[8.0] "This was a banger. Harada and Ohara showed awesome chemistry. Started with nice grappling and after some brawl Ohara bursts a brutal back breaker and starts working on the back of Harada. His work was very good and Harada did good selling in the whole match. The back and forth was exciting between the two and the final minutes were exciting and both brought great sense of urgency. I also liked the finish since Harada was struggling to hit his German suplex finish so he surprised him with forced pin. 8.10/10"
[7.0] "These two are never going to have a bad match together. Harada's one of the best Juniors in the world and Harada has been heavily underutilized in the last few years and it's awesome to finally see him in title contention. Ohara's work over Harada's back was vicious as always and it's always impressive to see him run through so many speedy and agile attacks. Harara is always near flawless with his technique. His strikes and power moves are just great. This match does have one glaring flaw and it's the lack of creativity. I watched this match right after their 2020 bout and most of the first half was a near mirror image. They slightly changed some things but they didn't do anything new until the final stretch. So it's the weakest match from their trilogy but it's still really damn good. ***3/4"
[7.0] "These two are such good opponents for each other. They have a really good chemistry and I like that it shows off how versatile Daisuke Harada is. I got the impression that they would be fighting again in the future, in a much more meaningful way. Not the best match they can have but it was good as it was!"
[7.0] "A very good match here. Both men were fired up and here to fight, and laid into one another snugly. Ohara threw out some brutal shots, and the exchange of him backing Harada up with strikes only to eat an inside-out clothesline? Amazing. He looked like an absolute warrior, but Harada was just slightly better on this day, and managed to retain the title with an interesting if somewhat abrupt rolling German Suplex. Honestly, Ohara impressed me more throughout the match with his brutality and intensity, while Harada dropped the ball here and there with some questionable selling - too early at first and then forgetting later, but he proved himself a valiant champion regardless."
[7.0] "Quite a good match here! Really nothing outstanding in my opinion, but definitely an enjoyable watch. There was some really nice mat wrestling to start this off, I wish they would have continued this portion of the match a bit longer but it was still good for what it was. Following this there? s some really nice work from Ohara on Harada? s back, I didn? t even realize it was being deliberately targeted at first since you don? t see that very often, but the slow realization that Harada was being incapacitated was well done. I do wish that Harada would? ve sold the back more down the stretch though, as it seemed to become a bit of a non-factor down the stretch. Kinda thought the spot with the ref blocking Harada? s dive was weird, maybe this is more common in NOAH since this is one of the few matches I? ve seen from them to this point, but it just seemed uncharacteristic of a wrestling referee. Towards the middle portion it sags a bit, but not majorly, as Ohara continues to work over Harada? s back with some innovative backbreakers and brutal looking submissions, as Harada struggles to counter Ohara? s technical work with his now injured back. Ohara is a really good technical worker, I don? t think this is the last I? ll be watching from him, or Harada for that matter. Then sorta out of nowhere this match picks up the pace and intensity exponentially with a swift and brutal series of strikes from Ohara, which leads to an exchange between the two at this pace for a couple minutes before returning back to the pace they had set before. While I thought this portion was great in a vacuum, it really stuck out like a sore thumb and felt kinda awkward in the context of the whole match, as nothing seemed to trigger this sudden shift and they didn? t appear dedicated to fully following through on it. After that we get some nice back and forth between the two with Ohara continuing to target Harada? s back before Harada retains with a sort of roll-up, which felt a bit sudden and I thought they could have come up with a more satisfying conclusion, especially considering this was a title match. Overall some good stuff, but a tad inconsistent and didn? t quite reach the potential it seems like these two could. ***1/4+"
[8.0] "there is really good chemistry between these performers and it makes me happy. Harada is an excellent light heavyweight champion. The match does not seem boring and does not have time to get bored. Yes, Harada started selling his back too early and in the aftermath completely forgot about selling, but the match is still much better than many of the light heavyweights of NOAH in 2020 ****"
[8.0] "Die Strukturierung war echt interessant mit dem ereignisreicheren Start und Finish und dazwischen einer methodischen, technischen Phase, wo es vor Allem auch darum ging, den Gegner mit Bodypartwork und Härte etwas zu zermürben. So wie es eingebaut war, fand ich das gelungen, weil es halt nicht zu lang war und auch nicht am Reinkommen ins Match hinderte. Insgesamt in meinen Augen ein gutes Match, welches 8 Punkte verdient."
[7.0] "Very good junior match, I think it's a little bit overrated, I really like Harada's calm when Ohara is angry and frustrated, the end of the match really disturbed me and it was from outta nowhere in terms of building. ***1/2"
[7.0] "Ohara is still fantastic despite his heavy underutilisation by NOAH these past few years. The dude proved how great he was when he finally won the GHC Junior title in 2017, but then NOAH decided to totally remove him from the scene. This was his first challenge for the title in THREE years, which shows what a joke of a company NOAH can be sometimes. By contrast, Harada has been a mainstay in the GHC Junior Title scene for the last few years, and he definitely deserves it, though I don't think there's much of a skill-level difference between the two, and they're both non-NOAH-born (i. e. didn't come through NOAH's own dojo system), so it's unclear why NOAH is so high on Harada yet not Ohara. Anyways, these two managed to produce a very impressive match in spite of the usual restricted-crowd issue, which isn't an easy feat. This match showed off just how great junior matches can be without the typical high-flying spotfest structure that can often feel so artificial. Yeah, these guys are shorter and lighter than the NOAH heavyweights, but they honestly show far more heart and fight than a good amount of NOAH heavyweights, and FAR more than almost all their fellow NOAH juniors. These two had many fantastic strike exchanges, all with perfect technique and powerful impact, allowing both men to also sell extremely convincingly all match long. As always, Ohara's back-targeting was absolutely brutal (another reason he's one of my favourite NOAH wrestlers), but both men were just great all-rounders as well, so they were always exciting whether they were applying a hold, hitting a power move, or throwing a strike flurry. I really started buying into Ohara's chances after he started showing heaps of passion in his fire-up moments and getting some very convincing near falls on his pin attempts. All their run-on exchanges in the second half were wonderfully executed and linked totally seamlessly, almost à la your standard NJPW main-event finishing stretch. What's extra impressive was how quickly they executed all these run-on spots and sequences while still managing to never perform anything sloppily. Ohara gave a great performance here, but I sadly have no clue whether this will finally wake NOAH up and convince them to finally make better use of him, which is what they really should do. For Harada, he gave an almost equally great performance, which will rightfully solidify NOAH's already high opinion of him. ***3/4"
[7.0] "The beginning of the match was great but they lost me during the middle portion as really nothing interesting happened. The finishing stretch reeled me back in and again showed their great chemistry. All in all a fine match which could have been better.."
[9.0] "NOAH continued its trend of putting on absolute classic singles matches from last year, this time their Jr Heavyweights stepped up to deliver this fantastic technical fight with great psychology and an epic opening and ending stretch."
[9.0] "This match was a lot of fun, Harada and Ohara work great together and had a great story going with some creative offense from both men. In the end Harada faked out Ohara for the win. Post match the challenge was laid and accepted and we have our next Jr Title defense of Harada vs Seiki Yoshioka."
