[6.0] "I actually liked this one more than a lot of people did, I think the general sad vibes that Tsuji vs Yuya left for everyone made this one's evaluation suffer, but still far from an acceptable main event. I've heard that Sanada is hurt, and it really looked like that here, he was struggling, Naito struggled too, a lot of botches, but at least this one got me involved, I was really tense at the end, they did a much better epic than the previous match, but with flaws. I'm glad that the ending sequence, despite bad executed, brought drama to the main event. Post-match angle with Naito and Okada was amazing - {**3/4}"
[7.0] "Maybe after the Destino counter of the TKO and the sequence that followed it would've been a perfect way to wrap up the match, ending it at the 20 min. mark would've been perfectly fine, after that moonsaults by SANADA and the two Destinos hurt the match. IDK if SANADA was rocked or something but the last 5 minutes were rough"
[2.0] "This is an absolutely terrible title defense. Both guys seemed to be on completely different pages. Everything looked sloppy as hell and they both looked like they were completely lost. How can they BOTH be unsure of what comes next. Worst Destinos in history in this match. Sanada takes the bump way too early. These guys look they were not only calling it in the ring, but really explaining how to wrestle there. This would be bad for a Road to match, but this was a title match on a big show. Terrible, honestly."
[4.0] "This was adequate in action but boring and predictable in booking. How can I believe that Sanada will regain the title after losing it one month ago? Naito isn't losing and Sanada is just a boring cool-looking guy who pretends to be athletic. The match wasn't too bad but it just consists of spots after spots with no clear storytelling at all. And the ending looked like a botch. After watching this, I feel like a waste of time."
[8.0] "This match should have just been way longer, it's literally the main-event of the whole New Beginning tour. That being said this bout wasn't at the level of their WK one but it was pretty good especially in the last 10 minutes, the ending took me away a little bit but they built a great pathos toward the end. ***3/4"
[6.0] "I thought this was mostly good but brought down a peg (perhaps more than just 'a peg' if I was feeling extra critical) by 2 obvious botches and a bunch more sloppiness. Both men looked awkward during multiple spots, not seeming to know what the other should be doing, the horrendous destino botch into the headlock and the other destino botch where he 'didn't get all of it' (I wish commentators would stop using that phrase! ). SANADA always has a botch or two in him but my main criticism goes to Naito here who looked legitimately old for the first time to me. This company is in the trickiest spot since I started following. ***1/4"
[7.0] "Not as great as their WK match but still a good match on its own right. Naito shows a lot of brilliance on this match, especially there are some few seemingly botches from SANADA himself. First, the beginning of the match is dragging just trying to outplay one another which is a typical Naito fashion. Naito viciously using elbow strikes from the back of the neck of SANADA is such an exaggeration in my opinion. Naito almost had a rough landing on his neck by getting dragged by SANADA from the top turnbuckle all the way down to SANADA's thigh. Glad that Naito didn't suffer a concussion after this. SANADA targeting the knee of Naito at one point knowing the history of Naito's bad knees is smart from his side though. The two consecutive Destinos by Naito is kind of weak and rough especially with the second Destino, well obviously he is setting up on something else and not for "go home" yet. Just don't like how SANADA didn't proceed for a pinfall after successfully hitting two moonsaults on Naito, kind of anticlimactic. Naito with a quick thinking when a potential botch of a Tornado DDT only to be saved by a modified guillotine choke is a testament of the brilliance of Naito on recovering a botched move. The way how SANADA almost cartwheels himself to counter Naito's version of Deadfall is pretty cool. Naito seemingly going for Tornado DDT only to do an Inside Cradle is one of the most brilliant endings in any wrestling match. SANADA expected to position himself to counter the DDT only to get tricked by the Inside Cradle is just sheer brilliance by Naito. I hope we could see more of Naito's brilliant endings in the match. Overall, a good match but unfortunately, the match has been overshadowed by three other better matches of the night. ****"
[5.0] "deutlich hinter ihren WK Match , passt zur New Beginning Show in Sapporo .hier war keine Spannung im Match paar Minuten weniger und etwas mehr Dynamik, das wirkte vielleicht etwas besser rüberkommen so war das teilweise echt behäbig wie die beiden hier agierten. Routine Titelverteidigung für Naito (***)"
[8.0] "I thought this was pretty good all things considered. The botches didn't bother me that much. I thought the WK match was better but this was serviceable for the spot it was trying to fill. SANADA seemed like he had it in the bag after the various Shining Wizard strikes, but Naito just wouldn't quit. That was the story more or less, where Naito had the willpower and experience to find a way through to win. ****"
[8.0] "This match was on its way to be better than the WK main event until the last minutes got clunky. The commentary explained SANADAs rationale for staying stoic and also why he goes for the moonsault to win the fans back. They recovered for the finish and saved the match before ot completely fell apart. Still enjoyed."
[6.0] "This was the long awaited rematch between the two and unfortunately it did not live up to the hype of the Wrestle Kingdom match. There were a ton of botches, but if you look past that, the match wasnt that bad. But that finishing stretch almost ruined the whole match with how sloppy it was."
[1.0] "After this match I think SANADA doesn't belong in the Main Event (his performance was agressively average and inability to get in the driver seat when it counted the most shone through), and Naito struggled to work pretty much every step of the way, so as a result both wrestlers lost a good amount of stock in my eyes. Overabundance of awkward moments with few big botches is not something that I want to see in a big title match. Okada got into the ring after the match I presume to make Naito look good (as Naito one-upped Okada by doing his taunt), but really Okada was the one who got the last laugh after watching this fiasco."
[5.0] "This is a difficult match to rate. It was building nicely, and a hot closing stretch would've probably gotten it to the 4 star level. Instead, the closing stretch absolutely fell apart. Unlike the WK match where I thought some of the sloppiness actually enhanced the match, the mistakes really just ground this thing to a halt. I'm not sure if Sanada got his bell rung or what, but it's time to send him back down the card for a while if not permanently."
[8.0] "I thought the match was great, heading towards better than the Tokyo Dome match, but the botches really caught up to these two. Its pretty much a given recently that Naitos matches arent going to be the smoothest-but he usually still finds ways to put on a show-theres something about Naito and Sanada together that they just do not communicate well on the fly. I still have to mention how great the match was, both are very talented I hope Sanada continues to grow into a star"
[7.0] "I think Im in the minority here as I not only liked this match, but liked it better than their Wrestle Kingdom match. This feud probably came a couple of years too late, but at least put out some quality, yet predictable matches."
[8.0] "Really enjoyed this one even with the sloppy last couple of minutes. SANADA now needs the get far away from the title picture that's a fact he is hurt and has been around ti title picture for almost a year so cool down. But please don't bring anyone from HoT near that title. Naito against Tsuyi L.I.G vs L.I.G. maybe?"
[2.0] "I hated this match. I don't care. I am just, so, so, so sick of SANADA. I find him to be so boring, just the most nothing wrestler. That's exactly how I would describe this match, just boring, nothing crap. The ending stretch was just botch after botch, but SANADA was injured, I think, so I can give that a pass, but the overall match was just lifeless garbage. Too long, too much nothing. I never want to see these two wrestle ever again, especially not for the Heavyweight Title, and double especially not for longer than ten minutes. The highlight of the match was the post match interaction between Okada and Naito. Leave me alone. (*)"
[7.0] "Admittedly, both men are definitely capable of delivering a better match together (like the one they just had last month at Wrestle Kingdom 18). However, this match was NOT a disaster though. It was a really good match that's mostly watered down due to the major 2 botches that occurred near the end of the match. Somehow, I think Tetsuya Naito botching that Tornado DDT and transitioning that into a Guillotine on SANADA was better than doing the intended, original finish (where it would've just ended with an Inside Cradle outta nowhere). This improvised finish actually gave SANADA some extra comeback/hope spots for an extra 2-3 minutes (like when he does the 2 Shining Wizards to Naito in different, creative ways). Anyway, the crowd thankfully helped a lot in keeping you engaged with the main event (especially after the halfway mark), AND both men did a good job with their improvisation once their wrestling started to get sloppy. Overall, I'm giving this a fairly generous 7.5/10."
"Good show for the majority but Sanada needs to drop down from the title scene. His work has been rather sloppy and his lack of charisma shows more at the top. Always great to see a Taichi singles match. The contenders for Naito isn't looking great as i cant see anyone being able to have a run with the title at the moment"
[6.0] "[3.25*] The match was cool, Naito and Sanada conducted the match well and knew when to be more frantic, exchange moves or call spots, I liked the build up to the match until the end, however the end of the match had some very good botches from Naito, which made me it bothered me a lot. The result was good however the match could have been better."
[8.0] "Not as good as their WK18 match but it was a good defense overall. Naito dominated SANADA at WK18 so this time SANADA had to try to change something to hope for a different result. He was more focused on working on Naito's neck this time, was a little more vicious and showed a little more fire. At the end of the match it definitely looked like SANADA had more control over it and enough momentum to win but Naito is a smart guy and used his tornado DDT move into a flash pin to stop that momentum and get the surprise victory. For some reason the match got a little sloppy at the end and it's definitely one of the flaws of this match but they never lost the crowd and they had a good finish that made SANADA come out of this looking stronger and on the verge of winning the title again so I'd say it did the job it was supposed to do. The story of the match was good enough so I would say that it's a good title match. It's just not as good as their WK main event."
[5.0] "This one just kind dragged on too for me. There were some good callbacks and I enjoyed it more than the WK match, but Naito's slow pace just didn't gel well to me with Sanada. 2.75/5"
[5.0] "With the ending being as disastrous as it was, a five feels generous. These two need to get away from each other for a good while. They have had 3 matches in the past year, and all of them have been a bit underwhelming. This one started solidly, with Naito having some nifty neck work, but never really went anywhere after that. I don't know if Sanada is injured, depressed, or both, but he needs to either take some time off or be kept out of singles matches until the G1. He is simply bringing nothing to the table at this point. The ending of this match would have bad enough with 2 botched destinos leading to a sloppy small package, but then the small package was botched so horribly they had to have a long chat in a guillotine choke about how to close. Sanada really channeled his mentor by just throwing some shining wizards to fill time before repeating the spot."
[5.0] "Better than WK, but still not a pairing with a lot of chemistry. The first 15 mins or so is MUCH better than WK, with Naito slowing down the pace with some neck work and looking dominant as SANADA functions better here as an underdog. It's honestly not all that bad, but then the finishing run happens and holy shit does this match just completely fall apart. If you thought the WK finishing run was sloppy, you ain't seen nothing yet. So many botches and weirdness in such a short amount of time. Nothing looks good. Please keep these two men apart forever, thank you."
[4.0] "A nice callback to their Wrestle Kingdom match, in that it also went off the rails at the end. Not sure whose fault that is, but it didn't have the sense of struggle that the WK one at least managed"
[5.0] "Kind of a boring match, got really sloppy towards the end, I dont know if they were just tired or what. Im a fan of both of these guys, but this match just didnt do it for me, hopefully new Japan stays away from this matchup for awhile"
[8.0] "I always find it funny when these two have a match and people talk about Sanada not looking great. I have really liked all of their matches together but I am of the firm belief that Naito is simply past it. He is far too beat up and just cannot go at the level he once could. Sanada has carried him in every single match (quite literally, just watch every single attempt at the Destino). Of course, it is Naito so he can still go to an extent and he has his moments of brilliance but still, Sanada does most of the heavy lifting in these matches. Regardless, this was a strong match. Crowd loved it, both men worked hard and it was a fun one to watch."
[6.0] "An ok match at best. Sanada just doesn't look healthy enough to compete seriously. Hope he takes the NJ Cup off to recover so he is at his best in the future"
[2.0] "Terrible, boring, far too long, generic, lifeless, worthless slop on the top of a genuinely awful card. SANADA proves once more that there was never an ounce of hope in his push, and Naito proves that, unfortunately, he cannot fill the shoes Okada will leave behind."
[7.0] "This was okay. Some sloppy bits over the course of the match. I can never tell if Naito's knees are that bad, Sanada is that awkward, or Naito does it on purpose. But it didn't look great. This wasnt as good as their WK match but not a bad match. I'm not sure someone you're trying to paint as a main eventer should lose twice in a row but I guess I'm not Gedo!"
