(Written by Jom)
This match is using five minute rounds rules, which makes sense for MUMEIJUKU, a much more grappling-based promotion. Yamada looks very much the same throughout the years so I won't be tracking his appearance, but in the five years this trilogy took place in, Yano's appearance changed drastically, so I'll be tracking that. Here, he's wearing pretty much the same gear he'd been wearing since he started in BattlArts (wetsuit with knee and elbow pads), but he does have short, orange hair and a very faint amount of Joker facepaint. He's also wearing a Chikara shirt before the match starts, which reminded me that he was in 2010's Young Lion's Cup and I should watch those matches just to see how American fans responded to the BattlArts Arthur Fleck. Before I even begin to review the match, I just wanna share one thing I wrote down while taking notes.
"It's literally impossible for me to take notes on the grappling, because either it's too fast or so complex I can't think of what to call it before they move on to the next hold"
Yeah, y'know what I said about Yamada doing T2P style and Yano being a Bati-Bati grappler? This is pretty much what you'd expect from that. Both guys do some great wrestling here, cinching in snug holds one after another. I'm not gonna list them all, but I will note that both of them are absolutely phenomenal at getting their opponent to the mat. The match literally starts with one of my favorite mat placements I may have ever seen, as Yamada gets in a waist lock but Yano immediately judo throws him from around his back. They both are also great at doing ankle picks, and some of the ones they were able to get actually astounded me with how creative they were. Speaking of creativity, I'm about to list some holds done by them, just so you understand why this was so hard for me to take notes on: Yano's handstand double ankle lock, Yamada's inverted crab, Yano's grounded double underhook stretch, Yamada's cross-legged Chikara Special, and Yano's grounded bridging side cravate. Maybe you can get an idea of what these look like, but seeing it actually executed is just so insane and awesome. That's not even mentioning how creative some of the transitions and pinfalls were. Also, Yano adds an extra layer to the match with all of his Yanoisms, like raking the eyes and stepping on Yamada's hand for a submission. These moves weren't done to cheat, but instead that's just kinda how Yano is. Also, he messed up a kip-up pretty badly and almost kicked someone next to the square in the face, so the accidental comedy in this match was very good too. The match's pacing was great the entire time as well. At no point did it feel like it ever slowed down, instead only hitting a timing reset every five minutes to allow them to return to building it back up. The match's end came in the third round, when Yamada, after using up all of his holds and seeing Yano still had some tricks up his sleeve, threw some nasty forearms straight at Yano's jaw. Although this definitely hurt Yano, it also signified the moment I knew that Yano was gonna win. Up to that point, not a single significant strike had been thrown, and when Yamada threw those forearms, no matter how hard they were, they proved that he had run out of ideas on the mat. Yamada escaped a cravate, hit a frankensteiner, and nearly won with a couple flash pinfall attempts, but Yano threw two bell claps with his arms and one with his legs, finally going for a sunset flip and transitioning it into a headscissors crucifix choke for the submission victory.
This was a really great grappling match, both guys were only 3 years into their careers and the amount of knowledge and improvisation skills they possessed on the mat were immense. Even if you dislike the total lack of striking, those few elbows Yamada threw towards the end more than made up for it. Overall, an extremely promising match between two extremely promising wrestlers.
Rating: A-
Yano has definitely evolved his persona a lot in the two years between the last match and this one. He has a blonde mullet, fur boots, and is wearing gear and facepaint that seems both reminiscent of Heath Ledger and the classic Joker. He also throws out a "HUSS" when he gets announced, so I guess based on that and the boots he started to bring in the Brody influence to his character. Someone blows a whistle and we are off to the races.
The grappling here is a lot more hesitant than the last match, as both guys surely remember how skillful their opponent was, and want to be careful about accidentally losing control early on. It's fairly even to start out, and Yano even escapes one situation and does his kip-up, still messing up like last time but getting very close to pulling it off. Yano also hasn't lost his other Yanoisms, such as the biting, but Yamada is there to meet him this time, doing some biting of his own to escape one hold Yano had him in. Yano also a new Yanoism, that being his dainty leap over drop downs, which he does with Yamada when they start to do rope rebound spots but just by running back and forth without the actual ropes. Yano does this jump three times, but gets tripped by Yamada on the fourth and lands face-first. You can probably tell that while there's a good amount more hesitancy between the two, there's also a level of playfulness to it, as both guys have a lot of respect for each other and are willing to have some fun in between wrenching on each other. Speaking of, out of all the submissions both guys pulled off, one of my favorites has to be Yano's transition from a cross ankle lock into a gnarly bow and arrow, bending Yamada so far against his knees that it looked like his spine was seconds from snapping. Yamada isn't a slouch either, doing his own back-breaking moves like a reverse cravate transitioned into bending Yano over his own back, trapping Yano's leg at the same time to make escape that much more difficult. Both guys also do great transitions and pinfalls just like before, but there was a lot of newer stuff in all these categories, as both guys are great at taking a situation like an early match lock-up not just going through the motions, instead bringing something new to the table every time. However, as much as I praise both men, Yano was definitely in more control almost the entire match. I guess that donning purple furry boots will give you a bigger power boost than expected. Yamada at many points seemed like he was on the cusp of retaking command of the match, but every time he got close Yano was there to snuff it out. Even when trying to escape situations and at least get on equal ground, Yano is able to shut that down as well, such as when he pulled of a great flying armbar, and upon Yamada trying to roll out of it, turned Yamada's roll into a triangle choke. The finish comes when Yano decides to return to the dainty leap dropdown spot, and this time when Yamada goes for the trip, Yano leaps over into a sunset flip, quickly turning that into his headscissors crucifix choke. Yamada, however, has no plans to fall to that again, and actually rolls forward turning it into a pin, which Yano escapes from but is forced to release the submission. Yamada gets up lightning fast and goes for a sliding elbow, but Yano just barely dodges, and quickly turns that into a rolling crucifix, getting the pinfall victory with an arm-trap crucifix he pulls out after other ones don't work.
Once again, both guys are able to really make a great match in Coliseo Cerberus. This was pretty similar to the first one, especially due to the fact that once again, there were little to no actual strikes throughout, instead being almost entirely focused on the grappling acumen of those involved. However, in my honest opinion, I think their first match was just barely superior to this one. Although both guys were great here, the hesitation, while it made sense and was the right call, also meant that it just didn't match the frenetic pacing of the first bout. Don't let that take anything away from this match however, as only in this match can you see just how insane Yano can get after only two years.
Rating: B+
This match is for Yano's WALLABEE World Martial Arts Championship. Yano started this trilogy as a young boy figuring out his identity. The next time we saw him, he had more fully fleshed it out. And now, he has reached his final form, which has to be seen to be believed:
Rating: A+
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