Day 1: Taichi vs. Tomoaki Honma
This was good. A bit clunky in a few spots here & there, but overall good. Taichi does a great job being the piece of shit heel that he is, targeting Honma's head & neck viciously throughout. I really liked his performance, all of his stuff looked pretty damn devastating. Honma's comebacks are solid too, and he sells all of Taichi's big stuff pretty huge. ***
Day 1: Tomohiro Ishii vs. Yuji Nagata
They kicked, chopped & forearm'd the crap out of one another with their absolutely brutal looking strikes, and the arm targeting by Nagata was superb, but with the match going over 20 minutes, I felt it was dragging at points, so that's why it's not quite in the MOTYC status for me. Still a really good smackfest though, with the great stuff in it being really, really great. ***3/4
Day 2: Bad Luck Fale vs. Will Ospreay
They played up the size difference with Fale being on top for most of the thing & Ospreay fighting from underneath, and it was really solid. Could've done without some of Ospreay's goofy over the top facial expressions & vocal "selling", but other than those, this was indeed pretty fun. **3/4
Day 2: Kazuchika Okada vs. Michael Elgin
Some promising ideas in the beginning with Kevin Kelly bringing up Elgin's past success with the Crossface, as he kept on working over Okada's neck & arm, but then as Okada took over, the match got very boring & remained that until the end. Boring work on top by the man, and while I did dug Elgin busting out that Crossface of his, all of his other work was pretty damn boring. Then a generic Okada finishing stretch to boot. Over 20 minutes of dullness. *1/4
Day 3: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Shota Umino
The most interesting looking match up of the whole round 1, and they sure delivered a very fun bout. Good, classic storytelling with Umino the young lion pushing one of the company's biggest legends to the limit & hanging with him all the way through. The post-match with Tana showing respect to him was awesome too. ***1/4
Day 3: EVIL vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
This was solid, but sadly also pretty boring for the most part. Followed about the same dynamic as their superior New Beginning meeting from the month before, but wasn't nearly as captivating. **
Day 3: Kota Ibushi vs. Tetsuya Naito
Not quite as crazy as some of their previous meetings, but still really good. Naito gives Ibushi's neck a hellacious beating throughout - that Tombstone on the apron spot was an absolute holy shit moment, and Ibushi's explosive comebacks were very good. Always pop for him using the Boma Ye. ***1/2
Day 4: Minoru Suzuki vs. Satoshi Kojima
Two veterans who do not like each other beating the crap out of one another. Oh yes! MiSu is an absolute killer with his forearms & Kojima's lariats are always a thing of beauty. ***1/2
Day 4: Hirooki Goto vs. SANADA
I liked this more than their G1 28 match. SANADA brought a great flow to the thing w/ his always impressive athleticism & awesome neck targeting, and Goto definitely was good too answering right back at him w/ some neck targeting of his own. Quite a charming match. Definitely a good one. ***
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