I just finished watching this and can say I am mostly rather happy with it. Although I, obviously, would have preferred a different outcome in the main event, that was a five star match all the way. That match was what wrestling is all about.
But my opinions are as follows:
Red Dragon vs the Young Bucks vs Forever Hooligans vs Time Splitters. *** It wasn't as wonderful as I was expecting, but it was a cool match. Red Dragon continues to show why they are undoubtedly one of the best tag teams in existence. I'm personally an Alex Shelley fan, so I was hoping for a different outcome, but the match was solid.
Jeff Jarrett and the other two Bullet Club guys vs Tenzan Hiroyoshi, Honma Tomoaki and Kojima Satoshi was a big letdown for me. There are a very few wrestlers that I completely mark for, and although very few people seem to understand why, Jeff Jarrett is one of those wrestlers. But in this match, he just looked old. Sigh. But even with that, it was just a filler match which made me sad **
Eight man tag was over too quickly and was also a filler match **1/2
Sakuraba Kazushi vs Suzuki Minoru was good for what it was. I am not really an MMA style guy, though. I like pro wrestling due to the movement and variety of moves and holds so this match did almost nothing for me. **1/2
Ishi Tomohiro vs Makabe Togi This was a damn fucking brutal match. I am not the biggest fan of brawlers, but every now and then you get a brawler who just excels. This reminded me of the match on WCW Saturday Night when Vader crushed Mick Foley's nose. From the perspective of a wrestler, it didn't seem like much happened. But the hits were hard and I felt quite a few of them ****
Tagushi Ryuska vs Kenny Omega It was a decent match... again, a little shorter than I usually like, but entertaining nonetheless. ***1/2
Tag Titles: A good match, but what I liked the most was Jim Ross's comment about how the champion should always be introduced last. I have always felt that as well and it was obviously a shot to Vince McMahon who has constantly ignored that tradition. I am not a tag wrestlig fan really, but a solid ***1/2 match.
Styles vs Naito Tetsuya Exactly the sort of thing I would expect from an AJ match. I probably won't remember it forever, but it was a good ***1/2 star match.
Kota Ibushi vs Shinsuke Nakamura. When I was watching this match, I automatically compared it to the Rick Steamboat and Randy Savage match at Wretlemania III. The two matches had almost nothing in common, but this match was so outstanding that I thought there was no way it could be outdone. I was wrong, but this was a easy **** match. Absolutely fantastic.
Okada Kazuchika vs Tanahashi Hiroshi. I don't know what to say other than that this match is what professional wrestling is all about. This was an almost perfect match. I was thinking it was odd that Okada dominated the match so consistently in the early going and felt like it wouldn't catch up. I am glad I was wrong. Tanahashi's splash to the outside of the ring, his suplexes, Okada's absolutely beautiful dropkick.... the only thing that would have made this fantastic match any better would have been Okada winning. But when my favorite currently competing wrestler loses a title match and I still give it five stars, it shows what a fabulous job the guys did. I am still in awe. This match was what pro wrestling is all about. *****
Full rating, I'd say 8/10. I may have rated it higher, but a few of the matches were throwaway matches and the Jarrett match was disappointing enough for me to drop it down too.
