Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Shinya Hashimoto

[8.0] "A simple story of Hashimoto coming out hot early with leg kicks, then Yamazaki deciding to take away Hashimoto's biggest weapon. He threw everything at Hashimoto's left leg: kicks, shoulder strikes, and submissions. Hashimoto sold it all like hell, making for a masterclass in limp work. The crowd ate it all up and went nuclear as Hashimoto made his comeback for the finish. 4 stars."

[9.0] "Hashimoto has never won the G1 Climax tournament, it has become a curse for him, while Yamazaki is entering the final full of confidence having defeated huge names like Fujinami and Chono by submissions. The story of the match is Yamazaki trying to get a much powerful opponent down by weakening his leg to put him into submission holds. Yamazaki is fantastic at working over the left leg of Shinya constantly attacking it by leg kicks, submission moves, etc. Shinya does a great job at selling it. As the match progresses he relies less on the kicks and even when he does one it always looks like it's getting progressively weaker with less and less damage. The final big comeback of Hash is really great, it's short but effective. Compared to famous or more well known G1 finals this may lack excitement & drama but the match is quite awesome."

[10.0] "Incredible G1 final. Yamazaki reaches the final by submitting NJPW veterans like Fujinami, Sasaki and Chono, while facing a Hashimoto who already has a troubled leg. Yamazaki focuses entirely on that leg and every submission he applies creates huge excitement. Amazing dynamic, incredible atmosphere, fantastic wrestling and psychology. A NJPW classic. ****3/4"

[7.0] "I can't quite go 8 since that would be MOTYC level. But this is plenty good. Hashimoto's visceral cries of pain were probably my favorite part. Yamazaki's leg submissions were a bit disappointing. They were built to well, but when he put them on, I just didn't buy them as killer leg locks. I'd actually been souring a bit on Hashimoto for a while, but this reminds me of how good he can be."

[9.0] "Extremely good selling, 2 lads slapping and kicking the hell out of eachother sublime limb work, short, banger. 4.75*."

[8.0] "A lot of hard work on the legs before a high-quality final sequence. A great match that mixes a bit of the different finals of the decade. In-ring quality: 2.75/4. Stakes: 1.75/2. Justification: 1/1. Place on the card: 1/1. Suspense: 1/1. Bonuses/penalties: none. Total: 8.5/10. Match seen on NJPW World."

[10.0] "Magnificant Pro Wrestling at its finest. Yamazki worked overs Hashimotos leg tomtry and ground Shinya and keep him from using his kicks at a high level. He stayed onnShinya like a dog not stopping til Hashimoto gave up. Hashimoto the resiliant one, kept fighting through it. Finally able to muscle enough to string together some offense putd away Yamazaki with the brainbuster. Beautiful graps, an all timer this is. *****"

[10.0] "Lots of leg work going on here. I'm not really familiar with either wrestler here but this was fine. I'm not particularly well versed with the whole shoot style of this era and maybe its just not for me. Both guys are clearly talented and the crowd are into it Edit (me in the future): Yeah ok I was wrong, this is the coolest thing ever."

[9.0] "One of wrestling's hidden gem matches that has some of the best leg work by Yamazaki that you will ever see. A fantastic blending of the shoot and strong styles of that era."

[8.0] "They started with shooting-style, but thankfully they didn't just stop there, the match gained pace and became more frenetic and dramatic as time went on, what a wonderful thing Hashimoto's kicks are, a feast for the eyes (****1/4)"

[9.0] "UWF style, really pure match with a lot of leg work and in general for fifteen minutes this was full of psichology and good action. I think that this match should have been longer to reach an higher level but if you like a good technical sprint that's for you. ****1/2"

[7.0] "This was an above average match which could have been fantastic if the wrestlers were both equally following a structure closer to what Yamazaki tried to established. 3.5 stars."

[10.0] "Yamazaki arrived here as a killer who made tap Fujinami, Sasaki and Chono. Facing him is Hashimoto, surely the closest guy to the UWF style. Yamazaki went all out on the legs as Hashimoto sold 'em pretty well, but showed as well his resilience. Strikes against kicks is always a good pairing. Hashimoto kneeled on the ground on several occasions, but that was on purpose to hit harder and harder. Hashimoto clearly overpowered his opponent, but Yamazaki tored Hashimoto's legs with great submissions. A red hot crowd had cleary something, like it felt like a UWF fight. Hashimoto surely gave everything he had against a guy who was in a killer mode. The King of Destructionhad just to hit his Spinning Heelkick at the right moment and so, he did. That Brainbuster that followed right after was WILD. An all-time banger classic in just 15 minutes, that's a thing of beauty."

[10.0] "This is my favourite Shinya Hashimoto match. It's almost perfect match. Yamakazi's work on Hash's leg was brilliant. He was super focused at it. And ofcourse Hashimoto sold it greatly. Hashimoto fought back with stiff kicks and chops on Yamakazi's neck. The submissions by Yamakazi looked painful and Hashimoto sold them fantastically. Hashimoto's comeback leading to his win ruled. He throwed all the big offense and finished off Yamakazi with one of the most brutal brainbusters ever. 9.50/10"

[10.0] "Hashimoto seems to come in with a damaged leg, which is immediately and viciously targeted by Yamazaki. I love big wrestlers who don't just have good offense but also great selling, and Hashimoto is wonderful here, physically he has the advantage in strikes and power but Kazuo often has him on the defensive because he has a weakness in his armor in this match. Many great moments of Kazuo driving Hashimoto down to a knee, only for Hash to strike up from his knees with battering blows that fend off further attacks from Kazuo. Hash is able to pull out a great victory here, and beautifully this match is only about 15 minutes long, one more piece of proof that you don't have to go on and on and on to have an all time great match. The more I watch the more I think going over 20 minutes hurts more than it helps, obviously there are exceptions but many matches benefit tremendously from being more compact. This is a classic and I would recommend to anyone."

[9.0] "Yamazaki comes into the biggest match of his career with quick submission wins over some of NJPW's biggest guns. Hashimoto knows this and takes his time and doesn't go straight into slugging it out with his opponent like he usually does. Yamazaki was like a shark smelling blood in the water when he sees that Hashimoto is in a lot of pain when he's throwing kicks and quickly takes out his legs. Yamazaki put in a truly vicious performance here and Hashimoto sold his beating like a wounded lion. All the big submission spots felt like they could have ended the match at any moment. A Dangerous DDT from Hashimoto is enough for Big Hash to finally achieve his dream and conquer the G1."

[7.0] "I hope to one day find something in life that I'm as passionate about as Hashimoto was about kicks. It's hard to really knock this match when it was so well-executed for what it was, especially given the great performance from Yamazaki towards the latter half of the match, but I can't really say I enjoyed it that much as a complete bell-to-bell experience. Hashimoto's borderline fetishistic obsession with building his offense almost entirely around leg and body kicks (and not so much head kicks despite using a brainbuster as a finish, perplexingly) made Yamazaki's attack on the legs very compelling and impactful, until Hashimoto seemingly decided he'd had enough of selling it, despite having sold it brilliantly up to that point, in a way that came across less "fighting spirit", and more "that's all, folks". One of my first impressions of Hashimoto, and I can't say it did much to combat my initial read of him as someone who heard the Bruce Lee quote about fearing the man who's practiced one kick ten-thousand times, and decided to build a wrestling style around it. On the other hand, as my mostly-blind first impression of Yamazaki, I came out of the match interested to see more of him, so that's a positive. An entertaining match in places and objectively well-put-together, but not for me, at least not on first viewing."

[10.0] "After making Fujinami, Sasaki and Chono submit in the tournament, Yamazaki comes into this match as a equal and everyone knows he can win the match if he locks in a submission. He employs the same strategy of the Sasaki match and just brutally attacks Hashimoto's leg that was already injured, locking in the key lock that defeated Sasaki and the Reverse Achilles Hold that made Chono submit, making you think Big Hash might tap. Hashimoto then gets desperate and throws a wild enzuigiri that gives him a opening, he follows that with a huge diving elbow drop for a nearfall, some kicks and finally the Brainbuster for the win. This is the best G1 Final of all time and a amazing performance by both men. Highly Recommended"

[10.0] "A G1 Classic at its finest; the wrestling is outstanding with Yamazaki brutally going after the leg, locking in various tight looking submissions and kicking the leg until it turned black and blue. Hashimoto using desperation tactics, throwing wild strikes hoping for something to stick. The atmosphere is incredible and the setting was great. I thought Hashimoto's selling could've been better by the end but he did an excellent job at putting over the damage Yamazaki did earlier in the match so it's forgivable. ****3/4"

[8.0] "Hard to say this match was better than the Tenryu vs Hashimoto match a day before, but this was still a brutal struggle. Yamazaki's work on Hashimoto's leg was great as he was able to land in shots at almost every corner that Hashimoto would try to take. Lots of stiff kicks in this match as opposed to stiff chops the day before too. One brutal brainbuster at the end to give Hashimoto his one and only G1 Climax victory, ****1/4."

[10.0] "Mighty fine match! They beat the heck out of each others. A lots a stiff kicks. Everything I would expect out of these two wrestlers. ****3/4"

[10.0] "This was just awesome! Loved the story of the match as well as the psychology with Yamazaki heavily working over the left leg of Hashimoto and Hashimoto sold it extremely well too which was a plus. The hot crowd really helped this one and this ranks right up there with the best G1 matches EVER as well as being one of my favorite matches ever as well. (*****)"

[6.0] "This had the potential to be a great match. Unfortunately it settled for being just a 'good' match. Hashimoto's critically acclaimed matches really haven't been doing the job for me, and this was yet another. Yamazaki feels quite intelligent in how he works over Hashimoto’s leg. Hashimoto sells the leg pretty well for the first two thirds of the match, but by the end of the match he suddenly isn’t selling. He gets a pretty bland finish as he deliver a few chops, a few (unsold) kicks, and then a brainbuster to get the win. I really thought that Yamazaki stood out far beyond Hashimoto in this match. He seemed to have an intelligent approach to the match as he targeted Hashimoto’s leg and just seemed to calm and collected as he did so. His counters of Hashimoto’s moves into the sleeper-hold and the leg-lock were also the best parts of the match and moments that got me genuinely hyped up. It’s a shame he lost, because he really seemed like the more interesting and more skilled competitor. It was his participation in the match that really caused me to consider this a good match. Without him this could have been another mediocre Hashimoto match, but luckily it was a bit better than that. This was an above average match which could have been fantastic if the wrestlers were both equally following a structure closer to what Yamazaki tried to established. ***1/4"

[10.0] "Amazing match. This was my first time seeing Yamazaki and he really impressed me. His work on Hashimoto's leg was relentless and Hashimoto sold it like a pro. The final brainbuster was amazing as well. *****"

[10.0] "What an INCREDIBLE match. Very dramatic, had a red hot crowd, Yamazaki's work on Hashimoto's leg was amazing, and Hashimoto sold it so well. If this had gone a bit longer, I could see myself giving this full 5-stars, but as of now, I am gonna go ****3/4 for it. Amazing match."

[9.0] "I gave this match **** 1/2. Great G1 final. Yamazaki is relentless in attacking Shinya's leg, and whilst Shinya's selling is a little suspect in the closing stretch, this is still a great match"