Give Suzuki and Nagata all the belts, cowards.
Much like their New Japan Cup encounter, this is a hard hitting affair built around two elder statesmen of the company just beating the shit out of each other. There’s not a lot to say because its simplicity is its greatest quality.
It’s a step down from the New Japan Cup match for the needless leg work early on that’s clearly just in place to pad out the runtime but they are functionally the same match. The elbow strikes are still grotesque and both men sell them with all the personality and gravitas that you expect from wrestlers of their caliber. The strike exchange isn’t a step in a formula, it’s a prideful war of attrition. It’s in their expressiveness, their refusal to drop, and the great defeat of when they finally do.
There’s a world where this main events Jingu Stadium instead of what will but perhaps it’s better this way. The intimacy of Kouraken amplifies the brutality these two brought. What a delight.
