Haha is anybody not on team RichSwann?

His opponents ?

Are ibushi and Swann on the same side of the bracket ?

Yes.

Winner of Tozawa/Metalik faces winner of ZSJ/Dar.
Winner of Kendrick/Ibushi faces winner of Perkins/Swann.

So no Swann / ibushi final. This makes me sad

True

Surely we are looking at

Metalik vs ZSJ and Ibushi vs Swann

Metalik/Tozawa is nuts

Kendrick/Ibushi was insane too, holy crap.

Loved Metalik/Tozawa. Only complaint would be that the ending sequence was kinda flat. Metalik barely kicks out of the German, Tozawa goes for another, and Metalik quickly turns around and gives Tozawa his finisher and it's over? Other than that, great match.

I wanted to like Ibushi/Kendrick. Great backstory of Kendrick and his last hurrah. But JFC, that burning hammer kickout might be the most absurd kickout I've ever seen in professional wrestling (and I realize what kind of ground that's covering).

They make this big deal about Ibushi's neck. Kendrick works on it the entire match getting a few near-victories. And then he does a move I've never seen in WWE before...and gets a two count. What....the.....****. Completely ruined the match for me.

Will watch tonight

Same. Looking forward to it. Been in a wrestling mood lately but never knowing what to watch.

According to Meltzer, there was a big goof in the Ibushi match that was cut out of the broadcast.

When Kendrick did the neckbreaker against the turnbuckle, Ibushi was counted out. (WWE uses a 10 count for count-outs, while NJPW uses a 20-count, possibly causing confusion for Ibushi.) Regal came back and restarted the match because Kendrick did an illegal move to cause the count-out. It was restarted and Kendrick threw Ibushi out of the ring again, which is when the footage started again.

PS, yeah kicking out of the Burning Hammer is nuts. Though the announcers tried to not make it seem like the move is a big deal.

Just watched

Both matches were awesome but i hated the use of burning hammer. That needs to put someone away.

Storytelling in kendrick ibushi was A+

Agree with both.

Moving away from The Burning Hammer spot, I thought a good finish would've been Kendrick getting that neck submission after Ibushi missed his unpronounceable move from the top rope. Going back to the BH spot, notice how Ibushi was facing away and was still able to kick out, others should note that. Tozawa took a big move then put his fists into his opponents head, stared at the ref, and then shockingly kicked out.

For the people that like Ibushi and Shinskay, go watch their matches from NJPW. One from 8/4/13 (****3/4 from Big Dave) and the rematch from 1/4/15 (*****).

I don't understand the issue with Ibushi kicking out of the burning hammer. Moves mean what they are defined to mean in the storyline, and mean something different when executed by one person than another who might be bigger, stronger, more proficient with that particular move, etc. The move looking so cool gets over Ibushi's resilience when he kicks out, and does so more effectively than a more mundane looking move.

The problem I have with the match is how often Ibushi lands on his head given the real concussion issues in wrestling.

That reminds me of this: My favorite part of the match was them running into each other shoulders trying to gain an advantage in the first few minutes like they were The ****ing Warlord and British Bulldog. Great stuff.

Understood and that's a part of wrestling. E.g., Cena can finish a match with the AA because he's perfected it from years of use. So if Erik Rowan did the same move, even though he's bigger and (possibly) stronger, it won't have the effectiveness of Cena's version. If you think about it a second, you realize it's stupid. But if you stop thinking about it logically and put on your "wrestling fan" thinking cap, it makes perfect sense.

But the Burning Hammer is dropping a dude on his head. If it's not going to be his finisher, it shouldn't be used at all.

I don't think that the Burning Hammer should be used all the time as just another move that means nothing, but doing it just one time at that key point after Kendrick worked his neck all match has obviously had quite an impact because we are all talking about it. I'd rather have one guy be dropped on his head one time than have 100 guys dropped on their head a year because someone is using it is a finisher.

I guess I'm alone in that I don't like to over analyze every move in a wrestling match. If it's a good match, it's a good match. Worrying about whether or not a move should be kicked out of just ruins it for me, so I usually choose not to do it.

With that said, I am talking on a one match small scale. Now if that move is used a lot more frequently and is constantly kicked out of, then I think discussion is warranted. But seeing how WWE has operated in the past, I think there is a big chance we will never see that move again on WWE TV.

If a move is never used again, protecting it has no point at all. The Burning Hammer doesn't need to get over, Ibushi and Kendrick do.

I agree totally, and they both got over easily with that match, but if you look at the discussion here, it's mostly been about that move instead of the match as a whole. There isn't anything wrong with that, I just prefer to look past it and not have it ruin a great match for me

I haven't seen this match yet, but to me a great match is one that you can get lost in, and superhero kickouts are a great way to be taken out of that place as a viewer.

What makes a kickout a "superhero kickout" though?

Kendrick did a move that he never has done before. It wasn't some move that he's beaten Undertaker, Rock, and Cena with that has never been kicked out of.

Like I said, haven't seen this match, so I can't wade into the specifics of the match discussion. I was responding more generally to the notion of an absurd kickout "not ruining a great match," when to me they're impossible to separate.

I watched it early and enjoyed both matches quite a lot. I'm on LKJ's side that repeated superhero kickouts take me out of the match but I didn't think it was that bad in this case.

I am genuinely curious about what makes a kickout a superhero kickout or an absurd kickout in general.

I mean, people are doing moves that nobody would ever do in a fight or shoot wrestling match. Flips and suplexes that nobody in the history of the world has probably ever done to someone in an attempt to beat a previously mobile opponent. These moves therefore don't mean anything other than what they are defined to mean.