Kota Ibushi vs. SANADA

[10.0] "This was quite an intense battle, it lacked something to truly ascend but the chemistry was almost top notch. ****3/4"

[9.0] "Legit awesome match. Match of the night by far and a glad surprised that I had watching. I'm not the biggest enjoyer of SANADA and I really thing he only get worse and worse in his own style during the time and specially the current one from the time I'm reading this completelly fucking sucks, but I don't have nothing bad to say about him in that match, for example. Selling, face expressions, bumps, limb work, forearms, dropkicks, flips, everything he did, he did in a good way. My only negative spot about this match is the FUCKING waste of time both wrestlers had outside when SANADA countered Ibushi's moonsault and he did nothing with that. He just waste his time and my own watching he drag Ibushi into the ramp to simply execute a kick on him, like? Dude, if you're outside, take advantage of it and make your opponent take a bump, no matter where and how. Anyway, great match."

[9.0] "Outstanding match from two great athletes. This was their first bout together but I'd argue it's the best of their 4 matches. Unlike their G1 30 final they didn't waste any time getting right into their slick and innovative offense. SANADA briefly targeted Ibushi's leg with dropkicks. Ibushi no sold the leg like he always does immediately hitting dropkicks like his leg wasn't worked on but limb work wasn't the focal point of the match so it's forgivable. They had some fantastic transitions and Ibushi's insane moonsaults and ranas are a joy to watch. They didn't hold back on their strikes and even the generic forearm exchanges had something to them. Ibushi's bumping was incredible. His real-time selling and facial expressions were tremendous as well. SANADA went to work on Ibushi's neck in the final third with great looking offense. His tiger suplex, lawn dart into the corner and twisting neckbreaker all looked great and setup for the Skull End. The crowd was hot for this one and got behind SANADA. One of his best performances and another reminder as to why Ibushi is one of my favorite wrestlers. ****1/2"

[8.0] "8. 25/10 - #10 Best of G128 : What a great match indeed ! These two showed impressive prowess through this match and I was all up for it ! Kota is a main-stay in my top 5 wrestlers in the world and out of the 5 of them he might the one I see the most as the "he can do no wrong". His style and his way of executing it is a show in and of itself that stands alone so it's almost impossible for me to find a match of his boring or bad. Sanada and I don't have long history together but he seems okay, not bad and can definitely keep up with the greats, but nothing special about him to make him great on his own. Anyway, the two connected and were able to deliver a very digestible enjoyable somehow-formulaic but still interesting match, and I applaud them for it !"

[7.0] "This was fun in some ways, but frustrating in others. Ibushi and Sanada are incredibly fluid and smooth, and pull of some great sequences that I found myself watching in slow motion to see exactly how they moved that quickly. On the other hand, there is some bad no-selling here by Ibushi, and a bizzare spot where Sanada brings Ibushi out to the ramp to... bring him back to the ring. This is fine as a fun indie style match, but not as a serious heavyweight G1 match. ***1/2"

[5.0] "I can look past Ibushi no-selling some of the leg work done throughout this match, as I've loved plenty of matches with inconsistent selling from Ibushi. What I can't look past is the almost laughable sequence where SANADA dragged Ibushi out to the ramp in the Skull End, and virtually nothing happened on the ramp until he dragged Ibushi back to the ring. They seemed quite lost in that moment, which took me out of the match entirely. The worst part is that I see absolutely nobody else take note of this moment, not even bothering to justify it. Outside of this slip up though, there were plenty of fun sequences, and SANADA seemed relatively fired up for this match. Passable, but nowhere near as good as it's been given credit for, especially considering both SANADA and Ibushi have had far more impressive matches during this tournament."

[9.0] "Ibushi and SANADA delivered an absolutely fantastic match to cap off one of the better nights of the G1."

[7.0] "Really fast paced equal matchup however probably went too long for how much happened, not a huge emotional attachment was made leading to this matchup being overshadowed by the two prior for me."

[9.0] "Pretty much what I hoped from these two. They kept the action fast paced and put their athleticism on full display, thus producing a slick, highspot heavy main event. The crowd also helped a great deal, as they were hot from the get-go, but damn near erupted towards the admittedly awsome closing stretch. And while a couple of awkward moments and a bit of no-selling holds it back, this was still one hell of a match. ****1/2"

[3.0] "What really kills this match is Ibushi's no-selling. At first, the match seems to be centered about SANADA targeting Ibushi's leg, delivering a massive dropkick to it outside the ring and then working over it for a while, until Ibushi takes the wheel and, while still selling the leg, doing some moves . Ok, that's adrenaline, I guess. But then, he starts doing dropkicks from the top rope, power bombs and other high moves like his leg was completely ok. From there, the match became a movefest with no apparent point. I like the finish, tho."

[9.0] "Thought this was a pretty great match! A lot of smooth and innovative offense. Awesome to see that SANADA can keep up on this level, he's really a special talent. I did think it was weird that they spent the whole first part building around Ibushi's leg being hurt, then completely blew it off, but the stuff they did was so fun I kind of forgot about it by the end. Lots of fun, one of the better G1 matches I've seen this year."

[9.0] "Of course a great match that we needed after all the tedious matches of A block produced the day before. SANADA and Ibushi started slow, but gradually boosted up after a few high-fly moves. SANADA controlled the whole contest with slow but not underwhelming pace and Ibushi worked with him prefectly. The final sequence of these two tried to defeat each other was awesome too. (****3/4)"

[9.0] "As good as it could have been I think. These two meshed well and fed off each other perfectly, everything seemed really fluid and overall enjoyable. The finish was great, a butt-ton of reversals and a great opening sequence. Great main event. (****1/2)"

[7.0] "A pretty damn great performance by SANADA, and a very enjoyable match overall. Some unfortunate no-selling of the leg work by Ibushi, but that wasn't the focal point of the match for very long, so it didn't take away too much from it. Good, competitive back & forth stuff. ***1/4"

[9.0] "You wouldn't believe that this was these guys first ever singles match against each other the way they were wrestling. These two showed immediate chemistry in that ring from the beginning exchange all the way down to the final minutes of the match. SANADA relied more on his technical prowess to take Ibushi down and Ibushi, as always, focused more on catching SANADA off guard with his high flying, and impact, offense. Both men did such a great job with playing towards the crowd and keeping the match at a very well though out pace as well. An awesome main event between two awesome competitors. ****1/2"

[10.0] "The atmosphere was awesome. This solidifies Sanada as a future main eventer. The leg work mostly was pointless and ibushi could avoid it. The rest was all kind of back and forth action between 2 guys who want to steal the show. Both tried to own their each other's game but sanada was the better one and won. Great main event."

[9.0] "An awesome encounter between two very athletic and handsome men. This was as fast and spotty as one would've hoped this match would be. While neither man did anything too crazy, they both still showed off their amazing athleticism, and showed a great chemistry between each other. SANADA working Ibushi's leg early on was kind of funny because everyone knew Ibushi was going to stop selling it a few moments later, and he did. Besides that though this was a great main event with SANADA picking up the hometown win, ****1/2."

[8.0] "SANADA is the one I considered prior to the G1 as having the 'breakout' performance (as opposed to the majority of people saying Jay White). I've been pretty positive about his work since the Okada match earlier this year, as I realize that he has a lot of potential. Ibushi and SANADA are both top tier in terms of athleticism, and it's safe to assume both will have good matches. And this match did deliver, it was good, but it's not quite on the level that I would expect. Perhaps my biggest issue here is SANADA frequently going for the Skull End; it's supposed to be a finisher, but repeatedly attempting to apply it makes me think that SANADA lacks variety in his offense. Ibushi is often questionable regarding his selling of the limbs, and this match was no exception with his knee getting attacked and him forgetting about it at times. I'm still optimistic about SANADA, and I'm eager to see how he'll do with the rest of his opponents in the G1 (Naito especially), but it's entirely possible that I'm placing too much stock in him."

[9.0] "This was awesome. Two great, great athletes going all out trying to beat each other. The crowd was good, cheering SANADA giving him a home coming and SANADA repaid them with a great match. Great displays of high flying wrestling and some nice looking sequences. Ibushi's double moonsault back flip looked so impressive. Love these two. ****œ"

[9.0] "This was an awesome match, as we got the battle of the handsome ones. Sanada and Ibushi delivered a match that was unique, well paced and became more dramatic as the match went on, my MOTN. The moonsaults, the selling and everything in between was amazing. SANADA gets more impressive with each match, and the unique style of this match is one of the many reasons I love NJPW. (****1/2)."