Minoru Suzuki rules. There’s no disputing that. Modern wrestling doesn’t get much better than Suzuki dismantling fools limb from limb, taking pleasure in the pain of others while leering and cackling like the sadistic fuck he is. That being said, Minoru was great in this match, between his focused legwork, vicious strikes, and terrific expressions. He’s such a bully here, showing zero respect for the champ as he grinds his heel into the knee, boots Okada’s face, slaps him silly. I liked the idea of the match. I’m a sucker for limb-focused matches and they established Okada’s injury early on and Suzuki exploiting it, which was great. I didn’t necessarily have a problem with the length of the match but more so the pacing of the match, the start-stop momentum, and the placement of the submission teases, which were needlessly milked to eat up minutes. Kazuchika Okada rarely deviates from a game plan and that became painfully obvious here where Suzuki had already attacked the injured leg but Okada starts implementing offense which specifically uses that injured knee, i.e., the neckbreaker onto the knee or using the knee during the cutthroat stretch. Or even the style over substance spot of kipping up to his feet. Logic says a defending champion wouldn’t purposely aggravate an already injured knee but do whatever you can do to protect that knee. I thought Okada’s retaliations looked weak in comparison to Suzuki’s stiff offense and it wasn’t until they start trading slaps that Okada really puts some heat behind his strikes.
I thought the turning point of this match should’ve come after Gedo thinks about throwing in the towel after Suzuki counters the first Rainmaker attempt, as Okada can barely stand after this and it’s his best selling performance of the match. The subsequent figure-four leglock sequence made little sense, we get Suzuki-gun’s interference, which is expected, but could’ve been limited to Taichi being a dick on the outside, and then Okada hits the superstar dropkick. I liked the idea of him teasing the Gotch-style tombstone but then we get another tedious submission sequence and the momentum of the match is feeling really jerky. Having skipped all that nonsense, the match could’ve really picked up with Okada fighting back with the slaps, stunning Suzuki and leading to the comeback and the final Rainmaker dance with Suzuki's counter attempts. I liked the set-up to the finish, with Suzuki trying to slap and headbutt his way out of a wristlock only to eat another Rainmaker, which leads to the German suplex > Rainmaker combo. A good match with an established storyline but with too much time to kill and some irrational decisions by the champ that only further exposed himself and put himself in jeopardy. Already I'm spent.
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