Boss Rock

One of if not the best match on the card (the other being Bianca-Shayna). The fast-paced, "anything goes" style of UE matches are always fun and it's a credit to Strong and O'Reilly that they're so consistently good at it. It was going to be tough to for UE to have believable heat segments with Hanson and Rowe, but Hanson taking himself out with a suicide dive really helped. Not to mention UE are so good at working over and breaking down their opponents in 2-on-1 situations. Loads of bombs, near-falls, and urgency. Can't go wrong. ****1/4

Really liked this show a lot but the Gargano-Ciampa stuff is still such a mess.

Really good, hard-hitting match. T-Hawk's chops are a violent thing of beauty and Ashino's is great at working over his opponents' limbs. I agree that T-Hawk's leg selling was a bit spotty especially with the finish, but it wasn't like Ashino had been working on it for 15 minutes straight either. All in all, a highly enjoyable title match. ****1/4

Sometimes less is indeed more. As already mentioned here, simple yet effective story of Sekimoto overpowered and fighting an uphill battle against the larger Hama. Just the simple stuff like Hama's "Really?" face during the test of strength really drove the narrative. Sekimoto is a great babyface and really thrives in this type of setting. ***1/2.

A PPV-caliber match that we got on free TV. Always good stuff. Since they got a lot of time with this one, I really liked how they started slow with Rey consistently keeping Andrade grounded with the headlocks and holds. Really told a good story of Rey being the wily veteran who is always one step ahead. And one step ahead he remained as he surprisingly controlled the majority of this match. Andrade still got his fair share of offense in, particularly a nasty powerbomb to the floor. The finishing stretch had all the high-speed, high-impact offense you'd expect from these two and yet still left room open for another rematch (which was obviously intentional with the 2/3 falls match this week). Unbelievable that Rey is still this good, although it helped he was in the ring with one of the best in the world. ****1/4

What I wrote in the MOTY tracker thread: Well that was quick. Already have a new MOTY and January isn't even over yet! An epic clash of the titans as these four behemoths just annihilate each other for 25+ minutes. Suwama and Shuji are great "heels" in controlling the pace and overwhelming their smaller, yet still very strong opponents. Sekimoto and Okabayashi are also born babyfaces. Sekimoto is an excellent face in peril while Okabayashi cleans up as the mother of all hot tags. There wasn't just a lot of big bomb throwing, but some great long-term selling as well. All four guys looked exhausted near the end of the match and their strikes moved just a little bit slower and they couldn't get quite as much elevations as they usually do on their suplexes. That's a great attention to detail that's often overlooked these days. I also loved how in the end when Sekimoto hit the assisted German suplex on Okabayashi to lift Suwama, Okabayashi dragged Suwama out of the ring as he rolled out to ensure he couldn't interfere. Even if this doesn't end up being the MOTY when all is said and done, it's going to be extremely tough to top, at least when it comes to tag matches. ****3/4

I agree that it was a shame we didn't get to see the full version of this, but just like their match last year this was a banger. Great, back-and-forth striking contest between two of the hardest hitters in wrestling despite both being on the smaller side. Really didn't like those headbutts Nomura threw in but this was still a blast and had a very BattlArtsy feel. Not quite a MOTYC for me but definitely the sprint of the year thus far. ****1/4

Shuji Ishikawa and Suwama vs. Yuji Okabayashi and Daisuke Sekimoto (1/13/19 BJW) Well that was quick. Already have a new MOTY and January isn't even over yet! An epic clash of the titans as these four behemoths just annihilate each other for 25+ minutes. Suwama and Shuji are great "heels" in controlling the pace and overwhelming their smaller, yet still very strong opponents. Sekimoto and Okabayashi are are also born babyfaces. Sekimoto is an excellent face in peril while Okabayashi cleans up as the mother of all hot tags. There wasn't just a lot of big bomb throwing, but some great long-term selling as well. All four guys looked exhausted near the end of the match and their strikes moved just a little bit slower and they couldn't get quite as much elevations as they usually do on their suplexes. That's a great attention to detail that's often overlooked these days. I also loved how in the end when Sekimoto hit the assisted German suplex on Okabayashi to lift Suwama, Okabayashi dragged Suwama out of the ring as he rolled out to ensure he couldn't interfere. Even if this doesn't end up being the MOTY when all is said and done, it's going to be extremely tough to top, at least when it comes to tag matches.

Update for 2009.

I'll jump off.

80's: Terry Funk vs. Ric Flair (WCW Great American Bash 7/23/1989) 90's: Mitsuharu Misawa and Kenta Kobashi vs. Akira Taue and Toshiaki Kawada (AJPW 6/9/1995) 00's: Bryan Danielson vs. Nigel McGuinness (ROH Unified, 8/12/2006) 10's (as of now): Kazuchika Okada vs. Katsuyori Shibata (NJPW Sakura Genesis 4/9/2017)

Really liked this a lot. A ton of hatred and intensity in everything they did to each other. Toni's desperation and frustration really stood out, especially as she just started flailing at Rhea after she kicked out of Storm Zero. Rhea working over the back was also smart a good callback to their previous match. Really fun, urgent title match. ****

I'm still fine with the WM deadline.

This was good but definitely not on the level of their title match last year. While that match came off as urgent war between two guys trying to prove that they're the future of NOAH, this one felt more like your typical, slow-building title match. Really took a while to get going but Kenoh still brought a lot of violence with his kicks. In fact, Kenoh came off as a much bigger star in this match than Kiyomiya. Don't get me wrong, Kiyomiya is good. His offense is crisp and he's clearly athletic (those dropkicks were Okada-esque). But he still comes off as too much of a bland rookie when compared to the more fiery and intense Kenoh. Still, the second half of this match was a lot of fun and was filled with your typical big bombs and strikes. Just not their best effort. ****

Thanks! I love Mike Bailey.

Would definitely love to see a Darby Allin match but yeah he's 100% 'E bound.

This was fine but nothing special. We got some fun spots from the Bucks as usual and SANADA's repeated planchas were cool. And thankfully G.O.D's involvement in the match was minimal. Still, there wasn't really a lot you could sink your teeth into. Didn't have the same frantic pace and action that the Junior Tag Title match had even with more time. If anything, a good booking decision to put the titles back on EVIL and SANADA. **3/4.

I actually liked this one a lot. Really like how quickly they started with both Ishii and Sabre trying to finish each other almost immediately. Thought Sabre's arm work was good throughout and Ishii did a great job selling. Definitely could have used more time but all of their matches have been a bit more on the sprinty side so it still delivered for me. The no-sell on the superplex to hit that arm twist was stupid, though. ****1/4.

A much more violent match than I would have expected between these two. We still got plenty of flips and crazy moves, but there was a lot of intensity in everything they did, particularly with Will throwing kicks at Ibushi in the Tree of Woe. I agree with ShittyLittleBoots that the dramatic stuff was a bit overdone, but thankfully they didn't take up too much of the match. This match was unfortunately marred by Ibushi getting concussed and yet they still went with the normal finish of the Stormbreaker which was irresponsible and stupid. Still, everything before that was really good even if I felt they could have done even more. ****1/4.

I agree that the inconsistent leg selling really hurt this one as it had all the makings to be an arguable MOTYC. KAI looked phenomenal in not only working over Kento's leg, but hitting giant bomb after giant bomb to really make it seem like he was going to pull off the upset. Kento working over the head and neck as well as his comebacks were all good, but the abundance of Blackout knees he threw in the finishing stretch were devoid of any selling. Considering this is the formula that Kento and KAI have worked in pretty much all of their matches, I had hoped they would have tried something different or Kento would have put more thought into his selling. But it just wasn't there. That's not to say this still wasn't a great match (the finish in particular of KAI trying to kick the leg to escape the suplex was brilliant). KAI put in a career performance and Kento still knows how to make matches exciting. It just had the potential to be more than that. ****1/4.

I think Jun is going to be at the show, so we can hope!

Kenny Omega vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi 1/4/19 NJPW So far the match to beat IMO. Thirty-nine minutes and yet nothing felt padded or done just for the sake of doing. There was a lot of intensity and disdain in the early striking encounters and tons of big bombs near the end. Kenny played a good heel and Tanahashi was a good fired-up face who nearly lost the match by compromising his wrestling ideology. Excellent main event match.

You could feel the hatred in this match right when Naito attacked Jericho before the bell rang. Didn't feel like a typical plunder match and much more like a brawl that happened to have weapons. The DDT spot on the table was absolutely brutal and the aforementioned kendo stick spot from Naito really drove home how much Naito relished in punishing Jericho. Arguably Jericho's best match yet in NJPW. ****1/4

I feel like the last big angle they did was the return of SZKG. Lately it's been more about setting up the matches for New Beginning. But the show didn't look all that good overall.

This was a mess. No real story or logic behind anything that happened especially after Brandi was ejected. Juice's intensity and determination to put away Cody with a KO punch and two Pulp Frictions was cool in a vacuum, but it felt hollow at the same time. I guess the Fighting Spirit Unleashed match was a fluke as these guys have zilch chemistry. I like Juice a lot but he couldn't save this one. *3/4.