Nakamura and Sakuraba Prove Pro Wrestling is the King of Sports
Or how to go about making the impossible real.
When a Kimura Lock happens in a wrestling match, it’s often because the pro wrestler applying the hold wants to introduce some aspect of legitimate grappling into their game. This covers a wide spectrum of backgrounds and intent, from someone seeing another wrestler do it and adopting it for themselves, all the way up to a pro wrestler training with legitimate shooters and incorporating that knowledge into their craft.
When Kazushi Sakuraba grabs a Kimura Lock, he’s carrying the entire weight of MMA itself.
I’m not exaggerating when I say that Sakuraba grabbing a Kimura Lock evokes decades of significance. It harkens back to his rivalry with the Gracies in the 2000s, yes, but even that itself was a conflict that traces it roots all the way back to the clashing ideologies that formed the very foundations upon which MMA was built.
Entering this match against Sakuraba, IWGP Intercontinental Champion Shinsuke Nakamura has a decent enough MMA record to seem credible against Sakuraba, but make no mistake that he is here as the pro wrestler. It’s a conflict as tale as old as time, especially here in New Japan, where the pro wrestler tests his mettle against the shooter.
With Shinsuke too, it’s all about the presentation. The swagger, heavily influenced by rock stars of the past, the carefree physicality that draws the viewer in. It’s truly magnetic stuff. More importantly to this particular match, it’s the perfect character contrast to the coldness of Sakuraba.
Throw them at each other at full force and magic ensues.
The first few minutes of the match are slow, but not insignificant. It’s important to show that Nakamura, defending champion and charismatic god made for these large Tokyo Dome spectacles, is not going to waltz his way through this unscathed. Nakamura can hotdog all he wants, but Sakuraba’s no stranger to the Dome either. It’s in this building that the man chipped away at a family’s legacy for 90 straight minutes until it crumbled at his feet.
The matwork almost always goes into Sakuraba’s favor, he’s taking his time just smothering Shinsuke and exerting an easy sort of dominance over him. Even when Shinsuke attempts an explosive double leg takedown, Sakuraba stuffs it with remarkable ease.
So of course, Nakamura escalates. He slaps Sakuraba in the corner, but Sakuraba’s ready for that too. The challenger unloads with a brutality that Shinsuke tries to meet head on, but that only leaves him vulnerable to get a kick caught which drops him to the mat and leaves him open for Sakuraba’s signature double stomp to the face.
Everything from that point on has the urgency of life and death. It feels like survival itself is all the can be hoped for. Sakuraba’s an absolute killer, having an answer for everything and exploiting the most miniscule openings. Shinsuke grabs a waistlock for a German? Sakuraba counters into a cross armbreaker. Shinsuke goes for his signature knee to the gut in the corner? Sakuraba dodges it and chokes Shinsuke from the apron.
It’s all so overwhelming, that Shinsuke’s rush and panic almost feels palpable. It’s not really in anything he does acting-wise to convey in his face or physicality, but rather the pace of the action demands that kind of urgency. At one point, Shinsuke rushes in, presumably trying for some kind of takedown, only for Sakuraba to catch him in the face with one of the most brutal flash knees I’ve ever seen. He hits it with such precision, that it’s impossible not to scream one’s lungs out in response. A strike so brutal that it halts someone as energetic as Shinsuke Nakamura dead fucking cold in his tracks.
Of course, the key element I haven’t gotten to yet is what the final moments build around: the Boma Ye.
It’s the shot that Shinsuke needs to break through the oppressive force of Sakuraba, and if he can just get his best shot in, he might have a chance. That’s beauty of pro wrestling like this. By all rights, Sakuraba’s got this in the fucking bag. Even time is on his side, this is not a dude who just withers and fades as the minutes go by. But Shinsuke’s just has to get a knee shot in from the right angle and it could all work out.
The first comes when Shinsuke uses his height to leverage himself out of a triangle choke, and gets the distance necessary to blast Sakuraba in the back of the head with the Boma Ye. It’s not quite a killing blow as gruesome as it looks and Sakuraba endures, even learning from it. When Shinsuke overcommits and goes for another Boma Ye, complete with the anticipatory wind up to liven up the crowd, Sakuraba catches it and returns to trying to snap Shinsuke’s arm off instead.
And it’s in this moment that we get the sweetness of pro wrestling morality. Now it’s Sakuraba who overcommits. That first Boma Ye has rattled him, and he’s looking to finish things sooner rather than later. He floats between Kimura and cross armbreaker attempts, and the final climactic one is one of the best submission attempt struggles in pro wrestling history.
The camerawork here does so much for the moment, giving us the perfect view of Shinsuke’s hands clasped together to block the submission, being pried apart one at a time by the unstoppable tide that is Sakuraba. But that pause, that inability to grab the armbreaker in a flash, is everything that costs Sakuraba. Once Shinsuke’s grip breaks, he’s able to roll through with Sakuraba’s momentum and get to a standing position to just bomb Sakuraba with a nasty straight Boma Ye to the face.
From there, it’s just putting the finishing touches with another Boma Ye to spell an end to Kazushi Sakuraba.
It shouldn’t really feel possible, and the match itself tells you so with its opening moments. But seeing Shinsuke weather the storm and finally break through is one of the most satisfying one-match narratives ever. It is one of the greatest matches of all time.
A perfect storm of action and reaction, of emotions escalating and panic setting in, all told through the greatest language of violence that’s ever been: pro wrestling.
IS IT BETTER THAN 6/3/94? So much yes. Misawa and Kawada’s 94 Triple Crown encounter is a great match bolstered by personal histories and emotional storytelling. Nakamura and Sakuraba is two worlds colliding at top speed, until only the superior ideology can break through and stand victorious. It’s almost not even fair to the All Japan guys.
Rating: *****
Yeaaaaaaaaaaoh
I've never seen this match before but now I absolutely have to. Someday I'd love a list of matches that earn the full 5 from Mr. Montecillo