Talk about it here.

I really liked this match. Lots of cool matwork from Nagata and we got the best of Muto in this one. Nagata keeps going back to his leglock thing and Muto puts it over great. As good as Nagata is in this, I really think it was Muto’s charisma and facial expressions that took this to the next level. This works much better as a Nagata showcase setting up the coming decade than the Kojima match did. There are things that can be picked apart about this for sure, specifically the out of nowhere finish that just didn’t jive with the body of the match, but in spite of that, this was very good.

I really didn't care for this. The mat work didn't impress me at all. Some big submission spots at the end were big time over with the crowd but this match did very little for me.

Mutoh's knees were shot by this point, but in Nagata he had an opponent who could bring out the best in him. Excellent performance by the rising young star. Plenty of matwork with the champion being outmanoeuvred by the underdog. As it progressed Yuji focused more on the bad wheels and Keiji was clinging on. He had to draw on all of his experience to escape with a fortunate victory. Good stuff.

I'm with tim on this. The work was fine I guess but most of the match was just listless matwork. Especially from Muto. Nagata had some nice submissions but they were all for nothing based on that finish. Nagata should have won.

Unsure what to think of this and think it could sway with multiple watches. This time I found the work on the mat to be engaging and a good bit of back and forth between Muto and Nagata. This kind of made me want to see the 40 min Hase vs. Muto match from 2001 that I know is polarizing too. ***1/2

The first part of this was a total bore, I got into the closing stretch, and then the finish soured me all over again. I credit these two for not working your typical fill-the-time holds (chinlock, armbar, etc.) and basing the opening matwork around more complex holds, but that still didn't mean the holds were worked in any kind of compelling manner. Nagata's submissions from out of nowhere were pretty good and there were some pretty nice exchanges, but I resented how Muto fought his way for minutes on end through all of Nagata's big submission spots and then gets the tapout immediately after applying a cross armbreaker. I get the cross armbreaker is a death hold, but come on--a finish like that undermines most of what Nagata worked for, in contrast to the Tenzan/Hash match we just saw where Tenzan does the job but is elevated in the process.