[2016-08-03-NJPW] Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Tomohiro Ishii

[Superstar Sleeze]

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Tomohiro Ishii - NJPW 8/3/16

I dont know what is going on with me but these 2016 Ishii matches are not clicking with me at all and I remember really liking the Okada one from three days later and re-read my review and it sounds like a banger but this was just so disjointed. 
 

I felt like they were trying to wrestle an Ishii match and a Tanahashi match at the same time. I love Tanahashi to death he is one of my all-time favorite wrestlers But I don’t want to see him in this many strike exchanges. His strikes are the weakest part of his game and the fact he was going toe to toe with and sometimes besting Ishii at his own game was silly. No one thinks Tanahashi is beating Ishii in Power Slap but happens here. I would much rather watch Tanahashi come up with creative strategies to beat Ishii rather than be sold this incredulous narrative that Tanahashi can beat Ishii in Power Slap. 
 

On the Tanahashi side, at first I thought they were going to invert the Tanahashi formula with Ishii targeting the leg twice but that gets dropped. Tanahashi targets the leg as he normally does twice but drops it both times. It felt really disjointed and like there was no momentum. They just kept going back to the strike exchange.

After Ishii Powerbomb they go into finish run which means at least no more strike exchanges. I liked how hard Tanahashi worked to wriggle out of the Brainbuster. Tanahashi missed the High Fly Flow so at least it felt like the match was going somewhere. They used Ishii sliding lariat as the prelude to Brainbuster to get me excited. Then the moment where I was like this match went from being a mess to trash. Ishii POPS Tanahashi under the chin real good with a Headbutt. Tanahashi immediately floats over on the Brainbuster attempt fresh as a daisy and hits a Dragon Suplex and two High Fly Flows to win. 
 

Fuck that noise. They had a CLASSIC at the 2013 G1 Climax watch that instead.