March 22, 201411 yr comment_5595450 Just a totally spectacular match. Ono and Ikeda are an amazing heel tag team, like a super violent Anderson brothers as they spend much of the match isolating each guy and murdering them. Ikeda is so great at stopping people from making saves, when Ono is torturing Oba, Ikeda and Suruga(Hara) have this mini Greco pummeling brawl while Hara tries desperately for a save. The finish run with Ikeda and Suruga is as great as any Ikeda v. Ishikawa struggle. They have this spectacular finishing punch section, which combines a violent BattlArts punch exchange with a almost Lawler v. Mantel fatigue war. I don’t remember seeing Oba before, and he had some super goofy shit, but in some way it worked well. He kind of kept throwing himself at the heels in weird way, including smashing Ikeda in the face with his taint. And don’t forget about fuckin Ono who was as huge a cunt as he was ten years ago. He may have been the best guy in the match, stomping, kicking and twisting guys in pretzels. I am going to want to watch it again, but it feels on first watch like the 2009 MOTY.
July 18, 201411 yr comment_5613234 I thought this had it's moments. Oba's comedy stuff was too over the top for me. Ono was great as a dick heel. Seeing Ikeda in the Ishikawa role was weird but it worked. Not as well for me, but it did work. And I got the feeling that Suruga was a protégé of Ikeda and the point of the match was to put him and to a lesser extent Oba over. Ikeda wrestlng almost face makes this a little odd as far as structure. Towards the end, Ikeda really gives Suruga a lot, but comes up with the right move at the right time for a victory.
June 21, 20214 yr comment_5955569 They managed to keep this one interesting during its 28-minute runtime by having a clear face/heel dynamic. Ono and Ikeda aren't afraid to bend the rules and sneak a shot in when it wouldn't be honorable to do so. There's even some comedy to be found during the first five minutes as Suraga and Oba mock Ono and Ikeda's pre-match warm-up. They do a good job of organically building up tension during the feeling out process and it's not long before Ono and Ikeda get frustrated and start going to town on their lesser accomplished opponents. Every strike here was stiff and every hold had a sense of struggle. The main thing holding this was its mammoth length. My interest starting petering out during the final ten minutes and it felt like they were padding out the match so they could tense a time limit draw in an effort to add drama. ★★★¾
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