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Ben-K and Big R Shimuzu defend the Open the Twin Gate tag team titles All four men had something to prove in this match, and it led to a very exciting dynamic full of brawling and great tag team chemistry. There wasn’t much of a story going on in the match itself, but sequences on display here were absolutely amazing. U-T in particular proved once again why he’s one of the best false finish guys in the world with his performance, ****1/2.

I'll admit there was some great chemistry here, but it was obvious they weren't going to give a full on classic here when the obvious finish was a DQ. WALTER working as a heel sounds picture perfect, but.. for some reason it also makes him work a bit more awkwardly. Like he's supposed to be a destroyer in the ring, yet immediately jets from the ring when he loses momentum. PAC's performance was pretty great too. Props for still putting on a more than solid effort even with a fucked finger, ****.

Of all the opening matches this show could've had, I can't believe they started with this one. Starr coming out to the theme song of when Starr and Devlin were teaming as Killer Product WHILE wearing the team shirt was fucking amazing. Devlin was having none of that shit and immediately went at Starr to start an amazing brawl in the crowd. Kind of slowed down when it got back to the ring, but the heat never died down. The animosity was in the air that these guys needed to settle their differences, and in the end that is exactly what Devlin did FOR Starr. Even though Starr had no chance of winning this and was still humiliated in loss, I still don't think he came out of this looking worse because of how incredible the story was getting to here, ****1/2.

Insanely fun match and a big win for Titan. One of the more underrated luchador talents right now on the level of someone like Dragon Lee. The match was what you would expect with Titan going crazy with his athleticism and Cavernario brutalizing Titan with his own great offense. The finish was a little out of place yet I still think it was great to see Titan pick up the win with a lucha submission pin combo out of nowhere, ****1/4.

Kento is just on another level when it comes to big matches. Yes it was another 30 minute Triple Crown match, but he kept it full of energy the entire time. I don't have any reason to believe he isn't at Okada levels of greatness right now. Suwama was a beast here too, and honestly speaking this was the best singles match I have seen between these two generational Aces. Suwama's offense was crisp and impactful, and Kento's comebacks were wild. Incredible finishing stretch with Suwama desperately trying to prove he could survive Kento once again. One of the best matches of the year so far, ****3/4.

Is it blasphemous to say this was slightly disappointing? I still really liked this match and thought it was great though, so don't get me wrong. I just figured putting 3 of the best wrestlers in the world (Yoshi is good enough to at least hang) in the same match would lead to a possible MOTYC, but what we got is what we got. It was the main event of a Baba memorial show, so of course the Triple Crown champ was going to be the star of the match, but that didn't mean Tanahashi had to put on the bare minimum of effort either. His effort wasn't bad, he still had some really good sequences with both Kento and Sekimoto, but I don't feel bad saying Yoshitatsu put in a better effort. All I can pray for is singles matches between Tanahashi and Kento/Sekimoto, but for now this was good enough to please the thought of it, ****1/4.

Daisuke Sasaki defends the KO-D Openweight Title Takeshita in a big match situation never fails to deliver. The only real complaint I have is the same complaint about other big puroresu promotions too, and that is needing every big match to go half an hour (or more), especially when the first 10 minutes are full of nothing like Sasaki's leg work because everyone knew Takeshita would no sell it a few minutes later (which he did). Besides that, it eventually got really good with Takeshita and Sasaki destroying each other with bombs and weapons in and out of the ring. Some overbooking with the ref bumps, but it never got to the point of annoying and actually added to the story. I don't think this hit the MOTYC potential that I thought it would have, but still an excellent main event all things considered, ****1/2.

I feel like I should hate this match more than I should. It wasn't an "epic" IWGP title match that we have come to expect every time, and I don't know why that bothers me. It was a good little match too. Jay and Tana did some spotty leg work, Jay hit a bunch of movez, and they got their cute "shock" at the end there too. All in all a good match, but very disappointing to what I've come to expect from New Japan. If this is the direction they're going in with this "new era", well, I'll just say I need to start lowering my expectations, ***3/4.

Kaito isn't blowing the world away with his matches yet, but consistency is something he already has down. Another great defense for Kaito as Kitamiya showed him a very different type of NOAH intensity. Very physical stuff, and I dug the leg work Kitamiya did on Kaito's leg. Unfortunately, and it's odd this always happens with puroresu "Aces", Kaito didn't sell the leg all that well. Regardless, the match was still an excellent filler defense for Kaito with the upcoming real challenge being the Marufuji match we were supposed to get last year, ****1/4.

I knew a PAC vs Kzy match was going to be good, but it didn't hit me that this was going to be a classic until Kzy's entrance music chimed. Neither guy is your stereotypical big match DG wrestler, so of course this was going to be an instant classic. I loved the tension that built just in the flag ceremony with everyone wondering if PAC would attack during "God Save The Queen" again. As for the match itself, it was actual murder. Kzy and PAC absolutely killed each other with big move after big move in a wild spectacle of a match. Dragon Gate wanted to tear the house down with a final show at Star Lanes, and that's what they delivered with another impressive PAC performance, ****3/4.

What in the world is this? A really GOOD Suzuki-gun juniors tag team match? No bullshit here, just Shingo fucking Takagi tossing around Kanemaru and Desperado with BUSHI being a nice support. Speaking of Kanemaru, I haven't seen a great effort like this from him in YEARS. I won't say I'm intrigued by a potential BUSHI vs Desperado mask vs mask match either, ****1/4.

Perfectly good for what it needed to be. God bless us who have to suffer through a Taichi match much less in a New Japan main event, but thankfully this wasn't your generic 30 minute title match where it takes a while to get going. The pre-match stuff was a callback to the previous Sapporo incident with Fujinami and Choshu, and it dragged for way too long. They had to convince the crowd that Taichi had some semblance of a chance of winning the title, so this was their method. And then the match happened and nothing in that pre-match beatdown mattered. Just a huge bombfest with Naito moving quick across the ring proving he has no time for this "selling" shit, and Taichi proving once again how overrated he is just because he does a bunch of King's Road moves. This was good because it didn't try to be anything more than what it was, which was a filler title defense, ***3/4.

The problem with NXT nowadays is if you put on a match that the crowd isn't used to, then they hardly know how to react. Case and point, the leg work here by Ciampa was great. The match wasn't a high octane spot fest with lots of moves and relied solely fan investment to make the match seem great. Black's selling was pretty ok too. Didn't sell it the whole way through, but certainly sold it in the most important moments. It is absolutely RARE to see continuous leg work play into a finish in modern wrestling, especially western wrestling. I could've really done without Ciampa needing to hit his finisher four (4) god damn times though, ****1/4.

Probably the best match I've seen the War Raiders have, like, ever? They were fine in ROH and New Japan, but I guess they finally put all the pieces together here in this very hard hitting match against the Era. Kyle and Roddy obviously have insane chemistry together as a team, so it wasn't any surprise they tore it up here again. Raiders showed off their unique athleticism too which gave the match an extra feeling of fun. The title change felt fresh too as Kyle/Roddy have held onto those belts for quite a while now, ****1/4.

NXT storytelling the past year has been very hit or miss for me in the past year, even if the actual matches are worked really well. The misses in my opinion were the 2nd and 3rd Gargano/Ciampa and the Gargano/Black matches. Fortunately, I can say this didn't go down the melodramatic route and just stayed a straight up athletic contest which is my kind of match. This took a while to get going, but when it eventually did it really reminded me why I really liked Gargano in the first place. Yes there was typical indie spots and sequences like you would expect from a match featuring Ricochet and Gargano, but everything felt perfectly worked here. Nothing felt masturbatory, which is an entirely different NXT problem, and both guys played their roles well. I irked at Gargano almost shitting the bed once again with not using the concrete the first time, but eventually he grew some fucking balls in this weird teenager character development and used the concrete to win. What made that finish even more satisfying is he didn't even have to use his regular finisher to win the match!, ****3/4.

This was almost on par with the match they had the previous week, but typical WWE booking prevented this from reaching it's climax. Same structured match with lots of bombs and incredible athleticism. The top rope powerbomb was so nuts; I'm surprised no one else in the wrestling world does that move. There was a botch at the end with Rey trying to replicate THAT DDT that Rey hit on Eddie decades ago, but it didn't land. Fortunately they recovered quickly to keep the momentum going. And then unfortunately, a lame DQ non-finish ends it after all of that. It's like why even bother if the finish just nullifies everything, ****.

Stronghearts finally win some gold in the first Japanese promotion they showed up in. T-Hawk had some doubters back in his DG days for one reason or another, and while I never really agreed with most of those complaints (aside from being pushed too hard), I can safely say he is still a great talent. Even if it's the still not as talked about as much as they should be W-1, T-Hawk proved his worth by taking down the promotions "Ace" for the big one. Ashino's leg work was very brutal stuff as well as his offense, and while I think T-Hawk's selling was a little spotty, I think he sold the important moments really well. Excellent finishing stretch with a white hot crowd virtually split on both guys made this one of the better matches for WK week, ****1/4.

Sekimoto needed something big for his 20th anniversary match, and a big challenge he and Yuji received. It's been over a year since Ishikawa stepped into a BJW ring, so it was kind of odd seeing him return as an outsider. That didn't stop him from beating the shit out of Strong BJ like it was 2015. He wasn't teaming with his fellow Twin Tower, but Suwama is more than a worthy partner. Suwama is a beloved figure in All Japan, so I liked him heeling it up to make BJ's comebacks feel so incredible. The match went almost 30 minutes and not a single minute dragged. In the end it wasn't just a feel good moment because of Sekimoto winning a title on his anniversary, but also because BJ are finally major tag champions again, ****3/4.

If you're going to do a spot fest, do it right. Don't bullshit it with meaningless slow paced limb work that gets no sold later or chain wrestling with no flow. Be like the Lucha Bros who give zero fucks about how a wrestling match is supposed to "be" and only care about putting on insanely exciting matches. LAX were great here too; not as athletic, but their tag chemistry was on point. I didn't realize it till this match that this could be a money drawing feud for lots of promotions around the world, ****1/4.

When Andrade is on, he's really on. Despite the dumb name change, Andrade put on a great match with Rey Mysterio in the year of 2019. Rey Mysterio in 2019! Those words are really strange to me because I had zero expectations of Mysterio putting on this type of bomb fest way past his prime. Finish was typical WWE booking though as Andrade won with a distraction, even though the finish was still clean? I know it doesn't sound like it makes sense, but re-watch the finish and you will get what I'm saying, ****1/4.

Stop doing 30 minute title matches. It's just not necessary. I get they wanted to make Coffey look as strong as possible in losing, but this was just overkill at its very core which has become a theme for Pete Dunne recently for whatever reason. There was some really great stuff from like the 10 to 25 minute mark. And then they just kept going and going and going.. 3 Bitter End kick outs? Really? For this literal nobody? And then the botches at the end were just the icing on the cake of this awkward mess. At least they had WALTER at the end there to save this disappointment, ***3/4.

Even though I'll say it's a good match, this was highly disappointing to me. The workrate was obviously good, but everything just felt super sanitized. It was your generic WWE structure where one team works a guy for a really long time only for the hot tag to be made which was to Tyler who did his usual stuff. It's hard for me to give a shit about Gibson and Drake when the latter contributes absolutely nothing to the match. Trent's FIP segment was the same stuff you've seen him do a thousand times before, ***3/4.

PAC returns home. I'm not going to say this was one of PAC's best performances since returning to the indies, but I won't say he didn't give a good enough effort either. Even though he felt much more on autopilot here than he usually is, he still gave Starr enough of a physical match to put him over even by beating him. Starr was also a bit robotic, but the personality clash was the real meat of the match. Not a MOTYC by any means, but still a worthwhile match, ****.

Exactly how you would expect a match between Sekimoto and Sato to go down. Just a physical match up with lots and lots of strikes. A perfectly good match between a world class wrestlers and a very underrated striker. Nothing spectacular here, but that isn't to say a simple and short burst of a match isn't welcome, ****.

This was what you would exactly expect from a Hama match in 2019. Hama is a very niche wrestler who can only wrestle a certain style, so I'm glad they only used his strengths here against Sekimoto who brought the intensity to the match. I can't lie and say I wasn't hoping for more though. This was far from a bad match at least, ***1/2.