David Finlay vs. HENARE

[6.0] "Good match to open the show with Finlay targeting the neck injury of HENARE to overcome the size disadvantage. The counters were good and Finlay did a convincing job of keeping the big man down. Not a great match but this was entertaining throughout. ***"

[7.0] "Oof, I'm not sure if my experience watching (some) NJPW matches in 1.5-2x speed (in order to save myself time IRL) is significantly improved or anything; but I didn't think this match was bad or mediocre at all. Aaron Henare vs David Finlay turned out to be a solid/good enough contest here."

[5.0] "These two are just so average it hurts. The crowd sucked yes but neither did anything to wake them up. I never thought Henare would take it to the next level but I thought Finlay might, boy how I was wrong it seems, he's fading into being a massive failure as BC leader. **3/4"

[7.0] "I liked this match. They did their usual stuff but they did it well. HENARE was the hard hitting wrestler that is hard to put down and Finlay played the heel role well now that he is starting to really get used to it and he applied good psychology trying to weaken HENARE by the neck that was previously damaged in the tournament and that was the main body part hit with his finishing move. The crowd was not very much into it but in the starting matches that happens frequently in Japan. ***1/2"

[4.0] "Crowd was dead. Started with some high energy from Henare but then Finlay takes over the offense and the match slows from there. Isn't bad, but there's not a single memorable moment honestly. Henare has a new look and is trying for a harder edge, but feels largely the same. His slaps when Finlay has his leg trapped look soft, as did much of his offense. The DDT counter was the high point of the match, the finish was completely flat."

[6.0] "Normal things here, this is not the worst opener or one of the worst matches in the tournament, i only thing the crowd is not liking the ongoing of the things in general in NJPW at the moment. Henare is not legitimated even with the new look, a bit a problem."

[4.0] "Yeah I can see the negative reviews for this match, because really it didn't have ANY flair to it. It wasn't special, when it really could have been. Both mens gimmicks and styles are brutal offense...it was a match made in heaven, one we've seen before in the form of Takagi/HENARE and such. It felt one-sided though, the only good stuff HENARE did was just a Samoan Drop and a Headbutt. The ending was also VERY anticlimactic and weird. VERY skippable match. [**]"

[3.0] "A flat match ended in a flat way without any highlight. Finlay won at the first Patella Drop Brainbuster after twelve minutes of average fighting. Worst match of the tournament fo far to me, everything here looks like shit. Just an huge waste of time. *1/2"

[5.0] "In my opinion, the textbook definition of an average match. Nothing bad by any means, but also nothing exciting that anyone needs to go out of their way to watch. It didn't help that the crowd seemed pretty lifeless but to be fair to them, did these guys give them anything to get excited about?"

[4.0] "This one was hard to get invested in, it seemed to feel too slow and maybe went on longer than it should have. Probably both guys worst match of the tournament so far and didn't have the hard hitting feeling I was expecting. Overall felt disappointing."

[5.0] "I think that both guys are having a great tournament but for some reason here they just didn't really click together and the crowd was bad. So overall a match that felt flat for the most part, disappointing. I think they could do better than that. Anyway, very average match."

[4.0] "Very boring, slow and plodding match. Nothing outright bad but also nothing to inspire any actual interest. Crowd is pretty quiet too which certainly doesn't help make this match more interesting. Both men are to blame here, they didn't gel and nothing really looked good."