[2018-09-15-NJPW-Destruction in Hiroshima] Kenny Omega vs Tomohiro Ishii

[paul sosnowski]

Kenny Omega defends the IWGP Heavyweight title.   Talk about it here.

[kas]

Awesome stuff. Been wanting to see Ishii in another title match after his match with Naito and he did not disappoint, bringing everything that makes him so great and just upping the ante a notch. His selling was phenomenal and he had some brilliant moments, like the top rope frankensteiner and the V-Trigger. Kenny was Kenny, he's had better performances but he was still great here. At about the 20-25 minute mark, they looked like they were getting ready to go home which I thought would have been perfect, but unfortunately, it went on just a little bit too long, though I do prefer them going too long rather than going too short. I'd put this above their US title match but below their G1 match this year. Great title defence for Omega.

[Childs]

My thoughts, transported over from the New Japan thread ...

Ishii-Omega was disappointing. Not bad but they didn't touch their G1 match or their best work from last year. They failed to hook the crowd (or me) for the first 20 minutes. And even though they picked it up over the last 10 (some great counter spots including an out-of-nowhere lariat from Ishii) they never achieved the feel of a big-time main event. Part of the problem was that, unlike in the G1, no one thought Ishii had a prayer. And these guys have done so much to each other over the last year and a half that it's hard for them to push it to another level. But I was really looking forward to the match, and it left me a little deflated. 

[nivvad]

This didn't quite reach the levels of their G1 classic, but it was still a hell of a 2nd defense for Kenny. The one thing that obviously keeps me from giving this a perfect rating is the fact that they just had to go 30 minutes. Ishii is someone who thrives in 20 or below minute matches, so forcing him to go longer will noticeably affect the pacing, which did happen. I wouldn't call the middle of the match "filler", but it was definitely missing the urgency of their G1 match. That said though, I loved the story of Kenny quickly trying to go for the kill this time around, and he kept that pace up for as long as he could. Ishii played a great underdog in countering Kenny's tricks and even tried to add insult to injury in several spots. I can't fault the competitors for going 30 minutes because it's a New Japan problem in general, but that doesn't mean I didn't find this match spectacular, ****3/4.

[SmartMark15]

Still a little too long. Not too much going on until Kenny hits the springboard double stomp then we get a pretty great title match from there. A little anticlimactic to end but there was a lot of good stuff in the middle. Their usual brutality and some nice moments of personality from Ishii. Ishii hitting the V Trigger made me lose it, I won't lie. I also bought into him signalling that he'd win the title. He's usually so stoic that that little show of brashness really stood and made me believe in him. Still easily one of the better IWGP Title defenses of the year.

****1/4

[Childs]

Watched this again because I was sleepy the first time, and my opinion fell much more in line with the rest of the thread. I got into Ishii's performance and the crowd's reaction to him. 

[Wahoos Leg]

This was long at just over 30 minutes but it breezed by for me and didn't have that giant chunk of emptiness at the beginning that I felt was there in their G1 match, or most NJPW main events. On the other hand, I thought this match lacked a lot of the drama from the G1 match and had an inferior finishing stretch. 

My biggest gripe with this match is an ongoing complaint about Omega matches since he won the title, and that's that he controls too much of each match he is in. Omega is, in many ways the ultimate video game wrestler and now that he is champ he wrestles like he's really really good at that particular video game... which makes for a few too many reversals and comebacks for my tastes, especially immediately after big moves.