1. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Togi Makbe & Tomoaki Honma vs. Kazuchika Okada, Jay White & YOSHI-HASHI
JIP. For a semi-main event, not so hot. This has got Tanahashi and Okada exchanging stuff and Makabe yelling at people, otherwise it’s real… decent. Okada hits YOSHI-HASHI by mistake and Tanahashi takes advantage with an inside cradle to win. YOSHI seems peeved at Okada. White seems like he knew this is how it would go all along. **
2. IWGP Heavyweight Title: Kenny Omega [c] vs. Tomohiro Ishii
This was a good but slightly empty New Japan main event. It hit all the notes but they felt a little off-key. It followed the layout of some ****1/2 epic but was merely really good. Really good matches are generally really good, but really good matches that try to be more than really good matches end up slightly less than really good.
Tomohiro Ishii storming down to the ring is a vibe I only wish I could re-create. Tomohiro Ishii doing the bullet pose was sweet. Tomohiro Ishii is generally very good. Kenny Omega can be self-indulgent but against certain guys it works well. He and Ishii had the best match of the G1 Climax just a month ago. This only scraped that level.
These two have a good dynamic, cocky champion guy vs. determined old guy. They kept it rapid-fire and intense early, with the crowd popping for Ishii getting the better of or staring down Omega. I liked how they didn’t use the offensive stretch tope – they just went at it and tried to keep it exciting for a half-hour. And I dunno. I wish they would’ve tried to keep it exciting for like 18 minutes.
It kind of feels like a failing of the match too that since it just kept going, when Kenny hit the One-Winged Angel and got the 3-count it just felt like any other part of the match with the exception of me going, “Oh – it’s over now.”
A good, exciting main event that felt a little bloated. ***1/2
