Nakamura & Shibata have quite the intense history with each other, and it showed here. They beat the crap out of each other w/ their strikes & wore each other down with their submissions. It's a great time from start to finish. ****

I remember when this was announced, I was excited because A.) it was my birthday and B.) I've always loved their 2004 G1 match. This isn't quite as good as that 2004 G1 match (which might be my pick for the best match either guy ever had) but this was still very good and miles ahead of their Intercontinental Title match from November 2014. To add to the match being good, I got a nice birthday present in the form of Shibata not doing the job to Nakamura. Probably ****.