Latest Comments

[8.0] "A really great tournament where the MVPs are easily Shinya Hashimoto and Satoshi Kojima. Man everyone past the first round is great though. Kazuo Yamazaki doesn't get enough credit for being great"

[8.0] "Pretty great knockout G1 that starts with some more middle-of-the-road matches, but into the 2nd round and beyond, it really starts to shine. This is mostly due to the performances from Shinya Hashimoto, who puts up three incredible matches in the later rounds with Tenryu, Kojima, and Yamazaki, respectively, and that makes it feel like an even more earned victory here."

[9.0] "Really great tournament that features great showings from pretty much everyone, both young and old. A few standouts for me, especially as this was my introduction to a few of these guys, were definitely Tenryu, Nagata, Tanahashi, Tenzan, and Kensuke Sasaki, all of whom gave pretty consistently great performances, though once again no one re​ally stood out as bad. All that capped off with a great crowd-pleasing win from Hiroyoshi Tenzan really adds up to something special."

[9.0] "An all around amazing tournament. I was going to list tournament MVPs but man everyone is just amazing in this entire tournament. The Tenzan win is amazing as well"

[10.0] "This tournament is a big reason to why WWE post Summerslam is really strong, because this tournament was filled ​with great competitors and great matches. The highlights were definitely Fenix/Penta, Fenix/Lee, Kid/Penta, but even the non-highlights were fun to watch. We obviously know what this tournament led to, a fantastic match between Penta and Reigns which turned Penta into an absolute megastar."

[0.0] "I do not understand how people like this match. Absolutely awful. Barely any surprise entrants. Horrible winner."

[7.0] "A very enjoyable tournament, almost every tag was good or great and we were treated to some top tier matchups throughout. Breakout tournament for Alpha Wolf, for sure, with Shane Haste being the top overall performer. Multiple match of the nights from him. OZAWA winning is the obvious, safe option to win - though they did a solid job at making me believe that Endo was in with a shout. A far more consistent tournament than this year's G1 (for me) though it was missing any strong narratives heading into the final (like Oiwa & Uemura who were built so well throughout the G1) other than 'can Kaito finally topple OZAWA'. A safe tournament but one of largely high quality. ***1/2."

[5.0] "Like OZA⁠WA's splash onto Kaito's knees, they couldn't stick the landing. I was hyped for this, looking at Kaito, OZAWA, Endo, Haste, and Inamura as top in-ring talent to pair with veterans and newbies. The match of the tournament was Kaito vs Shane, though Kaito's offense remains so lacklustre. The final was dismal, and not because of the repetitive interferences but from how OZAWA reacted to them. He's actually incredibly green, and may have even regressed since he was slated to win the tournament last year. The performer of the tournament was Alpha Wolf. He's genuinely such a valuable piece in NOAH, adding actual juice to the Team 2000X heavyweights."

[5.0] "A couple of decent matches here but far too many similar matches from the usual crew of UK Deathmatch lads. Great to see Jack take the cup though. He's on such a roll at the moment but please Jack, take some time off and let that arm heal."

[9.0] "Bumping this rating up a point because the concept of the blind draw makes for very clever booking sleight of hand. In hindsight, the bracket might have always existed exactly as it was intended, or it might only be able to be retroactively drawn up based on how an injury here or a travel issue there caused a lot of changes. Plus you can hide the direction you're going, which makes it harder for people to guess the finals. I liked the tournament, though the pace at which the matches were laid out made it feel rushed. Was never quite sure who was going to advance and when. Would have enjoyed a title change, especially since Moxley gave as many shits about the C3 trophy as much as you would expect his character to, but I'm satisfied with the final."

[8.0] "The C3 was a pretty fun tournament, with a great match in the final, which always helps, and even considering the title didn't even changed hands, it was great to have something like that, I'm always in favor of tournaments. It was a shame Eddie couldn't continue in the tournament, his reasons were a little bit confuse, and we never know how things would play out if he was there, he was a strong name in contention. Moxley had awesome matches the entire tournament, and Nigel's story with the ⁠ankle injury was fantastic, the final match was a correct choice, they were the two most interesting names participating."

[9.0] "saw brodie versus eddie and claudio versus danny live. both excellent matches and i remember going to see collision, (a show i was not excited to go attend), was made exciting because of the continental classic. It was early yet but this tournament earned such faith, show was a great idea to attend and following the rest of it only amplified what I felt some connection with. Was particularly cool to see Eddie's win, it felt very Carnival of Champions in the best of ways. These matches were great but I feel like the Classic may have improved year by year. But what a solid start, and it really made me fall in love with tournament wrestling. Will always try to stop in and see the C2 live."

[5.0] "I DID NOT KNOW TOURNA​MENTS WERE HERE! IS THIS A NEW ADDITION OH MY GOD THIS ONE WAS FINE VERY MID BYT OH MY GOD WE CAN REVIEW SPECIFIC TOURNAMENTS YES FUCKING YES YESYES THANK U CAGEMATCH ILL NEVER UTTER THOSE WORDS AGAIN BUT THANKS CAGEMATCH"

[8.0] "Another great year for the Owen Hart Women's Tournament, with Maya World and Mercedes Moné being the unlikely protagonists. After the dropping of Willow and Sareee, both adapted perfectly to their roles. Maya World as the perfect underdog story, defeating Athena and almost achieving the big victory in the final. Mercedes delivered a terrific perfomance through the whole tournament. My favourite match was Mercedes Moné vs Hazuki. Hazuki became ​in only two matches a star for the AEW viewers. A pity that Persephone was here only to lose her first match, although later she has been included in the TBS championship match. In this sense, I like that Forbidden Door was also relevant for the tournament."

[8.0] "Well, I like to have a C3 as summer counterpart to the C2. I think that the Continental championship shot has to be earned (like with Eliminators, pinning the champion in multitag matches, etc.), so having two instead of one tournament opens the door for more movement for the belt. I also liked that the format was different with this draws based on the FA Cup system. Some people said that the final was obvious but I remember many comments online thinking that the final was going to be Mox vs White. I would have expected them, but I saw as possible Nigel, Claudio and KOR. Regarding the cup itself, it helped to construct or develop some storylines (Jack Perry breakthrough moment, Dogs/DR vs BangBangGang, Nigel's dream...). There were also really great matches: all matches with Mox, Claudio vs Daniel, KOR vs Strong, Shibata vs Nigel... there was no bad match, although some were a bit disappointing (like White vs Finlay or Hechicero). I think there are some things like could be improven, like more uncertainty, but it is a promising start. MVP: Moxley. Favourite match: Moxley vs White."

[6.0] "Another G1 that lacked real star power and failed to maintain interest. It is clear they are going all out on t​heir new generation but to me there isn't a standout world class wrestler amongst them like they have had in previous G1s ie Omega, Tana or Okada. The final was mint though."

[7.0] "Other than the final, which was amazing, there were few stand out matches in this tournament. However, it filled the void of TV time in a rather length⁠y gap between PLEs. Final was standout moment and one of the best Fed matches of the year. Nice to see a number of the lucha lads getting a look in here as well."

[7.0] "This is a really solid indie tournament with a lot of fun names early in their career and a couple obscure ones that were hot at the time in their local scenes and showing a lot of potential here. It's got a good mixture of high flying lightweight action, a couple bruisers like Mr. Excitement and Ricky Reyes to brutalize a few competitors, and even some technical moments with guys like Disco Machine; Shogun and Spanky to switch some stuff up while still delivering on the high flying aspects. There's a couple criticisms I can make to this tournament though. Messiah pulling out and essentially being an in-storyline no show because of (legit) injury is really does stink because he would have been a cool addition into this (even if he was scheduled to lose in the first round) and the explanation and presentation of such is kind of weak. Why play it out like he's gonna come out only to not having him show up? Just feels like bad PR heat on Messiah to me. Another thing is that this tournament doesn't really have any real through lines story-wise. Nobody really sustains any real damage that lasts match to match really, and while that's not an inherent negative it does make every match feel very separate. Plus I mean a one night is usually the opportune time to tell those types of stories so it was uprising we basically got none of that here even with all the high risk offense in a lot of these matchups. This is especially the case for Rising Son who goes through two hellacious matches in the first and quarter rounds and then goes the second longest of the night in the semi finals yet shows no lasting damage round to round, which just seems crazy for how much he gets put through the meat grinder in every match. That said Rising Son as a perennial underdog is a fine enough story even if it seems odd to wnat to cheer him when he gets beat down so badly for two of his three match, B-Boy is a steady hand to get to the finals and this entire tournament does a good job of continuing to increase the mythos of Super Dragon. It is quite funny to see Super Dragon play the tweener, acting as a face at certain points but also shouting expletives and throwing middle fingers at the crowd any time any of them aren't vocally on his side but he still mostly remains in a face position. Nosawa's run (which allegedly got cut short from being in the finals having suffered an arm injury mid-tournament where B-Boy had to take over) isn't all that amazing, especially as this seemingly dominant invading force from XPW, but it's not horrendous or anything either. Over all the match quality across the board remains in the "good" of quality range with only a few sort of clunkers in matches like the one with Shogun or American Wild Child but they're still never truly bad. If only at worse quite a bit sloppy or unengaging. But, luckily the match times for this tournament are very well paced and varied so the tournament overall never feels at any point bloated and just trucks along at a satisfying pace with only the two last Super Dragon matches really going for any 10+ minutes. Overall a great indie tournament as I said and one that I think really helped established Revolution Pro as a company even if they lost a ton of money doing this."

[7.0] "Good CC with some dull matches here and there (mostly by Xyon). Cool idea to put Shiozaki, Miyahara and Anzai together at the start, just a shame Yuma didn't finish the tournament. Unlikely entrant Aoyagi was a fun addition. I actually⁠ loved Hideki this tournament and happy he won, but I can see how he might bore some fans."

[10.0] "While I understand some of the criticisms regarding the tournament's structure, rating this anywhere near a 0 or 1 completely ignores the actual match quality, storytelling, and historic significance of what transpired leading up to All In. 1. Jon Moxley as the Absolute MVP Jon Moxley proved once again why he is the backbone of AEW. Throughout the entire tournament, Moxley delivered top-tier encounters against a wide variety of styles--from Jay White to Jack Perry. Critics complain about predictability, but predictable booking isn't inherently bad booking when it serves a logical narrative. Moxley winning didn't feel unearned; it solidified him as the ultimate final boss that anyone built up for Wembley had to overcome. 2. Nigel McGuinness' Narrative & Historic Return Calling Nigel's involvement a "cheap attempt to sell tickets" completely disregards the deep emotional weight of his career. For anyone who followed ROH in the 2000s, seeing Nigel McGuinness wrestle on home soil in his native country--after years of retirement due to health issues--is nothing short of legendary. His path through this tournament wasn't just about setting up a high-profile match; it was about redemption, legacy, and giving wrestling fans a moment many thought was impossible for over a decade. 3. An Ultra-Technical, Emotional Finale The final was an absolute masterclass in technical wrestling and storytelling. It brought incredible psychological depth, callback counters, and an emotional investment that few television tournaments manage to achieve. Dismissing a match of that caliber simply because the outcome could be anticipated misses the point of pure professional wrestling ring work. 4. The Role of the Continental Challenge Cup Regarding claims that this tournament "cheapens" other cups: single-elimination or short-form knockout tournaments serve a specific purpose in wrestling history--building immediate stakes in a condensed timeframe. It gave television matches on Dynamite and Collision clear direction, gave undercard talent strong showcases against top-tier names, and made the road to All In feel urgent and competitive. Overall, this tournament achieved exactly what it was designed to do: deliver fantastic in-ring action, elevate the stakes for AEW's biggest event of the year, and tell a deeply personal narrative for Nigel McGuinness anchored by Jon Moxley's unparalleled consistency. Easily a solid, highly enjoyable tournament."

[10.0] "I enjoyed this G1 better than the previous g1 climaxes of the 20s. I just didn't like how gedo booked Gabe Kidd, Great o Khan, and Ren narita to look strong in this tournament considering it was truly HORRID for those guys to make it through (thank god GOK got eliminated but i hated how he defeated Boltin Oleg). Jake Lee was actually OKAY in this tournament, but nothing special for him, that includes SANADA, HENARE and Callum​ Newman. Shota got fucked from the beginning so i hope next year will be better for him and the rest of the guys put up on their effort"

[8.0] "My first time watching⁠ a full G1 climax tournament and this was a very enjoyable tournament. Some of the matches in this tournament were bangers and some of the matches were awful. A bunch of people here had to chance to showcase themselves, like Yuto-Ice, Drilla Moloney, OSKAR, Oleg Boltin, Yuya Uemura, Ryohei Oiwa, and Aaron Wolf. Others continued to showcase why they're still great wrestlers, like Callum Newman, Shingo Takagi, Hirooki Goto, Yota Tsuji, Zack Sabre Jr, and Konosuke Takeshita. Before I get into the bad side of this tournament, I felt so bad that Shota Umino had to leave the tournament after suffering a concussion, and what was worse was it was his first and only match of this tournament, I hope next year he doesn't get hurt early and hopefully makes it to the finals. Now, on the worst parts of the tournament. Three men kept having bad matches, those being Ren Narita, Jake Lee, and of course Great-O-Khan. There matches were not only bad, but they were painful to watch, especially Great-O-Khan, he had nothing but stinkers throughout this tournament. Anyways, this tournament was really good and even though I hated the bad matches, I will say watching this whole tournament was worth it. {Original Publish Date: 08.16.2026}"

[8.0] "This Tournament was good, with some really nice points, and some of them less good. N1 Victory 2021 in NOAH was a bit special, because he had 4 blocks of 4 participants, instead of the usual 2 blocks of 8 participants (both have 16 wrestlers in it). The Main problem in this Tournament is that most of the wrestlers are 45+ years old, and expect Kaito Kiyomiya, maybe Nakajima, Kitamiya, Inaba et Kenoh, most of them are old. It was a period where noah struggle to put over some of the young guys of the roster, in the contrary of the veterans of the roster. The formula of the Tournament was mostly there for Keiji Muto, it was too difficult for him to wrestle 7 matches, i can understand that, but the formula of this Tournament wasn't the best idea. The matches had no crowd, not a problem for me, I love Wrestling, no matter if there is a crowd or not. Some matches were pretty mid or bad, like the Kenoh vs Kendo Kashin. But overall it was pretty enjoyable. The N1 VICTORY 2021 Final is one of the best i've ever seen, with this war between the two kongo members, Kenoh and Katsuhiko Nakajima. This match is so good, so intense, with the drama of their relationship, and also of their wresling style."

[6.0] "Very, very fun tournament. Spectral Envoy's match in the opening night is the match of the tournament and it's an absolute blast. A big shame that UltraMantis was unable to continue on in this as Spectral Envoy having to pull out of the tournament definitely saw a decrease in match quality as this went on. With that said, not all of the matches were amazing but I really did enjoy all the fun characters and stories in the tournament. A great time, I'll be looking to tune in again next year. ***1/4."

[1.0] "I hated everything about this tournament as the finals was obvious once the names were drawn. The "random" matches that followed felt like a lazy way to book matches on Dynamite and Collision leading up to All In when they could've just set up Mox v Nigel some other way, CREATIVELY. At in the end, Mox wins again, fucking yawn. This whole thing cheapened the C2 as well and no one will take this Challenge Cup seriously if they bring it back next year. I thought about giving this a zero, but the finals was a damn fine wrestling match, so a point for that I guess."

[6.0] "The value of this tournament is debatable, but the matches were very fun. Moxley was the highlight, as usual; I loved his matches against White, Nigel, and Perry."

[7.0] "The major highlight of WWE's August was this tournament and I'm thrilled because, in addition to setting up a cool and original matchup against Reigns, it also helped showcase luchadors who aren't used to the WWE bubble and completely revitalized a guy like Fenix. Fenix vs. Penta and Fenix vs. Dragon Lee will go down as two of the best TV matches of the year on WWE programming."

[0.0] "The clearest possible example of what AEW, and pro wrestling, does not need. This was a 'tournament' announced the month of, with the goal of building a match. One match. Zero build, hype, legitmacy. Fifteen pointless matches with pointless winners all to set up a single match they could've just announced. AEW were certain that throwing the word 'tournament' at this would elevate it. This didn't help Mox vs Nigel, it harmed the C2, the Owen Hart Cup. It made AEW's wrestlers seem incredibly dumb for coveting something the company made up a week ago, something that will NEVER be seen or mentioned again now that it's done. The icing on the cake was the basic, one-dimensional 'it's coming home' theme, as though all of Wembley's audience are hive-mind morons, and Nigel McGuinness taking one of the most coveted spots in wrestling - an ALL IN match opposite Jon Moxley. More than a dud, the poster boy for one of wrestling's biggest problems - do you create things like tournaments for long-time, dedicated fans, or do you sacrifice those to sell a few extra tickets at a stadium show?"

[9.0] "The involvement of so many legendary names. Great classic oldschool performances with Park/Villano. A dream match that wasn't great, but it's so crazy that it actually happened with Canek/Psycho. The fall of Villano IV, the last active member of original "Los Villanos". Penta getting crowned as a mask predator in Mexico. This tournament was way better than expected around those years."

[7.0] "Decent tournament. Penta winning was the obvious call since the very moment it was announced, but it didn't matter since it still meant AAA stars got exposure in front of a larger crowd. The matches were alright, with Fénix, Dragon Lee and Penta particularly delivering some of the best main roster matches WWE fans watched in weeks."

[8.0] "I think the best word to describe this rumble is "fun." It wasn't great by any means but it had enough to make it entirely watchable and even enjoyable for most of the time. The part with Jake the Snake and Lawler hiding only to have HBK find him was great. HBK coming in at 18 (i believe) was a perfect spot. There was some great foreshadowing with the Vader/Yoko spot and the ending with Diesel and HBK. People say this was one of the most unsurprising results but I was a kid when I watched it so I thought Yoko or Vader would have won. Good match."

[4.0] "Man this tournament was a total waste of time. Not one single match had an upset outcome, or even any kind of interesting story dynamics. Once Moxley defeats Jay White early on, any and all tension was obliterated. They didn't even do anything interesting be​tween Mox and Claudio. There were some ok matches, but none that were superb or worth eating up so much tv time. And then of course Moxley wins, because of course he does."

[6.0] "A fairly dull early tournament that ended with a pretty great semi-final between Masahiro Chono and Hiroshi Hase, leading to a pretty great final between Hase and Fujinami."

[5.0] "Honestly underwhelming, best standouts from this tournament are Hiroshi Hase and Tatsumi Fujinami. Masahiro Chono and Hiromichi Fuyuki were also good overall"

[10.0] "One of the best wwe tournaments in years. Matches all delivered especially rey fenix vs dragon Lee and rey fenix vs penta in final. So glad penta wons this he deserves this push, he killed it this year"

[7.0] "Not a bad tournament, had some good matches in it, but sadly had some bad matches in it. I kinda wish they didn't go with the easy choice and had Moxley win, cause it was clear he was gonna a win and he doesn't seem to be loosing the belt anytime soon."

[5.0] "Turnuvanin ilk baslarinda maç kalitesi çok düsük ama her geçen turda daha da artiyor. Tabiî hepsinde en iyi maçi çikaran Kairi oluyor. Shayna ve Mercedes Martinez'in yari finale kadar çikip Kay Lee Ray ve Xia Li'nin ik turda elenmesi büyük saçmalik."

[10.0] "The best G1 there ever has been, and really the greatest pro wrestling tournament ever. The matches here were absolutely incredible, I mean we got Omega/Ibushi, Omega/Ishii, Ibushi/Ishii, Ibushi/Tanahashi, I could go on on and on. Tanahashi controlling the tournament and having one last legendary G1 run was so great to see. However, I believe the MVP of the tournament was Kota Ibushi. 2018 G1 Ibushi was as close to perfect as a pro wrestler can get, he was firing on all cylinders and his matches were spectacular"

[6.0] "A little disappointed by how conservative booking was, but still think it was a good showing for the kids. Jay's turn is also pretty memorable part of thi⁠s YLC edition. Very good final. Hope next Young Lion Cup will happen sooner rather than later."

[8.0] "I think this BOSJ was lovely. We obviously had stronger years in term of wrestling, but my god this year delivered with character. I love junior divisions in Japan, they can go wild and fanservicy. Kasai with his ladder, Hyo with Myonmyon, Taguchi with a stupid cut and many mor3.47e. If tournament makes me wait for each new day - it surely works as intended. YOH is perfect winner for this BOSJ, still so happy for him."

[6.0] "A pretty solid single elimination tournament. There was decently high peaks, and only a few matches that live up to​ standards or expectations. I like Suzume, but Arisu not winning feels like the wrong choice."

[7.0] "All-in-all, a super fun tournament with some really fun, random matchups. Marufuji & Hayabusa is *really* good and a highlight match for the tournament as a whole. ***1/2."

[5.0] "Super forgettable. When not even Harrop vs Parker gets up to good, well, you k1.9now the show's a miss. **1/2."

[3.0] "Very rough as a whole. I don't like to single out production as everyone works with a different budget but this was so badly produced and broadcasted that it negatively affected my viewing experience. There's ​no great match in the tournament - Joe vs Jacobs is decent but everything else is subpar with Strange & Iceman being a particularly rough watch. The wrestling isn't awful but put all the elements together along with a poorly paced tournament? A very rough watch. *3/4."

[1.0] "An irredeemable piece of shit. The final has been lost in the abyss of the internet somewhere and the only remotely acceptable match on the card (the triple threat before the final) isn't even part of the tournament. I can't even put the blame on any one person in particular. Just a collective piece of shit. 3/4*."

[2.0] "What a fucking disaster. A ton of injuries throughout, completely insufferable commentary and not one match I can even regard as 'solid'. Fuck me. *1/4."

[6.0] "A fairly consistent tournament by CZW standards. AKIRA & Hoodfoot is the only real miss and the main event is pretty great. They do some wild shit and just the visuals with the rain and the blood... pretty sick. ***1/4."

[5.0] "There's nothing amazing in this 'tournament' - but in the four matches across it, there's such a wealth of talent. Kross & Jayne are the highlights in this. Just look at where Kross is now after only t0.3en months, Forza's become a big deal, Jada Stone's a mainstay on TV. Cool to look back on. **3/4."

[7.0] "A super consistent tournament. There's nothing bad here and everything is at least solid. There's not a highlight match to push this into 'great' territory but I think Harrop in particular has a really great showing. ***3/4."

[4.0] "A great first night of action, the second night cools off but the final and Starkz' run to it is horribly lethargic, bland and it really sours this whole tournament for me. Ultimately, the J Cup is meant to develop a star/focal point & hype for the JCW title and this was very ineffective in that premise. There are definitely some worthwhile watches but you can pick and choose as the whole 'tournament' dynamic is weak here. **1/4."

[7.0] "Some average matches but we have the most memorable deathmatch of the year between Sicko & Nino, the classic between Gresham & Takeda and even Takeda & Nino is pretty good. ***1/2."

[7.0] "Very successful tournament. My first real introduction to modern day Osaka Pro, a reso⁠unding success. Rogue Nation are great. Such consistent heel work throughout both nights. Lots of solid matches but night one's main event is fucking beast. The two nights combined are just over three hours of watch time but they feature some real good work, definitely worth a watch. ***1/2."

[9.0] "We might be back? This G1 was definitely the best of the 2020s, and I'd also say that this was better booked than a fair few of the G1 Climax tournaments pre-2014. I think the best thing a tournament can do is have as many people as possible leaving the tournament looking better than they did coming in, and I think that NJPW finally did that to the best of their ability. I want to give special mention to Oleg Boltin and the tournament MVP Ryohei Owia, with Oleg Boltin looking like a possible contender for NJPW's best monster foreigner and Ryohei Owia having the best coming out party in recent memory. Oleg Boltin's matches with the likes of Shingo Takagi, Yota Tsuji and especially Konosuke Takeshita were all amazing, but I also think that there new terrifying presentation of Boltin is some of the best things that they've done recently. The final is obviously the best thing here, as I think it was the best match that NJPW has in possibly nearly 9.5 years, and after NJPWs numerous 'new era' cliches and catchphrases, it really did make it seem like the start of something completely unique. I really like how NJPW is now at it's best when it tries to be something mostly unseen before rather than calling back to it's past styles, and if I get to see more of this neo-fundamentalist technical motherfuckery than I'd be more than happy. I also think that the likes of Yota Tsuji, Yuto-Ice, Konosuke Takeshita, Yuya Uemura, OSKAR, Callum Newman and even by boy SANADA were all deserving of individual praise too, but I mostly think that everyone in this tournament was pretty much excellent besides from some GLARING execptions in the case of Great-O-Khan, Jake Lee and Ren Narita, even though I think that this is mostly due to issues surrounding booking. Additionally, I also think that matches like SANADA/ Tsuji, Goto/ Tsuji, Kidd/ Sabre Jr., Boltin/ Takeshita, Boltin/ Tsuji, Owia/ Tsuji and Owia/ Takeshita also were some really well-deserving shit. However, Block B was pretty dissapointing in comparison to the other, even though this can also be blamed due to Shota Umino's injury and the simple fact that it wasn't it's counterpart. I did hope a few other things would've been better too, with matches like Moloney/ Kidd, and Narita/ Sabre Jr. not being as good as I hoped, and some Jake Lee matches really did make me second guess my live choices. Ultimately, I am really happy with what I've seen, and it does feel like NJPW have finally struck gold with what's happening next, as it really feels this new pro-wrestling revolution is a much healthier choice than whatever half-baked or AEW-correlated ideas than they have since. The G in G1 stands for Grip now and I can really fuck with that."

[9.0] "Is New Japan finally back? This G1 was the best G1 in several years and had some incredible matches. It did a really good job of building stars like Yuya, Ryohei, and Boltin. It seems after many long years of being mid that New Japan finally has a good young set of stars to build the promotion around for the future, and this ​tournament was their coming out party"

[8.0] "I'll give this an 8 since for the first time ever, MJF didn't win this damn thing. Good match between Bandido and Ricochet and hopefully it leads to The Most Wanted winning a singles ti​tle in AEW at some point."

[9.0] "The best thing a round-robin tournament can do - have wrestlers leave far better than they entered. Oiwa and Oleg were the biggest examples of this, starting in Chicago with a tepid match, then both having bangers down the stretch. Yota Tsuji proved himself as the benchmark, while Takeshita had two great matches. Drilla Moloney was the standout of B-Block, with an unfortunate Shota injury upsetting things that side. Too many star performers to call, but I'll give wrestler of the first half to Tsuji, the second half to Oiwa."

[9.0] "the best G1 in last years, the quality was incredibly high and finally we can breathe future in NJPW"

[4.0] "Rey de Reyes 2025 is a tournament with a KO system based around Four Ways. There are 4 four ways in the semis that set to decide who'll fight in the Final, that's another Four Way. On the first eliminator match, El Mesias defeated Panic Clown, Mr. Iguana & Pimpinela Escarlata. The match was pretty basic and the best spots were Mesias spearing Panic Clown and Pimpinela doing his thing and some springboard. On a far better match, Niño Hamburguesa defeated Belcegor, Takuma & El Fiscal. I thought that the other three wrestlers did a fantastic job with some nice lucha moves. Takuma hit some nice kicks and an insane dive to the floor, while Belcegor hit a nice spear and broke a pinfall with a diving elbow drop. El Fiscal was the best with his lucha and moves like the running up to the top rope crossbody. I think Fiscal should have won here and later become the first ever son of a winner to win this tournament. On the third match, El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. defeated Chessman, Mecha Wolf and Negro Casas. The match was fine with a dive train from Mecha Wolf and Wagner. Wagner also hit some nice knee strikes and powermoves he used to win the match. On the last match, DMT Azul defeated Taurus, Cibernético & Aero Star. The match was slow and I though it had too much stalling from DMT Azul & Taurus. Taurus did some fine work as the big rudo in the match, while Aero Star's offense was as awesome as always. I thought for a moment that Cibernetico could have won, but in the end it was DMT who did it. So the final is set: Niño Hamburguesa vs DMT Azul vs El Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. vs El Mesias. The match wasn't that good. Half of it is El Mesias and DMT beating the tecnicos with clotheslines in the corner, stomps, chair shots and cooking sheet shots. They do the usual rudo beating a tecnico spots just to spend some time. DMT and Mesias are also fighting cause both want to win. Then when 5 minutes are remaining Wagner regains control and tries to team with Niño Hamburguesa, but Niño turns on him in the weirdest way possible (kind of a spinebuster, but really badly done). So after that all the wrestler exchange some nearfalls, Wagner almost wins with the Wagner Driver, but in the end aftet two low blows, Niño Hamburguesa splashes Mesias and wins the tournament and the sword."

[10.0] "One of the best G1 Climax in recent years, my favorite from this decade, it felt like a true G1 Climax, some bad matches but they were mostly undercard and not important, but this Tournament was so important for wreslers like Yuya Uemura, Yota Tsuji, HENARE, OSKAR, Aaron Wolf, Drilla Moloney, Yuto-Ice, Ryohei Oiwa, Boltin Oleg... and the final was absolutly magic."

[6.0] "I'm conflicted when it comes to this years G1 Climax. On one hand, it ended in a classic, and had high highs throughout. However, it also had some of the worst matches I've seen all year. Did a good job of establishing the young stars, but the booking in the opening days was poor. All the good comes with bad. All the bad comes with good. Yuya vs Oiwa MOTT, Oiwa WOTT. I'm going in the middle, with a 6/10. Did what was needed, despite the inconsistencies."

[9.0] "[9.1] The best G1 in years. My biggest issue last year was that they ultimately didn't put any of their domestic stars over, and here, it's a huge departure. Oiwa, Wolf, Newman, Boltin, Tsuji, Ice, Uemura, all looked fantastic here. It wasn't perfect, a lot of the starpower was focused on the A Block and the B block didn't have as much, plus some stinkers, namely Jake Lee who more didn't really move me than anything else and Great O-Khan, who was just complete ass for the entire tournament. Either way, great tournament."

[9.0] "If it weren't for weak undercards with bad United Empire matches, this'd be an easy 10. It's an easy 10 if you just watch the best stuff, but as someone who watched everything, I can't rate it that way. Regardl6.22ess, it's the best G1 of the 2020's."

[10.0] "truly one of the best tournaments in the past 15 years everybody was having career stand out performances (besides GoK and gabe kidd), this tournament proves that NJPWs future wrestlers are no longer future but present"

[10.0] "Honestly the Best G1 Climax of the decade, this was the first g1 climax where i fully watched ever match, and its was so much fun honestly definitely gonna do the same for next year too"

[8.0] "A really, really, really strong tournament. Being critical, many matches were given far too much time and it made quite a few cards drag. We have some duds (from GOK, mostly) and there were quite a few matches that fell into generic, New Japan main event formulas full of kickout and finisher spam. Stepping away from my grievances, the tournament was a resounding success in building the young talents New Japan has. KOB both had some good outings in their debut G1, Boltin Oleg had a breakout tournament, Tsuji continues to prove why he's at the top of the mountain in New Japan. Of course though, this tournament was all about Oiwa & Uemura. I didn't love *everything* they did but they both developed throughout the tournament. They both honed in on their foundations as the tournament went on with Uemura picking away at his opponent's arm and Oiwa developing an obsession at getting the job done via his mastery of the headlock. That development followed through to the final, wristlock vs headlock. One of the great G1 finals and matches in general, locking Oiwa & Uemura in as two of Japan's biggest stars for this generation. ****1/4."

[10.0] "A simply PERFECT tournament, a BLOCK A that will go down in history, a BLOCK B with lots of twists, matches that are among the best of the year, surprises in the results, suspense, quality in the ring, revelations, excellent demis, a final that is already one of the biggest finals in the history of G1, it was a LEGENDARY tournament, certainly the best G1 of the 2020s"

[9.0] "Hands-down the best G1 Climax of the 2020s so far, it's main purpose was showing off the great crop of talent that the company has slowly been building up, with career making performances across the board from Aaron Wolf, Boltin Oleg, Drilla Moloney, HENARE, OSKAR, Yota Tsuji, Yuto-Ice, Yuya Uemura, and especially from the winner Ryohei Oiwa. Others like Newman, Kidd, Takeshita, Goto, Takagi and ZSJ were their usual quality of good, and SANADA had probably his best work since his IWGP title reign 3 years ago this time. The only reason this is a 9 and not a 10 is due to the unfortunate injury of Shota Umino on the first night, as well as the performances from Jake Lee, Great-O-Khan, who somehow managed to do more antics than Narita did throughout the entire tournament, especially GOK with his constant chair shots that somehow never got DQs."

[7.0] "Most of the matches here were nothing super special but Gunther's run definitely was. He was the clear Tournament MVP and delivered consistently"

[8.0] "I love the angle of EVIL turning on L.I.J., and I thought that this tournament, for one, held in front of no audience, was actually quite a good one; it's not perfect, but it's solid. EVIL's stor​y ended up taking him and NJPW to quite the bad place, yes, but this was genuinely great stuff."

[] "Overrated rumble in my honest opinion. I never been a fan of champions entering the rumble because it becomes so predictable whoever eliminates them will face them at mania. Edge comeback got spoiled so I wasn't into it as much & since I'm not a Drew fan him winning did nothing for me, I can't believe ppl consider this one of the best rumbles ever but to each its own"

[7.0] "A neat little mini-tournament for the Night of the Butcher PPV to determine a number one contender for the title. E-Z Money v. Paul London is easily the weakest of the trio but it's still got some nice action in it and far from bad, American Dragon v. Chad Collyer is a technical clinic even if it goes a bit too long for that and repeats a few beats in doing so. So the lead up is solid if a bit shaky in some small ways. But Paul London v. American Dragon in the finals is a great finish with Dragon going more heel for the match and the two bringing a great amount of variety. Mixing the high flying moves, transitions, and technical moments from the prior two matches and making for a much fuller and amazing performance overall. Does a great job getting both guys over and continuing their history of high quality bouts against one another where it feels like they can meet each at the others style, and yet both still excel over the other in what they specialize in when it comes time to make things count. If there's any real downside the story of Dragon's leg being damaged and him being more hurt going into the finals isn't really capitalized on, and if anything it gets thrown out by Gabe's (terrible) commentary where he claims that Dragon just "putting ice on it" fixed said leg despite it only being two matches to recover between the semi-finals and the finals here (and the second one didn't even go 4 minutes)."

[5.0] "A fairly average tournament with a few enjoyable matches, but not enough standout performances to make it memorable. The overall quality remains inconsistent, and despite some solid bouts, the event ultimately feels underw​helming as a whole."

[3.0] "very predictable tournament and finals match. i do prefer last year's better and the women's this year, and the first two tournament matches was incredible and the second two was solid. first semifinal match: very overbooked...but it's get the job done for ospreay. swerve vs brody was predictible but also gets the job done. the finals match...was meh and great. probably better than their summer blockbuster match miles away. the star power in this was ass {besides samoa joe & bandido} and they need to rebook these matches: ospreay vs. joe, strickland vs. bandido as the semifinals match, not just a ppv quarterfinals match. this was a bad tournament overall, but probably one of the worst aew tournament booking i ever saw... :("

[7.0] "Overall I think it was a good tournament which unfortunately suffered from injuries of Jun Saito and Yuma Anzai. Top 5 matches of the tournament: 5) Go Shiozaki - Hideki Suzuki (Final) - ****1/4 4) Kento Miyahara - Yuma Anzai0.87 (Day 3) - ****1/2 3) Go Shiozaki - Madoka Kikuta (Semi-final) - ****1/2 2) Madoka Kikuta - Yuma Aoyagi (Day 7) - ****1/2 1) Kengo Mashimo - Yuma Anzai (Day 4) - ****3/4"

[7.0] "A consistently⁠ enjoyable tournament with a competitive field and several strong performances throughout. The quality steadily improves as the stakes increase, leading to an entertaining closing stretch that elevates the overall experience and makes for a satisfying tournament."

[6.0] "It was good at times, but the more it went the more disappointing it became. Newman was clearly the worst choice for winner."

[7.0] "Good tournament showing us the hierarchy among the Young Lions and what they are capable of doing. This class clearly has talent."

[7.0] "A very strong tournament that delivers a great blend of brutality, creativity, and consistently entertaining matches. The quality remains high throughout, with the later rounds providing the biggest highlights and a satisfying conclusion that makes the tournament well worth watching."

[6.0] "A solid tournament with consistent in-ring action and a competitive field. While several matches stand out and the later rounds raise the overall quality, the event lacks enough exceptional performances to feel truly memorable, resulting in an enjoyable but ultimately unspectacular tournament."

[7.0] "An excellent tournament built on consistency, featuring a deep field of talented competitors and very few weak performances. The quality steadily improves as the stakes rise, culminating in a highly satisfying conclusion. While it may lack numerous all-time classics, the overall depth and competitive atmosphere make it a thoroughly rewarding event from start to finish."

[6.0] "A short tournament that gave us plenty of OK and good matches but didn't give anything especially spectacular. Nothing wrong with it existing, would have missed nothing if it didn't exist."

[5.0] "Lacklustre tournament where the overall winner never really seemed in any doubt. I would have liked them to go a different route and perhaps even go out on a limb and have J'von Evans take the crown - this is especially true given what happened on the Raw after the final."

[4.0] "This was really poor. Jade as a winner kind of sucked and none of the matches hit second gear. Very meh"

[7.0] "A re-jigged tournamen​t due to absences that only really got going in the semis. Still very solid matches"

[8.0] "Point knocked off for the justified predictability of the results, but there were some stupendous matches in here."

[7.0] "As my first World Tag League, I came away pleasantly surprised. There were definitely plenty of below-average matches, but the tournament's best bouts more than made up for them, with Ryohei Oiwa & Zack Sabre Jr., Gabe Kidd & Yota Tsuji, and David Finlay & Hiromu Takahashi consistently delivering some of the tournament's highlights. Unfortunately, the House of Torture teams were the weakest part of the tournament, with the constant interference and shenanigans dragging down nearly every one of their matches."

[6.0] "The first NJPW event I ever watched was the 2019 G1 Climax, and while I'd watch the occasional major show after that, it wasn't until Takeshita's run in the 2024 G1 Climax that I really started diving deeper into the promotion before fully committing to NJPW toward the end of 2025. I finally gave Best of Super Junior a chance this year and don't regret watching it from start to finish, but it never gave me the same feeling the G1 does. I was pleasantly surprised by what felt like the least amount of House of Torture interference since basically forever, while Kosei Fujita, Nick Wayne, and Francesco Akira consistently delivered the tournament's strongest performances, and my first exposure to Jun Kasai quickly made him one of the wrestlers I was most excited to watch each night. If this is what the average Best of Super Junior is like, watching every match every year is probably going to be rough, but I'll still be there."

[8.0] "As my first New Japan Cup, I had a great time with it, w​ith solid matches throughout and Callum Newman emerging as the tournament's breakout star for me. House of Torture's constant interference was frustrating, but it never overshadowed the quality of the tournament's best matches."

[8.0] "Great tournament in terms of quality matches. The only problem was that, well, the winner was known from the beginning. Everything was around Ospreay, so there was no other p6.73ossibility. His matches were also better that the ones from the other side of the bracket. I really enjoyed the three of them. Also good match the Bandido vs Swerve, and good display by Mark Davis."

[7.0] "A shade behind last year's Men's bracket in terms of output, though Ospreay/Joe was one of my favourite QFs ever⁠. Both of Mark Davis' matches were excellent while Swerve/Bandido was good too. After last year's Men's OHC and C2, I was hoping we'd at least have a possibility of a non-favourite winner. Ospreay's storyline is great, but it was genuinely the only storyline in the field. That's not what I look for from tournaments."

[4.0] "I enjoyed watching the Mercedes show while she worked her way back. Maya World was a good consolation, but Toni, then Willow, then Sareee, all represented a totally cursed tournament. People seemed to believe Mercedes was printing money on her three-match run, but the Hazuki match could've ​shaved eight minutes off the start, and the final was mostly Maya panicking that her top was broken. Too cursed to be anything else."

[] "This is hands down the ​greatest wrestling tournament ever. Looking at the G1 lineup now it sucks how much this has fallen"

[5.0] "Zero regrets spending my time following this. It was a totally typical tag-team tournament, with a couple of established teams, and then lots0.76 of 'star + nobody' teams filling out the brackets (see Endo, Kaito, OZAWA, Inamura, KENTA). Naito doing a round-robin tournament is crazy, and he was predictably quite poor. The biggest disappointment, by far, was the Team 2000X bruiser team. Masa and Sugi were lifeless. Anderson and Gallows were the opposite, using their experience to have a really good showing. Endo displayed his talents well, but Karl Anderson was the performer of the tournament."

[4.0] "I forced myself to watch all of this tournament and review all of the block nights. I guess I wanted to have reason to justify whether or not I watch another entire BOSJ from NJPW's current junior roster. "Should I watch the 2027 BOSJ? Well, it's 80% the same lineup as last year's, and that one was pretty bad, so I'm probably safe only watching bits and pieces of this one". And yeah this BOSJ was certainly a drag, with only a single night I'd consider somewhat decent (Day 1, 6/10) and almost every other night being a 5/10, with a few that were bad enough to fall into 4/10 or 3/10 territory. There was nothing out of the ordinary in terms of the booking, since it was the usual case where all the major guys are in play right to the final day, which was where tie-breaking singles wins came into play to allow progression to the semi-finals. That stuff is fun in theory, but every G1 and every BOSJ these days have those same set-ups, which means it isn't that compelling to follow the wrestlers in their day-to-day matches because only the final days matches. Yoh being the winner was fine in theory, since he's certainly one of NJPW's more charismatic wrestlers and he's really over with large portions of the fanbase, even if he's not the mega-worker we all thought he'd be back in 2015. The issue was that he never had a truly great performance or match. In fact, I only have him with a single somewhat good match in this entire tournament, vs Eagles (Day 6, ***1/4), which isn't a ringing endorsement for your tournament winner. Really though, the whole tournament was a let-down in terms of wrestling quality. The Wrestler of the Tournament was Fujita, who admittedly had the benefit of progressing to the next round of matches, but who nonetheless had the most consistently impressive matches, with good in-ring work and equally good character work. The next best wrestlers were: 2. Eagles, 3. Desperado, 4. Titan, and 5. Akira. Special mention to Sasaki and Kushida. Kushida actually had a chance to be the wrestler of the tournament before he started introducing all the goofy shenanigans with his socks. Guys like X probably ranked higher with other fans, but I've never been super high on him, since I think he's a tremendous athlete but one who doesn't always know how to channel that athleticism in believable or compelling ways, which makes a lot of his matches far too exhibition-y and contrived. Ishimori had his moments but otherwise blended in with everyone else. Nagai managed to get over quite a lot due to his fiery determination in spite of all his losses, so hopefully that's capitalised on in future if fans continue to rally behind him. In terms of the outside entrants, they were a mixed bag. I liked Sasaki quite a lot for the first half, since his grimy and aggressive style of grappling was really unique in contrast to everyone else in the tournament, and he actually had really good technique and timing when he was working seriously. He sadly didn't get a chance to have many matches without shenanigans, especially in the 2nd half of the tournament, which often lowered the quality of his matches quite a lot, but I still liked what he offered, hence the special mention. Hyo and Wayne were fun as purely athletic high-flyers, though a lot of their performances were very samey, and Hyo's shenanigans with his stuffed cat were often pretty embarrassing.. Valiente was definitely the least interesting outsider, since he was fine but rarely ever impressed on a serious level, especially compared to fellow luchador Titan. Kasai was obviously a total anomaly with his death-match style, which at first I found fun for how utterly different it was, but then he just kept doing the same spots from match to match while showcasing weak actual wrestling skills, so I didn't care much for him after the first few days. The Match of the Tournament was Wato vs Fujita (Day 5, ***1/2), since it had the sort of intensity and aggression I'd been dying to see from Wato, and Fujita more than matched him the whole way. The next best matches were: 2. Kushida vs Eagles (Day 1, ***1/2). 3 Fujita vs Eagles (Day 13, ***1/4 - ***1/2), 4. Desperado vs Eagles (Day 3, ***1/4 - ***1/2), and 5. Fujita vs Akira (Day 1, ***1/4 - ***1/2). With only those five matches being above ***1/4, this is certainly a tournament you're better off picking and choosing what to watch rather than watching its entirety. What held back the match quality was definitely in part to do with a lot of the block matches in the first half of the tournament being pretty short, thus being inherently limited, but there was also far too much interference/cheating or outright goofy stuff from Hyo, JAY, Kanemaru, of course Sho, and very unfortunately even Kushida, which always limited many of their matches or even made them straight-up bad. I'm also just not the biggest fan of the generic NJPW epic style where there's zero other in-ring story aside from mindless 50/50 bombs and near falls being traded, since I've had my fill of that for well over a decade, so even the better matches in this tournament didn't peak too highly with me. It's a shame too that not even the semi-finals or the final were that much better in quality compared to the block matches. The aforementioned semi-final of Eagles vs Fujita was pretty good but nothing special, while Yoh vs Wato and the final of Fujita vs Yoh were both merely alright, with the final's biggest issue being that it was not just a repeated match-up from last year's BOSJ final, but that it was also essentially a total copy-and-paste of that match, which was super disappointing. Even as someone who actually likes Yoh and appreciates his charisma and character work, I was disappointed with the quality of performances he gave along the way. I'd always hoped that giving Yoh the route to a BOSJ win would allow him to finally prove the extent of his abilities, but instead it proved how reliant he is on his various formulas."

[7.0] "Honestly, this tournament doesn't mean a damn thing. It's a bunch of mostly decent matches, but it's elevated one point higher by an amazing finals match; the rematch between Vader and Sting with Sting being able to figure out Vader and exploit his weaknesses to get his own back. So satisfying."

[7.0] "It met expectations, delivered a fresh winner with YOH achieving his first BOSJ and a great push and keeps the junior division alive with a view to the challenge for the IWGP Junior title against DOUKI."

[5.0] "The worst post pandemic BOSJ to date, and perhaps the worst ever. A good amount of top end matches but nothing that sniffed MOTY level and a deluge of bad matches spearheaded by the HoT guys and then the bad comedy guys (YOH, Hyo, Taguchi) and straight up bad wrestlers (Sasaki, JAY). Simply not acceptable for a major promotion."

[7.0] "This is probably the best in-tournament storytelling of a WWF/E tournament just before the 1998 "Deadly Games" Survivor Series tournament. The team of Edge, Christian, and Rhyno all agree to work and assist each other through the tournament and basically run rough shot on it. Add in a tactically scared Shane McMahon purposefully trying to wear Kurt Angle down as much as possible for their main event match and Christian's jealousy of Edge's rising popularity and you get a really great and multilayered story. Going back to the qualifying and quarter finals matches of this tournament that take place on television you do get a lot of quick sprint matches but there's quite a few fun sprints also. Tajiri debuting officially in this tournament match-wise for the WWF is very fun to see, along with Regal's expressions, Hardcore Holly and Kurt Angle getting into it again which is always a stiff affair, Jeff Hardy hilariously winning the Light Heavyweight Title off screen mid-tournament, Jeff Hardy and Rhyno both getting a lot of shine. There's definitely some nothing matches and even some dumb finishes (looking at you Tajiri versus Rhyno which was going very well prior) but it's overall a very fun affair and once they get to the PPV proper it's still a quite good tournament even if I find Edge's actual final two matches to be a bit of a muted affair overall. but it's told competently and nothing really bad or even mediocre. A good tournament and a good winner with a fun story told throughout."

[7.0] "A good BOSJ tournament. Large in part due to the performance of Kosei Fujita, who was by far the MVP of this one. He had like the top 7 matches all ⁠on his own. YOH winning is an awful decision, this company needs to commit to young talents, not 40 year old cosplayers with no self identity."

[7.0] "I first think that most of the blame for this tournament's disappointment comes down to the fictional IWGP Super Junior selection committee, as some participants in this tournament I think really dragged it down. I wasn't a fan of Valiente Jr, as I wasn't aware of his character beforehand and he was simply far too bland and a significant step down from other believable options. I also think that Daisuke Sasaki should've brought more to this tournament, when it comes to DDT representation, he was a unignorably significant downgrade from last years MAO, even if MAO couldn't have been in this tournament because of DDT commitments. I think different CMLL/ DDT representation would've made this tournament more enjoyable, or even people like Masatoru Yasuda, a temporaily returning Shoma Kato or a unexpected addition from another international promotion would've been more worth its while. It made the victories that Daisuke Sasaki and Valiente Jr. got quite undeserved, confusing or disheartening, and the same can be said for debutant Jakob Austin Young too. Otherwise, I think Jun Kasai and HYO were very good additions, as even though neither were perfect, they both added something new and refreshing that helped the BOSJs annual somewhat sluggish single block shows. Jun Kasai gets added points because of simply how over he was too, and he did pull out some bangers along the way. The match quality also overall I would say was extremely similar to last year, as even with the noticeable admission of Hiromu Takahashi, Kosei Fujita, Robbie X and the aforementioned Jun Kasai were the most consistent even though nobody really plugged in the main event gap that Hiromu did. My favourite matches were El Desperado/ KUSHIDA, Kosei Fujita/ Francesco Akira, Daiki Nagai/ Kosei Fujita and Kosei Fujita/ Master Wato, and I want to give specific praise to Jun Kasai/ Robbie X too, as I think that match is extremely underrated. The efforts from the likes of Robbie X, Nick Wayne, the extremely under appreciated Francesco Akira, Robbie Eagles and even Titan I think deserve special recognition, and I really think that a lot of guys entered this tournament with a lot more desire and fire than last year. I think Kosei Fujita was the best overall though, as he's literally just the perfect junior heavyweight at this point and just needs the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship before I start harassing Gedo's PO box. In terms of booking, whilst I still think DOUKI's boycotting of this tournament was extremely stupid and still makes no sense at all in kayfabe, Daiki Nagai was still a really good addition and his winless run was really entertaining. I think Titan's winning streak admittedly overall wasn't great, but Block A on the whole was good and probably the better block. Block B also had some issues, like the weird foot thing that they constantly did with KUSHIDA as well as the rather disappointing booking of the final nights, as the elimination of El Desperado and Taiji Ishimori by tie-breaks rather than standard elimination I think left some wasted potential. I think the semi-finals were fine though, as I'm happy with both Master Wato and Robbie Eagles making it through even though some impact was still noticeably absent. Ultimately, I think YOH is a merely acceptable winner, as the dude is incredibly over and definitely deserves it. Would I personally have Kosei Fujita win? Yeah sure, but as long as YOH takes the belt off DOUKI than I'll be more than happy. This isn't the best tournament of recent years, but it's definitely worth watching and didn't overstay its welc6.46ome."