It's been a long time coming for my favorite modern shooters.
If you don't know about ASTRONAUTS, the team of Takuya Nomura and Fuminori Abe, then I feel like I need to apologize, as you've been missing out on some of the best wrestling matches to happen the past couple years. Although both of them are only in the beginning stages of their careers(Abe debuted in 2015, Nomura in 2016), they've been cranking out top-tier matches left and right, both in singles competition and as a pair. Both of them are heavily influenced by shoot-style professional wrestling, a beautifully violent hybrid of MMA and pro wrestling. Nomura consistently pays homage to the father of shoot-style Akira Maeda, and Abe was trained by BattlArts legend Munenori Sawa. Both of them have excellent grappling game and throw some of the best strikes in wrestling today, and the natural chemistry they have with each other is impossible to ignore. side note - I cannot recommend enough Takuya Nomura vs Yuji Okabayashi from 07.21.2019, it was my MOTY for 2019 and a great example of why Nomura is the future of Puroresu.
Across the ring is the champion team of Daisuke Sekimoto and Kohei Sato. I'm sure if you're reading this you know who Sekimoto is, but for anyone who doesn't, he's the living definition of a hoss, covered in muscle and throwing lariats with the might of Zeus. Kohei Sato, on the other hand, might be an unknown figure to some of you, as he's spent his entire career in Pro Wrestling Zero1, only making occasional appearances in BJW or NOAH. A student of strong style legend Shinya Hashimoto, Sato's pretty much known for one thing: being stiff as fuck. Whether he's kicking your ribcage in, elbowing your jaw into bits, or headbutting you harder than Shibata could ever dream of, Sato seemingly only exists to inflict pain on other people. Luckily for us, he decided he'd rather be a professional wrestler than a yakuza boss, making his violent art on display for the world to see. side note - Sato has actually recently left Zero1, which I could've never predicted since he's been "Mr. Zero1" for years now. Nobody really knows what's next for him, but I personally can't wait to see where he pops up once the pandemic is over.
This match is a great example of a tag team underdog story, as the younger, faster, hungrier ASTRONAUTS take on a team with 40 combined years of experience, and all the battle scars to show it. As such, although both teams throw some bombs in this match, the advantage is clearly on Sato and Sekimoto's side, spending a majority of the match in control with a couple hope spots for Nomura and Abe sprinkled in. However, Sekimoto and Sato can't hold the future down forever. Nomura and Abe are able to withstand the onslaught from Sekimoto and Sato, and finally consistently return fire, leading to Nomura hitting a great dragon suplex for the win and the BJW Tag titles.
Now, don't misunderstand. There's a great story being told through this, but that's not why this match fucks harder than John F. Kennedy. When a match ends with 2 of the 4 participants bleeding hardway, you know you just saw something special. There were at least 2 segments in the match dedicated to Sato and Abe closed-fist punching each other in the fucking forehead, usually ending said exchanges with shoot headbutts because fuck CTE, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Sekimoto does what Sekimoto does best, laying in mean ass chops and plowing through anyone in his way. However, my favorite participant in the match is defintiely Nomura, who lays in some stiff kicks and even stiffer slaps, at one point hitting Sekimoto in the jaw with a slap so hard you could see his brain's power cord being yanked out from the socket. This isn't a match for the feint of heart, but if you can stomach some violence, this is an absolutely beautiful contest, and so far the best tag match I've seen all year.
