Davey Richards vs. Go Shiozaki

[8.0] "This was a great match. Both men were early in their careers, but they managed to put together something that fans of either man will enjoy. It's amazing to me how well polished Go Shiozaki was this early in his run. Davey Richards wasn't any slouch either, as he proved it here with his great selling of the leg. Definitely worth watching even today. ****"

[7.0] "Considering both these guys were only less than 3 years into their careers, it's impressive they were able to put together a match this good. Richards was naturally very impressive with his realistic striking and grappling and his general aggression and intensity. His few cheap/illegal tactics were good, too, further playing him up as the heel. Shiozaki showed good fundamentals on both offence and defence, and he got good impact in all his attacks. He also managed to show some good displays of fiery passion whenever he felt Richards was beginning to rally back equal ground. The main story of the match involved Shiozaki working over Richards' leg. Shiozaki's work was good, and Richards' leg-selling was pretty great up until the last few minutes, with him putting good effort into selling the leg whenever either Shiozaki or he himself performed a move that would realistically put pressure on it. He was impressively consistent with his leg-selling right up until the final few minutes of their rapid big-move trades and sudden counters, which was when he basically just entirely dropping it in favour of committing himself towards selling for Shiozaki's attacks and delivering his own attacks as seriously as he could. Those big-move trades and sudden counters were admittedly pretty good, though I would have loved to see Richards continue with his selling in order to add another layer of interest (but alas, this is Davey Richards after all, and he's sort of known for almost entirely dropping his selling in at least the final few minutes of his matches, if not sooner). Still a good match, but I'm certain these two would have had a better match if they just waited another 5 or so years before facing off. ***1/4"

[7.0] "Too "epic" for it's own good in a way. Lots of neat stuff here, but they hold back a lot in the different directions they go in. I expected better, but this was still decent."

[8.0] "This was a fantastic match. And was easily the best match of the tournament. It had great moves and great near falls. ****."