[6.0] "A good little 'dream match' that came about 10-15 years too late. Cima is a very different challenger in the ZERO1 main-event scene, since he's far more based around speed, agility, and technical work than pure 'strong style' strikefest work as most ZERO1 wrestlers are. I liked that this was therefore very different from your usual, done-to-death strike-vs-strike ZERO1 World Title match, but that didn't necessarily make this better than the other recent ZERO1 World Title matches. I liked the mix of styles here, but their chemistry was a bit sloppy or underwhelming at points, resulting in some spots and exchanges that didn't reach their full potential. I liked the story of Tanaka targeting Cima's leg, but that was also ultimately underwhelming. Tanaka's initial leg-targeting work was decent, and I liked the split-second counters he brought out in the second half when returning to target it, but Cima's selling was pretty underwhelming and inconsistent. His real-time selling was fine enough, but he would only give very superficial gestures and facial expressions to show his discomfort and annoyance at having to use that damaged leg to move around and hit his responsive offence, and at some points he would run, jump, and hit kicks/knee strikes with that leg without any visible discomfort or physical limitations. The rest of Cima's work was still good, but like with a lot of his peak DG matches, he easily could have elevated this match if he cared enough about selling. Another issue here related to selling was that it often felt like both guys were moving too quickly between their big spots and exchanges, meaning they wouldn't be able to hit those spots and exchanges with as appropriately large impact because they were too focussed on just getting themselves into position for the next spot or exchange. It also meant that it was hard to take their big interactions seriously when I knew they could shake them off and be back up on their feet only a few seconds later. There was an exciting pace at the end, but that was when this relative lack of selling was on display, and it felt more like both guys were just thinking "hmm time to make this a GREAT (tm) match by quickly hitting all our signature moves against each". I still enjoyed seeing them hit their signature stuff, but it also just made me wish we got this match 10-15 years earlier so that everything here would've had more intensity and fluidity. ***1/4"
[6.0] "This was a solid match between two aging legends who can still go, but I admit I was expecting something more here. It felt a bit basic despite having a healthy main event run time, all the work was good but it didn't stand out to me."
[9.0] "4. 5 Stars - This match fucking ruled! CIMA and Tanaka are such great veterans and pulled such a great match that didnt go too long and had that big fight feel thorougjout. CIMA grappling was great and Tanaka strikes hit hard. Tanaka is still a crazy man at his age with all the bumps on the table and jumping to the outside. They told great story working on the leg of CIMA to stop his double knees and loved Tanaka sliding D to the leg. The no selling of the leg was a bit much for me at the end but it was one of those rare ones where I was enjoying so much I kind of saw past it. Well worth a watch"
[8.0] "Another great title defense from the consistently great Masato Tanaka. Tanaka dominates most of the match with his grappling skills, powerful lariats and his expected table spots, including a nasty attack on CIMA's leg. That's not to say CIMA made it easy to Tanaka: he showed some nice grappling skills of his own and had a nice comeback with his athleticism based offense, but, in the end, Tanaka's work on his leg and powerful hitting were too much for him. People shouldn't sleep on this one: both veterans were on fire and the match was very well structured."
[7.0] "A very good defense here from Masato Tanaka, but like his match against Hayato in january, it was disappointing. Tanaka and Cima exchanged some awesome strikes, and I really liked some spots but this match was too long for what they told us, we had some minutes in the second half of the match that were uninteresting. Also, the spot of the table took too much time to me. ***1/2"
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