ASUKA & Chris Brookes vs. Jun Akiyama & Saki Akai

[8.0] "Watching this match really reminded me how happy I am Jun Akiyama joined DDT. He easily could have stayed doing the same old thing in AJPW until he retired. Seeing him share the ring with three unique and great wrestlers like this that he would have never crossed paths with in All Japan is a lot more interesting in the context of his career and is very enjoyable to watch as a viewer and as a longtime fan of Akiyama."

[8.0] "These are four of the most fun wrestlers in all of DDT/Japan to watch right now, and this match was a blast. Not the most dramatic or workrate-heavy match but a really fun mismatch for Akiyama's first intergender contest in his storied career. ASUKA & Akai obviously have chemistry and Brookes works well in intergender matchups but the ASUKA/Akiyama dynamic fucking ruled. The way he stonewalled all of ASUKA's offense while they sold his like death and tried to make this comeback, only for it to wear them down enough for Saki to get the submission victory, that was great. Then instead of Jun showing his respect to this up-and-comer, he gets a slap across the face and he just shrugs. King shit from both sides. ***3/4"

[7.0] "Akiyama and ASUKA's interactions were clearly the highlight of this match, though they were unfortunately short lived. Everything else was fine, but watching ASUKA sell Akiyama's offense like death ruled-- Uncle Jun forever."

[5.0] "Good wrestlers, good cahracters, but a little souless. None of the individual match-ups (ASUKA vs Saki Akai, ASUKA vs Akiyama) landed like they hoped they would."

[8.0] "Naturally this ruled, in particular Akiyama and ASUKA. Just watch Jun's whole demeanor towards ASUKA this whole match. His first time in the ring opposite a woman, and it was about her earning his respect just to after the match slap him directly in the face and walk off because ASUKA don't need that shit. It ruled. ***3/4"

[8.0] "Asuka may be the best women's wrestler in the world, so she sure shinned the most in the match, Akiyama got a lot of offense, which was nice, Akai and Chris looked good, expected maybe a bit more team work from Saki and Jun, but they did a decent amount, Brookes and Asuka did do some great team work, everyone showed off this match, the moonsault transition to the triangle could've been better, but nothing to put me off."

[8.0] "In all legendary career of Jun Akiyama, he never faced women in mixed tag matches, never mind singles matches against women. And only DDT can make this happen; it absolutely rocked. Jun and VENY had an incredible chemistry, similar to Yukihi and Sakaguchi, and the story was all about ASUKA earning Akiyama's respect to be on the same ring as him. At the same time, Jun also got to learn how to face woman in a match, evaluating the strength of his attacks, and of course studying her. However, it later led to a sequel of ASUKA vs Akai with Saki avenging for her singles loss. ****1/4"