| 1 | 22.05.2025 | Luna100 | 7.0 | I thought that it was fun, unfortunately the version I found was clipped, but Hashimoto was great, Arashi was good here too. |
| 2 | 10.04.2025 | perconflncns | 6.0 | Pretty good match, arashi makes for a good filler opponent for hashimoto. Hashimoto makes arashi look pretty good in this and theres some nice stiff strikes and selling that the crowd was into. Arashi has some solid moments in this but he was obviously super gassed. Hashimoto ends arashi with a triangle. Definitely one of the weakest triple crown defenses in its history, decent though. *** |
| 3 | 31.12.2024 | Burning V Sternness | 6.0 | Reasonably slow paced, but Hashimoto does his best to shine Arashi up and the crowd does bite when Arashi gets his big near fall. It's a good example of making the most out of a pretty weak challenger. That's not a knock on Arashi as a performer, it's just that Hashimoto was clearly a level higher up on the food chain and there was very little chance of the belts changing hands, so getting the crowd to buy a near fall or two was probably the ceiling for this match and Hashimoto achieved it, so good for him |
| 4 | 19.01.2024 | cactus | 6.0 | It's hard to give this an accurate rating due to this being clipped. Arashi makes for an underwhelming challenger but the crowd seem to react well to him and it makes this infinitely more watchable. Arashi sells Hashimoto's strikes well, but he does get gassed early into this. Although not one person believed that Arashi was winning this, it was more enjoyable to sit through than some of the Muta title defences from the year previous. I doubt that if the full match surfacing would cause my opinion to change on this one. Forgettable yet serviceable. |
| 5 | 29.09.2021 | Ma Stump Puller | 5.0 | Sadly, the copy I've got is NOT of the full thing, but of a TV edit which takes out about 5 minutes of action. Doesn't seem like a lot but still. Basically the definition of a filler bout: we all know that Arashi/Isao Takagi has no chance in hell of overcoming the very well booked Hashimoto, he's always been a tag specialist and never one to actually do anything on a singles basis. Didn't stop them from trying (he even got to the finals of the Champion Carnival that year, going over Muto himself! ) but still, this isn't exactly rocket science, but this still sold out anyway, which tells you a LOT about Hashimoto as a draw. Hashimoto beats his ass with kicks until Arashi hits a lariat that gets sold for about 2 seconds before Hashimoto lands a really dodgy backhand. One thing to note: Arashi gets uber gassed throughout this match, basically every major move that requires him to do something major, he takes ages to recover. He still manages to nail a powerbomb and frog splash, which looked pretty impressive, but obviously he doesn't get the pin, and he still needs to go for a huge rest hold afterwards, which is even more extended when Hashimoto puts on a really limp standing cross armbreaker. Hashimoto counters a big charge with a DDT, a big kick, and a triangle choke which causes Arashi to tap out. Probably one of the worst Triple Crown matches in history: even Akebono matches had a degree of tension and whatnot in them. This was obviously going to go one way, and it did, which wouldn't be so bad if Arashi was so limited, usually only pulling out the odd power move or weird bump, namely due to the aforementioned gassing he had here, which made him even more restricted. Hashimoto tries as much as he can but he's definitely not the guy to be carrying in a match as he's obviously a lot more limited himself compared to his 90's prime. Weak action with a lot of the moves looking almost like they were in slow motion here, the crowd weren't particularly dead but they were noticeably far more quiet here than the Muta match. This wouldn't even be a regular main event, let alone a Triple Crown bout. |
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