Katsuyori Shibata def. Shinsuke Nakamura
Things actually start respectful with a clean lock-up and Shibata actually making a clean break in the ropes, but he gets hot after Nakamura besting him and things quickly spin in the other direction. I’ve been out of the New Japan scene this year, but you can tell these guys hate each other. Shibata throws him to the outside by the neck in a rough spot, then knees him through a barricade. They slow things down with a Figure Four in the ring for several minutes, but Nakamura comes back with knees to the gut and a flurry of offense. The rest of the match is fast-paced, back-and-forth action, with trades of offense that has the commentary team going insane, not being able to tell who is going to hit the next move. Nakamura fires up, but Shibata hits the Go-to-Sleep and a big running kick for the win.
Kazuchika Okada def. AJ Styles
The support for Okada is overwhelming here, as Styles is by far the most hated man in New Japan. AJ tells him “it ain’t gonna happen” but Okada drops him with a back body drop and fires away with forearms to pop the crowd. Styles hits a great dropkick combination, and starts to mock the fans by yelling “Okada! Okada!” in a high pitched voice, nailing him with a backbreaker. The beatdown continues for a few minutes until the challenger hits a flapjack and kips up to a great ovation. Nice spot where Okada puts AJ on the top turnbuckle and dropkicks him to the floor. He follows that up by whipping him into the barricade – AJ jumps over it and does his wide-armed pose, but Okada leaps over the rail and splashes him into the fans. They barely answer a 20-count and Styles gets a snap suplex into the bottom turnbuckle. He tries for a springboard corkscrew splash, but crashes and burns. After a while Okada ends up going to the top rope and… hitting the elbow drop! FINALLY! The referee ends up going down, which prompts Takahashi to come out and attack Okada from behind, which puts the crowd in an uproar. Styles hits a huge German suplex, but Okada pops back up and hits the Tombstone Piledriver. He hits the most beautiful delayed German suplex bridge I’ve ever seen, then turns AJ on his head with a wicked lariat for the win in an absolutely incredible main event.
