IWGP Heavyweight Title Match: Kazuchika Okada (c) vs Katsuyori Shibata - NJPW Sakura Genesis 2017 - 09/04/2017
Historic match with tons of great moments throughout the match, a great closing stretch and a harrowing story coming out of it. Although Shibata’s passiveness in his grappling earlier in the match made for a dull start, when Okada began to fight back and Shibata started to counter him at every move, the match got better and allowed the match to go on the journey it went on. A terrific display of someone on the top of the world, on their perch, getting their butt beaten black and blue. Shibata gets big plaudits for this match but Okada’s role was vital. Without Okada’s character work, willingness to get shown up for 30+ minutes and the very idea of who he is, this match doesn’t work the way it does. Shibata delivered though, so there is that. Great work on the arm, stiff strikes to the body, chest, face, limbs, etc. This had all the Shibata trimmings from his matches against Ishii and Goto, including the headbutt which ended his career (only now does he have some chance of returning under very specific conditions), but it surprisingly doesn’t affect him until the near end. Tremendous match but some things take it down a notch from being on THAT level. ****1/2
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