Kota Ibushi vs. Lance Archer
AWESOME battle. Archer was great as the trash-talking giant of a man oozing confidence & swagger beating Ibushi down, and Ibushi was such a good 'David'. Some neat counters to Archer's big moves & his big comeback towards the end rules. The actual finish with Archer refusing to go down to the 1st Kamigoye was real awesome as well. ***1/2
Bad Luck Fale vs. Will Ospreay
It's a shame that the Bullet Club shenanigans here ended up being VERY overwhelming in a bad way, because the actual wrestling by Fale & Ospreay was really good. They had a good, natural thing going with Fale dominating, and then Ospreay busting out a wonderful comeback w/ some of the best looking forearms (& strikes in general) he has ever lashed out. Truly a shame about the BC shit. **3/4
EVIL vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
Their usual dynamic of EVIL's brute force vs. Zack's technique. The New Beginning match remains their best one of the year, but this sure was better than the Cup match. Dragged a bit by the end, but for the most part, it was very solid & pretty enjoyable to watch. **3/4
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. SANADAThese two just feel right going against one another. Good, charming wrestling all the way through w/ nice competitive spirits & some fun counters. Not a high tier G1 match by any means, but a yet another strong match to add to the catalogs of both guys. ***
Kazuchika Okada vs. KENTA
This was probably my most awaited match-up of the entire tournament, and while I don't think it was as amazing as it could've been, it was still a kick-ass time from bell to bell. KENTA just slowly decimates Okada for most of the match, and it's awesome; stuff like him baiting Okada to try and hit him in the neck, only for him to trip him down & put on a neckhold, was really neat. Though I have to mention that some key moments, mostly by KENTA on the offense, felt surprisingly heatless & had no drama -- the two Triangle spots are perfect examples of this, especially the second one where he transitioned it into the Game Over, to pretty much no reaction from the crowd at all. It's a shame because it was a really cool sequence of things too. The 2 Busaiku Knees in a row had no drama or heat behind them at all either. The overall lack of drama took something away from the match for sure, but overall, I thought KENTA was indeed pretty great brutalizing Okada, and Okada's selling was actually really fantastic. Definitely down for a round 2 between these two. ***3/4
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