[7.0] "Really liked Obata vs Tanaka and especially Takaiwa vs Sean Guinness! Other than that a mostly skippable show"

[5.0] "A very mixed show. The first 4 matches were all quite heavily clipped. Most looked quite uninteresting. The UN Heavyweight Title 4-way was exceptionally bad. Guinness vs Takaiwa was fine, but Guinness continues to annoy me. He has a very basic 'happy to be here' personality and his technique is often quite sloppy. Takaiwa looked quite good, however. He hit some great power moves and had great aggression. Guinness did look better in the finishing stretch, which was good at least. **3/4. Hidaka & Sugawara vs Masamune & Sugi was probably my MOTN. Nice and short. Sugi was a total star here but everyone got the chance to individually show off . Hidaka and Sugawara were great brusiers. Masamune got lots of very creative spots (especially his split legged hold and rolling death cradle into a neck crank). Sugi was just totally fluid as he danced around the ring performing amazing acrobatic feats. Great tag team chemistry and an awesome dragonrana finish from Sugi. ***1/4-***1/2. Suzuki & Sato vs Okamoto & Yoshie was alright. Nice strikes from Sato and Suzuki while Okamoto and Yoshie used their power and size to fight back. A shocking head-first backdrop suplex finish. Nice dynamic but ended too abruptly. ***. Tanaka vs Obata took quite a while to get good. Things started out very slowly with some grappling and then an arena brawl with various weapons which went on for far too long. Once the actual wrestling returned we got a lot of great strikes from Tanaka and a lot of Obata just absorbing offence. I was really disappointed by Obata, since he didn't sell Tanaka's offence in any noticeably meaningful way. He should have been looking to dig deep while expressing his pain and loss of consciousness. Instead he felt rather bland as a babyface in peril. His offence was a bit sloppy and repetitive too. Tanaka was fantastic, and carried the match as he constantly battered Obata. There were lots of convincing near falls at least. ***1/4-***1/2"

[6.0] "Not as fun as last year? s January 1 show, but ZERO1 has been in such a slump since it? s positive they actually delivered a good show for the start of 2018. Let? s hope Z1 can turn things around. Ganseki Tanaka & Tsugutaka Sato -vs- Towa Iwasaki & Shoji Fukushima [* 1/2] Shinjiro Otani & Yuko Miyamoto -vs- TARU & Yuji Hino [* 1/4], Super Tiger (c) -vs- KAMIKAZE -vs- Yoshikazu Yokoyama -vs- Hartley Jackson - (NWA UN Title; 4-Way) [* 1/2], Sean Guinness (c) -vs- Tatsuhito Takaiwa - (NWA Junior Title & International Junior Title) [** 1/4], Ikuto Hidaka & Takuya Sugawara (c) -vs- SUGI & Masamune - (NWA International Lightweight Tag Title) [** 1/2], Kohei Sato & Hideki Suzuki (c) -vs- Yutaka Yoshie & Masayuki Okamoto - (NWA Intercontinental Tag Title) [**] I was enjoying the early portion where big Okamoto was stubbornly fighting Suzuki in an old school way. While the pace increased the match also ended up half-way losing me the second half. Masato Tanaka (c) -vs- Yusaku Obata - (ZERO1 Title) [*** 1/4] Didn't go into overkill mode as their Fire Festival '17 final, but it also didn't reach the same climax level even if the intensity was extremely high and they busted out all their big guns. What I think I liked most was that table bump up in the cheapseats! Great camera angle and nasty angle on Obata's landing! Back in the ring it got increasingly Sliding D crazy with Obata looking like the little boy that he is, but the tide turned and what a rush it was!"

[5.0] "A disappointingly average show actualised out of what was (for Zero-1) a rather stacked card - and interestingly enough, a night where the junior heavyweights, certainly not the intended premier stars, shone the brightest. While the UN four way had a potentially interesting dynamic to work with (VM vs. a tenuous Super Tiger/Yokoyama alliance), this was completely squandered and instead clipped to shreds. Guinness/Takaiwa was also edited down, but managed to nevertheless excel as a solid junior heavyweight bout - and while things did degenerate into simple move-trading towards the climax, this ultimately resolved as a good match between the Team Highball partners. SUGI/Masamune vs. Hidaka/Sugawara was the absolute highlight of this show; an utterly fantastic junior tag! I can't stress how wonderful it is that SUGI is back working somewhere in a full-time capacity - I'll gladly watch him vs. Hidaka as many times as Z-1 want to book it. Conversely, the Intercontinental Tag Title match was nothing more than a quick method of swapping the belts in lacklustre, rushed fashion. With my expectations planted somewhere in the realm of their excellent Fire Festival final match from 2017, Obata and Tanaka performed a bout that while not bad, was simply underwhelming in comparison. Despite it containing good energy and the same type of brawling/high-tension dynamic, nothing really seemed to hit as hard or connect as strongly with the crowd in the way some of their past encounters have."

[6.0] "This is a show with only two really good matches. The rest were pretty standard with not a lot of standout. The Lightweight Tag Team Championship match was a fun fast paced match, and the main event was a great strong style bout that would have fit in perfectly with NJPW."

[6.0] "This is the first ZERO1 show I've ever watched and while it didn't blow me away there's enough here that makes me interested to keep checking them out. Very solid stuff from the opening tag bouts, although they were quite different matches on the whole they were of a very similar quality to each other and I'd rate them the same (***). The 4 way was disappointing but short, so that was a relief (** 1/4) . Guiness/Takaiwa was a hardhitting affair and very enjoyable (***) and while the lightweight tag match had some spectacular spots in it, it wasn't overly engaging elsewhere (** 1/2). The IC tag title match was rough and ready and thanks to the way the four guys in the match worked together it felt a lot like I was watching a real fight; good stuff (***). Tanaka/Obata started slow and technical but very quickly became a wild and impressive brawl that went all around the hall. I enjoyed it a lot but there were far too many unprotected headshots and outright headbutts for my tastes and that hindered it (*** 1/2). Overall this was an enjoyable show that ended strong and has convinced me to continue checking out ZERO1, at least for the next few months."