Chase Owens vs. Tomohiro Ishii

[7.0] "This ended up being a much more compelling match than I expected. One of the better NJPW matches for Chase, but not surprising considering his overall body of work on the Southeast independent circuit."

[7.0] "[3.5*] Ishii and Shingo are the two best wrestlers on the planet to give bangers to bad wrestlers. Unironically, the best singles on Chases career on Cagematch is against Ishii, the 2nd one is against Shingo and this one is the 3rd, against Ishii again. This is literally the epitome of The Ishii Formula, replicated a thousand of times. It has 0 innovation but it is also very damn good, and this is why he has the Match Of The Career of a huge amount of guys. The nearfalls were great as always and the one after the double C-Trigger was excellent. Owens made his NJPW debut on 2014 so of course he was going to win his big match on his birthday and he will lose on the next round."

[7.0] "Very good match, probably the best singles of Chase Owens career... I understand if some people are mad about the result but I was expecting it when I saw it was Owens birthday, it's ok to give this present to him, I'm not mad. The match was extremely good, a lot of hard-hitting and badass moments but without overbooking, and phenomenal nearfalls. Very unpredictable, you couldn't tell who was winning - {***1/4}"

[6.0] "I'm not especially excited to see either of these men in 2024, so I'm not fussed about Owens winning. He may not be more than a loyalty hire at this point, but he put in a solid effort and he's a lower card fixture in New Japan at this point as much as Ishii. Match has a humorous beginning with Ishii having to sprint back to the ring, and then levels out awhile before picking up right at the end. The Styles Clash is a legacy move above Owen's pay grade, so using that was a miss for me personally, and Ishii's matches don't elicit much actual emotion from me anymore, he just does certain stuff like the pop-up no sell too much. But the ending was decent."

[4.0] "Incredibly slow and plotting for the first (atleast) half. Chase Owens seemed sluggish at best, pillow-fisted at worst. The finale showed some more action and effort. Ishii was serviceable considering. Overall this felt lackluster and largely monotonous."

[5.0] "This was like the standard Ishii traveling match, but worked at half speed. I respect Owens for how he moves around the ring and the logic he brings to his matches, but he was just moving too slow this night. It seemed like the other guy was waiting around for a lot of the counters in this match."

[4.0] "New Japan must really be getting hard up indeed if we need to showcase Chase Owens in any capacity. Ishii was fine as always, he does the Ishii thing and it always works decently, though it relies somewhat on the opponent to really excel. I thought Chase brought very little to this as usual, and the fact that he actually won is mildly embarrassing I think for all wrestling fans everywhere. Just my own opinion, the match wasn't awful or anything but I didn't really get very much out of it. Even broken down Ishii should be going over Chase..."

[6.0] "Good match, especially for Chase Owens in a singles capacity. I don't think this match had quite the emotional stakes that their G1 bout did in 2022, but this had Ishii having to will his way forward against Chase, who just had Ishii's number on this night. The best spot of this match is Ishii fighting to hit a superplex as Owens desperately fights to block it. Owens using a Styles Clash out of nowhere was a nice treat, but the real highlight of this is Ishii selling his neck and gaining sympathy from the crowd as the match goes on. ***1/4"

[7.0] "I was ready to call this match a dud after the first 5 minutes or so with Chase Owens showcasing precisely why he's earned a reputation as one of the worst members of the NJPW roster, but as the match went on, Ishii and Owens turned the heat up and put out a solid bout that captured both the crowd's interest and my own interest. It was a highly questionable decision to have Owens win though."

[7.0] "A surprising match for the first round of a Cup, at leasst in paper, pretty dull. I havent seen Chase Owens at this level a single time, so all the credit to the amazing Stone Pitbull."

[7.0] "[3.75*] Somewhat disconcerting booking decision to have Chase Owens win and eliminate Ishii from the New Japan Cup. The action in the ring wasn't bad, Ishii did a good job in several moments but unfortunately he was facing a guy who wasn't even close to his level. The final sequence of the match was really good and electrifying, Owens doing a Styles Clash was a really good moment and his victory at the end was surprising."

[8.0] "This rocked. While we all want to see Ishii win, the fact is he just doesn't need wins, especially not this late in his career, for him to still come across as a believable threat. Chase meanwhile is the tag champ so this makes sense. Chase was actually good here as he usually is when with a good opponent. Ishii had everyone behind him as always. ****"

[8.0] "Just like their last singles encounter, Ishii carried the emotion and pacing of this bout, forcing this to be great. Unfortunately, in addition to his lack of any charisma, Owens was not precise with his movements early on, and the first half of this dragged. It picked up big time in the second half though, and Ishii's selling of Owens's knee strikes were fantastic. ****"

[7.0] "I think they had pretty much the same match in the past, only this time Owens won. Ishii losing like this doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things, but it also doesn't help current perception of NJPW either. ***1/4"

[8.0] "That was a very good match even if it was pretty much the usual Ishii formula but it works, the crowd loved it and Chase did a good job."

[8.0] "I've only been watching NJPW for two years, but this had to be the best singles match of Chase Owens' career, right? I mean, there's absolutely no way he's ever looked better than he did here. God bless Ishii."

[8.0] "So Ishii did the impossible pulling a great singles match by Owens. The first part was pretty boring but when things got Ishii Style the match started getting way better. The Climax toward the end was almost hearthbreaking and as someone said down below Chase hit a Styles Clash which was a damn epic moment. ****"

[9.0] "A textbook Ishii banger. Hard-hitting with dozens of believable near-falls. Owens even got out a rare Styles Clash. One of Owens' best singles matches."

[6.0] "A dreadful start that showcased Owen's worst qualities that turned into a crowd pleaser with Ishii bringing out the best in Owens only like Ishii can. For New Japan Cup purposes I obviously have no interest in seeing another Owens match, but this was above-average on it's own. 3 Stars."

[6.0] "This ended up being a decent match despite a slow start in keeping with the sort of match Owens is usually booked to have. This was notable for Owens getting an entirely clean and fairly credible win which makes sense for the bracket and tag booking, but also is a reminder of just how much of New Japan booking depends on heel heat (which may or may not exist) right now. Ishii is Ishii and is still great despite being downcycled, but it's getting harder and harder to actually believe in any of his comeback spots."