Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Great-O-Khan
This was a pretty cool little match between the rising star and the over the hill horse. I love everything O-Khan brings to these matches with his unique mannerisms, booming voice and great use of simplistic offensive moves. Tenzan isn't my favourite wrestler from his generation but him busting out his old tricks was awesome. ***
No Disqualification Match: Satoshi Kojima vs. Will Ospreay
Somewhat disappointing. Perhaps it's because I expected more of a brawl between these two rather than a Kojima v Ospreay match with weapons. However it's not often that weapons are used with free reign like this so it's not a totally generic plunder fest like in WWE or AEW. They do use the weapons to make their offence more impactful. Ospreay heels it up big time. He's a natural shithead so it works and Kojima is a riot when working from beneath. ***1/4
NEVER Openweight Title Match: Shingo Takagi (c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi
Good main event. Tanahashi wins the NEVER Openweight in impressive fashion. He definitely lends more prestige to the title by simply having it and will make the next champion, likely Great O-Khan, come off great. The match was pretty good with some strategy and classic Tanahashi energy making this a real blast. But it never got that tangible moment where I could get invested in a certain way where I'm living and dying on every movement. Plus the match had a few flaws. Tanahashi going back to his 2009 method of spamming Dragon Screws was a good strategy but some of the transitions didn't work for me at all. Some parts of the match came off as awkward and not in a way that benefits the sequences. The closing stretch was good and had some good nearfall where Shingo looked like he was the winner. Tanahashi mounted a good final charge to escape Shingo’s offence and win the match. ***1/2
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