This felt like a story of Ohtani trying his absolute best to exorcise his demons, or at least the very singular demon that is Jushin Thunder Liger. Almost a year to the day earlier he came up short against Liger for the J Crown, 11 months before that stumbling at the last hurdle for the IWGP juniors title, letting his emotions get the best of him and paying for it. He'd beaten Liger in non-title matches, probably pinned him in tags (cagematch it or something), but never for a belt. Ohtani's journey over the previous couple years was one that had him primed for success, but it was also laden with hiccups in big moments and most were of his own doing. He wasn't about to let it happen again and this was as aggressive as I've ever seen him. The match started with a rugged collar-and-elbow tie-up, Ohtani then sprinting at Liger only to get flipped on his head with a shotei. After that he makes the conscious decision to not get hit in the face like that anymore and goes after Liger's arm because maybe trying to take that strike away would be smart. It was the same strike that put an end to him the year before so it's hard to question his judgment. Ohtani wasn't the least bit afraid to take liberties here, milking the ref's count on rope breaks and even outright ignoring it on occasion. This wasn't the same Ohtani of years past though, who'd get frustrated and start making weepy faces when things got rocky - he got MEAN but stayed focused and the aggressiveness was an asset rather than a hinderance. It felt like he could control it more, harness it in a way that he couldn't in some of his biggest matches previously. There were some callbacks to those matches too, like the springboard dropkick to the arm as Liger used the rope to pull himself up, which almost sealed him the deal a couple years earlier. And really just any time Liger smashes Ohtani in the face with a shoei feels like a callback of a sort, if for no reason other than it being the one thing in Liger's arsenal Ohtani has never quite been able to overcome. I thought Ohtani was pretty incredible at putting across a sense of desperation whenever Liger mounted any serious offence. Maybe desperation is the wrong word, maybe it was more urgency, but either way you knew HE knew he needed to put a halt to momentum whenever Liger started picking any up. Sometimes he'd take a bullet and immediately roll close to the safety of ropes, sometimes he'd crawl there and almost cling to them, then sometimes he'd just roll out the ring completely. After the initial stretch of arm work Liger hits a brainbuster and Ohtani rolls straight outside, so Liger hits a plancha and follows up with a brainbuster on the floor, a big bomb for the big occasion and one that tells you how serious he's taking this version of Ohtani. When Ohtani comes back from that he goes to the arm again and Liger progressively sells the damage incurred. Liger set the bar for selling a busted arm higher than anyone back during the Sano feud and I'll be honest with you, this doesn't come close to that, but even still if there's anyone who can make you buy that their arm is fucked it's Liger. The stretch run is super dramatic and not knowing the result going in I found myself pulling majorly for Ohtani to get the win, to finally get that monkey off his back. He seemed assured as they went into deeper waters, or at least more assured than he'd been in the past, not grasping at openings or getting too far ahead of himself. There was some by god growth and maturity and he didn't almost burst into tears when Liger refused to stay down, an unfortunate tendency of the past that never did him any favours. He also takes Liger's best shots and manages to stay in the fight, kicking out of the shotei and avalanche brainbuster, scrambling again to the ropes after the latter. When he escapes a second brainbuster off the top by the skin of his teeth, reversing it in mid-air and almost landing on Liger's chest, he pumps his fists like he knows this is his chance. He hits the release dragon suplex but composes himself right away, a stark contrast to a couple years earlier where he immediately went for a second but lost his bearings and dropped Liger too close to the ropes. When he took down the kneepad and followed up with a springboard wheel kick I thought for sure he'd pulled it off, only for Liger to slip out in an amazing nearfall. Maybe Ohtani should've stuck to the arm until the very end though because Liger always had that shotei in him. Even when Ohtani ducked Liger would improvise and the shotei to the back of the head was fucking diabolical. Honestly I could be convinced that there not being a payoff to the arm work IS the payoff, as Ohtani dropping a successful strategy a little too early had been his undoing in the past, one time against Liger himself. In the end maybe it wasn't a matter of strategy anyway; maybe Liger was still just that much better, the cream of the crop, an inevitable force like Pep's Barca. That might've stung Ohtani even more. He never fucked up or let any inexperience steer him off path, he just simply wasn't good enough to beat The Man in the biggest moments. This was fantastic and might be my favourite of all their matches together (even more than the '93 match I proclaimed my favourite not but three weeks ago).
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