Alex Coughlin vs. Shane Haste

[6.0] "Perfectly fine but unspectacular. Couple decent spots of strength for Coughlin but I thought Haste really didn't impress at all. ***"

[6.0] "What a weird, contrived ending to what was an otherwise very enjoyable match. Coughlin really showed out this match and is great in this new role he has adopted as a member of Bullet Club War Dogs, and Haste was serviceable. The wrong guy won though."

[4.0] "I'm genuinely appalled by the booking of this match. Coughlin dominating was a lot of fun and what his character needs to be doing. I particularly popped hard for the gutwrench into the ring. Then the finish with the chairs happened and I audibly sighed. Shane Haste doesn't have the star power nor connection with the audience to be the babyface in peril that overcomes the odds and pulls one out at the last minute. Coughlin dominating was dope, but Shane Haste winning, especially in the way he did, ruined it. **"

"Big fan of Coughlin who showed off his power a lot in this match. Haste shows once again that hes a strong worker"

[6.0] "This was my introduction to both wrestlers and Haste was an up for it passenger but make no mistake who was driving the action in this one. Alex looked great here and I will keep my eye on him"

[5.0] "I like Coughlin but in this match he was a bit sloppy, typically for Bullet Club members. Haste and Nicholls winning both of their matches what surprised me a bit. **1/2*"

[6.0] "A deccent match - I like Alex Coughlin from the few ROH matches I've seen of him - this heel turn does seem to have added a bit more to his character which was really needed. Haste performed well aswell."

[6.0] "3.25 Stars. Decent first G1 match from both guys. The War Dogs have had an unfortunate start to their campaign, although having good performances."

[3.0] "This was outright bad ffor a G1 match. Probably didn't help having two wrestlers no one paticularly cares about at this point come on after the bloody barnburner but on by Henare and Shane's teamate, but there were times were you could hear a pin drop. The wrestlers looked lost at points. And to end it off with one of the dumber finishes you'll see it quite some time."

[6.0] "Decent work from both guys. Surprised me with this one. They looked good and I'm excited to see the rest of their matches in the tournament."

[5.0] "This match just made Alex Coughlin look like a complete idiot. Maybe his story is he wants to hurt people more than win but either way, this result and the way it got there, just made it seem hes never seen wrestling before."

[6.0] "The match was actually pretty nice until the finish. Coughlin looked like an idiot after looking like a beast for 90% of the match. Still decent overall I thought, ratings are being a little harsh."

[4.0] "Not a bad match, some good in ring action but it was tough to get invested in either guy in this one. Thought it was a vehicle to build Coughlin as a threat for this years G1 and give him early points but ended up with Haste winning."

[5.0] "boy gedo sure knows how to book his new hot young bullet club tag champs this g1 on the first nights. match was ok, haste can be much better and still not into wardog coughlin as this new gimmick doesnt really play to his literal strengths that well."

[6.0] "So this match was basically a squash, with Alex destroying Shane the majority of the match, complete showcase for Alex. The crowd was so uncomfortable with his dominance over Shane you could hear a pen drop and then Shane still ends up winning. Puzzling booking."

[6.0] "Funny brawl, I like Coughlin's explosive style and they did some nice strong stuff. In the finish "the Android" tried to use some chairs but Haste won using them taking advantage of a distraction by the referee. ***1/4"

[6.0] "It's kinda funny to see TMDK as a snarky, confrontational gaijin group when in reality Haste (and his partner Nicholls) look like perfect babyfaces whenever they wrestle in singles competition. Shane sold beautifully for his opponent and his comeback was satisfactory. Coughlin, much like his colleague Gabriel Kidd, plays the crazy card very well and becomes more credible by the day. Good stiff shots on both sides and good American-style psychology. Not the match of the year but what else do you need ?"

[5.0] "This match felt very flat with Coughlin controlling Haste for the majority of the 10 minutes. There was one great spot with Coughlin easily picking Haste up from the turnbuckle to hit a gutwrench suplex, and just the way he did it so effortlessly was insanely impressive. Haste had some cool kicks in here but, he never got enough time to do much else. The finish was a headscratcher with Coughlin getting frustrated after a two count and introducing chairs along with his tag belt only for him to get suplexed on to them leading to Haste hitting the Hyterical Bomb for the victory. I understand the story of the War Dogs overconfidence leading to them losing out of nowhere but I would prefer them to come into the tournament and immediately start getting wins which makes them get overconfident down the stretch. The one-sided domination also doesn't really work when the person being dominated is Shane Haste who doesn't have the crowd connection to get supported, instead it just feels like a flat match that exists because it has to. 2.5*"