Hiromu Takahashi vs. Ryusuke Taguchi

[8.0] "Damn great match. Taguchi worked serious and realized the importance of this match. Hiromu's title run is incredible, to be honest. ****"

[8.0] "A 17 minute match so action packed that it felt like 10 minutes max. Taguchi had his working boots on and was keen to put on a strong showing. Right from the bell he started jostling for Hiromu's ankle, though Hiromu was quick enough to always get to himself to safety. After Taguchi began using his hip attacks Hiromu started using them as well, mocking Taguchi as if saying that such moves were stupid. He even stole the hip attack to the ropes pose which Taguchi had only just previously used. Hiromu began working over Taguchi's back with some nice submission holds but he would never get enough damage done to warrant much consistent focus later on. Hiromu was quite satisfied with his work at the time though and began slapping Taguchi around to let him know that he still didn't take him seriously. Taguchi wouldn't take this lying down though, as he then fired up and unleashed some stiff slaps of his own and eventually managed to start stomping Hiromu into the ground and slapping him about at the bottom of the turnbuckle. I loved this contrast of serious Taguchi, totally different to his silly 6 or 8 man tag match self. Here he looked like a proficient wrestler. He appeared intelligent as he would pull out some creative counters to Hiromu's signature moves and also with how he would manage to hit damaging moves with little to no set up. He also looked very strong as he hit plenty of great looking power moves and strikes for some very convincing near falls. He would constantly manage to work over Hiromu's leg and even though Hiromu's long-term selling wasn't anything noteworthy his real-time selling was great. There was a great moment where he tapped his hand but did not actually verbally submit, which had me and the live crowd momentarily convinced that he had actually given up. Lots of very technically impressive exchanges in the final few minutes before Hiromu's impressive superkicks, axe bomber, death valley driver, and Time Bomb for the victory. ****"

[6.0] "Hiromu Takahashi (c) -vs- Ryusuke Taguchi – (IWGP Junior Title) [***] - Hiromu Takahashi’s title matches on 2017 have been very spot oriented leaving a very “stop and go” feel, not creating much of a flow. Against Taguchi, no different. He goes for a lot of the same moves as he did with Dragon Lee, but not as devastating. Yet, the intensity grew slowly and Taguchi kept his act serious for a change, resulting in a very good match. Still, I’m not going to cheer on a fight featuring Taguchi."

[7.0] "Good match. Taguchi got serious l(like he normally does in bigger matches) and Hiromu was his usual crazy self (with a few noticeable botches)."

[9.0] "Hiromu has been one of the very best out there for a couple years now, and Taguchi, while often silly, can really bring it once or twice a year when something big is on the line, and this is one of those times. The structure of this match was really smart; Hiromu spent much of the early game aping Taguchi's offense and mocking him by targeting the hips he so often uses, egging him on more and more, right up until the moment where Taguchi SNAPS and smacks the everloving FUCK out of the young ingobernable. From there this match REALLY got heated, and everything from strikes to submissions to just the hustle these two had was remarkable. Not quite as incredible as Hiromu vs Dragon Lee, but a damn good Jr. Heavyweight title defense that did a ton for both as characters. ****1/4"

[6.0] "Love me some Big Match Taguchi. He was really great in this, loved his submissions. I just wasn't the biggest fan of how this match was structured - it was laid out in such a way that I didn't find it too compelling to watch, and the selling of both men was pretty poor. It was pretty good, but I expected & wanted it to much better. **3/4"