Zero-1 7/13/2001 - Shinjiro Otani vs Masato Tanaka

 Zero-1 7/13/2001 - Shinjiro Otani vs Masato Tanaka

Otani gets blasted with a spear to start then takes a forearm and a lariat. Tanaka slaps him and facewashes him. Otani makes a comeback, dropkicking him in the knee and grabbing the ankle. Then he drags him around and single leg crabs him. Otani punishes the leg and facewashes Tanaka.

Otani bites the foot and mocks the crowd's boos. He thenk kneebars Tanaka. Tanaka boots him in the face and slaps him but can't get out. Otani lets go and Tanaka is hobbling. He tries to mount a comeback but gets face kicked down. They trade facekicks for elbows and Tanaka knocks him down eventually.

Tanaka hits a great elbow that the camera's mostly miss. Tanaka misses a lariat and gets quickly german'd for 2. Tanaka hits a great tornado DDT that makes Otani's head bounce off the apron. Otani goes back to the leg and Tanaka hits the ropes, but Ohtani puts it back on.

Otani goes up top and has to keep slapping Tanaka off. but Tanaka survives it and superplexes him. Tanaka hits a big powerbomb on Otani and frogsplashes him for 2. Tanaka hits a big diamond dust for 2. Otani powerbombs him when they get back up and Otani hits a springboard missile dropkick to his back. Otani hits a dragon suplex but only gets a one count which shocks Otani.

Tanaka ducks a forearm and then does a spinning elbow, which Otani sells big for. They met each other with elbows, then Otani hit a dragon suplex and a spiral bomb for the win.

I liked the energy and the spirit here, which Tanaka dragged out of Otani. The action was also very good with some strikes and counters. What I didn't like though was all the leg work that ended up being ignored and played no part in the finish despite making up a quarter or more of the match. If the leg work wasn't making Tanaka hobble, it wouldn't have been a big deal but Tanaka couldn't move well with it for a while and then suddenly was healed.