[6.0] "It was not that bad. Great athmosphere and Ok match, kenoh and bushi had good moments, naito remains very charismatic despite the physical difficulties. Lets see what is nex with ltj and maybe RYUSEI."
[6.0] "This was alright but nothing special. Naito looked rough. Bushi was Bushi and Kenou held things together as usual. Used sparingly I think Naito could be a fun addition to the roster for big shows. ***"
[4.0] "For most of the time the ring action was great. The only problem was when Naito was in the ring and he looked awful. He managed to botch, mistime or miss practically all of his moves. Kudos for Kenoh and Maru for nearly saving this match."
[5.0] "This had star power and the idea was way stronger than the execution. Naito operated in slow motion with warning lights flashing. Marufuji clearly is not what he was either, though he held it together better. BUSHI and Kenoh did most of the actual work and the finish was clever enough."
[6.0] "These guys are all in their 40s but they're all workers and the crowd likes them all (especially Naito) so they made this satisfactory. Each team had a guy who could keep the pace moving in Kenoh & BUSHI and that was enough. Rough seeing Naito & Marufuji both working with zero knees between them but they can still structure a match decently. **3/4"
[6.0] "The worst kept secret ever turned out to be Tetsuya Naito, as expected. However, both Naito and Marufuji looked battered. On the other hand, BUSHI and Kenoh stood out and provieded a good performance. It wasn't superb, but a fun match overall"
[2.0] "I can also turn a blind eye to the form of Marufuji and Naito since they donated their bodies for the love of the game, but we can't ignore the ending. Black Mist on Marufuji and the referee, who sees him black, doesn't convert the score."
[2.0] "There is the meme of "t-shirt Naito", i.e. on a "Road to Whatever New Japan Show Is Next" tour, Naito would visibly check out and not even take his t-shirt off, leading to matches done with the minimal amount of effort (in essence, what the internet would like you think Dynamite Okada is like). This match proves that "t-shirt Naito" is not strictly a statement on his clothing. Maybe that's why Bushiroad said "thanks, but no thanks" when he tried to negotiate for a raise last year. There's a certain air of Chris Jericho about him, in that, like Jericho against Ospreay at All in at 2023, the Mox match in April 2024 was Naito's last great stand and he hit the wall as far as physical limitations go pretty hard soon after. Marufuji, too, is not what he was even a couple of years ago. Which leads to Old Man Graps in the worst way, an absolute car crash of a match. Thankfully, though, because all four men could more or less walk out on their own power, it's still not the worst Marufuji match at a New Year show."
[3.0] "First things first, I have to say that I respect and appreciate the careers of Tetsuya Naito and Naomichi Marufuji and I consider them to be among the best Japanese wrestlers of this century. However, I also believe that they are currently out of their primes. That is the main reason why I think that this match isn't good. In particular, I found Naito as extremely slow, while Marufuji and BUSHI made a couple of botches each. In conclusion, I would like to praise Kenoh for doing his best to stick this match together in order not to derail in a complete disaster."
[5.0] "I am very sad that Naito refuses to treat his knees and looks the way he looks, but people continue to be even more biased towards him. Oh, this match wasn't anywhere near as terrible as it's being described here. I would rather mention the excellent performance of BUSHY, who, although he was an opportunist most of the time, did his job perfectly. Both Keno and Maru wanted to get to Naito, but the real secret weapon was BUSHI. I would say that if Tetsuya's knees had been healthier, the match would have looked many times better, because it had its own ideas and funny moments, but we have what we have."
[0.0] "I feel for Kenoh. He tried his best but this match was a complete disaster. Marufuji was previously the most washed-up man on the NOAH roster but he can comfortably hand that role over to Tetsuya Naito. Oh boy, did Naito stink here. His knees still look like they're functioning bone-on-bone, which means every moment in the ring is staccato, off-pace and uncomfortable both for him and the viewer. He had to bail out of a couple of spots and ultimately everyone had to work around him, which is never a good sign."
[4.0] "This is maybe the meanest thing I'll ever say about a wrestler - it's not just that Naito is physically cooked, it's that he's the wrestling equivalent of senile. His brain and body just doesn't operate in tandem. He had to bail out of two moves, one from KENOH and Marufuji each. BUSHI managed to keep some semblance of a match together, but in NOAH, the promotion of high-level 40+ year olds, Naito looks in his 70s."
[6.0] "Not that bad, actually. Naito wrestled like a wooden board, that's true, but he didn't try to do sophisticated stuff, so it wasn't that ridiculous. Moreover, the match was more focused on BUSHI (who even had the pinfall), who did a correct performance. The MVP of the match was of course Kenoh, still very impressive."
[8.0] "This was based. My jaw was on the floor almost the entire match. Naito putting on a masterclass of confusion. Was he in pain? Was he sandbagging? A match that lets the mind wander and the eyes feast upon the most unusual. Kenoh stiffing Naito who's acting like Curly from the Three Stooges while BUSHI's venom mask stares into the camera and pleads for help will be a hard moment to top this year. I appreciated that Naito took his shirt off and got dropped on his head for us as a little treat. Marufuji was moving at .90 speed and was still fine. Naito hit a nice frankensteiner off the top! I had a good time. A match you show your friends."
[1.0] "Naito is absolutely washed due to the state of his body, he's not the man he was even a few years ago, BUSHI wasn't that great in his prime and hasn't impressed in years, and Kenoh/Marufuji weren't able to do much to carry them to anything notable. Not a great start for Naito/BUSHI in NOAH, but now they're the GHC Tag Team Champions. Those belts are having a rough patch right now."
"As a huge Naito fan, watching this match was painful; you can tell his injured body isn't the same as it was five years ago. The match was emotional, but unfortunately, it never really found its rhythm or took off. Naito isn't the only one affected; Marufuji's age is starting to show too! KENOH and BUSHI worked hard, but the match still lacked urgency."
[6.0] "Marufuji and Naito both looked dead out there and Bushi was bushi which is just incredibly forgettable but somehow through all of that i dont think it was one of the worst matches within the last year more so than it was just a super forgettable match that helped nor hurt anyone except maybe naito but i already felt that in his last stint with new japan."
[4.0] "oh boy this is one of those matches i genuinely have a hard time rating. everything before the bell rang was great with the first 2 or so minutes being pretty basic but fun. but then we get to both the reason i watched this match and the reason this match fell apart, tetsuya naito. my main issue isnt even how he performed which was barely any better than a year ago in new japan, my main issue is how he looked completely lost and genuinely uninterested in a way that felt he was in pain during the entire match, his eyes looked very strange and if it wasnt for kenoh this match would have been genuinely bad. i have no idea if naito will ever look 25% how he did in 2020 but i genuinely hope he can pull off something better in the future."
[6.0] "I feel like people genuinely aren't watching Tetsuya Naito's matches, they just come to write how bad it was. The entrance was cool. There was some fun double team moves. BUSHI did a lot of the heavy lifting, but he looked good. And the finish was cool and unexpected. Of course Naito isn't the same anymore, but he's not as bad as people want him to be."
[3.0] "Overall, I was disappointed with this match, both in terms of the in-ring quality and the booking. I'd like to see the tag team division fixed."
[4.0] "This did not work. Naito's first entrance in Japan since leaving New Japan and it was a cool moment. But having no knees Marufuji and no knees Naito in the same match wasn't going to let this be good. But at least there was some semblance of structure to this. Not a good match but not anything outright terrible. Just an unfortunate case of severe human limitations of 2/4 participants."
[3.0] "Look, I have all the respect in the world for Naito and Marufuji, however it was painful to watch them in this one. The only reason I'm giving it a 3 and not lower, is because Kenoh and Bushi really tried to make something of it, and they both carried their teams in the match. Everything was mostly sloppy, slow and not in the slightest, good or even decent. This was very painful to sit through, and seeing Naito as a champion isn't something I had hoped or wanted to see."
[6.0] "This started slow, as you'd expect. But wow, the second half of this was pretty enthralling. Some fun combos between all of these guys before a shocking flash pinfall by Bushi on Marufuji - probably the last thing I would have called for the finish. I'll be honest, I wanted this to keep going because I was enjoying myself. ***1/4."
[4.0] "Naito & Bushis match was just sad. They'd laid out an exciting match but they couldn't move fast enough to pull it off. Naito was so slow and pained in his movements, although he did actually execute most moves well. Bushi botched a couple of spots and the match had a clever mist finish."
[3.0] "NOAH's reign of terror by men held together by old tape and hope continues! Naito is well being cooked. His entrance had the whole crowd in his palm but the minute he tried to move he lost the whole building. Naito looked so bad that Marufuji looked in top shape here. Kenoh continues to be NOAH's mvp by making this whole thing happen."
[5.0] "This was not bad, it was not great by any means but it was not actively bad thanks to a really fiery Kenoh performance and Naito still knowing how to captivate an audience even as his body is falling apart. BUSHI and Marufuji were alright, nothing really to mention from them. The finish was pretty middling, with BUSHI landing a mist to the face of Marufuji and rolling him up for the win. A bit of a mess and definitely disappointing but not as bad as some recent Marufuji matches."
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