Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Sean O'Haire

[5.0] "O haire looked pretty awkward from the jump, and once he started getting into his offense i was already not too into him, just a lot of taunting and power moves. Tanahashi didnt really do too much to make him look like a real killer but clearly nobody would havde been convinced anyway. Best parts of this match are obviously when tanahashi is on offense, he hit a really beautiful german and a really nice dropkick before he submitted o haire"

[4.0] "This is one of those matches where you'd be like "wait, what' " because it looks that goofy on paper when you find out it exists. Sean O'Haire was basically let go by WWE, and NJPW were in the middle of a weird phase of Inoki-ism, so guys like O'Haire could get a spot on cards like these because of his MMA and K1 prospects, so he could've been a decent get for the company if he pursued such a goal under their banner. Now that didn't really work out but he did get a sub-10 minute match with Tana, so I guess it isn't that bad. That being said, this match isn't very good. Tanahashi at this point and time was pretty bleh, even if he was slowly getting better with more singles experience. As such, he's not really able to carry a mediocre opponent to something great, mostly sticking to basic arm work and headlocks. O'Haire's offence is generic power moves mixed in with some painfully wiffed kicks that don't come a mile to their actual target, or body kicks which aren't very impactful. The worst part is him going for pins after every one like they were killer shots when he barely even touches Tana with them. He also does this.... weird arm/chinlock combo that looks like it doesn't hurt at all, but he focuses in on this consistently like it's a deadly move that can end the match, and Tana sells it so badly that he needs to use the ropes to get out despite showing no real distress. Seeing O'Haire do his big moves to zero reaction is pretty depressing as well: the crowd want nothing to do with him at this point. Tana does get some cool exchanges out of him near the end with a flapjack countered with a big front dropkick, but it's all Tana moving around O'Haire at this point, with him just standing around almost waiting for something to react to in the first place. The finish comes when Tana rolls O'Haire up with a O'Connor Roll into Dragon Sleeper transition to tap him out. This sounds interesting on paper, but in practise this is just a pretty boring O'Haire performance with a inexperienced Tana trying a lot to bump and jump for him. Ultimately the guys had no real structure here and just kept doing moves until someone won. O'Haire seemed demotivated and pretty lethargic, not really putting any fire into this at all. I can why NJPW would look at this as a trial performance and basically be like "nah" to him, because it wasn't very good. Maybe if O'Haire had went to the more accepting Pro-Wres Love AJPW, he might've had some better luck at the time and improved. Alas, this is the only Japan work we ever see out of him, and it's absolutely not worth watching."