February Match of the Month: Kota Sekifuda vs Fuminori Abe - 2/12/2023

One of the best junior heavyweights in the world puts on a clinic as he challenges Sekifuda for the BJW Junior Heavyweight Championship.

Welcome to my first edition of Match of the Month, where I opine on what was, to me, the best wrestling match I watched all month. Since I started this late this year, our first edition is in February (However, Mistico vs Stuka Jr. would have been my January Match of the Month, and I’ll probably still write about it at some point).

February Match of the Month
BJW - Feb. 12
Kota Sekifuda © vs Fuminori Abe - BJW Junior Heavyweight Championship

(The match is linked above. It is on BJW Core, but you DO NOT need to pay to watch it. You don’t even need to make an account. The video just ready to be played.)

If you were to ask me who I think the best junior heavyweight in the world is at the moment, Fuminori Abe would be the first name I would think of. The man has been killing it in every big opportunity he’s had since I first started regularly watching him in 2020 as part of his incredible team with Takuya Nomura, the Astronauts.

Many may not be as familiar with Abe as they should be. Being primarily a Buddhist Monk (really), wrestling isn’t Abe’s primary focus, and he tends to only work indies and smaller shows like BJW, Zero1 and Basara. But as his Basara contract ended at the end of last year, it looks like we may be seeing him more often, as he’s already showed up several times for DDT along with his usual haunts.

I don’t think there’s anyone in the world who wrestles quite like Abe, and this match is a great demonstration of that.

Sekifuda, I know less about. I’m fairly certain I’ve seen him in a handful of tag matches but he never left much of an impression on me beforehand. But Abe is able to bring out the best of him in this match. I’m also a fan of his entrance gear with the vest covered in stuffed lizards, it’s unique.

The match starts out simple enough with some solid back-and-forth grappling. These two make it feel like a real struggle every time and not just like they’re taking turns putting each other into holds. There’s lots of creative roll-ups and holds they put each other in to gradually get a better feel for each other.

Things crescendo gradually through this match, from the opening grappling, into more serious striking and flying, to straight bomb-throwing and wild shoot striking late into the match.

One thing that’s great about this is how certain spots are followed up on. Abe has a spot three different times where he winds up and throws a stiff punch to Sekifuda’s face, but on the third try, Sekifuda ducks it and throws a stiff jab of his own, which got a huge pop out of me.

Everything they do to each other looks mean and they really sell it, to the point where there’s one spot in the match where they’re both literally laying exhausted on the mat and kicking at each other because they just can’t stop.

What’s really special to me about Abe is his physicality — not just his moves and striking, but everything in between. The way he stretches out his arms before a jab or throws a defiant blind punch as he defiantly kicks out of a move. And he just has the perfect pissed-off expressions to match. Again, it’s hard to believe this guy is a monk.

The closing 10 or so minutes of this match is just a wild back-and-forth stiff-fest, featuring some sick shoot headbutts that actually bust Abe’s forehead open. By then, he’s worn down enough for Sekifuda to put down with a big frog splash. The match was 21 minutes long with 30 minutes worth of material that felt like 10 minutes watching in real time. ****3/4 stars.

So yeah, again this is a free match to watch. I can’t recommend it enough. This is my third match of four stars or more from Abe since the year began, and he had a fourth one a day later with his tag partner Nomura against Sekimoto and Okabayashi that’s almost as good as this one.

Here’s some of my other favorite matches from February:
2/3 Dragongate - Yamato & Naruki Doi vs Dragon Dia & Dragon Kid 4.25 stars
2/4 AJPW Kento Miyahara vs Yuma Aoyagi - 4.5 stars
2/11 DG Jason Lee & Jacky Funky Kamei vs Kaito Nagano & Yoshiki Kato - 4.25 stars
2/13 BJW Takuya Nomura & Fuminori Abe vs Yuji Okabayashi & Daisuke Sekimoto - 4.5 stars
2/19 AJPW Kento Miyahara vs Yuji Nagata - 4.5 stars
2/21 DG Jason Lee & Jacky Funky Kamei vs Yuki Yoshioka & Madoka Kikuta - 4.25 stars
2/26 DDT MAO & Shunma Katsumata vs Yukio Sakaguchi & Hikaru Machida - 4.5 stars