El Samurai vs. Masayoshi Motegi

[4.0] "This was my least favourite match of the show, but that doesn't mean it was terrible. Motegi was a bit of a mess here and messing up spots; which made me feel bad for an El Samurai who was trying really hard here. The right guy certainly moved on from this match as El Samurai picked up the win."

[3.0] "Poor-ish, with blown spots (mostly from Motegi) and Motegi essentially refusing to sell anything for long, except one decent dropkick sell where he staggers around entertainingly - most egregiously, he throws off a piledriver and a Tombstone as early nearfalls. (The crowd is quite into the Tombstone.) They're both agile and pull off a couple of decent exchanges and passages, but when one has been ejected from immersion, it's hard to win that back. Samurai does have a nice chinlock suplex thing at one point. Samurai wins with a powerbomb, eventually. 1.5/5"

[6.0] "I enjoyed this, there were some botches that kill the momentum a bit but they pick it back up pretty quick. ***"

[4.0] "This match starts fine enough, but it starts to fall apart pretty quick when Motegi absolutely lands on his ass on a dive attempt and the crowd loses interest pretty quick. They just sorta do moves? Motegi botches some more stuff like a head scissors and dropkick - he does hit a sweet rolling surfboard and a triple German, so I feel like he's not completely terrible? Might just be bad chemistry with Samurai or just lost confidence after the botch? But this was def not a great impression for him - Motegi is the forgotten man from this tournament, and it's pretty clear why. Samurai picks up the pin with a kneeling powerbomb, thanks for coming fella. I'm gonna guess this is probably the worst match of the tournament. **"

[2.0] "A bad start with Motegi almost severely injuring himself with a big botched springboard dive to the outside. Motegi definitely looked a step below Samurai throughout this bout, he looked worse than Gedo earlier in the card and was probably the worst competitor in the tournament. The action is pretty sloppy and this just came across at quite boring for the majority which is not what you want from a Jr. tournament. Samurai gets the win to put us out of our misery with a powerbomb. Definitely worth a skip."

[2.0] "Very, very sloppy match, lots of stuff here just looked down right bad. Incredibly disappointing match."

[5.0] "A few botches during this match. However, it is still good to watch. 2 good wrestlers I'm seeing for the first time. (2*3/4)"

[7.0] "This was pretty good, I enjoyed this more than Gedo vs. Dean Malenko which is something I thought I'd never say. The rolling surfboard into the dragon sleeper was my favorite spot."

[5.0] "Early botch from Mogi didn't help and really didn't pick untill the end with some solid sequences as the crowd got invested in the match."

[5.0] "This match really felt like a WYF stuff and I kinda dig it. Yet, it's totally not a good one. I like my good old stiff spots with some dangerous bumps, but most runtime of the match it was not really interesting. **1/2"

[5.0] "This was not great, it would appear the nerves of Motegi got to him as he was a bit all over the places and made some bad botches including a bad attempted springboard to the outside. His rolling Mexican surfboard was ace though"

[4.0] "Definitely one of the weaker matches on the show. Motegi feels like a bit of an odd man out compared to the rest of the J Cup's field of talent, and didn't show up huge here. Early on a potential springboard dive off the top rope almost goes dangerously awry, with Motegi instead just falling back into the ring, and he has a few more sloppy spots, including a Dragon Sleeper "hold" that's worse than, well, most of SANADA's. There's some good action, too, of course - Motegi's rolling mexican surfboard deserves credit, too - but these two don't seem to be on the same page, and El Samurai's victory a foregone conclusion."

[4.0] "Weird match. There were a few cool spots and a good closing minute or two, but it was really overshadowed by periods of extremely slow and sometimes very sloppy work from both guys, particularly Motegi. **"