Jeff Cobb vs. Will Ospreay
This was solid, but kind of weird at the same time - it didn't even go 13 minutes, but it still dragged in my eyes. They did tell a solid story of Cobb establishing right away that he is just as explosive & almost as quick & athletic as Ospreay, so Ospreay had to fight from underneath the whole time w/ his springboard flippy attacks. Not the most compelling match, but solid enough. **1/2
Bandido vs. Dragon Lee vs. Taiji Ishimori
This was a pretty good sprint w/ plenty of bombs & impressive athleticism all the way through. **3/4
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
The dynamic was the usual for these two with both guys doing some limb targeting; Zack with armwork & Tana with legwork. They didn't sell that very dramatically or anything though, but it wasn't bad, as neither did anything that I would consider ridiculous with a worked over limb. Overall the match lacked some intensity & feel of danger that has been present in their best matches against each other, but it was still a good one & one of the better matches on the show. The highlight for me was quite possibly the finish w/ the crowd reacting big to Zack bending Tana's arm viciously. ***1/4
Kota Ibushi vs. Tetsuya Naito
Best match out of the ones I watched on this show. Naito has a thing for brutalizing Ibushi's neck, and he sure did a number on it here; some very good work on top by the man, and Ibushi's explosive comebacks were awesome. The whole finishing stretch with the Boma Yes & all was so good. ***1/2
Jay Lethal vs. Marty Scurll vs. Matt Taven
Goddamn this was so long & so boring. For Ladder Wars, you either need to go all out with the crazy spots a la Young Bucks or bring a ton of HATE into the thing a la Kevin Steen vs. El Generico. Neither happened here. Sure there were a couple of "big" spots involving the ladders, but I couldn't care less about them, because of how boring the build to them was. *
Jay White vs. Kazuchika Okada
This left me so cold. Everything was so dull, generic & expected - from White's heat segment, to Okada's comeback, to the finishing gear that was your generic Okada counter & 50/50 stuff, but this time there wasn't even a nice "damn they're slick" factor to it, as there have been in his matches vs. Omega, SANADA, Naito etc. And of course it went over 30 minutes, too. A very boring performance by White all around & Okada was Okada. *
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