Ilja Dragunov vs. Shingo Takagi

[4.0] "[2. 25*] It had a few cool moments I guess. They kind of just traded moves and there were a bunch of slip-ups throughout the match."

[6.0] "This is honestly pretty disappointing in my opinion, pretty much just a names match as there's multiple instances of the two not having chemistry and offense look poor. However there was still some good in this throughout the match"

[7.0] "I was getting a little disappointed with the match until the last 5 minutes, where they came back a lot."

[5.0] "This is a match that sounds much better than it is. It's very clear Illia still has a way to go before he gets as good as he does a few years after this and there is very little chemistry here so Shingo doesn't do the best job covering up Dragunovs weaknesses. Final stretch is very good but weirdly missing the intensity that Illia is known for."

[9.0] "This was an awesome match. Both these men are great and even similar in some respects. This was a fight, with these two laying in some big strikes and clotheslines through out the match. There was one botch where Shingo Takagi was trying to give Ilja Dragunov a German suplex, but it seems that he lost his grip halfway through move and Dragunov just fell backwards. Aside from that, the match turned out fine. The finish had Shingo hit Made in Japan, followed up by a Pumping Bomber and another Made in Japan to win the match. ****1/2"

[7.0] "Odd start to this match, it's like they could not get into a groove together. This feels like a much weaker match that only builds to a great stretch."

[8.0] "At first, I was a bit worried because I wasn't seeing the usual toughness and bloodthirstiness that typically characterize these two. But later on, DAMN, what a fight. Those freaking lariats... oh my f*cking god. What absolute warriors they are."

[8.0] "It's true that both wrestlers are great wrestlers, but this match wasn't as great as we expect from them, but it was good. There was a lot of inconsistency in their movements throughout the match, but their goal was very clear, which was to tire each other out by hitting the lariat in any way and then go for the finishing move. The last two minutes of the match really picked up and we saw some great nearfalls from both sides, and Ilja's selling throughout the match was great, and he even had a delayed sell early in the match that was very timely, which I really liked. Anyway, it wasn't a great match, but it was good."

[6.0] "***3/4 Slow start but picked up just a bit towards the end. Not boring, at all, but could have been a whole lot more."

[7.0] "[3.75*] I liked the Lariat exchanges between Takagi and Dragunov, they were hard-hitting and their urgency at the end of the match made me like this match. The final sequence was exciting, Dragunov survived Takagi's first finisher but not the second."

[5.0] "This looked interesting on paper. You got Shingo, one of the best in the world currently and even in 2018 he was on a roll. Dragunov on the other hand is an awesome underdog, very passionate in the ring and can take a hellacious beating so this seemed like it would be a hit but it just wasn't. There's no story being told other than the usual strong style formula of 'I hit you, you hit me' but not many of the strikes were that interesting. There were a few awkward moments and some big moves didn't have the impact they wanted. But the whole match felt disjointed. That's not to say either man was bad but there just wasn't much chemistry or creativity. The final 3-5 minutes picked up the pace and the bombs hit harder. The crowd woke up and got into it. Shingo was good with his usual arsenal of offense. So overall a decent enough match but very underwhelming considering who's in the ring. **3/4"

[7.0] "Maybe my expectations were too high. They were admittedly very high. But a couple awkward moments paired with the fact that this was little more than a straight forward bash-em-up and this match hits good but not great for me. At least they were able to get the crowd into it, something that they were unable to do the night before in their tag match, even though that match was much better than this."

[8.0] "This is a tough match to rate. There were several misfires, especially in the early goings of this match. That happens, of course, but at least two of them disrupted the flow of the match a bit. In saying that, this was a physical battle that was unlike most of what one sees on the American indies. Shingo Takagi was superb, showing much of what has since made him a household name. Ilja Dragunov seemed to need a little time to get his feet under him in this one, but once he did, he erupted with what became a strong showing. The final few minutes were great, sans the misfire, and even that had a pretty crafty recovery by Takagi. The crowd also erupted for the Strong Style finish, with Shingo turning things up a notch and Dragunov more than holding his own. Perhaps I am being a bit generous here, but I have to overlook the misfires and acknowledge the prevailing story as worthy of four stars, 8 out of 10. If nothing else, worth the watch given where they are today."

[7.0] "A fine hard-hitting contest that never reached the next level for me. There were a few botched/awkward-looking moves (the death valley driver on the apron, the german suplex at the end of the match), and I found Dragunov's selling to be really cartoonish & goofy."

[9.0] "Both guys already showed the night prior that they have great chemistry together, but as opponents they shine just as well. The match was very physical with Ilja giving it his all against a modern legend, and Shingo gave it right back. The finish was awesome as Ilja didn't go out looking weak at all, ****1/2."