Gabe Kidd vs. Taichi

[5.0] "One of the worst victims of NJPW's "...and then they kept going, " problem that's been plaguing their main event matches for the last decade. If this had been a svelte fifteen, twenty-minute encounter it would have been amazing. But then it kept going This match went twice as long as it should have. It stopped being engaging and started beggaring belief. And no, this is not a problem resultant from it being a "King's Road style match". This was very much a modern NJPW match festoon with classic AJPW fanservice and it felt just as hollow as it usually does when this type of key-jangling is employed."

"Good match but they highly overdid it with all the false finishers. There are like 10 different endings in this match that when the actual ending comes, you're so desensitized that it doesn't even matter."

[8.0] "[4 Stars] I don't seem to be as in love with this match as everyone is, but I can appreciate that both men fought their arses off and the crowd were insanely into it. Great match by all accounts."

[10.0] "[5 STARS] My goodness, I love tributes to the past in matches - it was incredible, and yet there was no way I could have guessed it would be this GREAT. It's surely the highlight of Taichi's career and number two for Gabe, because let's face it, the match against Omega is in a league of its own."

[6.0] "Taichi has a cringy look. Like a dad still in his high school band. Gabe Kidd is a good heel and I dont mind his over the top antics. Taichi's first come back was great with him hitting a few Kawada style kicks and the gamenguiri to the face. Not really a fan of Kidd using a piledriver like you'd use a bodyslam but he's not known for his ring psychology. They then do a piledriver off the apron through the table....then go another 15 min. I really really really hope this style isnt infecting NJPW too. Love all the King's Road influence here from Taichi. It works so well here because he was trained by Kawada so it's not just a random "hey remember this time this happened". Its that difference that makes NJPW so special. Taichi's selling and desperation on offense is great. Gabe doesnt sell as well on offense or really keep the intensity from earlier in the match. Complete overkill on the finish. Kicking out of a top rope destroyer is just dumb. Especially since this wasnt some enormous WK blowout. The match had good ideas, but when you're kicking out of table piledrivers and top rope destroyers it kills all sense of immersion. Really hope this style of "nothing matters, lets kick out of everything" doesnt infect NJPW. But based on Mox being in the post match and the direction of WK, Im not super optimistic. 3 stars"

[6.0] "Thought this was good but went considerably past its peak and would have been much better with about 8-10 minutes trimmed and a lot less finisher kickouts. These two have a nice dynamic and are willing to beat the tar out of each other, so even with some decisions that irked me this was still pretty enjoyable."

[7.0] "A really fun and solid match between Taichi and Kidd. I love Kidd's wild energy and stiff, hard-hitting style, while Taichi is just such a dependable wrestler who always delivers. They made for a great matchup. Best Bout of the Night for sure!"

[5.0] "I really didn't love this match. I do think Taichi had a valiant babyface performance, but I really didn't think there was ever a real chance of him winning. These Gabe Kidd matches have become incredibly repetitive, which really frustrates me. Finisher spam, fighting spirit spots, tribute spots, and slapboxing spots have all become so predictable in Kidd's matches. At least that Kawada Driver was unironically one of the best spots I've ever seen."

[9.0] "Awesome fucking main event, man. This jackass Gabe Kidd is just incredible, he's an absolute menace on the mic and full of bullshit, but the moment he steps into that ring, the man is relentless. What a run, what an awesome gaijin; you can definitely build an entire division around him. The match was crazy. Taichi's presentation here was elevated so much: the true Japanese hero, pure fighting spirit, just nuts. It was hard, rough, a real fucking fight. I loved Taichi here, man, he deserves so much more. If you can watch this match, do it, it's awesome! And that Uemura vs. Kidd match at WK, man... goddamn!"

[8.0] "I rarely such a big difference of level in Pro Wrestling like this one. Taichi had such a beautiful and wonderful babyface in this show, he showed once again why is is one of my favorite wrestler of all time, he is aging like a fin wine, he's prime is for by far during his 40s. I'm so sad that he didn't won the IWGP Global title, i really cheered so much for him, but i'm not really surprised by this result. Once again i didn't liked the perfomance of Gabe Kidd in this match, he is just awful, and he can thanks Taichi for having at least a good match here."

[5.0] "think this went too long but I understand since every other match on the card was quite short but after a certain point I just wasn't as invested consistently after way too many kickouts in my opinion, there were moments where I was getting excited for a Taichi win so it's not like it didn't work at all for me"

[7.0] "Not without its issues but still a pretty good match. Taichi's turn-around over the last decade from NJPW fan-hated to fan-favourite has certainly been remarkable, and it was nice to see him come into this match as the defender of NJPW's pride against loud-mouthed heel (and at least de jure 'invader') Kidd. Kidd's pantomime 'street thug' act and hokey selling may still be quite aggravating, but I've never not been impressed by the intensity of his offence with all his stiff strikes and dangerous power moves, which has always made him quite an intimidating heel even when his character work has been super off-putting. It's still pretty on-the-nose how he also feels the need to get in Tanahashi's face and spit on him, harass the fans and young lions at ringside, and hump the NJPW lion mark on the mat, as if to make TOTALLY sure we got the idea that hey, maybe this guy... isn't the biggest fan of New Japan Pro Wrestling? Regardless, it was compelling to see him jump Taichi before the bell and administer a massive beatdown to him with stiff strikes and big power moves, allowing Taichi to show off his sympathetic babyface-selling and have some fiery comebacks as the fans rallied behind him. Kidd unfortunately got quite cheesy with his frustrated and panicked heel-selling as he tried to put over the gravity of Taichi's first big fire-up spot, which robbed that moment of its gravity. Kidd AGAIN getting leeway to outright cheat directly in front of the ref was quite annoying, especially as he brought out the weapons and props, even if the piledriver through the table indeed looked really cool. Taichi getting quite nasty and intense with his comeback offence was really fun, but I would've liked to see something a bit extra from him to show how he wasn't just treating this as any other big singles match he might have, say in an NJ Cup or G1 match, but as a match where he'd truly have to go all out and leave everything on the line for the sake of the IWGP Global Title as well as for the sake of NJPW's pride as a company. His big strikes and power moves all looked very good, as did his Kawada and Jumbo tribute spots, but they always do, so there was sadly nothing extra compelling here to tell me that this was of a level above Taichi's usual output. The match finally started to feel a bit more special as Taichi went for Kawada's Ganso Bomb and folding-pin powerbomb, and especially as he massively switched up with the various Misawa-tribute spots... though I don't know what storyline or character justification there is for that, given Misawa was his trainer Kawada's most bitter rival. Regardless, it was very different and thus really cool. Kidd held up his end of things as he sold and bumped convincingly for all of Taichi's big moves while putting full intensity into his own big strikes and power moves when finally able to fight back to even ground. There unfortunately ended up being a few too many big-bomb trades and near falls for my liking, and the match definitely went on longer than was justified, but I at least appreciated the level of drama they were aiming for, plus I have to admit that Taichi's various hope spots were all quite compelling. ***1/4"

[5.0] "Another boring Gabe Kidd match with the usual histrionics, brawling on the outside, table spots, yelling monologues in the ring, and finisher spam. The long runtime certainly didn't help this match any. At least Gabe piledriving Tanahashi at the end was so stupid it circled back into being unintentionally funny."

[10.0] "excellent, really fantastic struggle between the two, who were both fantastic in their respective roles. kidd was despicable as a heel, taichi heroic and resilient as a babyface. just wonderful."

[7.0] "[3.5*] Great match, definitely the MOTN. I love Taichi so I was pretty baffled with the result lol, specially because it felt like the perfect crowning moment for him, but I understand they want Yuya to be the one to end this Gabe reign of terror. Kidd was pretty good here, I understand he may be a bit of a tryhard but he really bumped his ass off for Taichi and worked pretty hard there. I liked A LOT of stuff they did. All the tribute moves, specially Taichi's Ganso Bomb which was one of my favorite spots of the year, but I do think they kinda overkilled it in the ending, which usually happens in Gabe's matches. They sort of lost the plot after all these kickouts, but I was still like: "It's fine, they're doing all that because they want Taichi's win to feel earned after all his suffering". But then Gabe won it anyways LMAO. So yeah, lots to love here, lots to dislike too. The overall result was still pretty great because I'm a fan of the formula, all the bombs, the fighting spirit stuff and etc, but it reached a peak and then it kept going on and on."

[9.0] "TAICHI! You deserve all the love in the world... I genuinely don't understand why NJPW's management refuses to book him better. He's incredibly over with the crowd, always delivers when it matters most, and yet they keep pushing him to the side. I just don't get it... With Gabe Kidd, it's always hit or miss, and today we got a good Gabe Kidd. An incredible match, even though deep down we all knew who was going to win. But that's where Taichi is truly special: he genuinely made us believe he could pull off the upset. It's also a beautiful love letter to Japanese wrestling and its legends. Another fantastic hit from New Japan!"

[9.0] "They GOTTA do something with Taichi in 2027, man. This guy is just too darn good to only be getting one filler title shot a year, he might legitimately be the most underrated wrestler in a major league company right now. And Gabe Kidd was really awesome in this match as well! I dunno, I think this Global Championship reign of his has been effective and I think they've built to this match with Uemura super well, and it's gonna be a really hot match in the Tokyo Dome!"

[9.0] "Objectively an incredible fucking match but I completely struggled to get invested because Taichi is unfortunately a perennial loser. This match tried its best to get you to think Taichi would win by having him just kick out of everything in the last 5 minutes but he was so obviously losing that it became padding for time. I don't think matches with obvious winners are harmed when the obvious wrestler wins but when the final section of your match is just the obvious loser kicking out it does get a bit long on the tooth. Still really enjoyed this, just think some time from here could have been cut off to be given to the SJTL finals as it wouldn't have hurt this matches overall rating one bit. If they want Taichi to ever have believable title challenges, he needs to actually win once in a while. Hopefully Gabe Kidd is losing at the Dome as I think this is definitely the ceiling for his style of match and I don't think he'll be getting a better opponent than Taichi or Uemura. Still thought this match was incredible, just one issue with pacing which keeps this from the full five I think it could have gotten as I could never bite on Taichi winning. (****1/2)."

[5.0] "Gabe Kidd is insufferable - the guy you leave the pub to avoid. This puro Styles vs Cena was fine up to a point I guess. Beyond that marker they spent a good 10 minutes going round in circles telling the same tribute tale by delivering poor man's versions of legends moves, without achieving the focus or structure to back up their audacity **1/2"

[8.0] "A great match, with a really emotional and invested crowd. Gabe Kidd continues to excel as a heel in Japan, one of the most vile and detestable villains in the world of professional wrestling."

[9.0] "This match was excellent, great showings from both Kidd and Taichi in a really heated match. The strikes were excellent, and they ran to the 30 minute mark quickly with how engaging the match was. Taichi had a career-defining performance but fell short of the vicious Kidd but I loved how both were presented. Kidd continued the disrespect towards NJPW and Tanahashi throughout the match and did not play by the rules. The piledriver through the table ringside was the moment of the match, insane spot done effortlessly. The match transitioned from a brawl into a striking contest and went back and forth as Taichi really showed fortitude. In the end, Kidd hits a Super Destroyer into a Piledriver but Taichi ends up kicking out. Kidd wins with the Fisherman Brainbuster he has pulled out recently to deflate the audicence. The crowd was really behind Taichi this whole time and it was inspiring to see a Japanese talent get backed by their Nation against the evil invading Kidd. After the match though, Kidd attacks and piledrives the company leader Hiroshi Tanahashi which was definitely shocking. Yuya Uemura comes out but so does Jon Moxley to attack Uemura, eventually Shingo makes the save for Uemura but the Death Riders claim war on NJPW. Rating: ****1/2"

[8.0] "Taichi has a very good performance in this one, I found myself biting on every near fall at the end of this. Haven't enjoyed many Gabe matches this year, and this definitely had elements of stuff I dislike but this mostly worked a lot for me. Gabe winning is very deflating"

[9.0] "Gabe Kidd is a really good wrestler but his current gimmick is really bad and kept this match from getting full marks. Both guys in ring work was sensational there was great drama and it felt like Taichi even had a chance of winning perhaps slightly too long but a great match. The post match was also bad as well."

[6.0] "Definitely wish I enjoyed this one more, even though I far prefer it to Gabe's previous two defenses, but given the show leading up to this as a whole, as well as a lot of the tribute spots and such, it became incredibly obvious this was just a final angle to that upcoming Yuya vs Gabe match, and capped off a show that didn't really have any surprises. I do think that there shouldn't really be a way for this whole thing to not do great things for Yuya as a top star in this company, so this reign of terror from Kidd hasn't been all bad."

[9.0] "Taichi is fucking unbelievable. Paying tribute to Morishima, Jumbo, Kawada, Misawa, Kobashi and probably more that I've failed to list, he truly channeled the spirits of all the Japanese legends that came before him to try and dethrone Gabe Kidd. Gabe Kidd, for his part, toned down his typically cringeworthy gimmick to deliver one of his better performances also. Would I have loved Taichi to win this? Obviously. I knew he wasn't going to heading into this. They're going for AEW vs NJPW for WK21 and this was the obvious result. With that said, Taichi made me believe. That is so rare these days and the amount of emotion and feeling he packed into his performance had me reacting to every little thing he did. That's special. ****3/4."

[5.0] "A very boring match for the most part. Gabe Kidd really does a monotonous and boring job, spending his time insulting and acting like an idiot, just like in 90% of his matches this year. It was the damn main event and it felt like an eternity. The stretches got interesting when Taichi was looking for the win, but even so, it's a pretty forgettable match that I won't remember next week."

[5.0] "Take a closer look a the match with Umino at the KOPW show last month and watch this, it has many things that looks the same. I think that Taichi looks really good and is more legitimated than Umino but Kidd despite the dangerous spots is not dynamic in anything he does. The ending with the most important moves of the wrestler spam is really boring in the modern wrestling, make it end with one sequence and that's it."

[9.0] "That table piledriver was one of the craziest spots I've seen, while Taichi's Dangerous Suplex is one of the greatest regular spots in wrestling. This match had one downside - the early portion where it was one guy soullessly beating down the other, then switching. Other than that, they crafted a great underdog story around Taichi."

[8.0] "This match was awesome! It was too much? Hell yeah. It was still fantastic? Hell yeah too. A highly anticipated bout between Taichi and Gabe, the main event of Power Struggle, and once I've heard it was going to be the main event, I knew it would be special, and the fact that everyone was rooting so much for Taichi only made the match better, and the environment really special. It's a 30-min puroresu main event epic, so obviously I would cut short many things they did here, didn't enjoy everything, but because of Taichi and his momentum, his personal story to win the title, I was really involved and the match was great. Gabe started the match completely dominating Taichi, with a very one-sided action, it was good to watch, but in some moment during the match, Taichi also had a super long control segment, where it looked like he was about to win the match and Gabe had no answers, but they both kept finding answers all the time. It was a maximalist spectacle, with tributes to Kawada, Kobashi, Misawa, Akiyama... several legends, and Taichi had an outstanding performance, he kicked out of things that you would never imagine, just because of the spirit of the match. Gabe looked good here as well, very strong, and he managed to continue his reign of terror... maybe if Taichi won my rating would go higher, but merely because of the exciting moment that this would've been, because I think it's very beast that Kidd was able frustrate everyone once again. After the match Gabe and Moxley spread terror, with Gabe performing a piledriver on Tanahashi, and both of them cleaning Shingo and Uemura, to set up the WK matches, it'll be Gabe vs Uemura at the Dome - {***3/4}"

[6.0] "Thirty minutes of Taichi absolutely outshining Gabe Kidd in every single degree. Gabe Kidd has one speed and that speed isn't working. Spitting and throwing middle fingers every minute isn't what a great heel does. Taichi's big kickouts were great and even the PAC and Kawada tribute spots were nice but nothing much else compelled me to want to watch thirty minutes of Gabe Kidd. Finisher spam, many uses of "fuck you" and just being the most generic heel archetype imaginable. I don't want to hate Gabe Kidd, but Gabe Kidd really makes me hate Gabe Kidd."

[8.0] "Taichi is incredibly special and I don't know how he can be that good and get the loudest reactions in damn near every building they go to, and get nothing (not even the G1! ) from management. Crazy. Like he was booked incredibly strongly in that match, but that's all he's gonna be getting for the next year :( This is one of those matches where the result was incredibly obvious. The booking dictated only one outcome. But despite all that, Taichi made me believe. He got me invested like nothing else and really made me think that he would defy all logic. Those types of matches are rare, and incredibly special. We'll be remembering this one. Gabe is extremely hit or miss, but he was in fine form here. Just focused and unstoppable, while heeling it up and mocking Taichi's mentors."

[10.0] "Ce match est une véritable déclaration d'amour à l'AJPW des années 90 et à ses grands piliers. Entre les références à cette époque et le Tiger Driver '91 de Taichi, les amateurs de catch classique sont servis. J'ai même pu découvrir certains mouvements que je ne connaissais pas. Mais ce qui rend le match aussi exceptionnel, c'est surtout cette tension permanente, amplifiée par un public qui s'enflamme à chaque dégagement."

[10.0] "10 Out of 10 For me , Gabb Kidd & Taichi Destroyed Each other in that Main Event What Was Out there that hasn't done Running Larient , Piledriver , Avalanche Destroyer , Tiger Driver Some of the most Devastating Moves in the Ring Either you do it or you kill your Opponent They Did it Reminded me of AJPW Classic's Wrestlers Destroying Each Other ."

[3.0] "Gabe Kidd is awful. All of his matches are the same and I swear they get gradually worse each time. It falls on Taichi to make this anything. So slow, so plodding. Lots of big moves and drama towards the end that doesn't make this totally unbearable, though it's absolutely still bad. As even that was hurt by how long they dragged it out."

[10.0] "Great match with plenty of brutal spots, particular the modified tiger driver by Taichi. Although going into this I was expecting Kidd to retain, I was really convinced throughout the match that Taichi might pull it off. Well done in ring storytelling and I especially enjoyed all the Kawada tributes."

[8.0] "Great match--it's been a while since Taichi had such a solid performance at a PPV. Gabe Kidd was his usual self, and Taichi calmly hit a Ganso Bomb. Toward the end of the match, there was also a really great nearfall by Taichi after a massive lariat from Gabe Kidd followed by a piledriver, but it wasn't enough--Gabe Kidd retained the title, and I wonder what shape his belt will be in by the time he gets to the Tokyo Dome."

[10.0] "I would absolutely give this match a perfect 10! This match has such a strong AJPW vibe! Early on, Gabe Kidd went crazy on Taichi, then mid-match Taichi fought back... but a pile driver outside the ring broke Taichi's momentum; meanwhile, Taichi used signature moves from Misawa, Kawada, and Kobashi... I thought Gabe Kidd wouldn't be able to handle it, until he hit the Gotch-style piledriver from Minoru Suzuki... Taichi escaped multiple pin attempts, he seemed to know this might be his last shot at the championship, but sadly... Gabe Kidd turned the match around with an avalanche Canadian Destroyer... This was truly an amazing match! Watching it live had me hyped for a long time, in short... five stars!"

[10.0] "One of my favourite matches of the year. Some genuinely shocking kick outs from Taichi and real drama in the final stretch, I was rooting so hard for the Taichi win, but I can't be mad at Gabe picking up the win he has a lot of heat going into Wrestle Kingdom and the pop when Yuya wins the title is gonna be great."

[10.0] "WOW. WHAT A FUCKING MATCH. One of the matches of the year, no doubt about it. Taichi is an all-timer. Singles, tag team, heel, babyface, whatever the role or the situation, the man is legendary. I genuinely thought he was gonna pull it off. When he kicked out after that top-rope avalanche destroyer, I really thought he was about to do it, but nope. Absolutely incredible stuff. Insane spots, just two guys beating the absolute shit out of each other. This is what wrestling is all about. And I can't fucking wait to see Yuya Uemura kick Gabe Kidd's ass at the Dome!"