Equality can be vicious, and RINGS is probably still the most misunderstood promotion on the planet Earth.
Truth be told, I actively think the fading away of shoot style outside of niche little circles might actively be one of the worst things to happen, because a bunch of this just gets consumed in a vacuum without any understanding of what makes shoot style so great that it leads to a barren, dense analysis of there being "a lack of psychology" & "lack of storytelling," when in actuality, it's ripe with it.
Kohsaka and Tamura, are at a point where they are equals. They will not stop until either man goes down. That is the whole story, and they won't stop until one of them loses.
Guess what? This holds true, because this is genuinely one of, if not the most competitive RINGS match to ever have occurred, definitely the most competitive in its shoot style days. Nothing is hard to understand. Especially since they keep trading rope breaks.
There is never a clear division on who is on the offense, with the same holding true for defense. All of it is nasty, gritty, pure wrestling. As long as you are able to understand that the mat is sacred in this case, you will understand it, and man, I love it.
Tamura just understands what to do, he's consistently scrambling, trying to seek the best position, and he stands tall the entire time, and he just gets it. Kohsaka also refuses to go down as well, as he keeps pushing Tamura towards these rope breaks, and with the big knockdown 20 minutes in, like pen to a paper, water towards an ocean, everything is fluid.
It's hard to write about, because in today's world, it feels so unconventional. Yet, it's beautiful. It is a continual struggle, and most importantly, it wrenches on you so beautifully. It is two of the best in their realm doing it.
It isn't even a moral victory, as they'd face off again to end the trilogy the next year.
But there's grime, there's grit, and there is tension.
Because it feels real.
It feels like professional wrestling.
At the very least, top 15.