Masakatsu Funaki vs Mitsuyoshi Nakai-NEW 5.4.2017.

The opening was kinda dull, reminding me off the dull HARD HIt matches I'd give up on halfway through, just them exchanging weak middle kicks and some pointless matwork with no sense of urgency. Once they moved back on standing it got pretty good, as they started laying in shots, with Funaki's head kicks in particular reminding me of the kind of violence I really missed from this style, and the match was short enough that it more than made up for the pedestrian matwork. ***

Josh Barnett vs Shinichi Suzukawa-NEW 5.4.2017.

This was pretty good. The matwork wasn't anything special, it was more about the violence, Suzukawa would headbutt Barnett while mounting Barnett, kneeing him when he was in a side mount, Suzukawa would get Barnett in a Double Wristlock from the bottom and Barnett would escape by just pummeling him with body shots, it made it much more interesting than if it were them just rolling around.We also got some nice throws, whenever they'd stand and exchange shots the match ruled, and there were signs of a great match when they'd start shoving each other into the corner and desperately fire away, which felt like something out of WAR. They didn't just sit in submissions but audibly sold them, went for rope breaks and quick counters, the finish was brutal, although not having a single submission finish on the show is a pretty bad start to conditioning the crowd. ***1/4

Minowaman vs Minoru Tanaka-NEW 5.4.2017.

Junior shoot style! God this match was infuriating. On one hand they have a bunch of cool ideas that would make for badass GIFs. On the other hand this became a chore to watch. They come up with cool striking flurries, flashy counters and so on-but really suck at connecting them into something cohesive, milking drama and creating urgency. "Boring leglocks" is something that's thrown at shoot style a bunch as a critique of why it's not good, and most of the time people that say that have no idea what they're talking about, but it really applies here. Every time they'd grab a leglock they'd just kill the crowd, there was just no way that was finishing the match, and it didn't help that the way they worked the match was dumb, essentially they'd grab "clean" submissions a bunch of times and then either do rope breaks or counter them after five or so seconds, and when they would try to milk them they'd do a poor job of it, giving the crowd clues they were going to go for a rope break instead of selling it more dramatically and then doing a short burts that would result in an escape. Seek out GIFs of this if anyone's even interested in making those and avoid the match. **

Alexander Otsuka vs. Xuan Lin Dong-NEW 5.4.2017.

Lin looked very promising, he seems like a natural prick, kind of like a nu-Yoji Anjoh. I loved his dumb mannerisms after refusing a handshake, how he stomped Otsuka's foot to try and escape a standing armlock and his big sell of a German Suplex. The highlight of the match was probably Otsuka deciding to slap the taste out of Lin amidst a forearm smash exchange and the aforementioned German Suplex. The matwork was a little "bigger" as Otsuka would use Double Wristlocks to stretch Lin instead of just rolling around. ***

Feng Chang Jian vs. Katsumi Oribe-NEW 5.4.2017.

JIan is a guy from IGF's China Dojo, and I believe this is his first wrestling match. There wasn't much shooty in this match-it was more akin to a standard modern japanese wrestling match, with battles of shoulder blocks and forearm smashes, but it was pretty well done, the crowd bought into it, it looked nice and they kept the nonsense to a minimum. Oribe threw some nice kicks, there were too many pinfall attempts that served no purpose, and that's about it. **3/4

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs Shinya Aoki-NEW 5.4.2017.

The first match in NEW history faces off a shoot style legend and one of the most notorious japanese MMA fighters of today. When you choose to work a mat-based shoot style match in a more conservative manner, with not many nearfalls and highspots, it's not uncommon to see it become uninteresting. These two absolutely nailed it. Aoki seems to intuitively *get* pro wrestling-their sequences just seamlessly flow. It is like a lucha title match, except wacky lucha holds are replaced with armbars and leglocks, and the use of realistic guard positions almost makes it like a high end jiu jitus exhibition. Almost-because the match retains a certain flair of catch wrestling you'd want a Fujiwara match to have, in that how they utilize their joints to put pressure on their opponents makes for a significant aspect of the match, but they also pull guard, block transitions, use ankle picks and so on, giving the match its own unique feel rather than just copying an old style. Fujiwara tones down the goofiness-there's no ramming his head against the pose or cracking jokes, but he can't help but fake a handshake and blast Aoki with some headbutts (which looked great, and way better than some he was doing 25-30 years ago, no holding his opponent's head with one hand, just a quick straight motion).  Not something I'd imagine people who aren't big on the style would be blown away with, but I doubt NEW is gonna for them anyway. ****