IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Title Match: SHO & YOH vs. Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson 18:49
NEVER Openweight Six Man Tag Title Four Way Gauntlet Match: Bad Luck Fale & Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa vs. Beretta & Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano vs. Taichi & Takashi Iizuka & Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Hanson & Raymond Rowe & Michael Elgin and Juice Robinson & Ryusuke Taguchi & Togi Makabe 17:03
Kota Ibushi vs. Cody 15:08
IWGP Tag Title Match: Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Lance Archer vs. EVIL & SANADA 14:14
NEVER Openweight Title Hair vs. Hair Death Match: Minoru Suzuki vs. Hirooki Goto 18:04
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title Four Way Match: Marty Scurll vs. Will Ospreay vs. Hiromu Takahashi vs. KUSHIDA 21:18
IWGP Intercontinental Title Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Jay White 19:43
IWGP United States Heavyweight Title No Disqualification Match: Kenny Omega vs. Chris Jericho 34:36
IWGP Heavyweight Title Match: Kazuchika Okada vs. Tetsuya Naito 34:26
OKUMURA vs. Fuego 6:45
BUSHI & Hiromu Takahashi & Tetsuya Naito & Rush vs. Dragon Lee & Hirai Kawato & Satoshi Kojima & Star Jr. 15:46
Disturbio & El Barbaro Cavernario & Puma & Ultimo Guerrero vs. Atlantis & Drone & Mistico & Volador Jr. 12:33
CMLL World Middleweight Title Match: Angel de Oro vs. El Cuatrero 11:43
Mexican National Welterweight Title Match: El Soberano Jr. vs. Sanson 11:47
CMLL World Light Heavyweight Title Match: Niebla Roja vs. Gran Guerrero 16:18
Disturbio & Puma vs. Drone & Star Jr. 9:16
El Soberano Jr. & Fuego & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. SHO & YOH & OKUMURA 11:06
BUSHI & Hiromu Takahashi & Tetsuya Naito & Rush vs. Atlantis & Hirai Kawato & KUSHIDA & Satoshi Kojima 11:58
CMLL Brothers Tag Tournament First Round Match: Gran Guerrero & Ultimo Guerrero vs. Angel de Oro & Niebla Roja 15:22
CMLL Brothers Tag Tournament First Round Match: Dragon Lee & Mistico vs. El Cuatrero & Sanson 10:25
NWA World Historic Welterweight Title Match: Volador Jr. vs. El Barbaro Cavernario 22:07
Katsuya Kitamura Seven Match Trial Second Match: Michael Elgin vs. Katsuya Kitamura 8:04
Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Jushin Thunder Liger & KUSHIDA & Manabu Nakanishi & Tiger Mask vs. El Desperado & Taichi & TAKA Michinoku & Takashi Iizuka & Yoshinobu Kanemaru 8:06
Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano vs. Chase Owens & Yujiro Takahashi 7:06
NEVER Openweight Tag Title Match: Bad Luck Fale & Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa vs. Ryusuke Taguchi & Toa Henare & Togi Makabe 9:15
Cody & Hangman Page & Marty Scurll vs. David Finlay & Juice Robinson & Kota Ibushi 10:41
Hiromu Takahashi & Tetsuya Naito vs. Will Ospreay & YOSHI-HASHI 11:19
Gedo & Hirooki Goto & Kazuchika Okada vs. BUSHI & EVIL & SANADA 11:52
Kenny Omega & Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson vs. Jay White & SHO & YOH 10:53
IWGP Intercontinental Title Match: Minoru Suzuki vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi 32:28
Katsuya Kitamura Seven Match Trial Third Match: Juice Robinson vs. Katsuya Kitamura 9:16
El Desperado & Taichi & TAKA Michinoku & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Jushin Thunder Liger & Ryusuke Taguchi & Shota Umino & Tiger Mask 8:32
Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano vs. Hikuleo & Yujiro Takahashi 6:16
Bad Luck Fale & Chase Owens & Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Manabu Nakanishi & Togi Makabe & Tomoyuki Oka 9:04
Minoru Suzuki & Takashi Iizuka vs. Michael Elgin & Toa Henare 8:18
Cody & Hangman Page & Marty Scurll vs. David Finlay & Kota Ibushi & KUSHIDA 10:30
BUSHI & EVIL & Hiromu Takahashi & SANADA & Tetsuya Naito vs. Gedo & Hirooki Goto & Kazuchika Okada & Will Ospreay & YOSHI-HASHI 12:19
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Title Match: Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson vs. SHO & YOH 22:34
IWGP United States Heavyweight Title Match: Kenny Omega vs. Jay White 29:54
Katsuya Kitamura Seven Match: Trial Sixth Match: : Yuji Nagata vs. Katsuya Kitamura 10:58
El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. SHO & YOH 10:22
KUSHIDA & Michael Elgin & Ryusuke Taguchi & Togi Makabe vs. Minoru Suzuki & Taichi & TAKA Michinoku & Takashi Iizuka 11:52
Jay White & Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano vs. David Finlay & Juice Robinson & Toa Henare 7:33
BUSHI vs. Gedo 10:07
Tetsuya Naito vs. YOSHI-HASHI 16:46
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Will Ospreay vs. Hiromu Takahashi 20:05
NEVER Openweight Title Match: Hirooki Goto vs. EVIL 20:19
IWGP Heavyweight Title Match: Kazuchika Okada vs. SANADA 32:12
Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Jushin Thunder Liger & KUSHIDA & Ryusuke Taguchi & Tiger Mask vs. Ren Narita & Shota Umino & Tetsuhiro Yagi & Tomoyuki Oka & Yuji Nagata 7:31
Hirooki Goto & Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano vs. David Finlay & Juice Robinson & Toa Henare 7:41
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Title Three Way Match: SHO & YOH vs. El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. BUSHI & Hiromu Takahashi 16:34
SANADA vs. YOSHI-HASHI 17:38
Tetsuya Naito vs. Taichi 14:07
IWGP Intercontinental Title Match: Minoru Suzuki vs. Togi Makabe 19:04
Kazuchika Okada vs. Will Ospreay 25:25
Chuckie T & Hirooki Goto & Toru Yano vs. Shota Umino & Tetsuhiro Yagi & Tomoyuki Oka 6:14
Killer Elite Squad Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Lance Archer vs. Bad Luck Fale & Hikuleo 9:11
El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Zack Sabre Jr. vs. BUSHI & SANADA & Tetsuya Naito 9:32
Minoru Suzuki & Taichi & Takashi Iizuka vs. David Finlay & Hiroshi Tanahashi & Toa Henare 13:12
Kazuchika Okada & YOSHI-HASHI vs. Chase Owens & Kota Ibushi 11:42
New Japan Cup 2018 First Round Match: Juice Robinson vs. Yujiro Takahashi 16:08
New Japan Cup 2018 First Round Match: Michael Elgin vs. Tomohiro Ishii 29:02
El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Ren Narita & Ryusuke Taguchi 7:30
David Finlay & Tetsuhiro Yagi vs. Shota Umino & Yuji Nagata 8:15
Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano vs. Michael Elgin & Tomoyuki Oka 7:57
Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Takashi Iizuka vs. Juice Robinson & Toa Henare 10:51
BUSHI & SANADA & Tetsuya Naito vs. Minoru Suzuki & TAKA Michinoku & Zack Sabre Jr. 12:55
Chuckie T & Hirooki Goto & Kazuchika Okada & YOSHI-HASHI vs. Chase Owens & Hikuleo & Kota Ibushi & Yujiro Takahashi 12:57
New Japan Cup 2018 First Round Match: Bad Luck Fale vs. Lance Archer 11:05
New Japan Cup 2018 First Round Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Taichi 23:53
Tomoyuki Oka & Yuji Nagata vs. Ren Narita & Tetsuhiro Yagi 9:15
El Desperado vs. Shota Umino 8:22
Bad Luck Fale & Chase Owens & Tanga Loa & Yujiro Takahashi vs. David Finlay & Juice Robinson & Michael Elgin & Toa Henare 9:41
Hirooki Goto & Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano vs. Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Lance Archer & Yoshinobu Kanemaru 9:46
Taichi & Takashi Iizuka vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Ryusuke Taguchi 10:44
Chuckie T & Kazuchika Okada vs. BUSHI & SANADA 9:00
New Japan Cup 2018 First Round Match: Kota Ibushi vs. YOSHI-HASHI 22:23
New Japan Cup 2018 First Round Match: Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Tetsuya Naito 22:43
El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Ren Narita & Ryusuke Taguchi 8:58
Bad Luck Fale & Tanga Loa & Yujiro Takahashi vs. Shota Umino & Tetsuhiro Yagi & Yuji Nagata 7:55
Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI vs. Michael Elgin & Tomoyuki Oka 9:40
BUSHI & Tetsuya Naito vs. TAKA Michinoku & Zack Sabre Jr. 8:50
Lance Archer & Minoru Suzuki & Taichi & Takashi Iizuka vs. David Finlay & Hiroshi Tanahashi & Juice Robinson & Toa Henare 10:50
Kazuchika Okada & Tomohiro Ishii vs. Chase Owens & Kota Ibushi 9:50
New Japan Cup 2018 First Round Match: Toru Yano vs. Davey Boy Smith Jr. 12:45
New Japan Cup 2018 First Round Match: SANADA vs. Chuckie T 21:27
El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Ryusuke Taguchi & Tetsuhiro Yagi 9:00
David Finlay & Ren Narita & Toa Henare vs. Shota Umino & Tomoyuki Oka & Yuji Nagata 7:24
Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Lance Archer vs. Tanga Loa & Yujiro Takahashi 8:44
Chase Owens & Kota Ibushi vs. TAKA Michinoku & Zack Sabre Jr. 10:49
Chuckie T & Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano vs. BUSHI & SANADA & Tetsuya Naito 8:43
Hirooki Goto & Kazuchika Okada & YOSHI-HASHI vs. Minoru Suzuki & Taichi & Takashi Iizuka 14:02
New Japan Cup 2018 Second Round Match: Juice Robinson vs. Michael Elgin 17:04
New Japan Cup 2018 Second Round Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Bad Luck Fale 14:36
David Finlay & Ren Narita vs. Shota Umino & Tomoyuki Oka 7:16
Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI vs. Toa Henare & Togi Makabe 10:08
Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Lance Archer & Taichi & Takashi Iizuka vs. Bad Luck Fale & Chase Owens & Tanga Loa & Yujiro Takahashi 11:28
El Desperado & Minoru Suzuki & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. BUSHI & Hiromu Takahashi & Tetsuya Naito 12:46
Hiroshi Tanahashi & Juice Robinson & Michael Elgin vs. Chuckie T & Kazuchika Okada & Tomohiro Ishii 14:41
New Japan Cup 2018 Second Round Match: SANADA vs. Toru Yano 4:51
New Japan Cup 2018 Second Round Match: Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Kota Ibushi 21:02
Tanga Loa & Yujiro Takahashi vs. Tetsuhiro Yagi & Tomoyuki Oka 7:02
Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Lance Archer & Taichi vs. David Finlay & Michael Elgin & Shota Umino 9:46
Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano vs. Toa Henare & Togi Makabe 11:14
Chuckie T & Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI vs. Bad Luck Fale & Chase Owens & Kota Ibushi 9:50
Minoru Suzuki & Takashi Iizuka vs. Gedo & Kazuchika Okada 13:27
BUSHI & Hiromu Takahashi & SANADA & Tetsuya Naito vs. El Desperado & TAKA Michinoku & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Zack Sabre Jr. 13:51
New Japan Cup 2018 Semifinal Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Juice Robinson 29:52
Shota Umino vs. Ren Narita 8:39
Bad Luck Fale & Tanga Loa & Yujiro Takahashi vs. Toa Henare & Togi Makabe & Tomoyuki Oka 8:43
Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano vs. Taichi & Takashi Iizuka 9:10
Juice Robinson & Michael Elgin vs. Chase Owens & Kota Ibushi 10:54
Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Lance Archer vs. Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI 11:11
BUSHI & Hiromu Takahashi & Tetsuya Naito vs. El Desperado & Minoru Suzuki & Yoshinobu Kanemaru 12:53
David Finlay & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Chuckie T & Kazuchika Okada 11:29
New Japan Cup 2018 Semifinal Match: Zack Sabre Jr. vs. SANADA 26:35
Shota Umino vs. Tetsuhiro Yagi 7:40
Taichi vs. Tomoyuki Oka 7:05
Bad Luck Fale & Tanga Loa & Yujiro Takahashi vs. Michael Elgin & Toa Henare & Togi Makabe 9:54
Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Lance Archer vs. Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano 12:59
David Finlay & Juice Robinson vs. Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI 10:23
BUSHI & Hiromu Takahashi & SANADA & Tetsuya Naito vs. El Desperado & Minoru Suzuki & Takashi Iizuka & Yoshinobu Kanemaru 12:45
Chuckie T & Kazuchika Okada vs. Chase Owens & Kota Ibushi 11:57
New Japan Cup 2018 Final Match: Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi 34:02
Rocky Romero & SHO & YOH vs. Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian & Scorpio Sky 11:02
David Finlay & Juice Robinson vs. Gedo & Hirooki Goto 7:24
Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Lance Archer vs. Chuckie T & Toru Yano 10:48
Cody & Marty Scurll vs. Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa 10:45
BUSHI & Hiromu Takahashi & SANADA & Tetsuya Naito vs. Dragon Lee & Hiroshi Tanahashi & KUSHIDA & Ryusuke Taguchi 12:13
Will Ospreay vs.s Jushin Thunder Liger 10:35
Minoru Suzuki & Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Kazuchika Okada & Tomohiro Ishii 18:50
IWGP United States Heavyweight Title Match: Jay White vs. Hangman Page 25:00
Kenny Omega & Kota Ibushi vs. Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson 39:21
Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson vs. Chase Owens & Yujiro Takahashi 9:23
Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano vs. Taichi & Takashi Iizuka 7:42
NEVER Openweight Six Man Tag Title Match: Bad Luck Fale & Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa vs. Michael Elgin & Ryusuke Taguchi & Togi Makabe 11:20
David Finlay & Hiroshi Tanahashi & Juice Robinson vs. Hirooki Goto & Jay White & YOSHI-HASHI 9:18
Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Lance Archer & Minoru Suzuki vs. EVIL & SANADA & Tetsuya Naito 11:27
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Title Three Way Match: El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. SHO & YOH vs. Hiromu Takahashi & BUSHI 12:45
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Will Ospreay vs. Marty Scurll 30:44
Cody & Hangman Page vs. Kenny Omega & Kota Ibushi 23:52
IWGP Heavyweight Title Match: Kazuchika Okada vs. Zack Sabre Jr. 34:58
Chase Owens & Yujiro Takahashi vs. Shota Umino & Yota Tsuji 5:32
Jushin Thunder Liger & Ryusuke Taguchi & Tiger Mask vs. Ren Narita & Tomoyuki Oka & Yuji Nagata 7:12
Rocky Romero & SHO & YOH vs. Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Lance Archer & Takashi Iizuka 2:04
Hirooki Goto & Jay White & Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano & YOSHI-HASHI vs. David Finlay & Juice Robinson & Michael Elgin & Toa Henare & Togi Makabe 10:25
NEVER Openweight Six Man Tag Title Match: Bad Luck Fale & Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa vs. Marty Scurll & Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson 12:05
BUSHI & EVIL & Hiromu Takahashi & SANADA & Tetsuya Naito vs. El Desperado & Minoru Suzuki & Taichi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Zack Sabre Jr. 13:36
Kazuchika Okada & Will Ospreay vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi & KUSHIDA 16:15
Cody vs. Kota Ibushi 23:36
Kenny Omega vs. Hangman Page 18:23
Jushin Thunder Liger & Ryusuke Taguchi & Tiger Mask vs. Ren Narita & Shota Umino & Yuya Uemura 6:34
Chase Owens & Yujiro Takahashi vs. Tomoyuki Oka & Yuji Nagata 6:11
Rocky Romero & SHO & YOH vs. Taichi & TAKA Michinoku & Takashi Iizuka 6:00
Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano vs. Toa Henare & Togi Makabe 7:12
Hirooki Goto & Jay White & YOSHI-HASHI vs. David Finlay & Juice Robinson & Michael Elgin 11:04
BUSHI & EVIL & Hiromu Takahashi & SANADA & Tetsuya Naito vs. Davey Boy Smith Jr. & El Desperado & Lance Archer & Minoru Suzuki & Yoshinobu Kanemaru 8:31
Kenny Omega & Kota Ibushi & Bad Luck Fale & Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa vs. Cody & Hangman Page & Marty Scurll & Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson 8:47
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Will Ospreay vs. KUSHIDA 23:36
IWGP Heavyweight Title Match: Kazuchika Okada vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi 34:36
Chris Sabin & Ren Narita vs. KUSHIDA & Shota Umino 9:48
CHAOS YOSHI-HASHI & SHO vs. Dragon Lee & Tomoyuki Oka 11:47
El Desperado & Minoru Suzuki vs. Ryusuke Taguchi & Toa Henare 8:09
EVIL & Hiromu Takahashi vs. Chase Owens & Marty Scurll 9:29
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Block A Match: Tiger Mask [2] vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru [0] 10:27
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Block A Match: ACH [2] vs. Flip Gordon [0] 15:26. A lot better than expected as ACH left the constant posing to Scurll & actually wrestled a match. ACH is still super deliberate when he wants the opponent to counter or to get an injury across to the crowd, but overall he was much more impressive than last year & this was an acceptable match where he beat the crap out of Flip & allowed Flip to steal the show with his brief but spectacular aerial comebacks. **1/2
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Block A Match: YOH [2] vs. BUSHI [0] 15:18
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Block A Match: Taiji Ishimori [2] vs. Will Ospreay [0] 13:47. The most anticipated match of the tournament for me, a new match pitting the best wrestler in the tournament, NJ's Jr. champ Ospreay, against the perpetually underrated 3 time GHC Jr. champ Ishimori. I would have had this as the final on merit & to shake things up, but there's also a rivalry stemming from Ishimori attacking Ospreay when he revealed he was the wrestler working as Bone Soldier on 5/4/18. The outcome is going to set up a title match regardless, but I really want to see a big push for Ishimori because he still has something in the tank & the problem with the NJ junior division is outside of KUSHIDA, the natives are pretty much over the hill and/or uninspiring stallers, cheaters &/or clowns. I'm not thrilled about Ishimori being a heel, and he didn't seem to be either, as he didn't exactly embrace the role and maybe that had something to do with the weirdness of this contest. One of the reasons I rate these two so highly is they give an effort even when they aren't in featured matches & don't have particularly skilled opponents. It's great that this was the main event, but I was surprised they didn't at least put it on Samurai instead of the dreadful Scurll/Takahashi stallfest & especially it was peculiar that the match was shorter than the previous two, which surely didn't need that much time. Maybe they're trying to conserve Ospreay because he's still not 100%? He didn't have his injured neck taped, but was selling it constantly. Ishimori worked on the neck some, but it seemed more of a theme because Ospreay was selling it in between his offense than because Ishimori really committed to attacking it. That was one of the problems with the match in general, the individual moves & sequences were impressive but definitely more in & of themselves than as a cohesive whole. There was a great spot early where Ishimori tried to whip Ospreay into the 1st row, but Ospreay leaped over the chairs onto the stage & somersaulted right back off onto Ishimori. The match was based on of quick bursts of fantastic counters back & forth, but was somewhat "slow" in between these parity oriented spots. It wasn't really building per se, but eventually they went from starts & stops to the finishing sequence with Ospreay finally taking over with a series of big moves including the swandive shooting star press. Ishimori seemed to come back with a fabulous reverse Frankensteiner, but then Ospreay countered back with the Spanish fly & went to finish with is Oscutter only to have Ishimori turn it into the bloody cross for the win. You could tell this was the finishing sequence, but it was surprising that there wasn't a lot more before it. The match was fine, but the overall feeling I was left with is that I want to see them do a big match rather than that I just saw something that stood on its own. ***
Shota Umino vs. Yota Tsuji 7:26
Will Ospreay & YOH & YOSHI-HASHI vs. ACH & Tiger Mask & Tomoyuki Oka 11:06
Minoru Suzuki & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Flip Gordon & Toa Henare 11:16
BUSHI & SANADA vs. Chase Owens & Taiji Ishimori 9:45
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Block B Match: Dragon Lee [2] vs. SHO [0] 17:31. This was SHO's Super Jr debut, and I believe his first singles match since HOG 8/18/17. The tournament is seriously lacking firepower this year taking Volador Jr & Ricochet out of the already weak group from last year & really only replacing them with Ishimori (Soberano and/or Cavernario should be in if they wanted someone from CMLL younger than Volador or just different after two straight years), so a lot is actually going to fall on SHO & YOH, who aren't experienced or great singles wrestlers, but at least are young guns who should give an effort. Effort was what was lacking last year, with all the shows basically being main event or nothing, so especially given I automatically write off any show that features an insecure cartoonish clown who flaps his arms & regularly makes his opponents look equally foolish (if that's even possible) laying around forever while he preens & poses yet still falling into his traps they can see &/or hear coming a mile away, it was refreshing to see the 1st of the league matches on the card get plenty of time & have both men working really hard to justify the length. Lee started off last year's tournament with one of the better matches against Takahashi, but wasn't really featured much after that despite winding up in the million way tie for 2nd behind Ospreay. He did a great job here, giving an explosive performance that the fans got behind because they realized how hard he was trying when they saw him doing simple things such as running the ropes a lot harder & faster than he needed to. The cooperation was a bit obvious & deliberate because of some combination of the lack of familiarity, language barrier, & SHO's inexperience, but they built a consistently exciting match that told a story with Lee generally eventually winning the various parity sequences but still winding up in trouble because SHO injured his arm & worked it over, including faking a dive but instead hitting a soccerball kick to Lee's arm that was resting on the apron. Lee would eventually win the fierce elbow exchanges, and when he wasn't having luck breaking SHO's armwringer with single elbows, he started working SHO's arm as well, turning a lariat into a wakigatame & avenging with his own soccerball kick to the arm. I would have thought more of the match if someone actually won with an arm move. In the end, SHO isn't quite there yet so there are a lot of matches that are performed cleaner & more precisely, but what was great is they packed 25 minutes of action in 17 whereas most NJ matches tend to do the opposite. ***1/2
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Block B Match: El Desperado [2] vs. Ryusuke Taguchi [0] 13:17
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Block B Match: Chris Sabin [2] vs. KUSHIDA [0] 13:47
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Block B Match: Hiromu Takahashi [2] vs. Marty Scurll [0] 20:47
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Block A Match: Tiger Mask [4] vs. YOH [2] 13:33
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Block A Match: Flip Gordon [2] vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru [0] 10:03
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Block A Match: Taiji Ishimori [4] vs. BUSHI [0] 12:02. If you edited out all the stalling, you might come up with 3 minutes of fun, no intensity action.
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Block A Match: Will Ospreay [2] vs. ACH [2] 16:50. In last year's Super Jr. League, ach was the sound of the flem coming up everytime I had to watch this guy auditioning for the EWW, preening & posing after every move, but so far this year he's left that to Scurll & now actually looks like a serious worker who thinks out there. It's somewhat ironic that ACH is so much better this year he's banged up & not doing a lot of his flying, but this was Ospreay's match through & through, developing & building through various sequences of usually highly athletic counters, and ACH was healthy enough to be on the same page with him & contributing rather than taking the easy excuse & looking for every opportunity to continue putting himself over at the expense of everything else. Ospreay is still recoving from his neck injury, but he still worked a lot harder than anyone on the card. The match was mostly his greatest hits as he was running away with the match, only getting momentarily slowed down when ACH would land a chop. ACH made counters to stay in the match such as turning the Oscutter into a Samoan driver & Sasuke special into a back back kick, but every time you thought he was about to get going he in fact couldn't maintain the offensive for more than a move or two. He still quickly took the Sasuke special & corkscrew shooting star press after seeming poised to take over. He cut Ospreay off on the top with an awesome rope climb overhead kick, but again Ospreay soon countered a suplex with a cutter, and this time finished landing on his feet for a lariat & hitting his 540 degree kick & stormbreaker for the win. I would have preferred a more competitive & thus dramatic match, but ultimately, Ospreay's stuff is a lot more entertaining than ACH's or just about anyone else's, so we could do a lot worse than a match where Will just goes to town on the opponent. ***1/2
Chase Owens & Taiji Ishimori vs. Flip Gordon & Tomoyuki Oka 7:28
Minoru Suzuki & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. ACH & Shota Umino 9:43
YOH & YOSHI-HASHI vs. Gedo & Will Ospreay 8:58
BUSHI & Tetsuya Naito vs. Tiger Mask & Toa Henare 9:58
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Block B Match: SHO [2] vs. Chris Sabin [2] 15:09. Sabin led SHO through a serious, fairly hard working legitimate wrestling match where everything was individually fine but those parts didn't really add up or awe you all that much. Still, match of the night, by default.
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Block B Match: Dragon Lee [4] vs. Ryusuke Taguchi [0] 11:14. Taguchi just did comedy, so even though Lee was doing his cool moves when he wasn't playing into Taguchi's shtick he might just as well have taken the night off because his efforts weren't going to amount to anything. Having Taguchi & Scurll in the same block is just deadly, though at least Taguchi will turn the shenanigans off & wrestle a real match when he needs to.
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Block B Match: KUSHIDA [2] vs. Marty Scurll [0] 19:22
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Block B Match: El Desperado [4] vs. Hiromu Takahashi [2] 22:48. Deliberate & contrived brawl that was trying to generate heat, but that's tough to do when you are waiting 25 seconds for Desperado to fix his mask before firing back with his elbow. Desperado does more headbanging than Tom Araya before the neck surgery, but that's not my idea of good selling, it's just bad compensation for being a masked wrestler. As always with Hiromu, there were a handful of dangerous spots, but the match really offers nothing otherwise & the pacing was terrible. It was better than Hiromu vs. Scurll by default, but Desperado hasn't shown me anything since he was Namajague & Hiromu isn't a wrestler who elevates the opposition, nor is he a good brawler.
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Block A Match: Tiger Mask [6] vs. BUSHI [0] 11:16
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Block A Match: Yoshinobu Kanemaru [2] vs. ACH [2] 14:04. ACH's injured shoulder was all taped up now, and Kanemaru worked it over all match with stomps & submissions. ACH had to do more big moves here than against Ospreay because Kanemaru does as little as humanly possible these days.
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Block A Match: Flip Gordon [4] vs. Taiji Ishimori [4] 9:27. Quick US indy style match with a lot of flash but no thought of how to turn any of these spots into a match, fittingly just randomly ending with a flash pin.
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Block A Match: Will Ospreay [4] vs. YOH [2] 16:28. By far the simpliest of Ospreay's matches thusfar in the league because YOH just isn't very advanced. Instead of the constant countering, which is the main thing that makes Ospreay so much fun, they just each had their runs of offense & YOH was still telegraphing a lot because he's just not up to speed. YOH is a really good athlete, and it was credible that he could use his quickness to gain the advantage, but then he did the thing that makes me want to shut off wrestling & just put on some real fighting immediately, walking around in a circle rather than pressing his advantage & trying to actually win. Ospreay seemed to run out of ideas of how to keep YOH in the match, and wound up doing a corny spot where he hurt his neck bouncing off the ropes so YOH could take over with a German suplex near fall. YOH was ultimately more competitive than ACH was because there were a lot less transitions in the match, but you were hoping they weren't going to do some silly upset because he certainly didn't deserve it. Probably the best thing YOH did was be alert enough to step to the right when he realized Ospreay's Sasuke special wasn't going to land where he'd set things up for Will, so he was still able to brace his fall.
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Block B Match: Marty Scurll [2] vs. Chris Sabin [2] 13:58
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Block B Match: Ryusuke Taguchi [2] vs. KUSHIDA [2] 1:34. Last year Taguchi redeemed himself for the plethora of lame comedy matches by giving one of his career performances against KUSHIDA, who carried him to arguably the best match of the league portion. That made this an anticipated match, and they treated us to this classic that literally ended during the feeling out period. I hope someone wasn't feeling good & needed the night off because Taguchi is just dead more weight if he's not even going to try against KUSHIDA.
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Block B Match: SHO [4] vs. El Desperado [4] 12:48
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Block B Match: Dragon Lee [6] vs. Hiromu Takahashi [2] 20:48. Lee is Takahashi's best opponent precisely because he doesn't allow Takahashi to be too lazy. Lee always wants to push the pace, while Takahashi really has little beyond a handful of dangerous moves, so instead of actually growing as a wrestler or adding to that he just pads out the length with a lot of dead time. If their match were merely the median of the two styles it would have a ton more action than Takahashi's match vs. pretty much anyone else, but Lee shifts the balance way in the favor of action. Lee is also always willing to be daring & engage in a game of top this, so he's a lot more game for Takahashi's car crash than probably anyone else, causing Takahashi to eventually give in to his own kamikaze tendencies. Lee is also willing to try more against Takahashi because they've fought so many times they they know what each other is thinking & have the chemistry & timing down pat. The result was the best match thus far in the Super Jr. The initial burst was really intense, but once they moved from rapid exchanging to Hiromu taking over countering Lee's running Frankensteiner with a powerbomb onto the apron, Hiromu killed the momentum becoming his usual nonchalant self, walking around in a circle after virtually every move. Lee came back countering Takahashi's leap off the apron with a dropkick then hitting a no touch tope con giro, but the difference in the two was then shown as Lee would stand over Takahashi & hit Takahashi until Takahashi hit him back, then hit him 2 or 3 more times, then do that again until Takahashi fought his way back to his feet & into the match. Lee's approach didn't take any more talent or skill, it's simply a matter of what you want to do with your allotted time, something or nothing. Lee coming out with a mask that was a fusion of his & Takahashi's old Kamataichi mask was a nice touch, but he really lit a fire under Hiromu mocking the Ingobernables cornball poses, and from there the match was pretty much nonstop action with the usual assortment of wild moves & big counters. It was very back & forth, overdoing the strike & released German suplex exchanges (Hiromu hit something like 7 released Germans in the match), but having a number of highlights such as Takahashi rolling to his feet after Lee's reverse Frankensteiner & answering with a Canadian destroyer. There wasn't a ton of drama, but when Lee stopped Hiromu's avalanche style Frankensteiner & clunkily answered with his corner hanging footstomp then followed with the Spanish fly & Dragon driver, you felt it should end & it did. As much as I'm busting on Takahashi, this was a really good effort from him as well. Even though they buried this match on the tape delayed VOD shows this year, they still gave every bit the effort they did to their featured TV-Asahi match last year. ***3/4
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Block A Match: Flip Gordon [6] vs. Tiger Mask [6] 11:15
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Block A Match: ACH [4] vs. YOH [2] 12:04. Decent simplistic match with ACH beating YOH down with chops, but YOH using his speed & athleticism for brief comebacks when ACH's charges failed. YOH seemed a little better & more confident here.
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Block A Match: Yoshinobu Kanemaru [4] vs. Taiji Ishimori [4] 14:55. These two used to have good matches in the days when Kanemaru did more than stomp & walk around aimlessly. Luckily, Ishimori remembers those days, & got Kanemaru to redo a lot of their old spots once the match finally got going. Still nothing special, but better than what we've seen from Kanemaru so far this tourney.
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Block A Match: BUSHI [2] vs. Will Ospreay [4] 14:47. The least & most basic of Ospreay's matches so far. Ospreay got some early offense then BUSHI DDT'd him on the apron & methodically worked on the neck. Even when Ospreay survived the vaunted chinlock & made a few comebacks the transitions were all very straightforward & there wasn't much going on requiring timing or interplay. BUSHI did do a nice backcracker counter to the Oscutter.
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Block B Match: Marty Scurll [4] vs. El Desperado [4] 14:40
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Block B Match: Chris Sabin [4] vs. Dragon Lee [6] 13:39. Lee wore the UWF kick pads & did the Shibata sit before the match as a tribute to his friend. There isn't a ton of similarity between the two in the ring, but Lee has been doing a lot of striking exchanges & did a sleeper into the penalty kick late for a near fall. Sabin has been trying to have a good match & relishing the opportunity this tournament has presented to do some technical wrestling. This wasn't one of his more mat oriented contests, but the good matches so far in this tournament have been whoever is wrestling Lee or Ospreay, so even though he was once again early on the card, he didn't let this opportunity pass him by. You could see he was more motivated just in the way he moved, whereas he was looking a bit creaky earlier in the tournament, he had the adrenaline going here & his knees were looking like he was a decade younger. They matched each other hold for hold & strike for strike early on. Lee wasn't nearly as reckless as he was against Takahashi because they don't have the familiarity, but they nonetheless as the match developed they played off each other really well with a lot of nice counters. One thing I liked more about this match is once it got going, they showed a lot more diversity in their exchanges, pretty much going back & forth so two moves in a row for anyone was a lot, but throwing a varity of different strikes such as lariats, superkicks into the exchanges & always countering with a different move instead of getting stuck on the German suplexes. The action flowed well, and they were able to organically find a spot for most of their big holds rather than just forcing them as is often the case with guys who aren't used to one another. There was a cool sequence where Sabin ran the apron & you thought Lee might counter the dive with the dropkick as he did to Hiromu, but instead he caught Sabin in powerbomb position, but Sabin countered with a Frankensteiner & followed with a somersault off the apron. Another nice sequence saw S abin turn the Dragon driver into a DDT, but Lee then turned the cradle shock into a cradle for his own near fall. The downside of the match was it was on the short side since it was the undercard, so that was the begining of the end as Sabin then beat Lee to a lariat & hit a couple superkicks & the cradle shock to hand Lee his first loss. The finish itself was fine, but I was really enjoying the match, & it would be nice to see them have a big match together, as they clearly could have added 1/2* to this if they went longer. ***1/2
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Block B Match: KUSHIDA [4] vs. SHO [4] 19:24. KUSHIDA has been shockingly absent so far, but he decided it was time to post. Apparently he'd been saving up all his creativity, as while I expected this to be good because SHO has been working hard in every match, I wasn't expecting KUSHIDA to que the Monty Python, but And Now for Something Completely Different, a Super Jr match that was notable because of the chain wrestling. It looked like KUSHIDA had been binge watching RINGS tapes in his absence from his usual role of saving this tournament, and decided it was time to channel his matches with Kyle O'Reilly. Though SHO isn't yet on the level of Kyle, he's proven to be very versatile in this tournament, able to do the opponent's chosen style whereas everyone is catering to his partner YOH, & still the best you can say about him is he's trying & hopefully learning. The match started with one of the most interesting openings I've ever seen from KUSHIDA. They did this sort of schoolyard grappling where KUSHIDA was always a step ahead, and thus could take SHO down with a legscissors, but when SHO tried to take him down he just matadored him, jumping over or ducking under whatever attack SHO threw at him. SHO could counter KUSHIDA once they were on the ground, but again KUSHIDA was mostly twisting & turning out of whatever SHO tried then they started exchanging flying armbars & countering with kneebars. It was pretty wild, and what was great is this wasn't just some throwaway matwork while they were biding their time to start rolling out their moves. No, the whole match was about them breaking each other down with kicks & submissions, and they never did any unrelated high spots or any pin attempts at all. Even if SHO was being put on the defensive by KUSHIDA more often than not, there's no shame in that as KUSHIDA was a real fighter before he switched to pro wrestling, while SHO is a guy who didn't even show any aptitude for grappling until this 4th match of the tournament. What impressed me is this wasn't merely a one man show like Shibata vs. Okada where sure Okada did Shibata's match but he brought no answers to anything Shibata was throwing at him & thus just cluelessly layed there trapped, SHO instead kept having answers for everything KUSHIDA threw at him, whether countering into his own submission or knowing that KUSHIDA had defended his intial submission & thus switching into a completely different submission. The big question was were they going to see this style through, or were they just going to randomly start doing their usual junior match at some point. The answer lied somewhere in between as they tried to bridge the gap between the match they were doing & the match they normally do as KUSHIDA started focusing on winning with his hoverboard lock, while SHO started working his power moves in slamming his way out of the armbar. While I would have liked to have seen a little tighter focus from SHO toward sticking to the style they started with, I wasn't particularly bothered by him trying to use his power moves as the match progressed because he was losing a very loosely worked shoot style match to a guy that absolutely should beat him in that style, so it also makes sense to change things up rather than continuing to proceed down the road to failure. What was important to me is KUSHIDA stuck to his armwork, and that kept SHO more or less to the initial style. Sure, KUSHIDA wasn't getting the submission, and eventually he was getting countered, but he was breaking SHO down as long as he had the submission on, & forcing SHO to keep coming up with an answer. Looking at the finish of the match in the results, I thought I was absolutely going to hate that KUSHIDA won with his back to the future once I started watching the match since I quickly realized it had nothing to do with the match they had started working, but actually it was brilliant. SHO's answer to the latest Kimura was standing up & using knees to try to break the lock, so once KUSHIDA grew wise to this he caught the knee & went into his other finisher. This was the only pin attempt of the match, and he converted somewhat because the move stands on its own, but probably more because SHO didn't see it coming. SHO's breakout match, and the best match of the tournament so far. ****1/4
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Block B Match: Hiromu Takahashi [4] vs. Ryusuke Taguchi [2] 14:49. Taguchi did his one semi-serious match of the tournament, and while his buffoonery played poorly trying to follow the intense shootish match of the tournament that preceeded him, that's mostly on the booking. Takahashi dominated the early portion, but after countering 2 hip attacks by being far enough away Taguchi missed & landed on Takahashi's knee sort of atomic dropping himself, Taguchi finally took over landing the 3rd attempt. From here they spent the rest of the match trading their best moves, but between the screwing around & the standing around, it was hard to get involved in because you never really felt either guy was trying to win. This is mostly the way they both wrestle all the time, actually giving much better efforts than normal, but it still feels like a hybrid between a big match and an exhibition match, that sort of self-conscious constantly acknowledging the crowd while your opponent recovers stuff that they teach in the WWE. They did fight harder & with far fewer breaks toward the end because neither could afford another loss, but by that point they'd already taught you not to take them too seriously. After his initial surge, Takahashi had his moments such as turning a running hip into a schoolboy, but usually seemed to be behind because Taguchi knew exactly what he was going to try to do, & kept answering until Takahashi ran out of answers. I liked Taguchi stopping short when Hiromu tried to counter his corner charge with his overhead belly to belly into the corner so Hiromu instead hit his head on the mat, but Hiromu caught him with it later. Even though Taguchi was going to use some ass move most of the time, he seemed to actually win a few more counter sequences than he lost, surprising Takahashi with a number of ankle locks instead, for instance after he stopped the Frankensteiner. Some of the cooperation was obvious, for instance you could see Taguchi pulling Takahashi into an ankle lock before Takahashi actually started to kick out of Taguchi's previous pin, but generally the sequences were good & the sheer number of moves the countered was impressive. In the end though, it was Takahashi who got the last laugh. Taguchi was able to roll Takahashi onto his back after Takahashi's Frankensteiner, but while he was seemingly joking about having his face in Takahashi's crotch, Takahashi locked a triangle & Taguchi went out before he could slam his way out. This was nowhere near the level of Taguchi's serious match with KUSHIDA last Super Jr., but it's probably the best you'll get from this pairing or Taguchi in this tournament. ***
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Block A Match: Taiji Ishimori [6] vs. Tiger Mask [6] 11:18
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Block A Match: BUSHI [4] vs. ACH [4] 11:57
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Block A Match: YOH [4] vs. Flip Gordon [6] 11:06. A random collection of impressive moves that don't seem that impressive because they aren't really working together, so everything is all telegraphed & contrived.
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Block A Match: Will Ospreay [6] vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru [4] 14:03. Ospreay tried, but Kanemaru has gone from being king of the juniors to the Mongolian Stomper. Last few minutes were good, so it wound up being comparable to Ishimori/Kanemaru.
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Block B Match: Marty Scurll [6] vs. Dragon Lee [6] 16:01
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Block B Match: Ryusuke Taguchi [4] vs. SHO [4] 13:08. A pleasant surprise with SHO not surprisingly wanting to put on a real match, but Taguchi shockingly obliging & after joking for the first minute, actually wrestling a more or less serious match. It was a technical match where SHO took it to Taguchi, working over the arm. Taguchi hit 2 dives in a row, but otherwise there wasn't a ton of running or jumping. Not an all out effort, but the style allowed Taguchi to do an actual match without beating up his body too much.
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Block B Match: Hiromu Takahashi [6] vs. Chris Sabin [4] 13:35. Half the match was good, half was Hiromu walking in a circle, doing a single stomp or chop, then walking in a circle again, wash, rinse, repeat. Sabin was good, but was mostly laying in wait.
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Block B Match: KUSHIDA [6] vs. El Desperado [4] 18:33. Such contrived nonsense. The match just started & Desperado barely did anything yet KUSHIDA can't manage to get himself off a dolly & just gets rolled around the arena? Then again, if the worst the opponent is going to do to you is give you a joy ride, I suppose you might just as well lay back & relax. The ref let them use chairs on the outside for seemingly 5 minutes, only to start a count after Desperado finally got back in the ring? Just when it threatened to turn into a wrestling match, there was a cheesy ref bump on Desperado's bodyslam attempt, so there was no one to call the match when Kushida countered into the Kimura & Desperado spent the next minute spanking his butt trying to tap. And this is one of the places wrestling is so hopelessly outdated because if it were real, the only thing Desperado is doing after this is rushing to the hospital, but in the fantasy world tearing muscles & tendons leads to a great reprive. Normally, Desperado would come back & win, but the ref bump only managed to postpone KUSHIDA's victory for about 2 minutes. There were obviously some good moments here & there when they actually wrestled since KUSHIDA is the best native on the roster, but for the most part the whole thing was just too lame & nonsensical to care about.
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Block A Match: BUSHI [6] vs. Flip Gordon [6] 11:58
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Block A Match: Taiji Ishimori [8] vs. ACH [4] 11:57. Pretty good effort, but so much of Ishimori's offense these days is so cutesy it winds up feeling like an exhibition.
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Block A Match: Will Ospreay [8] vs. Tiger Mask [6] 12:05. Tiger occupies an odd space in the tournament where he doesn't actively suck like Scurll, BUSHI, & Desperado, but is kind of on par with Kanemaru as old guys that were once good who are now just trying to preserve their bodies as much as possible. He's the more watchable of the two because while he never really impresses, he's at least solid & doesn't drag the match to a near standstill with his bland kicking style. This was his best match this year because it deviated from his usual nondescript formula once he reinjured Ospreay's neck with a tombstone piledriver early on. Ospreay is far from the most subtle seller, but he was putting the neck over endlessly, even halting one of his comebacks when he jarred it running into the turnbuckle. While not something to go out of your way to see, the match adds to the tournament by telling the necessary story pretty well, and both do enough to keep it entertaining before Ospreay rather randomly manages to overcome the adversity.
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Block A Match: YOH [6] vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru [4] 16:37. These guys don't belong anywhere near the main event. YOH would at least try, but Kanemaru typically dominated walking in circles while YOH laid there selling the latest stomp or chair shot. They repeatedly teased the count out no one believed in so Kanemaru could stall that much more. Match was passable when YOH was on offense, but it just looked like a lesser version of Kanemaru/Ishimori with YOH doing the cutesy rope spots. Kanemaru really dominated this, but YOH took his few moves he still does & scored the contrived upset victory on the 2nd flash pin attempt.
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Block B Match: Chris Sabin [6] vs. El Desperado [4] 12:14
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Block B Match: Marty Scurll [8] vs. Ryusuke Taguchi [4] 15:42
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Block B Match: Hiromu Takahashi [8] vs. SHO [4] 16:19. SHO was once again really impressive here, as he worked a match that purported to be the typical Takahashi match, but actually turned it into something much more consistent & intense rather than the usual car crash with a lot of walking in circles. The pacing of this match was much better as SHO kept the running sequences, but they also mostly pressed their advantages rather than it being so uneven with all of Hiromu's stops that just let the opponent off the hook, with SHO often inserting his technical wrestling, in this case working the arm, into Hiromu's usual gaps. It didn't have the highs of most Hiromu matches, but it was a much more complete match that was interesting from start to finish. Takahashi still won when SHO twice failed to slam his way out of a triangle, but it's definitely SHO rather than Takahashi that looks like they'll eventually succeed KUSHIDA as the top working native in the division, unless SHO is just moved up to heavyweight. ***1/2
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Block B Match: KUSHIDA [8] vs. Dragon Lee [6] 18:17. These are the two best workers in this block, but the match took place at a very inopportune time with both wrestlers needing the win to have any real chance of making the finals, but KUSHIDA obviously having to come out on top so his big main event match the next night with Takahashi would decide the block. As there was no day off & KUSHIDA was going 25 minutes tomorrow, it was a tough ask for him to deliver the match this deserved on this small show. Lee is a workhorse though, and KUSHIDA wasn't just going to allow himself to be shown up, so they wound up giving a big match effort anyway. What was really good about the match is it just kept going, there were a lot of running sequences because of Lee & a lot of submissions because of KUSHIDA, but there styles blend together a lot better than you might think & they both did a good job of countering in & out of styles as well as showing what they had to offer in the other guys style. Because both are diverse, they were able to get away with never deciding on a particular style & instead showing more of what they have to offer. Sometimes they were just throwing out their lucha/flying, submissions, & strikes, but the match was always entertaining, starting good & gaining momentum for excellent stretch run. There was a great spot early where Lee tried to counter the wheelbarrow with an armdrag, but KUSHIDA jumped & hooked an armbar in midair. Later, Lee turned the Masahiro Tanaka into the Shibata standing sleeper, but KUSHIDA escaped with an ipponzeoi into the Kimura. Lee matadored KUSHIDA & hit a killer German suplex as he bounced off the ropes then, when KUSHIDA tried to comeback charging with a lariat, Lee took him down hard & fast into a wakigatame. Lee added the headbutt to his Shibata tributes, breaking KUSHIDA's armbar in the ropes & setting up his corner hanging footstomp. KUSHIDA did a sick, fast DDT counter to a Lee's desnucadora & hit his Back to the Future, but Lee hooked the small package on impact to nearly steal the win. Lee followed with an awesome reverse Frankensteiner & again tried the desnucadora, but this time KUSHIDA turned it into his Back to the Future for the win. I liked this match a lot more the second time I watched it when I was over it not being the match it could have been, but it still seemed like something was missing. I'm not sure if that was from them or the way the match was shot, but I feel like there was probably more urgency & intensity than came across here. Still, it's at least in the running with Lee vs. Takahashi for the 2nd best match of the tournament so far. ***3/4
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Block A Match: ACH [6] vs. Tiger Mask [6] 8:27
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Block A Match: Yoshinobu Kanemaru [6] vs. BUSHI [6] 9:24
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Block B Match: Ryusuke Taguchi [6] vs. Chris Sabin [6] 10:56. Pretty good short match. They did enough to keep it entertaining early, & it was good down the stretch, though it's hard for any Taguchi match to feel like more than a diversion. Sabin is the one guy here who could be said to have had a good tournament without having much to show for it, as he was consistently trying but was always buried in 1 of the early matches, and thus never really got the best efforts of his opponents who were saving it for their featured matches.
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Block B Match: El Desperado [6] vs. Dragon Lee [6] 12:18. Lee did 2 dives right off the bat, but there's only so much you can do against an opponent who refuses to display any skill or subtlety. They really need to take the mask of Desperado because he so overcompensates for not being able to make facial expressions by shaking like he's in the electric chair & screaming that it just makes it impossible to take the opponents offense seriously, which I guess puts it on par with his offense, which is just stalking around stomping & using chairs. He's essentially Kanemaru except Kanemaru doesn't make a fool out of himself & actually still does a number of things well when he finally gets around to it. Lee did rip the mask, but that just hampered Desperado further, as he kept trying to lean & angle the right way so his long hair would cover the exposed part of his face. Though Desperado spent 2 years in CMLL in what seems like another lifetime when he actually tried to wrestle, Lee didn't even bother trying any lucha & basically just focused on Shibata tributes.
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Block A Match: Will Ospreay [10] vs. Flip Gordon [6] 19:36. A fun match, but while Ospreay can normally make any completely unrealistic high flying action into a somewhat realistic struggle where the end game is urgent & meaningful, Gordon seemed to undermine that at every turn with both the way he wrestles & his general demeanor. Gordon has cool gymnastic offense, but has yet to figure out how to incorporate it plausibly into a match. It's often just too slow developing, so, at best, his opponent is just standing or laying there watching him do his cartwheels & whatnot, at worst they have to actively make a fool of themselves running into his headscissors when he's walking around on his hands for 30 seconds. Sure, there's suspension of disbelief required for any of this stuff, but the difference between Ospreay & Flip is in their timing. For instance, here Flip waits until Ospreay already has 1 foot on the top rope & is about ready to jump off to do his kip up then hit an enzuigiri so Ospreay is left to just stare at him like a dolt, whereas Ospreay essentially stops Flip's forward progress pushing off him to backflip & is much quicker to follow with the enzuigiri, so it's easier to accept. Part of this is simply that Ospreay is quicker, more athletic, and has better reflexes. You can see it in how much more fluid his kip up counter to the shoulderblock was than Flip's a few moments earlier. They started with a bunch of athletic counters, and this is normally some of Ospreay's best stuff, but against Flip it just felt like a lighthearted exhibition. Ospreay knew he had to be the solid one, and shifted from the flying to strikes & submissions. Flip had his moments, of course, such as an insane swandive double jump tope con giro, corkscrew moonsault off the 2nd, & Samoan special. Ospreay did a number of cool things as well, though this match actually wasn't as flippy as Flip vs. another flipper would lead you to believe. Nonetheless, they did so many good moves that the match is worth checking out even if it's not a match you're likely to get really invested in. I liked Gordon's superkick counter for the Oscutter, and Ospreay later countering a swandive move with a cutter off the 2nd to setup winning with the stormbreaker. ***
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Block A Match: Taiji Ishimori [10] vs. YOH [6] 14:55. Ospreay stayed at ringside because he still needed Ishimori to lose to advance, and Ishimori was taunting him as he took YOH apart. The match was worked as though YOH was going to score a fluke upset, as he had one good brief spurt of offense early, but otherwise was completely overmatched. YOH looked better here than in previous matches when he actually did something, but that was so rarely the crowd went nuts when he had a couple flash pin attempts late in the manner that tennis fans start cheering for the player who is down 6-1, 5-0. Ishimori was across the board as he's been all tournament, meandering through a match that mixes some of his old good athletic stuff with some of the same uninspiring heel stuff that every other junior in the league does to equally little effect. The stretch run was good, but by that point YOH had been so buried you really didn't want him to get a contrived win because it would have felt like a stroke of the pen rather than something he actually earned. The frozen look of disbelief on Ospreay's face when Ishimori got the submission was classic.
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Block B Match: SHO [6] vs. Marty Scurll [8] 20:39
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Block B Match: Hiromu Takahashi [10] vs. KUSHIDA [8] 24:16. One of the reasons KUSHIDA is the best native in the company is he still comes up with matches you haven't seen before. This wasn't his best tournament overall given he was denied the opportunity to deliver a great final, but he still had the best two, arguably even 3 matches of the league, and they weren't the best by the default scenario of simply having great workers going hard & throwing bombs being enough to outshine the competition, they instead stood out because they were different & fresh. This was the progressive rock version of a wrestling match, with all sorts of style & tempo changes keeping things unpredictable. It had an incredibly odd start to say the least, but whether I really liked that part or not, it did set an unusual tone. The 1st 5 minutes literally consisted of them staring at each other & clinching, which was supposed to help elevate this battle to determine the B Block finalist into the realm of epic struggle between the top native juniors, but wasn't as interesting as their big strike exchange to start off the 6/9/18 match, and would have been a lot more believable if someone at least threw a knee or actually, well, tried anything. Suddenly, the match exploded for a minute & they went from this weird sort of leverage game into a full on sprint with Takahashi failing on his sunset flip powerbomb & KUSHIDA hitting his tope con giro. It immediately slowed down to start the body of the match with KUSHIDA working the arm, but would continue to have more & more bursts of action as the match progressed, with Takahashi soon getting in his missile kick of the apron. They had three big title matches in 2017, the third being the best by a mile, so it's not that they were doing a lot of new moves, but it just felt so different because they were actually doing something during the "stops". The upside of Takahashi is his daring explosive action, but that's often negated by the downside of him not having anything else interesting to do & thus just wasting time until his next explosion. The way KUSHIDA structured this match really accentuated the good Takahashi while minimalizing the bad, as the starts & stops not only helped tell the story of the match with Hiromu wanting the wild spectacular action while KUSHIDA preferrred the technical wrestling, but allowed them to make the slower segments useful by delivering interesting technical wrestling that was crucial to the story they were telling. They were able to move from one style to the other effectively, with big spots such as KUSHIDA stopping Takahashi's avalanche style move & countering with the armbreaker off the 2nd & Hiromu lifting his way out of the Kimura & countering with his dynamite plunger. The match may have started slow, but it built up a ton of momentum & intrigue as it progressed. Takahashi's triangle is an element of surprise rather than something you wear down into (granted in reality essentially all submissions are). He got it after a Frankensteiner, but KUSHIDA cartwheeled out. Later, he got it after the Masahiro Tanaka & KUSHIDA failed to cartwheel out but protected his neck with his hand long enough to make it to the ropes. Hiromu followed with his deadly new martinete especial into another triangle to advance to the final. This really blew away their Tokyo Dome match last year & was a little better than their Dominion match. I can see people preferring the Dominion match because it's more spectacular, but this match was more original & compelling to me. It's hard to imagine the final being better given Ishimori hasn't shown much this tournament & both are wrestlers who can do their own thing well & work to the level of the opposition but aren't going to make anyone better. ****1/4
Chris Sabin & Flip Gordon vs. Shota Umino & Tiger Mask 6:32
Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano & YOSHI-HASHI vs. Minoru Suzuki & TAKA Michinoku & Takashi Iizuka 10:01
Hirooki Goto & SHO & YOH vs. El Desperado & Taichi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru 11:44
Marty Scurll & Yujiro Takahashi vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Toa Henare 13:17
BUSHI & EVIL & SANADA & Tetsuya Naito vs. ACH & Dragon Lee & KUSHIDA & Ryusuke Taguchi 18:09
Kazuchika Okada & Will Ospreay vs. Chase Owens & Kota Ibushi 13:02
Best Of The Super Junior 2018 Final Match: Hiromu Takahashi vs. Taiji Ishimori 34:01. When you take two guys who can't carry a match and are very explosive but short on material & suddenly ask them to go more than twice as long as normal, you can't really expect to get anything but an inconsistent, meandering up & down contest. These aren't guys you necessarily look to for solid wrestling, but over the course of 15 minutes they would have done enough crazy stunts that it wouldn't have really mattered. When you are instead stretching those stunts over 35 minutes, that obviously makes them much less explosive & leaves you with a 20 minute void. I love long matches, but you have to actually have something going on & do something with the time. This match had more padding than extra thick memory foam. Hiromu was in kamikaze mode even much more than usual, actually coming up with a new sequence that will take more time off his career where he did a running dropkick on the outside to set up one of the most reckless stunts I've ever seen, trying to powerbomb Ishimori but taking an absolutely insane bump down a flight of stairs when Ishimori reversed with a Frankensteiner. There were plenty of other cool spots, for instance Taiji countering the sunset flip powerbomb by backflipping off the apron, Takahashi getting his knees up for the 450 splash, & Takahashi armdragging his way out of the bloody cross then getting his Frankensteiner turned into a powerbomb but locking his triangle which Ishimori eventually escaped slamming him into the turnbuckle. For the most part though, they just did the moves they always do without incorporating them into their overlong exhibition, and outside of some bad brawling & hokey schoolyard chasing, the rest of the body largely consisted of someone doing some random thing & walking in a circle or playing to the crowd then eventually doing some other random thing, wash, rinse, repeat. There was no flow to the action & no real purpose to virtually anything they were doing out there. These guys are great athletes who are capable of fantastic things when there's someone to pull it out of them, but together all they could do was to take some risks & roll through their arsenals. It was basically Sabu vs. RVD level stuff minus the handful of horrible miscues. This might be the worst Super Jr final ever. I'm not even sure it cracks the top 10 matches of the tournament, and this was one of the weaker tournaments to begin with. ***
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Title Match: El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. SHO & YOH 9:29
David Finlay & Juice Robinson vs. Jay White & YOSHI-HASHI 7:26
Minoru Suzuki & Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano 8:42
NEVER Openweight Title Three Way Match: Hirooki Goto vs. Michael Elgin vs. Taichi 13:46
IWGP Tag Title Match: Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson vs. EVIL & SANADA 15:03
Cody & Hangman Page & Marty Scurll vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Jushin Thunder Liger & Rey Mysterio Jr. 11:35
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Will Ospreay vs. Hiromu Takahashi 20:20
IWGP Intercontinental Title Match: Tetsuya Naito vs. Chris Jericho 17:16
IWGP Heavyweight Title No Time Limit 2/3 Falls Match: Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega 64:50 [28:47, 19:10, 16:53]
Yota Tsuji vs. Yuya Uemura 10:00
Manabu Nakanishi & Yuji Nagata vs. Shota Umino & Tomoyuki Oka 9:04
Taiji Ishimori & Yujiro Takahashi vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Ren Narita 7:14
Jeff Cobb & KUSHIDA & Ryusuke Taguchi & Toa Henare & Togi Makabe vs. Rocky Romero & SHO & Toru Yano & YOH & YOSHI-HASHI 11:03
BUSHI & EVIL & Hiromu Takahashi & SANADA & Tetsuya Naito vs. El Desperado & Taichi & TAKA Michinoku & Takashi Iizuka & Yoshinobu Kanemaru 10:16
Jay White & Kazuchika Okada & Tomohiro Ishii vs. David Finlay & Hiroshi Tanahashi & Juice Robinson
NEVER Openweight Title Match: Michael Elgin vs. Hirooki Goto 30:57
6/13/03: Masayuki Naruse vs. Minoru Suzuki
9/21/03, NWF Heavyweight Title Match: Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Minoru Suzuki
11/3/03: Minoru Suzuki vs. Yuji Nagata
10/8/12, IWGP Heavyweight Title Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Minoru Suzuki
11/9/13, IWGP Intercontinental Title Match: Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Minoru Suzuki
1/4/15 UWFI Rules Match: Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Minoru Suzuki
8/8/17, G1 Climax 2017 B Block Match: Kazuchika Okada vs. Minoru Suzuki
1/27/18, IWGP Intercontinental Title Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Minoru Suzuki
6/23/18 Red Brick Warehouse Event Plaza, Minoru Suzuki Debut 30th Anniversary Match: Kazuchika Okada vs. Minoru Suzuki 30:00
Chasyn Rance vs. Aaron Epic
Michael Nakazawa vs. Adam Schmidt 1:12
Alex Jebailey vs. Michael Nakazawa 4:02
Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Rocky Romero
Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa vs. David Finlay & Juice Robinson
Jeff Cobb vs. Chase Owens
Dragon Lee & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. SHO & YOH
Kenny Omega & Kota Ibushi vs. Hiromu Takahashi & Tetsuya Naito
The Great O-Kharn vs. Shota Umino 10:02
Taiji Ishimori & Yujiro Takahashi vs. Kyle Fletcher & Mark Davis 12:57
Tiger Mask vs. David Starr 11:01
El Desperado & Taichi & Takashi Iizuka vs. Gedo & Jay White & Toru Yano 10:40
WALTER vs. Yuji Nagata 12:27
YOSHI-HASHI vs. Chris Brookes 9:03
Will Ospreay vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru 10:59
RevPro Undisputed British Tag Title Match: Minoru Suzuki & Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Kazuchika Okada & Tomohiro Ishii 25:45
The Great O-Kharn vs. Danny Duggan
Yuji Nagata vs. Shota Umino
El Desperado & Takashi Iizuka & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Gedo & Toru Yano & YOSHI-HASHI
WALTER vs. Yujiro Takahashi
Taichi vs. Will Ospreay
Four Way Match: David Starr vs. El Phantasmo vs. Taiji Ishimori vs. Tiger Mask
Jay White vs. Kyle Fletcher
Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Kazuchika Okada
RevPro Undisputed British Heavyweight Title Match: Tomohiro Ishii vs. Minoru Suzuki
Chase Owens & Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa & Yujiro Takahashi & King Haku vs. Gedo & Rocky Romero & SHO & YOH & YOSHI-HASHI 9:20
Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano vs. Minoru Suzuki & Zack Sabre Jr. 9:42
Hangman Page & Marty Scurll vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi & KUSHIDA
NEVER Openweight Title Match: Hirooki Goto vs. Jeff Cobb 12:10
IWGP Tag Title Match: Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson vs. EVIL & SANADA 16:05
Kazuchika Okada & Will Ospreay vs. BUSHI & Tetsuya Naito 11:58
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Hiromu Takahashi vs. Dragon Lee 16:18
IWGP United States Heavyweight Title Match: Jay White vs. Juice Robinson 23:22
IWGP Heavyweight Title Match: Kenny Omega vs. Cody 34:14
Hirooki Goto & Jado vs. Ren Narita & Toa Henare 6:23
SHO & Tomohiro Ishii vs. Toru Yano & YOH 7:15
Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa vs. David Finlay & Juice Robinson 6:13
TAKA Michinoku & Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Kota Ibushi & Yujiro Takahashi 5:29
SANADA & Tetsuya Naito vs. Chase Owens & Kenny Omega 5:45
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block A Match: Togi Makabe [2] vs. YOSHI-HASHI [0] 11:05
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block A Match: Hangman Page [2] vs. Bad Luck Fale [0] 8:04
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block A Match: Michael Elgin [2] vs. EVIL [0] 16:08
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block A Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi [2] vs. Minoru Suzuki [0] 13:59
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block A Match: Jay White [2] vs. Kazuchika Okada [0] 25:36
Chase Owens & Hangman Page vs. Michael Elgin & Shota Umino 6:18
BUSHI & EVIL vs. SHO & YOSHI-HASHI 5:21
El Desperado & Minoru Suzuki vs. Toa Henare & Togi Makabe 6:44
Bad Luck Fale & Tanga Loa vs. Gedo & Kazuchika Okada 6:08
David Finlay & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Jay White & YOH 8:05
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block B Match: Tomohiro Ishii [2] vs. Toru Yano [0] 8:52
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block B Match: Tama Tonga [2] vs. Juice Robinson [0] 14:52
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block B Match: Hirooki Goto [2] vs. SANADA [0] 13:38
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block B Match: Kota Ibushi [2] vs. Zack Sabre Jr. [0] 22:58
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block B Match: Kenny Omega [2] vs. Tetsuya Naito [0] 23:19
Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa vs. Shota Umino & Toa Henare 6:40
TAKA Michinoku & Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Jado & Toru Yano 5:38
David Finlay & Juice Robinson vs. Kota Ibushi & Yujiro Takahashi 6:11
SANADA & Tetsuya Naito vs. SHO & Tomohiro Ishii 7:16
Hirooki Goto & YOH vs. Chase Owens & Kenny Omega 5:30
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block A Match: Michael Elgin [4] vs. Hangman Page [2] 17:17
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block A Match: EVIL [2] vs. YOSHI-HASHI [0] 12:37
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block A Match: Togi Makabe [4] vs. Minoru Suzuki [0] 14:58
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block A Match: Bad Luck Fale [2] vs. Kazuchika Okada [0] 13:38
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block A Match: Jay White [4] vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi [2] 24:02
Jay White & YOH vs. Michael Elgin & Ren Narita 8:11
El Desperado & Minoru Suzuki vs. SHO & YOSHI-HASHI 9:07
BUSHI & EVIL vs. Toa Henare & Togi Makabe 6:14
Bad Luck Fale & Tanga Loa vs. David Finlay & Hiroshi Tanahashi 6:15
Chase Owens & Hangman Page vs. Gedo & Kazuchika Okada 5:44
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block B Match: SANADA [2] vs. Tama Tonga [2] 10:46
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block B Match: Zack Sabre Jr. [2] vs. Toru Yano [0] 10:34
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block B Match: Kota Ibushi [4] vs. Juice Robinson [0] 13:03
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block B Match: Tetsuya Naito [2] vs. Tomohiro Ishii [2] 19:13
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block B Match: Kenny Omega [4] vs. Hirooki Goto [2] 19:29
TAKA Michinoku & Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Shota Umino & Toa Henare 7:04
Kota Ibushi & Yujiro Takahashi vs. Gedo & Toru Yano 4:36
SANADA & Tetsuya Naito vs. David Finlay & Juice Robinson 7:58
Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa vs. Chase Owens & Kenny Omega 5:40
SHO & Tomohiro Ishii vs. Hirooki Goto & YOH 6:58
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block A Match: Jay White [6] vs. Michael Elgin [4] 17:44
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block A Match: Minoru Suzuki [2] vs. YOSHI-HASHI [0] 13:44
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block A Match: EVIL [4] vs. Togi Makabe [4] 10:16
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block A Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi [4] vs. Bad Luck Fale [2] 16:27
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block A Match: Kazuchika Okada [2] vs. Hangman Page [2] 17:31
SHO & YOSHI-HASHI vs. Michael Elgin & Ren Narita 6:40
Bad Luck Fale & Tanga Loa vs. BUSHI & EVIL 6:06
El Desperado & Minoru Suzuki vs. Jay White & YOH 6:00
Chase Owens & Hangman Page vs. David Finlay & Hiroshi Tanahashi 7:01
Toa Henare & Togi Makabe vs. Gedo & Kazuchika Okada 6:54
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block B Match: Toru Yano [2] vs. Kota Ibushi [4] 8:23
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block B Match: SANADA [4] vs. Zack Sabre Jr. [2] 10:45
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block B Match: Tetsuya Naito [4] vs. Juice Robinson [0] 16:43
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block B Match: Kenny Omega [6] vs. Tama Tonga [2] 9:55
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block B Match: Tomohiro Ishii [4] vs. Hirooki Goto [2] 18:15
Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa vs. Shota Umino & Toa Henare 4:36
Hirooki Goto & YOH vs. Gedo & Toru Yano 5:09
SHO & Tomohiro Ishii vs. TAKA Michinoku & Zack Sabre Jr. 4:47
David Finlay & Juice Robinson vs. Chase Owens & Kenny Omega 6:30
SANADA & Tetsuya Naito vs. Kota Ibushi & Yujiro Takahashi 7:32
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block A Match: YOSHI-HASHI [2] vs. Michael Elgin [4] 14:22
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block A Match: EVIL [6] vs. Bad Luck Fale [2] 12:13
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block A Match: Minoru Suzuki [4] vs. Jay White [6] 10:35
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block A Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi [6] vs. Hangman Page [2] 12:08
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block A Match: Kazuchika Okada [4] vs. Togi Makabe [4] 15:11
El Desperado & Minoru Suzuki vs. Michael Elgin & Ren Narita 9:24
BUSHI & EVIL vs. Chase Owens & Hangman Page 5:16
Bad Luck Fale & Tanga Loa vs. Jay White & YOH 5:10
David Finlay & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Toa Henare & Togi Makabe 6:56
SHO & YOSHI-HASHI vs. Gedo & Kazuchika Okada
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block B Match: Hirooki Goto [4] vs. Toru Yano [2] 2:17
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block B Match: Tetsuya Naito [6] vs. Tama Tonga [2] 10:06
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block B Match: Zack Sabre Jr. [4] vs. Tomohiro Ishii [4] 14:35
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block B Match: Kenny Omega [8] vs. Juice Robinson [0] 15:31
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block B Match: SANADA [6] vs. Kota Ibushi [4] 22:23
Hirooki Goto & YOH vs. Shota Umino & Toa Henare 6:41
Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa vs. TAKA Michinoku & Zack Sabre Jr. 5:45
David Finlay & Juice Robinson vs. Gedo & Toru Yano 3:54
Kota Ibushi & Yujiro Takahashi vs. SHO & Tomohiro Ishii 7:08
SANADA & Tetsuya Naito vs. Chase Owens & Kenny Omega 8:22
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block A Match: Minoru Suzuki [6] vs. Michael Elgin [4] 14:10
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block A Match: EVIL [8] vs. Hangman Page [2] 15:40
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block A Match: Bad Luck Fale [4] vs. Jay White [6] 11:42
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block A Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi [8] vs. Togi Makabe [4] 12:00
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block A Match: Kazuchika Okada [6] vs. YOSHI-HASHI [2] 19:40
Bad Luck Fale & Tanga Loa vs. Henare & Togi Makabe 6:14
Chase Owens & Hangman Page vs. Jay White & YOH 6:20
El Desperado & Minoru Suzuki vs. BUSHI & EVIL 7:06
SHO & YOSHI-HASHI vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Shota Umino 7:47
David Finlay & Michael Elgin vs. Gedo & Kazuchika Okada 8:40
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block B Match: Zack Sabre Jr. [6] vs. Tama Tonga [2] 10:59
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block B Match: Juice Robinson [2] vs. Toru Yano [2] 8:28
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block B Match: Kota Ibushi [6] vs. Tomohiro Ishii [4] 16:13
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block B Match: Tetsuya Naito [8] vs. Hirooki Goto [4] 13:26
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block B Match: Kenny Omega [10] vs. SANADA [6] 20:12
David Finlay & Juice Robinson vs. Shota Umino & Toa Henare 5:05
Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa vs. SHO & Tomohiro Ishii 6:54
SANADA & Tetsuya Naito vs. Gedo & Toru Yano 6:43
Chase Owens & Kenny Omega vs. TAKA Michinoku & Zack Sabre Jr. 5:29
Kota Ibushi & Yujiro Takahashi vs. Hirooki Goto & YOH 6:31
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block A Match: Bad Luck Fale [6] vs. Togi Makabe [4] 7:51
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block A Match: Jay White [8] vs. Hangman Page [2] 17:10
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block A Match: Minoru Suzuki [8] vs. EVIL [8] 12:13
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block A Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi [10] vs. YOSHI-HASHI [2] 12:36
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block A Match: Kazuchika Okada [8] vs. Michael Elgin [4] 20:56
Bad Luck Fale & Tanga Loa vs. Michael Elgin & Shota Umino 4:57
Chase Owens & Hangman Page vs. Toa Henare & Togi Makabe 6:40
SHO & YOSHI-HASHI vs. Jay White & YOH 6:37
BUSHI & EVIL vs. David Finlay & Hiroshi Tanahashi 6:55
El Desperado & Minoru Suzuki vs. Gedo & Kazuchika Okada 7:34
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block B Match: Tama Tonga [4] vs. Tomohiro Ishii [4] 10:32
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block B Match: Juice Robinson [4] vs. SANADA [6] 12:36
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block B Match: Tetsuya Naito [10] vs. Toru Yano [2] 8:28
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block B Match: Kenny Omega [12] vs. Zack Sabre Jr. [6] 15:14
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block B Match: Kota Ibushi [8] vs. Hirooki Goto [4] 18:09
Gedo & Toru Yano vs. Ren Narita & Toa Henare 4:53
Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa vs. Hirooki Goto & YOH 6:14
David Finlay & Juice Robinson vs. TAKA Michinoku & Zack Sabre Jr. 6:13
SHO & Tomohiro Ishii vs. Chase Owens & Kenny Omega 6:16
SANADA & Tetsuya Naito vs. Kota Ibushi & Yujiro Takahashi 6:52
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block A Match: Michael Elgin [6] vs. Bad Luck Fale [6] 11:13
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block A Match: Hangman Page [4] vs. Togi Makabe [4] 9:10
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block A Match: Jay White [10] vs. YOSHI-HASHI [2] 9:48
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block A Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi [12] vs. EVIL [8] 12:57
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block A Match: Kazuchika Okada [10] vs. Minoru Suzuki [8] 18:20
Bad Luck Fale & Tanga Loa vs. SHO & YOSHI-HASHI 5:34
El Desperado & Minoru Suzuki vs. Chase Owens & Hangman Page 8:05
Jay White & YOH vs. Toa Henare & Togi Makabe 7:07
David Finlay & Michael Elgin vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Shota Umino 8:21
BUSHI & EVIL vs. Gedo & Kazuchika Okada 6:17
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block B Match: SANADA [8] vs. Toru Yano [2] 5:22
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block B Match: Hirooki Goto [6] vs. Tama Tonga [4] 11:15
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block B Match: Zack Sabre Jr. [8] vs. Juice Robinson [4] 13:39
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block B Match: Tomohiro Ishii [6] vs. Kenny Omega [12] 22:42
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block B Match: Kota Ibushi [10] vs. Tetsuya Naito [10] 25:09
SHO & Tomohiro Ishii vs. Juice Robinson & Shota Umino 8:14
SANADA & Tetsuya Naito vs. David Finlay & Toa Henare 6:35
Hirooki Goto & YOH vs. TAKA Michinoku & Zack Sabre Jr. 5:44
Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa vs. Kota Ibushi & Yujiro Takahashi 3:31
Chase Owens & Kenny Omega vs. Gedo & Toru Yano 6:42
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block A Match: YOSHI-HASHI [4] vs. Bad Luck Fale [6] 8:31
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block A Match: Hangman Page [6] vs. Minoru Suzuki [8] 12:05
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block A Match: Jay White [12] vs. Togi Makabe [4] 10:22
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block A Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi [14] vs. Michael Elgin [6] 16:03
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block A Match: Kazuchika Okada [12] vs. EVIL [8] 18:27
Toa Henare & Togi Makabe vs. Michael Elgin & Shota Umino 7:05
Chase Owens & Hangman Page vs. SHO & YOSHI-HASHI 6:22
Bad Luck Fale & Tanga Loa vs. El Desperado & Minoru Suzuki 5:52
BUSHI & EVIL vs. Jay White & YOH 5:46
David Finlay & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Gedo & Kazuchika Okada 6:55
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block B Match: Tomohiro Ishii [8] vs. Juice Robinson [4] 12:24
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block B Match: Zack Sabre Jr. [10] vs. Hirooki Goto [6] 10:43
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block B Match: Tama Tonga [6] vs. Kota Ibushi [10] 14:17
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block B Match: Toru Yano [4] vs. Kenny Omega [12] 9:04
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block B Match: Tetsuya Naito [12] vs. SANADA [8] 19:52
SHO & Tomohiro Ishii vs. Shota Umino & Toa Henare 6:07
Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa vs. Gedo & Toru Yano 4:11
Hirooki Goto & YOH vs. David Finlay & Juice Robinson 5:25
SANADA & Tetsuya Naito vs. TAKA Michinoku & Zack Sabre Jr. 6:16
Chase Owens & Marty Scurll & Kota Ibushi vs. Kenny Omega & Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson 5:20
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block A Match: Togi Makabe [6] vs. Michael Elgin [6] 8:46
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block A Match: YOSHI-HASHI [6] vs. Hangman Page [6] 10:22
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block A Match: Minoru Suzuki [10] vs. Bad Luck Fale [6] 8:51
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block A Match: EVIL [10] vs. Jay White [12] 11:36
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block A Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi [15] vs. Kazuchika Okada [13] 30:00
David Finlay & Michael Elgin vs. Shota Umino & Toa Henare 7:00
Bad Luck Fale & Tanga Loa vs. Chase Owens & Hangman Page 3:57
Marty Scurll & Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson vs. Jay White & SHO & YOH 5:56
BUSHI & EVIL vs. El Desperado & Minoru Suzuki 7:38
Hiroshi Tanahashi & Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma vs. Gedo & Kazuchika Okada & YOSHI-HASHI 9:00
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block B Match: Toru Yano [6] vs. Tama Tonga [6] 5:08
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block B Match: Juice Robinson [6] vs. Hirooki Goto [6] 10:36
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block B Match: Tomohiro Ishii [10] vs. SANADA [8] 17:00
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block B Match: Zack Sabre Jr. [12] vs. Tetsuya Naito [12] 18:17
G1 CLIMAX 28 Block B Match: Kota Ibushi [12] vs. Kenny Omega [12] 23:13
Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma & Michael Elgin vs. Ayato Yoshida & Shota Umino & Yuji Nagata 7:12
Bad Luck Fale vs. Toa Henare 1:49
Taichi & Takashi Iizuka vs. Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI 8:03
Cody & Hangman Page vs. David Finlay & Juice Robinson 8:56
NEVER Openweight Tag Title Match: Marty Scurll & Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson vs. Taiji Ishimori & Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa 11:26
BUSHI & EVIL & SANADA & Tetsuya Naito vs. El Desperado & Minoru Suzuki & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Zack Sabre Jr. 10:41
Jay White & Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano vs. Chase Owens & Kenny Omega & Yujiro Takahashi 9:40
Ryusuke Taguchi & KUSHIDA & Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Kazuchika Okada & SHO & YOH 12:27
G1 CLIMAX 28 Final Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kota Ibushi 35:00
Frankie Kazarian & Scorpio Sky vs. Jay Briscoe & Mark Briscoe. Some hot action highlighted by Sky hitting a belly to belly over the top then Kazarian slingshotting himself to the floor for a huracanrana & Sky followed with a tope con giro. Great upset finish where Kazarian countered the doomsday device with a midair powerslam.
ROH World Title #1 Contendership 15 Man Over Budget Battle Royal featuring Chico El Luchador (Flip Gordon), Austin Gunn, Billy Gunn, Brandon Cutler, Brian Cage, Bully Ray, Cheeseburger, Chuckie T, Colt Cabana, Ethan Page, Hurricane Helms, Jimmy Jacobs, Jordynne Grace, Marko Stunt, Moose, Punishment Martinez, Rocky Romero, Tommy Dreamer, Trent
Matt Cross vs. Maxwell Jacob Friedman 10:07
Christopher Daniels vs. Stephen Amell 11:45
Four Way Match: Tessa Blanchard vs. Britt Baker vs. Chelsea Green vs. Madison Rayne 12:44
NWA World Heavyweight Title Match: Nick Aldis vs. Cody 22:02. Super contrived, ridiculously overbooked, telegraphed a mile away EWW style soap opera wrestling. It was passable by those standards, I suppose, but I'll actively avoid these two in the future.
Chicago Street Fight: Hangman Page vs. Joey Janela 20:09. An overachieving Match: where their willingness to pull out all the stops to make it memorable overshadowed everything else. It was basically an endless string of insane gimmick spots that took an eternity to set up, but their desire & creativity ultimately ruled the night. Janela is more of a stunt man than a good wrestler, but the kamikaze style of the athletic garbage stuntfest accentuated his strengths as a Foleyesque wildman while minimizing his liabilities as much as possible. Page carried the Match: & delivered most of the actual quality. Though he isn't great right now either, Page is really athletic & has shown he's willing to continue to work hard to improve now that he's finally been given the opportunity to wrestle fulltime, so long term he's probably worth the overpush he's been getting of late. They started out with flying including Page doing a moonsault to the floor then set up a chair that Page hit a fallaway slam onto & used a cracker barrel for Janela to somersault off. You knew the carnage was going to be way over the top when Page used a burning hammer onto a ladder as one of the early gimmick spots. Lethal's odes to the Macho Man seemed even more feeble distractions than usual after seeing Janela put HMP through a table with a diving elbow to the floor. Janela took another table out with his elbow when Page gave him a nutso jackknife off the stage. Janela's leg was all scratched & scraped up from going through all these tables, but there was still one final crazy bump as Page hit the rite of passage off a ladder through the table for the win. There wasn't a lot more to the Match: to be honest, but most of the night's memorable spots came here. The less said about the post Match: penis brigade, the better. ***1/4
ROH World Title Match: Jay Lethal vs. Flip Gordon 14:24. Lethal did his odes to Randy Savage & Flip did his Flips. Some highlights, mainly from Flip, but two guys doing their own thing not surprisingly didn't come together as a Match: .
Kenny Omega vs. Penta El Zero M 17:47. This dream Match: between two guys at the top of their continents wrestling scene was so far & away better than anything earlier on the card it was like it was from another planet. They didn't get as much time as we'd like or expect, but that turned out to be okay, as rather than an "epic" New Japan Match: where they just stretch everything out to pad the time, they instead were forced to speed up the pace, and wound up packing so much into the allotted 18 minutes that the issue became almost irrelevant. There finally weren't a bunch of distractions & diversions, it was just two guys relying on their own skill to have a memorable Match: , the way it should be. Penta isn't the best at pure lucha, probably even in his family, but what makes him great is he doesn't need to be running the ropes & whatnot as a lot of those guys do for his Match: es to be functional, much less great. Konnan literally destroyed AAA forcing extreme lucha, but Penta is one of the only guys who can actually do that style within the context of a good Match: , and especially a good actual wrestling Match: that doesn't simply rely on the gimmick spots but does get a lot of mileage out of them. The initial story was that brawling & generally creating chaos was to Penta's advantage, but they left this quickly, and it was mostly a high flying athletic encounter in the Japanese junior style, which suits both very well. Although this was a new Match: , these guys had fantastic chemistry, developing a counter laden Match: where they had to have answers to the opponent's favorite moves, and their timing & reacting to one another was spot on. Both wrestlers were very cocky, but that was also a story of the Match: , with both fighters coming back the moment the other tried to taunt or posterize them. Omega overdid the V-trigger & Penta overdid his no fear pose in response, but I liked Kenny responding with a powerbomb & hitting another V-trigger. Penta hit the package piledriver on the apron & supposedly broke Omega's arm, but Omega somehow finally managed to hit the one winged angel essentially with one arm to get the win after failing 4 times when he had two arms. The lights then went out & Chris Jericho appeared disguised as Penta to assault Omega. ****
Kazuchika Okada vs. Marty Scurll 26:07
Kota Ibushi & Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson vs. Bandido & Rey Fenix & Rey Mysterio 11:43. Probably would have been a great main event had they not wasted so much time with the DUD & endless other run ins to set up their next show that doesn't actually exist that they had to cut the Match: people actually came to see more than in half. What we ended up getting was about as good as anyone could expect them to deliver in 12 minutes. The athleticism was fantastic, and the work was able to hold up to the hyper speed, super athletic style for the most part. Bandido was the revelation for those who hadn't seen him before, stealing the show even from Fenix & Ibushi. The Jackson's were mostly just putting the other guys over, though they did get the pin in the end on poor Bandido, of course. Mysterio was lagging behind a bit, it was even more a young man's Match: once everyone was forced to rush so badly, but he's at the point of his career where he just does what's expected of him, and as such he more or less satisfied & held his own. This wasn't a deep Match: obviously, it was just a lightspeed spotfest, but it was super spectacular, and that's really all you could ask for given the constraints they were working under. If this were an undercard Match: on a show with the usual sluggish main event, everyone would be raving about it, but the expectations were raised so highly given they were on last it felt more throwaway than it probably should have. I don't really know how to rate the Match: , but it still managed to work & be fun. ***1/2
bonus
Crash 6/23/17: Penta El Zero M & Rey Fenix vs. La Mascara & M-ximo. Better than I expected because Maximo not only didn't hijack the match with his exotico gimmick, he didn't bother with it at all & just did the Lucha Brothers match. The brothers were good and the match was entertaining enough even though they basically just did their routine without the cousins, who were more at the fine & trying level, really adding much when they had their chances.
GALLI GALLIMania 2017 9/10/17: Penta El Zero M & Rey Fenix vs. Billy Star & DJZ vs. Gringo Loco & Skayde Jr. Truly spectacular high flying 3 way where North American stars Penta, Fenix, & DJZ more or less went all out even though this was a small indy show with a couple hundred in attendance, yet were still outdone by the unknown daredevil Billy Star, who doesn't even have his own page on cagematch. Starr was flipping all over the place from the outset, hitting a nice rana & doing a cool spot where he was back body dropped over the top rope but caught it on the way to the floor & did a skin the cat into a headscissors. He really started to get going when he hit a Frankensteiner off the middle rope to the floor then ascended to the top to moonsault the others as soon as they get up. Later, Star sprung onto the middle rope & DJZ hit a tope through his legs then Star followed with a quebrada. This was my kind of lucha match with no obvious technicos or rudos, no stalling or fouls, just 6 guys showing off their athletic skills to the extent of their abilities. I'm focusing on Star partly because of the three locals, he's the one that very obviously should have a good career well beyond that, and partly because you should know how good the Lucha Brothers are already. The match was great when Star or DJZ were working with Lucha Brothers, and just good the rest of the time. Gringo & Skayde were fine. They have nowhere near the athleticism or creativity as the others, but the worst thing they did was slow down the match by making it more deliberate. There was a funny spot where Gringo tried an electric chair off the 2nd, but DJZ turned it into a sunset flip powerbomb causing Grinco to essentially moonsault onto his partner Skayde. This was probably a **** match with a fitting conclusion, but I was annoyed by the useless nonsense of Mascara suddenly coming out & knocking Fenix off the top rope to stop him from finishing Skayde with the diving footstomp/package piledriver combination. A minute or two later, Pentagon was able to set it up again on Star, and this time when Mascara tried to interfere, his cousin Maximo tripped him up, which allowed Star to be pinned. ***3/4
4/12/18 World Heavyweight Title #1 Contendership Match: Penta El Zero M vs. Fenix. This was the best sort of brothers match where they have that love/hate relationship that allows them to absolutely beat the hell out of each other, but they also know each other so well they consistently set each other up perfectly. The basis of the match if Pentagon was just going to pound & overwhelm Fenix if Fenix didn't make something happen, so Fenix consistently pulled his creative high risk moves & was either rewarded or punished with a high impact counter. Since Penta was winning, the match was mostly designed to showcase Fenix, who was consistently too quick & too clever for his larger brother. The match was truly a great display for Fenix's speed & explosiveness. There was an insane spot early where Penta shot Fenix up in the air as sort of a back body drop variant, but Fenix forward flipped into a Frankensteiner that sent Penta to the floor so Fenix could hit a double jump plancha. Fenix did a good job of chaining his big offense together, stunning Penta with the counter then immediately capitalizing while he was prone. For instance, Fenix hit a springboard enzuigiri to stop Pentagon from running him into the turnbuckle then followed with his sprinboard footstomp. The match finally turned when Penta avoided a German suplex on the apron & Penta countered with his Pentagon driver on the apron. Penta then "broke" his own brothers arm and finished with the Pentagon driver after Fenix kicked out of the fear factor. It was a little on the short side, and didn't have the best dramatic arch, but it was a difficult match with spot on timing & execution. Pretty much everything they did was fantasic or brutal, if not both. ****
Chase Owens & Yujiro Takahashi vs. Ren Narita & Shota Umino 8:16
Bad Luck Fale & Taiji Ishimori & Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa vs. Ayato Yoshida & David Finlay & Juice Robinson & Michael Elgin 9:34
Beretta vs. Toa Henare 8:47
Gedo & Hirooki Goto vs. Taichi & TAKA Michinoku 9:19
BUSHI & EVIL & SANADA & Tetsuya Naito vs. El Desperado & Minoru Suzuki & Takashi Iizuka & Yoshinobu Kanemaru 12:03
Kazuchika Okada & Toru Yano & YOSHI-HASHI vs. Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma & Hiroshi Tanahashi 13:25
Kenny Omega & Kota Ibushi vs. Tomohiro Ishii & Will Ospreay 19:30
Jushin Thunder Liger & KUSHIDA & Tiger Mask vs. Rocky Romero & SHO & YOH 7:14
Bad Luck Fale vs. Toa Henare 2:46
Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Lance Archer vs. Ayato Yoshida & Michael Elgin 8:53
Beretta & Chuckie T & Will Ospreay vs. Chase Owens & Yujiro Takahashi & Kota Ibushi 9:50
NEVER Openweight Tag Title Match: Taiji Ishimori & Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa vs. David Finlay & Juice Robinson & Ryusuke Taguchi 11:27
Gedo & Hirooki Goto & Toru Yano vs. Taichi & Takashi Iizuka & Yoshinobu Kanemaru 10:42
BUSHI & EVIL & SANADA & Tetsuya Naito vs. El Desperado & Minoru Suzuki & TAKA Michinoku & Zack Sabre Jr. 12:12
Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Jay White & Kazuchika Okada & YOSHI-HASHI 12:14
IWGP Heavyweight Title Match: Kenny Omega vs. Tomohiro Ishii 30:55
Manabu Nakanishi & Yuji Nagata & Yuya Uemura vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima & Yota Tsuji 9:08
David Finlay & Ren Narita vs. Shota Umino & Toa Henare 6:38
Ayato Yoshida vs. Takashi Iizuka 4:30
Jushin Thunder Liger & KUSHIDA & Ryusuke Taguchi & Tiger Mask vs. Rocky Romero & SHO & Will Ospreay & YOH 10:00
Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Lance Archer vs. Beretta & Chuckie T 10:34
El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Zack Sabre Jr. vs. BUSHI & EVIL & SANADA 8:31
Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma & Hiroshi Tanahashi & Juice Robinson vs. Jay White & Kazuchika Okada & Toru Yano & YOSHI-HASHI 13:01
NEVER Openweight Title Match: Hirooki Goto vs. Taichi 20:54
Tetsuya Naito vs. Minoru Suzuki 32:08
Yota Tsuji vs. Yuya Uemura 10:00
SHO & YOH vs. Ren Narita & Shota Umino 8:46
Jushin Thunder Liger & Tiger Mask vs. El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru 6:50
Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima & Manabu Nakanishi & Yuji Nagata vs. Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma & Ayato Yoshida & Ryusuke Taguchi 9:56
Beretta & Chuckie T vs. Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Lance Archer 12:41
Jay White & Will Ospreay & YOSHI-HASHI vs. David Finlay & Juice Robinson & Toa Henare 9:05
EVIL & SANADA & Tetsuya Naito vs. Minoru Suzuki & TAKA Michinoku & Zack Sabre Jr. 11:20
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title Tournament Semifinal Match: KUSHIDA vs. BUSHI 16:41
IWGP Heavyweight Title #1 Contendership Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada 35:43
ACH & Jushin Thunder Liger & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Rocky Romero & SHO & YOH 8:55
Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian vs. Chase Owens & Hangman Page 8:14
Chris Sabin & Flip Gordon & Jeff Cobb vs. Beretta & Hirooki Goto & Chuckie T 12:04
Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Lance Archer & Zack Sabre Jr. vs. EVIL & SANADA & Tetsuya Naito 9:27
Gedo & Jay White vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi & KUSHIDA 8:52
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title Tournament Semifinal Match: Marty Scurll vs. Will Ospreay 16:38
IWGP Tag Title Match: Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson vs.
Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa 19:21
IWGP United States Heavyweight Title Match: Juice Robinson vs. Cody 16:45
Kenny Omega & Kota Ibushi vs. Kazuchika Okada & Tomohiro Ishii 23:06
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Title Match: El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Jushin Thunder Liger & Tiger Mask 9:51
Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma vs. Juice Robinson & Toa Henare 10:20
Bad Luck Fale & Taiji Ishimori & Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa vs. Chase Owens & Hangman Page & Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson 12:06
Hirooki Goto & Tomohiro Ishii & Will Ospreay vs. Minoru Suzuki & Taichi & Takashi Iizuka 12:10
BUSHI & SANADA & Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito vs. Kazuchika Okada & SHO & Toru Yano & YOH 9:30
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title Tournament Final Match: KUSHIDA vs. Marty Scurll 18:33
IWGP Heavyweight Title #1 Contendership Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Jay White 20:40
IWGP Heavyweight Title Three Way Match: Kenny Omega vs. Cody vs. Kota Ibushi 34:13
KUSHIDA vs. Kurtis Chapman 13:03. Chapman is a 20-year-old technical wrestler who has worked less matches in his 5 year career than KUSHIDA has so far this year. KUSHIDA didn't have to give an effort against him, but Chapman has a lot of potential, and is the type of opponent you can do an interesting match with without killing yourself as he's more into the classic British technical style where there's tumbling but not really stunts per se. KUSHIDA is the best NJPW opponent they could have given him to work this style, both for willingness & ability. The theoritic story was veteran KUSHIDA was schooling the kid, but actually KUSHIDA kept setting Chapman up to pull off game changing counters out of nowhere. Chapman is still green, but once he gains more confidence & experience, I think most of the awkwardness we're seeing here will be shed, and his work will become a lot more fluid & flowing. Perhaps this wasn't quite a good match as KUSHIDA won when he was ready to, but it was such a mismatch on paper it had every right to be nothing at all, yet it wasn't lazy or predictable or just going through the motions, and Chapman should have earned some fans here.
EVIL & SANADA vs. Timothy Thatcher & WALTER 12:40
The Great O-Kharn vs. Rishi Ghosh 10:21
Tetsuya Naito vs. Chris Brookes 11:52
Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Hirooki Goto 14:52. I'm a big fan of these guys, but their styles weren't meshing as well as I hoped & the intensity was lacking. Sabre was provoking Goto with cheap shots looking to then counter an overaggressive strike into a submission. Sabre succeeded with a kneebar on the floor, and proceeded to work over the appendage. Once Sabre took control, he pretty much had his way because Goto wasn't striking with particular ferocity & Sabre would just cut him off with kicks to the knee whenever he felt like it. Sabre just had to many options & answers, and despite a couple big moments, Goto could never really get on track.
Satoshi Kojima vs. Mark Davis 9:33
El Phantasmo vs. Rocky Romero 10:33. A partial rematch of the British J final that was better than expected. Phantasmo has a nice mix of athleticism & charisma, and did enough to keep things interesting after the hot start.
Chris Ridgeway vs. Will Ospreay 14:35. As with last year's Global Wars main event vs. Sabre, Ospreay did an intricate counter laden technical contest that was much more toward his opponent's match than his own. While it wasn't match of the year this time, it was excellent while it lasted, again showing what Ospreay can do when he isn't pidgeonholed into simply being a flippy guy. That's not to say his athleticism wasn't crucial to the match, but it was applied in many different areas, sometimes enhancing his opponent's shoot style, sometimes being a stark contrast to it. Ridgeway is really coming into his own, and did a nice job with his throwback shooter style that has some functional updates such as incorporating low kicks & combinations. He was really impressive here as well, and the match was interesting both when Ospreay was Ridgeway's style, and when Ospreay was actively defying it by taking his openings for showy high flying counters that Ridgeway, in story, doesn't approve of. Ospreay's flying looked even more super impressive than usual here because it was so much faster & more explosive than anything else that was being done it was almost unbelievable in a good way. In this context, it had that where did that come from & how did he do that kind of vibe that you wouldn't get in something like Ospreay vs. Ricochet where the match is ostensibly just a series of these kind of stunts. The match built well from Ospreay hanging with Ridgeway in a technical match to beating his technique with his flying out of nowhere to Ridgeway finding answers & showing his style was the more reliable one. There was a great double sell spot where Ospreay backflipped to avoid a rainmaker & hit a Ligerbomb, but Ridgeway popped up & nailed him with a soccer kick. Ridgeway was too damaged to capitalize, but he was winning the striking sequences & making progress toward getting a submission victory. Unfortunately, when Ospreay rammed backwards into the corner to break a rear naked choke he didn't gauge his distance right on his subsequent overhead kick & wound up whiffing & injuring his ribs on the landing. Ospreay knew something was wrong, and they went to what I assume was the planned finish. Ospreay still hit a float over superplex, but then Ridgeway countered his attempt to turn Ridgeway's suplex into a cutter by leaping into another rear naked choke. This was actually a great surprise finish that was a fitting closing to the match. Obviously, it would have been better if they didn't cut out however many minutes they had planned between the injury & that finish, but what they got in stands up really well on its own. What was annoying is rather than allowing Ridgeway's huge upset sink in, they instead had a stupid angle where Bodom took him out & stole his glory. ****
RevPro Undisputed British Heavyweight Title Match: Minoru Suzuki vs. Tomohiro Ishii 24:06. You know what an Ishii match is going to be, except against Suzuki, who can just take over a match so completely that everything revolves around him & is on his terms. His control & mastery is more apparent without his useless henchmen around, as he has to work a little to manipulate the situation to his advantage. There was a big exchange early that was too fast so they were actually missing with a lot of the elbows, and it eventually came back to a better version of that that when Suzuki got frustrated after failing to get Ishii up for his Gotch piledriver & woke Ishii up, but for the most part it was Suzuki dominating with his heel tactics, especially on the outside, & shoot style techniques & was just being a step or three ahead of Ishii & far too cunning. Suzuki had to win with the Gotch piledriver though, and while it worked when he took the title from Ishii on 7/1/18, he finally outsmarted himself here trying to force it too hard rather than stick to what was working, which was essentially everything else. The heel & face roles were really clearly defined here, and RPW takes Ishii a lot more seriously as a star than NJ is willing to do despite how over Ishii is everywhere for his hard work & dedication to delivering excellent matches, so ultimately it was a feel good match with Ishii finally regaining the strap even though Ishii was largely dominated & was only even when it came to striking. The match was fine, but it was more Suzuki's general mastery than any kind of a special match, with Ishii seeming jetlagged as he usually does in the UK & lacking his trademark energy & next level stiffness. Ishii's big push to the finish at the end seemed like something special, but up until that it was more a quality match than a major effort. ***
English subtitled Interview with Suzuki while he's in the UK with clips of his RPW title win over Ishii
ACH & Chris Sabin & Ryusuke Taguchi & Toa Henare vs. El Soberano Jr. & Jushin Thunder Liger & Tiger Mask & Volador Jr. 6:10
Robbie Eagles & Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa vs. Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma & KUSHIDA 7:39
Beretta & Kazuchika Okada vs. Bad Luck Fale & Jay White 4:32
Kenny Omega & Kota Ibushi vs. David Finlay & Hiroshi Tanahashi 9:47
Super Junior Tag League 2018 Final Three Way Match: SHO & YOH vs. El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. BUSHI & Shingo Takagi 15:55
NEVER Openweight Title Match: Hirooki Goto vs. Taichi 15:02
RevPro Undisputed British Heavyweight Title Match:
Tomohiro Ishii vs. Minoru Suzuki 19:21
Tetsuya Naito vs. Zack Sabre Jr. 20:12
IWGP Intercontinental Title Match: Chris Jericho vs. EVIL 21:40
Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima & Manabu Nakanishi & Yuji Nagata vs. Ayato Yoshida & Shota Umino & Toa Henare & Togi Makabe 8:27
Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Lance Archer & Minoru Suzuki & Takashi Iizuka vs. Beretta & Chuckie T & Jeff Cobb & Michael Elgin 10:10
SHO & Tomohiro Ishii & YOH vs. El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Zack Sabre Jr. 11:11
BUSHI & Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito vs. Chase Owens & Hangman Page & Yujiro Takahashi 8:53
Bad Luck Fale & Jay White & Taiji Ishimori vs. Kazuchika Okada & Toru Yano & KUSHIDA 11:01
Kenny Omega & Marty Scurll & Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson vs. David Finlay & Hiroshi Tanahashi & Juice Robinson & Ryusuke Taguchi 13:11
NEVER Openweight Title #1 Contendership Match: Will Ospreay vs. Taichi 17:00
NEVER Openweight Title Match: Hirooki Goto vs. Kota Ibushi 16:53
World Tag League 2018 Final Match: EVIL & SANADA vs. Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa 27:01
Ayato Yoshida & Shota Umino vs. Ren Narita & Teruaki Kanemitsu 15:00
Rocky Romero & SHO & YOH vs. Jushin Thunder Liger & Tiger Mask & Toa Henare 9:23
Hirooki Goto & Tomohiro Ishii vs. Minoru Suzuki & Takashi Iizuka 10:36
EVIL & SANADA vs. Chase Owens & Yujiro Takahashi 9:44
BUSHI & Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito vs. El Desperado & Taichi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru 13:39
Bad Luck Fale & Jay White & Taiji Ishimori & Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa vs. Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma & Kazuchika Okada & Toru Yano & KUSHIDA 14:45
Kenny Omega & Kota Ibushi vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Will Ospreay 28:46