MICHAEL ELGIN vs. BILLY GUNN vs. BONE SOLDIER vs. CHEESEBURGER vs. HIRO SAITO vs. HIROYOSHI TENZAN vs. JUSHIN THUNDER LIGER vs. KUKIAKI KOBAYASHI vs.s MANABU NAKANISHI vs. RYUSUKE TAGUCHI vs. SCOTT NORTON vs. TIGER MASK vs. YOSHITATSU vs. YUJI NAGATA (25:13): This was the pre-show, psuedo-Royal Rumble match. You can pin opponents as well as throw them over the top rope. Elgin returned from his orbital bone surgery (the doctors apparently had to use a piece of his hip bone to fix his broken orbital bone, which is above the eye...weird!). He won in a fun, superfluous match. The tall, lanky black kid from ROH, Cheeseburger, was amusing and over with the crowd. **
TIGER MASK W vs. TIGER MASK DARK (6:34): Kind of racist, isn't it, calling ROH's black wrestler, ACH, dark? Well the other masked wrestler was Kota Ibushi. Which means we got a couple crazy top-rope leaps and some fun action. Ibushi wrestled last year in WWE's CWC tournament but turned down a NXT contract. Why? To apparently wrestle under a mask as an Anime character in the opener here. Maybe he should see a therapist. **1/2
RAPPONGI VICE vs. THE YOUNG BUCKS (12:57): This was good but not great. It was nice that they did a simple tag team match instead of the usual multi-team cluster fuck melee's. The problem was that those were more entertaining and wild. Perhaps the move of the entire night occurred when Baretta leaped over the top rope, flipped, and landed on his back on the mat on the floor when the Bucks moved out of the way. Jesus Christ, how is he not broken or dead? Rappongi Vice won the Jr. Tag titles here. ***
BUSHI, EVIL & SANADA vs. DAVID FINLAY, RICOCHET & SATOSHI KOJIMA vs. BAD LUCK FALE, HANGMAN PAGE & YUJIRO TAKAHASHI vs. WILL OSPREAY, JADO & YOSHI-HASHI (16:08): This was a gauntlet match...which meant Ospreay's team lost first and so we never got to see Ricochet and Ospreay wrestle together. Terrible booking. The Bullet Club team beat Ospreay's team then lost to Ricochet's team who then lost to Los Igobernables de Japon's team. This was for the 6-man tag titles, which Ricochet's team had, then LIG's team had, then they lost them to Tanahashi's team on New Year's Dash. What a stupid title. This was a good, fast, fun match, though. Ospreay and Ricochet were awesome as usual. ***
CODY vs. JUICE ROBINSON (9:37): Cody Rhodes was never any good in the WWE...and, sadly, he's not any good on the indie scene, either. He turned heel at ROH's Final Battle a few weeks ago and so now he's battling the young, dreadlocked lion, Juice Robinson. This was totally forgettable. 1/2*
ADAM COLE vs. KYLE O'REILLY (10:14): O'Reilly beat Cole at Final Battle to win the ROH title for the first time. He lost it fairly easily in ten minutes tonight. The reason was probably because O'Reilly decided not to sign a ROH contract. So Cole becomes the first ever ROH three-time champ. This match was so-so (there hardcore match at Final Battle was great) and the ending was, really, just a pin out of nowhere. Disappointing. *1/2
TOMOHIRO ISHII & TORU YANO vs. GUERRILLAS OF DESTINY vs. TOGI MAKABE & TOMOAKI HONMA (12:24): Good match. Honma and Makabe won the Tag Team tournament last month to get a shot at the Guerrilla's titles. So why were Ishii and Yano in this match? I guess New Japan came down with a case of WWE logic. That, or Yano and Ishii's opponents were supposed to be from NOAH but NOAH was sold and so NJPW wasn't a partner with them anymore. Kind of a letdown, as I would've loved to see NOAH'S Go Shiozaki and Marufuji on this show. Ishii and Yano won the tag titles here. **1/2
HIROMU TAKAHASHI vs. KUSHIDA (16:15): Good match. Takahashi was a little sloppy in spots, probably due to this being his first match here after a few years in CMLL. But Kushida looked as good as ever. Both guy's did a ton of suicidal spots and their next match will probably be even better. This was no Kamaitachi/Dragon Lee match (Takashi wrestled as Kamaitachi in CMLL and had some of the craziest matches you'll ever see in your life against Dragon Lee there), but it was the best match of the show so far and just the beginning of the murderer's row of incredible matches to come. Kushida retained the Jr. title here and Dragon Lee came out the next night at New Year's Dash to beat up Takahashi. ***
HIROKI GOTO vs. KENSUYORI SHIBATA (16:17): When this was over, I think everybody figured that this would be the match of the night. I'm not the biggest fan of Goto. He's usually good not great and rarely if ever in any phenomenal matches. But these two work well together and this was fucking brutal as hell. Shibata is so good and has been for so long that he really should be the champ and in the main events of these big shows. This was just back and forth hard kicks and elbows and near-falls and it was awesome. Goto won the NEVER title here. ***1/2
TETSUYA NAITO vs. HIROSHI TANAHASHI (25:25): Tanahashsi is kind of in the same spot that John Cena is in. He's still the big star, still the crowd favorite, but he's older, a tad slower, yet he can still pull of one hell of a great match. Tanahashi was a bit slow here early but the last five minutes when he was doing two Frog Splashes in a row and there were near-fall's and high drama it was just breathtaking. The end of this match was amazing. It wouldn't be topped. It couldn't be topped. ***1/2
KENNY OMEGA vs. KAZUCHIKA OKADA (46:45): It was topped. And I don't think I've ever seen a show with a final four match set as good as this one. They just got better and better until this; a 47 minute epic that had everything you ever wanted, hoped, or dreamed of. It was so long that early on they started slow and I was thinking that, you know, maybe these two just didn't have it tonight. They couldn't possibly put on a great match after those last two. But this match achieved a level of intensity and drama very rarely glimpsed in wrestling or any sporting event. There was Omega's moonsault off the top rope over the guardrail onto Okada in front of the announce table. There was Omega's top rope Dragon suplex on Okada that had Okada landing on his head. There was Okada flipping Omega up and over the top rope down through a table at ringside. There was Omega kicking out of a Rainmaker (which, granted, probably would have been more dramatic if Naito hadn't done the same last June). The final ten minute or so flurry of counters and near-falls and brutal knees and reversals was a sight to behold. This was pro-wrestling at it's apex. So much so that Dave Meltzer gave this match 6 stars on a usual 1-5 scale and some proclaimed it the greatest match they had ever seen. Was it? Probably not, as it was a bit too long and started slow. But by the end it had truly achieved greatness. This was an instant classic and one we're all going to be talking about for a long time to come. ***1/2
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