Bate tried to match ZSJ's ground game & for a while he did get some good stuff going there, but eventually it became clear that he was getting outclassed by the best technical wrestler in the world; Zack had a counter for EVERYTHING Bate tried to do. After that it's "the usual" ZSJ torture show & as always, it's a joy to watch. Bate did a great job being the FIP; his facial expressions & selling were very good. Bate starts to wrestle with more urgency as he abandons the initial ground plan he had going, he starts to go with his high impact power moves & those sure are a lot more successful against Zack than the ground game he tried to get going. Very good storytelling. Great match. ****

Yeah, I didn't like this as much. I thought this was a poor mans version of the ZSJ vs. Darby Allin match from EVOLVE. I'm not a fan of ZSJ and his act and this was everything I dislike about him taking to the max. Here he basically takes the cute exhibition submissions to the extreme. The commentators made it worse for me by oozing over every ZSJ movement. I did dig Bate's counter to guard kimura with a modified piledriver. Not my thing.