Nobuhiko Takada vs. Shiro Koshinaka

[7.0] "These two just keep throwing bombs at each other throughout the whole match and while Koshinaka had his moments of offense that seemed promising, Takada filled the moments in between his own high powered offense with the best kicks I've ever seen. He's my new favorite wrestling kicker and I dare anyone to take that crown from him,"

[9.0] "Selling elevated this match to the next level, it made everything both wrestlers did mean so much more and the crowd was also getting more and more invested in the match."

[8.0] "I really liked Takada's offense especially his kicks. Koshinaka was great eating and selling Takada's offense. I think what lifts this match a little higher than your standard Takada match was how hard Koshinaka worked to make the holds interesting especially the leg-laces."

[8.0] "Wow the Jr Division in the mid to late 80s are rocking. Takada, Yamazaki, Koshinaka, etc (soon adding Kobayashi and Owen Hart in the mix). Most would either go Heavyweight or leave entirely for the 90s to succeed in their own right . I'd love to see what would happen if they just had the Juniors as the main events when called for. Just like the Heavyweights. But rather than dwell on what if, I'm going to praise this match as well. The Takada v Koshinaka pairing is controversial. The typical comments are either boring mat work or exciting. So divisive. I'm in the crowd that loves it. The hot crowd and fast pacing gave the match so much energy that I was hooked even during the downparts of the match. And even more so when they were striking and throwing suplexes at each other. Koshinaka has great slaps and punches but Takada? s kicks give him the edge so Koshinaka keeps coming up with neat reversals. It wasn't the cleanest match but they built the tension and competitiveness so well, making up for it. ****"

[8.0] "This was awesome! Even better than their fantastic 13-minute Korakeun match from earlier in the year. This had all the stiff strikes, boiling hatred, smart counters, great submission holds, and intelligent technical wrestling of their 1st match, but they stretched that out to 21 minutes this time and it worked out brilliantly. Takada once again delivered a disgusting number of kicks directly to Koshinaka's head, and at this point I've got to wonder whether there was legit heat between these two, because Takada SERIOUSLY did not hold back on those kicks. What's awesome is they're so pin-point accurate and stiff, so they always have an amazing look. Koshinaka once again took a big beating but managed to courageously hold on and stage some promising comebacks. The mix of shoot-style and technical wrestling with the few power moves thrown is brilliant; Takada and Koshinaka were able to put together some totally crazy stuff while not making it feel like they were going overboard on literal violence for cheap pops, since EVERYTHING was so compelling. Even the submission hold sequences were great because of the story built up between these two (even disregarding their previous matches, the story of this match alone was great) and because both men were so great with little gestures to display the technique, strategy, and energy that would go into each and every grappling move they move. The crowd was super hot for this, especially with all the near falls in the final few minutes, plus of course whenever Koshinaka would manage to stage a comeback. I have no qualms comparing this to the great matches of the current day. ****"