Genichiro Tenryu & Jun Akiyama vs. Go Shiozaki & Kenta Kobashi

[9.0] "A tremendous tag. Before the bell even rings, Tenryu attacks and throws a water bottle at Kobashi, instantly provoking him into a furious response as Kobashi chops Tenryu's chest until it's covered in blood. Shiozaki follows Kobashi's instructions and bravely stands up to both Akiyama and Tenryu, but he's still just a rookie and gets mercilessly beaten for it. Man, the Kobashi-Tenryu interactions... ****1/4"

[10.0] "The Kobashi / Shiozaki vs. Sasaki / Nakajima tag match justifiably gets a lot of attention but this is just as good? The Tenryu / Kobashi antics are hilarious, especially with Shiozaki and Akiyama trying to have a normal match in the middle of the ring while Tenryu is throwing water bottles at Kobashi trying (successfully) to get a rise out of him. Tenryu's chest getting opened up and bloody from Kobashi's chops is a great visual"

[8.0] "Old man grumpy Tenryu is the absolute best, Kobashi refusing to put up with any of his bullshit is even better. Alongside these two, Go puts in a great underdog fight before inevitably getting taken down. It felt like Jun was slightly going through the motions which prevents me going any higher but this was still fantastic pro wrestling. I curse the gods for never giving us a Tenryu vs Kobashi singles."

[9.0] "Great stuff, Go Shioazki has an amazing underdog performance, having a go at Tenryu while he's standing on the apron, and reversing a brainbuster from Akiyama in a fantastic moment, while Kobashi and Tenryu hammer each other. Tenryu blades his chest."

[10.0] "Despite a lot of overlap in active years, we for some reason never got a one on one match between Kobashi and Tenryu. However, this tag match pretty much makes up for that fact as they are very much the focal point of the fight here. Right in the opening seconds Tenryu, a violent grumpy old man, throws an entire table at Kobashi, who is only fired up by the aggressive move. Soon enough Kobashi has literally chopped Tenryu's chest bloody, an amazing sight, but Tenryu has his own plan of revenge, to commit murder on young Shiozaki while Kobashi watches. Despite the attention on the two legends, this is a masterful performance from all involved and really exceeded my expectations."

[9.0] "Convinced I had seen this before on the wrestling channel back in the day, I definitely remember a video package of Tenryu being chopped to oblivion. Absolutely insane match, there really was magic in the air during this time in NOAH. All time great wrestling this. The heat between grumpy old Tenryu and Kobashi is volcanic. Phenomenal. Love seeing young Shiozaki too, he and Akiyama although in a way kind of second fiddle to Kobashi and Tenryu, play their roles to perfection. Brilliant stuff all round"

[9.0] "Kenta Kobashi and Genichiro Tenryu go nuts from the beginning and don't stop. The chops between the two are insane and Tenryu is bleeding from the chest all over the place. Shiozaki has an almost star-making performance here and looks like a million bucks even in defeat, playing the gutsy rookie role. And then you have Akiyama, whose chemistry with Kobashi is always great. Put all four of those guys together and you have something special."

[9.0] "Genichiro Tenryu and Kenta Kobashi are two of the titans of professional wrestling. Both are regularly mentioned in GOAT discussions and both have the laundry list of classic matches and moments to support that praise. Unfortunately, we never saw them wrestle a singles match against one another. Thankfully, we got this. Sharing the ring with the obvious icons are a modern great and an underrated Fifth Pillar. The young boy version of Go Shiozaki, showing by his inclusion alone why NOAH held him in such high regard as the future Ace of the company. A prime Jun Akiyama, who was one of the few who rivaled Kobashi for Best In The World status at this time. All of this in a tag team setting that had two clearly defined goals. One, to give us the Kobashi and Tenryu matchup that blended generations and fulfilled the dreams of countless wrestling. Two, to make Shiozaki prove the support of his mentor was justified. Both missions were accomplished. Tenryu set this match on its course by immediately going after Kobashi with a cheap shot of a stiff chop to the chest. Kobashi returned in kind by chopping him out of the ring. Thus began a deeply heated and personal clash between icons. Tenryu blatantly disrespected Kobashi, seemingly unwilling to accept that the star who succeeded him in All Japan had truly surpassed him. He threw a table at him, only to see Kobashi stand up ready to fight. He cowardly backed away, only to throw a water bottle at Kobashi when neither were the legal men. It was another example of both Kobashi and Tenryu doing what they do as well as anyone: Planting seeds for a story that would slowly develop. Tenryu took great pleasure in beating the hell out of Shiozaki, as it was psychological warfare inflicted upon the man who mentored Go. But when Kobashi tagged in, Tenryu again sought to avoid the inevitable. As early as the opening exchange, Tenryu realized that he cannot bully Kobashi. And that Kobashi may have surpassed him after all. But ego and strategy make every supervillain the danger they are, and make no mistake about it, Tenryu was a supervillain here. He could not bully Kobashi, so he bullied Shiozaki instead. And Kobashi turned into an absolute killer in response. He bloodied the chest of Tenryu and gave him a beating that not even Jumbo Tsuruta had put on him. And when I say bloodied his chest, I mean LEAKING blood. It was one of the greatest openings to a match I have ever seen. And the rest of this classic was still waiting in the wings. Akiyama and Tenryu effectively admitting they cannot stop Kobashi, isolating Shiozaki and punishing him as the revenge they could not take on Kobashi. Shiozaki coming back with a Suplex that blew the roof off the arena. Kobashi destroying Akiyama and Tenryu to the point that they needed to double team and choke him out just to prevent the inevitable. And Shiozaki then making the save and offering receipts to Tenryu. What a damn match! Storytelling 101. 4.5 stars, 9 out of 10."

[9.0] "Everyone knew Shiozaki was going to get his ass kicked and do the job. While this match technically contained four men, it was really just about two of them: Kobashi and Tenryu. Kobashi actually chopped Tenryu? s chest bloody early on, but Tenryu found a better revenge than simple turnabout. While this match was essentially Kobashi vs. Tenryu disguised as a tag match, they did an effective job of utilizing Shiozaki and his young boy status. Tenryu would throw his hardest possible chop, lariat and literally bullying the rookie. Kobashi was excellent when he was in, but in the end his main role was encouraging Shiozaki to answer the call for the next beat down. Tenryu pin the young boy cleanly with a powerbomb. Great Match. (****1/4)"

[10.0] "It is a shame there was no Tenryu vs. Kobashi singles match but this will suffice since their combined efforts created a classic here. Tenryu is such a bastard, I love how he tries to shit on Kobashi but once he realizes he can't intimidate him or even come close to matching his power, he cowers like a bitch. I love how much of a brain Tenryu has, he never falls into the trope of just being a masochistic tough guy or having bushido. Kobashi is at his best when he is angry, and he lays the smackdown on Tenryu. Such a great character dynamic. The bloody chest was such a crazy visual and the perfect cherry on top. Akiyama and Go were definitely side pieces in this but they did their roles perfectly. Akiyama was very good at filling space in the calms of the match by just brutalizing Go and taunting him. Go really came fully into his own in the finishing stretch when he caught Tenryu lacking and it was the hypest shit in the world. Tenryu and Akiyama victimizing Go to fight their proxy war against Kobashi is just too lit."

[9.0] "Incredible match. Kenta Kobashi chopping the hell out of Genichiro Tenryu is one of the most awesome things in Earth. The interactions between Jun Akiyama and Go Shiozaki are very good too. Kobashi telling Go what to do is beautiful and makes me smile. Also, Go slapping Tenryu was amazing! ****1/2"

[8.0] "Loved the vitriol between Kobashi and Tenryu which led to the former chopping the fuck out the latter until his chest literally started dripping blood. Go and Jun were great support partners too, ****1/4."

[8.0] "Kobashi and Tenryu in the SAME ring? Guranteed to be awesome. Tenryu and Kobashi kicked the match off fantastically as Tenryu assaulted Kobashi before the bell. Clearly Tenryu thought that Kobashi wouldn't be able to withstand his legendary strikes. However, he forgot that Kobashi was essentially only born with functioning arms and had honed them through decades of training to be able to break through cement walls. Tenryu got so fired up he even threw a table at Kobashi, but again Kobashi powered through it and gave Tenryu a cold stare. The interactions between these two were the highlight of the match, as it was always hard hitting and always very hate-filled. Shiozaki was the other great factor here. Tenryu and Akiyama mercilessly beat him down but he always did his best to get back to his feet and fight back with a series of strikes. He sold Tenryu and Akiyama's offence splendidly, and of course it helped that Tenryu signaled that he was beating Shiozaki so viciously as a means to aggravate his master, Kobashi. Kobashi had some cool moments saving Shiozaki and cheering him on too, building up the importance of Shiozaki and his relationship with Kobashi. Shiozaki got some cool hope spots, especially near the end against Tenryu, although he was eventually pinned by him. Akiyama took a back seat to the other 3 wrestlers here, but was still a very solid performer. Definitely a must-see match, if just for Kobashi/Tenryu interactions. ****1/4"

[8.0] "The rating is for the tag - commentary is for both this match and the main event. Prior, Kobash/Kens for T Dome is announced via the electronic board. Things start off intense right after the bell but GT's attempt of throwing a table at Kobashi was just sad. At least his bottle-throw was more successful if hitting K's bulky chest is purposeless. Shiozaki's always been a willing & fun seller and all, but when K gets in the energy triples as he goes to chop-town on Tenryu and the result is T's chest is a bloody mess. Is this revenge for T's hasty '90 AJPW departure? Even minutes later, with both out-of-the-ring, K's after T's chest like a D Dino who hasn't touched a man in weeks. Tenryu's arrogant, dick-like facials are great in this match and he afforded Shio a couple of nice slaps before finishing him off with the shits powerbomb. This match is a 8. 25 - The main event was Rikio's 1st title defense against perennial bridesmaid but legitimate challenger Saito. The problem is that Saito (who got more streamers) is not especially good at making his opponents look great which is what NOAH needed to further get the new champ over. R's rt arm is bandaged up so that's S's chief focus. A sumo is analyzing-whooo whooo? R's headlock DDT to turn the tide wasn't bought by the crowd; neither was a powerbomb late-on and that's an issue as the crowd wasn't into R's big match moveset nor his eventual victory and R's facials make clear he's aware. Oh my... crowd's booing the post-painful 7"

[9.0] "This was absolutely great. I loved Akiyama & especially Tenryu just beating the crap out of the youngster Shiozaki, and then Kobashi getting pissed off about that and then beating the crap out of Tenryu. Also loved the ending where Go got some shine on Tenryu, only for him to get destroyed by him. This was just an awesome, great tag match. ****"

[9.0] "Awesome heat. Tenryu catched some nice heat in this match, and he managed to get on Kobashi's nerves, ans Kobashi completely destroyed him for that. The finish is pretty much given away tho if you have a rookie on your team. ****1/4"