[8.0] "The highs on this show are really, really high. Okada vs. Omega II could be any sane person's pick for best match of all time. I'm not as high on the show as a whole as others are, the lows on this show are really really low. The eight man tag was a nothing match where all 8 participants didn't even get tagged in. The Lumberjack match was filler. Cody vs. Elgin wasn't very good considering the stage they were performing on. But still, the IC title match, the Jr. Heavyweight title match, and the main event were all fantastic matches. Both tag title matches were decent. Overall I can see why this went down as an instant classic. MVP goes to Kazuchika Okada for his performance in the main event."

[10.0] "To me it the second best Osaka Jo show of all time, everything on this show was great. I think that the following year Dominion 6.9 was just a tad better and more monumental for their company. But this was an absolutely amazing show and New Japan owned the wrestling world from 2017-2020, no one came close. This was just before NJPW debuted in the USA and they became a real powerhouse global promotion (until AEW started)."

[9.0] "A hell of a show. Nothing bad from top to bottom, everything is entertaining in its own way. It has a historic main event, fantastic matches for the IC and Junior belts, a couple of surprisingly good tag matches, and an underrated NEVER match. There is quite literally something for everyone on this card. It's not perfect, and I get the general sentiment this one is perfect, and while I disagree, it's just a step under. 9/10."

[10.0] "As close to a perfect card as you could probably get. Every undercard match had something there that could be enjoyed, even the worst match on the card (Cody vs Elgin) had some nice stuff in there. Not a single one I'd rate lower than 3 stars. I'd also say that the Six man Gauntlet slightly overdelivered for me. The Jr. and IC title matches were fantastic, as expected. And not much needs to be said about Kenny vs Okada besides it's a Kenny vs Okada matche. Only solid criticism I'd give to this card would be swapping the placement of the Junior title match and the NEVER title match. Outside of that, an insanely excellent card."

[7.0] "A good show with a total match rating of 7.2 out of 10 including the dark match. The Main event is a must watch! It is very long, but oh my god what a match! Other than that the Naito vs. Tanahashi is great and the Kushida vs. Takahashi is also great! The rest of the card is a mix of 6 out of 10 and 7 out of 10"

"Two BANGER matches, one with Naito and Tanahashi, two history-makers in New Japan and the whole Puroresu. And the HISTORIC Main Event, all-timer match, with a lot history and technique, where the high rating is very justified. The pinnacle of New Japan Pro Wrestling."

[8.0] "It may have the single best match ever in the main, but I've still seen better shows. // 8 man Tag *** // Gauntlet 6 man Tag ***Ÿ // bucks vs roppongi ***œ // war Machine vs Guerrillas Of Destiny *** // Cody vs Elgin *** // kushida vs Takahashi ****Œ // Suzuki vs Goto **** // tanahashi vs naito ****œ // Okada vs Omega *****"

[9.0] "It's by no means a perfect show - no show is - but compared to most others it has to have a very high ranking. If I gave Wrestlemania 2020 a rating of '2' and '3' for each night, it only seems consistant to give this a near '10' because it was much, much better than those shows. The main event is a very good match but it's a good match I don't enjoy watching often due to its length. The ending fatigue that match gives me makes this event end on a slightly lower note than it could have, so it's a near '10' for me but not quite."

[10.0] "Probably the best show in years. Fightcard stacked with the greatest talents and all the titles on the line."

[9.0] "The card was anchored by 4 very good matches (3 of them absolute bangers), and some decent matches in between. Great show"

[10.0] "My favourite wrestling event of the decade. Matches were almost all great and had a big match feel to them. Just an excellent show."

[10.0] "One of the greatest wrestling shows of all time for sure. Tokyo Dome rematches. Jr tag was great. Heavyweight tag was also very good. Cody/elgin was quite meh. Kushida/Hiromu was phenomenal. Never title match was fun, too. Tana/Naito was the weakest match of their triology but still tremendous with great storytelling. Okada/omega II was spectacular with great story drama, crowd reaction. Overall I can't complain much about this. Just a pleasure to watch."

[10.0] "The worst match of the night is the one between Goto and Suzuki and I rate it 3. 0, so there wasn't anything really bad. The main event is one of the best things ever happened in wrestling (5. 0), while Tanahashi vs Naito was a little worse than their previous encounter at Wrestle Kingdom (4. 25). Kushida and Takahashi ended their rivalry with a strong performance (4. 5) while the match between the Bucks and Roppongi Vice was quite good and energic (4. 0). The other matches range between 3. 0 and 3. 5, and I'm not in the mood to describe them further."

[10.0] "This could have just been the last two matches with white noise beforehand and it would still be one of the best events I've ever seen."

[9.0] "The Tokyo Dome rematch show! And that’s not a bad label to put on a show for the Tokyo Dome show was one of the best shows of 2017. Had the top matches been a tiny bit better this Osaka show would have rivaled it. For both Okada/Omega and Naito/Tanahashi continued to deliver the good, just not as good. On the other hand the two junior matches were a little bit better than at the Dome, so it evened itself out as a fantastic show top-to-bottom! A good companion to New Japan's January 4th show of 2017. David Finlay & Tomuyuki Oka & Shota Umino -vs- Hirai Kawato & Katsuya Kitamura & Tetsuhiro Yagi [* 1/2] Togi Makabe & Yuji Nagata & Tiger Mask W & Tiger Mask -vs- Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima & Manabu Nakanishi & Jushin Thunder Liger [* 1/4] SANADA & EVIL & BUSHI v Juice Robinson & Ryusuke Taguchi & Ricochet v Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano & YOSHI-HASHI v Bad Luck Fale & Hangman Page & Yujiro Takahashi v Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Zack Sabre Jr. & Taichi - (NEVER Openweight Six Man Tag Title; Gauntlet Match) [** 1/4] Rocky Romero & Baretta -vs- Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson - (IWGP Jr Tag Title) [***] Raymond Rowe & Hanson -vs- Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa - (IWGP Tag Title) [**] Cody -vs- Michael Elgin [** 1/4] Hiromu Takahashi -vs- KUSHIDA - (IWGP Jrr Title) [*** 1/2] Minoru Suzuki -vs- Hirooki Goto - (NEVER Openweight Title; Lumberjack Death Match) [*** 1/4] Tetsuya Naito -vs- Hiroshi Tanahashi - (IWGP Intercontinental Title) [*** 3/4] Kazuchika Okada -vs- Kenny Omega - (IWGP Title) [****]"

[9.0] "Awesome big match show. No bad matches . Both of the Never title matches where marred by their gimmicks . Most disappointing part of the show was that Ms. Abe was not booked . I guess they can't have her and Latiina on the same show ? . The Jr . Tag match was Great . The JR . , Intercontinental and IWGP title matches where excellent . My top match was Kazuchika Okada (c) (w/Gedo) vs. Kenny Omega but Tetsuya Naito (c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi was damn close . The top 4 guys in this company are out of this world ."

[10.0] "Simply the greatest show I've ever seen. Three different seemingly perfect matches and headlined by the greatest match in wrestling history."

[10.0] "NJPW manages to rival their own WrestleKingdom in terms of overall match quality. In addition to the one everybody's talking about, Okada vs Omega II - which indeed was awesome - there are numerous other excellent matches here representing the multitude of styles within the New Japan milieu, such as the classic psychology of Tanahashi vs Naito, the Junior Heavyweight classic of KUSHIDA vs Takahashi, the high-flying junior heavyweight tag action of Bucks vs RPG Vice and the rugged heavyweight tag brawl of GoD vs War Machine, the strong style of Suzuki vs Goto, and even the North American-style action of Elgin vs Rhodes. On top of that, the show featured some fun multi-man tag matches, most notably an entertaining gauntlet for the Six Man Tag Title. Another truly fantastic show - any wrestling fan should find something to love here."

[10.0] "Only saw Okada V Omega, but fuck me wasn't that a great match. Go watch it if you haven't, it really is better than the first one!"

[10.0] "One of the best PPV of the decade. While some can argue that some of the cards can be a little messy especially with the Tag Cards (excluding Roppongi Vice vs TYB), the Tag Matches itself served as a short flick that was easy to watch without having the need to get deeply invested. KUSHIDA vs Takahashi is just mindblowing with great storytelling and in-ring psychology. the match is presented more as a statement that even the "vanilla midgets" can also play stiff. Roppongi Vice vs TYB is just fantastic and hopefully will shut the critics (WWE fanboys) about the lack of storytelling in Nick and Matt's matches. Naito vs Tanahashi, altough not as good as KUSHIDA and Takahashi earlier match, can actually make people more invested more not just because their performance in the ring but also the story involved between the two, how Naito disrespecting the IC belt and how furious Tanahashi was (he's a NJPW scoutboy) about Naito destroying the belt. Naito is a class A heel and the future face of the company along with Okada and Omega. Tanahashi is just a monster of a performer and he absolutely giving his all despite the injury, fucking bravo. The Maint event is, sadly, outshined the rest of the cards and make people who heard the hype only watch this one match without checking the rest of the PPV. Everyone knows the match but not the story. Okada Challenged Omega after his title match with Bad Luck Fale, and from Kenny POV, he doesn't deserved the title shot but Okada wanted to prove that he is the best. the title is just a stipulation since this match is about two guys wanting to prove who is the best in the world. Sportmanship at its finest."

[7.0] "I arrived in Osaka on the morning-of w/out a ticket. My hotel, the aptly named 'Hotel Osaka Castle, ' was a fifteen minute walk to the arena. I arrived at the venue approximately 90 minutes prior to showtime and despite the 'sold-out' billing I knew I would get in b/c I learned last year that Jo-Dan Hall has an enormous 'standing-room' section. I bought that 4000 yen ticket and entered. The bowl is akin to an inverse oval contact lense and is more of an expansive arena than a venue of great vertical heights. An 'Ingovernable' trick I abide by is to check the sections/numbers of the scalper's tickets and then walk by those seats just-before or during the show. I ended-up settling for a seat in the lowered 'A' section looking diagonally NW at the ring. So the closest buckle to me would have been the SW one from the hard camera. Good seat, reasonably muted section. On the prelims... Finlay needs to tone-up his body and/or go heel if he's going to be a star as I envision many of Japan's native sons passing him by in appeal. After the opening contest Makabe objected to Tiger Mask W's showing-off, especially as Togi had won the match for his team. Of course this will be played-off sometime soon. TM W is an over character, but for me it's too tongue-in-cheek b/c everyone knows who Ibushi is and that he is 'under-the-mask. ' The gauntlet bored me to sleep... my enjoyment of the Bucks match suffered due to the endless chore of watching the most obvious six-man elimination ever. (ie 'man who pins, gets pinned) Overall I had two matches at 4 stars or higher (the LIdJ singles title defenses of which I Loved that both heels tapped, ) the main event at 3 1/2 and a couple more matches at 3 - 3 1/4 making this event a solid 7. 75. On a final note, I know I am the only gaijin who has been to four of the past six ('13-'14, '16-'17) Dominions and I would rank this third of four. I'm rounding-down as the current 9. 79 number to me is absurd."

[9.0] "The NEVER 6-Man Gauntlet was solid stuff with a good final stretch (***). RPG Vice vs The Bucks was a good tag match where Trent shined and some of the sequences and combo moves (springboard facebuster to a guy in a sharpshooter is really smart) were really neat; better than the Dome match (***1/2). War Machine vs GoD was a very nice BIG MAN tag match with good stuff from Hanson & Rowe as usual; GoD were fine, but they still don't do a ton for me usually (***1/2). Cody vs Elgin was a very serviceable midcard match that had some fun moments in it; Cody's charisma and Elgin's strength bounced off each other pretty well (*** to ***1/4). Hiromu vs KUSHIDA III was their best match, surpassing both of their great previous affairs; some great spots to show the evolution and adaptation of KUSHIDA to bring this short-term redemption storyline to a close, and Hiromu was just a crazy person as usual (****1/2). Goto vs Suzuki was a very fun clusterfuck match with good nearfalls; I'd say this was just a very nice match, but that Suzuki/Liger interaction was so good I'm bumping my rating a little (***3/4). Tana vs Naito had just the right structure; Naito works the arm, Tana the leg, crowd goes crazy for both with both cheers and boos because it's a Naito match in Osaka, Tana fights to reclaim the IC Title and restore its dignity, etc; the thing is that it just had a surprising amount of dead air in spaces that made the good parts hit less, even with a good finish (***3/4). Okada vs Omega II started with some great sequences and great work over Okada's leg, but the middle portion had a lot of filler and featured Okada not selling his leg at all; the sense of rising tension was there, but without cohesion; after Cody teased throwing in the towel it suddenly transitioned into ~20 minutes of awesome pro wrestling with a good finish; an hour-long match with great escalation and sequences but not a lot of consistency or flow; not a six-star, not a classic, and not a MOTYC (***3/4)"

[10.0] "I find it hilarious how the incompetent, glacially-slow asshats who run the Japanese section of this site haven't bothered to add arguably the most critically acclaimed match of all time to recommended matches yet."

[10.0] "Unbelieveble show. The level of quality in this years for the NJPW is really really high. The tag team matches are funny and easy-to-watch and the second part of the card was amazing. The only match that in my opinion wasn't good was WM vs GoD but not too bad to ruin the PPV. Cody vs Elgin was a good match but surely not unforgettable. At the match for the Jr Heaviweight title I gave ****3/4 for the excellent storytelling. The lumberjack was around ***3/4. Absolutely not bad. Tanahashi vs Naito was also excellent (****3/4) and, for me, better than the match of Tokyo Dome. The main event was something that will be impossible to forget. Amazing in ring and for the psicology with some moment that bring back to the first Omega vs Okada. And what to say about Omega who collapses before the rainmaker? Maybe the best moment during a match in the wrestling history. Clearly ***** and for sure in the top 10 of all time. Finally, i say that Dominion goes to fight with WK11 for declair the best pro wrestling show of the year. THANK YOU NJPW!"

[10.0] "Dark opener: ***1/4. Good match. Highlight was Oka & Kitamura, which already feels like something special, and the crowd knows it. Fun. Proper opener: ***. Good little match. Waste of Tiger W, but i guess they want to keep Makabe strong since he's lost in the shuffle right now. NEVER Trios Title Gauntlet match: ***1/4. Good. A little too broken up, but that's the nature of this kind of match. Ricochet is very lucky. Jr. Tag title match: ***3/4. Very Very good. Lots of Movez. IWGP Tag Title match: ***3/4. Almost great. if it had went 2 minutes longer, it's a 4 star match. Cody/Elgin: ***1/4. About what i expected. Cody is not worth the hype he gets. Jr Title match: ****1/2. Excellent. Great story for KUSHIDA. He is definitely one of the best Babyface's in the world. NEVER Title match: ***3/4. Really good match that had good heat. Some will hate this match. I liked it. IC Title match: ****3/4. Absolutely tremendous match. Match had great heat. Main Event: *****. The MOTY. One of the best matches I've ever seen. Probably the SOTY. Everyone one earth should see this show."

[10.0] "This was another fantastic New Japan super show that even surpassed WK11 as show of the year, and is really one of the greatest cards ever, despite its heavy running time (5 hours). It featured three absolutely fantastic matches, two of which were 4. 75 stars, and another 5 star classic in the main event. I don't think the main surpassed the Tokyo Dome all-time classic in January, but it was a completely different match that was still phenomenal. Okada is swiftly becoming one of the greatest big match workers of all time. The Junior Heavyweight and Intercontinental Title matches were both outstanding too. This is a must-see show: Young Lion Pre-show Six Man: **1/2, Makabe, Nagata & the Tigers vs. Liger, TenKoji & Nakanishi: **3/4, NEVER Trios Gauntlet: ***1/4, Roppongi Vice vs. The Young Bucks: ****, War Machine vs. G. O. D. : ***1/2, Michael Elgin vs. Cody: ***, Hiromu Takahashi vs. KUSHIDA: ****3/4, NEVER Lumberjack Match: ****, Tetsuya Naito vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi: ****3/4, Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega: *****"

[10.0] "Okada/Omega was a blast, yet did not have the luster and intrigue of their previous encounter. It felt at times like they were stalling for time and this became more apparent once we got past the 50 min mark. The cody spot took me out of the match. Despite this: dope AF: I'm going 4 3/4. Tana/Naito was a master class in psych. 4 3/4 as well."

[8.0] "The opening 8-man tag team was super fun - everybody getting their stuff in (***1/2), the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Title Gauntlet was also really good - loved ZSJ's performance & the match got real good once Taguchi Japan made it's way into it (***1/2), RPG Vice vs. The Young Bucks, wow, what a match - one of my favorite NJPW tag matches of all-time in all honesty, just terrific psychology & performances (****1/2), War Machine vs. G. O. D. was a good HOSS tag battle (***), Cody/Elgin happened (*), KUSHIDA/Hiromu was the weakest of their trilogy, but still really good, borderline great - the lads have a great chemistry with each other (***3/4), MiSu/Goto was super boring, the only interesting thing about it was Suzuki getting Liger all pissed off (*), Naito & Tanahashi, much like at WK, put on a masterclass of the graps - one of the top matches of 2017 without a doubt & easy MOTN (****3/4), Omega/Okada II was definitely not kind of a match - I definitely don't mind 60 minute draws & long matches in general (Bryan Danielson & Ric Flair are 2 of my all-time favorites), but I feel like this wasn't a good one - the finishing stretch was pretty insane though (**1/2). Overall definitely a very good show, but did not reach the greatness of Wrestle Kingdom 11 & Sakura Genesis."

[10.0] "I have to say this was one of the best events I have ever watched. Despite it's five and a bit hour run time, I loved every second. There was not a single bad match. Okada and Omega was incredible and very different to their encounter at Wrestle Kingdom. KUSHIDA is becoming one of my favourite wrestlers of this generation and again had an amazing match. The two tag team title battles were examples of tag team wrestling at it's finest. Easily event of 2017 so far for me."

[10.0] "Kittens 6-Man Tag (**), Eight-Man Tag was a fun legends-esque match (***1/4), Openweight Six Man Tag Title Gauntlet was extremely fun and Zack Sabre Jr. was actually MVP for me because he made me laugh in spades (***1/2), Roppongi Vice/YoungBucks was a huge improvement on Young Bucks storytelling ability, they took a big match performance more seriously, along with the tension of Roppongi's tag team coordination troubles as a storytelling point (****), WarMachine/GoD is a sign that the tag division is improving, a fun sprint (***3/4), Cody/Elgin was kinda weak for this card but solid (***), KUSHIDA/Takahashi was the culmination of one of the greatest babyface journeys in NJPW (****1/2), Suzuki/Goto was a FUN match with stiff shots and I mostly enjoyed Taichi's shenanigans in between (****), Tanahashi/Naito was an amazing match that I didn't expect would be that amazing (****3/4) and OKADA/OMEGA GO THE FREAKING DISTANCE (******), all-time classic show."

[10.0] "Great show. Good jr Tag Team Match, Heavyweight tag team was average. The six man tag team gauntlet was fun. Cody vs Big Mike was ok. Jr Title was really great. 4 1/2 Stars. Hot crowd for this match and lot of emotion in this match. The NEVER title was good but it wasn't as good as the two last lumberjack matches in NJPW. The co-main event was awesome. Great in ring story-telling. A lot o f call backs to their matches and great example of how to sell a body part. 4 1/2 Stars. The main event was epic with a lot of emotion. They really show how physical their battles are and show how tired their were. 5 Stars."

[10.0] "Amazing show and possibly the best Dominion show ever. Opener was fine with all the guys getting time to shine, ***. The NEVER 6 man match was surprisingly really good with each team putting on an effort, ***1/2. I am a fan of the Young Bucks but not in NJPW, but this is definitely one of their better matches in the promotion, ****1/4. The Heavy tag match was good and made War Machine look strong in defeat, ***1/2. Cody is the absolute worst wrestler next to Jinder Mahal and not even Big Mike could save this cringe inducing fucker, *. KUSH and Hiromu put on a nasty Jr match that could've been an epic but they instead went for a down and dirty fight, ****1/2. The NEVER match was a clusterfuck of overbooking, but the finish was still pretty fun, ****. The IC match wasn't as good as their Dome match, but this was still a very engaging and compelling match with an interesting finish, ****1/2. I don't know how they did it, but the main event actually managed to top the legendary "six star" match, I personally will never go above five, but this was the best five star match I have ever seen, *****."

[10.0] "I will have to rewatch the final 2 matches to give them a proper rating, but even without that this show was something else. The undercard flew by, it was very easy to watch and the Young Bucks-RPG Vice match was awesome, loved the story. Hiromu and KUSHIDA once again delivered a fantastic match, probably even slightly better than the first one, and Goto/Suzuki was great, this had super heat and they actually made the stipulation work. The only thing that I actually didn't like was Cody winning, or maybe I should just say I don't like Cody period, so there's that. Aside of that, this was an excellent show, good undercard, great stuff before Tana/Naito, and then the last 2 final matches were awesome, but like I said, I need to rewatch them to give a proper rating. With that being said, this is for sure an all time great show for me."

[10.0] "I'll go ahead and call this the greatest show of all-time, primarily for the absolute insanity of having Takahashi-KUSHIDA (****3/4), Tanahashi-Naito (*****) and Okada-Omega (******) on it. There's nothing bad here either, but mainly, there's never been a show with 3 matches that good. It's downright lunacy. NJPW makes everyone else look poor by comparison."

[9.0] "Absolutely stellar show and really only 2 matches were meh and that was Cody/Elgin and GOD/War Machine as those were quite boring for me (*3/4). MOTN goes to Tana/Naito (****3/4), Takahashi vs KUSHIDA was awesome! Okada/Omega II was fantastic (****1/4), RPG Vice vs Bucks was great (****), and the rest for me lied in the *** range so really no major complaints except the fact that Cody Rhodes needs to really step up his game if he wishes to challenge Okada in Long Beach."

[10.0] "INCREDIBLE SHOW! Junior Tag *** 1/2 Tag titles *** 3/4 Cody VS Elgin was great **** And the final 4. Hiromu VS Kushida What a match, what a story. Brutal contest! **** 3/4 Suzuki VS Goto Disappointing match, both can do much much better *** 1/2 . Did this really have to be a lumber jack match? Does suzuki gun even need to interrupt in any of suzuki's matches? Naito VS Tanahashi Fantastic work over the knee and arm by Tana and naito respectively. Really well paced and laid out with a phenomenal story of whether or not Tana could still win the big one, and he did. Good ending as well. **** 3/4 AND THE MAIN EVENT. Omega VS Okada II was remarkable and surpassed all expectations, AGAIN! Beautiful match, best I have ever seen. Enormous amounts of drama accumulated into a draw for the ages. ******"

[10.0] "Jesus fucking christ, I almost died. The NEVER Openweight was fun (***); Bucks vs RPG Vice (***1/4); War Machine vs. GoD (***1/4); Cody vs Elgin was pretty good (***); KUSHIDA vs. Hiromu was fantastic (****1/2); Goto vs. Suzuki was a fun match to date (***3/4); Tanahashi vs. Naito was amazing, just pure psychology (*****); and The Main Event... jesus. What a war. I loved every second of it. The greatest draw of all-time for me and one of the greatest matches of all-time (*****). Amazing show."

[10.0] "Quite possibly the best event of all time. Absolutely incredible show. Opening 8 man was a fine opener that the crowd was into **1/2. NEVER Gauntlet was fun (**1/4/DUD/**3/4/***). RPG vs Bucks was a great match ***3/4. GOD vs War Machine was really great. GOD have evolved into one of the best tag teams in the world ****. Cody vs Elgin was good. Both guys performed well but they just didn't have a superb chemistry ***1/2. Takahashi vs KUSHIDA was fantastic. Great work all around and on par with their WK11 match ****1/2. Suzuki vs Goto was really good, better than the first ***3/4. Naito vs Tanahashi was absolutely incredible, even better than their WK classic. The storytelling in this match was superb and the action was amazing. Damn near perfect *****. Okada vs Omega just Jesus fucking Christ. How can you top a 6 star match? I don't know but they did it. If you didn't watch this live you may not feel it's the best match ever, but I sure do. Epic is the only word ******. Outstanding show, possibly the GOAT show"