[10.0] "This was great! Not quite an all-timer, and honestly I'm not sure which of their matches this year I prefer, but there was some damn awesome action in this one! It became clear about halfway through that the headbutts had taken it out of Kitamiya, and the match became a question of what would give first: would Kitamiya go loopy before Ishii's leg gave out? Good stuff overall, aided by a hot Korakuen crowd, but I do think there was a little more left to give from both men. I guess we'll see if the 3rd match can truly hit that all-timer level that I think they can get to! Update: one of my favourite matches of 2024, good god"
[10.0] "Like Big E would say: I don't wanna hear y'all talking about all this workrate, and how good guys are in the ring, and moonsaults. I don't care about any of that. You want a great match? Bump that. I wanna see two big men, with big chests, and big muscles bumping meat. That's why I'm here. That's why I watched wrestling as a kid. You want your five-star matches? (hilariously this was five-star match) You want your 30-minute classics? Not me! Big meaty men slapping meat! That's what I want!"
[8.0] "This match was 95% chops, elbows, headbutts, and punches. If you like hard-hitting matches this is a good watch, but I wasn't the biggest fan of it personally."
[4.0] "At the beginning of the match the wrestlers dragged out with chest punches and elbows, and at the end of the match there were a lot of lariats, a lot of finishers and near-falls. That's why I didn't like this match."
[9.0] "This was a fantastic match - hard-hitting and physical. I wasn't familiar with Kitamiya coming into it but you get a pretty good idea how he'll wrestle from first sight - he's a big bull and throws bombs like it. I could've done without the duelling headbutts - they still make me anxious since Shibata's near disaster years ago - but that's a taste thing and I still appreciated what it (and the blood is caused) added to the story of both men's desire to win this battle. The crowd were rabid all the way through for this one. As someone who's only regular exposure to Japanese wrestling is New Japan, this would be more than at home in the BMF NEVER division. Terrific war."
[8.0] "Masa is looking to avenge his loss to Ishii from earlier in the year. I don't know how Ishii is able still work at this level of physicality at 48! What starts out as your typical Ishii match soon ups the antee as Ishii starts to belittle Masa, putting the NOAH faithful behind Masa. I love the struggle that takes place both times when he is able to lock his submission in. We get a gnarly shoot headbutt exchange that leaves Masa with some hardway color and Masa lands a punch that sees Ishii dribble spit like a baby. Sadly, this match ends up going on way too long after the previous spots and my rating is on this is brought down a tad due to them needing to shoehorn in more false finishes when they already built up to a perfect finish."
[8.0] "An even more aggressively relentless encounter than their previous as this one offered more on the side of clobberin', and it managed to distinguish itself, not only from the physicality but also from the emotion shown by Masa's defiance and resilience and paired with Ishii's brick wall approach created a sequel with different layers. Early on, Ishii was more of a force for Masa to overcome as he stood staunchly telling Masa to keep it coming, which Masa would till he'd get one on him. As it went on, the lines of who had the upper hand became a bit muddled, but they'd still let us know that Masa was taking significant damage, like the exchange where Ishii headbutted him and Masa answered by knocking Ishii down with a right hand only for him to stumble down unable to capitalize. However, vice versa, Ishii's selling let us know Masa was closing in on a victory. Another spectacular bout, and I think I prefer the atmosphere here because Korauken's more intimate setting allowed their crowd to sound more feverish, adding beautifully to the mayhem in the ring. ****1/4"
[10.0] "This match was amazing. I loved how hard they were hitting eachother and just how much it took these two bulls to hit eachother with in order to keep them down. The headbutts, lariats, suplexes and more were great to watch and just showed how these two are some of the hardest hitting stars out there and how great that style can be."
[7.0] "[3.5*] There are a lot of people who will come here on the next few weeks and say that they did not sold the offense. Well, I was already on this position. I was both the guy who would give it a 5*, or a 2*. There are some exaggerations that I dislike, such as the Shingo vs Gabe match, but this one, it was straight-up awesome. They have, in fact, sold the match. The selling and psychology of the match were literally two bulls on a strength contest where one guy tried to put the other down, so it is compatible with the story that this task is quite difficult, lmfao. The bout is extremely stiff, this got the loudest reactions in a good while for NOAH and these guys received an ovation when it ended. Mission fucking accomplished. Of course this is indeed kind of simple because it has not a clear limb-work or anything like that, it is literally just two guys beating the hell out of each-other in a very believable and cool way. It also had a lot of great nearfalls at the ending, so, in my opinion, this ruled a lot. A certified crowd pleaser."
[9.0] "Outstanding. Simply outstanding. This was as physical as it gets in front of a crowd that ate every second of it up. Tomohiro Ishii turning in performances like this at 48 years of age is something that wrestlers and fans should be studying for decades to come. His 2024 in general has been nothing short of mind-numbingly great. And this was one of the highlights of it thus far. Absolute brutality from bell to bell, harkening back to the prime years of the NEVER Openweight Championship and the N-1 classics that have come to define the modern era of Pro Wrestling NOAH. They threw everything they had at one another until neither man could stand, and one could only pull out a last-ditch effort for the win. A slugfest I hope I remember for a long, long time. 4.5 stars, 9 out of 10."
[8.0] "Kitamiya is having quite the year working these stiff and violent matches. This was better than the first match up he and Ishii had in January in terms of absurdity."
[7.0] "Great match that was just a notch below their first encounter for me. Its hard to critique this type of match when these guys are really kicking the shit out of each other but I guess I have some. The immediate pop-up after a big move or the one-count needs to be used sparingly to really get across the effect when its needed most. Kitamiya did it a bunch and I wish he would have sold a little more up until his last burst of offense."
[7.0] "This match was good, not on the level of their first encounter back in January, but a good match, and mainly it was a fun match, I had a great time watching, it doesn't have a deep story and it doesn't focus on structures and logic, it's just a match between two big guys trading strikes and showing badassery, I knew the point wasn't to be logical and connect stuff, it's a match made to pop for cool moments, and the crowd did that, they were loud and enjoying the match, so I consider a success, but when I wake up tomorrow and remember the match, the lows will be much more remembered than the highs, you know, the excess of no-sells, the headbutts, and these kind of things that I dislike, I think they really exaggerated in the quantity of non-sold moves, but I know some people loved and have fun and that's what matters, I consider this a good match, I just couldn't understand the result, because they announced a third match, and Ishii won the two matches they had, I thought Kitamiya would win here, and it's pointless to do a third one, but it is what it is - {***1/2}"
[6.0] "Thought their match earlier this year was comfortably superior. This gets a little long, and you don't get much of the blood-pumping action these two could've produced. Felt like a typical match for both men, and while that's still enjoyable, it isn't great. 3.25 Stars."
[9.0] "I honestly loved this and liked it even more than their first encounter. It was a great explosive match between two of the best for their respective styles for a super hot crowd.The only thing that keeps me from rating this a 10 is the headbutt sequences. I just don't care for headbutts at all. Not only do they pose an incredible risk of serious injury, but they also look like crap unless they're hit with enough force that you're actively trying to turn your brain into a smoothie."
[5.0] "One of these days we'll have another Shibata brain damage situation on our hands and we'll all look on and say what a tragedy, if only we could have prevented this. Until that day, I guess we'll just keep smashing our skulls full blast into each other. Obviously there are good bits too, wide guys smacking each other will always have a place, but I thought it was rather generic and the nasty headbutts put me off the match even further."
[6.0] "Some matches may seem to be really good and have won over the majority of fans, but that I personally hated, this is one of them. The first five minutes are incredible and really excited me a lot, all those forearms and chops that were exchanging, destroying each other just for the purpose of winning, but soon after begins a kind of attempt to be what Sasaki vs. Kobashi was, but it was done without any care or storytelling, just two big men fighting each other in big moves doesn't make for a great match. Ishii humiliating Kitamiya, provoking him to fight back after proving stronger at one point in the match, and then Masa giving me the worst singles performance I've seen this year. Selling is a crucial part of this sport, it is the way to connect the public to the emotion of it, the pains and desires, only good selling can make average wrestlers loved and the lack of one can make the entire crowd forget about that match. The crowd was quite hyped here, it's not hard to miss, but then we got to how Masa Kitamiya completely failed in the no-selling, it was simply ridiculous to see someone who just came out of a forearm war rise so calmly from a Brainbuster , okay, I'm used to Fighting Spirit, but what I see here is pure amateurism, not only a brainbuster, but also a German suplex in the sequence, only for him to get up again as if nothing had happened and attack Tomohiro's leg, he He doesn't even put his hand on the back of his head to pretend, NOTHING! All those attacks meant nothing and didn't even seem to have come from a guy with the nickname Stone Pitbull. Ishii didn't have a good selling on the leg, but at least he was much more decent than his opponent, even if I hate to admit it. Masa has already had epic encounters against some other wrestlers like Katsuhiro where his selling is great, but here it is complete shit, when he again gets up and does a no-selling on the Piledriver from the second rope and begins a sequence of exchanges of Lariats, it was that moment when I wanted to drop the match and go watch something else, a The Fiend match would be less ridiculous and I could still use the same fighting spirit excuse that is terribly associated with it. The headbutts were really cool and Kitamiya started to have a much better sale here than before, even if the kickout in one is still quite exaggerated, the same cannot be said about Ishii who, apart from the part that suffers the submission, forgets the injury on the leg and makes most of his attacks using it. The last three minutes are pretty decent, maybe cool, but not beyond that. This match is clearly a reference to Kensuke Sasaki vs Kenta Kobashi, but it fails in its proposal, the two wrestlers seem to not understand what fighting spirit is about and only exchange big and stiff moves for seventeen minutes. Not really my cup of tea, but happy that the crowd liked it and kept the match hot throughout. [3.0*]"
[7.0] "A little too no-selling detracting from my enjoyment at times, and I DEFINITELY think it's worthy of five stars, but it certainly was a fun match..."
[7.0] "The fact that Dave Meltzer rated this match 5 stars boggles my mind entirely. It's good don't get me wrong but it's not 5 star worthy. It was a typical Ishii match with big strikes and nice sequences. Not one of his best matches I've ever seen so far. The first half of this match was pretty slow but that second half was great with good sequences and close calls. The crowd was so hot for this one and the hard-hitting aspect was so good. 7.5/10"
[8.0] "Outstanding stuff. The initial exchanges fell a bit flat to me but the intensity slowly ramped up throughout the whole contest and by the final five minutes of massive strikes and false finishes I was blown away. I'd happily see these two wrestle again and soon, it would be great to see Kitamiya finally get the win."
[6.0] "This isn't strong style, this is just a sad cheap parody of strong style. Strong style doesn't mean you gotta no sell moves to look like a tough guy, no, it's quite the contrary. Strong style is getting beaten down to a pulp and you're down and out, yet you rise up to face the adversary and show your fighting spirit. These no-selling of moves don't make you a tough guy, it just makes the moves look weak. 5 stars my ass!"
[7.0] "I had mixed feelings going into this bout, I am a bit jaded by the Ishii formula, but I enjoy Kitamiya and their previous bout was pretty good. Your mileage will vary here based on how much time you have for the classic Ishii no-selling and strike exchanges, this landed on the good end of that formula and the mannerisms and style of Kitamiya continue to work well in collaboration. Kitamiya works over the legs of Ishii to precisely no effect and after a certain amount of these moves you have to wonder what the point is when Masa eats yet another loss to Ishii. All this negativity being said, the crowd is absolutely molten and the bout is very well executed for its style. While it was not quite to my taste, it was undeniably very good in many respects, but from the booking and overall lack of cohesion other than just being big move - kick out - big move - no sell - repeat, it lands at a strong 7/10 for me."
[6.0] "This type of match has been done to death over the past 10 years and it's definitely reached the point of parody and diminishing returns. The sheer amount of random no-selling here disrupted the flow of an insanely hard-hitting bout. The crowd clearly loved every minute of it, though ***1/4"
[6.0] "I was really enjoying the match up until the end. There is a moment, though, where you have to start questioning if "having a good match" is worth sacrificing your talent. If Kitamiya won this, it would feel different. A comeback from his loss earlier this year. The way it ended, he felt like a failure. Losing to Ishii in 2024 (who, by the way, just lost to Chase Owens and Orange Cassidy) is not a good result for a guy who was getting hot. A good match must go beyond good moves, it needs to build into the future of your company."
[8.0] "This was just straight up fucking awesome. I didn't watch their previous match from January and I hadn't seen Kitamiya in action prior to this, but I'm a huge Ishii guy so I just knew this was gonna be good. Kitamiya looked super impressive here. It's easy to write him off as just "Ishii with hair" but he is kinda unique in his own way. His offence is a lot more varied than Ishii's is, as he implements some great looking submissions into his game, one of which he uses on Ishii's legs in a great rope break spot. He also hit two great looking spears in this match, one of which seemed to catch Ishii damn near in the face. Ishii was also as great here as he typically is. It's basically a standard singles performance from him complete with all of the awesome no selling spots and stiff strikes as you'd expect. It's impressive how he's still wrestling in this style at the age he's at and still producing great matches too. Great performances from both guys, and a super fun, super violent match overall. ****1/4"
[9.0] "I'm not sure wether this match is better or not than their first one in January but this was more or less at that level of greatness. Anyway the legwork on Ishii's leg was beyond useless and if Kitamiya had kicked out the Brainbuster leading to another epic comeback before his defeat this could have really been an all timer. That being said, incredible hoss fight. ****1/2"
[9.0] "Even better than their first match, and no easy task to pull off, Ishii and Kitamiya completely stole the show in front of a red-hot crowd in the Korakuen Hall, hot to welcome a battle of this level between two big men as good as them. They're fantastic and have a natural chemistry together, just two guys beating the crap out of each other in a historic hall paying homage to the brutes past before them. The crowd was behind Kitamiya and I think he'll finally win against Ishii next month in Sapporo."
[6.0] "Not really my cup of tea, i liked their first encounter in january but this second one just isn't for me, both are strong i get it but kitamiya went hulk hogan levels of no-sell, besides that i liked that limb work from kitamiya and the selling from ishii like his knee is Achilles tendon levels of vulnerable and i liked the final sequence but they have used the no-sell so much that it didn't impacted me anymore (3.5*)"
[9.0] "Quite an incredible match. Ishii-chan has a knack for making his opponents shine, simple as that. They established an incredible rhythm and flow, making everything feel organic and effortless."
[8.0] "Not bad by any means, very entertaining and very meaty. Though I do feel as though it went a little too long, which made the big meaty men doing big meaty men things shtick feel kind of stale. Also you just gotta give it up to the crowd for giving this match so much energy."
[9.0] "Incredible match. Ishii's best match of the year (upgrading on his first match with Kitamiya in January), and his best since the Luke Jacobs match last year. Kitamiya has lowkey been NOAH's 2024 MVP between the Ishii matches and the Suguira match. Well worth going out of your way to watch. ****1/2"
[10.0] "I'm a pro Wrestling NOAH fan so i would not very objective but i think this match was incredible. The first one on one at noah New Year 2024 was incredible but this one was more violent and stiff and I love it. The strong style is one of my favorite way to Wrestle. With to Big win in noah, i would like in a few months to see Ishii challenge for a GHC Heavyweight Title Match, he deserves it."
[9.0] "I think everyone knew what to expect with this and thankfully it delivered. Two guys beating the absolute crap out of one another, giving it their all. This ruled and should be a must watch for any Ishii fan or those just wanting to see some nasty, nasty chops."
[9.0] "Another banger from these 2, they both wrestle the same style and work together very well. big chops, lariats, headbutts and big suplexes and a lot of no selling just a full sprint fight that flies by, feels like its building for a 3rd match and I can't wait!"
[10.0] "This was a rematch from NOAH's big New Year show, and it equaled the magnificence of the first match. Ishii is the lord of Korakuen, as the fans went nuts for him, for Kitamiya, and for the violence that ensued. There were forearms, there were lariats, there were headbutts, there were suplexes, there was everything you would expect from these two. In a career filled with legendary selling, this was one of Ishii's greatest selling performances. Even in victory, he could barely find his way out of the ring and to the back. ****3/4"
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