[6.0] "This is solid enough. The first half is a bit of a waste of time as there's not a lot of point in Sammy investing in leg work on Sasuke when you know he's just going to blow it off (and couldn't really sell it with further tournament matches to come anyway) but once they get into the stretch it's fast paced stuff with some very exciting back and forth near falls. ***"
[8.0] "This match was great and I'm glad I can finally say that I've fully enjoyed an El Samurai match. This was Sasuke's entry into the tournament after a bye so technically also the freshest entry alongside Pegasus; although Sasuke certainly does a great job of selling that he isn't so fresh with the more punishment he takes. I really enjoyed the pace of this one and both these guys were great. Sasuke gets the win here and move on."
[7.0] "Sasuke's entry into the competition after a bye. High octane with a lot of sharp, even stiff, execution. A couple outside the ring are half-botched, which is weird given the excellence in the ring. The finish is on a final reversal of a chain of rolling pins after a Samurai Hurricanrana, which feels right. Hot crowd. 3.5/5"
[9.0] "Knew this match was gonna be great and it was. Extremely well paced match that starts off with some good technical leg work and then it gets really amped up and action packed. Both wrestlers killed it. ****1/2"
[8.0] "Okay HERE we go, this tournament is really cooking off now. This just passes the Pegasus/Tiger match immediately before it as best match of the night with a PRIMO performance from Great Sasuke selling great early and doing all his cool shit later. I wanna highlight El Samurai here too - he does some great work on the mat in the early going, especially the beautifully worked cross armbar sequence and a goddamn STUMP PULLER, which will always get a pop out of me. Sasuke does kinda forget his leg hurts like halfway through the match, but such is the nature of this whole tournament it seems. The ending sequence is FIRE. The little lack of Sasuke knee selling keeps it out of all timer category, but puts it firmly in really god damn good territory. ****1/4"
[6.0] "Pretty solid match slow limb work for the first portion if the match. The ending was very good. Solid performance from both guys especially Great Sasuke. ***1/4"
[7.0] "Best match of the night so far for me. It's a shame the first half was pretty dry because the last few minutes were electric with a tonne of fast, technical action and near falls and the crowd loving it. ***3/4"
[8.0] "Slow start with lots of leg work and laying on the mat. Really picked up though with some excellent fast paced action with some great sequences as the crowd got into the match. Well worth a watch."
[6.0] "Really not a fan at all of Sasuke completely blowing off the leg work, because the leg work was really good. A return to form for Samurai. Lots of great near-falls down the stretch, before Sasuke takes it with a rollup reversal--of which there were a LOT on this show, and I think it's a legitimate weakness that the juniors formula got repeated so much over the course of the night."
[8.0] "The crowd were super into this and the action was really good. There is a great visual as Sasuke goes for his dive of all the photographers running to that side of the ring, only a little thing but I loved it"
[8.0] "Now this is when things really start to pop off. The crowd is hot for the Great Sasuke pretty much out of the gate, and as he starts to throw himself into the action, it's easy to see why. The opening is a little slow, as NJPW matches are wont to be, but it doesn't last too long, and by the end the crowd response is electric for every nearfall."
[7.0] "This was awesome. Not better than Benoit v Eddie in the previous match (sorry, Tiger vs Pegasus) but still good. It took awhile for things to get going with Samurai more than willing to keep on a hold longer than the match would have benefited from but his submissions were pretty snug and it allowed Sasauke to stand out a hell of a lot more in return. I popped big time for his Sasuke Special. Sasuke goes through with an impressive performance. ***1/2"
[8.0] "Really nice leg work to start off but then it transitioned really nicely into a really hot second half with some incredible near falls and great reversals. Maybe this doesn't hold up as well nowadays but I still thought this was fantastic. (****1/4)"
[9.0] "Auch dieses Viertelfinale dieses legendären Turnieres war schon richtig richtig gut ! Match dauert zwar nur knapp 13 Minuten aber diese haben es dafür in sich ... die ersten 8 Minuten gibt es schönes Submission Wrestling gepaart mit Mattenwrestling .. danach zieht Great Sasuke das Tempo extrem an und beide zeigen klasse Spots ... 4 1/2 von Meltzer hier vielleicht einen Tick zu hoch ... Würde 4 1/4 Sterne und 9 Punkte geben"
[7.0] "Samurai works over Sasuke’s leg quite well and Sasuke sells it very well, although Sasuke seems to forget this leg damage when he goes for his big spots and leg based offence, and by the second half of the match the leg work is entirely forgotten. This made it feel rather pointless, but it at least set up the narrative of Samurai dominating Sasuke, which builds up a lot of tension because it seems apparent that Samurai will pick up the victory with all the painful submission holds and power moves he is using. Sasuke is shown to be very intelligent with how he uses his agility and quick thinking to avoid and counter Samurai’s various moves. It was really enjoyable seeing Sasuke kick out of all of Samurai's convincing near falls and manage to get the lucky rollup pin victory. The match would have been even better if the leg work hadn’t become entirely irrelevant for the second half of the match, since that could have also played well into Sasuke's underdog comeback narrative. The crowd was super hot for all of this, which made the match even better. ***3/4"
[9.0] "Samurai dominiert den Anfang des Matches mit ein bisschen Legwork. Das ended jedoch als beide zu dem Entschluss kommen, dass sie das Match noch viel geiler machen können: Mit Highflying und high impact spots! Also machen sie einfach damit weiter. Samurai scheint trotzdem noch die Oberhand zu haben, da er den leichten Größenvorteil hat. Sasuke ist jedoch schnell und gut im Kontern, so dass er dadurch einiges an Schaden zufügen kann. Außerdem hat Sasuke kein Vorrunden-Match in den Knochen. Das hilft ihm einige heftige Bomben seitens Samurai zu überstehen. Am Ende versucht sich Samurai an einem Frankensteiner aber Sasuke rollt durch und bekommt damit den 3-count um ins Halbfinale einzuziehen. **** 1/4"
[7.0] "Von den 11 1/2 Minuten waren die ersten 6 praktisch nur Grappling von Samurai. Das war auf Seiten Samurais zwar in Ordnung, aber auch nichts weltbewegendes. Die letzten 5 Minuten sind dann wirklich hot, eingeläutet durch einen Flashing Elbow und das Sasuke Special von Sasuke. Danach war die Crowd echt drin, das Match war spannend und das Finish mit dem gekonterten Sunset Flip gut, aber wo Meltzer hier ****1/2 her hat, kann ich mir echt nicht erklären. Also insgesamt gutes Viertelfinal Match, aber weit davon entfernt herausragend zu sein. ***1/2"
[7.0] "4 1/2* finde ich persönlich ein bisshen viel. Das Match war aufjedenfall schlechter als ich es erwartet hatte. Trotzdem war es nicht schlecht. Nein es war relativ gut. Der letzte Funken ist nur nicht übergesprungen."
[6.0] "Puh, 4 1/2 Sterne.. keine Ahnung, ob dies aus damaliger Sicht passt. Heute sehe ich einen unglaublich agilen, stilsicheren Great Sasuke, der durch die Luft zu schweben scheint und einen El Samurai, der ein paar coole Submission Moves drauf hat. Die Crowd ist dabei und zum Ende hin gibt es ein paar coole Moveabfolgen. Aus heutiger Sicht leicht überbewertet."
[7.0] "People were loud, match was good, but not as Dave Meltzer thinks. The bad thing about this match is Sasuke's selling his leg pain. Cool sequence in the end, but still, not a 4. 5!"
[8.0] "Samurai versucht erst mal sein Möglichstes um Sasuke am Boden zu halten, dementsprechend bodenständig beginnt das Match. Mit der Zeit drehen die Beiden aber auf und feuern etliche coole Spots ab und die Crowd feiert es einfach nur ab. Das Observerrating finde ich zwar etwas hoch, aber ohne Zweifel ein richtig starkes Match."
