Kazuchika Okada, Satoshi Kojima & Yuji Nagata vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (Hiromu Takahashi, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito)
This reminds me of an old CHAOS vs LIJ Six or Eight man tag a few years ago where the majority of the match was Okada and SANADA in the ring for 80% of it. This was very similar. Rather than tease the two with minimal stand offs, they were at the very front of the match. It was a very basic form of what they can do but the different structure is still refreshing. Shingo and Nagata, complimenting Naito and Okada, worked well to break up their spots. They provided a good, solid closing stretch as well. Another thing that stood out to me was Hiromu and Shingo’s chemistry together. There was a small moment where they were taking turns stomping on Kojima before Hiromu gestured for Shingo to get out of the ring. It was a moment of character work but it stood out to me. Good table setter for tomorrow. ***1/4
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Title Four Way Match: Flying Tiger (Robbie Eagles & Tiger Mask) (c) vs. BULLET CLUB's Cutest Tag Team (El Phantasmo & Taiji Ishimori) vs. Six Or Nine (Master Wato & Ryusuke Taguchi) vs. Suzuki-gun (El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru)
I enjoyed this was a manic, chaotic spotfest. While ELP did his best to derail the match with his awkward execution, this had plenty of cool spots to enjoy. Hardly a match full of drama but it had ELP being thrown into a seat of people hard. Simple enough. I can’t complain. ***
IWGP Tag Team Title Match: Bishamon (Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI) (c) vs. House Of Torture (EVIL & Yujiro Takahashi)
This is yet another HOT involved match that I have enjoyed. Is my extended break benefiting me or did the group finally mature into a stable that knows when to have interference and when not to? Yujiro and EVIL were surprisingly alright as a team. I thought they compliment each other in terms of teamwork and hierarchy. Both are scummy and are in sync with their cheating habits and you can protect EVIL without going through bells and whistles like they do when he’s a singles wrestler. House of Torture’s crash style suits Bishamon really well. It allows them to make the comeback which they are best suited to. YOSHI-HASHI in particular. It wasn’t that great though. It was 17 minutes long. 5 minutes longer than needed but it was a good tag team match pitting two opposite teams against each other and letting them do what they do. ***
IWGP United States Heavyweight Title Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs. SANADA
SANADA winning is a big thing for me. Despite him not being my type of wrestler at all, I’ve always liked him and now he finally wins a title. The US title but a title. The crowd didn’t even need to be told to put their phone torches on. They knew and that says it all about the connection between SANADA and the fans. This wasn’t his best match against Tanahashi. I thought they spent a little too long trying to prove they can work wrestling holds without actually doing anything meaningful. The closing stretch had a little too many counters which diluted them a tad and some really poor striking but the effort and heart was there. And despite the criticisms, this had some really good wrestling. The counter to the dropkick by Tanahashi to capture the Texas Cloverleaf was genius and the storytelling was done well enough to put SANADA over as the deserved winner of the match. Despite the flash finish pin, there was no doubt that SANADA had earned the win. ***1/4
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