This was a very good, back and forth match with Juice dropping another match. Ibushi pulled out some of the big guns to put Juice away, but Juice keeping fight back. A very even match. Wish this went a little longer, then it would have hit the great range for me, but this was a nice teaser to hopefully a second math between the two. ***3/4

A somewhat short bout that was loaded with action from start to finish. Ibushi and Juice are not enemies or even rivals with each other, but I'm glad neither held back from going all out in the time alloted. This crowd loved Ibushi so much too as they even at a few points surprisingly gave Juice a few boos. Nice finish with Juice unfortunately taking another loss which is not a good start for a champion this G1, ****.

What a hellacious, tremendous sprint of a match this was. I feel like many big NJPW matches go too long so it was nice to see one where there felt like a sense of urgency rom beginning to end. The moonsault press off the top of the ringpost by Ibushi was top-level stuff, with a high degree of difficulty, and he landed it perfectly. Juice losing fresh off winning the U.S. Title is a bit odd but he plays so well as an underdog.