The opener was a short but entertaining Jr. Tag Title match, with Roppongi 3K challenging El Desperado & Kanemaru, hoping to regain the straps. The heels took advantage of a slight ref bump and Kanemaru used a whiskey bottle on SHO for the win. It's a shame these guys only got nine minutes for a title opener and even stranger that RPG3K didn't win. Nothing spectacular in this opener, it was fine. **
Next up was Jay White & Yoshi-Hashi vs. Juice Robinson & David Finlay in another short bout. This was all about setting up White vs. Robinson, which it did nicely. Robinson got the pin on White with Pulp Friction, and these two would deliver a fantastic US Title match at the G1 Special in San Francisco a month later. This however was just a quick 7-minute match. **
A third undercard tag match pitted Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano against Minoru Suzuki & Zack Sabre Jr. This was the best of the three openers, mostly due to the Ishii-Suzuki interaction (Who doesn't love watching these two maniacs pummel each other?). Sabre got the win for his team by tapping out Yano, but after the match Ishii and Suzuki brawled into the back. Another fun little match. **1/4
The first really noteworthy bout was the NEVER Openweight triple threat. Hirooki Goto and Michael Elgin carried most of the weight here while Taichi played the chickenshit heel who picked his spots and tried to stay out of danger. After some nice three-way spots and some good powerbrokering from Goto and Elgin, Elgin won by buckle bombing Taichi into Goto and then Elgin-bombing Taichi for the pin. This match wasn't your usual NEVER slugfest, and leaving Taichi out of it would've been a major improvement, but it had some clever spots and was well worked. ***1/2
Here's where the show really started to take off. The Young Bucks, freshly moved up to the heavyweight tag division, challenged Evil & Sanada in an energetic, dramatic bout where both Bucks sold injuries - Matt's back became an issue again, and Nick missed a kick on the apron and whacked his foot on the post. Both injuries played into multiple spots and the Bucks were in peril for much of the bout. This can be considered the match where Matt and Nick Jackson successfully transitioned from spotfest wrestlers to really great storytellers, and it felt markedly different than their Jr. division stuff. After multiple exciting false finishes, the Bucks took the match and the straps with More Bang for Your Buck. One of the best heavyweight tag title matches I've seen in NJPW. Seven months later the Bucks would drop the titles back to Evil & Sanada and make their New Japan exit, but this bout served as an historic template for their work in AEW. ****1/2