Alexander Otsuka & Shinya Hashimoto vs. Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa

[8.0] "A very interesting face-off between Misawa and Hashimoto; I really enjoyed this program in NOAH. Glad to have seen Alexander Otsuka as well."

[5.0] "It's hard to go wrong with these names even with a messy weird structure like this. Misawa's body is clearly not at its best shape I was shocked when I saw the way he moves and executed his moves, idk what's the best part about this cuz it felt like a fun but a lot if messy and maybe unnecessary things, still it's blast to see hash and misawa in one ring and beating each other -- and I think this will lead to a singles match between them. **1/4"

[7.0] "Two of Noah's own vs the outsiders of Otsuka and Hashimoto. Ogawa and Otsuka start off but Otsuka soon tags out to Hashimoto who immediately looks past Ogawa and locks eyes with Misawa on the apron. Ogawa attempts to ambush him with a flurry of punches but is immediately floored by a huge fist to the side of the head by Hashimoto. It's clear that it's Misawa he wants and when Misawa tags in and stares down Shinya, it's absolutely electric. Their interactions are really the driving force of this match, and while the in ring work between the two is fairly standard, the atmosphere in the building is insane and really elevates what is otherwise a pretty run of the mill, interpromotional tag match into something that feels special. Misawa and Hashimoto were the main focus of this match, but I think Ogawa quietly carried this one on the in ring end. His work with both Otsuka and Hashimoto was really great, especially everything he did with Hashimoto. He never really got any offense in against him but was great at selling for Shinya and making all of his strikes, especially his kicks look killer. The finish was also pretty sick here, as Hashimoto gets in the ring, once again looking to face off with Misawa, but gets backed into a corner by Ogawa allowing Misawa to hit Otsuka with the Tiger Driver to get the win. Obviously this wasn't anything too crazy, as the main goal of this was to tease a singles match between Misawa and Hashimoto but with the help of a crazy atmosphere, a hot crowd and some great in ring work on the part of Ogawa, this ended up being a very good match. ***3/4"

[7.0] "This match is really fun, as it pits to legends from the two oldest living companies in Japan against one another just as they are both setting out to create their own companies. The beginnings of Zero-1 are tied deeply to NOAH and this match serves almost as an advertisement of what will come in just a few short months. The actual match here is solid, with Hashimoto going straight for Misawa and more or less forgetting about Ogawa, who ends up holding him back so he has to watch Misawa pin his partner. Nothing extraordinary here but the story and crowd elevate it. 3.75 stars"

[7.0] "The first eight or so minutes are absolute gold. Hashimoto and Misawa don't go at it straight away and Otsuka teases Misawa. For a guy who's not exactly known for his facial expressions, Misawa clearly was able to convey how pissed he was at these punk Zero-One invaders. Hashimoto looked like a total boss, kicking Ogawa's ass until Misawa has no choice but to make the tag. He causes such a storm that NOAH wrestlers at ringside try to get involved. I thought the action lose a lot of momentum once the referee was able to calm everything down. Ogawa and Otsuka's work together was decent, but it lacked the tension now that we've already seen Hash and Misawa already go at it."

[8.0] "Hashimoto vs Misawa... In tag form. Still awesome seeing two titans clash. Every thing they do together is magic. Hashimoto, in his usual pissed off manner unleashes stiff kicks and mauls Misawa. Misawa doesn't get any better ton in response but sells super well and shows vulnerability unlike any other. Otsuka wasn't just a fall guy either. He was more than willing to get stuck in a prove himself against two vets in Misawa and Ogawa. Some of his offence is a bit raw but the effort is there. Ogawa does what he does best and gets his ass kicked. ***3/4"

[6.0] "This felt sort of like a modern day NXT singles match in the sense that it was all about the wrestlers' having a well respected history and a strong presence. The big appeal of this match was obviously the "dream match" factor of having AJPW star Misawa face off against NJPW star Hashimoto (I know neither of the wrestlers were with those respective companies at the time, but that is likely how contemporary puro fans initially viewed this match-up, and is how I viewed it too). Otsuka and Ogawa did fine themselves but the real appeal was seeing Misawa and Hashimoto beat each other down. They didn't really do a fantastic job working with each other since their striking and brawling was too messy to put together anything too exciting, but it was still just a treat to see them go at each other. The post-match brawling and the pride on display from the NOAH side really added fuel to the inter-promotional war between NOAH and Zero1 that was being aimed for. The presence of Misawa and Hashimoto alone made this a borderline good match, but there's really nothing in particular that makes this match good from a pure wrestling perspective. ***1/4"

[9.0] "What a match. The storytelling w/ Hash treating Ogawa as a total afterthought was really good, and I marked out for the interactions between Misawa & Hashimoto. Great stuff all around! ****1/4"

[10.0] "Hashimoto pretty much tried to murder poor Ogawa here, just to get to Misawa. And it seemed like Misawa and Hashimoto legit hated eachother lol. Other than that pretty great match, with Hashimoto getting some nice heat from the crowd. And the brawl between Misawa and Hashimoto after the match was awesome lol. ****1/2"

[7.0] "Ton of interpromotional heat (dare I say hatred), canalized into stiff striking and bumps; the main story is Hashimoto trying to hurt Misawa and Otsuka getting cocky, although they should be careful about Untouchables' tag team strategy. ***1/4"