[1.0] "Two wrestlers with a combined age of 100? Yep I'm not going to have a good time. I love Tanahashi, but he needs the right opponent nowadays to put on a good match and Tagi ain't it. Of course the finish was botched. Thank goodness it wasn't that long. 1/2 star."
[3.0] "Two grandpas trying still to go in wrestling. It hurts to see Tanahashi in this state. Same goes for Makabe who should've retired even way before Tana. The match was too slow, the very sluggish executions through 3 spots unfortunetaly destroyed the match for me. And that on this big stage. Ouch!"
[2.0] "This was ugly. Neither of these men should be wrestling singles matches anymore.The first attempt at the finish was an embarrassing botch. The second was slow and messy. Tanahashi's been slipping on the top rope for over a year, and now he's even botching climbing up to it. At least we won't have to see this match again."
[3.0] "This was unfortunately pretty rough to get through with all the botches and ugly work. I liked the sentiment of Tanahashi facing his first opponent in his retirement tour, but that's pretty much my only positive here. It was kinda heartbreaking watching Tanahashi not be able to go like he used to."
[3.0] "I love both guys but this was objectively pretty bad. Things started out fine enough but really fell off the rails with Tanahashi's first O'Conner roll and then it was just clunky and awkward to the finish. *3/4"
[3.0] "What an awful display of bad wrestling. I was feeling bad for Tanahashi. He's been a great wrestler, but he's no more and I hope he will retire as soon as possible, to not ruin even more his good image."
[4.0] "Well this match could have been so sloppy to turn fun but some of the botches and the ending were absolutely atrocious. When they were striking each others it wasn't even bad but it should have been the 100% of the bout. It's a pity this will be Tana's last match in Osaka. *3/4"
[4.0] "Desperately needed a pivot for the finish after Tanahashi's constant fuckups. I dont know what they were thinking there. But the first few minutes were alright at least"
[6.0] "I thought this match was largely fine. It fell apart a bit with the botches but it's only really the ending botch would stood out as a negative to me due to them repeating it. Tanahashi failing to get over the ropes adds to the storytelling and drama of the match, and he missed the High Fly Flow anyway so it adds up. Fatigue, failing bodies, and the heart to fight through them are huge and dramatic parts of real fighting and I think it's a shame that fans are so accustomed to seeing performance that the perfect routine of flashy moves is lauded to such a degree that fatigue, misses, and imperfections are seen as a black mark on a match. I wish pro wrestling was allowed to be messy."
[5.0] "A fine match by two people who are definetly not at their prime, and this is fine. It would be hypocritical of me to expect something different or to criticize this match by what it isn't. Some missteps here and there and some moves that were clunky and weird, but it is also a match between two people at the end of their career. I know it, they know it, why should I be harsh on it? It made me want to experience Tana and Makabe's encounters from decades ago."
[4.0] "This match rested on the appeal of nostalgia, which I'm fine with. While there were a few issues with the flow of the match, this is going to happen when you have older guys who've put their bodies through the wringer like Tanahashi and Makabe have. SINGLES RECORD: Hiroshi Tanahashi 22-16-1"
[3.0] "**1/4 bad match, bad sequences, a basic technique, normal reversals, it had several noticeable botches that lowered its level, it didn't have much fluidity, and a botched ending that they even had to do twice for it to turn out "right""
[3.0] "I love tanahashi, but man the age really showed here, especially with someone who is just as old as him, I can really appreciate the matchup being a callback and I love that they seem to be taking his retirement tour very seriously, giving him matchups that mean a lot to his career, but this is slow, not very graceful and had a messed up finish, I wish I could rate it higher but I cant justify that"
[2.0] "I absolutley adore tanahashi man but it is truly the right call for him to hang it up. i understand that his opponent was makabe who himself is not a spring chicken but tanahashi just cannot do the same stuff he used to and it shows. he will serve well as the president. long live president tana."
[3.0] "This Tanahashi stuff might get hard to watch. I normally like to watch the old generation wrestlers get singles matches, but this didn't have any of the impact of energy that it would have needed to overcome the awkwardness that was present. Similar to Mutoh a few years back it looks difficult for him to do anything athletic and ruins the atmosphere as the audience feels bad for him, instead of being able to celebrate his legacy. *3/4"
[4.0] "This match really showed the age of both wrestlers, and going into the match I wasn't expecting anything special since they're both out of their prime but it was cool having Tanahashi going up against his first opponent for the last time."
[4.0] "This was a bit rough. It started off quite well, but unfortunately did fall apart towards the end as both Tana and Makabe struggled to pull off a lot of their moves. I still enjoyed the first half of this match though, and it was pretty cool seeing Tana square off against his very first opponent one last time, so it gets points for that. **1/4"
[4.0] "I'm not going to lie I was pretty disappointed with this match. looking at these 2 names you would hope that the match would atleast be 3.75 out of 5 stars but the performance was sloppy slow and just disappointing overall 4/10"
[2.0] "It was an interesting idea to have Tanahashi face his first opponent, but in practice it wasn't interesting at all. This match was a disaster. Despite the short time of the match, the number of mistakes in the match was too much. I would rather Tanahashi not fight another match and retire than have a match like this in his career."
[6.0] "They're both older so I give it the benefit of the doubt, I thought it was a fine match and wasn't terrible, but very botchy. I like the idea of Tanahashi wrestling his first opponent for the last time in his historic career and I enjoyed it. Overall not the best match, but a great idea."
[5.0] "I gave it a watch..on paper a nice match. Makabe was Tanahashi's first opponent. The ending was so rough and overall the match was just botchy and lame. ***"
[8.0] "Work smarter, not harder my imaginary grandma always used to say. Tanahashi and Makabe are not physically capable of the matches they had years ago, but used their limitations (and even Tana's botched pin attempts) to their advantage to craft a fun narrative into the match."
[3.0] "Unfortunately this was quite sloppy and a weak performance from both men overall. There was some redeeming work in there and some moments I enjoyed, but overall this was a bit of a mess sadly. The ending came with Tanahashi rolling up Makabe after a couple of sloppy attempts, and it really did not look good. Sad to say but this one is a skip."
[4.0] "Tanahashi and Makabe tried to turn back the clock a decade ago and have a hard hitting match with a nice story. It is just unfortunate that Tanahashi can't go like he used to or even move close to what he used to. Makabe was moving way better and all his moves looked way better. This was really old man graps and it wasn't bad, yes some sloppy spots, like the botched finish, but it wasn't god awful like matches i've seen before. If you were a fan of NJPW in the past then this will be fun for you since the Osaka crowd is always hot, so I thought it was fun for what it was. 1.5 stars"
[3.0] "This...was ugly. Started well enough and didn't really expose either guy apart from some of the running, but the back half of this had some ugly botches on pretty standard moves and sequences that were just a product of both men's immobility. It was a match about nostalgia and history, rather than work, all it needed to do was not embarrass or expose either guy and...it didn't live up to that."
[1.0] "Well I'm sorry for anyone who likes Tanahashi and Makage like I do, but this make my eyes HURT. I mean, they basically failed EVERYTHING they tried to do, it was awful, painful. In america, they'll get chants like "Please retire", and I'm not being dramatic"
[5.0] "Acknowledging the misfires, I had a lot of fun watching this match. The story was interesting, the physicality was impressive, and both wrestlers had great moments. A bout I'm happy to have watched."
[4.0] "Went as expected with both guys moving slow and a terrible finish but it's still cool to see Tana getting to revisit old rivals on his retirement tour"
[3.0] "(Grade:D-) Oh brother was this a painful watch, Probs to Tanahashi & Makabe for their legacy in Japan. However, this match didn't need to happen due to so many botches that had me cringing. Definitely my least favorite match on Tanahashi's Retirement Tour."
[5.0] "Ich mochte die Matchstory und den ganzen Aufbau. Beide haben sich nicht gut bewegt, aber es sah schon mal bedeutend schlimmer aus. Ich fand es in Summe dann absolut okay, aber durch die Story etwas mehr als das"
[3.0] "This was upsettingly bad, I hate seeing Tana like this in all honesty, this could be a long last year and I think they may have to rethink the amount of potential single matches they have planned for him. Pretty awful end to the match aswel and a handful of botches to go with it"
[7.0] "I'm so happy that Hiroshi Tanahashi's retirement tour has been great so far and this match helped make it even better. Togi Makabe and Hiroshi Tanahashi were both great. Their punches didn't have much of a storyline, but they both managed to make a great match with their very good technical moves. The ending was also very well executed. Overall, it was a very good match."
[3.0] "Das war leider mal wieder ganz schwer anzusehen. Beide sind ein Schatten ihrer selbst, was besonders bei Tanahashi und dessen Darstellung harte Kost ist. Sehr schlampige Ausführung einiger Aktionen, Timingprobleme, zu kürze Sprünge und solche Geschichten ziehen das Match deutlich nach unten"
[4.0] "Not the best match between these two old timers, who I recall having a great match back in like 2007. That said I still enjoyed it. Makabe doesn't wrestle very often anymore and certainly not in singles matches so it was a treat to see Tanahashi face off against his old rival as part of his retirement tour. But these guys can't move like they used to. The finish they seemed to have to re-do because Tanahashi couldn't do a full backwards roll to get Makabe covered for the three."
[4.0] "This was a poor match. It was a very slow match with some really awkward looking spots towards the end as they were getting tired, particularly the O'Connor roll. What can you expect from two 50 year olds I suppose. Its cool that they have such history and some of the strike exchanges were decent, just the finishing sequence that I felt really let it all down at the end. To be fair Tanahashi can do what he wants at this stage and if this is part of it fair play to him, I still enjoyed seeing him in action even if the match was a bit rubbish."
[7.0] "another fun entry on the "road to" retirement matches from tanahashi, this one differs from the others in that he is the one that has to do the movin and how does he perform on this role? eh pretty well for his age a surprisingly clean match for two guys that if you tell me they cant run even to catch a bus i would tell you "yeah, obviously" outside of a botched power slam there is two pretty minor botches but they are funny ones so there is that against them the fact that they go for top rope moves at their ages and on the pysichal condition their knees are on is absolutely crazy also Makabe hits a crazy german on this match very clean very good loking german suplex (6.6)"
[5.0] "Just couple of 50 year old grandpas wrestling each other for one last time. Bro acting like he just had a 60 minute ironman match. Kidding aside, didn't know they had decades long in ring rivalry. 38 total singles matches, with 38 wins for Togi Makabe, 22 for Hiroshi Tanahashi and one draw. Insane stat. Also Tanahashi first ever professional wrestling match was against Togi. Now that's storytelling at it's peak. It would've been even more poetic if this match happened in Korakuen Hall. Now the match itself is as expected from them at this stage of their respected careers, the run up to the top rope felt like a work from Tanahashi and the roll up win shows how much respect Tanahashi has for Togi...plus the match was only 9 minutes long so it was the wise choice...This felt like a mini Misawa Kobashi, yes I'm comparing it with Misawa Kobashi, deal with it."
[5.0] "This was certainly acceptable given the men involved and the story being told. Yes they were struggling to follow through on some of the sequences, especially towards the end. But sometimes a bit of "botching" or ugliness is refreshing in its honesty, and works fine in the story of these two old lions. I don't feel the same depression watching a worn down Tana wrestle that I do Naito, as Tana just has an eternal brightness about him that Naito frankly lacks. I got a chuckle out of Tana wiping his face on all the ladie's towels after the match."
[5.0] "We're clearly not looking at a great match or an ultra-fluid one. We have two veterans who can barely stand anymore, giving us one last fight. Formerly together, now finishing together in one final match. A slightly above-average rating for the effort and the beauty of the emotion conveyed in the match. In the ring, it was rough, with approximate sequences, which is understandable given the physical condition of the two veterans. But they pushed through to the end, delivering the finish they wanted. A conclusion that keeps both looking strong, even though the roll-up finish was clearly delayed."
[7.0] "It is clear that Tanahashi can't quite go like he used to. That's the reason for this Final Road, after all. However, whilst he has taken an easier route through some of his other matches I thought that he really brought it here and the same goes for Togi Makabe. Two guys with nothing left to prove going out there and trying to prove something regardless. Sure, things could get sloppy at points. Tanahashi's age definitely showed in moments, which was a shame, but ultimately these two men went out there and put on one hell of an opener."
[6.0] "This was fine. Match was sloppy in parts because the Ace is just past it at this point, but he still has so much charisma that he can carry a match on star power alone. It's sad that he's not the elite wrestler he once was but that's what happens when you get older. It's been fun to see this retirement tour going on and this was another match on the belt for him. Osaka was into the match as well, which helped. He's now going to face Goto for the IWGP belt on the anniversary show, which is intriguing."
[3.0] "At this point, watching Hiroshi Tanahashi wrestle just makes me sad. This was bad. They did a lot of simple work and still looked gasses by the end. They're both old, so it makes sense but maybe it should've been a tour match instead. Tanahashi failed to jump over the top rope at one point. He also failed to do an O'Connor Role which is one of the simplest moves to do. Makabe looked a little better, but didn't do a whole lot himself either. This Tanahashi tour is gonna have a lot of matches like this and we'll just have to bare with it."
