Hands down, New Japan's best match of the year and my personal MOTY for 2017. Such an impassioned performance from Shibata, putting his life on the line (perhaps literally) to try and defeat the easily frustrated Okada, who tried to man up to Shibata's stiff ways only to get beaten down in glorious fashion. I mean, from start to finish, this was Shibata pissing all over Okada's gold rug. From the early matwork, with Shibata hiking his leg just because he can, to the Rainmaker-tease into a straight bitch slap, Shibata made Okada his bitch for nearly 40 minutes. Quasi-heel champ Okada was great here, drawing the ire of the NJPW fans with his dirty breaks, which only further fuels Shibata's stiff-as-fuck beatings. Was it a perfect match? No. I mean, it could've benefited from a little fat trimming, especially in the midsection of the match, but the build to the finish was well-executed, with Shibata working the Rainmaker arm to weaken the impact and in perhaps the most spectacular (and cringe-worthy) moment of the match, Shibata withstanding the Rainmaker and thunking Okada with that blood-busting headbutt.
When you put Okada in a different situation, he becomes so much more enjoyable to watch in the ring. He had to fight for every one of his signature spots, even though some of his offense looked pathetic compared to the heat behind Shibata's elbow strikes, and his selling during the submission teases really added a dose of drama to the bigger narrative. I loved his little temple flareups throughout. But this was Shibata's match, the way he goads Okada into striking with him, the zero respect boot scrapes to the back of the head. The no sold "strong style" rush of back-and-forth offense was pulled off so well, with Okada unable to follow up after that German suplex. Okada takes one hell of a beating here, getting dumped on his head a number of times with suplexes. I don't how he keeps doing it. The wrist play stuff was excellent, with Shibata holding on as he just drills him repeatedly with those kicks to the shoulder. Such a brutal visual accompanied by those shotgun acoustics. I thought it would've been awesome had Shibata dropped down into the cross armbreaker but Okada was able to take over control of the wrist and pull him into a weakened Rainmaker. The final nail-in-the-coffin Rainmaker looked absolutely nasty but I loved how Shibata was still trying to fight back, going for an elbow as he gets hooked with the killer final blow.
The crowd was hot for Shibata and this was a career performance for him as he put his body on the line for our enjoyment. It was hard to watch him try to make it to the back on his own post-match knowing the full extent of his injuries but that's Katsuyori Shibata for you. There was so many little things to love about this match, simple things, like Okada trying to block the figure-four attempt or Shibata's British-inspired counters in the first few minutes. Hell of a performance from Red Shoes, as well. Great, great match.
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