Honestly you could give this match anything from negative stars to ****3/4. As far as drama and engaging the live crowd, it was a near match of the year. But if you care about performers’ safety, it’s very different viewing and it was hard to enjoy. I think the botched apron spot took a lot of people out of it because the slow-mo was one of the sickest landings, in the sense it looked like Ibushi had broken his neck, and he’s broken his neck before. Mentally you wanted it stopped and they not only didn’t stop, but they continued to do everything they planned. Plus, Ibushi’s selling was so great that it made you think he was completely out, which either made it better for realism, or far too real to enjoy, depending on your viewpoint. Still, this is the modern version of Undertaker vs. Foley Hell in a Cell, which with 20 years of perspective, was a terrible thing because of all the stunt bumps it encouraged and how guys got into the business thinking they could get over by doing that stuff rather than wrestling. That said Foley was hurt far worse in that match. What they did in that match was more dangerous. It did make Foley’s career and he’s made a career of doing talk shows based largely on that match. It helped make Jim Ross the legendary voice of a generation with his impromptu call. It’s one of the most famous and vivid matches of all-time. I hated that one when it happened even worse than this, yet it became part of wrestling legend. And for all the same reasons, this one is probably going to be copied and admired, and that’s all wrong. But in wrestling if you study history, being wrong very often works to your advantage and becomes mythical. Hopefully not here. The good news is that the worst injury came from the head-butt, but why is anyone getting hurt from a head-butt. You either work the head-butt and it’s perfectly safe, or you shouldn’t be doing it at all, because we’ve learned too much to be doing shoot head-butts.