Mohammed Yone vs. Toshiaki Kawada

[2.0] "Boring, so boring. I watched this at 2x speed and it still felt glacial. Neither of these guys were selling anything, Kawada was sweating buckets, there was this spot where Yone takes Kawada into the stands like it's TNA and sets up a running lariat spot that he fails at twice getting countered by super kicks he no sells, before finally landing it in as an anti climactic way as possible considering they had to rush back into the ring to beat the count proving the whole spot pointless. The first 9 minutes is rests holds, the next 5 they trade kicks back and forth, and in the final 3 they get moves in that are just not good because they've already been going for 20 + min already. The middle is just as pointless. The crowd is into it for some reason which also brings to mind mid '00s TNA with its Universal Studios staff crowds cheering for a crappy Shark boy vs BG James match."

[4.0] "This was a painfully dull and overly long match. Yone's portrayal here as some big main event level guy just doesn't work at all for him. Kawada's performance here was also pretty mediocre but considering Misawa had died less than a year prior to this I can't be that mad at him."

[4.0] "This was one of Yone's fated big pushes into being a actual main eventish threat as the leader of Disobey, including him having the tag belts and getting wins over Marufuji and Saito, who while not massively dominant talent, were still enough to get some momentum going. Of course, we know how that goes: KENTA beats his ass back to the undercard and steals his group: but still. Kawada is here because of Misawa passing, basically in his shoes as grumpy vet. He's openly stated that his passion for wrestling died when Misawa did, so we get a very noticeably more sombre Kawada than the explosive piss-pot we've seen before. This immediately goes into filler grappling sequences, basically spelling out that this is gonna be a draw before anything even happens. We get some nice strike sequences with Kawada getting over Yone's strength by staggering in pain after a few elbows. Kawada basically spends a good chunk of the match being worked over by Yone, either in filler rest holds or just them exchanging blows. It's fine enough but noticeably dull after a while and Kawada's usually great selling is replaced with a almost looming sense of boredom at the whole thing, very much going through the motions kinda deal. Funnily enough, Kawada also kicks out of his finish at one the first time, lol. There's also a weird bit where Kawada gets his foot stuck on the top rope when selling a big boot from Yone, who like a goof chooses to help him get out instead of working it into the match. There's some outside brawling and a goofy spot of Yone doing a running kick multiple times despite failing every time with Kawada countering every time. Kawada finally gets in control at the last 10 minutes but it's still laden with him losing that, despite a brutal powerbomb on the outside to even the score. The match finally starts to pick up steam with Kawada hitting a extended Stretch Plum and stiff kicks to try to squeeze that last bit of life out of Yone, but he gets out with a last second lariat and lands multiple big shots over the last few minutes, hitting another top rope leg drop, a Muscle Buster, but nothing sticks for the big three count. Kawada tries a brainbuster for the last second pin, but that also fails, leading to a draw, which gets noticeably loud jeers from the crowd, even as both men show respect afterwards. This was intended to get Yone over as a hard hitting heavyweight but it failed so, so dramatically. The crowd was dead for this and Yone's consistent Hogan-lite need to no sell Kawada's shots makes him hardly legitimate, especially his dull, one-dimensional spots where he'd do the same strike over and over again, each less effective. Kawada doesn't give much of a shit for the whole match and sells like he's half-asleep, no fire, nothing, making this even more of a snooze fest, especially considering he's not on offence for most of it. Boring throughout, little to really enjoy."