IWGP Heavyweight Title Match: Hirooki Goto vs Hiroshi Tanahashi (c)
Straight off the bat, the crowd are firmly behind Hirooki Goto. In this match, he is the most over, not Tanahashi. Tanahashi tried to get the crowd on his side early on but nope, so he slapped Goto and went heel. Love it. It's one part of being ace of new japan that people don't get. Most often or not, they play the cocky, arrogant foil against the challenger unless it's a heel. Similar to the old NWA days, where the champion would play heel when he faced the territories top babyface. If they are facing a heel, they play the face, if they are facing a babyface, they play the heel. It's such a great tool and it's one that's often not picked up on. Okada does that excellently and Tanahashi did here.
The match itself was pretty phenomenal. Some of the storytelling was immaculate. The way that Tanahashi worked on Goto's leg for the first half of the match, being cocky and arrogant which let Goto take control and mount a comeback, throwing everything at Tanahashi; only to come up short in the end. You could feel the hatred between the two, the stiffness of the strikes, them pushing the ref out the way, having no respect for common courtesy etc. Goto's offence was great, he showed tremendous passion, fire and fighting spirit. The only problem I had with his offence and the match in general was Goto didn't sell the leg in that long strong of the match. But I didn't mind it as Tanahashi kept on working on the leg as he went for submissions which makes sense and doesn't totally devalue the leg work that lead to the win. Awesome match with one minor flaw. Both men had great showings and played their roles excellently. (****3/4)
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