Gran Hamada vs. Tatsuhito Takaiwa

[7.0] "Hamada, as a true master, used his experience in crucial moments and turned things around when it looked like Takaiwa was gonna decisively win simply because of how devastating his offense looked. Middle portion wasn't very interesting to me but it helped build to the finish."

[7.0] "This was a cool match. Hamada is getting up there in age but hes still quite the master while Takaiwa is the younger one that can do a lot of the heavy sprinting, while adding in his famous intensity to the mix. The match started out nicely with some good technical wrestling that slowly but surely get less and less grapple centric and more high risk and heavy hitting. The transition was really well done and almost unnoticeable until I was right in the middle of the closing stretch. Takaiwa looked great while Hamada wins and gets the rub off the crowd. ***1/2"

[8.0] "Yeah they messed up the Frankensteiner but the rest of the match was awesome, exactly what I expected out of Takaiwa.. except with Hair. That DVD he hit where he spiked Hamada on his neck was so gross but so sick."

[9.0] "The first half of this match is your strong style, minimal frills contest that was kind of slow, and your tolerance of that will impact how you feel about the match as a whole. I don't mind it because it sets up what to expect from the match. Takaiwa is better at striking, is more powerful and has a mean streak but Hamada is the better all around package and he has the experience. Hamada can still go, and he still has great moves, but Takaiwa also shines with his own set of cool counters and maneuvers. What's crazy here is that the botches somehow ended up making the moves look more impactful than originally intended. By the end of the match, the fans are fully into it and by the end, it washed away the negativity from the previous match. One of the best matches of the night."