Go Shiozaki & Mitsuharu Misawa vs. KENTA & Katsuyori Shibata

[8.0] "Some incredibly stiff strikes in this specifically from shibata to shiozaki. Awesome match overall. ****"

[7.0] "Shibata and KENTA are too good at being pricks feeding off each other's negative energy. Shibata especially tries to go elbow-for-elbow with Misawa and even locks him in the Plum Stretch, the move used by Misawa's rival in Kawada. Shibata and Misawa's interactions were the highlight of the match for me even though Misawa wasn't in the best shape at this point. Misawa takes a couple of scary bumps on a backdrop suplex and a Doomsday Device and it's a bit hard to watch knowing his history. For the better part of the match the bad guys dismantle the future of NOAH in Shiozaki while NOAH's creator watches from afar. It takes longer than I'd like for the good guys to mount a proper comeback. Shiozaki looks good in this one, delivering a couple of nice suplexes, a moonsault and a cool-looking bicycle knee. Towards the end all hell breaks loose with an array of moves being thrown around. I'm leaning towards good for this one even though it felt a bit dragged out at times."

[7.0] "kenta and shibata is the dream pairing and they always deliver with a punk attitude catching whoever it was that was not tagged off guard misawa and shibata exchanges were great kenta looked like the flash between the ropes shiozakis german looked great and the ending looked cool consisting of a barrages of knees and kicks top moment for me was when shibata countered shiozaki lariat with an armbar it looked well done"

[9.0] "Go Shiozaki gets absolutely hammered into this match, KENTA & Shibata together work extremely stiff, its a wonder to behold,"

[7.0] "KENTA and Shibata as cocky assholes who can back up most of what they talk here opposite Shiozaki and the veteran ace Misawa. I loved the aggressive offense from the KENTA and Shibata team, perfect synergy for that pairing."

[8.0] "I swear Shiozaki had to have owed KENTA and/or Shibata money with how much they stiff him in this match. I'll never forget the part where Shiozaki tries to break up Misawa and Shibata and Shibata just full on slaps him across the face with body language that's like "get out of my ring, boy""

[9.0] "Holy SHIT. This match was fucking amazing. These guys just don't give a fuck, they're punching and kicking each other for real. Shibata is as stiff as one can be and Misawa matches him so well. Their battle was absolutely amazing. Shiozaki and Kenta got lost in the shuffle for me, I just wanted to see Misawa vs Shibata again. It's hard to go back to fake ass WWE punching matches after this. Like I watched Batista vs Randy Orton from Armageddon 2008 because it was recommended on YouTube, and I was wondering "do I even like wrestling? ""

[7.0] "With these 4 names you know you're not in for a bad match, but this one never really went much more beyond "solid" for me. Not a complaint, they can't all be 5-stars, but also not what you'd lead with if just beginning to learn about these wrestlers or NOAH as a whole. Shibata and KENTA put on a striking clinic, as is expected. Misawa is decent, but probably the weakest element of the bout. Typing that feels weird as he is, very simply put, a legend - but he just wasn't at his best here. Again, good - but not going to make the career highlight reel. He takes some much better bumps towards the end of the match but for me, Shiozaki shines a lot more, doing a much better job of matching the energy the opposition brings. He hits some great suplexes and really communicates the brutality of the strikes from Shibata and KENTA."

[7.0] "I give this a 7.5. Quite liked this match and a particularly impressive performance from Shibata. Both KENTA and Shibata kicked the absolute crap out of Go like he owed them money. They had him hooked over the top ropes and took turns kicking Go. Lot of good storytelling with the disrespect to the legend, mocking him and constantly trying to rattle him as he watched his partner get beaten down. The kicks where on point in this match and looked absolutely stiff. Took a while for the crowd to get into it but once they did it was good. Some weird camera angles and a few spots looked a bit too "fake" but overall a decent match and can be found on youtube."

[10.0] "One of my favourite tag team matches ever. KENTA and Shibata had supernatural chemistry as a unit and their roles as heels opposite the rookie Shiozaki and the legend Misawa was an impeccable dynamic."

[7.0] "Pretty good match involving four legends. KENTA and Shibata simply dominating Shiozaki and mocking Misawa was a great thing to see and makes me very very sad nowadays. There's nothing much to say, this is your usual early NOAH Tag Team Match, a lot of strikes, amazing counters, awesome spots and reversals. ***3/4"

[7.0] "For the first like 80 percent of this the crowd was so silent. Then, as if someone flipped a light switch, they were into it. The work was good, especially Shibata. Fun to see Shibata interact with Misawa. ***1/2."

[10.0] "The TAKEOVER duo has an awesome entrance together. As Misawa makes his entrance, Shibata just stares him down & I am already loving this. Then the actual match starts with Shibata completely owning Go. He doesn't want to fight Go, he wants Misawa! So Misawa tags in, and we get some great stiff back & forth between him & Shibata. Eventually Shibata comes out on top, so Misawa works as the FIP for a bit - KENTA & Shibata were awesome working over him in complete dickish, no respect fashion. They weren't out there to shake hands with the legend or anything, they were out there to make a hard hitting, badass statement. Misawa comes back to things & KENTA works as the FIP for a brief amount of time - eventually the Takeover fellas gain the advantage again & they just kick the shit out of poor Go. Shibata & KENTA truly were amazing together in this one. Then the finishing run, my goodness. That was really hot & had a real sense of urgency to it - great way to cap off this classic tag match. Takeover rules. ****1/2"

[7.0] "This match was very good. Shibata is so angry and pissed off right from the start, which is great. Kenta similarly impresses, showing great disrespect to Misawa. Watching Misawa get pissed off and retaliate towards his younger opponents’ rudeness is awesome, especially when he manages to knock some respect back into them by literally knocking them around. Misawa didn't really show off too much wrestling skill, as he was mainly there to tell the 'veteran vs cocky youngsters' story, but what he did still show off wrestling wise was at least acceptable. Shiozaki feels a bit like a passenger this match, even getting completely run over by Shibata in the first minute and continuing to be brutalised by both Shibata and Kenta for most of the rest of the match, but he definitely had a few cool moments throughout. It was occasionally disappointing to see the match so often resort to a simple series of strike exchanges between whatever two were in the ring, but both tag teams had good chemistry, produced a good number of exciting sequences, and established a clear and interesting match story. Not quite a 'great' match, but definitely a very good one. It's especially awesome to see Misawa interacting in-ring with Shibata; a wrestling legend interacting with one of the best wrestlers in the world today (who has a chance of becoming a wrestling legend himself, I dare say). ***3/4"