Jay Briscoe & Mark Briscoe vs. Naomichi Marufuji & Takashi Sugiura

[8.0] "Very good match but this one could've certainly been better overall. I think all four men are great wrestlers, Sugiura was a standout to me. I haven't seen much of his work prior to watching this one but man he was really cool. My negatives stem from how much of the match was done. A lot of "wait here so I can hit you" was done, mainly with the Briscoes being on their knees waiting for an attack. Additionally, apart from the end, this one wasn't uber intense. The best tag match I've ever is Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada v. Dynamite Kansai & Mayumi Ozaki from 1992's AJW Dream Rush in Kawasaki. It's very light on overall story & selling. Both of those things are highly important to me. Where it makes up is the competitiveness & intensity of it. It feels like the teams in that match do everything they can to compete, to prevent the other from getting a fall, to look real. This match *largely* fails in those aspects (until the ending bits). The story here is mainly in Sugiura & Naomichi's team. Suguira is presented as someone who could feasibly take both Briscoes at once for at least a few minutes in a match. They double team him, and he often fights two at once. His hot tag shows all of this. Where it gets even better, is where some people would question why Naomichi is even there. Sugiura is *almost* crushing these guys himself. But then, Naomichi manages to clutch up a unfathomable finish, a last-second reversal that nobody sees coming when it seems all the writing is on the wall to win. It shows his worth, and this is the main story beat here. Could've been so much better! But still, almost great. [***.75]"

[9.0] "This was an excellent match. The Briscoes style meshed very well with the style seen in NOAH, so it's no surprise that this match turned out great. It could have been disastrous though, specifically for Mark Briscoe. He was going for a kebrada with the idea that Marufuji lifts his knees to counter the move. Instead Mark slipped on the middle ropes and fell backwards, with the back of his head hitting Marufuji's knees. I couldn't be the only one to see that and think of Hayabusa getting paralyzed when he did the same move in 2001 and something similar happened. Thankfully Mark was ok and the match continued as planned. The finish was actually really creative. So Jay Briscoe had Takashi Sugiura on his shoulders while Mark used the ropes to hit a springboard Doomsday Device. Then they tried the same move on Marufuji, but as Mark was going through the air, Marufuji countered it into a Shiranui Kai. He managed to pin Mark with it while his brother Jay was none the wiser and thought the Doomsday Device worked. ****1/2"

[7.0] "While the extent and complexity of the Briscoes offensive playbook is mightily impressive, their relentless, Bullet Train style is definitely better suited to sub-20 minute bouts. This one was ripe for the taking home at the first Sugiura hot tag, but that turned out to be the halfway point and things definitely started to get a bit meaningless and monotonous long before the end ***1/2"

[9.0] "You see a lot from the Briscoes here that you didn't typically see out of them, as they adapt more to Marufuji's style, and they're able to keep pace surprisingly well, particularly Mark. There's a lot of stuff in this match that you see in modern tag matches that was pretty uncommon for the time, and the finish was particularly creative."

[8.0] "A great tag match. I much prefer the Briscoes as brawlers, but they managed to work well here for the most part, adopting a more high flying style. Sugiura and Fuji were also super impressive here, Sugiura especially. He was the best part of this match for me, constantly overpowering the Briscoes and tossing them about like nothing. Loved how whenever he got in the ring with Mark, he would always make sure to fuck with Jay by kicking him off the apron during sequences. This match also has a super cool finish, which sees the Briscoes set Marufuji up for a Doomsday Device after already hitting one on Sugiura, only for Fuji to counter Mark's springboard lariat into a Spanish Fly to get the win, all while Jay celebrates, thinking he's won. Awesome finish to a great tag match. ****"

[8.0] "I think this match does have some problems. It's a bit too back-and-forth my taste, it's overlong and there's a few botches from the Briscoes. But man, these guys are such great wrestlers that pretty much everything they did together looked good. The Briscoes are a compelling brawler tag team to begin with and then you got Sugiura being a badass while Marufuji is lighting the place up with his spectacular offense. Marufuji was on point with all of his dropkicks, superkicks and creative counters. Him and Sugiura had some really nice double team moves. The finishing stretch lit the Budokan on fire with great nearfalls and action. Marufuji countering the Doomsday Device into a Spanish Fly and getting the win from it is the most Marufuji thing ever and it was absolutely magnificent. ****1/4"

[9.0] "Pretty great tag team match here for sure, a big long for my taste but you can't deny they did some super cool stuff in this match. Very nice finish in particular."

[9.0] "Amazing tag team action from Naomichi Marufuji, Takashi Sugiura and the Briscoes. There were a few botches here and there (mostly from the Briscoes), but generally the action was top notch. The final few minutes escalated this match to a whole new level, and Marufuji's reversal that got him the win was just jaw-dropping. Both of these teams were great, and it was hard for this to disappoint with the level of talent in this match."

[8.0] "The finishing sequence alone would earn this match a 7/10 but the entire bout has great back-and-forth action. The level of physicality displayed here is impressive."

[9.0] "The best heavyweight tag team match the Briscoes ever had in NOAH. It's strange because while they didn't really wrestle a Puroresu style, they could still hang with the best, at least in the spots and moves area. Marufuji and Sugiura as a team were no slouches either as they had some pretty good chemistry in their unique and very physical tag moves. Also the finish to this match is INCREDIBLE. Genius finish from Marufuji, ****1/2."

[10.0] "This match turned me on to the Briscoes and through the Briscoes got me into ROH. A Very good brawling match with a fricken heck of finish!"