Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kazuchika Okada & Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Minoru Suzuki, Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Zack Sabre Jr.
It’s easy to dismiss this because Fujiwara and Fujinami are at an advanced age but the rest were more than enough to make this good. I think they delivered on that, with even the veterans pulling their own weights to enhance the match. And shockingly, I think this could’ve been even better if they truly wanted it to. The match had some terrific grappling exchanges from ZSJ and Okada which then transitioned into a short exchange between Suzuki and Tanahashi. Then came the first big spot of the match; Fujiwara tagged himself in, much to the ire of Suzuki and a slap exchange took place between the old student and master (and partners). Fujiwara is 72 and he can’t do things that Fujinami can do but his character work is still so on point that it doesn’t matter. He just had to throw headbutts - to an opponent, mainly against Okada, or to the ring posts - and be a sneaky bastard to get what you wanted. The Suzuki Gun & Fujiwara team had brief spells of actually working together as a unit, applying a 3-way submission hold onto a prone Tanahashi and doing little things to make them gel. Fujinami isn’t quite as dynamic as Fujiwaras but his fundamentals are still there. The Dragon Sleeper got an audible noise (opps) and he was solid enough in his overall work. The younger wrestlers, including former IWGP Champions, gave a lot of respect to their elders, and bumped around them to make everything work. Although I think the closing stretch could’ve been much better, they already did the tough parts. And credit to them. ***3/4
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