Grr-rr

Kyle O'Reilly vs Katsuyori Shibata, ROH Field of Honor 2016 (Ring of Honor)

Thank you to Dr. L for sending me this open-air singles contest from five years ago. I have an unshakeable belief that Dr. L and I are two different people, but our kinks are nearly indistinguishable, so much so that I have wondered if perhaps he is a figment of my imagination. We have our differences, but they are minute. I don't think the good doctor shares my primal fear of Kyle O'Reilly. As I told him recently, Kyle triggers the same internal mechanism that kicks in when I see video of tiger sharks, for instance. I love Kyle's look and his fighting spirit, but he also scares me a little bit. I saw him in a live show some years ago and vaguely recall feeling a chill when the glowering O'Reilly passed by me.

For me, though, Kyle is what is great about this match. His physique of biblical proportions and its propensity for perspiring are equally beautiful and daunting. He is one of the best - if not THE best - performers of rage in professional wrestling. And I love the way he and Katsuyori rely on kicks and punches, brisk and bone-jangling everyone of them. A couple of years ago, responding to another Dr. L donation to Skull Island, I commended Kyle for his use of the side headlock as a true assault, rather than just a rest move. It's not used much in this contest, but chokes and, as stated, body blows are integral .

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