Tetsuya Naito vs. Tomohiro Ishii

[9.0] "Now this was a fantastic match, and one that you started to see Naito's popularity grow quite quickly. They love Ishii but they LOVE LOVE Naito. ****1/2"

[9.0] "This match was EVERYTHING! It had been a long two years since the conclusion of the original trilogy of matches between Tetsuya Naito and Tomohiro Ishii. And that trilogy went a long way towards defining the careers of both of these beloved wrestlers. For Ishii, it marked the first time that he won championship gold as a member of New Japan Pro Wrestling. It was the culmination of a journey that was nearly 20 years in the making. Simply put, it was all about validation for both men. And Ishii got his. For Naito, it could not have gone any more differently. Before he was the most popular wrestler in New Japan Pro Wrestling, Naito was a despised babyface who simply could not connect with the crowd. And the rivalry with Ishii was damn near the final straw before an unplanned excursion turned Naito into a completely different wrestler. While Ishii was previously motivated by pure validation, Naito sought it as a middle finger to those who doubted him. Fast forward two years and here we are at New Japan Cup 2016. Ishii, now regarded across the globe as one of the best wrestlers on the planet. Naito, firmly entrenched in Los Ingobernables de Japon and searching for redemption in his own mind, independent of what others think. And while this new Naito may know how to get in the head of his opponents, Ishii is no normal foe. This created the foundation for an absolutely sensational match. Naito disrespecting Ishii at every turn, fully embracing the signs of arrogance that were previously seen in their trilogy of bouts. Ishii answering Naito in kind and providing timely responses with both physical offense and psychological warfare. Naito looking to both jam and stretch the neck of Ishii with his fluid, violent, and fast-paced offense. Ishii, whom Naito spit in the face of earlier in the match, returning that gesture. And when Naito got a little too cocky, callbacks to their previous encounters reminded the LIJ leader that Ishii has his number. We saw this with moments such as the counter to La Combinacion and the reversal of the Flying Forearm. Ultimately, this all fed into the overarching story of Naito NEEDING this win to prove that he was no longer the man or competitor that he was when Ishii got the best of him and the Wrestle Kingdom main event was stolen from him. An absolutely INCREDIBLE match from start to finish, including an Emerald freaking Flowsion and a ridiculous counter to the Brainbuster! 4.75 stars, 9.5 out of 10. A damn near five-star match. Storytelling and wrestling at its finest."

[9.0] "Tremendous match. They cannot have a bad match with each other. Naito was on the way to rise to the Top star of NJPW. Crowd here was firmly behind the guy. But then Ishii worked his ass off and he made the crowd split and started cheering him. The match was well-built. The near falls were so great in the second half that the crowd could not stop roaring. The ending was shocking with the counter of Brainbuster to the Destino. Excellent stuff."

[7.0] "Although this was a strong match, it didn't reach the level of the other singles matches that Ishii and Naito have had."

[9.0] "These guys just can't have a bad match. Naito was really over around this time and it showed with most fan support being for him, but Ishii definitely had his share of fans too. The match was quite short but really fun for the most part. The first half was pretty standard with both guys doing their usual stuff, I really liked how Naito went for Ishii's neck in the beginning to set up for the Destino. The second half was really great with both guys laying on awesome sequences and killer moves against each other. The ending to the match is nice with Ishii going for his Brainbuster finisher, but then having it reversed into a Destino for Naito to finally win. Naito advances to the finals of the NJC, ****1/2."

[10.0] "Great match. It all started with the traditional formula of their matches, but with every minute they were increasingly diverging. The crowd supported Naito and sincerely wanted his victory, and such a reaction only added to the match of some peculiarity. The end is one of the best I've ever seen. Everything ended so abruptly that I was in a state of shock. The reverse of the brainbuster in destino is unparalleled (****3/4)"

[8.0] "A great match and great story. Naito pissed Ishii off by arrogantly messing around and playing mind-games: spitting, slapping him, and mocking his strikes. This set Ishii off, as he even mimicked Naito's spitting and mocked his strikes too. This personality clash was cool, since both wrestlers had such different characters but were equally disrespectful here. As Ishii progressively became more and more sick of Naito's schtick he began delivering some big strikes and power moves. Naito's selling was fantastic, from his crazy bumps which made Ishii's offence look super powerful to his general use of posture and facial expressions to show how exhausted and stunned he was. Ishii dished out an enormous amount of damage but Naito managed to survive all of it, making himself into a very hot underdog despite coming into the match as the arrogant heel. As Naito realised he was in danger of losing he dropped the "I'm too cool to care" act and pulled out some very impressive moves to wear Ishii down, showing he did actually care about winning. The chemistry remained clean for the entire match, the pace kept increasing, and the big moves and near-falls got better and better. Ishii countering the Destino into an Emerald Flowsion was sick, as was him hitting Naito with the Sliding Lariat afterwards and Naito still managing to kick out. The final big spot as Naito countered Ishii's attempted match-winning Brainbuster into the Destino was a great finish to this awesome match. ****1/4"

[10.0] "The clear standout match from this year's New Japan Cup, this was also the first truly great match for Naito since turning heel and embracing the new LIJ gimmick. His character work was consistently excellent before this, but he'd had a few mildly disappointing matches against Shibata and Tanahashi. This was really the start of him matching the excellent character work with the excellent matches he'd had prior to the gimmick change. Ishii and Naito have always had great chemistry, and this match was no different. Really exciting stuff, ****1/2"

[9.0] "Easily the best match from the 2016 New Japan Cup. I much prefer this to their Heavyweight Title match from later the year at Wrestling Dontaku - the Korakuen atmosphere was great for the dynamic between the 2, and Ishii & Naito delivered a damn great smackfest w/ some really good mind games by Naito, who was just starting to get super hot with his El Ingobernable gimmick. ****1/4"