[8.0] "The last three matches mattered more and all of them delivered and especially the NJPW World Television Title Match that was great as expected between two great talents.All the other seven matches was good and did their job."

[6.0] "Until the title matches this was dull as anything, in fact one of the dullest relatively big shows I'd ever seen. Thankfully we got a good TV title match and the novelty of Tana vs Nemeth brought some intrigue to make this an OK show once all was said and done. 6/10"

[5.0] "A mildly OK event. Not really something to be remembered and just a throwaway event in preparation for the Night 2 of the event. The multi-man tag matches are nothing stands out as usual, they are just there because first to fill up the card and second to further the storytelling. Not that I have a problem with it though. Here are the ratings for this show: SHO/Yujiro vs DOUKI/TAKA, (*1/2), Taichi/Uemura vs O-Khan/Newman, (**3/4), G.O.D./Jado vs Nicholls/Haste/Fujita, (**), KENTA/Owens/Ishimori vs Bishamon/Tiger Mask (**1/4), Naito/Takagi/Hiromu/BUSHI vs Kidd/Connors/Moloney/Gedo, the best multi-man tag match of the card, (***1/4), Moxley/Umino/Despy vs EVIL/Narita/Kanemaru, (**1/4), ZSJ vs Cobb, my review on the matchguide, (***1/2), Tsuji vs Finlay, my review on the matchguide, (**3/4) and Nemeth vs Tanahashi, (***1/2). Highlight of the show is Cobb winning his first singles title in NJPW. Can't wait to watch Night 2, hopefully better matches would be held there."

[5.0] "Of the matches that mattered, Cobb vs ZSJ was easily the best of the night, while Finlay vs Tsuji and Nemeth vs Tana were both pretty good too. The Mox/Despy/Umino vs House of Torture match was OK and at least the HoT shenanigans were downplayed. And the rest of the show was a slog of standard-issue NJPW undercard tag matches."

[7.0] "Boltin Oleg & Shoma Kato vs Katsuya Murashima & Togi Makabe: This was a typical young lions/veterans match that had nothing memorable happen in it, Boltin Oleg continues to be impressive which is good to see [*3/4]. SHO & Yujiro Takahashi vs DOUKI & TAKA Michinoku: Pretty standard tag match that featured HoT being their usual selves which I did not enjoy that much [*1/4]. Taichi & Yuya Uemura vs Callum Newman & Great O-Khan: The match was average, Uemura picking up the win was good to see, Newman taking the loss was not surprising, O-Khan and Taichi were solid as well [**1/4]. El Phantasmo, Hikuleo & Jado vs Kosei Fujita, Mikey Nicholls & Shane Haste: This match was a short sub standard multi man match that had nothing memorable about it, the action was average [**]. Chase Owens, KENTA & Taiji Ishimori vs Hirooki Goto, Tiger Mask & YOSHI-HASHI: A sub standard multi man match that was average at best [*3/4]. Los Ingobernables de Japon vs BULLET CLUB War Dogs: I did enjoy this match, with a great preview for Gabe Kidd vs Shingo Takagi, all others involved did their parts well [***1/4]. EVIL, Ren Narita & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs El Desperado, Jon Moxley & Shota Umino: It was a decent preview for Moxley vs Narita, HoT being themselves was not enjoyable [**]. Jeff Cobb vs Zack Sabre Jr: A great match that saw ZSJ try to play Cobb at his own game, which was surprising to see, Cobb winning the title was good to see [***3/4]. David Finlay vs Yota Tsuji: Really good match between these two, Tsuji came close to winning but Finlay proved he had just a little bit more to win, back and forth solid action, may not have needed the 22 minutes, maybe could have had 6-7 minutes cut off which would have made it better [****]. Nic Nemeth vs Hiroshi Tanahashi: A decent back and forth match that was okay to watch, felt like there were something that was missing to make this match better, there wasnt really chemistry there to be honest [***3/4]"

[6.0] "With most NJPW shows, I watch the last 3-4 matches because the undercard is always inconsequential. That's just the way it's structured and there's only so much time to watch wrestling. I watched the last 4 matches and thought they were solid. Nothing outstanding or groundbreaking but I enjoyed the main event."

"Really scratching my head with some of the booking decisions going on at NJPW lately. Struggling to see the vision for where a company of this size is going to go after outings like this."

[5.0] "The undercard was simply too much in both terms of length and bad wrestling. Also the main-event was a good match but not enough to main-event Wrestling Dontaku if you ask me. Just watch the last matches and skip the rest it isn't a big deal at all. **1/2"

[6.0] "It's an okay show, I don't mind the undercard too much, as most of the times in NJPW, especially in the 2 day events where they are just there to preview the matches on the next day. It's about the 2nd half the matches at Dontaku and they were a good watch. The main event was solid, Tsuji/Finlay and Cobb/ZSJ were good in my opinion. Making Cobb TV champion is good, hopefully Zack can have a big G1 now. Giving Finlay the win over Tsuji to prepare him for the surprising Day 2 match makes more sense now."

[5.0] "I was gonna go 6, but there were just too many boring matches. You could easily cut 2 under card tags and lose absolutely nothing. I assure you, the world did not need a preview tag for the tag title match tomorrow. Nobody wants to see that match, let alone think about watching it. NJPW is in a weird spot. Their full time roster kinda stinks right now, and there is no juice anywhere. Some of the bigger matches can still deliver. But let's be real, the TV title match is the only thing on this card worth anything."

[6.0] "Very much a show of a company in a transitional period still trying to find its direction - the TV title match and semi main were both quite good (I don't get the Finlay hate, I feel this comes from people who don't watch or at least not regularly) but the main...it was just fine. NJPW need this next crop of main eventers to hurry on through as Tana is completely broken, I think Nemeth's carry job was admirable."

[6.0] "This show was all around decent, but forgettable. The undercard felt very lacking and there was really only one notably good match of the night with the television title match. The final 4 matches were all varying degrees of good, but this show was really just missing something for me to be able to rate it any higher. [MOTN: Jeff Cobb vs. Zack Sabre Jr.]"

[7.0] "Watched the last four matches, based on the scores the undercard didn't have anything that would affect the rating. Great title match between Jeff and Zack and a quite good Finlay-Tsuji match. The main event was passable."

[7.0] "This was actually a surprisingly good card, and exceeded my expectations. The undercard was surprisingly strong, the highlight being GoD vs TMDK, but with the expected lows of a Chase Owens match in there. The TV title match and Finlay vs Tsuji were really excellent, with the latter in particular being a shockingly good bout, demonstrating both men can stand at the top of the card. The final between Nemeth and Tanahashi was OK, but not great, it did let the card down somewhat after the two absolute bangers preceding it. I feel like Tanahashi's days of main event singles bouts are sadly over, and this did not do anything to prove otherwise, but it wasn't a blight on the show by any means. I think it is safe to say that the introductions of Nemeth and Riddle were a flop (Nemeth to a lesser degree but still), but hopefully Finlay will beat Nemeth tomorrow and the status quo will be restored. Another awesome Finlay promo to close the night and we're ready for night 2 tomorrow! Overall very good show and worth a watch (mostly) throughout."