The Moonlight Coming

Shinjiro Otani VS Kazunari Murakami - Zero One 6/14/2001

JJZ: I'm pretty positive we've watched this together many many moons ago. I honestly just wanted to see some Otani. Shinjiro could be such a fucking prick that I knew this would be such a fun match to review. Both guys just throwing kicks and punches with bad intentions. Everything landing so hard that I would've believed for real some got knocked out. Just a wonderful stiff fight that I wouldn't disagree with anyone if they told me it was a shoot. I can't remember if they had a rematch or not? I would assume this built to a huge blow off but I couldn't find anything on YouTube. You followed this fued pretty close no?

CJD: They've had a bunch of matches I'm pretty sure! We watched some from years later, I don't think I've seen this one before though 😍

So if I'm not mistaken this is a rematch from a barnburner these two had on the very first Z1 show. That match gets talked about as an all-timer but in true PIF spirit, I think you've uncovered a real gem here John. This is such a beautiful spectacle. I love love loved Otani casually stepping on Murakami's leg and refusing to get off. And I'm loving this early Zero 1 kick we're on, I'd keep exploring these shows for months if they were easy to find online. This vision of pro wrestling speaks to me. I watched every minute of the post match promo having no idea what was being said. And not needing to.