This was a semi-final match in the 2012 Strong Climb tournament.
These two have had a few encounters before in 2011, but this is the banger it always felt like they were capable of. One of the very best Sami Sprints of all time, maybe even the very best one period. Horrifically punishing sort of a match, and a unique match among Sami’s best, because it’s the rare upper level Callihan match where he isn’t quite playing the perfect underdog dirtbag babyface. It’s not so much that there is some great deep story behind it, or that it was this perfect match up to emphasize Sami’s grit, like a Sami/Brodie or Sami/Sekimoto in 2011. In fact, it’s the opposite. This is allowed to get as stupid, violent, and viciously petty as possible, in the most maximalist possible way.
Sami is a shithead foreigner who respects nothing, and constantly draws the most violent side of Sasaki out. Sasaki gleefully punishes him and adapts some of Sami’s own language and mannerisms to really rub it in, from mimicking his gun gestures and spitting on his hand before a chop, down to shouting “COME ON BABY” at Sami while standing on his face. It’s a credit to Sami’s performance as a goth version of that shithead from the famous meme about how every country in the world belongs to America that this treatment never once feels undeserved or even a toe out of line for Sasaki.
The violence on display is also a treat.
There’s a good three to four minute section where all they do is chop each other. It isn’t like Sasaki vs. Kobashi or Shiozaki where they simply stand and trade with minor shifts in selling the chops while still going, because Callihan and Sasaki are both knocked down and back here and there. They’re telling the same basic story — Sami is a shithead who is just tough enough to always be in this, but not quite as strong as he thinks — entirely through this one shared piece of offense. Sami keeps being knocked down, in more dramatic and violent ways, but always gets up. It would be admirable as hell if not for Sami playing up his innate filth and grime exactly the right amount to make that impossible.
It’s such a great Sami performance because for all that filth and grime, he’s so slippery. You don’t think of him as slippery, but he can really be a hard guy to get a hold of in a match like this. He hangs tough long enough to maybe get a straightforward killer like Sasaki to punch/chop himself out until he makes a mistake, and that’s what happens. Callihan pounces, he does all he can, and while it’s not enough, he’s still so hard to pin down. Literally, he feels impossible to actually beat. Sasaki’s single achievements have stalled over the last few years, and Sami is real high up on a list of kings of the indies, and the more Sami survives, the more possible it seems that he could do this thing. It’s only a semi final after all. Daisuke Sekimoto is all but assured a place in this tournament final, it being the inaugural tournament designed to highlight a style practically ascribed to him alone.
Yoshihito Sasaki, man.
Yoshihito fucking Sasaki.
While Sami is this manic ball of energy, Sasaki is always something much more measured and well maintained. As much credit as Daisuke Sekimoto gets and deserves, Sasaki has every bit as much to do with defining what Strong BJ style is, and he puts on a perfect performance here to illustrate that. Violent, measured, casually mean as hell, but incredibly logical. Nothing he does lacks sense or impact. Everything he does looks and sounds perfect. So, when he kicks out at one and huffs and puffs his way up, it means something. When he begins to freak out, it not only elevates the match, but it elevates Sami as an opponent.
Unfortunately, Sami does a fighting spirit kickout after a Burning Hammer.
It’s not the end of the world so much as a thing that nobody with good taste would ever do. It’s not the end of the world because Sami inflicts no more offense following that. It’s dumb, and I don’t like it, but it’s done in a way that causes the least amount of damage to either man. Sasaki mows him down with one Lariat for a nearfall and then another to put him down. A heavy heavy challenge, but Sasaki once again turns back an outsider and somewhat surprisingly makes it into the finals.
Masterful sort of a thing, as it’s this go-go-go slugfest that revels in how over the top and spectacularly dumb it is, but does so in an artful sort of way. One of the better Callihan matches you’ll find during his peak, one of the better Y-Sasaki slugfests ever, and a nearly perfect not-quite-top-level Strong BJ sort of a match. It’s the kind of match everyone would talk about if it happened at any point in the last three or four years, but that fell between the cracks in a better time, and with maybe the all time greatest Strong BJ match happening later in the night.
HANDWERK 