El Signo & Negro Navarro vs. Kengo Kimura & Tiger Mask

[7.0] "Kengo is kind of goofy but this is such a fun match. Signo and Navarro morph from respectable faces to smug jerks as the match progresses and Navarro really shines against Sayama. Hot finish with Sayama hitting big dropkicks and Signo taking a huge bump from the top to the outside. ***3/4"

[6.0] "''Just a good match'' is more than enough words and characters to describe this tag team match. Three stars. ***"

[8.0] "This one was pretty good. The Mexicans just decked the shit out of Kimura and then Tiger Mask working sort of double heat. Their double teaming was all nasty-looking. Navarro smashing Kimura's head into the mat over and over again, for example, was just plain violent."

[6.0] "This has got to be the hottest I've seen a crowd for Tiger Mask, six months in, and they don't care about anyone else here including Kimura. I'm not sure why I was surprised when Kimura got introduced first but I was. At this point its clear that Tiger Mask has become popular and Sayama is now comfortable in the role, but this is the first time where what they always say about Tiger Mask, that he was wildly popular very quickly, seems to really ring true to me. The reception for Tiger has gradually transitioned from curiosity to adoration from a noticeably younger fanbase (those Tiger chants were high-pitched! ). Back to the match itself - great finishing run and good performances from Navarro and El Signo. This lacked a little fire but the rudos were good opponents for Tiger at this point and I wouldn't have minded seeing more of these matchups."

[6.0] "Actually forgot to rank this when I was going though the Tiger Mask stuff lol. It's nothing super special but a decent filler tag for the time. Kimura is a bit awkward given his sheer height difference to everyone else here but he does fine with the task at hand with a lot of hold-wangling. The Los Misioneros de la Muerte duo are decent enough foils, but don't particularly shine when paired up against someone as unique and dynamic as Mask himself, who steals a lot of their thunder with his routine and some big spots. Of course we get the usual lucha comedy routine where the rudos keep bashing into each other with moves and stuff alongside them just bumping all over the place for the guy, especially Navarro who takes a few beatings. La Muerte take over in the middle half, namely bullying Kimura and slamming him into the guardrail. They do the same to Mask after ganging up on him as well: they pull out a few variations of Snake Eyes, namely on the guardrail itself and on the ropes. Crowd are really hot for him to make a comeback, and when he does they really get loud for the guy: it's only been about 6 months but the Tiger Mask shtick is already well over, helped by the heels just grubbing it up and some really great bursts of action from Sayama in particular. We also interestingly get the heels playing around with his mask a bit, which is a shtick that won't get popular until two years later. The finish is abrupt as Kimura lands a piledriver on Signo and then ducks to allow Mask to land a big top rope sunset flip for the win. This was fairly by the numbers but there's some good lucha work from La Muerte as they get their brawling heel shtick over and it contrasts well with the babyfaces and their smooth and measured ringwork. It's a bit of a shame that they couldn't work as consistent opponents for Tiger Mask given they have much better chemistry than some of his slower opponents. Regardless, I thought this was surprisingly strong for a outing, and really showed already how crazy over Sayama was with the crowd already. Kimura was a decent hand, but didn't really do a whole lot that was memorable."