[7.0] "Tatsächlich könnte man manche dieser NJPW Cards bereits vor dem Ansehen der Shows bewerten, denn meistens sind genau die Matches gut, die man vorher stark erwartet und genau die Matches weniger gut, die man vorher schwach erwartet. Hier gab es auch keine großen Überraschungen. Zack-Okada war sehr gut. Ich fand auch Zacks Promo im Promo Clip (er habe sich seit dem letzten Aufeinandertreffen weiterentwickelt, während Okada stehengeblieben sei) sehr gut und perfekt auf das Match einstimmend. Desperado-SHO war ebenfalls gut und EVIL-Hiromu weniger nervig als gedacht. Ansonsten ist vieles dabei, was so in Ordnung geht, aber was auch nicht groß auffällt und schnell wieder aus dem Gedächtnis raus ist. Was New Japan mit Taichi und Shingo um die KOPW Trophäe plant, darauf bin ich allerdings schon neugierig."
[7.0] "Strong event in a beautiful venue. I see a common complaint labeling the main event as obligatory, but ZSJ really elevated this one for me. Great aggression from the challenger. A very enjoyable show."
[7.0] "That was a strong event. The undercard rocked like they warmed up well the crowd. On the other hand, the championship fights delivered but felt blank. Okada vs. ZSJ disappointed me, that was just a formal thing."
[6.0] "Eight Man Tag Team Match: Solid match for the start, finally giving the win to Jado over Gedo, hoping this means an end to this rivalry, and maybe something more consistent around the Tag team or 6-man tag team titles. [***]; Takagi & Naito VS Ospreay & Henare: Nice action, with a lot of intensity. This match could easily be the main event of any of the Road to Hyper Battle. At the end a bit predictable, being the only possible pin to fall over Henare. Still nice fight. [***1/2]; Six Or Nine VS BULLET CLUB's Cutest Tag Team: Also an interesting match, making that most of it were dominated by Bullet Club, and even with that funny end, making both teams go out not very damaged of this result. Nice nice match. [***1/2]; Yano VS Taichi: Maybe the lowest rated match of the evening, mostly because for the time given for them. New Japan didn't give the neccesary time to engage with the match, and to every wreslter to take advantage of the rules. Finally this title is changing hands, with a promise from Taichi to put in the main event, so let's hope this could be again a relevant title around New Japan. [*1/2]; Evil VS H. Takahashi: It wasn't as bad as I expected, there were as always some House of Torture interferences, but most of the match was Hiromu giving strikes and EVIL showing him as a strong powerhouse. Nice match to keep Evil over, and now facing Tama Tonga. [***1/2]; Bishamon VS Great-O-Khan & Jeff Cobb: Really nice match, the surprise fight of the night, there were intensity from beggining to end, and ended with new gold for the United Empire, finally. Yoshi-Hashi lookked pretty good, the main player of all of this. [****1/4]; El Desperado VS SHO: Disappointing match really, knowing of what division is capable of, and the matches they have put trought the years. Desperado did what he had to do, but SHO didn't connect, so this is the result, a flat match with interesting spots. [**1/2]; Okada VS Zack Sabre Jr.: The match got me pretty interested, longed the just neccesary time, and deliver a main event level match. All my applauses and admiration for Zack, who carried the match as a genius. I really don't like the idea of having Okada as that unbeatable champion, knowing how hard is for New Japan to form credible new stars. The match was good, but in my opinion, the final result disminished some points. [***3/4]; Overall show was decent, but worse than expected, the unskipabble matches of this show just were two, rest of them had interesting things, but nothing very memorable. Satisfactory event. [***]"
[8.0] "A good night, only kind of bad part was the weird Sumo-esque Taichi v Yano where they spent ages taking down the ropes. Everything else was at least decent, with the top 2 matches being the very good Bishamon v United Empire and the instant classic in Okada v ZSJ. I recommend if you like New Japan."
[9.0] "It's probably their best show of the year. Good from top to bottom. Okada v zsj was very strong. Despy v sho is shos best match since turning heel."
[8.0] "A really strong show throughout, capped by a fantastic main event with a build to an even bigger main event. Every other match was good, albeit nothing else great than Okada/ZSJ."
[8.0] "A good show if you are a fan of long matches and medium pace. For many, the show will seem quite calm and pacifying, but I like that. The new member of United Empire is also Junior, I think he will cause a certain hype. El Desperado responded to Taiji Ishimori's challenge, this is going to be really hot. Great-O-Khan can be proud of himself, he is a worthy citizen of his country, and an interesting wrestler, and also a champion! Will Ospreay very funny begged for the title from SANADA, and he is partly right, but the title is not given here, you need to earn, so also the opponent is perfectly matched. Zack Sabre Jr. will one day become a world champion, I believe in it, he can! Tetsuya Naito once again gets a match, it's boring, I'm not waiting for this fight at all, that's enough already. To watch the show, I advise gourmets not to rush fights."
[5.0] "When the top two title matches fall below expectations, New Japan have missed, even if the show was overall watchable. Both HoT title matches frustrated me, because I give them a longer leash than a lot of fans, but the gimmick just doesn't work in spite of the variations used. United Empire are the best consistent in-ring faction going, and they held up their end. The World Heavyweight Championship match should've felt more competitive, and I feel that lay with Okada more than Zack."
[7.0] "MOTN by far was the main event **** 3/4, nothing else really went passed at *** 1/2 for me. Not a fan of the KOPW title. Everything wa pretty decent just didn? t push the boat."
[7.0] "Eine gute NJPW Show mit einem starken Main Event (**** 1/4) das auch das ganz klare Highlight der Show war. Auch das IWGP Tag Team Championship Match wusste zu gefallen (*** 1/2). Den Opener sowie das KOPW Match kann man skippen, der Rest war solide und durchaus anschaubar."
