Chris Jericho vs. Kazuchika Okada

[3.0] "Waste of an Okada match. I really dislike these Jericho new japan matches not only because I just dont like any part of watching these matches and how they always play out, but also resent Jericho doing these matches when I'd much rather watch them with any number of worthy opponents getting these high profile spots on big shows."

[8.0] "From my point of view the match didn't disappoint, because this is the highest level Jericho can reach at this point. The obvious thing, however, was that there wasn't much chemistry between them, at least not like Jericho had with Omega and Naito, and because of that it creaked at times. Instead, I agree with the ending, for a number of reasons. Basically Okada didn't beat Jericho with the Rainmaker, and it was a first for him and an NJPW main event."

[5.0] "Big time let down but Okada tried to give Jericho a more straightforward match compared to the rest of his New Japan run up to that point and it just didn't work out. Tanahashi would later get it right at the Tokyo Dome."

[7.0] "I love some heel Jericho in Japan, but this was a little bit of a downer after the amazing matches that preceded it. It's a fun match and all, but not the Okada classic you come to expect from a New Japan main event. ***1/2"

[9.0] "Apparently I am the only person who enjoyed this match. But all jokes aside I liked how Jericho out wrestled Okada and it took a surprise pin to beat Jericho. 4. 25/5"

[6.0] "Surprisingly i didn't hate this match like a lot of other people did, but i was still very frustrated with the booking and the fact that this match happened. New Japan sacrificed the main event of their second biggest show of the year for the sake of protecting Jericho for AEW and setting up another match for Wrestle Kingdom. It just felt like a total waste of a main event, and it didn't help that it followed the incredible Lee/Ospreay and Ibushi/Naito matches. The first 10 minutes are quite the change from your usual Okada formula. They wrestled a Jericho style match with brawling, table spots, and a lot of trash talk. It was fine but nothing great. Once it turned into a normal match it was hit and miss. Okada was quite good with his comebacks and he was the one holding things together. Jericho's work was uninspired which is par for the course with his age. He's mostly all character work at this point and working an Okada style match just exposes his flaws. Some sloppy moments and botched moves like that Codebreaker over the guardrail which would've been my spot of the match if it was performed correctly. The finish was what it was. Crowd didn't like it and this was the first time I've heard a Japanese crowd close a show with boos. ***1/4"

[5.0] "Now this match is far from bad and it wasn't to the point where it became boring I was enjoying the match, but at the same time it was like Chris was getting too much attention to himself I didn't get to learn who Okada is, that's what I thought was really the biggest downfall of the match. Spots were pretty average, I didn't really like Chris's codebreakers though it was poorly delivered in my opinion. In conclusion, I enjoyed Chris's gimmick through out the match, but I just needed more Okada, the match itself was average."

[3.0] "That was pretty bad, Jesus Christ. That Outside Running Crossbody could be the best thing of this match... if it wasn't botched and very ugly. I just can't believe that that is a Kazuchika Fucking Okada match, he literally carried Chris Jericho, this stupid old-fart son of a bitch did NOTHING! He just screamed "ASK HIM" and "OKADA! " like a bitch. Fuck you, Jericho, please retire. 26/03/2020 Edit: I've just noticed that I accidentally added one star, lol. ***"

[2.0] "it was very bad. Okada's worst match I've ever seen. Why did they put this match in the main event? which made it difficult to put the match for the intercontinental championship into the main event, because this match was incredibly boring. They wanted to try to fix everything with extreme, but in the end they went to the ring and arranged a very boring show."

[9.0] "The match was underwhelming early on but became really good by the end. The match built and built until the end and was exciting. There were some good visuals that made it more cool. Jericho wasn't the best but was fairly good and made a good challenge. There were some good brawling sequences and submission attempts by Jericho. The match turned into a good brawl in the later half which I liked. There were some nice moments when the two tried to hit the other's finishers that I enjoyed and it was cool how Okada actually hit the codebreaker. I liked how the match ended suddenly when Okada got the pin out of a reversal. Overall it surprised me and ended up being really good and I enjoyed it a lot."

[8.0] "As a main event of dominion, this was a disappointment. Considering its placement on the card it should have been way better. But as a match, if we ignore the fact that it underwhelmed due to the high expectations, it was pretty solid. Jericho is starting to slow down a bit, but that is absolutely normal. He is a living legend and nobody can dismiss what he has done for wrestling and what an innovator he is, but we can acknowledge that he is slowing down. Okada is a legend in the making but I am not excited for another long iwgp title reign"

[7.0] "This was rough to start, not gonna lie. It felt like I was watching the start of any standard Okada match, but done slower with a couple insults by Jericho peppered in. Eventually it did improve to somewhat of a nice match, with some nice counters, including Okada countering some of Jericho? s moves into his own signatures he usually would hit. However, it did start to drag some, and the finish was quite odd and completely out of the blue and not built to at all, unless that is supposed to be the case. I don? t necessarily want to see another match by these two, but it seems like that is going to be the idea with the post match beatdown. I do still enjoy Jericho? s character though. ***1/2"

[2.0] "This sucked. The match felt lifeless, it went on for too long, it felt like nothing of substance was happening, and it followed an absolutely bonkers and extremely difficult-to-watch match. This completely failed to make me care about it, and then it ended abruptly with a flash pin. And then, after it was over, they had a really awful post-match just to get Jericho his heat back over Okada, even though Okada only beat him with a flash pin. Like, listen, it was such a flat finish to both this match and this show that the crowd actually booed the empty ring and threw a bit of trash at it when they realized the show was over. You probably have to go back a few decades to find fans in Japan throwing trash, and even then it would be at people, not an empty ring."

[2.0] "At one point Jericho hit his finisher and then pinned Okada for a 2. 9 count. It was as close as a pin can get and still the crowd didn't care and neither did I. This was the worst Okada match I've seen. In fact, Okada looked bored during the whole thing. Jericho is all character work but he can't hold his own in a main event match like this. The ending reeked of Jericho being protected for the sake of AEW. Boring and uninspired match. There's that saying in pro wrestling, "He could have a good match with a broomstick", and that has been said about Okada. The problem is that current Jericho is worse than a broomstick unless he's in a hardcore match. He's a bad dance partner, which is worse than no dance partner."

[6.0] "Jericho is the one who ruined the match quality. Okada should not have to work with someone who cannot keep up with him. As much as I respect Jericho, he is mostly a gimmick man now and his stuff in the ring is somewhat lacking nowadays. He was better as a high flyer. Brawler Jericho is becoming old now. Yuji Nagata would've been a better opponent for Okada tbh. Jericho's midcard abilities should stay away from the main event"

[7.0] "Too long and too Jericho-centred, still a good main event, with a different formula from the usual epic bout that NJPW provides in big shows. Okada had to slow down to let Jericho play the role of the grizzled veteran, which he interpreted at best, and was really good in answering with the right swagger the arrogance of the veteran. In the end, it was all instrumental to build the match that I am deeply rooting for: Jericho vs. Tanahashi. ***1/2"

[6.0] "This match sets up a good story for a rematch, Okada wanted a wrestling match, Jericho wanted a fight. Okada outwrestled the challenger in some way but that was really close and he got beaten up badly for a great portion of the match/fight. There is some good ideas, like having the finish coming out of nowhere and the lenght of the match wich is under 30 minutes. It almost kind of breaks the formula of the last IWGP Heavyweight Championship matches that, as NJPW fan, we are maybe a little too used to. (even if it works) Unfortunately Chris Jericho isn't in great shape and it hurts the flow of the match. So we have some good ideas not always well executed, leading to a match with not that much reactions from the crowd. I expect more from a Dominion main event, I can't rate it above 6."

[2.0] "Boring match with a lame ending. I don't mean the roll-up, but the post-match beatdown. I like how Okada didn't win with the typical spinning tombstone to Rainmaker, although it's hilarious how lethargic Jericho is the only one who can survive the spinning tombstone setup, whereas Naito, Ishii, Sanada, Ospreay, etc. all fell to that. Very WWE style finish with the assault after the match, not what I sign up for when I watch New Japan, especially at Dominion which is supposed to be New Japan's second biggest event of the year. This finish seems more fitting for some small show. As for setting up Jericho vs. Tanahashi, I dread to think about how an injured Tana is going get a good match out of Jericho. At least I'm sure it'll draw well, which is the only reason Jericho is even here. Although I wonder how many fans are going to be as hyped for his next bout after watching this one."

[3.0] "Worst IWGP Heavy match in 10 years. Such a slog to get through, nothing of note even occurred here. A stupid finish to one of the biggest cards of the year. Jericho could keep up with Okada at all. *"

[9.0] "I think that a LOT of people shit on this match cause they didn't understand the finish, and I can understand that but plz think about it : Okada pinned Jericho the same way he pinned Omega for the first fall of they 2/3 falls match last year, so, for one, we have what we call a STORYLINE CONTINUATION, it's fun when wrestling makes sense, isn't it ? ( Cf. the Tweet of Jericho). The rest of the match was also really good, a bit slow and not a typical Okada match, for sure, but still good, and I find that remarkable that Okada has transformed his gameplan to adapt to a Jericho-type match in NJPW, that id to say more RAW, hard-hitting and brawling (but not totally like the matches Jericho had with Omega and Naito, cause these guys are more adaptable in their character to work more violent matches). You have to give it up to Jericho who, at age 49-50, can still do a perfectly-timed lionsault and can work a 25 minutes match without being totally gased-out and still looking strong and evil, like he did in the post-match attack. The finish also opens up to a rematch where Okada can properly pin Jericho with the Rainmaker, cause, as we know, Jericho is built to be the 1st AEW champion, so there was no way he would have lost to a clrea and decisive pin by Okada. Finally, we had a glimps of what is a dream match in the making : Jericho vs Tanahashi !"

[7.0] "I honestly didn't find this match so bad. It's obvious that Jericho's best days are past him, but he actually managed to take the best out of the match, and his heel work was fantastic. The finish was very anticlimatic, and maybe the last 5 minutes were a little bit too slow, but overall I think this was not bad."

[2.0] "I don't know what else to say besides just how boring and painful this match was. Jericho just does not do it for me anymore. This match was slow, which can be done really well, but it was just so boring and sloppy. They couldnt get a smarky Osaka crowd into it, which is hard to do. I generally enjoy Okada but his formula can get a bit boring sometimes. This was a prime example of that."

[5.0] "This was alright. A weak title defense for Okada. This starts off promisingly with the usual brawling style from Jericho in NJPW. But then when the match continues, it feel flat. Okada did his usual comeback, which was still solid. But Jericho's work here wasn't much interesting in my eyes. A couple of moments were sloppy. They both hit moves and sold it. But clearly the match never reached the next level and the storytelling wasn't there. The ending was very underwhelming in my opinion. Even this was not usual Okada formula, something totally felt off. The Post match was okay at best. And I understand that crowd booed because of no Okada's promo. For the main event of the second biggest show of the year, this was not the best case."

[2.0] "This is perhaps the worst match Okada has had in 7 years, if not longer. I don't put that on him, though. Chris Jericho, though skill a master in some aspects, simply cannot keep up and was very badly exposed in what was largely a straight wrestling match. He looked sloppy, gassed, and old. The finish wasn't hot; even worse, it appeared botched. Don't get me wrong, I think that they got the move they were looking for, but it was executed terribly. In lieu of a traditional post-match, NJPW opted to have Jericho attack Okada and send out Tanahashi for the save. Unfortunately, the crowd spat all over this post-match angle. It sets up what will almost certainly be another disappointment from Jericho unless he can mask his weaknesses with a hardcore match. Overall, a bad match; the worst IWGP championship match in an incredibly long time, Okada's worst in years, and it exposed Jericho as having lost the spark he had as a wrestler."

[6.0] "This was pretty disappointing. The last two matches were going to be hard to top, but this match had a lot more potential. It wasn't exactly a bad match, it started out well with Jericho's heat segments, but kinda lost it's flow towards the end. I'm not going to blame Jericho like most people, because his last few matches with New Japan were all great. I blame the booking more than anything, it seemed this match was just booked to continue the feud and protect Jericho. They also wanted to start a program between Tanahashi and Jericho, so I guess it makes since. This match definitely could have been better and fails in comparison to last years Dominion main event. ***1/4"

[4.0] "This was the worst Okada singles match I've ever seen. I respect Chris Jericho and what he's done for the business recently but he is not at the level in-ring where he deserves an IWGP heavyweight title shot. He put in the effort, he tried his best but he's at a point in his career right now where he just can't get up to level the needs to perform at for a match like this."

[9.0] "I absolutely loved this & that is something I wasn't expecting to type out. Everything just clicked for me - loved how it was a bit different from your usual Okada big match formula w/ there not being a crazy finishing stretch or anything. Jericho dominated most of the thing, and I actually found pretty much all of his work on top very good & compelling; his beatdown of Okada was gritty, and he fantastically came off as the bitter, egoistic, cocky veteran that he is, punishing the young poster boy of the company. I also interpreted the STORY? of the whole bout as Jericho slowly gassing out as he pulled out all the brakes to try and beat Okada, while Okada barely even left his first gear. That might be the case of me completely making shit up, but that's how I interpreted it anyway, and they told that story pretty fantastically throughout, all climaxing in the finish w/ Okada completely catching Jericho off-guard in vintage Bret Hart fashion. I personally LOVED it because I feel like the Rainmaker, as a finishing move, has been let kicked out of & been spammed a bit too much in the last 2-3 years. Also I am gonna forever defend that first Codebreaker by Jericho on the outside - it wasn't pretty, but my goodness it was the most vicious that move has ever looked performed by him. THIS WAS GREAT."

[6.0] "Jericho was my favourite wrestler for over a decade. He is now almost 50 and altbough he thinks he has defied his age and is still a supreme worker, that is no longer the case. Like his match with Naito, he now looks very old and his matches are hard to watch."

[5.0] "I thought it was a decent match, but the ending really brought things down for me. Not the flash pinfall.... I think that was fine, but the post-match nonsense didn't make much sense."

[2.0] "This wasn't an IWGP caliber match at all. All of Jericho's flaws were exposed here without the smoke and mirrors. This dragged really bad and by the 15 minute or so mark I was ready for Okada to just hit the rainmaker and put this match out of its misery. The worst part was the post-match where they seemingly set up a future Jericho vs Tanahashi match. After this match, I have zero desire to see that. Its such a shame that NJPW passed up on doing Tanahashi-Okada or White-Okada so Jericho could stink up a Dominion main event. *"

[3.0] "This really dragged unfortunately. Started off okay. When the match went over the guardrail and the announcers played up it turning into "Jericho's type of match" I was at least looking forward to something resembling the Naito or Omega matches, but no. Felt longer than it's 25 minute run time. There was almost nothing of real interest after the 10 minute mark."

[4.0] "Worst Okada title defense by far. Didn't help that they followed Dragon Lee/Ospreay and Ibushi/Naito. The beginning was slow like most Okada matches, but it never picked up. Jericho needs the bells and whistles to have a good match these days. At least it was way better than Undertaker/Goldberg. **"

[7.0] "It was a nice match I think, but weird: first of all, Jericho really limited his use of weapons, he didn't use them a lot and at his age he should do it more tbh, cause it always worked in his past matches. There were some nice exchanges, I like when wrestlers exchange finishers, of course Y2J isn't in his prime so it's tough to work a classic without a special stipulation but they did well considering everything. Second of all, the finish was very WWEish, but at the same time 1. Jericho is the AEW World Title contender (and probably champion), he can't lose clean in Japan again (after Naito) since 2. they're setting up a program with Tanahashi so it's better to have Y2J coming off strong and the roll up protects him. I've seen people complain about the NJPW typical "clean win and post match promo" formula that I love, but this change had to be done given their future plans."

[4.0] "I thought Jericho would do wise to do a Jericho match rather than an Okada match but the first half of this match was god awful and that's basically a Jericho style of match. Once it turned into a normal match, this improved tremendously. Jericho had some nice chops. Okada took some nice bumps. There were some iffy sequences that looked awkward and slow though, so it wasn't all good. The finish was a show, to say the least. The post-match angle sucked and it was a bad way to end the show. It's been a while since the fans rejected an ending. **"

[5.0] "This wasn't a bad match per se, but it was so far below the standards of a Dominion main event that it wasn't even funny. Jericho looked slow and unathletic, and he was unconvincing in his offence. Okada is one of the best in the world, but even he struggled to get anything passable out of Jericho. And the fans didn't seem to care about the match, because it got very little heat, and it was embarrassing to see Jericho constantly having to cheerlead in order to get the fans to react. Even the post-match, with Jericho attacking Okada and Tanahashi making the save, got little reaction. And for the first time a long time, the fans reacted negatively to the end of a New Japan show. That alone should tell you how well this entire scenario got over."

[7.0] "yo considero que fue un combate de 7 puntos porque si bien considero que fue bueno in ring, fue innecesariamente largo y por momentos lento, algo bueno que dejó el final es la puerta abierta para un jericho vs tanahashi o la revancha de jericho frente a okada"

[6.0] "The match was pretty solid aside from some sloppy move executions here and there, i'll detract a point for the bad and abrupt ending."

[5.0] "Incredibly overlong and boring. Nothing memorable happened at all save for the awful awful post-match stuff. Jericho is really starting to show his age with some slow and not-that-smooth move transitions. Really just want him out of New Japan at this point."

[9.0] "It was a good match, little slow but still really good. The ending protected Jericho who is number one contender for AEW title what was a good decision. Plus it built up to Jericho vs Tanahashi and Jericho vs Okada 2."