[10.0] "Spectacular fucking bout. My respect for Takayama just went sky-high after this. Misawa going MMA-style was something I didn't know I needed to see, and I SO NEEDED IT. They went OFF against each other. Takayama is massive, not only in size but he is so quick and agile and skillful, and so Misawa-san has to dig deeeep, has to endure a damn storm, has to hit him with whatever comes in handy. Not quite flawless, but daaaaaaamn near. ****3/4 or 4.75 or 9.5. 10 for now because it is one of my favorites but it can be, at the minimum, a 9."
[8.0] "[3.75*] Something that happens a lot with me when I'm watching Puro from that period in time is that the first few minutes are kinda useless, until they start some limb-work and the ending stretch is bombastic. This match, however, doesn't have that structure at all. I thought this was a very damn linear match, actually. It started off great, was great down the middle and had a great surprise finish, with Misawa's Elbow on Takayama's bloody face. The problem is, although there wasn't a single second where I thought this match was boring, I was never super amazed either. It was just very linear and compelling. It was never THAT exciting and it was never useless. Just a calm lil great match from start to finish."
[8.0] "A great match, I still think I slightly prefer their match back in 2001 but this is a truly wonderful and violent fight. Takayama looked unbeatable as this started but Misawa just never stopped coming forward and showed why he's the Ace of NOAH. 4.25 stars"
[9.0] "I'm a hyper critical bastard to things i like so one or two moments of sloppiness bugged me.... but who cares, excellent match, very well structured. Seeing Misawa struggling, trying different things from power, to striking, to technical and still not being able to get the upper hand in the early parts of the match was really cool, and when he finally did get a foothold, the intensity was great. Takayama is brilliant here, putting in an on-par performance against Misawa, whilst Misawa just knows how to get the fans hooked. Really enjoyable."
[8.0] "Good match, wrong result, Takayama deserved a lot better then this, and while Misawa had a good performance here, he definately did not need this and this just hurts Takayama, the better and younger wrestler. ****1/4"
[9.0] "I really liked this match, the strikes exchanged by these two are brutal and super credible, including the great exchange of kicks, there are some great kickouts and I just found the ending a bit meh, personally I can't like the rolling elbow as a finisher (****1/2)"
[7.0] "Ein gutes Match, habe mir aber bei der Bewertung was wirklich herausragendes erwartet. Was man jedenfalls sagen kann ist, dass das sehr hard-hitting war und sehr intensiv. Misawa teilt seine Elbows aus und Takayama kann mit seinen harten Kneestrikes dagegensetzen. War ein sehr unschöner Kampf, im guten und im schlechten Sinne, da es hier nicht viele schöne Moves gab, aber als man zum Ende hin ein paar größere Moves auspacken wollte, hat das Timing und die Ausführung nicht ganz gepasst. Auch wenn Misawa noch sehr Klasse war und ein gutes Match zeigen konnte, merkte Mann ihm sein Alter und die vielen Bumps schon sehr an(***1/2)."
[8.0] "Sometimes you just want to see two people beating the shit out of each others and when they start spamming too much Chinlocks you understand that your axpectatives won't be overclassed. Surely this bout was good - especially in ten last ten minutes - but it isn't such wild as you can think. At least Misawa could still dive. ***3/4"
[7.0] "I'll preface this by saying that there really is a lot to like here, first and foremost probably being the awesome crowd who were bought all the way in on this one. To my grumpy eye though, they always seemed to be slightly off of the same page, with plenty of off-timings and half moments of awkwardness keeping it from being a match I could unreservedly adore."
[9.0] "This was NOAH meets PRIDE and it was awesome. Misawa going for takedowns, mount and leg kicks is awesome. But he ran into a monster in the form of Takayama here who kept catching him with his out of nowhere kicks and superior striking. But Misawa adjusted his game and figured him out. Tons of ridiculously smart spots. Misawa anticipating a Takayama kick to hit his leg is why Misawas such a genius. I also loved how Misawa connected a running elbow, but Takayama didnt go down, allowing Takayama to catch a surprised Misawa with a kick to the brain. Takayama interrupting Misawas routine with a killer knee strike was also great. Takayama was just a beast and seemed to overwhelm him, but Misawa came back and outboxed the monster. Totally awesome stuff, these two could have gone braindead and just done a bunch of freak violence and hard hitting and kickouts but they gave us something much smarter and cooler. For strike based big matches in pro style it doesnt get much better if you ask me."
[10.0] "Misawa is a fascinating guy insofar as he wrestled a highly damaging style, to the point where he was very busted up even here by the age of 40, and yet when he needed to he always seemed to be able to pull out a world class performance. It helps of course that here he is against Takayama, whose overpowering offense works with Misawa's stoic defender style. Takayama blasted the hell out of Misawa at every opportunity here, tremendous offense on his part, but Misawa not only withstood the attack (with wonderful selling, as usual) but was able to battle back and in the end turned Takayama's face into pudding with his trademark elbow strikes. Awesomely fun match."
[9.0] "What a match here! Much similar to their 2001 match. Takayama delivered very good work on top and Misawa fought beneath perfectly. The crowd was super hot and into the action. in the entire match. The near falls and drama were built very well towards the end, which really drew amazing reactions for each near fall. Excellent stuff."
[10.0] "Was ein Fight um den Titel dieser beiden Veteranen ! Takayama trifft Misawa immer wieder hart mit seinen Kicks und zeigt eine eindrucksvolle Leistung ! Misawa steckt ein und sellt sehr stark und zeigt ein technisch starkes Match ! Finish Phase fand ich extrem spannend gemacht und Klasse umgesetzt ! Für mich zu schlecht von Meltzer bewertet ! 4 1/2 Sterne und 10 Punkte für dieses Titelmatch !"
[7.0] "This easily could have been ****1/2 if both guys had ironed out their few chemistry issues and properly structured the match so that each exchange and spot built upon and surpassed the previous one, because this had the foundations of a classic. Takayama was the intimidating, monstrous champion that would mercilessly beat the hell out of Misawa with his massive kicks, while Misawa was a fantastic underdog babyface with his incredibly sympathetic selling and speedy, impactful elbows. It was great seeing Misawa show his resilience and eventually manage to wear Takayama down with pure attrition. In typical 00s Misawa fashion, this match sadly lost its hype at certain moments when both guys would hit a move that SHOULD have been quick and/or hard hitting, but was instead a bit slow and/or weak, which would momentarily zap out the audience's excitement. BUT, being that this was 00s NOAH, the audience as well as myself knew that any big move from either guy could end the match, so all the near falls were pretty exciting, even if they came off of half-baked attacks. The final few minutes were great, as Misawa's momentum kept going but then Takayama unloaded once again with a vicious series of knees and got quite close to winning with a series of germans. Misawa of course survived, and then threw out a number of elbow strikes before Takayama could no longer stand and ate the pin. It shows just how great Misawa and Takayama were that they could win over the crowd (as well as myself) off of what was obviously a match with a lot of issues. In my head I can easily imagine a crazy 30-minute bombfest between these two, based off of what they showed me here, and it's depressing that we'll never get to actually see that. ***3/4"
[8.0] "Pretty good match overall. Some nice stiff striking from Takayama. Nice near falls apart from one tiger bomb that the crowd didn't react for at all. Misawa was excellent at being the sympathetic babyface to Takayama's brutal heel role. ****"
[8.0] "A good back and forth match with some vicious striking that unfortunately suffers purely based on the greatness of Misawa's other great matches, which it can't live up to. Still a very good match though and one that would be a career highlight for most wrestlers, but for Misawa was just another day in the office."
[10.0] "When folks talk about Omega and Okada and the 6 stars, I like to point to matches like this. This felt like a FIGHT using wrestling moves. Everything was brutal and impactful. The timing and pacing was perfect."
[10.0] "This is one of the occasions where 2 guys prove that you don't have to perform alot of moves to make a match great. These guys put on a great match, with Misawa totally selling the match with his facial expressions. And in the end he totally destroyed Takayama with the elbows."
[9.0] "While not on the level of their 04/15/01 classic, this was another great bout between Misawa & Takayama. The fighting ace in Misawa going against the ultimate monster in Takayama was once again a dynamic that worked REALLY well. Great match. ****"
