. Takada gets up at a 9 count! Maeda follows with more kicks and kneelifts. Takada gets a few punches, but Maeda takes over again with a powerslam of sorts. Maeda does an amateur style snapmare pin (green ride) for a 1 count. Maeda manages to get another two count with a regular pin. Maeda goes back to the fujiwara armbar, but Takada gets rope. Maeda continues the assault with kicks and punches. Maeda knocks down Takada again. Takada gets up at a 9 count (!) again. Maeda follows with more kicks & kneelifts. Maeda knocks Takada down for the third time with a huge kneelift. Takada gets up and surprises Maeda with a huge kick that takes him down. 3 to 1 in favor of Maeda. Maeda is up at 9. Takada leg takedowns Maeda and goes for a cross armbreaker. Maeda escapes, but Takada blocks a leg takedown nailing a slap. Maeda catches a kick, but Takada blocks a capture suplex. Takada headbutts Maeda and takes him down with another leg lock. The crowd is hot!

Maeda reverses it into his own leg lock! He wrenches like a madman with it. Takada gets rope again, but he is counted as being down. 4 to 1!!! Takada unloads with a kick, a kneelift, a slap, a rolling solebutt, two stiff kicks, a few punches, and finally another rolling solebutt that takes Maeda down. 4 to 2! Maeda gets up at 7. They exchange punches & kicks. Takada manages to level Maeda with a huge kick to the head. 4 to 3! Maeda makes it up at 7 once again. Takada belly to belly suplexes Maeda and does abdominal stretch rollup for a 1 count! Takada follows with a sleeper w/body scissors!! The crowd is going crazy! Maeda luckily gets rope though. Takada gets some kneelifts, but Maeda comes back with his own SLEEPER w/body scissors! TAKADA! TAKADA! TAKADA! Takada fights out of it (!) and locks on a huge half crab! Maeda almost gets rope, but Takada DRAGS HIM BACK out! Maeda fights through the pain and finally gets rope. Takada BACKDROP SUPLEXES him and locks on a crossface chickenwing w/body scissors. GAH! Maeda gets rope, but unfortunately is counted as down. 4-4! TIE! They exchange kicks and punches. Takada manages to get Maeda with three kicks with third knocking him down. TKO! 5-4! Takada wins! The fans surround the ring right after! AWESOME! This match was just off the wall. I never knew half crabs could be so exciting. The build was just that great. The ending was done to perfection. The five knockdown rule was a great idea. The beginning might have been a bit too slow. That is my only big problem though. I have never seen Takada's work before this. He was just awesome in this. I think I am going to have to get some of Maeda's & Takada's other classics. GET THIS MATCH! ****1/2