El Desperado vs. KUSHIDA

[6.0] "Good upset victory by Despe, but nothing too special happened in the match. Action was decent, but wasn't exactly exciting. The finish was alright but was bland. I'm also suprised that this is the only singles match between Despe and Kushida."

[7.0] "Really nice match from both of these guys, and I appreciate the choice to start KUSHIDA off cold following his back-to-back losses to Hiromu. Desperado is a great choice to steal his first match out from under him as well, and plays a strong heel in this one."

[6.0] "Fun enough, it was more of Kushida selling and Despy doing stuff for the majority of the match. It was all fine, nothing incredible and Desperado picks up the victory after a close nearfall with a lifting doublehook facebuster on Kushida's ROH TV title. (***)"

[5.0] "El Desperado -vs- KUSHIDA – (Best of the Super Jr. – Block B) [** 1/2] KUSHIDA brought his newly won ROH Television belt with him, but I bet he wished he hadn’t, because Desperado used it to slam him down on leading up to the upset. Fun match with a little of everything. This was a match where heel tactics was most effective."

[8.0] "Appreciate the heel beatdown right from the start. From the brawling outside, the chairin the corner, and what looks like a pen being driven into his head, Desperado is doing everything heelish he can think of, and people are responding to KUSHIDA as a babyface well. He also put a great brock lock type submission in which looked brutal. Also loved the top rope armbar counter, that looked really great. Then, fuckery commenced with a ref bump and in the end Desperado got the upset win. Both guys looked great in this match. ****"

[7.0] "Early parts of New Japan tournaments tend to contain a lot of shocks and this easily is the biggest shock of the first round. Desperado has been the lackey in Suzuki-Gun this year but, definitely proved he deserved this spot. Kushida’s bad luck streak continues, but a redemption run is bound to come before the end of the tournament"

[8.0] "I loved the psychology in this matchup, El Desperado is really good at inducing drama into a match. Made KUSHIDA someone to cheer to overcome. ***3/4"

[6.0] "Well, that's a spoiler; however, ROH had built KUSHIDA well w/ a big victory over Lethal in Toronto & K Kelly expressing K's strong desire to hold a ROH title. It's also very good for his billing as 'Jr. Ace, ' as w/ all those losses to Hiromu, he needed sth to maintain that status if the plans are for him Not to win this tournament. In fact, by virtue of holding the ROH title, I no longer think he is one of this tourney's top contenders to win. (Though he still may be a finalist? . ) As I have not watched much NOAH since Suzuki-gun wreaked havoc on the organization, I have not been as privy to Desperado's development. Whereas the previous matches featured either out-of-their-prime or uneven talent match-ups, this match had an urgency and execution of two men equally in their prime. K is just on-another-level, though, w/ the spring he gets from his myriad of dropkicks to how awesome his X-armbreaker drop from the top NE looked. However, the match's rating is limited in that its final act depended on a ref-bump and his turning a blind eye to D's cheating t/out. After an Angel's Wings on the TV belt, D won w/ an abdominal pump-handle spinning bomb. D's better, but don't confuse him for very good. For instance he uses a hand to guide him through his best move, a fast mid 00's Homicide-like tope con hilo through the second ropes. 3 stars and a 6. 25-6. 5."

[7.0] "I don't think anyone could have guessed this would be one of the better matches on the card, but Despy and KUSHIDA had a very fun match."

[8.0] "This was super awesome. I am pretty sure this was my first time seeing El Desperado in singles action & oh man, he was so great here - he actually was the better man in the match & I am a huge KUSHIDA fan. Really good stuff. ***3/4"

[7.0] "A very exciting and interesting tournament match, which featured a surprising finish of El Desperado taking the victory. Good work from both guys here, with it being one of Desperado's better performances and KUSHIDA doing his thing. I'm not as high on this as some, but I thought it was pretty good still. ***1/4, but on a rewatch I may like it more."