Ikuto Hidaka & Takeshi Ono vs. Minoru Fujita & Ryuji Hijikata
This was your junior wrestling opener that you really want. You even get some stiff offence to go with the raw aerial abilty. It's kinda just Fujita and Hidaka going at each other, exchanging wicked moves and throwing each other recklessly into the ropes but I loved it all the same. Minoru Fujita had a Morishima like bowl cut that I loved. Ono and Hijikata was just there. I don't think they did much, but then again, this was clipped because of the samurai broadcast (damn you!). ***1/2
Alexander Otsuka & Carl Greco vs. Mohammed Yone & Yuki Ishikawa
This sounded really appealing on pap. Otsuka is a name I've seen little of but enough to know I like him. Ishikawa speaks for himself and Yone I love from NOAH. This was good. It's always wild seeing these types of matches being done in tag form and sometimes they work and sometimes they can be awakard but this was the former. They utilizes the tags well and did some great saves (which replaces pin saves). Malenko and Ishikawa had some cracking exchanges on the mat, like where Greco was on top with Ishikawa leathering him with slaps. Yone showed some great fire even when taking the brunt of the offence. Otsuka offered his spunky offence as well. ***3/4
Independent Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Naoki Sano (c) vs. Minoru Tanaka
Kinda long but I dug it for the most part. The battle at the final few minutes was great. The striking and mat work was good, Sano still had some great strikes and Tanaka brought the determination and speed to the mix. ***1/4
Daisuke Ikeda vs. Mitsuya Nagai
This was kinda bad. It wasn't very interesting to watch, despite being very active. Nagai and Ikeda didn't work well. The striking was okay and the mat work was pedestrian. And the focus seemed to be hitting moves off the top rope which didn't work for me. **1/4
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