Naoya Ogawa vs. Shinya Hashimoto

[0.0] "The reviews for this match are too damn high. Man this is one of the stupidest wrestling matches I have ever seen, fully demonstrates the worst creative period of Inoki, coming to order former MMA wrestler to hit legitimately the top star NJPW, and the problem of this encounter is actually not Ogawa who strikes in a shoot manner, but inoki who ordered him to do so. It is for meetings like this that the NJPW has risked a bad end.Poor Hashimoto who had to suffer such humiliation and poor Ogawa who was forced to do something like that"

[0.0] "It's a shit-show, a train-wreck. One of the dumbest things I've ever seen and it says a lot because I've watched a lot of stupid WWE booking decisions in my lifetime. Why in the world would you make your top star look like a loser. Funnily enough I don't think this damages his reputation, if anything it just damages the company. Choshu coming in to save face doesn't help it, this match sucks, It makes everyone involved suck, overall. It just sucks, it's not good, it ruins one of the biggest stars the company has ever had"

[3.0] "This was a bad match for various reasons and It made nobody look good. It was basically an extended squash match where Ogawa beat the shit out of Hashimoto and was basically an Inokism match with some weird ass ref bumps and decisions around it. 3.5/10"

[5.0] "My takeaway for all of these matches is that, 'okay, Hash should've at least won ONE meaningfully.' I'm kind of curious what Ogawa says to Hashimoto. This match feels a lot more awkward in contrast to the other ones. Whether this was some great Inoki plan to get Ogawa through the roof as The Guy in the company moving forwards is left to be seen. Again, while these other matches follow a similar foundational point, the tried and true pro wrestling is what keeps things moving forwards. These people HATE Ogawa. Ogawa mounts Hashimoto and starts hammering him. Really vicious strikes. Hash get up, but he looks so dazed that it takes the crowd out of it. It isn't babyface fire, he stands as if he's drunken. There's a few ref spots here, one of the staples of the time period. Ogawa garnering heat is always entertaining, the match ends with the locker room spilled out and Ogawa hilariously taunting the crowd. It's really bizarre stuff, he takes the mic. The post-match is genuinely pretty crazy, Choshu comes out to pretty big fanfare, there's a big standoff with Ogawa sat on the top rope. THEN Choshu throws a strike at Ogawa. CHOSHU STARTS KICKING. I dunno. There's no justice here."

[5.0] "This was certainly a spectacle, but I'd be hard pressed to call it a good match. It's basically Ogawa making Hashimoto his bitch until Hashimoto can't continue. I can see why Ogawa was polarising, but he has buckets of charisma and watching him stroll into pro-wrestling like it's beneath him sets him up as a despicable villain. This did no favours to Hashimoto who didn't get much in and he didn't look strong in defeat."

[2.0] "This is probably the most interesting match of theirs so far, but also the most disappointing. Ogawa has taken to ProWres and is now heeling it up. After an attack on Seiji Sakaguchi, Ogawa is now anti-NJPW and wants to make a statement by taking out Hashimoto. Lots of this match is cliches which lead to stalling, but then there are ref bumps? And then eventually Ogawa kicks and stomps Hashimoto who rolls out of the ring and the match is basically thrown out. Apparently, these were real shots and this wasn't a work. While Shinya is out of the ring, Ogawa is trying to get on the audience, saying "Is this the best you got? " After the bell, both teams of the participants get in each other's faces. This just further prolonging this feud. I can see THIS match getting a low rating, but I don't understand why their second encounter got so many low reviews. I mean for Christ's sake, Ogawa took out Hashimoto for real which lead to wild aftermath which blurred the lines of what's a work and what's a shoot which was entertaining but this was completely unprofessional. I enjoyed this when I thought it was a work but knowing that Inoki pressed Ogawa into fucking up Hashimoto for real is terrible and leaves a sour taste in my mouth."

[0.0] "A match where Ogawa shoota on Hashimoto because Inoki told him to, this is the type of shit that almost killed the company, fucking disgraceful, and its disgusting that this has so many high ratings, sickening."

[6.0] "Well it went all good until the no contest, the match was really heard as i can see and that end was nice in a certain way but on the other side it was not great for the show."

[8.0] "Brutal match, great shoot match, Ogawa is damn brutal and Hashimoto is tough as hell, man those punches and kicks were insane, the crowd exploded when Ogawa locked in that armbar and you could see the massive damage Hashimoto felt, also that kimura legit looked like it almost broke his arm"