Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. SANADA (11/5/16)
SANADA is an athletic freak, Tanahashi is Tanahashi. This was pretty good. Seems like they cut a lot of it though. Liked the first few minutes more than anything – they both catch a kick at the same time, have a slow stand-off putting them down, then SANADA grabs it again. SANADA gets knocked outside and Tanahashi offers him help back in, and he responds with a cocky slingshot front flip to re-enter. Stuff like that. Pretty good. **3/4
IWGP Intercontinental Title: Tetsuya Naito [c] vs. Jay Lethal (11/5/16)
God, did this match suck a big fat cock. You know it really sucked a big fat cock because Naito is not afraid to bury it in the AXS interview, though Naito brilliantly can also keep kayfabe and act like he wasn’t burying it, for he is simply UNGOVERNABLE~! He references Lethal being a part of LiJ previously – “And I did fight with him one time. But I thought he was a much more popular, influential wrestler. So I shouldn’t have fought with him like that. I really regret it now. That was quite disappointing.” Post-match – “It was a title match where everybody only looked at me. That was disappointing.” Just hot burning coal burns, BRUTAL. And with good reason. Lethal just isn’t good in this environment. I loved him as an underdog in ROH but going even with Tetsuya Naito wasn’t very engaging. Lots of just hitting each other to fill in the gaps of a very scattered match. There’s a spot where Lethal tries a lariat and both guys just kind of fall. JR’s under-handed dig: “Quite the interesting game of human chess by these two athletes.” This stunk. <strong*1/2
