G128 Day 2

Tomohiro Ishii vs. Toru Yano

This was very fun. Yano being more serious & not cheating brought a good dynamic to the match; he was busting out arm drags like his last name was Steamboat or something. The finish was absolutely awesome w/ YTR actually giving Ishii real trouble during their strike exchange, which lead to Ishii having to basically "Toru Yano" Toru Yano himself. Good stuff. ***

Juice Robinson vs. Tama Tonga

Tama Tonga's "trashtalk" was so cringy in this match, but it's probably the only thing I'll remember out of it, because, all in all, it was such a heatless bore of a match. *

Hirooki Goto vs. SANADA

Very uninteresting match layout - just a bunch of counters, and back & forth control swifts. It can work, but I didn't find this one compelling at all. One cool sequence towards the end w/ SANADA locking in the Skull End for a brief moment, but other than that, yeah, not interesting whatsoever. *1/4

Kota Ibushi vs. Zack Sabre Jr.

Their best match against each other yet. I thought Zack's control work on the ground was incredibly compelling, and once it came down to exchange some strikes, they sure smacked the crap out of each other with those slaps & kicks. ****

Kenny Omega vs. Tetsuya Naito

The beginning stages of the match with them trying to outswagger each other by cockily doing each other's taunts was glorious. Soon after Kenny starts targeting Naito's back; it doesn't continue for too long, but I enjoyed it a lot. Actually after he was done targeting Naito's back, the match kinda "lost" me, and it took me a while to REALLY get into it again, but I sure did eventually. Very exciting & brutal finishing gear. ***3/4