Kazuchika Okada (c) vs Hiroshi Tanahashi
IWGP Heavyweight Championship
06/16/2012
Bodymaker Coliseum, Osaka, Japan
(reviewed 09/14/2018) A mirror of the February match, right down to being nowhere near as good. Last time Tanahashi got beat by not taking a fresh-faced challenger seriously and this time around it’s Okada being too confident that costs him. The young champion tries to start things right away and Tanahashi makes him pay by going after his leg earlier and in a much bigger way than last time. Okada’s still able to cut him off fairly regularly, returning to the neck stuff from February, but he hasn’t changed up his approach at all in the last four months so whenever he tries to get some momentum going Tanahashi can just force his way back on top with a reversal. Weirdly Okada’s way better here than I think he is in 2018 in a lot of ways but he’s already showing signs of regression. His striking is more snug and he’s moving more naturally in the ring compared to his modern work, but he’s also way less consistent about selling his leg here than he was at the New Beginning. Then again it’s not quite as central a point here as in later matches, so it might not read as a big deal to other people.
HOW DOES THIS COMPARE TO SHAWN VS TAKER FROM WM25: Sort of struggling here to cap off this review in a meaningful way so I guess that says everything. This match isn’t bad but it’s nothing all that interesting. Shawn/Taker has a lot of problems but it at least hooked me for a good chunk of time.
VERDICT: Worse than Shawn Michaels vs The Undertaker from WrestleMania 25
Brock Hates Wrestling 