Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kota Ibushi

[6.0] "Not the G1 match between these two thats remembered and for good reason. Kota sucks in this match. The limb work from Tana is godly but Kota doesnt give a fuck and wrestles like his leg is fine. 10 star performance from the Ace can't carry this above a 3. Selling matters"

[9.0] "[4, 5 Stars] It's the first clash between the two, and boy was it good! I can't wait to see the next matches, even if I know they won't do better than the G1 Climax 28 final."

[10.0] "Just two top level guys working in front of a crowd that was super into it. Tanahashi is just the absolute best and Ibushi is awesome as well. The only real negative thing I have to say is that Ibushi could have sold his legs a bit more but other than that, this is just an awesome match."

[10.0] "A great encounter for the two being their first singles one in which Ibushi actually tried to sell the Leg-work. The second half is just spectacular with the strikes and the nearfalls and despite the ending itself could have been slightly better the rest was as good as you can expect. ****3/4"

[9.0] "great match and main event. the first days of the G1 Climax are always the best because everything is still open and uncertain and the matches seem more intense. But this match was really very intense, Hiroshi hits Ibushi's legs again and again. Kota is very aggressive but not very smart, avoids High Fly Flow but uses Phoenix Splash too soon, bad fall on the knee but seems to have no problems from this. Kota cyborg. Hiroshi master of strategy, the crowd is all on his side and rightly so. Ace's title is no coincidence, when Kota makes a mistake during a spot from the top rope, Hiroshi saves everything and grabs Kota's arm for the hurrancarana. Legendary Hiroshi. Nice suplex by Kota keeping Hiroshi still on the ropes of the ring apron, but in the final Tanahashi wins a hard hitting moment and uses a Dragon Suplex to stun Kota. Ibushi kicks out again and Tanahashi ends the match with the High Fly Flow. Almost an instant classic , Tanahashi is 38 years old and Kota is still very young , but the match is really a good fight"

[8.0] "By even this point, Tana's movement is no capable of raising pro wrestling into ballet but that was a tight 20 minutes. Their cohesion wasn't always masterful - Ibushi's top-rope jumping huracarana - but it was very, very good like Tana's counter of another Ibushi Pele kick into a sick looking dragon screw. However, I agree with 'Yaffa' in that Ibushi's 'selling' was more of one's exhaustion after a vigorous twenty minute fight than acknowledging Tana's quality knee work throughout the contest. I didn't hesitate at all when attempting super moves (Phoenix Splash/powerbomb) that require a knee at full strength. Yet it climaxed really well, achieving that rarified primal level really late. 3 3/4 - 4/5"

[9.0] "This was an awesome fight, Tana's one of the best at targeted limbwork, and though I wish Ibushi sold it more consistently throughout I still loved the finishing stretch ****1/2."

[8.0] "This match was great, but the final stretch wasn't as good you'd think, and it would have been much better with a few more near-falls."

[9.0] "An intense match between Ibushi and Tanahashi. Kota Ibushi is super aggressive and tries everything to win, Tanahashi has more experience. It's the first day of the tournament and both delivered a great match. The ending is also strong and works well. ****1/4"

[3.0] "This had pretty good atmosphere and I didn't understand what commentators said but the emotions was transmitted perfectly. That was everything I can say positive about this match. These two did their usual stuffs. Tana did his leg work and Ibushi didn't sell it at all. Why the hell Ibushi did kicks and flips after his leg was so destroyed? And there were some botches from Ibushi. This match disappointed me a lot. Kota made his opponent looked like a shit. Why should I take Tanahashi's routine leg work seriously after this match? Ibushi's wanted this to be a classic but it was a polished shit. *1/2"

[9.0] "Really good match, only complaints I have is that Ibushi's selling never came to anything much and the finish was a little flat, just a High Fly Flow like that and that was that. I felt they could have done a little more with the finish. Regardless, these two won't have a bad match and this just proved that. (****1/2)"

[7.0] "There were some good moments and the leg work was well done, despite Ibushi's spotty selling. However, a lot of the match wasn't anything special and most of the biggest spots of the match were botches, which really hurt my feeling about it. Maybe I'm also disappointed that these two didn't create a masterpiece."

[10.0] "What an absolutely insane match. The first day of the G1 is always an exciting one and the hot crowd was definitly all in for it. The thing about Ibushi and Tana is they have amazing chemistry together since their wrestling styles aren't too different from each other and they really brought out their full potential in spades, well for the most part. This was an exciting and almost perfect match but a thing that Ibushi constantly does in big matches is refuses to sell body parts, like what Tana was trying to do with his leg, but Ibushi still brought out all the high spots in no sell fashion, ****3/4."

[8.0] "I liked Tanahahsi working over Ibushi’s leg to counter his incredibly stiff kicks. Ibushi pulls off some impressive moves, but completely forgets about his leg work. He sells it in-between moves, but during the move execution itself he doesn't sell it at all, which is definitely jarring. Whenever Tanahashi goes back to working over the leg its always good, and Ibushi will go back to selling the leg momentarily (and quite well too) but then he’ll drop it again just as quickly. His selling did get slightly more consistent as the match went on, but it was still noticeably lacking. What Ibushi lacks in selling he definitely makes up for with general athleticism. Whether he’s high-flying, strong-styling, or unleashing power moves he does a really great job at it all. He works very well with Tanahashi’s style. These two had a long list of awesome moments: Ibushi's stiff kicks, Ibushi's golden triangle moonsault, Tanahashi's High-Fly Flow to the outside, Tanahashi's sick looking Sling Blade, Ibushi shotputting Tanahashi head-first into the corner padding, Ibushi's deadlift german suplex from the second rope, Ibushi's beautiful head kick, Ibushi's missed Phoenix Splash, Ibushi's overhead kick to Tanahashi who is up on the turnbuckle, Ibushi's super frankensteiner, and Tanahashi countering Ibushi's overhead kick into a dragon screw leg whip. These two definitely have amazing chemistry, and even with Ibushi’s rather poor selling I still thought this match was awesome. ****1/4"

[4.0] "I loved the feeling out process between the 2, that was real good. I also loved it when Ibushi gets some of those sick, stiff kicks of his in, Tanahashi starts targeting his leg. Now, I always love to see some limb targeting, and Tanahashi is really great at it, but there are times when the dude who the damage is done to isn't gonna sell it. Ibushi here basically no sold all of that great leg work done by Tana, he still did all of his flippy stuff. That really ruined the match for me, and I really can't call it good. Great performance by Tanahashi though, he once again proved why he is indeed one of the best. **"

[10.0] "Incredible. Tanahashi is just one of the best ever. He just brings the best out of every single of his opponents. And he sure brought the best out of Ibushi here. Amazing match. ****1/2"

[7.0] "I gave this match *** 1/2 stars out of 5. It was shorter than I expected it to be, but it was a fun watch nonetheless."

[9.0] "An incredible and exciting match which is what you expect from these two phenomenal athletes and wrestlers. So many perfectly excecuted amazing moves, Ibushi is so agile as shown with is beautiful moonsault to the outside. The match started with some very nice chain wrestling too which is always nice. Ibushi's stiff kick were insane at times too. Some great work by Tanahashi on Ibushi's right leg. Also the german suplex by Ibushi with the help from the ropes was amazing. My only two issues are; firstly like most Tanahashi matches I dislike how much he uses his finishing move the high fly flow, it ruins the credibility of the move and he hits it too early in the match for me, he's a great wrestler so I don't understand why he feels the need to rely on it so much at times however he does hit them perfectly and from great angles. My other issue is that though the selling was great at time I noticed that Ibushi started throwing kicks with his right leg easily despite it being worked earlier on in the match, despite this is was a near perfect match. My rating is also ****3/4."

[10.0] "What a fantastic match! Ibushi is really solidifying himself as an ace in New Japan, and what better way to do so than to tear the house down with the certified NJPW ace, Tanahashi who is always impressive. Damn good stuff, I really loved this match!"

[7.0] "Good match, but not as good of a match as many people are making it out to be. Already getting a ton of overhype praise."

[10.0] "Amazing battle. Two great players. Flights, technique, strength. Everything here was. Great German suplex. It is a pity that Ibushi lost."

[10.0] "At age 38 Hiroshi Tanahashi is still a big star for New Japan, but is physically worn down from working the style for so long. This is why I understood them downgrading him for the better part of this year. On one hand it freshens him up because he’s not the focus, and also because it allows him to work a lighter schedule (tons of tag matches) so that he can have matches like this come G1 time. This, to be blunt, was pretty fucking great. They went to battle here, and delivered a major show main event match. I am not sure how many times he will be able to do these kind of matches this year in the tournament, but it felt like he turned the clock back to a few years ago when he was just owning every main event. And don’t get me wrong, because Ibushi was also great here. He’s still dodgy on selling the leg, which often hurts his matches for me, but I still was in love with this. Ibushi with that crazy German in the ropes and also lawn darting Tanahashi into the buckles was wild, and I just didn’t expect this level of intensity in night one. The frantic pacing down the stretch was just awesome. It was a match that I watched and then when I was done, realized I hadn’t written a word about it. This is certainly a MOTY candidate, and worth your time."

[10.0] "Incredible match. Very fluent ring work by both men with incredible near falls. Unlike wwe matches you actually think a match her can end from a regular German suplex and that's what makes this match and most njpw matches great. These guys put up an excellent match that you'd expect to see in a finals match"

[6.0] "I didn't really like this match due to the incredible long "feeling-out" phase and Ibushi's no-selling, but they worked hard and had some very impressive spots, so I can't go below a 6. Overall, although most people loved this match, I remain disappointed."

[10.0] "They wrestled on the first day of the G1 for 2 points like it was the last day in the finals. These guys gave us a truly epic match that felt like one for the ages. Ibushi keeps improving and making his case for wrestler of the year and Tanahashi shows why he's still one of the top dogs. You need to watch this one, just a fantastic MOTYC"

[10.0] "A great highly entertain game a very techinocal wrestling match as usuall from new japan pro wrestling this match was yet another instant classic"