Konosuke Takeshita vs. Shigehiro Irie

[8.0] "This is a very good match. I expected more to be honest but it stills what it is, Irie is an awesome powerhouse, and Takeshita gave a great performance too. Overall, I enjoyed it a lot and even if it's far from some classics executed by Takeshita, this is a great one. ****"

[5.0] "I'm sorry that such a good show ended a really disappointing match. This is the final chapter of the legendary Takeshita's title-reign and it didn't match that status. The whole match is a movement from one "bright" spot to another, and I can not list the number of similar matches that I have seen for all the time, they don't differ from each other at all and don't reveal the wrestlers in any way, which was important here and now. Irie is a very strange wrestler (**1/2)."

[8.0] "Boy have I missed watching Shigehiro Irie wrestle, this was a brilliant match, I watched this Kinda Unspoiled (I didn't hear much about who won so assumed I knew the winner) so I didn't necessarily buy into the near falls as much, but they were tremendous, the first portion of this match is not all that much to write home about but the latter half is tremendous. ****"

[7.0] "Now, I have heard mixed views on this. Some loved it and thought it? s one of the best matches of the year, others hated it. I loved the match way more then I hated it. Now, first the match was pretty damn great. Takeshita can be pretty meh in his matches (his Ishikawa match, for example) but I thought he was excellent in this match. He was very explosive in this moves and helped keep the pace fairly quick for the majority of the match and his bumping for Irie? s offence was very good, made him look like a beast. Was scared for his neck at times. Irie was fine, he took most of the offence in the match which is odd considering that he is the big heel (I? ll get to that in the moment) but whatever, when he did do some offence, it looks impactful and added something to the match. Now onto the criticisms of the match, like I said, Irie was the heel in this match. His thing has been to try and bring down DDT but in this match, you got none of that. If you saw this match without knowing the backstory, you would think it was a normal title match. He didn? t really do anything heelish, he took most of the offence and he was well received by the crowd. That? s really the only criticism I have of the match and whilst it does lower my opinion of the match, it doesn? t ruin it. (***1/2)"