Ryota Nakatsu vs. Ryuichi Sekine - DDT BASARA 95 ~ Tennen Rishin Ryu ~

BASARA is a promotion that always has little bangers that go under the radar because it’s a niche within a  niche within a niche, but even this match blew away my expectations. This wouldn’t be out of place in a top-level company. It’s even better than a ton of the matches in those promotions, in my opinion. Ryota Nakatsu doesn’t look like much, a bit of a goofy look but he pulls in a pretty great performance in this match. The work on Sekine’s right arm is so good. The submissions look really nasty, and the other little things he does such as ramming Sekine’s arm into the post are just superb. Not just the work on the arm, but his overall performance was excellent - had tons of aggression in his offence and had a vicious demeanour about him. Sekine’s selling was really good, although it could’ve been sold better as far as arm movements go. But Sekine mostly avoided using the injured arm in offence which is greatly appreciated. The pacing was excellent too, I wouldn’t be able to tell you the match time as it went by so smoothly, helped along by the great transitions. Short snappy grappling early on followed by heated brawling on the outside blended so well into each other. Great match starts to finish. Hardly a dull moment in the match. The finishing stretch as great. The short builds for Sekine’s Combine submission (Elevated Capture Boston Crab) were really well done too. Excellent match. ****1/2

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