[10.0] "Well, HoT delivered probably their best match as a stable and for once I can't give them enough praise. Although they could have gone for longer and no one would have noticed the street fight aura you get as the bell rings is unmatchable and they didn't lose a second to use the cage and the weapons. It was ultimate chaos, not as good as last year but still incredible. *****"
[8.0] "(Grade:B+/****1/4) Didn't watch last year's Dog Pound Steel Cage Match but got to check this one out and it was bonkers! The Bullet Club War Dogs are the gatekeepers of this match style through dealing out punishment and taking it too! House of Torture stood their ground in there too and their usual interference shtick works wayyy better in this environment. Also shoutout to commentary team for saying "How'd the hell yujiro got into the cage with those knees" had me cracking up. Taiji Ishimori and Clark Connors were standout for me pulling off some nice spots and Gabe Kidd has usual being the beast he is along with Red Narita who crimson mask he had even with the grin was a dope visual."
[7.0] "****1/4 a very good match, less than last year's, a very great intensity and violence was more bloody than last year's, very good pace although after 12 minutes of the match there were parts or slow moments or where the revolutions dropped, it is perhaps the best match that involves members of the House Of Torture, the War Dogs were the protagonists of the match and were the ones who showed off the most, a very good duration, lasting much less than last year although with the difference that here everyone started at the same time and last year they were entering one by one, great ending with Gabe Kidd and Ren Narita fighting looking for the definitive spot on the table with barbed wire and in the end Kidd would take it with a tremendous Piledriver on the table with barbed wire to win the match"
[10.0] "It could be said that this is the most masterful storyline during the match that you can see. First of all, the main roles of the match were Evil and David Finlay, and then Drilla Moloney and Sanada. What else can be said about the best creation of two top stars? Gabe Kidd and Ren Narita were masterpieces The rest of the sequences were great. A great fight with a lot of great spots and a unique fight."
[9.0] "[4, 5 Stars] It was cool, but not as good as last year, although the WDs had better opponents. There were some good spots and the War Dogs are simply the top dogs. (****, 5)"
[5.0] "A largely dull spotfest with a couple cool moments, but other than that it was tedious. I guess the highlight for me was the finish which was pretty neat, but the match didn't feel cohesive or engaging. I don't really care about anyone here except Gabe Kidd and maybe too a lesser degree Ishimori, Sanada, and EVIL."
[5.0] "This had it's moments, some nice hardcore stuff sprinkled in, but I couldn't get past the fact that a lot of these guys are just dull to me when they are doing their basic action. Nobody looked bad but nobody ended up standing out very much to me, a lot of time and movement but I was left unmoved on a personal level. If you're invested in the story I'm sure it looks a lot better."
[8.0] "This was a good spectacle, but fails to live up to the classic the first dog pound cage match was. The ending was brutal. Narita had one of the most insane crimson masks I've seen and Gabe sends him through a barbed wire table by doing a reverse piledriver from the top rope. Insane is the best word to describe it."
[5.0] "While the match was violent and had some solid moments, it lost me as soon as House of Torture took control. For me, HoT aren't that engaging, so having them take most of the match was boring. Plus, this not being the blow-off to the War Dog/HoT feud is backwards booking. I don't want to see Finlay vs. Evil again, even if it'll be a Dog Collar match."
[8.0] "THANK YOU LORD NO ONE TRIED TO KILL THEMSELVES! This was still really really fun and I'm glad they switched it to everyone start in the cage and just brawl. It sped the whole thing up and the crowd stayed engaged the whole time. I'm so glad there weren't any absolutely ridiculous spots, I mean the finish was insane but I would say Gedo trying to put Dick Togo through the table was more dangerous given the angle and how close he was to the ring post and how fragile they are lol. But they was super fun and solidified the War Dogs as a babyface faction. Gabe, Drilla, Clark, and Ishimori are full on Babyfaces now. I expect Finlay and EVIL to have a big blow off match, maybe a dog collar match based off the tease at the end? and then Finlay can finally go full Babyface. He's getting chants and fans are barking for him now but they aren't behind him like they are the other war dogs. Super great stuff here in this cage match though. ****1/2"
[7.0] "Seth Rollins vs Sanada. Book it. This wasn't as spectacular as the first one. It felt like a gameplay where random things are happening at random times which makes it real I guess. Everyone was blading themselves left, right and center. The worst of the bunch was Ren. He did look kinda cool though. Maybe he should keep that as a gimmick like Mutoh. Loved that Finlay wasn't the center of attention."
[6.0] "Disappointing but still a fun brawl. The sequencing of this match just felt predictable and one note. Starting off with a brawl on the outside and regularly switch one member of each faction being in the ring became stale quite quickly as not every participant got to have a time to show off. There were moments of story telling in this format, with Drilla Moloney/Sanada and David Finlay/EVIL but besides the clear rivalries being displayed there wasn't anything overly memorable. Even the guitar spot that was built up to so much just kind of happened. The match was carried by the personalities of Bullet Club War Dogs, every member had a moment to stand out but House of Torture was very forgettable by comparison. Besides Ren Narita who occupied the ring the most for his faction, no one stood out. Hell if Evil's rivalry with Finlay wasn't a key component of this match his presence would barely be known. Its not totally forgettable, there are good spots and lots of blood by the end but this just had a bar to reach in my opinion and it never felt like it quite got there"
[6.0] "I was expecting something more like last year, too short and it should had more spots and less brawling. Great ending but this was only Kidd moment in this match. It was okay but a lbit disappointing for me. Wrestlers had very good performance but it' could be directed better."
[7.0] "Better than last year's mess of a cage match, but clearly still didn't do as much for me as it did for others. Definitely HoT's best stuff but that's not saying much at all given how putrid they normally are. This just felt a bit disjointed for me as everyone gets their spot while others hang about outside, and of course everyone had to bleed. Narita was gushing which was a cool visual and I did enjoy the finishing piledriver through the table. Correct booking here and next to no silliness definitely helped here. ***3/4"
[8.0] "What it lacked in structure, it made up for in abject horror and brutality. There were some nasty acts of torture, like the big chair shot to Ishimori, Kidd's head breaking a table, and the wicked barbed wire piledriver finish, plus a bit of levity in the involvement of the seconds. Some of these get disgusting levels of colour, Ren Narita barely looks human by the end. I think somethings could have worked a bit better but the highs were very high that I couldn't help but have a good time!"
[8.0] "Pure violence in this confrontation between the two Bullet Club factions. War Dogs were definitely the right choice to win this one. A bloody Gabe Kidd pretty much killing an at least equally bloody Ren Narita was a fitting finish to this absolute war. I wonder what the future holds for both factions as a rematch between Finlay and EVIL was set up and Gabe looked really strong here. I wonder how much longer Gabe and Finlay can exist in the same faction. Bullet Club is looking better than it has in years."
[9.0] "Schwierige Grundsituation, da es hier nun mal zu einem aufeinandertreffen von Heels gegen Heels kam. Es wurde aber so ziemlich das Beste draus gemacht, was ging! Es entstand hier vielmehr eine wilde Schlacht als ein Match. Es wurde wahnsinnig viel geblutet. Es gab viele Pausen und dazwischen jeweils krasse Aktionen. Der Kampf war allerdings so erzählt, dass man richtig gut mit den War Dogs mit fiebern konnte."
[7.0] "Fun blowoff spotfest brawl. Finish was great and Ren got some truly horrible color at the end. Looking forwards to the inevitable blowup between Gabe Kidd and David Finlay."
[9.0] "All I have to say right now is what a finish. There were some cool coordinated 5 vs. 5 spots, but the finish between Narita and Kidd was nuts. It might've felt a bit underwhelming for some, but they go hard. There's a hell of a rebound lariat from Kidd, and Narita has the absolute best blade job. There were some low points, particularly the Gedo dive that I was pretty hype for, but otherwise this was a great little match. Doesn't touch the og, but that's an insane bar."
[9.0] "A good match between two clans, even if they were part of the same clan. Blood was shed. Gedo had some cool moments. Weapon-wise, we had tables, barbed wire, forks, etc."
[6.0] "This is a weird one for me because I'm glad it didn't go as long, and I'm not a huge fan of staggered entrances, but I also think the last Dog Pound match with its staggered entrances allowed each wrestler to stand out a litlte more and have their moments. I want to have my cake and eat it, I suppose, though I'd prefer a better a better non-staggered start. It started with the wild brawling segment and that was pretty much the match with no real change of pace. I guess that's the tricky thing about the format. I think that this match was worse than the last one but that's also because House of Torture are worse than Ospreay-led United Empire. Gedo had an absolutely pathetic dive in this - one of the worst in years - and you can almost hear the words "That was shit" beam from Finlay's brain as he's standing there processing it. I don't think many of the blade jobs really delivered what they should have, either. Some of this was pretty entertaining Narita's blade job and the ending segment were pretty good. They also told little stories with each weapon which I thought was handled pretty well. There was a lot of focus on Gabe with the finish and post-match promos/interviews which made it feel a little like either Finlay is becoming a little more tweenerish in showing more respect to his guys, or he's on his way out and setting up Gabe as the next leader. Finlay has also gotten better at shouting in a commanding voice and the general sense of comradery in the faction really stands out. In contrast, there were seven House of Torture guys involved in this and not one of them is interesting in any way. I think that's one of the bigger problems with this match, but I was still entertained by most of this. It's between a '6' and a '7' for me."
[9.0] "[4.5*] For reasons that seem obvious to me, they didn't want to do anything as aggressive or extensive as last year's War Dogs vs United Empire, and that seemed like a good decision to me. This year's Dog Pound isn't as aggressive, but it's well-constructed and makes the most extreme moments count, and it takes advantage of the storytelling built up during the match and in the last few weeks, the two teams were really engaged in their hatred for each other. The House of Torture living up to its name and torturing Drilla was excellent, it helped build the faces of the match and put the audience on War Dogs' side, EVIL even used Clark's hat against Drilla and that was brilliant. Gedo and Dick Togo were golden in this match, very good in their funny spot! Drilla Moloney, my MVP, the whole beginning of him playing the babyface role was cool, the guitar shot to SANADA's head, even though I thought he took too long to apply the move. Clark Connors and Taiji Ishimore also had good moments, Connors supporting Taiji to climb the fence was funny and exciting, a super wild moment despite being simple. Crowd involved, Gabe and Ren Narita's final moments are the best of the match. Gabe Kidd had already had that excellent moment hitting his head against the table, and at the end his lariat is very well done, sick! Ren Narita's blade job was supernatural, that guy must have gone to the hospital right after the match! The blade jobs performed were all very good, but overshadowed by Narita's excellent one. The post match with EVIL's revenge and Kidd's promo marking War Dogs above any other Bullet Club formation was really cool, they really have all the "Bullet Club" feeling that Elite lost over the years in NJPW. David Finlay and EVIL were true leaders, they will have a match just for themselves, and they let this match be about their stable, not about them as protagonists."
[9.0] "Amazing match, although they didn't top the last one, this is still incredible. They ditched the war games style for more of an anarchy in the arena type match. Which in an element was good but I think I did prefer the war games style. Seperating House of torture and War dogs was smart, and probably should've happened before. And the Ending was amazing. Ren Narita is really finding himself and Gabe Kidd is a future iwgp heavyweight champion. I'm only giving this a 9 though because it didn't feel as high stakes as the last one for me though. But at the same time it was Ospreays last match. Overall 9.0/10"
[9.0] "Incredible hardcore match. The performances of David Finlay and Clark Conners really stood out to me. Shoutout to Ren Narita for his godly blade job. Gedos dive off the top popped me huge as well. [4.5/5]"
[8.0] "The original dog pound steel cage match had a lot of issues that prevented it from being truly great. All of those issues were remedied in this match. First of all, instead of being a fucking hour long this is only around half an hour so the action is far more condensed than in the first match, and second of all there's no staggered entrances so everything kicks off as soon as the match starts. As you'd expect there a lot of sick hardcore spots in this match. Table spots, chair shots, dives off the cage, all that kinda stuff. Even Gedo and Dick have a fun little table spot. HoT are really good at getting heat too and controlling the match in its slower moments making it all the more sweeter when the War Dogs just start swarming them and beating them up. There's a lot of blood here too as you'd imagine. Pretty much everyone runs the blade here, Gabe and Narita in particular are gushing blood by the end. Speaking of Ren, he was a highlight for me in this match. Really good heel work from him and a great performance against Gabe at the end. Everyone really brought it here though and as a result I thought this match was far stronger than the first. There's obviously still a few things that they could clean up, camera work in particular but for the most part this was great. ****"
[9.0] "Super fucking sick stuff that we can also call a great match. BC vs BC, winner leaves BC, a fight to show who's the real one, I loved this and the way it was build. House of Torture can be pretty bad sometimes and they really are, but in this match they gave a reason for the "Torture" in their names. Almost look unreal what they did with Moloney. Some spots I really enjoyed and overhyped it, like Narita smashing Kidd's head into the table, Clark Connors simply going into Taiji and saying "go there, motherfucker" and he just did it, the spetacular ending that Gabe somehow and for a reason I really don't know how executed a PILEDRIVER INTO A BARBEDWIRE TABLE in Narita, and my favorite one, the incredible shot in the head that SANADA take from Moloney using his own guitar. Some HUGE mistakes happenned there, like for example, neither of the leaders was really special in that match, I saw SHO in my scream more than I saw EVIL, and I saw Clark more than I saw David. That somehow sounds wrong for me, even knowing the fucking reason. One of the best matches of the year and I'm really happy that at this time they did in the right and "safe" way, no one almost die neither got a career ending. Also, thank god this match only had this time, nobody will gonna resist for a fucking 1 hours match of HoT, come on."
[9.0] "Four and a half stars. This was less crazy as last year's iteration but benefited from a neater lay out and better pacing with all ten wrestlers starting in the cage."
[8.0] "The last time NJPW did this match it ended up being one of my favourites of that entire year, so I was very excited for this one. It didn't quite live up to the expectations of the last one but that's not a huge knock if you think about it. My criticisms: 1)Why they were all ganging up on my guy Drilla Maloney like that 2) Segments of the match just kind of felt like EVIL vs Finlay with a bunch of background characters, but I suppose it makes sense because they're doing a singles match at some point. 3) Kidd was inactive for way too long. I know he had a big part in the end but him just laying there for 15 minutes doing fuck all was kind of annoying, since I was looking forward to him causing absolute havoc. But the positives were House of Torture finally brought an enjoyable performance, baby face David Finlay with the BULLET CLUB gimmick is an interesting concept and some cool spots were involved amongst some sloppy ones. Like SANADA's TKO through the table, Gabe Kidd's piledriver through the barbed wire table, and Clark's double spears."
[7.0] "7.5 - The individual highlights were Drilla's chairshot, where he didn't spare a second for SANADA's begging; Gabe's rebound lariat to Narita; and the whole finishing sequence with the barbed wire table. Once I saw Gabe's stomach bleeding the stakes rose, and then Narita's blood splattering on the camera was excellent. As usual with these matches, there was some dead weight getting between spots, and the tables spots were weak, but overall this match had the aura it was looking for. Disappointed their not all just calling it quits and moving onto other things."
[8.0] "At this point, I think it's safe to say NJPW is the king of the multi-man team steel cage match. I was nervous heading into this one based on the injuries that have been suffered in this match previously, so more than anything, I hope everyone came out of this thing okay. Brutal and extremely bloody, you got exactly what you'd expect from this one. I think everyone bled. I thought Kidd's blade job was nasty, then I saw Narita's. Everyone got at least one memorable spot. Conners got the chance to shine perhaps the most of anyone. With a match so brutal it was going to need a finish that could top everything else, and boy did this one have one. 4.25 stars."
[10.0] "I didn't expect anything less and yet they still went above and beyond my expectations. House of Torture has been a treat this year and they really pulled their weight up for this match especially Ren Narita. War Dogs showed the violence they were capable of last cage match and this was no different. Great showing for Drilla, Clark, and Ishimori, and of course Gabe and Finlay as well but that's a given with those two. Short compared to last year and I'm glad because the replayability in this match is so high."
[10.0] "Freaking awesome match, god. It's like last year's cage match but they improved on every aspect. Last year's match was *way* too long, and now they've cut down the length by less than half. The action is much more compact and impactful. Everybody took great bumps that made me jump from my seat. Incredible match throughout, and house of torture's best match ever since they joined up. Everybody did great here."
[9.0] "This was sheer chaos, and I mean that in the best possible sense. Last year Bullet Club and UE raised hell in a cage which was too small and in a match which worked when it should not have, this improved on that match in almost every sense to create the best cage match I have seen. This was really very bloody and brutal so if that is not your speed this might not be for you, but I would thoroughly encourage giving it a go regardless. Everyone looked like a star coming out of this bout, but arguably none more so than Gabe Kidd as he absolutely murdered Ren Narita. Kidd got the win for War Dogs with a Piledriver through the barbed wire table on Ren Narita, and this was one of the most entertaining matches I have seen. Not one for technical prowess, but for ridiculous fun this was the pinnacle."
[8.0] "The rules have changed a bit this year, yes. But the match still got more advantages from this. More dynamics, almost everyone got a great moment, Narita showed himself ready for anything, but there are still disadvantages. If Gabe had said in the post-match promo that they were the best team in the world, I would have argued. Winning a crucial match is good, but at the moment of victory, their leader was strangled with a chain and there was zero attention to this. And I would like that even with a lot of timing, the opposition of the leaders was revealed more, but this was not enough."
[8.0] "A great match with great spots and everybody shined through this match but the atmosphere wasn't as brutal and awesome as it was last year. Gabe Kidd and Ren Narita showed some grit and they have a really good chemistry, the final sequence was nuts. [****/*****]"
[9.0] "Clark Connors, David Finlay, Drilla Moloney, Gabe Kidd & Taiji Ishimori vs. EVIL, Ren Narita, SANADA, SHO & Yoshinobu Kanemaru war unglaublich gut umgesetzt. Bei Käfigmatches in New Japan bin ich manchmal am zweifeln aber das hatte perfektes Storytelling. Die Action war auch extrem gut, wobei ich hier finde das es noche twas besser sein könnte. Die Brutalität war jedoch stark, vor allem der Schluss mit dem Stacheldraht (**** 1/2)."
[10.0] "New Japan has always excelled at pure spectacles of brutality, whether it is the physical brutality that is resultant the influence of Inokiism as seen most excellently in Shibata vs. Okada, or just pure hardcore brutalness driven by hate as first seen in the Ganryujima Island Deathmatches or more recently in both Dog Pound matches. This is definitely one of the best in that regards, a true spectacle of just the most gnarly, violent, vicious wrestling that is so full of hate from both sides. Unprotected chair shots, kendo sticks, forks, lots and lots of forks being driven into the Bullet Club's heads, a guitar being smashed on SANADA's head, Gedo rewinding the clock and going for a splash on a table, a barbed wire table that ends with Gabe Kidd avalanche piledriving Ren Narita on it. A legitimate WAR of a match, unflinching in its desire to maximize the spectacle of violence it dishes out, so unfiltered, so unrestricted in its desire to make the watcher audibly squeal at the action. I love wrestling man. [*****]"
"One of the best matches of the year so far, less divisive than the first Dog Pound and it's clear why. Everybody was exceptionnal but shoutout especillay to Ren Narita, that final bump and THAT BLADEJOB were incredible."
[10.0] "Holy fuck this is the most I've ever enjoyed a House of Torture match. Pure violence at its peak. Lots of blood was spilled. Only SHO and Kanemaru went unscathed (even then they got beat up pretty badly). Narita looked like a beast in there as did Kidd. Finlay and EVIL did great, so did everyone else. It seemed to be bloodied then the previous cagematch and I prefer everyone to be in the ring then the count for one person at a time. Everything about this was brutal, so if you don't like blood, this isn't for you."
[10.0] "I was wondering how they would pull that one off, because while it was to be expected that the War Dogs would go nuts, I wasn't sure how HoT would work considering they never were really in an environment like this before, but turns out there were more than motivated. Everything building up to this kicked ass and so did the match. The pairings, especially Finlay/EVIL, Gabe/Ren & SANADA/Drilla all kicked ass. Ren & Gabe is such an underrated pairing, their interactions are some of the best stuff. Drilla's performance in the opening half was outstanding. Looked like a total star and built up the heat of HoT well. The storytelling in this match was amazing - they paid everything off that they did in the past few weeks, except for Finlay getting revenge on EVIL, which sets up their separate blow-off feud. Incredible match, incredibly told"
