1. SANADA vs. Minoru Suzuki
The length of SANADA’s blonde beard is getting ridiculous, though Suzuki is not to be outdone with his FADE HAWK!
I loved this match, and I needed this match too because my love of the Strong Style had been waning. It was basically Minoru Suzuki trying to keep up with SANADA for 20 minutes and had all the fun that comes with that. Suzuki was all fired up, just running at SANADA right away and throwing shots, then beating that ass for a little bit before young SANADA’s conditioning overcame the old man. Stuff like Suzuki taking SANADA’s leapfrog spot was good stuff, as Suzuki’s a step behind but it comes across more real than the usual hyper-speed New Japan sequence. Suzuki waiting for and dodging the SANADA springboard, then hitting the ropes and putting him in a sleeper was very slick too.
There’s an awesome moment early on too where SANADA applies the Paradise Lock and they cut to Milano Collection AT, who’s reaction is fabulous: first a WHOA!, then a thumbs up. That Suzuki dropkick can still get it done too, and the struggle over the Gotch-style piledriver was beautiful. The setup for the Skull End didn’t work but hey, the Skull End sucks anyways. Great frantic finish – I wish SANADA got the nod over old man MiSu but a heck of a 20-minute match. ****
2. EVIL vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
More good singles stuff here, though the previous match had more meat to it. EVIL is this big burly dude who can wreck you with a lariat but he also has a fine grounding in working holds and he does a whole lot of that here with ZSJ. He also sells his neck like a boss. It was a very manly match with a lot of grappling and clubbing and limb targeting and limb selling. The finish is wild too – EVIL makes even the simple stuff look incredible, and he hits a tremendous superplex and lariat towards the end here. ZSJ’s bridging reverse cradle deal remains a marvel as well.
ZSJ kinda no-selling an elbow to get to the next spot in the middle of it all a bit odd, but a big EVIL lariat and ZSJ trying a front cradle and EVIL rolling through and hitting Everything is Evil for the win more than made up for it. ***3/4
