QUINTET (クインテット) 2019年2月3日: FIGHT NIGHT2 in TOKYO

2.3 QUINTET FIGHT NIGHT2 in TOKYO
Japan Open Team Championship 2019
アリーナ立川立飛/Arena Tachikawa Tachihi

THE MOST Æ S T H E T I C SERIES IN ALL OF NO-GI SUBMISSION GRÆPPLING RETURNS and while you could totally take that as damning with feint praise (or as an instance of a "weird flex" ["but okay" {I think this is how that expression is used, if not please forgive me}]) I really do think these posters are unusually high-level, especially the blue one, but especially the ones that have Tsuyoshi Kohsaka on them, as they reveal by their mere inclusion of him upon their 表 (omote, surface) a deeper æ s t h e t i c s than we could have ever hoped to encounter in the 2019 world of pro-græpplearts and yet here he is in the (rash-guarded) flesh even if the initial promise of TEAM TK was softened somewhat into a TK-captained TEAM U-JAPAN whose very name, I suppose, provides further confirmation (though none be needed) of what we have come to theorize as "The Long UWF" after the epistolary poesy of Tadashi Tanaka who (this is crucial, and we must never lose sight of this) never said it, or, in truth, anything all that much like it and yet it is his unless he refuse it (nobody ask him or he might). He's really here though! Tsuyoshi Kohsaka I mean! First, as I say, there was this . . .

. . . which I immediately texted to the judopal who knows best the centrality of TK to, like, this whole thing that I am doing (broadly conceived [not the judopal, I should note, whom I caught with TK Scissors on TK Scissors Day right after saying to him "it's TK Scissors time!" to which he added upon the waza's completion with genuine disappointment in himself "I can't believe that just happened" which is a fair response because he is better than me and this should not at all have worked and yet it did; not him, another guy), and he was like haha this is fantastic, which is precisely how I have felt about it since the moment it was first posted (December 28, late in the day). And then came the gym shots!  

In addition to the clever QUINTET hand gesture in the above, let us note too that Tsuyoshi Kohsaka, whilst bigger, is not nearly as much bigger than Kazushi Sakuraba as one might figure of a guy who i) handed (elbowed) Фёдор Влади́мирович Емелья́ненко/Fyodor Vladimirovich Yemelyanenko/Fedor Vladimirovich Emelianenko his first (and, for many years, only) loss in a match where, of course, both guys just threw a punch at the same time and Fedor was badly cut from a glancing elbow so it ended in only thirteen seconds and so quite rightly no one has ever taken it especially seriously as a match and yet a Fedor punch was thrown at TK and did not destroy him; and ii) also of a guy who lasted a full ten-minute round against completely-peak-Fedor in 2005 (like four months before the Cro Cop fight; that is really very close to peak Fedor) in a match that was legitimately horrific because of TK's courage. Here he is again with the crew which, as you have almost certainly noticed already in the above, includes 美濃輪 育久 Minowa Ikuhisa aka ミノワマン  MINOWAMAN, DREAM Super Hulk Grand Prix 2009 Champion (for the uninitiated he is on the right in a nice jacket):  

And look at this other nice poster toO! (I am keeping that typo as a record of my feelings):

This is all just very exciting to me! It is as though this team has been ripped directly from the ファイプロ・リターンズ Fire Pro Wrestling Returns save on the PS2 in my basement! Team Battle mode is probably the best part of that game! You can make your own (QUINTET-like) five-person teams! But also the ones that are already on there are really great! Like the Fighting Network RINGS one that clearly reflects an era (indeed an ethos) that had faded away nearly a decade prior to the release of the game but which is there all the same to take to DANTAISEN 団体戦 (team fight [as well you know]) against, say, the Pancrasemen of a no-less vanished time. We have learned enough together in the course of all that we have seen and felt in these pages, I think, to be unsurprised by moments of 無常 mujō (impermanence, the transience of things) or 物の哀れ mono no aware (strong aesthetic sense; appreciation of the fleeting nature of beauty; pathos of things) in any of these strange realms in which we travel together in fellowship, even (especially?) when doing so obliquely through old Fire Pros (the new Fire Pro I forget utterly; it is utterly forgotten), and yet I am struck by one now, and it is always a small surprise (of the heart) no matter how familiar (to the heart). But as no ascii-art-inflected PS2 FAQ I can find through cursory googling right now lists all of these teams such that I might post them here and talk about them with you I will leave this topic for another time as we turn our attention as fully as we are able towards . . .

 . . . 2.3 QUINTET FIGHT NIGHT2 in TOKYO Japan Open Team Championship 2019 in アリーナ立川立飛/Arena Tachikawa Tachihi and our host in this will be Stewart Fulton, who I have at times enjoyed and at others could absolutely not believe the extent to which he græpsplained (incorrectly) over 山口 芽生 Yamaguchi Mei (aka V-HAJIME) but that may have just been one time that I have blown out of proportion in my memory of it so let's try to go into this one with an open spirit; also I think the one we watched where it was him and Meisha Tate was pretty good. Fulton is joined by neither of these aforementioned ladies but instead by current RIZIN fighter and three-time freestyle wrestling world champion (1991 Tokyo, 1994 Sofia, 1995 Moscow) 山本 美憂 Yamamoto Miyū of the well-known Yamamoto wrestling family; you will recall, I am sure, KID (R.I.P. 山本 徳郁 Yamamoto Norifumi). Something I did not realize, but am learning just now, is that Ms. Yamamoto moved to Toronto in 2013, became a Canadian citizen in 2015, and hoped to make the Olympic team for Rio 2016 but, alas, did not (in fact, Canadian women's freestyle wrestling is strong [this has been true historically, I am not just "doing a meme of it" right now]). Also I am learning that she has been divorced three times so she is like a Randy Couture-level international wrestler/divorcer although actually a much more decorated international wrestler (I don't the specifics of her divorces and so cannot compare those). I don't think I have seen any of her RIZIN matches, as I have watched weirdly little RIZIN, though I understand from reading the Observer that it is totally doing ok. A graphic informs me that Japanese commentary has 中井祐樹 Nakai Yūki (Hokkaido University judo under Kanae Hirata, SHOOTO under Satoru Sayama, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Enson Inoue, first Japanese BJJ black belt holder [awarded by Carlos Gracie Jr.]) and Takeshi Yano, and notes that Nakai is "QUINTET Chairman of referee committee" which is interesting work if you can get it, I am sure. 

Total weight of the team must be under 430kg one day prior to the event! A round is eight minutes unless there is a disparity of 20kg or more in which case it will be four minutes! This is all familiar! A new rule, though, and a welcome one: there is to be no smothering over the mouth and nose with your gross hand, which stood out to me as foul as hekk last time around, and I wished it would go away, and it has, so we were right to object as strenuously as we did because look at the change we have effected together (in fact, Fulton later explains, Sakuraba insisted on this rule change because of the extent to which this technique conflicted with the image of grappling he would like to convey through QUINTET and I am of course with him in this). No spiking, no jumping guard pulls, but you can jump into a 飛三角絞 tobi-sankaku-jime flying triangle (ah but what if one were to spike someone jumping into a flying triangle [that would plainly be illegal; why even ask it]). 

WHAT A FIRST ROUND MATCH IF YOU ARE ME:

I don't know if I have mentioned previously how lovely and wholesome 小見川道大 Michihiro Omigawa's twitter is (@micci1219judo) but he seems to be having quite a time with his little family and all of the judo (I have made several gifs of the teachings he has posted to it, which you can see here should you so choose) but this seems like a good time to do so if not. The video packages for QUINTET started out totally good and have proceeded to become excellent, I think, and one recapping all of the events so far airs as we speak. The music is quick and light and jazzy! Almost as though it were the menu music from Fire Pro Returns what is going onnnnnnnnn. Anyway we are told that 2019 will be the honkaku shidou, "the real start," in a way that is once again deeply æ s t h e t i c:

That's how you do it! And then oh man look at this:

This is the greatest show I have ever seen, I type even before Lenne Hart starts shrieking things and then oh my god:

WHAT IS EVEN HAPPENING.

I have to transcribe these pre-tape promos, too, at least little bits of them; these are unreal:

Michihiro Omigawa: "TEAM NEO JUDO is here and we're all judoka. We are five men who put all our faith in judo. We're going to show what judo can do and we'll win doing it."

Tsuyoshi Kohsaka: "There's no doubt that UWF is what set me on the path to fight in MMA. The U of UWF is in my blood. It's in my DNA. Everyone of my moves comes from UWF."

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAT THOUUUUUUGH. 

They keep going from there and if anything it escalates; I cannot do justice to just how absurdly for me all of this is and honestly it feels weird to be catered to so completely, like watching John Wick, or, moreover, John Wick: Chapter 2. It's almost too much . . . 

. . . and yet never quite. There's really no way the actual matches can deliver on the promise of these first, let's see, twelve minutes (that's it? I feel as though a whole new world has been created), and yet I cannot help but feel that . . .

I need to settle down at least a little, though, and just let it happen.

So then, Shutaro Debana (77.60 kg), who nearly juji-gatame'd Sakuraba at the very first QUINTET GRAPPLING TEAM SURVIVAL MATCH, against Minowaman (83.20 kg). Eight minutes. Let's just see. TOBI-JUJI-GATAME FLYING ARMBAR TWELVE SECONDS SHUTARO DEBANA GOT HIM PERHAPS THIS WILL INDEED CONTINUE TO BE THE GREATEST SHOW I HAVE EVER SEEN nnnnnope, Stewart Fulton describes this waza as "smooth as a ghost on roller-skates" and if anything his should-be-charming Scottish accent made it way, way worse. And now tiny Hideo Tokoro (65.60kg) for Team U-Japan. He's a slippery guy! (Not in the Akiyama sense.) Fulton speculates that the crowd has gone quiet because they don't know what to expect but it looks to me as though there just aren't very many people there. Debana looks for a koshi-waza hip throw of some kind a couple of times before whipping through with the best no-gi 隅返 sumi-gaeshi/corner-reversal that has been or could be done but Tokoro rides it out and grabs hold of 三角絞 sankaku-jime/triangle-choke on the way through. Debana hoists Tokoro aloft in the hugging lift of 抱上 daki-age but slamming from here is of course not sporting and thus forbidden. After what has to be at least a full minute of holding Tokoro up in this halfway-through-a-power-or-indeed-Liger-bomb position, the referee separates the græpplorz and issues Debana the caution and guidance of shido (this seems fair). Tokoro is given his choice of par-terre positions as they restart (it's part of the shido) but Debana is awfully quick to spin through and attack the arm. He's on top and around Tokoro's legs in no time and is probably going to finish this 袖車絞/sode-guruma-jime/sleeve-wheel-choke that is often called the "Ezequiel" after Brazilian judo Olympian Ezequiel Paraguassú; this is of course a no-gi Ezequiel; and yes, Tokoro is unconscious now. I taught this waza just last weekend! How . . . au-courant. Tokoro looks a little confused but will be fine in a minute, probably. 

And so Tsuyoshi Kohsaka, still large (99.15 kg), will have but four minutes with this young Debana. Fulton mentions that Kohsaka holds black belts in both judo (四段/yondan/4th degree) and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu but does not add that his Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt was not trained toward as such but rather awarded by Yuki Nakai under the reasoning that if one is employing the techniques of Kodokan Judo in the world of mixed-fight, one is effectively doing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and so Tsuyoshi Kohsaka should have a black belt of that. It may not surprise you to learn that I remember this very clearly from when it happened and liked it very much then . . . as I do now! It's ok that Stewart Fulton doesn't mention any of this because of how well we already know it. The modern-day butterfly guard, Fulton suggests, has its roots in the TK Guard, "which revolutionized MMA," and though you will find no greater enthusiast for TK-waza of all sorts than me, I do not really think that this is a true thing to say, though sometimes we just get swept up in a feeling, Stewart Fulton, I get it. 

Debana tries that lovely sumi-gaeshi again but Kohsaka does not budge much at all: though there was kuzushi (breaking [of balance]), the tsukuri (making; structuring; shaping) could not proceed to kake (execution). Those are the three parts of every technique! Also, a note on tsukuri: it came up in a haiku I was working with (in the sense of translating) the other day, want to see? 

菊作り　汝は菊の　奴なり

蕪村

Kiku-tsukuri

Nanji wa kiku no

Yakko nari

cultivator of chrysanthemums,

you are a slave 

to chrysanthemums

Buson       

For more, please visit @haikuanthology on Twitter if you are so inclined. 

For more Shutaro Debana vs. Tsuyoshi Kohsaka, please continue to read the rest of this sentence that will praise Stewart Fulton for high-lighting the 橫捨身技 yoko-sutemi-waza/side-sacrifice-technique of 払巻込 harai-makikomi as Kohsaka's tokui-waza or specialty, or, if TK can lift Debana, he might well throw with 払腰 harai-goshi. That's great stuff to say, Stewart Fulton! Shidos are given to each fellow about half-way through, and then Debana tries a rolling entry but is squished. He shrimps ably back to guard and both stand before long. AAAAAH NO DEBANA HAS THE ARM but TK escapes both the juji-gatame and the ashi-sankaku-garami (omoplata) that follows and it is shocking that TK's shoulders are still that loose at his age. TK attacks the back with diligence in the closing moments but the short match ends in a draw. Good job, TK! Great job, Shutaro Debana! 

Daisuke Nakamura (78.95 kg), then, is Team U-Japan's fourth against only Team Neo Judo's second, Yoshiyuki Yoshida (84.75 kg). An interesting fact about me that you may actually already know is that I have yet to forgive Anthony "Rumble" Johnson for missing weight against Yoshiyuki Yoshida and then knocking him out in, let me see, October of 2009, so we are coming up on the tenth anniversary of me feeling this way. Nakamura tries a flying armbar, which is always super fun so you can't blame him, but Yoshida really goes to work on him after that, and he's just all over his back. Until he isn't! Nakamura digs and digs and digs until he gets top half-guard to a nice little bit of applause from the nice little crowd. The referee calls "action," which means the competitors have twenty seconds to show real progress lest they both be shido'd. And in this instance they are shido'd. Yoshida tries an elevator sweep and can't quite get it, but you know who did, recently? Otgontsetseg Galbadrakh (KAZ) at Grand Slam Paris 2019:

She's not just about ura nage! Though she is largely about ura nage, certainly. Nakamura and Yoshida are doing just great with about two minutes left on the clock. Yoshida is probably better technically but Nakamura's pace and pressure are super impressive. Yoshida comes close to juji-gatame as time expires but both are eliminated in this excellent draw.

Koshi Matsumoto (77.45 kg) is the Neo Judoist who will face Hirotaka Yokoi (99.40 kg), the final member of Team U-Japan, with Yokoi needing to finish a submission in but four minutes (he is large and so their match is short). Yokoi we know from RINGS! He had eight matches there in the latter, largely-shoot era of it, and then lost a bunch in PRIDE but did well, if I recall correctly, against Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, which is a kind of victory. Koshi Matsumoto is unknown to me but it seems his judo has taken him to SHOOTO extensively, to Pancrase a little, and RIZIN most recently. True to his Fighting Network RINGS roots, Hirotaka Yokoi, when knee-barred, immediately grabs a toe-hold rather than work for an escape; he has entered shoot leg-lock duel and I salute him for this tribute to the era of Akira Maeda and Volk Han and other friends from there, from then. Stewart Fulton, though sometimes lightly corny when he tries to shoehorn in un bon mot, has excellent technical knowledge and is clearly very well-prepared to discuss each athlete's background, and is doing a very good job. Yamamoto does not seem particularly inclined to join in, really, and she even apologizes for her inability to really keep up with the pace of the matches (this may well just be modesty, but either way, she's not talking), so he's working almost solo, and it can't be easy. The match ends in a drawn and so NEO JUDO DESU is the non-Lenne-Hardt ring announcer's call. 

That was all extremely pleasant. 

Team CARPE DIEM and Team SOLDIER is the other match and I bet it will be good too and I also bet (I guess this is a parlay) that I will not get as carried away by it as, through no real fault of its own, it does not feature judo vs. the long UWF. Several of the people interviewed for the pre-match pre-tapes end their statements with ossu so you know they mean martial arts business. It's interesting that United World Wrestling (formerly Fédération Internationale des Luttes Associées aka FILA; also formerly so terrible a governing body that it got removed from the core-programme of Olympic sports and is only in on a games-to-games basis despite being actual wrestling; please consider how terrible a governing body it takes to pull that off [an awful one {they were particularly awful on gender equity, which, say what you will about the IOC, is one thing the IOC takes seriously, to their credit}]) are a sponsor with their name on the mat here because this sure isn't freestyle or Greco-Roman wrestling even a little! (I know they also govern "no-gi grappling" in some sense but do they though; do they; though). First up we have Reda Mebtouche of France (and Team Carpe Diem) and Sergio Rios de Silva of Brazil (and Team Soldier) in and eight-minute match of senpos. These guys both seem just great. In time they are both shido'd (in time, we are all of us shido'd, are we not), but before that, they each did just a tonne of things, so it hardly seems fair. I thought Sergio Rios da Silva would finish his last-minute juji-gatame for sure but he didn't! A hard-fought draw.

Team Soldier captain Hideki "Shrek" Sekine is new to me, and has quite a look:

David Garmo is also new to me, and has a very nice moustache (I had a great big moustache for a couple years and enjoyed it, but it was a lot of work compared to just letting one's big dumb beard grow forever [the current waza]). The opening minute of this match is bonkers, with huge, ogre-like throwing from, yes, the guy who fights under the nom-de-guerre/sobriquet-rouge SHREK (I remember those movies fondly enough). Garmo seems way better, though less able to just huck people, so it's an interesting styles-clash. And another draw!

Haisam Rida, originally of Ghana, currently of 日本, and kind of star of an earlier QUINTET, outweighs Declan Moody (of Australia) by not quite enough for their match to be four minutes, rather than eight, like it's five-hundred grams that are keeping this match eight minutes. Both guys are supremely limby. HIZA-GATAME knee-bar for Haisam Rida in maybe thirty seconds? It came on pretty quickly but I think Moody is ok. And now IGOR "FATNINJA" TANABE from Brazil, who seems neither fat, nor, and I do not say this to be cruel, a ninja (although perhaps that is the ideal cover for one: not seeming one). I think the corner referees raise a flag of the team-colour of the person they think is stalling, or both, if they think both, and this helps the head referee with shido calls. I miss the corner referees in judo! I know the video table handles all that stuff now, but even just æ s t h e t i c a l l y I prefer corner judges (they live on Japanese collegiate judo, which has of course never been more available to western eyes than in the youtube era, so there is no cause to complain; also we operate that way pretty much for our in-club tournaments, so let the world outside the dojo be as it must). Though I of course do not doubt Igor "Fatninja" Tanabe technically, stylistically I do not enjoy his propensity to just sit and then grab hands. There has been really none of this style I mind so much elsewhere in this show so far so it stands out worse than it would have on previous QUINTETS certainly. The match ends in double shidos, or I guess double triple shidos, one would say. That's inglorious.

Sotaro Yamada now against Yuta Nakamura, who "Shrek" Sekine mentioned earlier has good judo experience and good throws so let's see. Both men are stout and strong looking to the point of suspicion; also Nakamura has a pointy beard (traditionally devilish). Yamada comes awfully close with a guillotine choke from the top and ah yes ok I see he finished it as soon as he rolled to the bottom. Look at how sharp the little image is that comes up between replays:

What a presentation! Anyway Team Carpe Diem is through to the finals to face Omigawa's NEO JUDOists. There will probably be a match or two so everyone can rest up a little bit in between? Or at least an intermission of some kind, as Kazushi Sakuraba shuffles to the mats awkwardly (in that he does not move well) and challenges referee (and longtime SHOOTO fighter) Wataru Miki to an impromptu match haha!

Miki takes off his shirt and tie to reveal that he is dressed for just such an encounter! Miki is shido'd right away because of all the shit in his hair! I am legit delighted by this exhibition match before it even begins! And almost immediately Sakuraba wins in precisely the manner illustrated in this oft-posted (by me [here]) by 木村 政彦 Kimura Masahiko:

But that is not the end of it apparently as they're going again! They go super fast and a little light, as one would expect in an exhibition, until Sakuraba catches Miki in 腕挫十字固 ude-hishigi-juji-gatame and, in keeping with his lighthearted instructional videos, comically disregards the tap as the bell sounds again and again which puts me in mind of another haiku that I was working on the other day:

涼しさや　鐘を離るる　鐘の聲

蕪村

Suzushisa ya

Kane wo hanaruru

Kane no koe

summer coolness --

the sound of the bell

leaving the bell

Buson

We are afforded time to reflect on that as we seem to have entered an intermission at the conclusion of this charming four-minute (I think) exhibition that is declared a draw (as is the way with exhibitions) despite Sakuraba winning twice (he gestures broadly to signal his displeasure with this result haha!).  

There is also a SPECIAL SINGLE MATCH before the team finals and it is between Rikako Yuasa, an IBJJF World Champion (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018) and Haruki Ishiguro who is like a twenty-year-old BJJ purple belt, so this has probably been booked as a "squash match" in a sense, and yet young (yung) Ishiguro just nearly threw with 内股 uchi-mata, good for her. Apparently there is an all-women QUINTET Fight Night coming up in April and one would for sure think we will have a look at that one too right here at TK Scissors A Blog of RINGS! Yuasa wins with a crafty (cræftig) 腕挫十字固 ude-hishigi-juji-gatame from 崩上四方固 kuzure-kami-shiho-gatame in not all that long but Ishiguro did really well!

As Michihiro Omigawa and Thomas Mietz begin the first match of the team final, I wonder if these shows are maybe and hour too long? I kind of fade towards the end of them, and not just this one, where clearly I came in pretty heavily over-stimulated. I think Stewart Fulton, who is just reading off of Omigawa's wikipedia page right now, is possibly fading, too. Fulton mentions at one point that Omigawa's team is the lightest of the four teams this evening, and by far, but does not say what the different team weights were, exactly, though I could probably look that up on the QUINTET twitter account or something (ooh, no thank you!). Mietz looks dangerous with a 肩固 kata-gatame/shoulder-hold/arm-triangle but it's been maybe two minutes from this position and he hasn't been able to finish the choke on the littler dude. The referee shidos both, which is a bold move. Standing, Mietz is a sitter, which should be shido'd too unless that rule isn't a rule anymore, which I suspect it is not, as it used to get mentioned but not enforced but now it isn't even mentioned. A draw, so both are out. 

The remarkably stout Yukiyasu Ozawa (105 kg!) is next for Team NEO JUDO:

I believe they said earlier that he is a junior high teacher? Reda Mebtouche works him over so thoroughly that Ozawa loses a contact lens and it is so gross to me when people pick a contact up off the mats and put it right back in but Ozawa is seemingly unperturbed. I have really fairly poor vision but it remains uncorrected whilst I am at judo because, I mean, your partner is always right there, and you can always ask someone what the clock says. Ozawa settles in after an early mauling and really does well enough. With a minute to go, Mebtouche "takes the back" and craaaaaaanks as he tries to get his arm under for the naked strangle of 裸絞 hadaka-jime and I would like Ozawa to tap but he does not! The match ends with ineffectual dueling toe-holds (possibly the best kind?); another draw. 

Stewart Fulton disgraces himself forever (not really) by misidentifying the "Japanese Necktie" (in the mode of Shinya Aoki) simply because of David Garmo's hooking leg as he attacked Koshi Matsumoto's neck, breathtakingly ignorant (it's actually totally understandable) of how Garmo did not have the near-side arm inside the choke that the Japanese Necktie would require and then, slightly embarrassed when he realizes his mistake, goes "he has the chin control!" (lol the what?) instead of explaining what he thought he'd seen and how it is different from what was in fact going on and how easy that is to have happen because of the configuration everybody was in. A missed opportunity in a teachable moment! But we all have those. Garmo is a wonderful grappler, flowing from attack to attack with, well, with fluidity. OH NO HE CROSSED HIS ANKLES AND MATSUMOTO GOT HIM:

   

The dreaded hiza-tori-garami as illustrated in Mikonosuke Kawaishi's Ma Méthode de Judo:

I'm sure we've talked about this before, but the weird thing about hiza-tori-garami in the context of judo, where ashi-kansetsu-waza (leg-bonelocking-techniques) haven't been part of randori or shiai for like a hundred years but are instead confined to kata and also just to drilling sometimes when you have a nice little group on a slow summer afternoon, is that everbody will put you in hiza-tori-garami if you cross your ankles, put it on just enough for you to feel it, and say darkly "don't cross your ankles." I do not know why we do this and yet I myself do this, much as it was done to me years ago. This is perhaps not unlike Matsumoto's experience of the technique, and I bet he cannot believe this worked. Garmo really blew it! That sounds harsh to say but I am certain he would tell you as much himself. 

"Incredibly muscular" is Stewart Fulton's judgement-free but implication-rich description of the intensely vascular Sotaro Yamada, who is next. Yamada has Matsumoto's back a little over a minute in but, as we have seen this, is where Matsumoto is at his most cunning! Ah but not this time, Ernie (as an Ontario provincial election sticker posted inside the Robarts humanities library at the University of Toronto in what must have been 2003 once said), as Sotaro Yamada finishes with just the grossest neck crank, a true kubi-hishigi (neck-crush):

Genuinely revolting! And so it is Yoshiyuki Yoshida, as the fourth members of each side are upon us . . . and also the mats. Yamada pulls guard and gets the ashi-sankaku-garami/omoplata to sweep in a lovely fashion soon thereafter. Yoshida is on the run but is running well enough until Yamada does that same vile neck crank that I demand be banned. Just choke people, you ghastly beast! And yet he refuses, so ghastly a beast be he. 

Shutaro Debana is the last of the NEO JUDOists and man oh man Yamada's vascularity is increasing with each encounter. This time he heeds my call for choking, as opposed to cranking, and he finishes Debana with hadaka-jime with about a minute and a half to go. And so his team is the winning team! Good! That was good!

QUINTET NEVER FAILS TO DISAPPOINT is Stewart Fulton's summation of the evening but probably not quite what he meant to say unless he has perhaps lost his passion for this work or indeed for this shoot. A mamemaki (豆撒き, "bean scattering") for Setsubun (節分, "seasonal division") closes the show! 鬼は外! 福は内! Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi! Demons out! Good luck in! Kazushi Sakuraba and Tsuyoshi Kohsaka are having a nice time!

I WOULD LIKE TO THINK THAT WE DID ALSO! See you next time! Thank you as always! Take care!