Kadaveri

Feel like I'm stealing Aguakun's thunder a bit here, just watched this today and it's probably my 2nd favourite match of the tournament so far. At the start of the tournament Oedo Tai played rock paper scissors to decide who of them would win the tournament and Hana Kimura won, so Kagetsu announces that this will be a 10 second match as she's going to let Hana get 2 easy points. So don't anyone go crying and complaining, you were warned! She starts the match by lying down and lets Hana pin her, 1, 2 .... kickout! And goes flying into offense onto a bedazzled Hana, as if Kagetsu was ever going to just lie down for you. Kris Wolf on the outside doesn't know who to take sides with, so spits water in both their faces! It escalates into a brawl on the floor with Kimura being thrown into the crowd and a chair fight breaks out. Hana is playing babyface in this match and when the match gets back into the ring sells in peril very well, her strikes are way better from when I last watched a load of Stardom at the start of the year. Kagetsu at the end has to pull out a 450 splash to put her naive protege away. They then have a microphone segment where Kagetsu explains that one day Hana will beat her, but she's going to have to earn it. Always love a match with a solid narrative throughout, and the ring-work was all very good not quite enough to make me lose my mind at any point. ****

I really like the transitions in this match, it all felt very logical and I much prefer it to the NJPW style where momentum often swings too quickly. I'm quite new to Kento so need to watch some more. His charisma and naturally over he is is quite infectious and enhances everything he does. The one major drawback I have for this match is Kento's tendency I've noticed that towards the end of the match it's like a lightbulb goes off above his head and he thinks "here's the bit where I win", hits a few signature moves, finisher, wins. Finish was too abrupt here. Still ****1/4

Best NXT match this year. I can't help but find it a shame that the crowd was so heavily pro-Asuka as that didn't fit with the story they were telling and hindered it slightly. Wow that kickout, I totally bought that eclipse as the finish and the way the match swung at that moment to Asuka fighting desperately to hold back the torrent of offense from Ember was awesome. ****1/4