1. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title: Will Ospreay [c] vs. Marty Scurll
Parts of this I thought, “that was impressive as hell.” Other parts I thought, “aw fuck, be better.” Did enjoy them popping the folks with BritWres/Lucha insanity and the sweet slap fight. But there’s a spot where Ospreay does a handspring kick that completely misses and Scurll still takes a flip bump for it that is a disgrace to humanity. I dunno. There just wasn’t any credibility to much of this. There was a lot of nuttiness but not enough violence, a lot of stiff strikes but not enough fire. Wrestling must evolve, but while it tries to evolve, you still get some weird stuff that doesn’t deliver. **1/2
Hiromu Takahashi, meanwhile, remains the best promo. Post-match sets up a 4-Way along with KUSHIDA for the Tokyo Dome
2. IWGP U.S. Heavyweight Title: Kenny Omega [c] vs. Beretta
This was an entertaining match from two guys who honed their craft getting yelled at by Bill DeMott. It had some truly wild maneuvers, but it also had some good character stuff like Kenny treating Trent like shit, but eventually having to bring out the hot death to put this junior heavyweight asshole away. Kenny’s double-stomp through the table on the floor (and subsequent awesome Heere’s Johnny! peering out of the table hole), the baseball slide German suplex, Beretta’s tope into the table – all wild, wild stuff. The kickoff timing on the crucifix cradle right before the finish was amazing too. This was good. ***1/4
CHRIS JERICHO reveals himself as Kenny Omega’s Tokyo Dome opponent and it is COOL. Although, Josh Barnett sell of it is SOOOOOOOOOOO bad: “Whoa-ho… Chris Jericho?” This is like the third or fourth big reveal that he’s blown – Barnett feels like a guy who obviously already knows the big angle, but then feels to remain credible he must wink to you, the viewer, that he knows it. And it SUCKS.
