NEVER Openweight Title: Katsuyori Shibata [c] vs. Tomohiro Ishii (2/11/16)
STRONG STTYYYYLLLEEEEEE!! I guess? I dunno, it never got fully explained to me. Either way, this is two guys known for their strikes and stiffness striking each other very stiffly. It is very fun. The pre-match staredown is INTENSE. They are doing endless elbows a minute in. This is all physical and back-and-forth; I dug the passion but at points it also felt a bit empty. Still though, wrestling can always use two fellas beating each other half to death – FIGURATIVELY. Finish is tremendous… they just throw shots at each other before Shibata applies a nasty sleeper hold and finally PK’s Ishii to win. ***1/2
IWGP Heavyweight Title: Kazuchika Okada w/ Gedo [c] vs. Hirooki Goto (2/11/16)
The best part of this thirty minutes of TV is Kazuchika Okada straight-up admitting he in the pre-match “reflections” interview that he didn’t remember the story he was having with Goto. This match will probably be remembered more than anything for Hirooki Goto’s off-brand Hakushi attire. This had a few fun moments and good drama towards the end, but it was a very low-end New Japan main event. Goto’s thing is that he can’t win the big one, but the match was just standard stuff – slow start, Goto arm work, counters towards the end – not sure it ever hard-sold the Goto story. Some reaaalll nice counters down the stretch, but that’s pretty standard stuff and the rest of the match never grabbed me. **3/4
