[7.0] "It is amusing seeing Jamal of all people wrestle on the mat during Muto's signature feeling out moments, with his angry temper playing against a more calculating opponent: Muto is obviously better at the mat-work, but Jamal's strength and aggression gives him a unique edge that causes him to actually be on the defensive for these sequences. I thought they were pretty clever in how this was paced out: Jamal dominates with arm work for a good while until he gets overeager and tries for a big Gunnslinger early on: Muto during the move positions himself in such a way that Jamal's other arm is crushed by the move itself, causing him to badly damage it in the process: that's the ticket to how the Wrestling Genius stays in the game. He provokes Jamal into forgoing the advice of the ref and co by dropkicking and outright stomping his bad arm, which causes his temper to flare and this to continue. Jamal's selling of the arm is pretty damn convincing: how he mixes legit pain with anger, pushing though it all to try to end this quick with his big bombs only for Muto to extend and really wrench at the arm whenever possible, like reversing a Samoan Drop into a crisp double wrist lock transition or throwing himself around with dropkicks and dives to keep the momentum going his way. Muto definitely puts in tangible effort here, as does Jamal who bumps and throws himself super crisp for such a big guy. There's some botching: the outside work isn't great and Muto outright messes up with a attempt at a springboard dropkick (perhaps a sign of his continued leg troubles) but Jamal quickly covers up for that with a splash. Jamal's signature moves also take much longer as well due to, well, the arm; he tries for pins slower and his powerbomb is outright impossible. Muto gets in a good Frankensteiner into cross armbreaker alongside two (! ) Shining Wizards but can't get the win. Even the bloody moonsault and a cross armbreaker can't do the deed. Muto has no tricks left and Jamal runs him over with a silo of bombs, ending with a top rope splash for the finish. While I liked the first half, I felt like the overkill of the second made it just a tad too obvious that Jamal was winning: the crowd still cheered when he won, but not as much as a true upset. Muto went a bit too hard on that aspect here. The second is that the arm work doesn't really play into the finish or the build for the finish: Jamal just kinda ignores the work to do his finishing stretch. Fair enough given he's got to look good and all but it did make the work done a bit like salad-dressing. I still think this was pretty solid, but clear flaws hold it back a lot."
[6.0] "This was an okay match. It was weird seeing Jamal in All Japan as I always thought of him as a WWE guy but I felt he worked here against Muto. I really liked Muto's working of Jamal's arm and Jamal's selling."
