One to file under “wow that match happened?”. This is the match that Dutch Mantell talked about in his book. He’d flown for 20 hours from Nashville to arrive for his tour of Japan, his first night, and he’s in there with Akira Maeda.

No time wasted from the off as Dutch runs the ropes aggressively and I’m surprised at how well he moves here. There’s fast the chops and forearms are connecting. You can hear the slap as it rings around the arena. You can see them kind of feeling each other out after the the quick start the ground grappling feels a little disjointed at times, though nothing egregious. These two don’t quite gel, but it’s fascinating watching two very different styles combining in the ring.

There’s one moment where Dutch has an arm bar on Maeda and he’s put the knee into the side of his head and you can hear the referee say to him, “hey keep it on the chin there don’t let it don’t let it slip under”. It’s just really satisfying hearing a referee with that attention to detail and being on top of things. A bit of a lost art.

I have to say it again, I love watching Dutch run the ropes in this match. He just attacks them man, it’s great.

As mentioned earlier, this match is featured in Dutch’s book and he’s talked about it on his podcast that the finish legit knocked him out. And to be fair to him, it’s a whopper of a spinning heel kick. It catches him right flush in the center of his face.

Not a classic match by any stretch, but it’s fun to see Maeda in the ring with a guy like Dutch Mantell. And yeah, certainly worth it to see the finish as well.

Speaking on his podcast in 2022, Mantell said:

“He finally comes over and checks on me to see if I’m still alive..I’ll never forget that tour, these guys go out there and beat the living crap out ya. Of course they expect you to beat the crap out of them!”