1. YOSHI-HASHI vs. Tetsuya Naito
This is JIP, just the last few minutes. Big fan of the “Special Singles Match” moniker. This seemed good. There’s something real cool about Naito looking exerted. YOSHI-HASHI meanwhile is like a Makoto Hashi with a little less charm. His big matches can be fun, but they rely on you fully investing in him, and I never get there. N/A
Taichi taking Naito out post-match and dragging him to the back was some weird stuff. A renewed TAICHI push is something else, man. What a trip.
2. IWGP Heavyweight Title: Kazuchika Okada [c] vs. SANADA
JR calls SANADA the “overall most athletic heavyweight in all of New Japan” during his entrance, which feels like a kiss of death for poor SANADA. He also says Okada and SANADA are here for the big paydays that come with a championship, which doesn’t feel right in the pride-based world of puroresu. We all remember the days of Mitsuharu Misawa, that money-hungry son of a bitch.
I really really liked parts of this match and it got epic for the last 5 minutes or so, but the journey to get there was a bit much. There was so much here that was impressive – matwork, rope-running, a few crazy feats of athleticism by SANADA. But I just didn’t buy it going 30+ minutes and it lost me a lot. SANADA just isn’t grabbing me for long stretches of offense, even if he’ll pop me every few minutes (i.e.: that double leapfrog and pescado transition… oh man). For every cool thing though, there was something like a long Skull End Dragon Sleeper struggle barely registering as a near fall. Regardless, there was a lot I liked – SANADA can be fun as hell to watch and cocky Okada is the good stuff. Too many Okada title defenses feel like they go long for the sake of going long, but his confidence and knowing smirk during the early matwork gave it a feel of, “Eh, I’ll play with this guy for a bit and see who’s better.” Crowd was bumping for the finish, which wrapped up real nice with some totally mind-altering near falls and counters. Lots of quality stuff here, but I just can’t shake that they got a ton of time and only used half of it well. ***1/2
Okada challenges BILL OSPREAY post-match and has to be personally trolling me when he compares it to this generation’s Antonio Inoki vs. Karl Gotch.
