Akira Maeda & Pete Roberts vs. Keith Haward & Osamu Kido

[7.0] "It's a good match - in theory - but falls into the same pitfalls of "shoot" tag team matches of the time. Great work by Roberts and Haward, as I found their selling and offense to be super fun to watch. Then, the flow of the match comes to a stop when tags happen. Thankfully, there's a 3 minute stretch of great back-and-forth stuff...only to end how it ends"

[9.0] "It sucks that term 'real graps' in pro-wrestling context was adopted by the most obnoxious fans, but this match is imo one of the best templates for a 'real graps' type of a match. Quality technique every step of the way, smart sequences and counters, great build-up of anticipation after every tag and surprisingly hot last five minutes, especially for it's time. Fascinating piece of history. ****1/4"

[8.0] "Amazing catch wrestling match. Four stars for me. Almost gave it 4.25 stars but that last minute was kind of dumb that they barely did anything to anticipate that countdown. ****"

[8.0] "This is also not my cup of tea, but i appreciate and have a fondness for what it is. It's very slow and crazy technical, deserving of a time limit draw, long boring holds but some epic reversals, it's enjoyable at the end of the day"

[8.0] "This is a good match that has a focus on a certain audience. The match is technical, slow, so-called "smart" wrestling. Although I am not a fan of such wrestling, I understand those who love such matches. I liked the match and overall deserves a 4 star rating from Meltzer and me."

[8.0] "I think Meltzer giving this almost full stars is telling of what interested him more back then compared to now. And oh boy, is it rough to get into. This match doesn't try to make itself any less hard to swallow, it's just right into slow Catch work and British-style lads stretching each other at a pace many would consider as glacial. Let's be honest though; this match is pretty awesome. There's a real feeling of grind to every sequence, every counter feeling earned and strained out as everyone here is pretty comfortable on the mat and can more than handle themselves. Pete Roberts was great when I was watching him vs Tiger Mask and he's just as good if not greater here, really holding down the fort for the first half as Kido and co grapple and test his limits regularly. Maeda isn't quite as snappy as the British lads are, operating as the dynamic younger talent who is eager to throw weight around and try for more shoot-styleish stuff, though of course it hasn't quite gained any grounding yet as a strict style of sorts. They use a cross armbreaker for a casual hold rather than as a dangerous match-ender, for example. I really liked the interactions that he had with Kido, traditionally the more pragmatic grappler.. Maeda would push and Kido would take advantage of that to wangle in double wrist locks and other submissions, forcing Maeda to struggle to either counter or escape. Best parts of this were probably whenever Roberts/Haward were in and doing gritty WoS stuff, which the crowd seemed to love given they would clap after every sequence between the two. Kinda a shame that they'd be historically used in this promotion as stepping stones. The last 10 minutes or so majorly step up in tempo as Maeda is fed the fuck up with all of these dudes slow dancing with each other and starts kicking Haward around and doing big power moves on him. This energy kept up well despite Maeda sitting in a side headlock for a bit as we get faster and faster spots as everyone starts to throw strikes and get fired up. Last five minutes are solid as we get a steady increase in violence and a perfect build for the impending draw as the crowd start to realise that time is running out. Truth be told I did think they messed up how this should've went; Kido and Maeda were working and then he tags out and Haward and him basically prance around for the last 15 seconds left, heat was deflated there. But yeah this went to a draw....naturally that's going to rub some people the wrong way but I get it, no one wanted to lose face. Crowd chants "Kido" loudly to finish. This is a great example of a Marmite match; for some this is going to be a amazing 30 minutes of well-paced grappling, a slow descent into more modern flashiness and showmanship, and a standout performance by Kido as he battles the odds and manages to mangle Maeda despite only gaining a moral victory. Others are going to see this as a start/stop rest-hold ridden match that fails to keep tempo and ultimately drags out to a draw that didn't really feel deserved or really built up any. I get both of these opinions, I really do, but for me this was a brilliant example of how simple matches can be and how much you can draw from just that alone when you have enough talent. Solid stuff, but beware; this match really doesn't care about appealing to people who "don't get" grappling matches like these. It honestly seems like it just wants to kick them out as soon as possible lol."