8 Live Observations From ROH/NJPW Global Wars PPV
5. Tetsuya Naito V. Kyle O’Reilly
Apparently Naito is the NJPW Heavyweight Champion, which is cool to know, and not sold to us at all in the crowd. I’m sure most people were aware of this, but I really wasn’t.
The guys around me in the sixth row told me that Naito’s whole gimmick is being utterly disrespectful to everyone. That made me quickly like the guy, and later on I wasn’t disappointed.
Anyway, both of these guys can work. Naito is gifted with athletic ability and some strength to back it up, while O’Reilly seemed to focus more on his speed and getting his shots in where he could.
I didn’t see much to prove that O’Reilly was the perfect fit for a match like this. I mean, he had some good spots and sold the story well enough, but it felt like someone bigger should have been involved.
Anyway, Naito won the match and afterward O’Reilly fell for the fake handshake attempt, and then got beat down some more. Sucker.
(3 1/2 stars out of 5)