OZAWA vs. Yoshiki Inamura

[8.0] "People need to understand. Every Japanese promotion has a pantomime villain stable currently. OZAWA puts every single one of them to shame. Yes, the schtick is always dry, but you actually watch OZAWA where I skip the others. Even when he's stalling, people are watching and waiting, rather than changing the channel. He doesn't have to do much, just show some charisma and freestyle a bit. The Team 2000x stuff doesn't help, but OZAWA is a star in spite of it. So much so that the relatively boring Inamura gets genuine babyface reactions. Lots of problems with NOAH currently, but OZAWA and Inamura aren't them."

"Yoshiki Inamura vs. OZAWA was a fundamentally misguided match from its very conception. Pairing OZAWA, fresh off a significant injury, with a wrestler as limited and one-dimensional as Yoshiki Inamura already raised serious concerns before the bell even rang. On paper, the matchup lacked both upside and necessity. For roughly the first fifteen minutes, the match felt awkward and directionless. We got the usual OZAWA antics -- the games, the dances, the stalling -- but without any real structure to support them. What is normally a deliberate pacing tool instead came across as empty time-filling, as the bout never established a clear rhythm or narrative thread. At best, the match reached a barely acceptable level of competence. That in itself is disappointing when viewed in the context of OZAWA's recent body of work, which includes strong performances against Kiyomiya, Kenoh, Kitamiya, and Eita. Those bouts created the expectation that OZAWA could elevate opponents and deliver meaningful drama. Here, that expectation went unmet. The match remained largely flat throughout, with the crowd clearly rallying behind OZAWA, although Inamura did manage to draw sporadic reactions and occasional pops. However, those moments never translated into sustained momentum or emotional investment. While Inamura undeniably possesses strong charisma, presence, and microphone skills, in a promotion like NOAH, a wrestler lacking a refined and distinctive in-ring skill set ultimately struggles to truly captivate the audience. Charisma alone is not enough to compensate for technical and athletic limitations at this level. Inamura, in particular, felt like an active detriment to the match. His sluggishness, lack of intensity, and limited offense consistently disrupted whatever momentum OZAWA attempted to create. Rather than functioning as a cooperative opponent capable of enhancing the contest, he came across as a constraint. The end result is something I honestly can't quite grasp... although booking, of course, isn't my job."

[6.0] "Not terribly executed, but the approach is tired. OZAWA should have evolved past this type of match by this point. It was interesting the first time we saw it last January, but we don't need to see him establish character anymore. Start wrestling and sprinkle that stuff in, right?"

[6.0] "Disappointing main event but this wasn't an awful match. Lots of schtick but there was also some good wrestling here although the result was baffling."

[7.0] "A lot of people dont realize they have the luxury to just skip whenever ozawa does his Shtick of just stalling, pretty typical ozawa match with their usual house of torture shit but no actual complaints about the wrestling between inamura and ozawa themselves."

[7.0] "Its a standard Ozawa match, i dont really see how this one is much worse or better than any of his title defenses from 2025. He loses his shine everytime he entertains more than he wrestles but this was just a match not worth watching due to its boring nature."

[1.0] "Jesus what an absolutely boring, painful let down of a main event. Team 2000X reminds me of House of Torture, just with slightly better wrestling, however this was a pain to get through. It didn't help that it had to follow the instant classic Jr title match, but I thought it would at least be better then what it was. There was relentless stalling, too much interference from 2000X members, the in ring action was decent at best and there was absolutely nothing memorable about it. Overall a very disappointing match that didn't live up to the expectations of the fans."

[7.0] "Man no one hates NOAH more than NOAH fans. This match was fine. Had some really good moments but wasn't a start to finish banger match. I don't really care about the booking of NOAH. They put the two guys they want build the future around and it was good. Could've been better but wasn't terrible"

[6.0] "Very overhated. A fine match. If you're complaining about stalling and Team 2000X bullshit, have you ever seen an OZAWA match before? Aggressively fine.3 stars."

[7.0] "I mean, im sure its terrible in the sense that people on this site like, but as an overbooked spectacle wwe-style it was rather fun, it told it's story very well."

[2.0] "One of the least enjoyable matches I've watched in some time. Endless stalling, false selling and a whole lot of nothing happening. This was my first exposure to Ozawa and while I know he's a draw, I got little to say regarding his actual skill because of the structure of the match. Inamura was the standout in this, overall, hugely poor effort."

[2.0] "i needed to rewatch that, because i was not sure about what i saw but this is a shame, a pure one, guys like Misawa Kobashi put they ass on these rings for what?"

[4.0] "Ozawa takes all of the worst 2016 Naito elements but instead of ramping up intensity to build to what is ultimately a great match, he stalls for 15 minutes and then has a mid match for 5 minutes. It doesn't even really make sense from a psychology standpoint either, it's not like his opponent is getting super angry and then making mistakes, which he's then capitalizing on. They are mostly just doing nothing... then they wrestle for 5 minutes, and then the other guy wins anyway."

[6.0] "OZAWA is a great wrestler, but his style and the booking of his match are really boring, and it's sad because things could have turn differently. I just hate T2000X interventions in GHC match."

[6.0] "Kinda can't believe how underwhelming this is compared to OZAWA's truly ascendent performance at last year's Budokan Show. Really nervous about what NOAH's up to. 3 stars"

[4.0] "A poor GHC Title match, there was a bit of good wrestling here, but trapped between a lot of WWE style nonsense."

[0.0] "Once again, NOAH strikes with another DUD. Two in one show. An awful start to the year for them. This match was largely dull and boring for the most part. No dynamic with Ozawa works since the crowd root for Ozawa and there's hardly any reaction to the babyface's offence. You take all the stalling and interferences and nothing about this is good. I absolutely despise Team 2000X and this was an interference galore. Hate it. It being this long, it having nothing good in it, and it having some of the worst modern wrestling troupes that I absolutely hate, i honestly cannot give this more than a 0. i am not someone who rates in extremes. I hardly give out 10s and 0s but when i feel so strongly about something in either side, i just cant help it. Kitamiya is the next challenger and boy im not interested in that either. Just end 2000X please."

[5.0] "The main event was very frustrating. 15 minutes of stalling and interference to set up five minutes of good action leading to an abrupt finish. I think it's worth watching this match next to the Saya Kamitani match from Dream Queendom. Saya gets through all her cocky poses quickly while wrestling aggressively in the context of an action packed match, Ozawa is too talent to just kill 15 minutes on the biggest show of the year."

[5.0] "Not worth a watch, kind of my view of Inamura overall. The goofy American cowboy shtick entrance might be the most entertaining part of this whole match. OZAWA is great, very talented, his gimmick really works but this felt like a paint by numbers version of it to just give it to the crowd. Maybe this looked way worse in comparison to the match before it but big disappointment here."

[6.0] "I was entertained, the interferences were expected and not too jarring with the satisfying moment of Dragon Bane getting some revenge on his brother and Team 2000X. I will say, I felt that this only barely got started after we were done with all of the interferences and OZAWA-ism's. The match was starting to get going and then bang, it's over. Not a bad match at all, I just felt that this didn't kick into second gear given its place on the main event of NOAH's biggest card of the year. ***1/4."