Jon Moxley vs. Shota Umino
4 minutes of exactly what I wanted out of this pairing - Moxley gets to viciously dominate while Umino gets to bust out some high energy, explosive bursts of offense. The post-match w/ Mox carrying Umino to the back ruled big time as well. ***
Satoshi Kojima vs. Shingo Takagi
This was full of hard hitting smacks & they played up the Junior vs. Heavyweight dynamic really well throughout w/ Cozy having the upperhand & refusing to take shit from the smaller dude - it all was demonstrated perfectly when he didn't leave his feet when Shingo did his signature lariat on him. LOVED that lariat counter of his own by Kojima there as Shingo tried to go for another one. This might've been my favorite Shingo singles match in New Japan so far. Definitely makes me more intrigued for his upcoming G1 run. ***1/2
Jushin Liger & YOSHI-HASHI vs. Minoru Suzuki & Zack Sabre Jr.
Suzuki & Zack being arrogant dicks stretching & striking the crap out of their opponents is almost always fun, and that was the case here. Pretty fun stuff - I especially enjoyed the Liger vs. Suzuki interactions. **3/4
Chase Owens, Jay White & Taiji Ishimori vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Juice Robinson & Ryusuke Taguchi
This was absolutely nothing. Extremely underwhelming & dull even for NJPW multi-man undercard tag standards. *
Taichi vs. Tomohiro Ishii
I'd put this a bit under their New Japan Cup match. It's pretty much your usual NEVER formula of two guys beating the crap out of each other, trading chops & kicks all the way through, but since it's Taichi, it also has an unique charm to it & it's wrestled at a slightly different pace than the usual NEVER & Ishii matches. Definitely liked it quite a bit. ***
EVIL & SANADA vs. Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa
This was way better than I expected it to be. The long EVIL FIP segment could've been VERY boring to say the least, but I actually liked it. Tama in particular did some very nice work during it. SANADA's hot tag was also excellent. Definitely could've done without the Jado stuff, but at least he was a part of that awesome hot tag by SANADA, as he got to eat a beautiful pescado by the man, so even he did something worthwhile. Good match. ***
Dragon Lee vs. Will Ospreay
Didn't care for this one bit. Feel like a broken record in saying this, but it was your usual, dull, generic & soulless Will Ospreay big match bombfest. Of course there had to be a DRAMATICALLY-TURNS-AROUND-TO-SHOW-HE-LANDED-ON-HIS-FEET -spot too. At least the dive by Dragon Lee that took out both Ospreay & poor Milano was pretty awesome, but overall this was just bleh, meh bleh. *
Kota Ibushi vs. Tetsuya Naito
This suffers from the same thing that matches like Okada vs. Shibata & Danielson vs. McGuinness do where there's that one spot that's so filthy, disgusting & horrifying that you (or at least I) just feel dirty for praising the thing, but oh well. I thought this was great. Naito's long-lasting, storied relationship w/ the Osaka crowd ended up adding a ton to this, because he decided to act extra nasty & mean throughout due to the partly negative reaction he got. Stuff like him refusing to let go of a submission, him rapidly stomping Ibushi's neck, him spitting on the refs face, the cocky pins & him doing his usual poses w/ extra swagger & arrogance - all just really awesome stuff. Then these two crazy fucks did their "usual" by absolutely destroying each others necks in very brutal & compelling fashion. I couldn't help but love it, even if that apron German spot took me out of it for a minute. Please never do that again. This was scary & great. ****1/4
Chris Jericho vs. Kazuchika Okada
I absolutely loved this & that is something I wasn't expecting to type out. Everything just clicked for me - loved how it was a bit different from your usual Okada big match formula w/ there not being a crazy finishing stretch or anything. Jericho dominated most of the thing, and I actually found pretty much all of his work on top very good & compelling; his beatdown of Okada was gritty, and he fantastically came off as the bitter, egoistic, cocky veteran that he is, punishing the young poster boy of the company. I also interpreted the STORY™ of the whole bout as Jericho slowly gassing out as he pulled out all the brakes to try and beat Okada, while Okada barely even left his first gear. That might be the case of me completely making shit up, but that's how I interpreted it anyway, and they told that story pretty fantastically throughout, all climaxing in the finish w/ Okada completely catching Jericho off-guard in vintage Bret Hart fashion. I personally LOVED it because I feel like the Rainmaker, as a finishing move, has been let kicked out of & been spammed a bit too much in the last 2-3 years. Also I am gonna forever defend that first Codebreaker by Jericho on the outside - it wasn't pretty, but my goodness it was the most vicious that move has ever looked performed by him. THIS WAS GREAT. Maybe it's the Judas Effect in me talking, but hell yeah I enjoyed this a ton. ****
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