AJ Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura

[4.0] "Goodness man, the finishes in this program.... they are just terrible. The first trading of low blows was good and got the crowd going but making that the whole story of the match was a bad idea. There were some bursts of the chemistry these two could have had in WWE had they been served well creatively and agenting-wise, but the whole thing falls flat and I think it's the worst of their feud so far."

[7.0] "It was a solid match between both men for the most part with some nice in ring work and chemistry between each other, but it once again didn't reach that true level of greatness, and the finish was pure stupid."

[8.0] "[4.25*] The way they showcased both aggression and technique in this match, while maintaining references to everything the story had built and to their past encounters as well, hooked me in an inexplicable way. The chair spot involving the *Inverted Exploder Suplex*, followed by the chair ricocheting off Nakamura's leg into AJ Styles' face, was fantastic. Seeing AJ hit Nakamura with a low blow after taking so many himself, and the match ending in a double countout after two devastating low blows, was shocking -- even though I still would have preferred a victory for the Japanese star."

[3.0] "I can't believe I'm rating a match so low with these two. It deserves it because the match was rotten. The shitty and tired WWE formula of having feuds go for three months straight where they interact with one another the entire time makes for a boring and lifeless feud. AJ's feuds with Nakamura and Samoa Joe in WWE were withered husks of what they did elsewhere."

[0.0] "Yeah, that nut shot was for us fans. thanks for nothing and rightfully so the worst wrestling of all 2018 in professional championship."

[8.0] "I admit, I was sports entertained by the whole nut shot gimmick. I guess me and Vince have a similar sense of humor. Its stupid, but I was entertained."

[6.0] "This was decent at best. This didnt have a hot crowd which must have affected the match. The finish was so so freaking bad man. It was so bad it almost ruined the whole match for me."

[3.0] "I remembered the match these two had at Wrestle Kingdom while watching this and got sad. Something about a WWE ring took away the chemistry these two had (until the LMS match). Bad match and horrid finish on a terrible PPV."

[3.0] ""Nut-Shot: The Feud" continues and meets its absolute nadir with "Nut-Shot: The Match". While it does make sense that in a No-DQ match where crotch-kicking has been a key factor between the two men, there'd be a lot of attempts at that sort of thing... eh. It's sad to see Nakamura work such a style when he could just try to meet Styles in the ring, like he absolutely can. Ending in an absolute bore draw was just an excuse to drag the feud on and on."

[8.0] "This was a very good match and maybe their best in WWE at this point, I found it really qualitative from start to finish and it was fun to watch. I know the ending sucked, it bothered me too and I doubt that's why many people have a negative appreciation of this match, but the match itself was very cool overall. I had criticized their MITB match for having good spots but being too long, I had wished for a condensation of some spots to make it a shorter match and I feel like we got that condensed contest here. With other spots of course, because these two always manage to innovate, no matter what you think of their WWE bouts. They have a strong chemistry and they proved it again here. In their MITB bout I had also criticized the fact that Nakamura dominated too much and was not interesting, here he dominated a lot but it was never boring, his heel-work was surprisingly very good. The crowd was invested, both did a good performance with some cool counters, interesting action, nothing negative to say about this match. Cool stuff all around for me."

[2.0] "This was embarassing, two talents of this caliber shouldn't be able to wrestle a match this terrible, a match focused on low blows and ignoring technique is just a damn shame, this should of never happened, this is the worst match either man ever competed in and for some reason this terrible feud that was so important kept going without any meaning"

[7.0] "Much better match than their Mania & GRR bouts. This one had much more physicality in it, Naka's offence seemed way better, Styles sold very well for him. AJ countering his work by going after his leg was good overall. This could have been a GREAT match had we never got that awful finish and had a proper hot finishing run. ***1/2"

[1.0] "This was just terrible. Nakmura and Styles had quite possibly the worst match of their terrible feud here. A slow paced mess of a match with zero crowd investment and the worst, most idiotic finish to a match I've ever seen that was just flat out insulting. Really didn't expect this from these two. (*)"

[6.0] "This match was a mix between their Wrestlemania match and their GRR match. They had the same match as their GRR one but the same terrible finish as their Wrestlemania one (Killed the crowd when the match was starting to peak). Terrible finish straight from WCW. Core of the match was good but the overall thing will not be remembered as such. (***1/4)"

[4.0] "Previous match ended in double countout and Paige's genius idea was to make a No DQ match which allowed lowblows but did nothing to fix the actual problem arising in the previous match. Also, it was quite some idea to end the mtch with a low blow as soon as it was gaining some steam."

[4.0] "Seriously this was even worse than their WrestleMania match. Really a no contest. WWE is messing up such an important feud."

[8.0] "War im Inbegriff richtig gut zu werden, als der Ref bis 10 zählte. Man muss festhalten, dass Nakamuras Style bei fast jedem seiner Matches anfangs nicht optimal bei den Mainstream-Fans ankommt. Meistens brauch eine längere Vorlaufzeit - so auch in bisher allen drei Matches mit Styles. Allerdings spürt man hier, wie viel mehr Potenzial da wäre, wären da nur 5 bis 10 Minuten mehr Zeit gewesen."

[7.0] "The first 60% of this match doesn't take advantage of the stipulation at all. They just do more on the outside with the barricade and such. It plods about as much as the Mania match did, just with more on the outside. Once Shinsuke introduces 1 (one) chair, that's when it starts to pick up. The spot of AJ throwing the chair at Nakamura's knee was good, and it bouncing back and busting open AJ's face actually helped the match feel a little more personal. From there this actually got pretty hot, with some strong moments that got the crowd excited, but then the finish went and ruined it by doing another Draw. With Nakamura winning the title a couple minutes after the double dick kick instead of counting both down, this could've been the best Styles/Nakamura WWE meeting despite the middling early sections, but starting AND ending on a dull note drags this down. ***1/4 or so"

[7.0] "7. 75/10 : So far their best match of their WWE feud. It wasn't stellar but I think my expectations are low enough that this got me excited. I think what is wrong with this match-up is that they always wrestle at shinsuke's pace, which in all honesty, is slow and boring. His strong style stuff is cool but otherwise his wrestling pace is something I dread. And you can tell that is what they are doing. For me, AJ needs to take ahold of the match's pacing and have an "AJ Styles match" against Nakamura, not the other way around. Things picked up later on though, from the moment AJ threw a chair at Shinsuke to counter the Kinshasa, the match got in a very enjoyable zone. The match from then on is what made me so high up on their 3rd go at this match-up. This feud could have one more (and last) match in it if done right. And if indeed done right, it could elevate this feud from average and better-forgotten to good and memorable."

[9.0] "Even with the ending, I thought this was a great match. They really brought the intensity and made it feel. like they despised each other. Nakamura did his character really well and Styles did very well and getting too emotional again. It sucks that they still haven't got a clean finish but I thought this was a very well built match ****"

[3.0] "Yeah, this did nothing to me honestly. Another huge disappointment from Shinsuke and AJ. Right now, i need to re consider AJ Styles in top 10 best in the world. His title run has been very very forgettable. Both guys again put on boring, soulless performances overall. The crowd looked uninterested in this match and i can't blame them after watching shitty charlotte/carmella and orton/hardy's borefest. The low blow was so overkill till this point it was very annoying and no longer funny. This like their rumble match lacked intensity, drama and any reasons to care about. And don't forget that ending which was beyond trash. No DQ ? Still find a way to count out ? I am so confused. A below average match which was unreal when looking at the talents in the match. Easily the most disappointing feud of the year so far."

[8.0] "Their best match thus far, but ended right as it was getting in to ****+ territory. The pace was good, the match in general was well structured, though I didn't like the No-DQ stipulation for this, and there were some really good sequences and moments. Unfortunately, they threw all that away with the no contest ending, which had the crowd booing heavily as they had really gotten into the match. Really wish they'd give them a proper finish and just let them go out there. (***3/4)"

[7.0] "A good match that was building up to be a great match, but the finish was abrupt and underwhelming, especially given this is the third match in the feud."

[6.0] "Disappointing because it's the third time they could have had a great match but they missed the opportunity. This time it's okay until the series of Low Blows and the terrible trainwreck of an ending. I'm starting to lose interest for this feud, which never gets good on the ring. **3/4"

[4.0] "I thought their match from Saudi Arabia showed that they still have a great match in them & I also thought we might see it here, but nope. This certainly wasn't that - I think this was OK, not bad, but OK. Very boring for the most part, at least up until the finishing stretch where things got pretty exciting & some urgency was in display. Overall though, yeah, not a good one. Even more boring than their Mania meeting. **"