Kazuchika Okada vs. Tetsuya Naito

[8.0] "[****] It's crazy to see these two brash characters face off. The first half was plodding and I think the match would have benefitted from cutting 8-10 minutes off. There was some brilliant exchanges and both had such fire about their performances. Closing stretch was edge of your seat stuff."

[6.0] "Le match est beaucoup trop long pour si peu , mais ce n'est pas pour autant un mauvais match. J'ai bien aimer la fin notamment le contre qui amène au deuxième tombstone mais bon je m'attendais à légèrement plus d'action que ça."

[7.0] "[3.25*] well, it's an Okada vs Naito match so nothing will go wrong, I thought the work here was perfectly fine at a lot of times to be honest but also it was a good match, not as I expected in terms of structure tbh, I wanted and I wished the structure was a lot different cause this match had a lot of filler moments/stuff or at least that what I feel like, the psychological factor of naito's character was fascinating and very important to know the back story of this before you get into it, anyways it really affected the match in some ways, you see naito's attempts and at some parts of the match I thought "oh he might do it and take this belt and prove everyone wrong." Which it didn't happen which's the right decision obviously imo, I noticed how textremely different this was than their 40th anniversary match in Every way possible, anyways I don't I'll remember this that much I don't think something about it will stick with me which's also not necessarily a bad thing but it's a Tokyo dome iwgp heavyweight championship match, the least thing I want from this is to be kind of memorable but this will not be I don't think so, so this might make me don't appreciate it that much, but not bad at all, final minutes were crazy as usual."

[9.0] "(9.25) Criminally underrated match here, especially with hindsight involved. The first Wrestle Kingdom match between the two and it tells a very simple story; Naito is simply not as good as Okada. This leads to awesome flurries, the headbutts in the corner, progressively not letting go of holds, the rush to the stardust press. Naito did everything he could to avoid the rainmaker, but after Okada got surgical near the end, with some of his best drop kicks ever, he met his fate. Awesome match."

[9.0] "What a great match between these two I think that the time of the match was right and the decision was right too. The last ten minutes was awesome with 2 piledriver that okada used in this match and the tornado ddt on the ramp was awesome too"

[8.0] "Honestly a really good match but dragged on a little too long imo. Some great in ring work but became a little slow and dull at times. Nonetheless still a pretty good match and not much to complain about"

[6.0] "This could've been a really good match if they cut about 10 minutes, because time was not used well at all. First half is a boring slog, white second half saves the match. Final 8~ minutes or so were really good and exciting and keeps it above mediocrity."

[9.0] "[4.5 Stars] The "Main Event" of the rejected and the beginning of a long and epic revenge for Naito. This match is historic, not necessarily for its quality but for everything that followed. (****, 5)"

[8.0] "This not being the main hurt it and you knew immediately that Naito has no shot of winning if the fans didn't even want this as a main event. There isn't the locked in focus their later matches had."

[8.0] "This is a good match between Kazuchika Okada and Tetsuya Naito, but man does it feel lifeless half the time. It has to hurt both men seeing not only the fans turn their backs on them, specifically Naito, but that the two long time vets in Tanahashi and Nakamura get the main event for a lesser belt. The match was of course good but nothing more to me. ****"

[10.0] "Great match on all fronts. The technical work was incredible with lots of high speed, high impact spots and a large variety of submissions. Okada wrestles a controlled and deliberate pace, and even seems to underestimate Naito during the start of the match. Naito starts the match a little timid but quickly gains confidence as his speed allows him to win quite a few exchanges early on. The match is an absolute war with Okada finding devastating blows and holds, while Naito find openings and puts on great flurries of offence. Okada's deliberate pace wins him the match, as he slowly wears down Naito with rainmaker attempts and tombstones, weathering Naito's offence and eventually coming out on top."

[6.0] "This is a match that I would barely consider good, since I found all of their work to be good but nothing about how they executed it was really interesting. Okada does his usual neck work which was fine but not really that good here, but thankfully Naito has pretty good fire as a babyface throughout this. This also felt like it went 30 minutes for the sake of going 30 because all of those minutes were felt during this match.***"

[8.0] "Great match. These two really got robbed here. Ever since this show, the belt they fought for has been in the main event (50% of the World Championship is made up of the Heavyweight belt) and that's awesome. I think Naito getting screwed over here in not being in the main event and losing the match, then getting to main event 4 years later and losing once again really made his WK14 moment that much better (before KENTA ruined everything) so looking back on it, maybe going on second to last was a positive in a way? Either way, this match definitely would've been better had it gone on last. The match got a ton of time and there were some really insane dropkick(s), piledrivers, etc., and the match had a good structure, it just kind of felt like something was missing here. ****"

[6.0] "Two of the best of their generation who have fantastic chemistry, on the biggest stage in Puro and it? s just boring, with no clear storyline and a lack of any meaningful progression or intrigue. There? s nothing technically bad about it but there? s nothing that makes it memorable other than the fact it? s an IWGP title match not in the main event"

[6.0] "They do submissions, visit the entrance ramp among other stuff. Still I didn't find this that compelling."

[8.0] "I don't think this match had enough going on for it to be 30 minutes long, and it was missing that story element to make it a classic, but it was still a very good match from two top tier talents ****"

[7.0] "Nowhere as gripping as their better work in the years following, but there's enough satisfying stuff here to appreciate. Hard to say the work early on holds much weight; Okada does the usual shtick over the neck, Naito gives some nice standard offense, but it isn't till the second half of the match where things take a turn for the better. The slower pace and emphasized selling makes Naito look more than the cookie-cutter babyface he did coming into the match. The crowd were so high on the match initially, but they were eventually won over once the focus came together. Did it have to go on for 30 minutes? Not really, but it's Wrestle Kingdom, the most appropriate NJPW show for longer title matches and it never really dragged while either man was in control. Nice to see a time when Okada's submissions could be used as believable finishes. ***1/2"

[7.0] "This match was really good, but it lacked the punch that their later matches would have, and you can see where Naito was being hurt by some really dubious booking."

[7.0] "A good bout. It was boring in some parts, with about 10 minutes of it being filler. But nevertheless, a semi-entertaining matchup. A 7."

[8.0] "This was a great match overall, with some neat sequences and really good chemistry between the two. The main problem with this match is that for a 30-minute match, it felt like not a lot happened, and there was far too much filler. This would have been so much better with 10 minutes chopped off. (***3/4)"

[7.0] "There are a few good sequences here and there and overall, this is a good match but definitely would have been a slightly disappointing main event if it stayed that way. The match was generally well paced and had its memorable spots but only the last 10 or so minutes were more than good, the rest was good at best. There were some bits of a story here and there but, overall, this didn't do it for me. Their Korakuen match from a couple years before this was much better, this was definitely a bit of a disappointment. Didn't help that a lot of the first half was selling which Naito didn't do very well throughout this. The finish could have been a bit hotter, sure there were some reversals out of the Rainmaker but the finish didn't have anything spectacular about it. (***3/4)"

[8.0] "7. 75. This was disappointing, but I can understand the two wre disappointed theirselves 'cause of being robbed of the Main Event. Anyway, the match saves himself in the last ten minutes, when the two finally show the great sequences we saw in their previous bouts."

[9.0] "Quite a bittersweet and underrated match to watch looking back on where both guys are now. The obvious reason why this match is bittersweet is because both guys earned the right and opportunity to wrestle in the main event of the Tokyo Dome show, but alas Naito wasn't catching on as great as NJPW had hoped, so they were pushed back to the semi-main event in favor of Tanahashi vs Nakamura in the main event. Another thing that this match didn't have going for it was the crowd, which wasn't as hot as expected for a Dome IWGP Heavyweight Championship match. The match itself was really fun to watch, but probably not both guys best effort. The first half was admittedly boring as they both did their usual build up stuff with some cool stuff here and there, but midway both guys start to get aggressive with one another and things get interesting. You could feel both guys frustration with their card placement in the way they yelled at each other; it almost felt like they were both young lions again just fighting for the want to be the best. They are both in different places now, but this match will still be something to look back on as an important stepping stone in the Naito/Okada saga, ****1/2."

[1.0] "This was blehh. Okada did his usual neck work, it can be a hit or miss, and here it was a total miss. Did nothing for me. Then Naito ran through his babyface offense. The whole match was just them literally 'doing their thing', and it was very dull. The psychology was off, and it felt like a poor effort from the 2, knowing that they do have chemistry with each other. Not a good one, probably the worst major match Okada & Naito have had against each other. *1/4"

[9.0] "These two have great chemistry, and they managed to take the crowd on the ride that you would expect out of a PPV title match. There were genuinely a couple of moments where it looked like Naito could win. Naito still has some things to work on. He didn't really sell the injured knee after he got caught up in a turnbuckle. Luckily, Okada's work on his neck kept the match together. While this was nowhere near the best matches Okada and Tanahashi had with each other and other opponents in main events last year, this was definitely a top-notch match."

[9.0] "It's a real shame that Naito's push didn't work in late 2013, as he's obviously a great worker and this match is just another notch in his belt. Okada is great as always."

[7.0] "The comparatively slow pace worked in the match's favour, as it meant that Naito had to bother to sell. Still, Naito isn't especially great at selling, which puts a ceiling on how good his long matches can be."

[9.0] "Okada and Naito wasn't going to main event if you compared it to NakamuraTanahashi. There was some sloppiness, but it didn't bother me that much. The Koji Clutch counter into a Tombstone was cool. Naito can be great when he gives it his all, but Okada is arguably the best wrestler today."

[6.0] "They wrestled a 15 min match in 30 mins, filled with sloppiness, both are great workers but this was way below their level."

[9.0] "Best match on the card and imo, clearly was better than Tanahashi vs Nakamura. Okada was tremendous and Naito was a perfect opponent for him, and they had a very good, thought out 30 minute match. Maybe not as good as his matches with Tanahashi, but not that far behind either."

[5.0] "I came into this match being super hyped, expecting to see some fast paced action from Naito, but the entire match seemed to drag with a plethora of failed submission attempts and more crawling around and breath catching than I would have liked to see. I feel Okada really slowed the match down too much, and the 7 failed Rainmaker attemts was lousy. Would have liked to have seen Naito walk away with the belt just so I wouldn't haveta watch any more slow paced Okada attempts and failed Ranmakers."

[9.0] "This match should have stayed the main event of the show. New Japan's future is very bright in these two, this match was great and is as good if not better than their previous title match in 2012"