Tomohiro Ishii vs. Zack Sabre Jr.

[8.0] "Tomohiro Ishii has been consistent throughout this rivalry in that he is willing to wrestle the style that Zack Sabre Jr. prefers. Call that pride or deem it class. Ishii is willing to take it to the mat and fall back on the training he received from the great Riki Choshu as he attempts to go hold for hold with perhaps the best technical wrestler on the planet. The thing about Sabre is that his ego is as profound as his talent. Ishii may not be able to match Sabre, but he can hold his own and offset the technique disadvantage with strength and leverage. And when that begins to happen, Sabre loses his cool. Pieface after pieface, as well as a taunt about the height of The Stone Pitbull, built up to an unavoidable receipt. One stiff forearm and this entire match changed. The devastating chops that were caught at a great angle by the camera crew literally floored Sabre, yet Ishii refused to relent. He is a pure competitor, but when Ishii is disrespected, remorse is not a word in his vocabulary. Sabre knew Ishii quite well already at this point, having wrested him in a pair of great matches at the G1 Special in USA 2017 and G1 Climax 27. As such, he was able to counter some of the signature sequences that Ishii relies upon. A story that helped define this match. match was a great blend of contrasting styles and little elements of storytelling that I either chuckled at or even loved. Sabre reaching back to grab the hair to further the leverage of his hold, only to realize Ishii has a shaved head. Sabre stomping on the arm that he had just hyperextended, only for Ishii to welcome him to try it again. You can see the pain, the generational selling of Ishii, in his face, but he is the epitome of knowing that his greatest strength is how much he can endure. And how that can psychologically batter an opponent. Sabre selling every major Ishii strike like a near knockout blow. Ishii screaming in agony as he is placed in unfathomably painful submissions. And during one of the seminal moments of the match, desperately trying to get to the ropes without the use of his arms and then staying hung up on the middle rope well after the submission to show just how much had been taken out of him. The sensory storytelling is reason enough to check this out. For the overall story, Ishii is like Juggernaut. He is moving in a straight line towards victory, and the challenge is trying to figure out how to prevent him from getting there. Considering he cannot be broken, you must try to simply slow him down and exploit every little opening. Only ZSJ refuses to believe that there is anyone in the industry he cannot break, especially after beating Tanahashi, Naito, Ibushi, and Sanada in consecutive matches mere weeks prior to this encounter. The final five minutes were excellent, with both men showing their battle scars and their desperation tactics. Only Ishii had the poise that Sabre could not muster. 4 stars, 8 out of 10."

[7.0] "Seems like time and distance from this match have taken their toll on it. It's still good, but hardly memorable in the face of so many other matches that have come since."

[6.0] "I feel it would have been a lot better if they trimmed 5 minutes or so but this was pretty a solid match overall."

[7.0] "Solid, but nowhere near as spectacular as I expected. The big man/small man atmosphere played off well, but to me it never felt like Ishii could have won the title, until it actually happened."

[8.0] "Pretty good match, though not as good as their previous bouts. It was harder for me to buy Sabre as the aggressor here as it seemed more strike oriented, whereas I can only really buy Sabre as a threat to Ishii on a submission level. Still, two great wrestlers deliver a quality bout."

[8.0] "Zack and Ishii are two guys who have surprisingly great chemistry together, and this match was another example of that. Ishii's brawling style meshes well with a more coordinated wrestler like Zack who takes his time in picking apart his opponents. Surprisingly enough after a great match, Ishii gets the shock win ending the reign of Zack, and adds on another devestating loss for Zack during WM weekend, ****1/4."

[9.0] "Not as good as their g1 match but at least on the same level with their long beach match. Zack's heel work here was wonderful. Crowd booed him loudly. Ishii working as an underdog was amazing as always. His selling was great. Zack pretty much dominated but ishii fought back. After some great rope breaks and nearfalls. Ishii hit the brainbuster to win. Excellent match overall. Love to see ishii as a champion again."

[8.0] "Definitely not on the level of their 2 previous great matches, but still a very good one. Ishii's selling of ZSJ's work was pretty great as were his comebacks. ***1/2"