[7.0] "[3.25*] Very good match that I would have enjoyed a lot more if I was not tired of Orange and his title reign + if I was not sick AND tired of every single NJPW player (including the big ones) losing all the matches on AEW. Ishii is a legend and a monster and he should NOT be losing to a guy like OC on a random match. The situation with Mox was different because it was a bloody feud so it had proper storytelling, but this one made me angry when it ended, not gonna lie."
[7.0] "Excellent match, very good main event. Orange Cassidy can pull a good match with basically every opponent, but in my opinion he's at his best when he's wrestling bigger and dominant guys, and he has to do an underdog role, this match showed that. It wasn't too much alike the Ishii traditional matches, it was more focused on establishing Ishii as a dominant badass and putting Cassidy into a situation that he starts doubting if he can overcome the competition, and they did that greatly. Good no-sells, nearfalls and sequences - {***1/2}"
[3.0] "Am I just crazy here? I hated this match and I wanted to like it so much. 90% of the strikes in this match absolutely sucked, which is super unfortunate for a Ishii match. Cassidys forearm strikes felt like it came from a parody of a wrestling match. The back and forth at the very end was solid and prevented me from giving this match a worse rating. Cassidy is great when hes serious but this just fell completely flat to me"
[8.0] "A pretty good main event here. I'm always happy to see Ishii, especially when he's getting a spotlight like this. Cassidy, of course, did great as well. If he hadn't already, he definitely proved himself against one of the toughest wrestlers in the game."
[8.0] "This was AWESOME! The story of The Stone Pitbull's career, as he progressively brings out the best of his opponent. Stablemates clashed, but in true CHAOS form, that did not temper the brutality. Tomohiro Ishii attacked Orange Cassidy with everything he had, unleashing a sickening combination of chops, forearms, and shoulder tackles in the early stages. Cassidy would fight back until he finally just resigned to the fact that punishment was coming his way. Ishii, however, refused to accept this. He consistently encouraged his opponent to show fighting spirit in the best way he knows how: By beating that Bushido surge out of him. This led to some genuinely incredible moments from both men, including that awesome Beach Break / Powerbomb sequence and the incredible sequence that soon thereafter followed. We also saw Ishii pull out three insane Suplexes, one Delayed Super, one German, and one Dragon. Throw in a fantastic finish that showed how evenly matched these two are, and you have yourself one of the best International Championship bouts to date. 4 stars, 8 out of 10. Crowd was not the best, but even they were won over in the end. Fantastic match!"
[6.0] "This was decent. It's a match I'm happy we got, and it was enjoyable for the most part, yet from a critical eye it left a lot to be desired. I enjoyed some of the novel comedy spots that Cassidy used like the slow forearms, yet they never really gelled with the psychology of the match. The constant formula of Cassidy getting beat down the whole match just to fire up and win can often feel contrived and at its worst stale. That's how I felt watching most of this match. There'd be a fun sequence in a vacuum, but then I'd be thinking to myself "Ok...what are we doing here? ", and then the match wouldn't naturally progress forward. Surprisingly, the offense wasn't very crisp either, with Cassidy's Stundog Millionaire and satellite DDT not looking great on Ishii. If not for the sheer charisma these two have this would probably be rated lower from a workrate perspective, but overall I had an enjoyable enough watch. ***"
[7.0] "Orange Cassidy is Mr. Consistency and probably one of the best TV wrestlers of this generation. Hes found that sweet spot where all of his tried and true spots deliver, hes a great charismatic underdog, and he understands how to extenuate every opponent he wrestles strengths and have the best mid-range TV match possibly. Its funny because we considered the TNT Title to be the TV Title of sorts, at first, because of the name, but its really the International Title. This isnt a blow away Ishii TV performance as he doesnt do a ton here but its enough and OC glues everything together. Ishii feels like a big mountain to climb and it feels legitimate when Cassidy finally puts him away. This got really hot for the finishing stretch with the near falls but never felt like it went overboard and became bigger than the match. Cassidy being accepted as part of CHAOS is so weird but cool. His story of growth is maybe the best thing AEW has done."
[10.0] "The best match on Collision and a crazy fun TV match, this continues Orange Cassidy's mile long streak of great TV performances. Does my heart good every time to see him doing his thing and being so damn successful. Ishii is probably the biggest possible clash of styles for him, the most rigid man in wrestling against the most relaxed man. At times it seemed impossible that Orange would be able to break through the defenses of the Stone Pitbull, despite Ishii being undoubtedly beat to hell in 2024 he still comes off tough as a rock and Orange had to really batter at him to make an impression, and still was best relying on surprise and speed to keep his head above water. Despite their radically different approaches these guys meshed really well, this was a blast."
[8.0] "[4.25*] Great match, Cassidy and Ishii were incredibly fun here, Cassidy attacking while Ishii did his no-selling was really funny. The exchanges between them were good, Cassidy's sequence of DDTs was great as was Ishii's suplex from the top rope. Cassidy had a lot of heart in this match, resisting Ishii's brutal chops, the end of the match was excellent, the transitions, kickouts and Cassidy's victory were very good."
[8.0] "Cassidy and Ishii were cooking here. Really good TV Main event match. Good back and forths, good nearfalls. Very hard hitting(As most of Ishii matches are that i've seen). Another good title defense for Cassidy's second reign as international champion."
[10.0] "This was one of the best matches I've seen this year. Orange Cassidy gave a performance unlike I've ever seen from him, adapting himself to a more New Japan-like style and completely buying into the Fighting Spirit. Lots of fantastic sequences by both trading back and forth their two styles, with Ishii's hard hitting winning out. So many of the great build and callback spots that are classic for Orange Cassidy (like attempting the Stundog multiple times until he finally gets it). Just a perfect match. 5/5"
[9.0] "Awesome tv main event here. Ishii absolutely clobbered Orange for a lot of this match which was awesome. Both men kicked out their finishes and Cassidy won with a rollup. Undisputed KIngdom piledrived poor Orange Cassidy after the match, but Ishii made the save. Generally just a good fun main event by both of these extremely talented wrestlers."
[9.0] "Opposites usually put on good matches and this one is no exception. Ishii is one of the best brawlers in the business and Cassidy is a comedy wrestler who can actually go in the ring. These two put this match together in a way that showed off both wrestlers' best side. I really enjoyed this match"
[8.0] "This seemed like an odd pairing on paper, but the match ended up being excellent. I was worried that Ishii's no selling wouldn't work with Cassidy, but it ended up working really well."
[8.0] "In a vacuum this match is very good but this Orange run with the belt just feels like a repeat of his first run. The match against Mox where he lost it really should have move him up and away from this belt. They really need to have Roddy beat him and give OC something fresh to do."
[7.0] "I liked this one very much. Ishii, when he stops, will be one of the most underrated guys ever, so consistent, yet never had the chance to have a run as the IWGP Heavyweight Champion. And maybe the best Orange Cassidy match since the All Out with Mox. (***3/4)"
[6.0] "If this happened like six years ago on a GCW show I'd probably really be into it but in 2024 Orange Cassidy is now on his second run of having the same match over and over and Ishii is still Ishii for better/worse so it's a pretty played out combo for me unfortunately."
[6.0] "Two guys here who definitely have a formula that for me has become a bit tired both had the exact match you'd expect. Your mileage may vary. Wasn't bad but felt like I'd seen it all before."
[10.0] "This was a fantastic match that was so exhilirating that even the dead crowd they had during the show was hyped as hell during it. Ishii's durability is displayed flawlessly in the first half, Orange finding any angle he can to try to break through the wall. And once he finds that weak point, the match picks up even more so with excellent manuevers on both ends, incredibly close calls, and an ending that shows how Orange was pushed to his absolute limit. It was obvious that Orange would win due to how he still had the storyline with the Undisputed Kingdom going on, but that doesn't make this match any worse. One of the best matches of the year so far."
[5.0] "I'm iffy on Cassidy, so when he amplified the comedy in the first half, I was quite bored. This never kicks into the next gear, and although there's some nice nearfalls towards the end, the finish was rather flat."
[7.0] "Cassidy's comedy sthick mashed-up well with Ishii's hard-hitting style and we got a fun and entertaining match. The crowd was into it, both men's delivered good perfomances and the action was exciting with lots of cool moments. Ishii's offense was great here, lots of good counters and great combos. Cassidy's offense also looked good, especially his ddts. Lots of nearfalls with Cassidy suriving some of Ishii's best manuevers and Ishii surving after the Orange punch/beach break. But in the end Cassidy picked up the win with a small package after a good closing stretch. 7/10 - 3.75*/5*"
[6.0] "A slight variation on the same old same old Orange Cassidy International title defence we've been seeing on AEW television for the past 20 or 30 years now. I was into this up to a point, but they went way beyond the usual Freshly Squeezed comedy-beatdown-comeback routine and deep into fighting spirit near fall overkill. And of course after numerous DDTs, lariats, brainbusters, Beach Breaks and Orange Punches failed to get the job done, all that's left is the anticlimax of a small package pin fall ***"
[6.0] "This was the reason I decided to tune into the show, and despite a solid match, this was a bit disappointing. Essentially, Cassidy comes in as an underdog, but at the same time he's the champ, and you know he's not going to lose. Cassidy is best as the guy with "no chance, " while Ishii is best when he's match with someone who'll bring the fight directly at him, or even as an underdog himself. This match did neither, but the finish made sense in the end, but Cassidy was still knocking Ishii over too early in the match for my liking. There wasn't really much outside of the normal character from either as well, and I was hoping to see a bit more to give this match some extra charm. Again, both Ishii and Cassidy are a interesting enough pairing to have a solid match, but if you want to watch some more recent of Ishii's work, go watch his last two singles matches before this one. (Kitayama in NOAH, and Newman in NJPW) In the end, this one is just above average on my personal scale, but props to you if you enjoyed this one more than I did. 3.25 Stars."
[10.0] "To be honest, I'm particularly in awe of matches that manage to make me remember what it is like to be a child, reacting to what is happening as if nothing is more important than a wrestling match between two men on the other side of the TV. And this was exactly the case when I just merged with what was happening and didn't even look at the time to avoid an unintended spoiler. To be honest, I didn't want this match and rolled my eyes when AEW announced them, and although I still think that Tony Khan is aimlessly attracting the Japanese (although if he finally gives me Ishii-Danielson, I'll forgive him anything), at the moment I didn't care at all. Ishii vs. Cassidy is a match that I never thought about, but that I always needed. They didn't stop being characters for a second, their every move is an opposition to each other, and it seems to me that Tomohiro revealed all the best in Orange, and at the same time Orange himself revealed all the best in Tomohiro to an American audience, doing a better job than Moxley and than Jericho. I breathed a sigh of relief when the half of the match was over, and I liked everything, the beginning was very creative, and when the show went to advertising, Ishii consolidated his dominance, I was sure that the ending would be treated accordingly, and it turned out that way. Ishii became my favorite wrestler when Danielson retired, I saw his match against Hero and realized that Ishii is literally the type of performer that I will watch always and everywhere, and today, thanks to this main event, I remembered these feelings again, literally falling in love with Ishii anew. An amazing match that deserves all the praise you can think of (*****)."
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