#njpw wrestle kingdom 14 review

[hazyheel]

Wrestle Kingdom 14 Day 1 Review

The biggest event on the New Japan calendar certainly did not disappoint. Huge matches up and down the card, and even though the last few matches felt like they were lasting an eternity, it was perfectly fine with me. Great matches, and by the time the main event ended and they mentioned that this was only the first day of the event, I was super hyped up for day two. I was worried that Day 1 would feel almost like an afterthought, but it was just as awesome as any other year’s wrestle kingdom. Such a great show that I can’t rave about it enough. Here is my review of Day 1 of Wrestle Kingdom 14. 

Naoki Sano, Ryusuke Taguchi, Shinjiro Ootani, Tatsuhiko Takaiwa vs. The Great Sasuke, Jushin Thunder Liger, Tatsumi Fujinami, Tiger Mask IV: El Samurai was in Team Liger’s Corner, while Kuniaki Kobayashi. Liger and Sano started things off, and after a few submission exchanges, Sano drilled Liger with a suicide dive. Ootani tagged in, and gave Liger a face wash, before liger stood up and drilled him with a series of shoteis. Tiger Mask and Takaiwa came in next, trading stiff chops and kicks, with Takaiwa coming out on top. Takaiwa’s team then beat down Tiger Mask for a little while, showing off their signature offense. Tiger Mask was able to escape after hitting Takaiwa with a Tiger Driver, and then tagged in Fujinami. Fujinami then drilled everyone with a dragonscrew leg whip, and even started to choke out Takaiwa. Sasuke then went for an elbow drop, but Takaiwa dodged and tagged in Sano. Sano then went for a double stomp, but missed, and the two brawled up to the top rope and nailed a superplex. They both tagged out to Liger and Taguchi, who immediately was hit with a rana off the top. The two then continued to fight in the middle of the ring as the rest of the legends brawled on the outside. Taguchi then nailed Liger with an ensiguri, followed by a Bumoye, but Liger kicked out! However, Taguchi then hit the Dodon for the win. 

After the match, everyone shook hands and bowed to Liger. They all held their hands up high in the air.

Grade: C-. I feel bad giving this such a low grade, but this match wasn’t really about the wrestling. It was about the sight of seeing all these legends in the ring, which was cool. It was a fitting retirement match. I’m shocked that Liger lost this one, I thought for sure that he was gonna win it. 

BUSHI, EVIL, SANADA & Shingo Takagi vs. El Desperado, Minoru Suzuki, Taichi & Zack Sabre Jr: Evil and Suzuki started things off in the ring as everyone else brawled on the outside. Suzuki quickly took control after an armbar over the top rope, and started to beat him down with a chair on the outside. They fought back into the ring where Suzuki-gun worked over Evil’s neck and arm. However, Evil fought back with a Fisherman suplex to Taichi, and Takagi got the hot tag, destroying Taichi, Suzuki and Desperado. The two continued to fight utnil tagging in Sanada and Sabre. The two traded pinning cominations with Sabre targeting the arm and Sanada targeting the knee. LIJ continued to beat down Sabre, with Bushi trying to recreate his recent upset. However, Sabre was able to twist him into a submission for the win. 

After the match, Sabre kept the hold on Bushi until Sanada pulled him off with a Dragon Sleeper. 

Grade: C+. Pretty good match, nothing too exciting. It’s always fun to see Suzuki-Gun heeling it up in a multi-man tag, but there wasn’t too much to this match. It felt very rushed without the sense of urgency. Takagi had an awesome hot tag though, so that was fun. Fine stuff, but nothing more than that. 

Bad Luck Fale, Chase Owens, KENTA, & Yujiro Takahashi vs. Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano & YOSHI-HASHI: Yano and Fale started things off, much to Yano’s dismay. Yano tried to take him down with some shoulder tackles, but Fale quickly flattened him. Yano then avoided the rest of Fale’s offense and tagged out to Hashi. Fale tagged in Owens, and then two tradded chops back and forth. Hashi had the advantage until Takahashi tripped up Hashi and allowed Owens to nail a wrecking ball dropkick. Bullet Club beat down Hashi for a while, until Ishii ran in and made the save. He tried to give Fale a suplex, but Fale powered out and gave Ishii a slam. Yano then slapped Fale on the head, angering the big man who then beat the crap out of him. Goto and Kenta then tagged in, and exchanged huge lariats back and forth. Kenta was able to get the advantage with a DDT, and Bullet Club then beat down Goto. As everyone started to take each other out with their big moves, Ishii gave Fale a huge headbutt and then a brainbuster to a roar from the crowd. Goto then fought off Kenta and Takahashi, before giving Takahashi the GTR for the win. 

Grade: B-. This match was similar to the last, but it had a lot of really exciting action much to my surprise. Yano was funny as ever whenever he entered the ring. Ishii got a big moment in a year where it was very possible that he wouldn’t. Good stuff for Ishii. Also, Kenta and Goto really wailed into each other, so I’m now super excited for the title match.

FinJuice vs. Guerrillas of Destiny for the IWGP Tag Team Championships: as GOD made their entrance, FinJuice ran up the ramp to meet the champions, but immediately got beaten down. Juice Robinson ate a back body drop on the ramp, and David Finlay was thrown off the stage. GoD then beat down Juice in the ring for a bit, but Finlay was able to recover and get the hot tag. He beat down Tonga Loa a bit, until Tama Tonga took him down with a cheap shot. Finlay fought back a bit and climbed to the top rope, but Loa pushed him off and he landed on the injured shoulder. GoD then took their time beating down Finlay, until Finlay threw caution to the wind and drilled Loa with a spear. Juice got the hot tag and beat down both members of GoD with power slams, lariats and cannonballs. Juice went for the Left Hand to God, but Loa blocked it and nailed a knee to the face, an ensiguri, and a german suplex. GoD tried to capitalize, but Juice nailed leg lariats on both of them. FinJuice finally took control and beat down Tama with a dropkick/Russian leg sweep combo, for a quick kickout. FinJuice then went for a superplex combo, but Loa pushed Robinson off the top. They then grabbed Finlay and nailed him with a powerbomb/ frog splash combo for a near fall. GoD then hit Finlay with a Magic Killer, but Juice broke it up. They then drilled Juice with a Magic Killer, before pulling Finlay up to the top rope for the double powerbomb, but Finlay countered with a rana. Tama then went for a gun stun, but Finlay fought out of it with stunner. Finlay then tried for a rollup, but Tama pushed him into the ropes and Jado nailed a kendo stick shot, but Tama couldn’t get the pin. Robinson then took Jado out with a Left Hand to God, gave a pair of left hand to gods to Loa, before allowing Finlay to hit sliced bread for the win. 

Grade: B. I wasn’t a huge fan of this match until the finishing sequence, but what a finishing sequence it was. Lots of big moves, and awesome kickouts. They did a great job of making FinJuice out to be real underdogs. They were scrambling by the end of the match, and everything looked very frantic. I was into it, and I was happy to see the boys pick up the big win. 

Jon Moxley vs. Lance Archer in a Texas Death Match for the IWGP United States Championship: The match started out quickly with Moxley throwing Archer out of the ring and nailing a suicide dive. Moxley then grabbed a kendo stick, but Archer threw a chair into his face. Archer then beat down Moxley with a Kendo stick, a chair and a trash can lid. Archer was going to go for the tightrope walk, but Moxley pulled him off and destroyed him with kendo stick shots to the face. He let Archer back in the ring, and quickly countered a chokeslam with an elbow, before catching Archer off the ropes with a trash can lid shot to the head, followed by a vertical suplex onto some chairs and a regal knee. Archer then rolled to the outside, gave Moxley a chokeslam onto the apron, followed by chokeslamming a young lion into Moxley, and then diving into a crowd of young lions and Moxley. Archer then set up four chairs in the ring and gave Moxley Blackout onto them. Moxley barely made it up to his feet, so Archer locked on the EBD claw and smashed Moxley’s head into a chair. Moxley countered into an armbar, but Archer quickly caught his neck and gave him an overhead suplex into the corner. Moxley then popped right back out of it with a lariat and a double underhook ddt. Archer got up, and was able to take control back with a derailer and a chokeslam onto a chair. Moxley got up at 9 and flipped off Archer, earning him a boot to the face. Archer then produced a plastic bag and locked on the EBD Claw with it. Moxley nearly passed out, but passed the arm drop test, so Archer introduced a pair of tables. He then used his spiked helmet to stab Moxley in the head, and tried for the blackout out of the ring onto the tables, but Moxley countered and went for a spear. Archer caught him out of spear and went for a chokeslam through the tables, but only managed to get Moxley onto the apron. Moxley then kicked him in the gut and gave him the Death Rider through the tables for the bloody bloody win. 

After the match, Moxley got on the mic and said that he wants to leave with nothing or everything. He said that on Night 2, they settle things once and for all. 

Grade: B+. This was a violent as hell match that was tough to watch at times, but it was an awesome sight to see. They beat the crap out of each other with a bunch of weapons and there were some totally rough spots. Archer does some vicious chokeslams. Nothing beats that finish though, that looked insane. I really hope Archer is okay, because his arm was really really cut up. Still, a match deserving of the death match name. Good stuff. 

Hiromu Takahashi vs. Will Ospreay for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship: The two started out with some fast paced wrestling on the mat, before Ospreay nailed him in the head with a slap. The two then stood back up in the middle of the ring and exchanged shots back and forth. They then engaged in a series of counters ending in a stiff chop from Ospreay. Takahashi then put Ospreay on the apron and went for a sunset flip powerbomb, only for Ospreay to counter. Takahashi then pulled them both onto the floor and gave him a powerbomb on the apron, followed by a missile dropkick off the apron. The two then exchanged chops in the middle of the ring, until Takahashi went to the apron. Ospreay then caught him with a double stomp to the back of the head and a hanging DDT to take control. Ospreay then started to work over the neck, with Takahashi only getting tiny glimpses of offense. Back in the ring, Ospreay locked in a Koji Clutch to continue to attack on the neck, but Takahashi barely made it to the ropes. The two then exchanged chops back and forth until Ospreay nailed a kick to the midsection. Takahashi then caught him off the ropes with a rolling flatliner, followed by a basement dropkick a nd a falcon’s arrow for a near fall. Ospreay then went for his Sasuke special, but Takahashi backed up and tried for a German suplex, only for Ospreay to flip out of it. He then charged Takahashi down the apron, and Takahashi tried to give him a belly to belly into the apron, but Ospreay slid into the ring and nailed a Sasuke special anyway. It was an awesome sequence. The two then fought out onto the apron, where Ospreay gave him a springboard double stomp to the back of the head in a brutal shot. Ospreay then wanted the hidden blade, but Takahashi collapsed before he could hit it. The ref checked up on Takahashi, but Ospreay pushed him away and started to lay into him with kicks to the face and midsection. Ospreay then put him in the corner and nailed a cheeky nandos kick. He kept him up and went for a move off the top, but Takahashi countered out of it with some chops. Hiromu went for a wheelbarrow bomb, but Ospreay counted, only for Hiromu to hit it anyway for a near fall. The two started to pick up the pace with Ospreay nailing an ensiguri and a robinson special, but Takahashi countered the Os Cutter. The two jockeyed for position, with Ospreay nailing Made in Japan for a near fall. He then nailed Takahashi with a shooting star press to the back for a near fall. And finally he hit the Os Cutter, but Takahashi still managed to kick out! Ospreay was pissed, and nailed a hook kick. He tried for the hidden blade, but Takahashi dodged and nailed a desperation pop up powerbomb. The two then exchanged stiff shots back and forth, with the last drops of their energy. Ospreay tried for the handspring ensiguri, but Takahashi caught him and nailed a german suplex for a near fall. Takahashi then tried for a lariat, but Ospreay caught him and set him up for Stormbreaker, only for Takahashi to nail an awesome Canadian destroyer for a near fall. Takahashi then planted Ospreay in the corner and nailed a pair of Superkicks when Ospreay followed him out. he tried for the time bomb, but Ospreay counter for the Stormbreaker again, but he couldn’t make it. Takahashi then ran the ropes, but Ospreay caught him with a Spanish fly for another near fall. Ospreay then nailed the Hidden Blade, but Takahashi still countered out of the Stormbreaker with a code read. Takahashi then nailed the Time Bomb, but Ospreay kicked out! So Takahashi picked him right back up and nailed a sort of package piledriver for the win. 

Grade: A+. A killer match. These moves were absolutely and phenomenally brutal. They pulled out all the stops and hit some of the stiffest and toughest moves that they’ve ever hit in pro wrestling. Ospreay played up the heel role to a T, coming across as a total asshole but also as a great final boss. All that work on the neck was totally brutal and it told an dangerous and great story. Now it’s time for Ospreay to move up to the heavyweights, because he really killed it. Takahashi was the same wild wrestler that he was a year and a half ago. And he debuted a brutal new finisher that looked awesome. These guys totally killed it, and I’m so happy that Takahashi is back. 

Jay White vs. Tetsuya Naito for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship: White immediately rolled out of the ring as the match started. He did this a couple of times, before Naito grabbed Gedo by the beard to lure White into the ring. They fought in the ring a bit, with Naito coming out on top. White retreated again, but Naito held the ropes open for him. White entered the ring and tried to kick Naito, but Naito saw it coming and gave him a leg sweep and a hangman’s neckbreaker out of the ring. The two then brawled back into the ring, with White only really gaining the advantage when Gedo held Naito’s leg. At one point, White crotched Naito on the ringpost, followed by Gedo nailing his knee with a chair. White continued to work over the knee and back of Naito on the outside. He continued the assault with an Indian Death Lock, with Naito barely making the ropes. The two continued to go hold for hold, with Naito locking in a full nelson with his legs, and slapped his head as he struggled. White quickly regained control with a stiff DDT, and continued to work on the midsection and knee. Naito started to return the favor and attack the knee back, but White continued to keep up the pressure with stiff knee strikes to midsection. Natio then started to focus on the neck with a neckbreaker on the knee. He then brought White to the top rope, but White escaped and swept his legs, sending his neck directly into the turnbuckle. White then trapped Naito’s bad knee in the ropes and kicked it over and over again, before nailing a dragonscrew leg whip. Naito started to collapse as he ran back and forth across the ring. Naito tried for the tornado DDT off the ropes, but he couldn’t hit it because of his knee, so White took advantage with a huge uranagi. White then dumped Naito onto the apron with a saito suplex, brought him back in the ring for a twisting suplex, and then hit the kiwi crusher, but Naito kicked out! Every time Naito started to fight back even a bit, White would unleash a devastating attack on the knees. White then locked in the TTO for a tense submission sequence where Naito just barely made it to the bottom rope. White pulled him back into the middle for the TTO again, but Naito spit in his face and gave him a boot, followed by a somersault kick. White tried to run the ropes, but Naito popped him up into a spinebuster. As Naito started to gain the advantage back, Gedo got up on the apron for a distraction. But Naito saw it coming and nailed White with an ensiguri and a tornado DDT off the middle rope. He took the battle to the top rope with a snap rana and then Gloria for a near fall. Naito went for the Destino, but White just sat down, so he nailed him in the face with a basement dropkick. Naito tried again, but the struggle sent Naito into Red Shoes and took the ref down. Gedo then tried for a chair shot, but ate a low blow instead, only for White to Low Blow Natio and then throw a chair right in his face. He followed it up with a pair of sleeper suplexes, only for Naito to nail a running Destino, but he couldn’t make the cover. They both made it to their feet and struggled for positioning on their finisher, with Naito nailing a poison rana, followed by a Destino, but White still kicked out! Naito picked White back up, and White nearly hit Blade Runner, but Naito just dropped him on his head and hit one last Destino for the win. 

Grade: A. This was some great storytelling matched with some really awesome looking moves and some awesome limb work. White was a great heel, working as a total dick to Naito and playing up the cheating at just the white times. Naito didn’t come off as an underdog so much as he cameo off as a victim of a brutal attack that he overcame in a spectacular way. The bumps were terrifying, but not to the point that they overshadowed some really good action and some amazing storytelling. Awesome stuff here, and I’m excited to see the conclusion of the Double Gold Dash. 

Kazuchika Okada vs. Kota Ibushi for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship: Okada came out in very short pants, but it still got a pop. The two started with some slower paced mat wrestling, showing some interesting counters and holds at a meticulous pace, until they hit a stalemate. Okada tried to break things up with a shoulder tackle, but Ibushi went right back up to his feet. The two then traded strikes, and Ibushi dodged a Rainmaker and nailed a series of strikes and a moonsault for a near fall. Ibushi kept up the pressure with some stiff kicks around the chest and stomach, but Okada brought it back with a flying elbow followed by a DDT. The two then fought to the outside as Okada gave Ibushi a draping DDT onto the floor. Back in the ring, Okada tried to provoke Ibushi into frustration but Ibushi didn’t fall for it, fighting a patient fight before drilling Okada with a dropkick. Okada took control back with a dropkick to the outside, before kicking Ibushi over the barricade and giving him a diving splash. Back in the ring, Okada worked over the neck with a brutal looking crossface until Ibushi made the ropes. Okada then nailed an elbow drop off the top, and hit the rainmaker pose. He spun Ibushi out, and Ibushi went for a backflip kick, but he under rotated and nearly landed on his head if Okada hadn’t kinda caught him. Okada then set him up for a tombstone, but Ibushi reversed into a wicked package piledriver. The two stood in opposite corners, and Okada went for a shotgun dropkick, but Ibushi caught it with a double stomp. Okada rolled to the outside, so Ibushi nailed him with the moonsault off the top to the floor. Okada then tried for a neckbreaker, but Ibushi countered out of it into a huge Last Ride. Ibushi then tried for the Bomboye, but Okada caught him with a huge dropkick and then a tombstone. He tried for the Rainmaker, but Ibushi collapsed into the ropes. Okdaa the showered him with strikes, which seemed to piss Ibushi off to no end. Ibushi just absorbed the shots and then starched Okada with a huge punch in the face. Okada then gave him a huge shotgun dropkick, but Ibushi got right back up and peppered Okada with huge punches and kicks. He didn’t even stop went Okada was down and defenseless in the corner. Ibushi then went for the deadlift German on the ropes, but Okada countered it and planted him on his head with a tombstone piledriver on the apron. Ibushi was nearly counted out, but he made it back in the ring at 19. Okada sprung the second that Ibushi hit the ring with a series of pins and neckbreakers, but Ibushi kicked out of all of them. So Okada slowly picked Ibushi up and nailed a high angle German suplex, and held the wrist for a rainmaker. As he went for the spinning rainmaker, Ibushi countered with a huge lariat of his own. He then put Okada on the apron and delivered the deadlift German off the second rope, but Okada still kicked out. Ibushi then tried for a lawn dart into the corner, but Okada countered with a spinning tombstone, and tried for the rainmaker, but Ibushi totally flattened him with a rainmaker of his own at the last second. Ibushi then showered the grounded Okada with kicks and a bomboye, but Okada kicked out at 1! So Ibushi nailed another bomboye to the back of the head, and Okada still kicked out. Ibushi followed up with a huge high kick and a Kamagoye, but Okada still managed to kick out! Ibushi went for the Kamagoye once again, but Okada was able to get to his feet and deliver a huge dropkick to counter it. The two then exchanged labored forearms on the ground, but they slowly rose to their feet, with the strikes getting harder and faster as they went, with Ibushi bringing Okada to his knees with a combination of slaps and kicks, followed by a triad of kicks to the head of the grounded Okada, and then collapsed himself. Ibushi then brought Okada to the top for an avalanche Tiger driver, but Okada nailed him with forearms until he fell off the top. Okada then went for a missile dropkick, but Ibushi caught him out of the air with powerbomb for a near fall. Ibushi then went for the Phoenix Splash, but he missed, allowing Okada to hit a pair of Rainmakers, but Ibushi kicked out right at the last second! Okada slowly dragged Ibushi up another two times for rainmakers, but on the third, Ibushi dodged it and nailed a high kick, followed by a V-trigger. Ibushi then tried for a piledriver, but Okada hit a sit out tombstone and then one last rainmaker to finish it off. 

Grade: A+. Phenomenal match. These guys didn’t go for the raw speed of the Junior Heavyweight match, but they delivered with a story about two equals who could barely keep up with each other. They destroyed each other with incredibly hard hits and stiff drops on the head. They destroyed each other’s necks over and over again, and Ibushi unleashed everything with his punches and kicks. It was an incredible match, and I cannot wait for the day when Ibushi eventually becomes the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, because it really will be glorious. Amazing match, match of the night. 

Overall Grade: B+

Predictions: 8/11

Pros: IWGP Tag Match; Texas death; Junior Heavyweight; Intercontinental; main event

Cons: opening tag, although it was cool nostalgia. 

[puroresu-musings]

NJPW WRESTLE KINGDOM 14 Night 1 Review (Jan 4th 2020, Tokyo Dome)

Togi Makabe, Tomoaki Honma, Yota Tsuji & Yuya Uemura vs. Toa Henare, Karl Fredericks, Clark Connors & Alex Coghlin  ***

Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima vs. Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi  **3/4

JUSHIN THUNDER LIGER RETIREMENT MATCH Ⅰ: Jushin Thunder Liger, Tatsumi Fujinami, The Great Sasuke & Tiger Mask vs. Naoki Sano, Shinjiro Otani, Tatsuhito Takaiwa & Ryusuke Taguchi  ***1/2

SANADA, EVIL, Shingo Takagi & BUSHI vs. Zack Sabre Jr.,Minoru Suzuki, Taichi & El Desperado  ***1/4

Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano & YOSHI-HASHI vs. KENTA, Bad Luck Fale, Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens  ***

IWGP HEAVYWEIGHT TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH: Guerrillas Of Destiny (c) vs. Juice Robinson & David Finlay  ***1/4+

IWGP US HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH/ TEXAS DEATH MATCH: Lance Archer (c) vs. Jon Moxley  ****

IWGP Jr. HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH: Will Ospreay (c) vs. Hiromu Takahashi  *****

IWGP INTERCONTINENTAL CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH: Jay White (c) vs. Tetsuya Naito  ****1/4

IWGP HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH: Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Kota Ibushi  *****

Photos.

Good Lord, was this a great pro wrestling show! It ran the emotional gamut and gave us trememendous matches aplenty, this was as close to perfect as a wrestling event gets in my opinion. After two very decent, but very brief, pre-show tags featuring a nice mix of Young Lions and NJPW Dads, the main show kicked off with the first of Jushin Thunder Liger’s retirement bouts. I loved this, and whilst I wouldn’t say it was a ���great” match, per say, everyone brought their working boots to make Liger’s farewell feel special, and they certainly succeeded. It was also great just to see some of these guys in the ring. The 40,000 plus in attendance were super into this, with Liger’s exchanges with Otani (who are two of my favourite workers ever) being the highlight. Everyone looked good here. Well, as good as some of them are going to look in 2020. Naoki Sano hit a big tope suicida, which was initially frightening, but was great to see, 66 year old Tatsumi Fujinami hit everyone with his patented Dragon Screw Leg Whip, and The Great Sasuke nearly killed himself twice on a Senton Atomico, before the ever-selfless Liger stared at the lights for a Taguchi Dodon at 8:52 of a super fun outing. Liger shook hands with everyone in the post match. It’s going to be sad watching Liger go, I can tell you. 

ZSJ submitted BUSHI with the Jim Breaks Special at 8:39 of a really good LIJ vs. Suzuki-gun 8 man. Zack and SANADA’s exchanges were the standout, hyping their British Title Match tomorrow, which should be excellent. Hirooki Goto pinned Yujiro with the GTR in another decent 8 minute multi-man. This was fun, but forgettable stuff with Ishii hitting a big vertical suplex on Fale getting the biggest pop. The WTL winners Juice Robinson and David Finlay defeated GOD to win the IWGP Tag Titles in yet another good outing. Finlay got the pin on Tama Tonga after an Acid Drop to win the belts. This was a feel good win, and anything that appears to shake up that ultra-stale tag division is a positive in my eyes. Next up, Lance Archer and Jon Moxley squared off in an excellent Texas Death Match for the US Title. This was a hard-hitting brawl which used the stipulation effectively, and featured a lot of plunder, some great brawling, and fortuitous hard-way juice. After surviving a Blackout onto four chairs, and a plastic bag induced EBD Claw, Mox hit a massive Death Rider DDT off the apron, through two tables, to regain the championship he never actually lost, at the 14:26 mark, when Archer couldn’t answer the 10 count. Great stuff here. In the post match, Moxley promised to beat Juice Robinson tomorrow. 

In what was a truly exceptional Junior Heavyweight Championship battle, Hiromu Takahashi overcame certain defeat, and won his precious “belt-san” back, in a sublime match with Will Ospreay. This had it all; sky-high emotional stakes, a great story and fantastic action. It also featured one of the most creative sequences I’ve ever seen in a match, when Ospreay went for the Sasuke Special, but Hiromu caught him and tried a German suplex on the floor, but Will flipped out onto his feet. He then charged at Takahashi, who countered into an overhead belly to belly throw, but Ospreay jumped through the ropes, doing a roll back into the ring, then finally hitting the Sasuke Special in a mind-blowing spot. The story here was Ospreay continually working over Hiromu’s neck (hitting several worrying double stomps to the back of his head), who did a tremendous sell-job throughout. Ospreay got a believable near fall with the Oscutter, which lead into the hot closing stretch. After scoring a near fall with a Canadian/Mexican Destroyer, Hiromu tried Time Bomb, but Will escaped, hits the hook kick and tries Stormbreaker, but Takahashi counters, and runs straight into a Spanish Fly for another near fall. Hidden Blade connects, which Hiromu sold beautifully, then Ospreay tried Stormbreaker again, but Hiromu reverses into a Code Red for a great near fall. Hiromu battles back, hitting Time Bomb, but Ospreay kicks at two to a massive pop. A lariat follows, then Hiromu hits his new finish; a leg capture Emerald Flowsion, which is tentatively being called Time Bomb II, to end a fab match at 24:33, and the win the belt. This was a fantastic comeback story, as the Junior Ace returns from a potential career ending injury and reclaims his throne. This had high expectations going in, but far exceeded them, and here’s hoping this signifies Ospreay’s jump to Heavyweight full-time as he’s realistically done all he can do in the Juniour division.

This left the Intercontinental Title outing between White and Naito with an awful lot to follow. They had an excellent pro wrestling bout that was completely unlike the match that preceeded it, but told just as good a story. Unfortunatley, as good as the match was, at 33:54, it was much too long, which hurt it somewhat. Jay destroyed Naito’s knackered knees, which will be the story of these two shows, but Naito made a valiant comeback, hitting a tope rope Frankensteiner, and Gloria for a near fall. He goes for Destino, but Switchblade slumps to the mat to prevent it, then shoves Naito into Red Shoes for the prerequisite ref bump. This was Gedo’s cue to run in, but Naito sent him packing with a low blow, but Jay hits a low blow of his own, goes for Blade Runner, but Naito hits a Dragon Suplex. Gedo in again, this time with a chair, but is again sent packing. White throws the abandoned chair into Naito’s face however, which he takes full force, then takes the Sleeper Suplex. Naito hits a Destino out of nowhere for the double down, then hits a reverse rana and another Destino for a great near fall. Naito tried another Destino, but Jay counters into a Blade Runner attempt, but Naito reverses that into Valentia, then hits another Destino to win the belt, and head into the winner-takes-all match tomorrow. I will say that one thing New Japan do really well is protect finishers. Whenever White went for Blade Runner, the crowd, who were 100% behind Naito, gasped in horror every time, as if Jay hits the move, the match is over.

Which brought us to the main event, which was the best match of the night, very probably the best match of the entire year (I’m aware we’re only 4 days in), and one of the best matches I’ve ever seen. Both guys came out in new gear, with Okada looking like a God in his entrance, so you knew this was going to be special. It started slow but built into an absoulutely epic match. Okada hits the dropkick off the top to the floor, then his big dive over the barricade, then in the ring locks on Red Ink, a move he hasn’t used in forever, showing he’s going to the old tricks drawer to try and beat Ibushi, who of course beat him in the G1. Ibushi escapes a Rainmaker attempt and tries a Moonsault dropkick, (which saw him land right ontop of his head), but Okada catches him in a Tombstone, only for Ibushi to reverse that into a Bastard Driver. Okada tries John Woo, but Kota counters into a big double stomp, then hits the Golden Triangle to the floor, and scores a near fall with the Last Ride. Okada starts unloading with European Uppercuts, but Ibushi no-sells them, getting the “psycho look” in his eyes. Kota starts teeing off with hard palm-strikes, kicks and punches, Okada fores back with John Woo, but Ibushi pops right up and floors the champion with more strikes. He goes for the deadlift German off the ropes, but Okada counters into a nasty Tombstone onto the apron, but Ibushi makes it in at 19. Okada hits Heavy Rain (another old classic), then the German rolled through into a spinning Rainmaker attempt, but Ibushi escapes with a Lariat. Kota finally hits the deadlift German off the apron into the ring, which Okada lands right on his head for, for a near fall, then tries the lawndart, but Okada turns it into a spinning Tombstone. A Rainmaker is turned into a huge Ibushi Lariat, who then hits a Boma Ye, but Okada kicks at one! Another to the back follows, as does a big head kick, then Ibushi nails Kamigoye, but again the champion gets the shoulder up at 2.999 as the Dome goes crazy. Ibushi drops the knee pad and tries another, but Okada counters into an amazing dropkick. Okada escapes a top rope Tiger Driver and attempts a missile dropkick, but Ibushi catches him in a sitout powerbomb for a great near fall, then goes up top for the Phoenix Splash, but Okada moves. Okada hits a spinning Rainmaker, then another Rainmaker, but Ibushi kicks out as the crowd goes crazy. Ibushi counters another Rainmaker attempt with another big head kick, then hits a V-Trigger. He goes for Kamigoye again, but Okada counters into a Fire Thunder Driver, then hits Rainmaker to end an absolutely outstanding match at the 39:16 mark. This was just exceptional stuff that perfectly played off spots in all of their previous meetings.

Naito came out in the post match and he promised to win tomorrow, saying its his perfect chance to beat him at the Dome. I’m amazed Okada is even able to go tomorrow after this match. Okada says “no chance”, and thanks Ibushi. He also says he wants even more people in the Dome tomorrow to see the double Title Match. I can’t believe there’s another of these shows to go. What a time to be alive.

NDT

[gdwessel]

G1 Climax 30 Night 12 - 10/8/2020; Tanahashi Appears On AEW Dynamite Along With Footage from Archer v. Moxley at WK14

The sixth day of B Block matches has come and gone, and you can see it now on NJPWWorld.

- 10/8/2020, Okayama ZIP Arena

Gabriel Kidd d. Yuya Uemura (Double-Arm Suplex, 8:47) 

G1 Climax 30 B Block: Hirooki Goto [CHAOS] d. YOSHI-HASHI [CHAOS] (GTR, 14:12)

G1 Climax 30 B Block: Zack Sabre Jr. [SZKG] d. Toru Yano [CHAOS] (Figure Four Heel Hook, 12:20)

G1 Climax 30 B Block: SANADA [Los Ingobernables] d. KENTA [Bullet Club] (O’Connor Bridge, 11:24)

G1 Climax 30 B Block: Tetsuya Naito [Los Ingobernables] d. Juice Robinson (Destino, 25:01)

G1 Climax 30 B Block: EVIL [Bullet Club] d. Hiroshi Tanahashi (EVIL STO, 19:58)

EVIL and SANADA both continue their runs, as they face each other on the final day. Naito wins, but we all know he isn’t winning the Block or the tournament. Remember the good old days of last week when Toru Yano was winning matches in ridiculous fashion?

Current B Block standings:

Naito: 10pts (5W 0D 1L) EVIL: 8pts (4W 0D 2L) Tanahashi: 6pts (3W 0D 3L) Robinson: 6pts (3W 0D 3L) SANADA: 6pts (3W 0D 3L) Sabre: 6pts (3W 0D 3L) Goto: 6pts (3W 0D 3L) Yano: 6pts (3W 0D 3L) KENTA: 4pts (2W 0D 4L) YOSHI-HASHI: 2pts (1W 0D 5L)

YOSHI-HASHI is eliminated from contention at this stage. KENTA is next to go as it stands. There is a logjam of wrestlers on 6 points, but as with prior years in G1, you can “read the booking” for the last day of matches and see who will actually still be in contention at that point. 

Last night’s episode of AEW Dynamite was interesting for many reasons (not least of which, the dog collar match between Cody Rhodes v. Brodie Lee). 

The episode was focused on Chris Jericho’s 30th anniversary as a wrestler, and through the night, videotaped tributes were shown from such, erm, luminaries as Bubba Ray Dudley, Dennis Miller and Gene Simmons. But also, Ultimo Dragon, and Hiroshi Tanahashi!

Tanahashi is understandable, since he and Jericho just wrestled back in January at Wrestle Kingdom 14. And if you want someone from NJPW to pay tribute to Jericho, you could do worse than the Ace. At the same time, the Lion Mark was clearly displayed on AEW TV. And that wasn’t all.

In addition, promos were cut by both current AEW World Champion, and IWGP US Heavyweight Champion, Jon Moxley, and his challenger on next week’s episode of Dynamite, Lance Archer. Both had images and footage from their match at WK14, the IWGP US title Texas Deathmatch that was the scene of Mox winning the belt. 

Excalibur would later directly reference Gedo and NJPW on commentary during the main event, while earlier on during a promo, Kenny Omega made a not-very-oblique reference to his winning G1 Climax at the first time of asking way back in 2016.

All of these put together make a very interesting proposition. Add to that, the fact NJPW will be gaining a new President/CEO on 10/23/2020 as Harold Meij steps aside for Takami Ohbari, and one might think something official was brewing between AEW and NJPW. But as ever, we shall see. There is nothing official yet, but it’s a question that keeps coming up, and maybe now we’ll get a definitive answer.

(On a very related note, last night I dropped the one-year anniversary episode, which happens to be episode 50, of my weekly AEW Dynamite review show, Boom Goes The Dynamite, on the PWOM Podcast Network, so go check that out if so inclined!)

The crew takes a day off tomorrow, before resuming A Block matches.

- 10/10/2020, Osaka EDION Arena

Yota Tsuji v. Yuya Uemura

G1 Climax 30 A Block: Tomohiro Ishii [CHAOS] v. Jeff Cobb [FREE]

G1 Climax 30 A Block: Jay White [Bullet Club] v. Yujiro Takahashi [Bullet Club]

G1 Climax 30 A Block: Will Ospreay [CHAOS] v. Taichi [SZKG]

G1 Climax 30 A Block: Kota Ibushi v. Minoru Suzuki [SZKG]

G1 Climax 30 A Block: Kazuchika Okada [CHAOS] v. Shingo Takagi [Los Ingobernables]

[wrestlingisfake]

Destruction in Kobe preview

Tetsuya Naito vs. Jay White - Naito is defending the IWGP intercontinental championship.  White pinned Naito in the G1 Climax, eliminating Naito from the tournament and earning White this title match.  There’s a decent chance the winner of this match will defend the title at Wrestle Kingdom 14, seeing as there probably won’t be many more title matches between now and January.

Naito’s goal for months has been to hold the intercontinental title long enough to also secure the IWGP heavyweight title and be the first double champion with those two belts.  His best chance to do that was to win the G1 Climax, but Kota Ibushi won the tournament to qualify for the heavyweight title match at Wrestle Kingdom.  Since Ibushi lost the intercontinental title to Naito, and since he has a particular fondness for that belt, and since Wrestle Kingdom 14 is a two-day event, Kota suggested that he could challenge for the heavyweight belt on January 4 and then the winner could face the intercontinental champion on January 5 in a double title match.  That obviously got Naito’s attention. 

It looks like White also took notice.  Since he didn’t win the G1 Climax, the earliest opportunity he will have to regain the heavyweight title would be if he’s in the possible double title match on January 5.  (If it happens--technically it hasn’t been officially announced.)  But to be in that match he has to have the intercontinental title, which means he needs to beat Naito for it.  To that end, he attacked Naito on August 25 and declared his “destino” to be the first double champion.

The Big Five in New Japan this year are Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Tetsuya Naito, Kota Ibushi, and Jay White.  (White’s mainly at that level because he filled in for the role of Kenny Omega earlier this year; it’s not clear if this current storyline was originally mapped out for Kenny.)  We already know Okada-Ibushi for the heavyweight title is set for Wrestle Kingdom, and Tanahashi vs. Chris Jericho is also clearly pencilled in.  So it’s a safe bet we’ll get White-Naito for the intercontinental title on January 4, with the winner facing the winner of Okada-Ibushi on January 5.  The only real question is whether Naito or White will enter the Tokyo Dome as the champion.  This match will likely decide that.

With all that in mind, I think it makes the most sense for White to win the title here, so Naito can earn his way into a rematch.  On the other hand, White is 1-0 against Naito in singles matches, so a Naito victory here would set up a rubber match in January.  But the image of White gloating at all of us with his shiny new belt for the next three months is just too perfect to pass up.  It’s Jay’s time now.

Hirooki Goto vs. Shingo Takagi - This is a rematch from their G1 Climax match on August 11, which Shingo won.  Takagi entered New Japan as a junior heavyweight and just went sickhouse on everybody’s ass.  Then he entered the G1, had a respectable 4-5 record, and said “fuck it, I’m a full-time heavyweight now.”  Meanwhile, Goto returned from a stint at the LA Dojo with a head of steam, going 5-4 in the G1 Climax.  If Goto is going to finish 2019 in a better position than last year, he needs to start by avenging his loss to Shingo.  That won’t be easy.

Their previous match was intense as fuck and very well reviewed.  This one is going to come down to which guy is getting a big push.  If Shingo is on track for a title run next year, he should probably just go 2-0 on Goto and move on to bigger stars.  The thing is, these two are so similar that there’s no real reason to push them both, so if Goto is fed to Shingo I don’t see any point to rehabbing him for some other storyline.  In short, Goto needs this win a little more than Shingo.  I can’t really be sure which one will get it.

Kazuchika Okada & Kota Ibushi & Robbie Eagles vs. SANADA & EVIL & BUSHI - Okada and Sanada are on course for a title match on October 14.  Now that Ibushi has defended his G1 title match contract against Kenta, Evil is next in line, so those two have a match coming down the line, which hasn’t been scheduled yet.  This could go either way, but count on Bushi or Eagles eating the pin.

KENTA & Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa & El Phantasmo & Taiji Ishimori vs. Will Ospreay & SHO & YOH & Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI - Roppongi 3K (Yoh and Sho) lost the junior tag title to Phantasmo and Ishimori a while back, but then everything got shook up on September 16 when Yoh pinned Tama Tonga.  Now R3K are in line for a heavyweight tag title match against the Guerillas of Destiny, who had just successfully defended against Ishii and Yoshi on September 15 with help from Kenta.  GOD is probably pretty pissed about it, and I would expect them to be on the warpath here.

Meanwhile, Phantasmo is looking to challenge Ospreay for the junior singles title at some point, and Kenta doesn’t have a challenger for his NEVER openweight title.  I could see someone pinning Kenta to set up a title match, but I don’t really see any of these guys doing it.  The smart money is on Yoshi losing this match.

Hiroshi Tanahashi & Jushin Thunder Liger & Rocky Romero & Tiger Mask vs. Minoru Suzuki & Zack Sabre, Jr. & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & DOUKI - Things are still heating up between Liger and Suzuki, although we still don’t know when they’re going to build to a singles match.  Suzuki managed to pull off Liger’s mask last week so I am more certain than ever (I was already pretty certain) that Liger is going to flip the fuck out and turn into Kishin Liger.  Could that happen tonight???  I mean, it could, but it could have happened half a dozen times before now, and it still could happen at King of Pro Wrestling or Power Struggle.  So my big question is, how much shit can Jushin Liger take before he loses his mind?  As for this match, I guess Douki or Tiger Mask loses, and between the two of them Douki is the bigger jobber.

Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma & Toa Henare vs. Bad Luck Fale & Chase Owens & Yujiro Takahashi - This is a trios match and Makabe is one of the NEVER trios champions, but he never actually teams with the other two champions anymore, so this isn’t a title match.  Anyway, forget all that shit, what matters is that Fale and Chase spent most of the G1 Climax tour talking up their plans to STORM AREA 51 to BEAT UP ALIENS.  I mean, that Storm Area 51 thing was kind of a dumb joke, but when BAD LUCK FALE is telling you about it, it seems a little more important.  They made a shirt and everything! 

So anyway these guys would have had about 48 hours to get from the 9/20 Kyoto show to Las Vegas, storm Area 51, and then fly back to Kobe for this match, so I am real real curious what they’re gonna tell us about that trip.  I assume Kevin Kelly will do his duty and try to get some comments from them about it.  I was about to say “before they get clobbered in this match” but actually for once they may be the favorites to win, so maybe the real aliens were Makabe, Honma, and Henare all along!

Syota Umino vs. Karl Fredericks - This is one of two Young Lion Cup tournament matchs on the card, and the last night of the tournament.  Umino and Fredericks are in a three-way tie with Ren Narita at 10 points.  Knowing how New Japan books these things, I would guess it all comes down to who wins this match.  My man Shooter Umino controls his own destiny, so if he wins this match he wins the tournament no matter what else happens.  Fredericks needs to win this match and he needs Narita to not win.  The big story of the tournament has been the New Japan dojo guys having a beef with the gaijin from the LA Dojo and Bad Luck Fale’s dojo.  It’s not New Gaijin Pro Wrestling so I’m pretty sure a Japanese guy is going to win, and my money is on the Shooter.

Ren Narita vs. Clark Connors - This is the other Young Lion Cup tournament match.  Connors can’t win the tournament even if he wins this match.  Narita could win, but he needs to win this match and he needs Umino to not win.  Ren doesn’t have to lose this match, but if he does Umino-Fredericks is for all the marbles, so I’m very sure that Connors will win to make that possible.

Yuji Nagata & Yota Tsuji & Yuya Uemura vs. Manabu Nakanishi & Alex Coughlin & Michael Richards - Once again Nagata and Nakanishi are teaming with all the Young Lion Cup guys that don’t have tournament matches on this card.  I could see Nakanishi’s team winning just to let Coughlin and Richards have a little moment before they go back home, but NJPW prides itself on making these guys suffer so maybe not.

[cousinmarcustalkswrestling]

A Cousin’s Review - NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 15 Night Two

January 5, 2021

Toru Yano vs Bad Luck Fale vs Chase Owens vs Bushi - Fatal Four Way - 2021 KOPW Trophy

These were the last four of the New Japan Rumble and the winner is the current 2021 KOPW Trophy. Fale and Owens are both Bullet Club so they instantly do a Too Sweet of Doom to have Fale steal the title. Fun and goofy little opener. Of course, Yano takes off the turnbuckle pad. Bushi is kind of out of place here, Ishii might’ve been a better pick to make it an unofficial Bullet Club vs CHAOS match, plus I can realistically see Ishii being double champ with those two titles. Owens goes for a pin at one point and Chase stops him and goes for his own pin, then Fale stops him. BULLET CLUB IMPLOSION!! While they argue and attempt to attack the ref, Yano lowblows them both and pins Bushi. BAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!

**

El Desperado and Yoshinobu Kanemaru (CHAMPS) vs Ryusuke Taguchi and Master Wato - Jr Heavyweight Tag Titles

El Desperado is coming off an amazing performance against Hiromu Takahashi in the Best of the Super Junior Final. Kanemaru was supposed to be in the tournament, but he was injured throughout it. That has absolutely no bearing on this match, but you absolutely have to see Hiromu vs Desperado. This is a fun match, Wato starts off by flattening Desperado with multiple planchas. Taguchi becomes the face in peril and we get some of his fun antics like his infinite rope running, but Despy and Kane are in no mood for games and they’re super nasty targeting Taguchi’s leg. Taguchi makes a comeback and Wato assists gaining some nearfalls, but Desperado catches the ref distracted and straight cold cocks Taguchi then ends it with Pinche Loco. Good solid match.

***

Shingo Takagi (CHAMP) vs Jeff Cobb - NEVER Openweight Title

Shingo reclaimed the NEVER title from Minoru Suzuki at Power Struggle. Cobb set this up by attacking Shingo at the Super Juniors/World Tag League final. Cobb is a heel and apart of Will Ospreay’s Empire, so he’s much nastier now. I knew this would slap, because they’re both great hosses, but this heavily exceeded my expectations. They start out with a slugfest and Shingo quickly finds out he’s at a strength disadvantage when Cobb kicks out of a pin attempt and Shingo flies a few feet in the air, then Cobb slings him with a deadlift belly to belly on the outside. Cobb is so ridiculous that he teases a Razor’s Edge from the apron to the floor, but Shingo slips out, knocks him off the apron, and follows that with a somersault senton!! How old is Shingo again?!?!

Shingo’s back is too hurt for a Noshigami and Cobb drills him with a pretty Razor’s bomb. This is the hossfest to end all hossfests as these two recklessly toss each other around.Shingo is at the disadvantage and every time he manages to land something big on Cobb, it takes so much out of him and his selling is tremendous. He gets drilled with a German and rebounds with a lariat, but he immediately falls right out of the ring. Shingo eventually has to chop block Cobb’s knee and it pays off rather quickly when Cobb hits Tour of the Islands, but can’t immediately cover. Cobb tries to end Shingo with a superplex, but Shingo slips out and powerbombs him. Shingo desperately pulls Cobb’s hair to block another Tour, so Cobb casually gives him a full rotation fallaway slam. Shingo can’t get enough mustard on his Pumping Bombers, but he gives it one last go, turns Cobb inside out with a Pumping Bomber and ends it with Last of the Dragon.

This was start to finish fantastic power wrestling with storytelling, psychology, and selling. A must-see match.

****3/4

Sanada vs Evil

From something amazing to something I don’t really care for. The story is all the way there for this to be great; Former tag partners, one turns on the other, and they actually just met in a super high stakes match in the G1, so this is an even grudgier grudge match. But Sanada is a pretty emotionless guy who needs someone interesting to play off and Evil had a terrible G1 rife with annoying interference and the good matches he did have were because of energetic babyfaces like Naito, Tanahashi, Goto etc. One more thing, I hate how commentary is underplaying Sanada and saying he really needs this win to get into title contention. Has everybody forgotten that he actually beat Naito in the G1??

Sanada actually comes in super energetic and puts Evil in the Paradise lock relatively early. Evil muddies things up on the outside and of course gets some assistance from Dick Togo. SMH. They have a decent back and forth and Evil lands a big ol superplex then goes right to the Scorpion Death Lock, but Sanada gets the ropes. Darkness Falls from Evil gets two, TKO from Sanada gets two. Evil ducks the moonsault, escapes Skull End and rakes his eyes. Ref bump, Dick Togo interference, I DON’T CARE!! Sanada survives Togo interference and chokes Evil out with Skull End. He lands one moonsault to the back, but the second gets nothing but knees. Sanada works his way into Skull End, but garbage ass Evil has to cheat again and Dick Yogo tries to garrote him. Dick Togo takes a phony bumb through a table. Sanada blocks a lowblow and hits Evil with Everything is Evil. A pop-up TKO and another moonsault ends it.

The work was solid and Sanada was motivated, but the formulaic Evil/Togo nonsense annoyed me to no end. Better than the sum of its parts though, I can’t lie.

**3/4

Taiji Ishimori (CHAMP) vs Hiromu Takahashi - Jr Heavyweight Title

These two have excellent chemistry and history that now goes back a few years. Hiromu beat Taiji in a brilliant match in the 2018 Best of the Super Juniors Finals. Then a month later, he broke his neck and was out until late 2019. At Wrestle Kingdom 14, he beat Will Ospreay and reclaimed the Jr Heavyweight Title. At Summer Struggle in Jingu, Taiji beat Hiromu in a great rematch. On the first night of 2020’s Best of the Super Junior Tournament, Hiromu beat Taiji in another great match. Hiromu won the whole tournament then beat El Phantasmo on Night 1 to set up this rematch.

I probably should rewatch all their matches, before I watch this one, but nah. It starts super hot like usual with Hiromu teasing a German suplex on the apron. Taiji flips away from it, but runs directly into a hard powerbomb on the apron. Hiromu tries to show off and run the long ass ramp to a dropkick, but Taiji slams him in a messy spot. Taiji uses the exposed turnbuckle to attack Hiromu’s back and neck, but Hiromu comes back with a wheelbarrow slam on the floor and a running dropkick against the gate. Taiji catches Hiromu with the sliding German and a springboard 450 right on the arm then he immediately goes to the Bone Lock, but Hiromu makes the ropes. Taiji stays aggressive, but Hiromu catches him Taiji with the belly to belly throw to the corner then the DVD into the corner. They have a lightning fast sequence where Taiji gets a big boot, but handsprings into a German suplex. Taiji rebounds with a Destroyer then they slug it out.

Hiromu is too stubborn to die so Taiji goes for a true kill and crushes him with like 40 straight forearms that get progressively stiffer and scarier. Its by far the most violent thing I’ve seen in a New Japan junior match. After beating Hiromu to a pulp, he goes back to beating the shit out of the arm, then locking in the Bone Lock as Hiromu bleeds from the nose. Hiromu just barely gets his foot on the ropes. Hiromu armdrags away from Bloody Cross then counters another Bone Lock attempt to a flatliner. He turns Taiji inside out with a hard lariat then drives him into the exposed turnbuckles. Time Bomb gets two. Taiji counters another attempt and after a struggle, he locks in the Bone Lock once again. He tries to twist the Bone Lock into the Bloody Cross, but Hiromu gets another flatlioner suplex and ends it with the Time Bomb 2.

Ending was anticlimactic and I felt like they could’ve got even hotter, but definitely a great match. Just great action, great display of brutality by Taiji, and a great selling performance by Hiromu. And just taking a gander at the BOTSJ standings, it’d look like Sho has a strong chance of being the next challenger but because he’s the only person besides Desperado to beat Hiromu. We’ll see. Hiromu is suuuuuuuper high in whatever best wrestler in the world list you make.

****1/4

Kota Ibushi (CHAMP) vs Jay White - Heavyweight and Intercontinental Title

Quite the rivalry between these two. Ibushi beat White in a great match to win the 2019 G1 Climax. Then White beat Ibushi three straight times. First at Wrestle Kingdom in a loser vs loser match, then in the G1 in a great match, and finally at Power Struggle with the challenge briefcase on the line. Ibushi finally won the big one by beating Naito on night one, but can he keep it?

Of course, Jay starts by bailing to the outside. Gedo leaps on the apron and Jay surprisingly tells him not to do anything and that he’s gonna do this on his own. Of course like 20 seconds later, Gedo trips Ibushi up and Jay uses it to take over. What a bastard. White targets Ibushi’s neck with a draping DDT and a high backdrop on the apron. White consistently switches body parts to attack as the match goes along, first transitioning from neck to torso.

Ibushi comes back with a powerslam, but White has the moonsault scouted and crotches him then gives him a dragon screw. Ibushi elbows out of a Uranage attempt and snap ranas Jay out of the ring, but his leg gives going for thje Golden Triangle Moonsault and Jay knocks him off the apron. Jay’s varied attack adds so much to everything high impact because its affecting a body part that Jay has already targeted in some form. White tries to strike with Ibushi and predictably gets wrecked. They counter rolls ups and Ibushi stuffs him with the bastard driver. White dodges Boma Ye and hits a sick backdrop suplex, but he runs into a suplex and gets cracked by a Boma Ye that gets two. White punches out of the Golden Powerbomb and tries the rope-assisted backslide that beat Ibushi at Power Struggle but the ref catches it. White’s cheating attempt infuriates Ibushi and he wrecks White with kicks.

Gedo distracts Ibushi from a Phoenix Splash attempt and Jay tries a sleeper superplex, but Ibushi fights him away. White redirects his target to the leg with Dragon Screws and locks in the TTO, but Ibushi gets to the ropes. White slaps at Ibushi and Ibushi becomes God and wrecks him to the point that Jay just lays there and tells Ibushi to pin him. Ibushi gets a little too wild and knocks the ref away and White gets a low blow. White drills Ibushi’s back into the rail telling Ibushi “Fuck You!” every time, then he forearms him to death on the outside and waits for Ibushi to come to him. Ibushi drags his body back in and Jay immediately gives him an STO and a few brutal German suplexes. He wants to German him on the apron, but Ibushi kicks him away and pulls him in with a German from the apron to inside.

Golden Powerbomb only gets two. Jay counters Kamigoye to a hard suplex right on Ibushi’s head then another. Ibushi counters the Blade Runner to a backslide transition to Kamigoye, but Jay kicks out. Ibushi hits the beautiful Phoenix splash, but punk ass Gedo pulls the referee out. Gedo tries to hit Ibushi with brass knuckles, but he eats Kamigoye. Ibushi brings Red Shoes in and immediately eats Blade Runner but he kicks out. I totally saw that one coming and thats not a knock at all. White locks in the TTO again and man Ibushi sells the hell out of it. The closer Ibushi scoots towards the ropes, Jay looks like he’s gonna bust into tears. Ibushi finally gets the ropes and tries a V Trigger out of nowhere, but White counters to another Regalplex for two. Bloody Sunday sets up the Blade Runner, but Ibushi cracks him with a V Trigger. Two more V Triggers, a Kamigoye TO THE BACK OF THE FUCKING HEAD, THEN A KAMIGOYE TO THE FRONT OF THE FUCKING HEAD ends this epic match.

Wow. This was absolutely excellent. Down the stretch, I kept thinking “Man, this feels like a Bret Hart match!” The patience they had to just tell their story and stick to the psychology and not just kick it up a notch for the sake of kicking it up is ridiculously commendable. White’s strategy and characterization was excellent and Ibushi simultaneously looked indestructible while also selling how he was gradually being chopped down by White. Brilliant match and clearly best of both nights.

*****

OVERALL: Big step up from a really good day one to an excellent day two. The KOPW match and Sanada/Evil were just aight. Jr tag was good and three matches that I would’ve bet on being bangers all banged. Hiromu/Taiji Part 4 might be their best work since the first one, Shingo/Cobb was an epic hossfest, and Ibushi/White was an epic storytelling clinic. Awesome show.

OVERALL RATING: 4.5 OUTTA 5

[vulturehound]

NJPW: Wrestle Kingdom 14 Night Two Review (05/01/20)

(more…)

[spoilerfreewrestling-blog]

NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 11 Match Ratings: Tiger Mask W vs Tiger the Dark **1/2 Young Bucks (c) vs Roppongi Vice ***1/2 Kojima, Ricochet, Finlay (c) vs Sanada, Evil, Bushi vs Hashi, Ospreay, Jado vs Fale, Takahashi, Page ***1/4 Juice Robinson vs Cody *1/2 Kyle O’Reilly (c) vs Adam Cole *** Guerillas of Destiny (c) vs CHAOS vs Great Bash Heel ***1/2 Kushida (c) vs Hiromu Takahashi **** Katsuyori Shibata (c) vs Hirooki Goto ****1/2  Tetsuya Naito (c) vs Hiroshi Tanahashi ****1/2 Kazuchika Okada (c) vs Kenny Omega ***** Show Rating: 10/10 Review and results inside

Wednesday, January 4th, 2017. Wrestle Kingdom 11. This was a show surrounded in hype by all fans of professional wrestling. Both the semi and main events going in were assumed to be modern classics. All assumptions were made true with what New Japan Pro Wrestling provided the world that day. Starting off the show was the New Japan Rumble. The returning Michael Elgin reigned victorious but aside from that there were fun surprises by living legends Kuniaki Kobayashi, Hiro Saito and Scott Norton. This was a fun kick off to the main show. Speaking of main show, starting it was a match based off the Tiger Mask W anime. Wrestlers Kota Ibushi and ACH played the roles of Tiger Mask W and Tiger the Dark respectively. The match only went 6:33 but it was inoffensive fun for what it was. Next up was the battle for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships between Bullet Club’s Young Bucks and CHAOS’ Roppongi Vice. These were two teams who knew each other well and were running around dodging each other’s shenanigans. Beretta nearly killed himself on a dive that connected with no one. In the end Vice out smarted the Bucks and won the titles at 13:18. As a result Rocky Romero became the winningest holder of the title with seven reigns. The battle for the NEVER 6-Man Championship consisted of four three-man teams in a gauntlet match where two teams face off, once one is eliminated another enters. Bullet Club’s team got the elimination of CHAOS via Jado leading to LIJ making quick work of BC, resulting in a final face off of LIJ versus the champions, New Japan Army. LIJ proved to be too much when Evil pinned Satoshi Kojima in the middle of the ring at 16:14 to become NEVER 6-Man Champions. This being Sanada’s first reign with a NJPW title. Bullet Club’s newest member, Cody, made his NJPW debut against the lovable Juice Robinson. The match wasn’t good, very sloppy and uninteresting character work by Cody. I couldn’t wait for this one to end. It finally did at 9:37 with the newest Bullet Club member getting the win. Speaking of Bullet Club, Adam Cole was up next looking to win the ROH Championship for a record breaking third time. He did so in just over ten minutes, defeating his rival of years, Kyle O’Reilly, who may be off on his way to WWE now that his ROH obligations are up. This was a good albeit weak looking win if the rumors of O’Reilly’s departure is true. Up next was the match for the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. Champions G.O.D. faced off with G1 Tag League winners G.B.H. The team of CHAOS entered themselves into this match when the returning Toru Yano stole the titles and Tag League trophies. This was a fast paced sprint from beginning to end. It was a lot of fun to watch with Yano winning for his team via shenanigans at 12:22. This feud won’t be ending any time soon. Many believe the division is weak. The addition of Yano may not make match quality better but it will help interest in the coming months. A match that I was especially looking forward to was next. The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship match between Kushida and Hiromu Takahashi. This one was a bit shaky as the two couldn’t quite hit their groove without a few slip ups ruining the momentum. Although it ended up being a bit of a disappointment, the match was still very good, it just had potential to be a lot better. Takahashi gets another win for the LIJ as he beats Kushida in 16:14. The storied rivalry between old friends, Shibata and Goto continued at WK11 with their fight for the NEVER Openweight Championship. These two went out there with a goal to kill each other. Goto is known as a man who gets so close but can’t seem to get the big one. His old schoolmate and best friend has found success in the NEVER division and Goto was out there to play spoiler. And that he did. Shibata and Goto beat each other up for sixteen minutes and I couldn’t be more pleased with how this match went. Shibata was visibly pissed that he lost yet again to Goto at a Wrestle Kingdom.   Up until this point in the show, every title match ended with the challenger beating the champion. Would that continue when the ace, Hiroshi Tanahashi took on LIJ leader, Tetsuya Naito? No. Each LIJ member ended the night holding a championship. Still, the two had an absolute classic as the polar opposites faced off in an absolute war, clocking in at just over 25 minutes. They went after each other hard and not only did the ace lose, he lost to a man who doesn’t even care about the title he fought for. Now time for the main event. The ace of CHAOS, IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada, defended the top title of NJPW against the ace of Bullet Club, Kenny Omega. Omega was the first ever westerner to win the G1 Climax, which got him this shot at main eventing the biggest show on the NJPW calendar. Okada is coming of a WK10 win over old ace, Hiroshi Tanahashi. This was his chance to show he deserves to be the new ace and cement himself in the position. Okada and Omega had what could only be described as an all time classic. They went over 45 minutes, absolutely abusing their bodies for the better half of an hour. And I couldn’t love them more for it. Much was made about Omega not deserving this spot at Wrestle Kingdom. He silenced all those people with this performance. Many people throw around the word classic. The more reviews I publish here you’ll realize that I’m not one of those people. This is without a single doubt a modern wrestling classic and a perfect way to end a spectacular show. So that’s it, that was Wrestle Kingdom 11. It consisted of one of the best under cards followed by three classic matches back-to-back-to-back. CHAOS and LIJ come out holding all of the NJPW gold. Tomorrow’s New Year Dash will be interesting to see how things shake up.

[neoraven]

some partial movie and wrestling reviews

I don’t want to finish these, but I don’t want to just delete them either! It’s a few short sentence/reviews of movie, and half a wrestling show review/start from January of this year. I should go back and watch/review fully all the wrestling from January to Quarantine at some point. 

Here are a bunch of movies I've watched in the last while. I was going to rank them or rate them, but I'll just write a few words about each. They're roughly in chronological order, spanning the last few weeks (months?) or so.

MacGruber - I love this stupid, stupid movie. From every wrestler cameo to Val Kilmer's performance.

Geostorm - Speaking of stupid movies. Granted, this was a while ago, but I barely remember anything about this one. But I am certain I watched it. And Gerard Butler saved the world or something somehow.

Austin Powers 3 - I started this to just enjoy the opening credits thing, but ended up watching the whole thing. It's kinda bad, and ages the worst out of the trilogy, but Goldmember is way funnier than Fat Bastard.

The Other Guys - Michael Keaton gives such a bizarre and hilarious performance in this one, especially the TLC monologue. Also I'm always caught off guard by the ending credits / climax being an overt anti wall street / capitalism message.

Reno 911 Miami - Another one that I started only for the opening joke / cameo (I wanted more of The Rock after Other Guys, obviously), but watched the rest. I was never a huge fan of Reno 911, but I generally liked everything I saw, including this movie!

Scary Movie 2 -This was real bad

Wet Hot American Summer - Really funny and great background watching for anything. I think I was watching this after Oscars season for Bradley Cooper.

The Fate of The Furious (8) - Charlize Theron is such a badass in this. Also, more The Rock.

Avengers Infinity War- All these movies suck, I'm a moron and watch them anyways so I can be part of the ~discourse~.

Ghost Ship - I started this just for the opening part, and managed to actually turn it off. I'm not proud of not watching the whole movie, but it is what it is. It is really one hell of a wild first 8 minutes or so of this movie.

Ant Man & The Wasp - Okay, I take it back about the all of them sucking, I like Paul Rudd and this was mostly fun and enjoyable and the MCU would be better if most of the movies were more fun.

Triple Frontier - This is a kinda surprisingly deep and slow-burning shooty heist war thriller. Those are a lot of buzzwords, but it's pretty wild. I liked Ben Affleck in this! Everyone else is fine, too.

Avengers Endgame - Now we're back at all these movies suck. The opening is pretty interesting, to be honest, but then everything just slides back into a slog with all the barrage of characters and time heist, and versions of characters until your mind is leaking out of your ears. And that's before everyone materializes on the non-descript brown battlefield to show off their powers. Despite all the financial success, the best thing I can say is that I don't think they're ever going to pull off something like this again. But I shouldn't be so optimistic.

The Matrix - A classic. I love this movie, and it's super timeless. Even with some of the computer/tech stuff getting lapped in the 20 years since 1999.

Matrix Reloaded - I think it's a little unfairly maligned. The freeway stuff, the twins, most of the "Burly Brawl", were all great. However, the Merovingian and the Architect absolutely deserve all the jokes and SNL sketches and such at their expense.

Equilibrium - Didn't finish this once it got to the part with dogs and I remembered the rest of the plot. And remembered I didn't really like it. Some of the "gun-fu" stuff is cool, and Sean Bean's early contribution to the movie is hilarious.

Mission Impossible Fallout - Love these movies. Henry Cavill is pretty great in this one. This franchise has really been doing an amazing job running alongside Fast and Furious and being able to up the ante again and again. I'm really excited for where they end up going with the next two simultaneous sequels. Also it's probably a little too fan fiction-y for me to say, but it'd probably be cool if this franchise somehow crossed over with Hobbs & Shaw. (Never too much The Rock)

Halloween (2018) - Really surprised it took me so long to watch this. It's really up my alley, with me loving remakes, horror movies, this horror movie in particular, and also the work of the Danny McBride brain trust behind the camera/script. Jamie Lee Curtis is tremendous, and Judy Greer proves a great addition to the franchise. I really enjoyed it, it's definitely set the bar pretty high to be honest for these types of sequels (remakes or reboots or whatever you want to call them).

<><><><><><><><><><><><>

January has been a stacked month for wrestling. I'm just going to try to sum up all the great stuff I've seen so far. As I write this, the World's Collide  and Royal Rumble events are yet to come. The NJPW USA tour is in full swing as well, with their huge events going down over the next two weekends back in Japan. Also, a brief note about stuff missing - I saw a few NXT, NXT UK, RAW, and Smackdown matches mixed in, but very few of the full shows. Random thoughts from those - Keith Lee's title win was amazing. Lacey Evans legitimately is looking better. WALTER is still the best. My star ratings are on the 5 scale with fractions (1-20 essentially), just like Meltzer if you care about that. Anyways, let's start on New Year's Day.

January 1st - AEW Dynamite

Cody d. Darby Allin   ***1/2 -This was a really solid match, calling back to their previous draw, but without anything really great to push it over the top. Cody might be the most popular person in all of AEW, so maybe it's too soon to cool him off. I was still hoping for Darby to win and shoot into that next level. The victory with Arn's (completely legal) help was good to put him over, but kinda predictable.

Riho [c] d. Nyla Rose, Britt Baker, & Hikaru Shida *** -The champ retains in a match with the good type of chaos. The Baker frustration continued, as well as Nyla Rose lashing out and continuing her run as the enemy of tables everywhere.

Jon Moxley d. Trent **3/4 -Every match doesn't have to be a nailbiter, but there was never any doubt that Mox was in trouble here. They're both great, but this didn't really rise above the level of "just a match".

Sammy Guevara d. Dustin Rhodes **1/2 -This was a little messy and unmemorable, with some sloppy interference. But good to see Sammy get over on the veteran and continue some more of the Inner Circle vs Elite stuff.

The Elite d. Lucha Bros/PAC ***1/2 -I'm not the biggest fan of the Young Bucks, but they absolutely delivered in this main event. It was a fun, wild spotfest by some of the most talented people in the company. Omega looked pretty great too.

January 4th - NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 14 Day One I skipped all the early big tag matches that didn't have Liger. The Trios thing was pretty disappointing. Liger's farewell was great even if I didn't know half of the people involved until commentary explained their role and relationship and all.

FinJuice d. G.o.D [c]  ***1/2 -NJPW's tag division always gets the short end of the stick, but this was still a really good back and forth match. GOD made the good guys look especially great, and it was laid out to see them overcome the Bullet Club nonsense in the most satisfying way. Here's hoping this title change can reboot the tag division and get some fresh matches and great stuff going in 2020.

Jon Moxley d. Lance Archer [c] ****3/4 -Moxley seized the US Title in a wild, bloody hurricane of a wrestling match. Lance Archer more than held his own in the "Texas Death Match" with NJPW's unique rule set. The match managed to overcome that slight awkwardness and still be great. I can't say enough good things about this one.

Hiromu Takahashi d. Will Ospreay [c] ***** -Perfect match. The story was laid out with Hiromu being slightly rusty coming back, to Will being a little bit arrogant, ending with the crazy new finisher finally coming out to put the champion away. This was my first live major Hiromu match, and he definitely lived up to expectations. Ospreay continues to build on his great 2019 with yet another match of the year candidate right out of the gate.

[floridageekscene]

Spandex and Suplexes: A Wrestling Review Issue #16

Spandex and Suplexes: A Wrestling Review Issue #16

Welcome everyone to the sixteenth edition of Spandex and Suplexes: A Wresting Review. I cover a week that saw NJPW’s two day Wrestle Kingdom 14 event, multiple championships on the line, and the start of the 2020 Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic. Let’s get started.

  NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 14: Night 1-

Kazuchika Okada vs. Kota Ibushi Credit: NJPW

Results: 1. Toa Henare, Karl Fredericks, Clark Connors,…

[puroresu-musings]

NJPW WRESTLE KINGDOM 14 Night 2 Review (Jan 5th 2020, Tokyo Dome)

NEVER OPENWEIGHT 6-MAN TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH/GAUNTLET MATCH: Togi Makabe, Toru Yano & Ryusuke Taguchi (c) vs. Tomohiro Ishii, YOSHI-HASHI & Robbie Eagles vs. Shingo Takagi, EVIL & BUSHI vs. Taichi, El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Bad Luck Fale, Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens  **3/4

JUSHIN THUNDER LIGER RETIREMENT MATCH Ⅱ: Jushin Thunder Liger & Naoki Sano vs. Hiromu Takahashi & Ryu Lee  ***1/2

IWGP Jr. HEAVYWEIGHT TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH: El Phantasmo & Taiji Ishimori (c) vs. SHO & YOH  ***1/2+

BRITISH HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH: Zack Sabre Jr. (c) vs. SANADA  ****

IWGP US HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH: Jon Moxley (c) vs. Juice Robinson  ***1/4

NEVER OPENWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH: KENTA (c) vs. Hirooki Goto  ****

Kota Ibushi vs. Jay White  ****

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Chris Jericho  ****1/4

IWGP HEAVYWEIGHT AND IWGP INTERCONTINENTAL DOUBLE CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH: Kazuchika Okada (Heavyweight Champion) vs. Tetsuya Naito (Intercontinental Champion)  *****

Photos.

This was an excellent show that, despite being the “deeper” card, ended up not quite being up to the standard of yesterdays phenomenal show, which burnt me out in some respects. Which isn’t a slight at all. It did, however, feature a ton of really memorable moments, a whole bunch of great matches, and an all-time classic of a main event. Things began on the pre-show with an entertaining, but ultimately superfluous gauntlet match for the NEVER 6 Man Titles, which proved to just get as many people as possible on the show. It boiled down to defending champions Taguchi, Makabe and Yano, and the LIJ trio of Shingo, EVIL and BUSHI as the final two teams. To the surprise of no one, the Ungovernables won the most meaningless belts in the company, when Takagi pinned Taguchi with Made In Japan. The main show kicked off with the final match of Jushin Thunder Liger’s career. This was an emotional bout, which really helped enhance the action as if it weren’t Liger’s last outing, it would literally have been just a match. Obviously, the action was driven by Liger’s altercations with Hiromu, and the masked legend was more motivated then he’s been since the Suzuki match in October. Also, Liger’s trainer, Yoshiaki Fujiwara was out there, which made things seem extra special. Lee and Sano both hit dives, but largely weren’t much involved in the bulk of the action. After Liger scored a great near fall on the new Jr Champion after a big Shoutei and a Brainbuster (it certainly isn’t easy watching Takahashi bump on his neck!), Hiromu rallied back with the Death Valley Bomb into the corner, then tries Time Bomb, but Liger turns it into a cradle for another near fall. A lariat from Takahashi follows, as does the Time Bomb, and the long time “Ace” of the Junior division puts the current “Ace” over in the most decisive way possible after 12:16 of very good action. Hiromu got in Liger’s face in the post match, but the former Dragon Lee helped the legend to his feet and bowed to him. Liger then got the mic and thanked everyone for their support over the last 31 years, before heading to the back and signing off on a truly marvelous career.

The Jr tag title match had a difficult time following that emotional ride, as the crowd weren’t too invested early, but it was still a borderline great doubles clash. The story here was Phantasmo getting his comeuppance after a year of being a dick, and the babyface team finally vanquished him to win the belts. The finish saw SHO hit the Daisuke Sekimoto double German Suplex on both champions, and after kicking out of an ELP Styles Clash, he outsmarted the dastardly heel when he no-sold a dick punch, which Phantasmo has been using to win matches for months, including their really great singles showdon in San Jose, revealing he was wearing a cup all along. The challengers took Ishimori out with 3K, then pinned Phantasmo at the 14:08 mark with their new finish; a double stomp/Shock Arrow combo they’re calling STRONG X. The RPW British Title encounter between Zack Sabre Jr. and SANADA was an excellent match. It was quite unlike anything else on either show, and was just a fascinating, mat-based struggle. Super fast paced, and revolving around amazing counter sequences, this never stopped for it’s entire 12:32 runtime, and both guys looked great here. Zack avenged his G1 defeat by retaining over Cold Skull, when they traded a series of cradles in hyper speed, then ZSJ finally locked in the European Clutch to take the win. The Moxley/Juice US Title bout that followed was by far the weakest match these two have had together, and also the weakest match on the main card of this show. It was fine, but felt flat, and Moxley retained when he hit a Double Arm DDT out of nowhere, rolling through into Death Rider and taking the win at 12:48. The post match though, was great, as Minoru Suzuki came out, clearly sore about that DDT Mox gave him at the WTL Finals show in December, locked him in a rear naked choke, then laid him out with the Gotch Piledriver. That should be an interesting match indeed.

Ten years ago, I’d have killed for a KENTA/Hirooki Goto match, and we finally got it here in 2020. It wasn’t anywhere near as good as it would have been back then (mainly due to KENTA’s current physical limitations, and Goto’s staleness), but it was still a great, hard-hitting battle. KENTA stalled early, because he’s a master heel, but it built into a compelling slugfest. The defending champion got a near fall after hitting Shibata’s PK on Shibata’s childhood friend, and a Busaiku Knee, but after a really stiff strike exchange, Goto puts him away after an Ushigoroshi, the GTW, and the match winning GTR at 16:12, and win maybe his 63rd NEVER title, just to continue the rut he’s in. The battle of the double championship losers between Jay White and Ibushi, a rematch of the superb G1 final in August, couldn’t possibly live up to that, given its placement here, and as a result was something of a disappointment, despite being excellent. After Switchblade turned a top rope frankensteiner attempt into a massive Uranage Superplex, and further dropped Ibushi on his head with a nasty looking Sleeper Suplex, the Golden Star battled back with a Boma Ye, then tried Kamigoye, but White pulled Ibushi into referee Marty Asami (who took a bump like he was Curt Hennig), which was the cue for Gedo to run in. He nailed Kota in the back with a chair, who no-sold it, got the “murder eyes”, and floored Gedo with a palm strike. After the ref resurfaced, Ibushi destroyed White with kicks, and hit a stiff Kamigoye, but the dastardly Gedo pulled Asami out whilst he counted. This allowed Jay to throw a chair straight at Ibushi’s head, then Gedo hit a brass knucks shot, allowing White to hit the cross-arm Bloody Sunday and Blade Runner to steal the win in 24:58. Going into this weekend, I theorised that Ibushi was likely the one of the four to go winless this weekend. This is because New Japan do 50/50 booking more often than some would like to admit, and that he had to give his G1 wins back. Ibushi was not happy in the post match.

The semi final saw reigning AEW World Champion Chris Jericho take on The Ace himself, Hiroshi Tanahashi, in something of a dream match with a much talked about potential future title match on the line. I loved this, even though it wasn’t close to being the best match on the show, and both guys have seen better days physically (though it must be said, cosmetically speaking, Tanahashi looks 20 years younger than Jericho), this was a lot of fun, with both veterans clearly having a blast. Jericho took it outside early, hitting a dangerous looking DDT onto the English announce table, but tries a High Fly Flow of his own, and misses. The shot of Tanahashi grinning in glorious fashion because Jericho had missed was tremendous. Tana blocks a Lionsault attempt by dumping Jericho to the floor, then hitting a HFF to the outside. He nailed a series of Dragon Screws, blocks a Code Breaker, and works over the leg with more Dragon Screws. Tana misses the High Fly Flow, and Le Champion hits the Lionsault but the damaged knee prevents him from covering in time, and Tanahashi kicks out. After escaping a Walls Of Jericho, Tana goes up for another HFF, but Jericho turns it into a mid-air Code Breaker. The Ace blocks a Judas Effect and hits a Code Breaker of his own, which busted up Jericho’s mouth, but the former Y2J counters a Sling Blade into the Walls, which Tana turns into a cradle for a 2 count. Tana tries another Flow, but Jericho rolls through into the Walls, and transitions into the high-angle old school Lion Tamer in the centre of the ring. After a mighty struggle, Tanahashi had no choice but to tap at the 22:24 mark. This was great stuff and the crowd were really into it.

And in the main event of the evening, both the IWGP Heavyweight and Intercontinental Titles were on the line in a winner-takes-all match between Okada and Naito. This was the culmination of a 6 year (!) story in which Naito promised, after winning the 2013 G1, that he’d beat Okada at the the Dome (he didn’t), which became an obssession to Naito after failing to do so again in 2018. But this year, he was determined to get the job done. First things first, this was an outstanding wrestling contest, filled with amazing drama and emotion, and is the best match these guys have ever had together. With the stakes so high, the crowd were super into this from the get-go and it lead to an amazing atmosphere. This started slow, but picked up tremendously after Okada started working over Naito’s injured knee, even planting him knees first through a ringside table, much to the crowds chagrin, and leading to a great countout tease. After taking a huge missle dropkick, Naito escapes a Rainmaker attempt, but eats a nasty German, which Okada rolls through into another Rainmaker attempt, but Naito turns it into a Tornado DDT. Naito hits Gloria, then a terrifying top rope reverse rana, which Okada lands right on his head for, scoring a great near fall. After escaping a Destino attempt, Okada beautifully dropkicks Naito out of the air as he tries his flying forearm, but eats a running Destino for another great near fall. Naito tries another Destino, but Okada shoves him into the ropes, and hits another big dropkick for the double down. Both men start “selling” exhaustion big, and Naito slaps Okada, resulting in him taking a Spinning Rainmaker. Naito fights back, but Okada turns a Destino attempt into a Tombstone, then hits Rainmaker for another great near fall. Naito spits at Okada, which causes him to start stomping on the injured knee to the crowds dissmay, earning loud boos. He hits two short Rainmakers, but Naito counters a third into Destino, again for a two count. Naito then turns the clocks back five years, and hits his old babyface finish; the Stardust Press (a move he missed at WK12, which ultimately cost him the match), but Okada gets the shoulder up at 2.999 as the crowd goes insane. Naito tries Destino again, but Okada blocks and tries the Fire Thunder Driver, only for Naito to escape and drop Okada on his head again with Valentia. He then lifts Okada up and hits another Destino, this time getting the win at the 35:37 mark and fulfilling his “Destiny” in becoming the first ever double champion. This was outstanding.

What more can be said about Okada at this point? He’s essentially the greatest of all-time, and it’s incomprehensible to think of someone having two matches as good as this and his match with Ibushi yesterday, on two consecutive days. As for Naito, it’s his time to win the big one, as it’s either now or never for him. He’s clearly very banged up, sometimes clearly phoning it in, and the state of his neck and knees is pretty worrying (it’s slightly ironic that someone who is a huge Keiji Muto fan would follow suit in having utterly devastated knees by his mid 30′s). Either way, this was fantastic storytelling and an amazing blow-off to a years-long story arch. Naito in the post match gives a shout out to Okada, and tells him they need to do it again. Okada, who whilst being helped to the back, gives Naito his own fist bump pose in the affermative. However, before Naito can finish his victory speech, evil heel KENTA runs in out of nowhere, hitting a clothesline and a PK, then killing the new double champ with Go 2 Sleep, before sitting on his chest cross-legged, holding up both titles and laughing. BUSHI arrives, chasing off KENTA, then helps a beaten down Naito to the back as the Dome booes loudly. I know a lot of people are mad about KENTA ruining Naito’s big moment (and God forbid Naito fans have something to be mad about), and it really isn’t an ideal wayto end such a historic show, but it’s the perfect way to get KENTA over as a believable challenger, someone who the crowds are sometimes cold towards, seeing him still as an ‘outsider’. But now everyone is going to want to see him get his for ruining such a momentus occasion, and it may provoke the usually tranquil Naito into being a lot more fired up than usual.

NDT

[puroresu-musings]

NJPW WRESTLE KINGDOM 15 in Tokyo Dome Night 1 Review (Jan 4th 2020)

New Japan Rambo  *1/2

BOSJ 27 vs. SJC 2020 IWGP Jr. Heavyweight No.1 Contenders Match: Hiromu Takahashi vs. El Phantasmo  ****

IWGP Heavyweight Tag Title Match: Taichi & Zack Sabre Jr. (c) vs. Guerrillas Of Destiny  ***1/2

IWGP U.S. Heavyweight Championship Right To Challenge Match: KENTA vs. Satoshi Kojima  ***1/2+

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Great-O-Khan  ***1/2

Kazuchika Okada vs. Will Ospreay  ****3/4

IWGP Heavyweight & Intercontinental Double Championship Match: Tetsuya Naito (c/c) vs. Kota Ibushi  ****1/2

Photos.

So the first night of WK15 is in the history books, held in front of a socially distanced crowd of 12,689, which is an amazing number given the state of the world at present (I’m in the UK and we can’t even have two people in the same room, so near 13,000 seems mind-blowing!). This is the biggest crowd to have seen a wrestling show in Japan since last years Dome shows, and the biggest major wrestling show held anywhere since March of last year, so it’s quite the achievement. In quick results from a very fun show:

Bad Luck Fale, Chase Owens, BUSHI and Toru Yano (who never even made it to the ring) were the “winners” of the annual Rambo and will face each other in a 4-way to determine the KOPW champion on tomorrows show. The Rambo was as it always is, which is very forgettable, very long, and not especially very good. After a Japanese Don King (who sings!) introduced Riki Choshu (a guy who, in this very building in 1998, squashed FOUR guys in a row in his “retirement” match), and his young grandson, to the masses for a nice opening, BOSJ winner Hiromu Takahashi pinned everyone’s favourite/most hated douchebag heel, the 2020 Super J Cup winner El Phanatsmo, in 17:46, when he turned CRII into a Frankensteiner and cradle. This was an excellent match that was a great way to start the show. Hiromu essentially played crash pad to ELP’s highflying moves, and seemed to be saving himself for the Ishimori match tomorrow, which he earned with this win.

Next up, the GOD won the IWGP Tag Titles for what must be the 476th time. The match was very good (once it got going), but at 19:18, it felt very long, and the finish and result were lamentable; after a ref bump and prerequisite Jado interference spot, Tama nailed Taichi with his own Iron Fingers From Hell, which allowed Loa to hit Apeshit and win the belts. Honestly, I could have done without this title change. The Guerrillas with the belts just feels like I’ve been transported back in time three or four years, and the Dangerous Tekkers felt both fresh, and like they were just getting going as champions. Whatever. After a video taped Jon Moxley promo, KENTA defended the U.S. Title Right To Challenge Briefcase against the legend that is Satoshi Kojima, in a very good little match. Obviously, Koji was a late replacement for the broken orbital boned Juice Robinson, and honestly, with all due respect to Juice, this was a much better match for it. Even though no one feasibly bought him winning, Kojima was on fire here, showing the world that he does indeed “still have it”, and drove the action throughout. It wasn’t to be though as KENTA retained the briefcase after a Go 2 Sleep at the 14:12 mark. So KENTA will challenge Moxley in the U.S. at some point, which should be a fun match.

Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated the returned-from-excursion Great-O-Khan in my least favourite match of the show. This was far from bad, but realistically, this was the match where I started to lag, as it just wasn’t all that interesting at times. The former Tomoyuki Oka has a very weird gimmick, and his offence is like something from a 1970s regional promotion in the U.S. He isn’t a bad worker, he’s very solid, but this wacky Mongolian gimmick, which I first clapped eyes on at a Rev Pro show what must have been 7 years ago now (it was three, but time has no meaning anymore), is going to need some serious revamping. Tanahashi was his usual great self here, carrying this beyond what it should by all rights have been, and had the babyface fire of a thousand babyfaces. After surviving O-Khan’s Claw based offensive manoeuvres, The Ace scored the win at 17:13 after hitting a High Fly Flow to the back, followed by one to the front, to get the winning three count.

From here the show picked up considerably. Okada sought revenge on former protege Will Ospreay, in a fantastic, dramatic outing, that would most likely have been a Tokyo Dome all-time-classic under regular conditions. This went 35:41, which sounds long, but felt half of that whilst watching. It told a great story, and the work from both guys was exceptional. This was less the inventive spot fest of their 2019 G1 classic, and instead was a stiff strike war. It was also the final point of Ospreay eschewing the Junior mantle, and becoming a full fledged heavyweight. Like most Okada matches, this really turned into something special in the last 10 minutes, after Ospreay hit a nasty Brainbuster through the timekeepers table, and stomped the bejesus out of Okada’s face, the newly crowned “Commonwealth Kingpin” escaped a Money Clip, hit Okada with a Tombstone, and his own Rainmaker for a great near fall. Okada dropkicked Will out of the air on a Super Oscutter attempt, which looked great, then turned a Storm Breaker attempt into a Fire Thunder Driver, and hit a stiff Rainmaker, for the first time in A YEAR, to score the win and seemingly awaken the Okada of old. Tremendous stuff here.

And the Double Title Main Event that followed had a lot to live up to, but was another excellent outing. Obviously, with the last few times these guys have squared off being borderline public executions, my heart was proverbially in my mouth on some of the spots here. With the notable exceptions of Ibushi taking a German Suplex on the ramp, which he of course landed square on top of his head for, an insane Frankensteiner off the apron, which saw Naito land very hard on the floor, Ibushi taking a reverse rana off the second rope, and both guys taking signature spots onto their heads, this was, on the whole, the “tamest” match these two have had against one another in maybe 5 or 6 years now. Ibushi hit Kamigoye for a great near fall, but misses a Phoenix Splash. Naito hits Destino, but Ibushi gets the shoulder up. Naito kicks out of another Kamigoye, then drops Ibushi on his head with Valentia, and goes for another Destino. Ibushi escapes and hits a wrist clutch V-Trigger, followed by a third, knee padless Kamigoye to FINALLY win the two top prizes in New Japan after 31:18 of great action. There was a really wacky bit, that only Ibushi could do, after the match, where he seemed to sell being in a “fugue state”, tried to pin Naito again after the match, and sold disbelief when Red Shoes explained to him that he’d won. Naito presented The Golden Star with both belts, then Ibushi’s opponent tomorrow, Jay White, came out in the post match, and cut a promo, promising Ibushi’s reign would only last 24 hours. Ibushi informed Jay that he is mistaken, and that Ibushi will indeed become a God. This was a show built around happy ending babyface wins (in the major bouts), and was a dose of positivity the world needs right now. Bring on Night 2 already.

NDT

[puroresu-musings]

NJPW SUMMER STRUGGLE in JINGU Review (August 29th, 2020, Tokyo, Jingu Stadium)

Master Wato vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru  **1/4

KOPW 2020 Decision Match: Kazuchika Okada vs. SANADA vs. Toru Yano vs. El Desperado  **3/4

NEVER Openweight Championship Match: Shingo Takagi © vs. Minoru Suzuki  ****1/2

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship Match: Hiromu Takahashi © vs. Taiji Ishimori  ****+

IWGP Tag Team Championship Match: Taichi & Zack Sabre Jr. © vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kota Ibushi  ****

IWGP Heavyweight & Intercontinental Double Championship Match: EVIL © vs. Tetsuya Naito  ****

Photos.

* I tried to edit some minor things on my original post, but it was inexplicably deleted. Thankfully I had a version backed up, for some reason, so here it is posted anew.

This was a fun, brisk show (it clocked in at about 2 and a half hours) from a socially distanced crowd of around 5,000, that delivered a few great matches. On the whole everything felt a bit short, especially the first two matches that were both sprinted through in 7 minutes. Yoshinobu Kanemaru countered an RPP attempt into a cradle to pin Master Wato in an opener that was marred by a few noticeable botches, then Toru Yano very surprisingly pinned Okada to be the inaugural KOPW trophy holder. The finish came when Okada had Despy in the Cobra Clutch, but Yano rolled in, hit a low blow on his CHAOS stablemate, then School Boy’d him for the win. This was fun, but at 7:01, it was much too short to be anything other than “just there”. Things really picked up in match 3 as Shingo Takagi, who has been one of the (if not the) standout workers of 2020, defending his NEVER title against grouchy psychopath Minoru Suzuki. This was the best match on the show, and these guys pummelled each other in the blistering August sun. Special mention must go to Suzuki’s facials in this, which were tremendous. Shingo managed to escape a rear naked choke and nailed a Death valley Bomb, then hit Made In Japan for a near fall. Suzuki escaped a Last Of The Dragon attempt and hit a headbutt to the back of Takagi’s head. Shingo came off the ropes for a Pumping Bomber, but Suzuki nailed him with his big dropkick. They exchanged stiff forearms and Lariats, before Suzuki hit a shoot headbutt, and locked in the choke again. He let go and hit the Gotch Style Piledriver to win his second NEVER championship at the 14:56 mark.

The Jr. Title Match that followed had a lot riding on its shoulders. Firstly, Hiromu is nursing a separated shoulder, so he was limited in what he could do, and Ishimori hasn’t looked like his old self since injuring his neck in last years BOSJ, so whilst this was a really great match, it was nowhere in the same league as their classic 2018 BOSJ final. Bone Soldier worked over Hiromu’s injured shoulder, ramming it into the ring post after hitting a Moonsault to the floor, and trying for the Yes Lock. Takahashi made a comeback by hitting a dropkick off the apron, then went for a German into the buckles, but Taiji countered into a reverse Frankensteiner. Hiromu popped up and hit the German into the corner anyway, then got a near fall with Dynamite Plunger. They traded German’s which resulted in both guys landing square on top of their respective heads. I’ve no idea what they were thinking here, unless the plan was to flip out onto their feet, but neither made it properly. Takahashi tried the “D” triangle choke, but Ishimori tried to power him up into a powerbomb, nearly dropped him, then hit a buckle bomb which Hiromu took head first in frightening fashion. Hiromu battled back with a big Lariat, hit the Death Valley Bomb into the corner, then hit Time Bomb for a great near fall. He tried Time Bomb II, but Ishimori escaped and hit a reverse Bloody Cross, which looked terrifying, then locked in the Yes Lock again. Hiromu fought valiantly, but Ishimori turned it into a Border City Stretch he’s calling the Bone Lock, and Takahashi had to tap at 13:30. An interesting title switch here, but realistically, there are no fresh challengers for Hiromu at this point (or anyone really), and he’s probably going to factor into the G1, so it makes sense. And I know that I sound like an old fuddy-duddy here, but Hiromu needs to stop taking these bumps onto his head and neck. He only returned from a serious, potentially career-ending neck injury in December, and by August he’s needing to take time off again.

The Tag Title bout was an excellent match. It went 16 minutes so didn’t stay in the doldrums for the first half, like their half hour Dominion outing, and was essentially all action. The beginning was just as you’d expect; the heels worked over Tana’s destroyed knees, and he sold and sold. However, he made the hot tag to Ibushi, who ran wild like a man possessed, hitting stiff kicks, a standing moonsault and standing shooting star. He traded more hard kicks with Taichi, with both guys hitting a double headkick on each other for the double down. Zack was sporting a taped up knee, so Tanahashi zeroed in on it after escaping a Brakes Arm Bar, hitting Dragon Screws, including the babyfaces hitting the assisted version they’ve been devastating Tanahashi with all summer. After Ibushi kicked the Iron Fingers From Hell off Taichi’s hand, it came down to Tana and ZSJ again. The Ace hit a standing HFF, then went up for another, but Sabre moved and he ate canvas. Taichi again hit the ring and the champions hit the double team Black Mephisto that they’re calling Zack Mephisto (very clever), to retain the titles. I honestly think it’s time Tana and Ibushi parted ways for the time being so Kota can figure into the main title picture again. He’s been in the tag scene ever since he lost at Wrestle Kingdom, and it feels like he’s lost a lot of momentum. As for the champions, I’m never going to pretend to like Taichi, but he does his job well here.

And in the main event, Tetsuya Naito sought revenge on EVIL and reclaim his Double Titles in another Dominion rematch. This was a hundred times better than their Osaka outing as the interference was kept to a minimum (well as minimum as interference gets nowadays) as they didn’t needlessly go 40 damn minutes this time. The story of this was both guys going after the others neck, with Naito hitting neckbreakers, and EVIL doing his chair around the head gimmick. The King Of Darkness tried Darkness Falls onto the apron, but Naito countered into a neckbreaker to the floor, then scored a near fall with a Frankensteiner off the top. EVIL sent Naito into the exposed turnbuckles and hit a massive suplerplex. He followed that up with Darkness Falls for 2, and countered a Naito Destino attempt with an eye rake. The prerequisite chicanery happened next as Dick Togo nailed Naito with a chair as EVIL held the ref. After a botched ref bump, EVIL just threw Red Shoes into the exposed buckles, which brought Togo back. He and EVIL nailed a Magic Killer on Naito, which (shock of all shocks) brought out BUSHI, who took Togo out with a dropkick. From here, Gedo came in and poked BUSHI in the eyes, and they brawled at ringside. Dick Togo used the garrotte on Naito, which caused SANADA to run out, hit dropkicks on EVIL and Togo, then wipe Togo out with a TKO, which the veteran took a great bump for. SANADA and BUSHI hit stereo Pescado’s, then dragged the interfering Bullet Clubbers to the back, leaving it one-on-one. Naito hit Destino, but EVIL kicked out. EVIL countered a second Destino attempt with a low blow, and hit a massive Lariat for a near fall. Naito blocked an attempt at another low blow, then hit Valentia (this is a much better finisher, in my opinion), then lifted him up and hit Destino to regain the belts at the 26:20 mark.

Naito cut a promo in the post match about over coming adversity, there was a fireworks display, and everyone went home happy. So the EVIL experiment is over, for the time being. I have absolutely no problem with them wanting to elevate EVIL, but it was more of the manner they were going about it which raised concerns with me. He really didn’t need to be out there doing the whole Bullet Club shenanigans, as they really don’t play to his strengths at all. Next up is the G1, which should be interesting. It doesn’t have the same sort of buzz around it for me this year (what could?), for obvious reasons, but I’m sure it’ll be a ton of fun.

NDT

[puroresu-musings]

NJPW G1 CLIMAX 29 Day 5 and Day 6 Review (July 18th and 19th 2019, Tokyo, Korakuen Hall)

A Block

KENTA vs. Lance Archer  ***1/2

EVIL vs. SANADA  ****

Kazuchika Okada vs. Bad Luck Fale  ***

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Zack Sabre Jr.  ****1/4

Kota Ibushi vs. Will Ospreay  ****3/4

B Block

Shingo Takagi vs. Taichi  ****

Juice Robinson vs. Jeff Cobb  ***1/2

Toru Yano vs. Jay White  *1/2

Hirooki Goto vs. Tetsuya Naito  ****+

Tomohiro Ishii vs. Jon Moxley  ****3/4

Photos.

Two great nights of G1 action from Korakuen Hall, with the first being amongst the best shows of the year. The 18th saw the A Blockers in action, firstly KENTA squared off with Lance Archer, who towered a foot above him. Both guys are having a great G1 thus far, and this was a very good big guy/smaller guy match-up. KENTA worked over the legs with hard kicks, cutting down the big tree so to speak, but Archer, who was incredibly over in Korakuen, would battle back with his power moves. The American Psycho chokeslammed KENTA off the apron at one point, but the L.A. Dojo guys caught him, only for Archer to hit a running cannonball off the apron into them all. Archer called KENTA “Hideo”, which lit a fire under the striker, who proceeded to throw some very hard slaps at Archer’s face, locked in the rear naked choke, hit the PK, then tried Go 2 Sleep. The big man proved too big however, as he countered into the Claw. KENTA countered the Claw into a triangle choke, then transitioned into his old Game Over submission finish for the tap out at 11:58. The finish surprised me, but this was really good stuff. LIJ imploded next in an excellent bout between tag partners EVIL and SANADA. This wasn’t quite as good as their Korakuen match in G1 27, but was still a damn fine outing nonetheless. After a feeling out process, this told the story that each know the other so well that they can hit each others moves on each other. EVIL locked SANADA in the Paradise Lock, then later down the stretch, SANADA got a near fall with EVIL’s own Everything Is Evil STO. EVIL gets the knees up on a Muto Moonsault attempt, but Cold Skull gets a near fall with a Tiger Suplex. A swinging Skull End follows, but EVIL counters into a small package for another near fall. The King Of Darkness hit a massive lariat, but SANADA kicks at one! Cold Skull eats another big lariat, then EVIL finally hits the STO at the 18:11 mark to score the 2 points.

Okada defeated Bad Luck Fale with a cradle to end a mercifully short 10 minuter. This was good for what it was, but Fale hasn’t looked great for some time now, and really, this was a night off for the IWGP Champion. Chase Owens and Jado interfered liberally, but Okada sent them packing, then got the flash pin with the cradle. This was amongst the most uninteresting Okada matches you’ll ever see. ZSJ and Tanahashi, both of whom were on 0 points, had another excellent technical wrestling bout next, which was amongst the best they’ve had together. It was entirely mat based, with Tana looking great in his transitions, and they had a great backslide battle. Zack worked over the injured elbow, and Tanahashi in turn worked over Sabre’s knee. The finish saw Sabre lock Tana in an armbar, but The Ace stomped his way free and locked in a cloverleaf, but The Technical Wizard turned it into his new Yes! I am A Long Way From Home submission, but Tana makes the ropes. Tanahashi catches the foot on a PK attempt, but Zack slaps the bejeezus out of him, only to take a nasty Dragon Screw. Tana tries High Fly Flow, but Zack gets the knees up. ZSJ locks in a triangle, but Tanahashi rolls through into a Jacknife cradle for the win in 13:56 and finally get on the score board. Sabre Jr was livid in the post match.

And the main event, a rematch of the incredible opener for WK13, held right next door in the Tokyo Dome, saw a winless Kota Ibushi face off with Will Ospreay. First things first, this was a superb match. However, I couldn’t enjoy it as much as I’d have liked given the fact Ospreay suffered a stinger not 5 days previous, and obviously, he was dropped on his head throughout this, so my anxiety was through the roof. It started with each working the others injured body part; Ibushi’s ankle and Will’s neck respectively, then built into a hard-hitting war. After Ibushi caught Ospreay in the tree of woe, an inversion of what concussed Ibushi at the dome, and smacked the hell out of him, he teased a terrifying top rope Dragon Suplex, but Will fought free to the apron. Kota then tried the deadlift German Superlex, but Ospreay flipped out onto his feet and hit a super stiff Hidden Blade for a great near fall. The Ariel Assassin follows up with the Robinson Special, followed by the Oscutter for a tremendous near fall. Ibushi turned a Storm Breaker into a single arm Kamigoye, tries a package Tombstone, but Ospreay escapes, only to be hit with a Michinoku Driver for a near fall. Will battles back with a Spanish Fly, but is hit with a huge Lariat that he took a bump on his head for. They tease the time limit draw, but Ibushi then hit Boma Ye, then the Kamigoye for the win at 27:16 of a fab bout. This built to a great climax full of believable near falls, and surpassed their Wrestle Kingdom classic.

The 19th saw the B Block pull out a show that looked ropey on paper, but was actually great. Block action kicked off with Shingo Takagi pulling Taichi to an excellent match-up. Again, this started slow built well really well to a hot closing stretch which the crowd loved. The finish saw Shingo hammer Taichi with a series of Lariats, and Made In Japan for a near fall. Taichi hit the gamengiri and Last Ride for a really believable near fall. Shingo came back with a big Pumping Bomber and Last Of The Dragon to put The Emperor away at the 14:40 mark. Jeff Cobb finally got on the scoreboard by putting an ened to Juice Robinson’s winning streak in a very good outing. These guys worked really well together, and much like the match that preceded it, was much better than I thought it would be. The finish saw Cobb counter Pulp Friction into a big rolling German, then tried Tour Of The Islands, but Juice turned it into a small package for 2. Cobb then ducked the Left Hand, and got the win with Tour Of The Islands at 13:21. Toru Yano and Jay White had an atypical Yano G1 match next. You know the score, it was 3 minutes long, featured all kinds of shenanigans, then YTR scored the surprise win when he commandeered Gedo’s brass knucks, hit Jay low, then got the school pin. This wasn’t good in my opinion, but it told a great story in that Jay is now 0-3 in this G1, and all his losses have been to former CHAOS stablemates he betrayed, and they got their revenge.

Goto and Naito always have great matches together, and this was no different. They had an excellent match filled with great counter exchanges. Naito finally got some points in this G1 after escaping a GTR attempt,  but is hit with the reverse version, then eats a big kick. Goto tried Ushigoroshi, but Naito it into a DDT, then hits a running Destino for a near fall. Another Destino follows and it puts Goto away at the 14 minute mark of a great contest. I guess Goto’s resurgence was short lived? And in the main event, Ishii and Moxley had an absolute war which spilled all over Korakuen Hall, and is very probably the best match of Moxley’s career. This was a wild brawl, which saw them exchange hard strikes, and obviously descended into plunder being used. Mox brought a table into play, which he ended up on, and Ishii splashed him off the top through, in an amazing spot. A big top rope superplex gets a near fall, and Moxley hit a Regal running knee for a near fall. They trade ramming headbutts, which Ishii predictably wins, then he takes another running knee for another great near fall. Mox tried Death Rider, but Ishii hits two massive Lariats for near falls of his own. Ishii tried the Brainbuster, but Moxley escapes and eats another headbutt. They exchange strikes again until Moxley hits the double arm DDT, drops the knee pad and hits another knee strike, followed by Death Rider to take the win at 20:36, and remain undefeated in this G1. The finish was never really in any doubt, but Ishii is so good, they made it seem like he could pull off the upset. Alas he didn’t, but he added another classic to his already massive collection of G1 classics, and as for Moxley, he couldn’t have looked any better.

NDT

[gdwessel]

Strong Style Story Podcast Episode 60: Side A - Wrestle Kingdom 14 Preview + Side B - 4th Anniversary Show

Well. This actually went live yesterday but for some reason I had trouble accessing Tumblr last night. Anyway. This episode is the official episode 60, although realistically it’s more like episode 85 or so, and we further confuse matters by splitting this into two once more. @damascenocs​ and I have been doing this for four damn years, and we’re still going. Listen in now at the Pro Wrestling Only Podcast Network! And thank you as always for listening to us!

Side A - Wrestle Kingdom 14 Preview

It's Wrestle Kingdom 14 time, and the 4th Anniversary of the Strong Style Story podcast! To celebrate this, Geoffrey Wessel & Chris Damasceno bring you a special 2-part episode for your listening pleasure! In this episode:

* We preview both nights of a massive Wrestle Kingdom 14 * Review the World Tag League and Road to Tokyo Dome shows * Talk Hirai Kawato in a hair v. hair match on New Year's Day * Discuss Minoru Suzuki, Will Ospreay, and more at Warrior Wrestling 7, with a special shoutout to a particularly scummy former NJPW wrestler

Side B - 4th Anniversary Show

It's Wrestle Kingdom 14 time, and the 4th Anniversary of the Strong Style Story podcast! To celebrate this, Geoffrey Wessel & Chris Damasceno bring you a special 2-part episode for your listening pleasure! In this episode:

* We discuss the NJPW Year in Review, with all sorts of topics and hot takes, such as which massive NJPW show maybe turned out to be a disappointment from the NJPW perspective? * We answer questions to each other, as well as from listeners * Give thanks and praise to our fans, listeners and fellow PWO podcasters * Our resolutions with this show for 2020

[gdwessel]

Road to Tokyo Dome Night 2 - 12/15/2018; Podcast Recording Today

The final NJPW show of 2018 has taken place, and you can watch it now on NJPWWorld. Taguchi did the Santa Masked Horse bit again for today’s crowd as well.

- 12/15/2018, Tokyo Korakuen Hall (NJPWWorld)

Teruaki Kanemitsu Return Match: Teruaki Kanemitsu & Ren Narita TLD Ayato Yoshida [K-DOJO] & Shota Umino (15:00)

Rocky Romero, SHO & YOH [CHAOS] d. Jushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask IV & Toa Henare (SHO > Tiger, 3K, 9:23)

Tomohiro Ishii & Hirooki Goto [CHAOS] d. Minoru Suzuki & Takashi Iizuka [SZKG] (Ishii > Iizuka, Vertical Drop Brainbuster, 10:36)

EVIL & SANADA [Los Ingobernables] d. Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens [The Elite] (SANADA > Owens, Magic Killer, 9:44)

Tetsuya Naito, BUSHI & Shingo Takagi [Los Ingobernables] d. Taichi, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & El Desperado [SZKG] (Naito > Kanemaru, Destino, 13:39)

Jay White, Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa & Taiji Ishimori [Bullet Club] d. Kazuchika Okada [CHAOS], Togi Makabe, Toru Yano [CHAOS], Tomoaki Honma & KUSHIDA (Loa > Honma, Apeshit, 14:45)

Kenny Omega [The Elite] & Kota Ibushi [FREE] d. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Will Ospreay [CHAOS] (Omega > Ospreay, Golden Trigger, 28:46)

And with the final win before WK13, the Golden Lovers hold hands in the snow, and we see out New Japan Pro Wrestling for 2018. 

Jay White took Gedo’s place today, and laid out Okada with Blade Runner post-match, whilst Ishimori hit Bloody Cross on KUSHIDA. Chris Jericho attacked Naito post-match, no real surprise there.

Teruaki Kanemitsu wrestled his first match in 25 months, and didn’t look too bad doing so! The crowd was welcoming of his return. He has some ground to make up, naturally. Hirai Kawato, who debuted at the same time as Kanemitsu, is on excursion in CMLL, and Tomoyuki Oka  is off in RevPro ahead of him as  Dominator Great O-Kharn. Sure he had some ring rust but that’s to be expected given how long he’s been out. Hopefully he’ll be able to get back to where he was before injury and excel beyond it.

It’s been... a year. Eventually I will get around to writing a piece here about my thoughts on said year, as well as another Upcoming NJPW Events post. In the meantime, @damascenocs and myself will be recording the next episode of the Podcast today, which will probably be a long one that we split in two, again, as it is not only WTL/RTTD review, not only is it WK13 preview, not only is it 2018 in review, but it’s also the 3rd Anniversary of this show, so yeah. Look out for that early next week at the Pro Wrestling Only podcast feed.

In the meantime, the next show is, well, Wrestle Kingdom 13! OK, there’s the Grand Puroresu Festival (or Fan Festa, as I guess is the official English title) on 1/3/2019, but nothing’s been announced for that as yet, and no word on any Young Lion debuts, that have usually come at these shows. I will of course keep you posted. But with no more shows until the calendar flips, and NJPW on AXS now in repeats until WK13, I may be posting here infrequently until then. Tumblr’s implementation of censorship is due to occur on Monday, so I am still looking to move this blog elsewhere, which I will of course make note of here.

Til then, hope you enjoyed NJPW in 2018, and see you at WK13.