WWE No Mercy 2007

I'd never watched this show before, but the recent announcement of the returning Punjabi Prison match made me realise I'd never actually seen one before. So, hoping to use the hype for the returning match to pad up the reading figures for this blog, I decided to give it a watch. No-one warned me about THREE Triple H matches though...

Triple H vs Randy Orton

Right, I don’t want to get onto a “slagging Triple H” off thread right at the start of the show, but there are a select band of wrestlers I’d be happy to see wrestle three times in one night and HHH is not one of those guys. The challenge is to have three interesting matches on the night, and unfortunately you suspect he must have been saving the interesting stuff for later in the night. Honestly, if I told you to close your eyes and imagine a 10 minute HHH/Orton match, you’d almost certainly picture this match move-for-move. There are a few positives: I liked the big clothesline and double-sledge to the back of the head that HHH hit, Orton had great timing kicking the ropes into HHH’s crotch before hitting the draping DDT and HHH locking in a figure-four after Orton misses a kneedrop is a logical move. Also, the ending was a nice change – no finishers, Triple H gets the pin from a roll-up after Orton missed a corner charge.

Jeff Hardy, Paul London & Brian Kendrick vs Mr Kennedy, Lance Cade & Trevor Murdoch

This is billed as a bonus match, and it’s a nice little 8 minute match. Wisely, they largely leave Kennedy out of this, only really featuring at the end. Murdoch seems especially inspired here, really liked him countering Hardy’s sitdown jawbuster by simply not going down with him and instead booting Hardy in the face. Kendrick becomes face-in-peril after Murdoch opens up the ropes, sending Kendrick tumbling to the floor. The heat on Kendrick is brief due to the match length, but he hits a wild leaping DDT on Cade to make the hot tag. Hardy basically dumps Murdoch on his head with a gourdbuster, and everything breaks down, leaving Kennedy and London in the ring. Kennedy takes the win with the leaping Finlay roll. Good little sprint here.

CM Punk vs Big Daddy V

Nonsensical stuff here. V looks great dominating Punk to start, smothering him on the mat and wailing away with crossfaces. When Punk does escape, he’s quicker getting up so can hit V in the head with some (admittedly crap) kicks to the head…and so Matt Striker leaps in to beat him down for the DQ. This costs his charge the ECW title, doesn’t make any sense. Waste of time match.

Triple H vs Umaga

Because Vince is a bastard, he puts HHH into another match to defend his title. This is a lot better than the opener, they keep it brief and actually tell a decent story. An early HHH DDT looks like shit, with Umaga falling to his knees with his head nowhere near the mat. Umaga hits HHH in the ribs with a thrust kick, and from that point on has a focal point. A Samoan Drop and a series of big strikes highlight this plan, and HHH does a nice job of selling the damage. Umaga locks in a bearhug, continuing the focus, though I’m not a fan of HHH using an eyerake to escape when he’s a face. The end doesn’t hurt Umaga either, as HHH takes advantage of one mistake – a missed corner charge – and quickly hits the Pedigree to retain. This was a fine little match.

Finlay vs Rey Mysterio

When you’ve got two guys who were pretty much the best in the world at the time facing each other, you go in with pretty high hopes. I’d say that these hopes weren’t fully met, but that’s due to the booking rather than the performances of both men. Love Rey’s fluidity early on. It’s not just that his spots look impressive, but also that everything flows in a way that makes sense, each move follows on logically from the one he’s just hit. For example, he hits a slingshot dropkick into the ring on a sat-down Finlay, which positions him perfectly to hit a slingshot splash. Finlay takes over in a lovely way, avoiding a Rey sunset flip powerbomb to the floor by grabbing the ring apron and pulling it up over Rey’s head to pummel him. From there, Finlay slides Rey shoulder first into the ringpost, and from there works over the shoulder. Loved him stopping Rey’s momentum on a flying headscissors to turn it into a shoulderbreaker. Mysterio’s comeback is really nicely done and he kind of peppers Finlay with offence until Finlay tumbles backwards from the ring apron with a sickening thud. This ends up being the end of the match, with the referee throwing up an X for the match stoppage. They really blow the end though, as Finlay is faking the injury to jump Mysterio, and the camera zooms in on Finlay’s face to show this. Even odder, Cole acknowledges the faking, but then continues to pretend Finlay is actually injured, thus blowing all the suspense. Unsurprisingly, Finlay jumps off his stretcher and attacks Rey. Match was really good until the hokey ending.

Candice Michelle vs Beth Phoenix

This is really interesting, as the match itself is very much not good, but there are some really good bits mixed in. Candice, for example, hits really shit kicks and can barely run the ropes, but she pulls off this cool little roll-up and works a nice short-arm scissors. Michelle also hits a decent crossbody. Phoenix is really good at working the size difference, but the match is a bit too clunky and they both seem a bit lost in between moves. Phoenix wins with a cradle suplex.

Batista vs The Great Khali

So, the rules of the Punjabi Prison match are that there are two big cages, with the inner cage attached to the ring. Each side of the ring has a door that can only be opened once and is padlocked after 1 minute. If all four doors get padlocked, you have to climb out. The winner is the guy who successfully escapes both the inner and outer cage.

This isn’t a match you’d technically call “good”, but it’s an enjoyable spectacle for the most part. The limits on the door opening times are, I assume, designed to add some psychology as you can’t just open doors willy-nilly, but Khali pretty much blows that by calling for the first door less than a minute in. Batista pretty much bumps around like a loon for Khali here, and this may be what carries the match. There’s a nice tease of the Batista Bomb when Khali tries a ten count in the corner, and the spinebuster Batista hits on Khali looks good. Less good is Khali attempting to crush Batista under the weight of the final cage door when he realises that they aren’t going to be able to walk out – it looks really terrible despite Batista doing his best to make it look painful. Batista takes a huge bump from the cage when they both try climbing out, which gives Khali a huge lead, and this means that Batista also has to take the biggest risk by leaping from the top of the inner cage to the outer, which would have been a nasty bump if he’d missed. Luckily, he makes it and touches down first to win this fun, but nonsensical, match.

Triple H vs Randy Orton

This is, thankfully, the final HHH bout of the night and is a last man standing match. Orton goes right after HHH’s injured ribs to start. Really nicely done too, he’d hit a rib, then take advantage of HHH recoiling to blast him in the face a few times. Then, when HHH would start to cover his face, back to the ribs again. Orton continues the rib work with a backsuplex on the barrier, then brilliantly locking in a bodyscissors on the ribs whilst choking HHH with a cable. Nice spot. Orton shows great poise here, standing by passively whilst the ref counts, but as soon as HHH even moves an arm, he changes stance, getting ready to strike. HHH gets his moments to shine as he throws Orton through a table on a missed RKO and then hits a spinebuster on the floor for a close call. They start hitting bigger and bigger shots that should really finish it, considering both guys had barely been making an 8 count earlier. The RKO on the open chair would have been an acceptable finisher, and it does start to get towards overkill by the end. HHH hitting a chairshot with Orton’s head held in the “V” of the ringsteps looks shit, as he’s obviously not hit him. Eventually, Orton hits the RKO on the announce table to finish it. This was actually a pretty good match for the most part, but honestly you could have put anyone in the HHH role, as Orton’s character work and match timing were spot on here.

No Mercy 2006

Gregory Helms vs Matt Hardy
Both guys fail to get an advantage early on, which backs up JBL's claim that they are like carbon copies of each other. Thus Helms has to use aggressive tactics to take over, with a vicious kick to back. Hardy fires back, and nails a pescado to the outside. Helms comes backwith a 2nd rope legsweep. I really like the palpable send of hate here, as inbetween moves both guys are happy to lay in a nasty blow, like Helms punching Hardy in the back following a failed pin attempt. A nice meaty mid-ring slugfest even has JBL going "Wow" as Hardy floors Helms with a big right. Hardy gots for the Twist of Fate, but Helms reverses to hit a neckbreaker. He nails the same moves two more times, but is caught going up top with a Side Effect. Hardy then copies Helms by hitting 2 more Side Effects, but also like Helms makes the mistake of going up top and meets knees on a moonsault. Carbon copies, see? I really like the way this is so back and forth, rather than one man maintaining an advantage, as it again backs up how even they are. Helms nails a top rope Shining Wizard, but Hardy gets a foot on rope. The ending is pretty choice too as it plays back to the Smackdown matches that had lead here. In those, both had picked up wins via low blows when the ref was distracted. Here, the referee moves out of the way as Hardy is pushed towards him, but Matt blocks the low blow attempt from Helms, and nails the Twist of Fate to win. Really hot opener.

Brian Kendrick & Paul London vs KC James & Idol Stevens
Both teams have females management: Ashley with Kendrick and London, and Michelle McCool with James & Stevens. Interesting that Stevens is the only one of the 6 still on WWE TV. Londrick dominate proceedings early, whilst JBL heavily puts them over on commentary. Stereo dives pop the crowd. However, London takes a nasty bump getting pushed off the top by James to give the heels advantage. Stevens and James take it in turns to lock holds on London on the mat, building up some crowd sympathy. They also work a proper heat section on London, holding him by the leg in their corner to stop him getting the tag to Kendrick then, when London looks like getting the tag, knocking Kendrick off the apron. I love it, and so does JBL. Kendrick gets the hot tag eventually, but his Sliced Bread attempt is blocked by Stevens shaking the rope as he tries it. London takes Stevens out in turn with an insane suicide dive. These two teams just have terrific chemistry together, and you wonder why Stevens and James didn't last on the main roster. Londrick get the win after a frantic final few minutes, hitting Sliced Bread on James, followed by a London shooting star from Kendrick's back for the win. Great match.

MVP vs Marty Garner
This is MVP's debut. JBL is apoplectic. MVP's arrogant strutting is quite enjoyable, but this is obviously a squash. Garner doesn't really get any offence in before MVP nails him with a vicious lariat and the Play of the Day to win. The ranting from JBL is the most entertaining thing about this match.

The Undertaker vs Mr Kennedy
Slightly hard to find the Undertaker as intimidating as usual as his fake tan starts running down his head at the start of the match. Taker starts working over the arm of Kennedy early, with him hoisting Kennedy up in the air by the arm being particularly impressive. Kennedy manages to block Old School by armdragging Taker off the top. Kennedy's selling of the arm is remarkably consistent, though he does try punching Taker with the bad arm which leads to Taker Flatlining him. In the midst of all the arm-offence, Kennedy does manage to take a turnbuckle pad off. When he does get on offence, Kennedy is nicely vicious, but makes the mistake of trying to get his breath back, giving Taker time to regain control. You get the impression Kennedy is putting in some real effort here, knowing what an opportunity this match is. Certainly, he seems a lot less half-arsed as he has done in recent years. Problem is that when Kennedy is on offense, it's a bit dull. His offence here is mainly based around kicks and hammering Taker in the corner. It's done with intent, but doesn't exactly enthrall the audience or myself. Piledriver from Kennedy (daftly called a Tombstone by Michael Cole) gets 2, and Kennedy reacts by pounding Taker in the face in frustration. It's like he's really selling the story of the match well (cocky upstart desperate to beat legend), but his offence isn't good enough to match up. In the middle of his hottest spell of offence, he puts on a resthold and the match cools down again. Taker hits a chokeslam, but Kennedy is able to reverse the Last Ride and ram Taker's head into that exposed turnbuckle. I'd forgotten all about that, which made for a nice little surprise. Swanton Bomb gets two for Kennedy. Kennedy tries to nail Taker with the US title, but Taker blocks it and uses it on Kennedy instead, giving Kennedy the DQ win. All that for such a shitty finish. Really out of nowhere considering Taker had just done the zombie situp and looked ready to win. Story of the match was better than the work within.

Rey Mysterio vs Chavo Guerrero
This is a falls count any match. We get some brawling to start, though it really isn't either mans forte. After a nasty dual bump to the floor from the top rope, Chavo takes over on the outside, which works because he's a bit better at looking aggressive. Rey hits a rana from the ring entrance, but it's really stifling to both guys to work this kind of match. A lot of the offence on the outside involves finding different ways to hurt the opponent on the guardrails, which these two are better than. At least Chavo catching Rey in a wheelbarrow and swinging him into the barricades and chairs is fun. After some mediocre brawling in the crowd, Rey hits a 619 from a staircase and pins Chavo following a crossbody the same stairs. Not the best match from these two.

William Regal vs Chris Benoit
Regal has been involved in some backstage hijinks trying to find Finlay and getting himself in trouble, leading to Teddy Long booking him against a mystery opponent. This is Benoit's return match following an extended break. Some of the opening matwork is superb, as both guys make it look like they're really working for the holds. They exchange blows and Christ, Benoit's chops sound like gunshots. You can hear the connection when Benoit headbutts Regal, which is unnerving in hindsight. Regal is busted open from this. They continue in much the same manner as you'd expect, with battles over matwork and some nasty stiff shots. Benoit even chops Regal directly on the head wound. Benoit hits a Dragon Suplex on Regal and locks in the crossface to win. Typically good match from these two as you'd expect, but with some of the stiffness involved, quite hard to watch with the knowledge we have now.

King Booker vs Finlay vs Batista vs Bobby Lashley
This is a fatal-fourway match for the World Heavyweight title. Finlay wisely bails early to let the faces dominate Booker, though he swiftly returns to help the King isolate Batista. Predictably we soon get segments when two guys are down, from moves which normally wouldn't stun them, leaving two men to go at it. Booker vs Lashley actually works well thanks to Booker selling and making Lashley look decent. Finlay soon turns on King Booker and then takes out Batista leaving him 1-on-1 against Booker. Finlay starts to dismantle Booker, then takes over on Batista when he returns. Got to love Batista trying to break an armbar by Samoan dropping Finlay, only for Finlay to hold on to the arm and retain the hold. Even better is Lashley trying to make the save, only for Finlay to start working on his leg. Lashley still moves around the ring really awkwardly, which makes his offence look a bit weaker than it should, so it's quite funny when Hornswoggle appears from nowhere to punch him in the nuts as he prepares to hit a Spear. We get to a point where we've got Batista vs Lashley left in the ring, which gets almost no reaction until Dave spears Lashley. Clearly they don't care about Lashley. That said, their segment is quite fun, as two massive men throw bombs at each other, including a nice overhead suplex by Lashley. Big Dave soon takes everyone down with spinebusters, then Batistabomb's Finlay, but Lashley comes out of nowhere with a huge spear on Batista and Booker steals the pin. Seems like a bit of a dick move by Lashley really. None of this was dull, and some of it was even good, but none of it was memorable. Really, there was no match structure, just decent segments bolted together.

Zero-One Truth Century Creation 2003

Right, straight off the bat I'm going to be honest: I've never really got into Puroresu. Actually, that is a slight lie. After all, I loved watching NJPW on Eurosport 15 years ago, but that had English commentary which really helped my 13yr old self understand it, and it was a long time ago. There are some Japanese wrestlers I love- Lyger, Hayabusa, Onryo etc, so I know I should give it a proper go. I've ordered a few DVD's for $3 a pop which I'm looking forward to arriving, but in the interim, I'm going to give a proper go to some of the Puro tapes I bought years back and never properly watched. Bare with me if I show undue ignorance to styles and to wrestlers, I'm learning.

Ikuto Hidaka vs Pentagon
A good starting point here, I've seen Hidaka wrestling in MLW so i know who he is and what to expect. Pentagon I assume is somehow related to Octagon, due to the name and his near identical costume. I liked the way they tested each other out on the mat before Hidaka went into another gear and started properly assaulting the knee of Pentagon. I didn't like the way Pentagon no-sold it seconds later by backflipping from the top rope onto his feet, especially as it comes into play in the ending. Hidaka reminds me of an angry small child, which I love. Hidaka hits a swank tornado DDT off the ropes and Pentagon brings some goods himself with a colossal splash mountain. Hidaka gets a rolling heel hook for the immediate tapout, which may have felt less anti-climactic if Pentagon has sold his leg earlier in the match.

Don Arakawa & Jun Kasai vs Fuyuki Takahashi & Shinsuke Z Yamagasa
Kasai seems to be working a chimp gimmick, which I only pray he always uses. Arakawa provides instructions from the apron. Don tags in and goes woozy after dishing out a series of headbutts to Takahashi and I realise we may be in comedy match territory, which I admittedly should have spotted when a man came out acting like a chimp. Kasai slips on his own bananas just to hammer the point home. Takahashi and Yamagasa both seem to have some decent offence but you spend their time on attack waiting for Kasai to start acting the fool again. Don hits a succession of eye-pokes on a downed Takahashi but gets caught in the ropes attempting to leap on Yamagasa. Kasai is the star of the match- not only does he nail the comedy with a straight face, he also has some nice crisp offence and finishes the match with a sharp series of kicks.

Tatsuhito Takaiwa & Vansack Acid vs Low-Ki & Paul London
Another dose of guys I know to help ease me into this. Both team have similar looks, with each having a floppy-haired pretty boy and a balding grump. Takaiwa wins me over pretty quickly by taking a nasty bump to the outside. A series of dives from the apron ends with London hitting a running shooting star press that launches him like a missile. London puts forth a great showing in this match, not only with some perfectly executed moves (his rolling Northern Lights suplex is outstanding), but also the little things like kicking Acid's hand to stop him blocking a stomp to the shoulder from Ki. The two Americans dominate Acid who doesn't really offer much offence aside from a few kicks. Takaiwa fares better, working a nice exchange with Ki over an octopus stretch and possessing a good, painful-looking lariat. Towards the end London gets to hit London Calling, which I still think looks better than Evan Bourne's SSP, but Takaiwa hits him with a double powerbomb into a DVD which is enough for 3. Not mind-blowing, but a pretty enjoyable match.

Kendo Kashin, Kaz Hayashi & Ryuji Hijikata vs Naohiro Hoshikawa, Kazhiko Ogasawara & Yoshihito Sasaki
My WCW fandom ensures I know Kaz and I'm familiar with Kashin from the few other Puro tapes I've seen. He seems like a dick, which I appreciate. As if to prove this, he barges past his teammates during their pre-match interview. A little research informed me that Hoshikawa suffered a brain injury in 2004 and fell into a coma, which is horrible news, though apparently he's in far better shape now than he was for the first few years following. This is AJPW vs Zero-One and starts with a massive brawl before the announcer can identify people, forcing me to Google Image Search the 3 Zero-One guys to find out who is who. The overriding story in this match is that Kashin is an ever bigger dickhead than I thought. Hoshikawa wins me over almost straight away, proving to be a stiff fucker with a lethal arsenal of kicks. Ogasawara is less impressive, barely getting up for two Hayashi backbreakers or a Hijikata judo throw. Kashin's dickery starts early and gets worse, biting the hands of Hoshikawa to break a headlock and pulling the ropes in an attempt to stop Sasaki reaching the ropes to break a submission. I like the fact that Kendo's glory-hunting nearly backfires- Kashin pulls his own partner Hayashi off of Sasaki to try and get the pin himself, only to nearly get pinned following a spear. However, Kashin rallies and gets a cross-armbreaker to get the win for himself, and his team, in a master display of knobbishness.

Tengu Kaiser vs Akio Kobayashi
I've never seen either of these chaps, so this is a new one for me. Kaiser has a sort of Hayabusa look going on, though the mask features a curious looking ski jump nose. The match is pretty bloody poor, all due to Kobayashi, who offered nothing more than a few kicks and was happy to plod about in between them. Kaiser slipped while attempting a springboard move, but was a lot crisper with his kicking and selling, and hit a dazzling Phoenix splash-esque move to win. I got the impression Kaiser could have a good match with a better opponent. This was four minutes but felt much longer.

Masato Tanaka & Kohei Sato vs Daisuke Ikeda & Takashi Sugiura
This is another interpromotional match, this time Z1 vs NOAH, and all four men go at it from the opening bell. Tanaka ends up getting involved in slugfests with both Ikeda and Sugiura, and end up winning both of them. Sato looks like a gangly kid compared to the others and it's no surprise that he ends up as face-in-peril, taking a spike piledriver on the floor. This leads to a fun spot where Ikeda and Sugiura keep picking Sato up from the mat, only to club him back down Demolition-style. The tag sees Tanaka come in like there is Hell to pay, but soon he too is getting beaten by the NOAH team. The second hot tag of the match leads to an exciting ending sprint where all four men are in and out of the ring, all hitting moves that could conceivably finish it: Sato hits a huge German suplex on Ikeda, Tanaka hits a Superfly splash also on Ikeda, who blocks his second attempt with a musclebuster that also only gets two. The finishing sequence sees Sugiura dominating Tanaka, including dumping over his shoulder him onto his neck, only to get hit with a Roaring Elbow for the flash pin. Unlike Kaiser/Kobayashi which felt twice as long as it was, this felt much shorter than it actually was with all four men looking impressive.

Matt Ghaffari, Steve Corino & King Adamo vs Yoshiaka Fujiwara, Wataru Sakata & Katsuhisa Fujii
Corino's team are an odd bunch, Adamo being a tubby grass-skirt wearing savage and Ghaffari being a massive former Olympian. The opening moments see Corino stooging like an old pro for the Japanese team, working a fun headlock spot with the veteran Fujiwara, then exchanging (and losing) strikes with Fujii, who seemed to be working a striker gimmick. Adamo plays the part of a simpleton well (imagine Eugene in Umaga's body), even if he manages to almost botch a stinkface by missing Fujiwara's head. The story behind the match is that the Japanese team are almost powerless against Ghaffari, due to both his size and his Olympic wrestling background, though his moveset consists almost entirely of shoddy looking throws. There is a fun spot where Ghaffari is about to finish off Sakata, only for the simple-minded Adamo to blind tag himself in, to the rage of Ghaffari. However, Ghaffari does pick up the win later with a splash (on which he gets no air) on Sakata. The story and comedy took priority over the ringwork here, but it was at least entertaining.

Yoshihiro Takayama & Hirotaka Yokoi vs The Predator & Jimmy Snuka Jr
Oh great, it's Deuce. We get a pre-match interview from the Predator where he essentially threatens to beat Takayama to a pulp. In the ring, we get to see the full extent of their animosity as they start off with...a test of strength. Then another one, and what promised to be a violent brawl ends up coming off as a damp squib. Against all odds, it's Snuka who impresses most, dominating the smaller Yokoi and hitting a decent slingshot legdrop, before tying Yokoi up in the ropes with a headscissors. Even when he messes up by slipping on an attempted springboard move, he doesn't retry the spot, but opts instead to simply run at his opponent and hurl himself at him. The match follows a basic formula which sees Predator always dominate Yokoi and Takayama always dominate Snuka, but they're pretty much evenly balanced against each other. Takayama gets the win with a big German suplex on Snuka, but Predator takes exception to this and brawls into the crowd with Takayama, sadly showing more aggression and gumption than at any point during the match.

Naoya Ogawa vs Tom Howard
Howard is representing UPW from California, and looks like the guy you'd get to play Guile in a straight-to-DVD Streetfighter II movie. After Howard opens the match by blowing smoke in Ogawa's face (a nice dick move), they work a quick exchange where Ogawa counters all Howard's moves, but Howard takes over with a nice thrustkick to the jaw. Howard puts Ogawa in a leglock which seems to last for hours, as Ogawa S-L-O-W-L-Y inches towards the ropes, but makes absolutely no effort to sell any pain in his leg. Howard then locks in a sleeper, which nearly puts Ogawa away, only for Ogawa to power up and hit Howard with 6 (6!) consecutive STO's to prompt cornerman Steve Corino to throw in the towel. An absolute waste of my time, Howard looked decent in parts, but Ogawa brought nothing to the match.

Shinya Hashimoto & Shinjiro Otani vs Keiji Mutoh & Arashi
Main event time, and it has a definite big match feel, the crowd are noticeably buzzing. Hashimoto and Mutoh start, which only heightens the anticipation, as they gingerly feel each other out, before both tagging out. Likewise, Arashi and Otani, though being more attacking than their partners, don't commit themselves too much, until the Mutoh/Arashi team get an advantage on Otani, at which point their offence really kicks off with a Mutoh Power Elbow. They then work over the leg of Otani, with Mutoh hitting some vicious looking dropkicks to the knee followed by a figure four. Hashimoto is brought in on a hot tag, and successfully blocks a Shining Wizard attempt by Mutoh, but gets caught with a Dragon Screw which puts him in peril. A returning Otani works over Arashi in the corner with some NASTY bootscrapes and a facewash, and the match really starts to heat up. All four men end up in the ring and all four men up on the mat following a series of dropkicks. Arashi works over Hashimoto to allow him to hit a powerbomb on the big man, and Mutoh leaps over the pinfall attempt to hit a huge Shining Wizard on Otani, who was trying to stop the pin, though Arashi only gets two. Mutoh hits another Wizard on Hashimoto then, in a nice touch, ties up Otani with a figure four, leaving Arashi free to hit a top rope splash on Hashi for two. This leads to the ending sequence where Hashimoto gets Arashi in a triangle choke, while Otani has Mutoh in a chickenwing next to them. In a really nice touch, Mutoh keeps fighting, not to escape the hold he's in, but to get an arm over to break the choke on Arashi, really selling how much trouble he knows his partner is in, which is emphasized when Arashi submits moments later. Really enjoyable main event match with really big match atmosphere AND a satisfying conclusion.