Tetsuya Naito vs. Tomohiro Ishii (NJPW, 10/9/17)

I like these two guys -- no, no, I love these two guys. I'm still not tired of Naito's tranquilo persona, in and out of the ring, and Ishii is one of the last tough men left in New Japan. Unsurprisingly, these two have good matches together, sometimes great matches, and this was no exception. However, it's getting harder for me to distinguish the matches as they follow a similar blueprint. Naito coolly works the leg, Ishii sells and bumps well, Naito goes back to the leg to escape shitty situations, and Ishii fights through to pain to punish Naito. This time, however, Ishii says "okay, lemme work that leg" and cuts off Naito with a big dropkick to the knee. He doesn't put in a whole lot of work but Naito's selling is terrific throughout. When he catches Naito, Ishii pummels him relentlessly in the corner, chopping at his throat, not giving him any reprieve before suplexing him. Loved Ishii's big saito suplex.

Naito attacks the injured leg to get out of a top rope predicament and pisses off Ishii, which leads to Ishii German suplexing him into a corner and hitting a Last Ride-style powerbomb. Naito retaliates with a koppou kick and a German suplex hold but his knee gives out, so he hits a frankensteiner and a release dragon suplex to make up for it. He busts out a leg submission with the rear calf hold, which hiccups the momentum, but drills him with one of the best looking pumphandle drivers he's delivered. Naito hits the first Destino of the night off a brainbuster counter but when he tries to finish him off, Ishii hangs on and turns it into the brainbuster for an awesome nearfall. The transition into the second Tranquilo was sloppy but Naito follows up with a proper one for the pinfall. Good stuff, with some neat new moments, but I still think my favorite over the past year was their 2016 New Japan Cup match, which hits that sub-twenty sweet spot.