NEVER Openweight Title Match: Oleg Boltin (c) vs. Yuji Nagata
Good, solid match with a good Yuji Nagata leading performance. Oleg Boltin still needs a great lead to boost himself up, but I think he does certain things well such as selling, which was essential here as Nagata worked his knees. Additionally, he always manages to retain the semblance of struggle which adds a nice layer to things. Nagata treaded carefully here to dominate but not overwhelm, and it produced a good match as a result. ***
IWGP World Heavyweight Title Match: Hirooki Goto (c) vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
I think we can all agree that the booking is quite suspect, but this was still an amazing match. I thought it had strong limb-work for Zack, who was quite vicious with it here and very creative, particularly on the final submission. He did a typical ZSJ device, which was to attack two limbs (leg and hand), and managed to interlink them together in a manner that felt connected and focused. His strikes were sharp and hard hitting, his flash pins were logical and added to the match. Where his performance was his selling was a little poor in terms of registering strikes and even the way he sold the rear naked choke looked..stupid. But I think he delivered a strong offensive performance enhanced by Goto's selling which was tremendous. It was actually quite embarrassing seeing Goto outclass everyone today in the art of the selling - both in creating consequences for moves done to him and what he does afterwards, and just selling the pain of what is being done. Goto did what he had done the entire time during his title reign, and that was create a palpable feeling of tension and drama through his selling. Earlier in the match probably should’ve showcased his offence a little more, as this felt overly one sided at certain points, although I think you can argue that only enhanced the drama. The minor flaws prevent this from being as good as their first match, but I do think it retained its great points and remains one of the best matches of the year. ****
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