July 2021

A byproduct of Stardom joining the Bushiroad banner is its matches becoming increasingly New-Japan-like. Whether that be increased match length, dancey counter sequences, strike exchanges, or prolonged mat work that is ultimately meaningless. There was more than a little of that here. Saya didn't sell long-term effects of the early neck work, which lasted a good 5+ minutes. The strike exchanges were ineffectual at best and downright ugly at worst. For many, the wrist-control spot is a prime example of the eyeroll-inducing, hollow "storytelling" that plagues NJPW's matches. Whereas in Okada/Tanahashi that moment was meaningful, one of defiance and a refusal to give up, her…

Abe continues on his quest of having horrible brain damage before he reaches 30, dear lord. A strike fest between this two, with some nice counters and some drama sprikled in thanks to Abe being an awesome little shit. Definitely worth a watch.

As we all know, draws are hard to get invested in because there's only so much you can do drama-wise, specially in Japan were the crowd knows they are about to see them reach the time limit the closer they get to it. But these two managed to have a great slowed paced match worked very smartly. It's a very simple story of both guys working a body part and committing to it and as always with the added plus of actually working for holds and struggling to get he upper hand, something that to me is key to keep me invested in these types of settings. In retrospect this is obviously worked as a preview of Nomura actually winning the belt (hopefully on 9/20), with Nakanoue barely…