I had two matches in consideration for this week, and the other one was posted by Bidoof. Glad to end up with an easy decision after all!
Part of me wanted to stay away from relatively recent NJPW stuff since I figure most everyone has seen it, but 2015 probably predates the point where the company really exploded with wrestling fans enough that I imagine this match is still a fresh one to at least a couple sets of eyes here. Really, it flew a little bit under the radar even when it happened - there was a lot of high-end stuff in G1 25 just like there is every year and neither competitor was ever a threat to win the block.
This is the only singles match these two ever had, and though they couldn't have known that then, they sure worked like they had nothing to leave on the table for the future. It's not long, but they pack a lot in, kicking the absolute hell out of each other in the exact manner you'd expect out of the two. I mentioned in my review of WALTER/Thatcher from Week 1 that Thatcher always seems to have a particular plan. Conversely, this is two guys who never have a plan at all, at least beyond "hit the other guy until they fall down." And that's the kind of thing that makes for an awesome G1 offering.
Anyway, I went 4.75 stars on this when it happened, and I can pinpoint the exact spot that kept me from the full five. I'll be curious to see if anyone else nitpicks the same spot the way I do.
EDIT: Oh, and in what will accidentally complete the circle between our three hosts, my vote goes to WALTER/Thatcher from last week.
i'll lead off by saying i've no idea what your particular nitpick is, but my takeaway from this match is disappointment that this is their only meeting. the action was as hard hitting and intense as you expect from these two, but there appears to be an added story wrinkle of Shibata consistently underestimating Ibushi here and getting punished for it, something indicating a longer term rivalry could have been in the works had Ibushi stayed around the next year. That would have been a treat but what we got was still pretty special - fast paced, violent, just what you want from these two. It did feel like a match where Shibata was very much Ibushi's superior at this point, which is the exact match to do for the first time meeting of these two, and that's what left me very much wanting to see the chapters where Ibushi would come closer. 4.5 i think
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Born to bear and bring to all the details of our ending To write it down for all the world to see