[6.0] "Good match. Going into this I thought it could be interesting or it could be terrible. It was interesting. Lee was trying to use the same strategy he usually does and Fujita throws bombs throughout disrupting it. It should be noted there were excessive rest holds and laying on the mat which brings the rating down. Also it's really funny that Fujita didn't do the job."
[3.0] "Only NOAH. Only fucking NOAH would have old Fujita, who they have rarely broken out in singles action since losing the title to COVID, who they haven't presented as a threat in over a year, who drinks energy drinks in the opener, only NOAH would have that guy draw with Jake Lee, who is going for the title against Wagner like, next week or something. And beyond my booking complaints, this was boring as fuck and I felt all thirty minutes."
[4.0] "4 ONLY for the characters' interactions, because they were really fun. I would like to see a segment with Jake and Fujita teasing each other, but not a match, because it was a drawn-out snoozefest, slow and uninteresting. Awful match with a better potential."
[5.0] "Unsure how to rate this as there were some moments that were genuinely very cool (grapple-fest at the beginning) and it was great to see a two heavyweights fight. But, didnt really make sense to have Jake draw (one of two time limit draws on the same show! ) with someone who is no longer presented as a viable threat for NOAH (although he was here), weeks out from a title shot. Its also had no follow-up since so feels like it was for absolutely nothing."
[9.0] "Rare to see a true heavyweight battle in NOAH. This was quite a good contest. Jake Lee's slick jiu-jitsu countered Fujita's powerful amateur wrestling in a beautifully paced 30-minutes. The grappling was as good as it gets, with lively segments standing and on the mat. The careful build erupted into a final, frantic exchange of strikes and suplexes, cut short by the time limit. This felt like one of Lee's most complete performances - the generous duration allowed him to showcase his full range as a wrestler. And Kazuyuki Fujita impressively paced himself well considering his age. 30 minutes flew by in a hurry."
[7.0] "A good match, with a very good psychology of the confrontation. However, the tension in the final of the match was not enough for a higher score."
[2.0] "When Noah shows you who they are, believe them. Is anyone but Stew Fulton groveling to see 30 mins of Fujita lumbering around? Just like its 2004, Fujita refuses to do jobs despite his knees appearing to be held together by duct tape. Hell of a way to heat up Jake Lee for a title match too! Waste of 30 mins. Grow some balls, tell Kaz "no" and have Jake Lee win ffs. So stupid."
[7.0] "Every now and then NOAH will drag me in with something truly based; a 30 minute Fujita match in 2024 was most definitely something that counts towards that standard lol. This is definitely also going to be one of those matches that workrate-heavy smarks will dislike immensely because it really didn't cater a whole lot to them until maybe the last few minutes. You already got people calling this the "worst match in company history" which is.....a interesting opinion given Ibushi/Marufuji is a thing but hey I'm not going to start knocking anyone for statements like that. The first 10 minutes of this were all sprawling on the mat providing a really interesting comparison between Lee's BJJ antics and Fujita's amateur wrestling background. Lee would wangle from under while Fujita was all about taking the top and controlling from there, typically forcing Lee to use the ropes multiple times to escape getting squished. He did get one or two off Fujita with some smart traps (including baiting him into a triangle armbar that shockingly forced Fujita to sell! ) but mostly had to play it safe with someone as extensively dangerous as his opponent. We got a really great bit where Lee had a Sakuraba-style armbar applied and was just throwing himself around trying to get it with some leverage, felt like something out of PWFG. Lee desperately tries to get back control with his cringe mindgames, gets the piss slapped out of him for his troubles and forced into a long slog of a outside brawl. This was definitely the filler of the match, though helped by Lee being completely ineffective against Fujita's stiff forearm shots. Fujita basically sat on the guy in-ring as well as he egged on for more strikes until he did the singlet strap pulldown a-la Angle and got hit with a knee for his troubles. Lee hits some fairly tame knees; one off the apron, one running down the entrance; it didn't really go anywhere alongside the random leg work. Last few minutes had Lee try to turn up the pressure with bombs, namely suplexes. His stuff looked fine enough and he got over the struggle in trying to put down someone who seemingly couldn't get hindered by anything. Lee loses the forearm exchange, gets hit with a running slap alongside a shockingly safe punt kick to the head. Fujita mounts up a backdrop and sets up a Beast Bomb only to be stopped by the ref as the time limit is hit. Really mixed feelings on this one: the grappling at the start is legit the best part of the match, no joke. Fujita as shown from the Suzuki match a few years ago can legitimately do grapplefucks with considerable skill (as long as he has a good dance partner) and Lee brings something unique with his passive work in that regard. This does eventually turn into the usual Fujita brainless strike stuff, but Fujita is still really good at hitting hard so you can't really complain about it too much. I think what hurts the match mostly is the length (loads of filler with slow unimpactful work) and Lee who really looked awful trying to strike with Fujita. He just isn't one of those guys that can blast people convincingly like a Go or Nakajima and you really felt it here. His selling and emoting the hopelessness of the situation was a lot better, so in a way his poor striking played into the match dynamic. This needed that big "oh shit" moment in the last 10 minutes to really sell that though; Lee sitting on a figure-four that did fuck all, just felt awkward and purely there to have a rest. If they'd gone all in with this being mostly grappling and THEN had the figure-four and strikes then I think this would've been a lot better. Still fairly enjoyable though, Fujita's still got it."
