BigVanCrush

I acquired a bunch of 2011 puro shows in HD, including several from that year's G1, and decided to throw this on today because I felt like watching this match and Nakamura vs. Suzuki. This match is SO GOOD. They go about 15 minutes, they build to a suitably big finish for the final night of the G1, Tenzan takes an absolutely UNGODLY bump on a neckbreaker out of the corner and they throw some big old bombs towards the finish, with the finish itself being pretty nasty. Tenzan was still that dude in 2011, it's a shame his role lessened pretty quickly after this, but his G1 in 2011 was wonderful and this was a tremendous end to it. My pick for the best match of the entire tournament and a top 5 bout for New Japan in 2011. ****1/4

Alright, I swear this is my last topic for a match from this show. This was a very neat match. Kyotaro is a K1 heavyweight champion, and near as I can figure, this is his only wrestling match. It's a real shame, because he's AWESOME here. Funaki is, as well, but you probably already guessed that. There's some obvious shoot style flavor here, playing up Kyotaro's striking ability and Funaki's grappling and striking. They don't go super long, everything here looks good and lands, the finish rules. If you're gonna bring a real fighter in and showcase them on a big show, this is how you do it. One of the real hidden gems of 2011. It's a real shame Funaki didn't come back to wrestling sooner, but almost everything he does from his return in 2010 through the Wrestle-1 split rocks. ***1/2

You know who fuckin' ruled? Shuji Kondo. That little meathead changed my perception of what junior heavyweight wrestling could be in the mid 2000s when I saw him pop up in the VOODOO MURDERS. You didn't have to be a mat technician like Minoru Tanaka or Koji Kanemoto and you didn't need to be a high flyer like the X-Division guys I watched in TNA. Liger probably worked the most like a heavyweight of every junior in a major promotion in Japan, but he still had some of the flashier trappings of traditional juniors. Not Kondo. HE worked like a Dragon Gate pilled version of Bill Goldberg did the fusion dance with Kensuke Sasaki and he KICKED ASS. KAI is a Muto boy that I don't think quite gets the love he deserves. He's got good offense, good fire, good selling, doesn't have any bad tendencies. He's basically everything you want someone in his spot to be. They have a big ol' bombfest for the vacant Junior title and while I think you could shave a few minutes off of this, I think the excess helps the match a bit because KAI ends up going over. If this was Kondo winning the belt again, then the excess would probably bother me more. KAI's sitout 2K1 bomb is a really cool move and he absolutely drills Kondo with one late. This isn't a classic on the level of the All Asia Tag Title match on the show, or even the main event, but it's a very good, very dumb big Junior Title bomb fest. ***1/2

This series was very highly regarded by people watching All Japan in 2011, and for good reason. This was Strong BJ in the early stages of them branching out to whatever promotion wanted to book them and being booked like two little roid monsters against whoever they were put in the ring with. It rules, mostly because the stuff they do matches up super well with Manabu Soya. You wanna do braindead shoulder blocks? He's got you. You wanna throw elbows? He can do it. You wanna wing lariats? Bro, it's what he does. Sanada, on the other hand, doesn't necessarily 'fit' with what the other three do, but it also makes him the most interesting part of the match. His baby Muto-ism is such a stark contrast from the two meatheads he's in the ring with. You get some staples of Strong BJ matches, like the duelling torture rack spot and the double German suplex spot (seriously who the fuck told them that spot is a good idea?), but the All Japan team's fire and willingness to fight through the Big Japan team's big bombs really makes this match. They cut a good pace, the match is structured very well, it doesn't include anything really needless or excessive which is impressive given what I tend to associate with late 2010s Sekimoto and Okabayashi. I need to rewatch the others to see where they fall exactly, but this is one of the best tag matches you're going to find anywhere in 2011 and one of the best tags of the first half of the decade. It's on equal footing with the main event as far as MOTN on a legitimate show of the decade contender. ****1/2

I'm not going to sit here and try to convince you that this is a classic. It's six minutes, it's very good, you can probably figure out what to expect here. It's a contest to determine the most evil motherfucker in wrestling. Suzuki commits elder abuse, Fuchi gives him the "why I oughta" and then Suzuki says "welcome to die you old fuck". Fuchi's punches are great, Suzuki's an all-time great prick, they do a post match where Fuchi wants a handshake and Suzuki decides to whip ass again. It's a very fun six minute match that I'm surprised doesn't get more praise given that people love Suzuki now. **3/4

I remember being a big fan of this match in 2011 (I think I had it #2 or #3 for the year), so watching the entire show last night, I was very interested to see how I felt about this 12 years later. Turns out, I still loved this shit. Nagata's outsider gimmick of "I'm gonna smirk at the fans and then immediately fuck up the top guy's arm" rules. Nagata gets a lot out of everything he does here, and it's always interesting to see Suwama, especially in this era, showing a little bit of vulnerability. He sells very well for all of the arm work and it's such a contrast to New Japan main events of this era because it doesn't feel pointless. Suwama doesn't do a whole lot of offense using that arm until the very end of the match. I liked that struggle over the front suplex Sleeze describes in his review. It's such a weird and unique spot and it works given both guys' amateur backgrounds. It does get a little bomb-y towards the end, but that's what I want from these two in this promotion in 2011. A lot of people at the time slept on All Japan for whatever stupid reason and I think it's lead to Suwama not getting his due as a legitimately great worker and a great All Japan ace. He's tremendous here, he more than holds up his end against Nagata. Still probably in my top 3 for 2011. ****1/2

I hadn't seen this since right after it hit DVDVR, so I didn't have a real memory of it beyond, "yeah, I watched that." This kinda kicks ass. There's some really nasty shots from Funaki that bust Suzuki open hardway. There's a lot of intensity here (go figure) and they manage to find a middle ground between doing a Pancrase tribute match and an 80s territory cage match. Funaki bleeds after being flung into the cage and he bleeds pretty good for a guy you wouldn't expect to be adept at blading. The strikes in this match aren't otherworldly stiff, but they lay everything in and the finish is really good. I'd need to rewatch Kono/Nagata from 2012 to figure out which of the two Muto-era cage matches I think is better, but this one is pretty friggin great. Pre-Bushiroad NJ Suzuki gets a bum rap, which is deserved at times, but when he felt like trying, he was one of my favorite guys to watch then and now. ****

Nagata really does a great job here as the outsider prick coming in to fight the champion at his home venue and there's a real "this is some big time shit" vibe to the match during the entrances and introductions. One thing I really like is that Nagata doesn't wrestle this so much like a New Japan main event, he fits pretty perfectly into a big NOAH main event. He opts to meet Kobashi in the middle of the ring and goads the champion into the big bomb fest main events that Kobashi's reign kinda gets associated with. Kobashi's started to show the signs of being cooked physically here, but he's still great at selling, still has great fire and still has absolutely brutal offense and that's all you need. Nagata unloads the entire arsenal on Kobashi, including an avalanche exploder, but in the end Kobashi finishes him off with the brainbuster and then the burning lariat. I've always thought this was a great match, but on my most recent rewatch, it solidified this match as an all time favorite. Everything they do here is good, the crowd is hot, the finishing stretch is great. I'm not sure what more you could want from these two. ****1/2

Full dicslosure, I know I reviewed this five years ago. I just rewatched it yesterday, and well...I don't know any other way than to reiterate how much I love this match. I don't know exactly how many times I've seen this, I just remember the first time I saw it was on a shitty quality DVD I got in the summer between eighth grade and my freshman year, so 2006. Obviously, everyone talks about the blood, and there's a ton of it. I've always liked the pre-match bit with people holding the two back, and the little confrontation Kensuke and Takayama have during Kensuke's entrance. This is worked like an outsider coming in to face a top New Japan guy, so there's a lot of hate and hard strikes thrown. The setups to both guys bleeding are obvious "oh they're blading here" moments, but it doesn't really hurt the match for me. Just once you figure it out, you can't unsee it. The stuff on the outside, like Kensuke headbutting the post and lariating Nagata into the post, is ridiculous and brutal. Once the match gets back into the ring, there's a shot where one of them sorta leans down and you see the blood just fucking POURING out of the cut. The finish really works for a Dome match too, since it's a big and dramatic finish with Nagata holding onto the Nagata lock as the blood continues pouring. I gave this ***** in 2018, and I still stand by it. The more time goes on, the more I appreciate these two and their commitment to violence in this particular match. They could have just done a smaller version of their IWGP TItle match from 2002, but they didn't. They went to fucking war. *****

I got a copy of this show on Blu-Ray and decided to finally rewatch this, since I hadn't seen it since 2011. This kicks a lot of ass. There's not a ton of downtime, they club the ever loving shit out of each other. There's some really brutal strikes supported by the acommpanying thud or smack, they really lay their shit in. The few actual moves they do are done to great effect. Sugiura having to make up for a big life lead against an all time heavyweight ass kicker is a nice little story to tell, and him not being able to overcome Kensuke, but also not losing to Kensuke, is a pretty nice finish for this one. They gave me what I wanted from this, and it feels like a match that you could drop into the G1 this year (especially the runtime and overall structure) and people would lose their minds over it. Kensuke was still one of the absolute best in the world at this point and if this incarnation of Kensuke were around in 2023, he'd be the best wrestler in the world by a lot. Great match, highly recommended. ****

This is a really, really good match. Basically, it feels like they just do the big finishing run of a major main event tag in 1/3 of the time. Lots of stuff to like here, it's a shame we didn't get a similar undercard tag like this on the following year's Dome show. ****

This felt like the usual lame, tired Roman Reigns match but with a nuclear crowd. It followed all the same story beats, had the shitty dialogue, the Bloodline run ins and one pretty decent hope spot before, in fact, they decide to fuck over a white hot babyface to further feed the 2023 equivalent of Reign of Terror HHH. Actually, that's probably an insult to Small Paul and his Reign of Terror, there were at least two matches during that time period that I actively enjoyed. Roman hasn't had one the entire time he's been the MCU heel villain champion. He sucks. Maybe ** because of Sami busting his ass and the crowd being on fire, but not much more than that.

I was at this show live and from the bottom of the bleachers, the fans standing up and half-blocking my view of the stuff on the floor turned this into one of those crazy World Star mall brawl videos where you see just enough of what's going on and your brain fills in the rest of the insanity. The crowd was really lively for this, and it translated well when I watched it on TV the following day. Turns out my brain filled in all the insanity with what was actually happening, Darby doing the dive only for Joe to do the "fuck you" walk away spot and Darby crashing through the table was insane. They went pretty stupid in this with big gimmicks like the thumbtack hoodie and the avalanche muscle buster that somehow missed the exposed planks, but I'll forgive that just because it was 2023 Samoa joe doing that particular spot. Darby brings out the best in Joe because Darby is willing and able to just be a victim in every match and Joe is the perfect bully for Darby to be victimized by. This might be my favorite thing I've ever seen live, it was an insane brawl the likes of which we rarely get now, where most of it just feels like it unfolds organically as opposed to everything needing a big set up right just before it happens. As of this writing, it's my second favorite AEW match of the year and probably my fourth or fifth overall favorite match this year. ****3/4

Just rewatched this and man, what a match. Super hard strikes for almost the entirety of the first half, just really nasty shots from both guys. It's really surprising seeing this level of violence from Hero, especially after seeing so many years of latter era Hero leg slap elbow fests. He really brings the intensity and a palpable sense of hatred here and almost matches Eddie Kingston in both regards, which isn't easy to do. There's some absolutely ghastly headbutts thrown here, mostly by Hero. I'm not squeamish about those, but there were a few that made me say, "goddamn that probably wasn't fun on either end." Hero makes use of the cravate (the most dangerous hold in wrestling) multiple times and down the stretch, Eddie makes use of the backdrop and other big suplexes. In a weird way, this feels like the closest to a real king's road epic that Eddie's ever gotten. This has all the intensity of a Kawada title match and Eddie is great here as he has to claw back from the lead Hero gets on him. I know the TPI match is more famous, but I like this match better. All of the hatred and violence from the TPI match is there, but with none of the plunder. They just throw bombs at each other until one is left standing. This would be my pick for the best US match of 2007 if it weren't for the Danielson vs. Morishima title matches in August and September, and I'd put it on par (at worst) with the best matches from Japan and Mexico in 2007. Just an absolute masterpiece. ****3/4

I've seen this match hundreds of times in my life and I'll never forget the first time I saw it. I was a wee little feller, probably 2 or 3. My older cousins, all of whom watched the show as it happened, hyped it up like it was the greatest clash of the titans you would ever see and since my family had a VCR and recorded the show live, I got to see it. I was in awe, I'd never seen Andre the Giant before outside of the hand-me-down LJN figure of him I had, so I had no frame of reference for how enormous he actually was. He was absolutely massive. Hogan was significantly bigger than the incarnation of him that had just shown up in WCW, it looked like a totally different guy. It was absolutely as advertised. Two gigantic motherfuckers locked in a battle in front of the biggest gathering of human beings my little eyes had ever seen. As a little guy watching old tapes from the video store in addition to what was on TV in the mid-90s, nothing really came close in terms of scale and magnitude. There's nothing like having something hyped up to you as a little kid and it delivers on every bit of the hype. Those things tend to just stick with you for the rest of your life and probably, for better or worse, colors how you'll always view the thing in question. Now, nearly three decades later, I'm not going to argue this is some all-time exhibition of workrate, technical mastery, or anything like that, but this might be the best spectacle match ever. They don't really waste anything, Gorilla and Jesse are phenomenal on the call, the crowd is nuclear and the finish is maybe the single most memorable finish in wrestling history. The bearhug spot goes for a little long, the piledriver spot on the floor looks like garbage, yeah, but everything else just works. The staredown is great, the false finish out of the gate is great, basically everything in the match is done when and where it should have been. This has no right to be as good as it is, but it is. Hogan is great here, Andre got to appear great on the biggest stage in wrestling history, the Giant gets slayed and Hulkamania runs wild. It's not 'perfect' or 'epic' in the sense of a Jumbo/Tenryu or Inoki/Robinson or even Austin/Rock, but for what they needed to accomplish here? I'd argue it was both. If I had to rate it, I guess I'd go **3/4 or ***, but that kinda sells the spectacle short.

I'm surprised there's no thread for this, either. This is some insane shit. Taker beats Vince bloody, just absolutely beats the ever loving dog fuck out of him, takes the whole match and the only way Vince can win is by sending Undertaker's freak brother who attempted to murder both Vince's wife and son after Undertaker. This match needs to be talked about more, it's an amazing, violent, bloody brawl. This match proves that a one sided beating can be an all time great match if the beating is fun to watch and preferably involves a ton of juice. Truly one of the greatest matches in WWE history. *****

How is there no thread for this match? This is one of the rawest spectacle matches the WWF ever did. Vince tortures Flair in front of his kids, just beats him bloody and takes a goddamn selfie with a bloodied Flair using Flair's daughter's camera. This is just Vince beating the breaks off Flair, disrespecting him in front of his kids and finally getting his comeuppance at the end but you can tell the damage is done and Flair's kids don't respect him anymore after what they just watched Vince do to their dad. Amazing match. ****3/4

Rewatched this a few hours ago and honestly think it's an all time great WWF Title match. Before the match, Rock does a promo literally just running through his catchphrases. It's not bad but it's really not near his best work on the mic, either. There's a real palpable sense of hatred and contempt from both guys and Rocky in particular is absolutely vicious in this match. This is very much Rock's match but Mankind is great early on. I think the bump off the stage onto the "electrical boxes" is really corny and I thought that when I was like 8, but it's at least a creative spot and I'll give them points for that. The chair shots are what they are, but to me they complete the package. Anything less and Rocky doesn't come out of this looking like a cold-hearted son of a bitch. Anything less and Foley isn't nearly as sympathetic. This is as good as the "WWF tries to be ECW" stuff gets and damn near as good as the WWF gets in general. I never expect to come away from anything that happened in 1999 with a feeling that I'd just watched an all timer, but on my last two rewatches of this match that's exactly what I felt when the deal was done. Just a fantastic, brutal, violent battle. *****

For context, 11-year-old me had to go to bed before this match the night of the PPV and I didn't see it until I found a shit quality wmv on Limewire a month or two later. Watching this in potato quality, it looked like a goddamn snuff film and it became my favorite match immediately. Watching the DVD release when it came out and seeing just how bloody this was enhanced the experience for me and watching the upscaled version on the first Brock Blu-Ray (and again last night on WWE Network) did the same. Who'd have ever guessed enhanced video quality would make blood baths more enjoyable?! Anyway, this is my pick for the greatest WWE match of all time and really close to my pick for general greatest match of all time. There's a lot of things that I love about this one. Brock works his ass off here, launching himself into the cage and bumping like a madman and to his credit, Taker launches himself into the cage pretty good at least twice as well. It's a bloodbath, which suits the match type and Taker's is maybe the second worst blade job in WWE history (Vince at SurSer 2003 takes the cake). Heyman bleeding is always going to be funny to me, he was phenomenal on the outside of the ring. Taker's hand in the cast was used well throughout the match and you could argue he didn't do the greatest job of selling the hand, he did at least sell it some which is probably more than you'd expect going in. I love the finish, too. It's one of those "yeah this is a real freak motherfucker" moments that we never get in pro wrestling now. The only Cell that comes close to this is Hunter/Batista and even that doesn't match the violence or the intensity of this match. If you've seen this match a bunch, I recommend showing it to a fan who's never seen it. That's how I've watched this match the last two times that I have and it's amazing watching people who've seen deathmatches and all the crazy 'epic' bullshit that's happened since this match reacting to this like, as I noted earlier in my post, it's a snuff film. This is as good as it gets, y'all. *****

I've always loved how good of a job Savage and Sherri did at working their shtick in front of the Tokyo Dome crowd and, moreso, how well Tenryu fit into a WWF style match. The crowd is nuclear and while the powerbomb at the end is super safe, it was cool seeing Savage take one because I don't recall him taking many. The entire match is great and while they rematched in SWS and it was good, this match was far better. One of the most underrated Tokyo Dome matches of all time, probably in my top 20. ****3/4

Had no clue this incarnation of Bret vs. DiBiase even happened until I stumbled across this thread a couple of nights ago and this match kicked ass. It would be one thing if they just kinda sleepwalked through it, they could get away with that and it'd still be great but they put forth an insane amount of effort for what basically was a throwaway TV match. I dug DiBiase using the spinning toehold and him taking almost the same bump over the top to the floor that he did in the Flair match from four years earlier. I like the comparison to a touring NWA Title match and I agree that this is probably Ted's best WWF match, it was a wonderful bit of wrestling television. ****1/4

"JR and Heyman had poor chemistry together." is one of the worst takes I've ever seen on the internet. Congratulations.

This was the best 'straight' wrestling match I've seen this year. Nomura pairing up with Fuminore Abe and turning on Hideki lead to an incredible tag match to set up this title match and while you can argue Nomura didn't really *deserve* a title shot, Hideki was more than willing to get in the ring with him and beat his ass for what he did at Endless Survivor. Nomura looks way more credible here than you'd probably expect a two year rookie to look in their first title challenge but it's clear that he's still overmatched against Hideki. The match didn't need to go longer, this was the perfect length given Suzuki's position in the company and Nomura's position in his career. The finish ruled and reminds me of the Fujita/Shibata match from 2004 which is one of my all time favorite matches. The crowd boos Hideki and he flips them off, letting them know he doesn't give a shit what they think because he just killed his former young boy. This match is super easy to understand even without the context of Nomura's turn against Hideki or the lead in tag. It's a brief watch, it's got good action, it's violent and the finish rules. You can't really ask for more than that. ****3/4

Gonna get this out of the way right now: no tag match since this match has even come close. It's the best match Nagata or Iizuka was ever in, and real high up there for Fuchi as well. It's so goddamn good. First off, the crowd is absolutely NUCLEAR as the All Japan team shows up to build upon Kawada's victory over New Japan's ace at the Dome two months prior. Fuchi is such an awesome grumpy bastard and it's clear at the start he doesn't take Iizuka seriously AT ALL. After all, why would he? Fuchi's stood against the likes of Misawa, Kobashi, Kawada...what can Iizuka possibly to do him? They run through some regular chain sequences and then Iizuka locks in a sleeper on Fuchi and SHIT IS ON NOW BOYS. We get our first taste of all four guys in the ring and all of a sudden, Iizuka isn't some overmatched punk that Fuchi can take lightly. Fuchi lets him look good on the mat before Iizuka tags in Nagata. Nagata quickly goes after Fuchi with leg kicks and HERE COMES KAWADA MOTHERFUCKERS. Early on in the Kawada vs. Nagata segment of the match we get both guys doing some matwork since both were amateur wrestlers. Nagata gets the best of the mat exchanges and tries to wear down Kawada with cheap shots in the corner but once the ref separates them, Kawada kicks Nagata RIGHT IN THE FUCKING FACE BECAUSE KAWADA IS THE MAN. Kawada begins blasting Nagata with strikes in the corner before we get a heated elbow exchange that ends with a really rad All Japan style 'I knock you down but you no sell and take me out' exchange with Kawada coming out on top. Both guys tag out and we get some more of the pretty rad Iizuka vs. Fuchi match up. This time, Fuchi fares better as he goes after the legs of Iizuka and works on him in the corner before tagging Kawada back in. Against Fuchi, Iizuka wasn't outmatched too badly. Against Kawada? Iizuka is toast. There's a really nasty double team submission done by the All Japan team that you need to see...good lord. The All Japan team keep fucking with Iizuka until Nagata tries to come in and save his buddy but Kawada's like nah buddy that's not gonna happen today. Then, because again Kawada's the fucking man, he goes to the floor and attacks Nagata. The AJ team tags out and Fuchi goes over to attack Nagata some more on the floor. I like the idea of working over one partner in the ring while beating the shit out of the other guy on the floor. Kawada and Fuchi just keep kicking the shit out of Iizuka and keeping Nagata away and it's awesome. Iizuka, to his credit, doesn't give up. He tries to fight back before getting overwhelmed, but he keeps kicking out, keeps trying to fight to the corner to tag out. He manages to create an opening and lock Fuchi in the sleeper, leading to Kawada breaking things up and tending to his partner on the floor as Iizuka makes it to Nagata and the place goes friggin' nuts. Nagata gets some more of Kawada and Kawada controls the early part of this round. The crowd fucking loses it when Nagata hits three enzuigiris and puts Kawada down for a two count with a German suplex old. Nagata gets his leg taken out by a kick from Kawada and that seemingly halts his momentum after he'd waited so long to get back in and put so much energy into that one sequence for the near fall. Kawada drills Nagata with a backdrop but Nagata kicks out and again the crowd goes insane. Kawada locks in the Stretch Plum which pretty much spells the end for Nagata until GODDAMN IIZUKA RUNS IN TO BREAK IT UP AND EVERYONE LOSES THEIR MINDS. Nagata stuffs a powerbomb attempt the first time, and Iizuka tries to break up a second. Ever since Iizuka choked Fuchi, it's a one man show from Kawada as he's successfully kicking the ass of both members of Team New Japan. Nagata flails his way out of a powerbomb attempt and kicks Kawada's leg as Kawada goes for a running attack. Nagata locks on the goddamned NAGATA LOCK. Kawada tries to fight to the ropes but can't get there without being pulled back. Fuchi, coming back from the dead, saves the day for Team All Japan. Nagata tags Iizuka back in and his first order of business is to run (well...stumble quickly) to the Team All Japan corner and take out Fuchi. Iizuka gets into a kick exchange with Kawada and due to the damage done by the Nagata Lock, doesn't get obliterated by Kawada. Iizuka hits an Exploder and throws on a leglock. Fuchi comes in to save but Nagata cuts him off at the pass and throws on a Nagata Lock. Team All Japan fight their way out of the holds after a pretty long period of time in them and Kawada tags Fuchi in after hitting an enzuigiri on Iizuka. Fuchi attempts to murder Iizuka with two backdrops but Iizuka says "FUCK YOU OLD MAN" and kicks out at two as the place goes nuts again. Team All Japan lock Team New Japan in duelling submissions, but Iizuka survives by getting to the ropes. Iizuka fights out of a backdrop, knocks Fuchi down and both guys tag in their partners and both Kawada and Nagata come in and swing for the fences before the match ends as a time limit draw. Words cannot put this one into perspective. ANY wrestling fan should be able to enjoy this. Everyone has a clearly defined role, the story is easy to understand, the crowd is nuclear, there's a ton of drama. It's arguably the best match for everyone in this match but Kawada. Frankly, the only tag matches in the last 25 years---no you know what, the only tag matches EVER that beat this are the mid-90s All Japan epics. Nothing else comes close. WATCH THIS MATCH. *****+

Kensuke left New japan a couple of years prior to form World Japan with Riki Choshu. That promotion collapsed and now Sasaki is back home as an outsider and Yuji Nagata isn't exactly happy to see him back. This match is legendary for two reasons: first off is that there's a METRIC FUCK TON OF HATE, and second is that there's A METRIC FUCK TON OF BLOOD. No seriously, there's a lot of blood, Like, deathmatch levels of blood. It's a gruesome sight but the match itself is also very good. Hard strikes, hatred, a hot crowd and you get the feeling that Nagata would actually be fine with murdering Kensuke here and vice versa. One of the very best in New Japan history. *****