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Ishii/Yoshi-hashi vs Guerrillas of Destiny
The Chaos duo essentially played spoiler here, ending GoD's hoped of a first ever Tag League title. This will have come with huge satisfaction for Ishii and Yoshi-hashi as their opponents were as manipulative and sneaky as ever in this encounter.
By getting away with an enormity of fouls, Guerrillas of Destiny were able to use this as a foundation to dish out the majority of the match's offence. They came out on top in striking, submission and diving metrics.
However, the tag team from Chaos made up from the numerical inferiority by hitting harder. They utilised hard-hitting grappling and made more of their strikes count.
It was their reversals that proved key. They were able to weather the storm via 29 reversals, 11 more than their adversaries. In fact, they countered over a third of their opponents attacks.
This contest saw GoD's dominance punctuated by explosive bursts of flurried offence from Chaos. However not only did GoD dish out the most offence they also had the most impactful sequences of offence.
Another reason Chaos' eventual victory was so impressive is that they had to absorb offence for just over half the match. The GoD duo controlling the match for 8:23 of the total 16:44 match time.
This fast paced match up saw a total of 119 offensive manoeuvres, with 7.1 moves per minute. It also contained 49 tide changes, meaning 2.9 per minute.
FinJuice vs EVIL/SANADA
FinJuice owe Ishii and Yoshi-hashi some 'happy beers'. The loss by GoD to Chaos meant that this was essentially a shoot out for the title.
It turned out to be a hotly-contested affair which was in keeping with the stakes, a featured match at Wrestle Kingdom for the NJPW Tag Team Championships.
It was hard to separate these two teams. FinJuice hit 70 offensive manoeuvres compared to LIJ's 69. Technically this is 50-50, percentage-wise when you are quantifying using whole numbers. To one decimal place? FinJuice utilising 50.3% and LIJ, 49.6%.
The main difference in strategy was the use of submission. FinJuice did not apply any submission holds, whereas LIJ utilised a notable 97 seconds worth.
The more impactful offence came from FinJuice, with them leading the way for strikedowns, grapples and dives. This high risk strategy and ability to reverse coupled with a devastating closing sequence of offence ultimately gave them the victory.
The afore mentioned devastating closing sequence of offence is the first thing that will jump out at you here. FinJuice made sure their dangerous opponents would not be able to withstand their will to win.
This match was notable for it's back and forth action. Time spent in control for either team was well earned. LIJ spend more of the match in total control of their opponents, with 6:42 of the total 24:01 seeing them subjecting FinJuice to sustained punishment.
This tag team battle saw a grand total of 139 offensive moves, which was spread out to average 5.8 a minute. Total tide changes came in at 87, that being an average of 3.6 a minute.