Have to disagree with you there this time around, thought this was a solid show and an easy watch, even though they were performing in a smaller, ugly (Lanza rightfully buries the Big Wing behind the Paywall) building.Frank Olson wrote: ↑Sun May 19, 2019 1:50 amToday's show mostly felt like a house show stop to me. The matches weren't bad or anything, but it didn't feel like anyone except for the guys in the main event were really putting in full effort. This is perhaps understandable since the wrestlers are in the early middle of a grueling tour and performing in a small building, but this is the first show of the tournament that I would say is basically completely skippable for anyone who's just trying to skip to the highlights.
SHO vs TAKA was a good opener, I like how TAKA used his veteran knowledge to counter SHO's power based offence and how it forced SHO to adapt and not rely on brute strength to put TAKA away. Can't disagree with you on the next two matches, Ishimori seem's off his game and it may well be because he's legitimately hurt. On the other hand I liked Gresham vs Dragon Lee a lot more than you, I felt the styles clash actually worked on this occasion and was into the story of Dragon Lee being out-wrestled by Gresham but ultimately being too strong and too determined for the smaller man to put away.
Main event was excellent, it wasn't your typical high work rate main event match and we kind of had the same sort of shenanigans filled, story driven match on the previous show between Taguchi and DOUKI. The difference between this and that match (even though I didn't hate the Taguchi vs DOUKI match either) is that you had two performers delivering at a major league level and not just one. Kanemaru's heel control segment here was so much better than DOUKI's and I'm far from Kanemaru's biggest fan. Everything throughout this match was on point, where as in comparison Taguchi vs DOUKI only got better once Taguchi mounted his comeback.