Neat match that was really made by the surprisingly good selling. Irie has some good power spots, and him punching through HARASHIMA's guard and annihilating him with THE POUNCE sounds great in a vacuum but the way HARASHIMA just throws himself with crazy bumps really adds to them. They do some crowd brawling early on but they throw good strikes and it is more them slamming each other into the barricade and the apron then one wrestler "dragging" the other halfway across the arena to get him back into the ring which looks more like they're holding hands than actual dragging. HARASHIMA responds to Irie's power offence wih vicious knee strikes and stomps. Finishing stretch is a little too nearfall heavy but it was very exciting and fun. HARASHIMA slipping through Irie's attempted Fire Thunder Driver was an amazing spot and they executed "will he or will he not fall down" selling about as good as they could've.

I'm a big Irie fan. If he were a few inches taller, I think he'd be a major star. I love The Green Bears, his tag team with Kazuaki Mihara. Best under 5'9" power team in Japan, in my opinion. They do all the little things well.

Oh gosh, the stomps, the kicks, the pure brutal assault HARASHIMA inflicts on Irie earlier in the match is hard to watch. HARASHIMA was superb in this match. HARASHIMA has a great mix of flashy but stiff moves. Someone like Tanahashi has flashy offence but it’s rather flimsy and doesn’t make much impact but HARASHIMA has just that. And it just flows too. Irie was good in this I thought. Despite his goofy look, which I love btw, he is very intense when he absolutely goes for it. The crowd responded to him well and he had a great run of offence. Very good match. ****1/4