[5.0] "The best thing this match has going for it is Manders' sell of the arm. After he hits the ring post, hes has to change it up and lariat Rhino with his left. This functions a narrative through line, in which Manders gets exited after three successful elbow drops and eats shit in the fourth one, hurting his arm even further. With the weakened arm, the right hand lariat just doesn't have the power to put his opponent away and he ends up losing. Good story, but there's just to many things going against this match. For starters, Rhino and Manders just don't seem to have the best chemistry. The transitions between them just feel a tad to slow or rushed (or botched, in the case of the eye poke). They just don't give Manders hitting the post enough time to breathe, and as a result Manders shoving Rhino into the post feels less important than it should. Same thing with the suplex on the floor, Manders' just regains control after eating that, not giving its proper weight to it. In the end, even if I think Manders is working better and has the most interesting this to do in the match, the downfall of the hole thing hangs on both's men shoulders."
[5.0] "perfectly adequate opener. Rhino still moves fine this late into his career and Manders still makes him look like a threat. Nothing great but nothing bad either"
[6.0] "A solid opener. Basically just two big guys running into each other for a few minutes until Rhino wins with a Gore out of nowhere. This was short, but enjoyable. ***"
[5.0] "Almost old fashioned in its structure with ex TV star up against a "local" who plays just enough of a heel to ensure the audience stay on the side of the TV wrestler while showing enough not to be disgraced in defeat."
[5.0] "[2.5*] Fun match! Classic solid opener to start things up. Very decent big men action, very strike focused with a nice little arm selling by Manders."
[7.0] "A nice quick little opener featuring two big dudes running into each other. Simple, effective stuff with some good selling of the arm by Manders to give it some level of consistency. Definitely the weakest on the show, but Rhino's not exactly in his prime anymore so I wasn't expecting a banger out of this. ***1/4"
[8.0] "For an opening match I thought it was really good and solid. It used its role as being at the top of the card to set the tone. What else could you want? Sure more false finishes and maybe more time but rhino and manders did their role to make the rest of the show progress and be good. All these years rhino is still going and that's really amazing to me. He looks the same haha. I thought this match be just meaty men slapping meat with no sells but I was wrong. Quite honestly if it was that I think I would've got bored quickly. Manders selling of the arm and his facials might be some of the best in the business today. For somebody who is just "supposedly be a brute" he's got major character to him. With him selling the arm and him selling the arm after missing the lariat into the gore that was top notch. Something you do not see. Would like to see them have a rematch again"
[5.0] "We start off with a pretty fine opener here. I haven't watched a ton of Manders but you can tell this guy is a huge Stan Hansen head, not even like just his look, or the way he stretches out his elbow pad, but his selling of his arm was pretty reminiscent of the Lariat. He's not a 1-1 copy cause he moves more like a typical modern wrestler. Rhino in non-hardcore matches has never really been my thing, unless he's working sprints, and he sure as hell ain't doing that in his age. I will say that snap suplex on the floor surprised me, good spot. They got the nostalgia pop, wasn't offensive but nothing too memorable. Two and a Half Stars out of Five."
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