Togi Makabe vs. YOSHI-HASHI
Maybe the most unappealing match possible to start the tournament off. And it sure was as bad as it looked on paper; YOSHI-HASHI on top is painfully boring, Makabe on the offense is as shitty as always. Just nothing good/interesting about it. *
Bad Luck Fale vs. Hangman Page
I liked the chaotic start, but once the match actually started, it wasn't very interesting. Hangman's slingshot lariat is a thing of beauty, at least. *1/2
EVIL vs. Michael Elgin
Started off very nice w/ Elgin overwhelming EVIL, good shine for the man. Eventually EVIL got the control by going after Elgin's arm; I really liked EVIL's control segment after that. As soon as it was time for Elgin to make a comeback, he didn't sell the arm at all. Was hitting lariats & all just fine. Thankfully when EVIL got the control back to his name, he still went after the arm - his work over it was pretty brutal & a true joy to watch. Helluva performance from him, and Elgin was very good too outside of the no-selling. Good match, but had potential to be even better. ***1/4
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Minoru Suzuki
One slight complaint I have about this is that I thought Tana went a little too no-selly w/ his comeback that lead to his victory, but his run on the offense wasn't very long, so it didn't take too much away from the match. Overall I liked this even more than their excellent Sapporo title match from January; major key in that was the length - with this only going about 14 minutes, there wasn't any filler. It's that G1 magic, baby. Suzuki was absolutely amazing w/ his work over the knee of Tana, which continued the story of that previous match of theirs perfectly into this one. His strikes were also lovely, that slap exchange where Tana slapped MiSu a couple of times, and MiSu slapped Tana about 320 times was just so great. Tana's big comeback that I already talked about a bit was really good too - that Dragon Screw was BRUTAL. And MiSu sure sold it like DEATH. Great match. ****1/4
Jay White vs. Kazuchika Okada
This had a couple of cool singular moments, such as Okada's SCOOBY DOOBY DOO -dive, his 90's HBK headlock break -spot, White almost suffocating Okada with the ring skirt, White's slaps to Okada's head before locking in the Muta Lock, but overall this was very bland. Most of it is White on top, and while he just recently had a tremendous performance doing that vs. Juice - here he was very, very dull. There really isn't anything to complain about; the selling was fine, the dynamic they went with was fine on paper, but the way it came off just wasn't very interesting. **
One slight complaint I have about this is that I thought Tana went a little too no-selly w/ his comeback that lead to his victory, but his run on the offense wasn't very long, so it didn't take too much away from the match. Overall I liked this even more than their excellent Sapporo title match from January; major key in that was the length - with this only going about 14 minutes, there wasn't any filler. It's that G1 magic, baby. Suzuki was absolutely amazing w/ his work over the knee of Tana, which continued the story of that previous match of theirs perfectly into this one. His strikes were also lovely, that slap exchange where Tana slapped MiSu a couple of times, and MiSu slapped Tana about 320 times was just so great. Tana's big comeback that I already talked about a bit was really good too - that Dragon Screw was BRUTAL. And MiSu sure sold it like DEATH. Great match. ****1/4
Jay White vs. Kazuchika Okada
This had a couple of cool singular moments, such as Okada's SCOOBY DOOBY DOO -dive, his 90's HBK headlock break -spot, White almost suffocating Okada with the ring skirt, White's slaps to Okada's head before locking in the Muta Lock, but overall this was very bland. Most of it is White on top, and while he just recently had a tremendous performance doing that vs. Juice - here he was very, very dull. There really isn't anything to complain about; the selling was fine, the dynamic they went with was fine on paper, but the way it came off just wasn't very interesting. **
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