| 4 | 09.08.2018 | skrambr0 | 8.0 | Last year's Fire Festival final was a laudable event, and this iteration was even better. Six-man tag was basically a proxy for another Otani/Yamato single; however, that's not a bad thing when considering that their prior match was very good, and this wound up being superior thanks to the greater intensity they brought working off of the dynamic established in that encounter. I think both SUGI and Ikemen are two of the absolute best active talents in this scene, so it's no surprise that I adored their match here - just unbelievably entertaining and the highlight of this show. The inter-Voodoo Murders tag was a perfectly fine bout. I loved the sequence where Jackson confidently squared up to receive a strike from Tanaka only to be instantly incapacitated by it, leaving Hino to drag his motionless body to the corner for the forced tag - Jackson's really natural at quickly switching from trad monster to a believably goofy figure. Tournament final was good with the first ten or so minutes being particularly excellent. Things swiftly moved from standard opening machinations to ridiculous bombastic fare done better than any other attempt I've seen thus far in 2018: just stupid dumb shit executed in the best possible way that had the crowd super into it. Unfortunately, they couldn't quite continue to build on (or maintain) what they once had as it closed out, resulting in a finish that came off as inferior and inauthentic when contrasted with any number of moments that came just before it. Still a worthy main event. This was one of my favourite shows of the year! |
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