#suzuki taichi is not so much into the ladies

[deadsouls-is-canon]

The ellipses are doing a lot of heavy lifting, part 2: now featuring the thousand yard, dead-eyed stare.

[hazyheel]

Wrestling Dontaku 2019 night 1 Review

In our opener, we had Ren Narita, Shota Umino and Tomoaki Honma up against Yuya Uemura, Yota Tsuji and Toa Henare. Tsuji and Uemura seem to have been developing a rivalry, as they absolutely destroyed each other whenever they were in the ring. Henare was kept out for most of the match, so naturally he dominated when he eventually tagged in. Narita and Uemura also were very aggressive when against each other, with commentary pointing out that Narita seemed to have Uemura’s number. And funnily enough, Uemura had a big advantage against Narita, but Narita caught him coming off the ropes with a beautiful bridging belly to bell suplex for the win.

Grade: B-. Pretty good stuff. I like the various feuds going on with the young lions, and I am curious to see where both Narita and Umino will be going for their excursions, which could be coming up soon enough. Either way, those two are the big faces of the Young Lions now, and they are very talented.

Next up, the Suzuki-Gun team of Minoru Suzuki, TAKA Michinoku, El Desperado and Yoshinobu Kanemaru against Jushin Thunder Liger, Ryusuke Taguchi, YOSHI-HASHI and Tiger Mask. Of course, the heels attacked before the bell, led to a brawl around ringside. At one point, Taguchi was on the top rope so Suzuki Gun could be thrown into his butt, but the heels fought the rest of his team off. They all gathered behind him in the ring as he got the crowd to cheer for him. Suzuki really tried to destroy Liger, holding a cross armbreaker for far too long, and continuing to attack him while the ref tried to check on Liger. The violence continued as the two tagged out, and TAKA came in to fight Tiger Mask. The two had a short sequence, but TAKA won after a single leg dropkick and a Michinoku Driver. After the bell, Suzuki continued to assault Liger on the outside.

Grade: B. This was alright, nothing spectacular. Mostly used to build up the Suzuki and Liger rivalry. Important that TAKA got the pin though, as that gives him a lot of momentum going into the Best of the Super Juniors. Other than that, it was a standard 8-man tag in New Japan.

Next tag match pitted Will Ospreay, Toru Yano and Togi Makabe against HIKULEO, Tama Tonga and Tonga Loa. BULLET CLUB jumped before the bell, making the two heel factions of New Japan kinda blend together. Yano had a funny segment where he was scared of both members of GOD, and also tried to get them disqualified by tossing them the removed ringpost. The heels really showcased their ferocity and teamwork, destroying both Makabe and Yano throughout the match with quick tags. Ospreay was putting in work, but even he had to put on the breaks when Jado nailed him with a kendo stick while coming off the ropes. After Yano and Makabe broke up a pinfall, they brawled on the outside with the Guerrillas, allowing Ospreay to get the win with an os cutter on Hikuleo.

Grade: B. Fine match, I liked the story. Ospreay is in a really strong position right now, where he can pin heavyweights consistently. That makes him a favorite in the best of the super juniors. However, I don’t know who will be challenging for the Tag Team Championships nor the 6-man belts in the future. That remains to be seen.

Then we had LIJ’s Tetsuya Naito, Shingo Takagi and BUSHI, against Kota Ibushi, SHO and YOH. Lots of intense rivalries in this one, and you can really feel it watching the match. Takagi in particular looked really good in this match, being able to go toe to toe with Ibushi. Takagi also nearly ate his first pinfall, after narrowly avoiding a 3k. However, the faces pulled it off, with Ibushi nailing Bushi with a kamagoye.

After the match, Ibushi got on the mic and asked Naito to answer him about the challenge for the Intercontinental Championship, and gave him until night 2 to find out. However, Naito just jumped in the ring and implied that he would have accepted the challenge for tomorrow night, but the card was decided. I guess we will have to see whether or not it happens. I think it won’t come until Dominion, but I would love to see that match on the already stacked night 2.

Grade: B+. Narrowly better than the other matches on the card, but better nontheless. The rivalries that filled this match made it more exciting, along with the quality of those invovled. Even though there wasn’t a lot of high spots, it was a good, fundamental match. Nothing more I can ask for.

Next up was Jay White, Bad Luck Fale and Chase Owens against Mikey Nicholls, Hirooki Goto and Juice Robinson. Robinson was dressed like Randy Savage, so that was exciting. Surprisingly enough, the faces were working incredibly well as a team, covering for each other and aiding when necessary. Owens started to steal Robinson’s punches, which made Robinson super pissed on the apron. White and Goto looked very good in this match, both coming across as the MVP’s for their team, although Robinson was very on point tonight. Owen’s looked like he might get yet another win over Robinson, but Robinson fought out of a package piledriver, and nailed pump friction for the win.

After the match, a video package played. It had the tag line of “time’s up,” it played footage of Robinson, and then left the date of the BOSJ finals. So it seems like whoever this is will be the next challenger for the US championship. Makes sense. As for who it may be, my guess would be Kawato. He went out for excursion to CMLL a while back, and given the highly Mexican feel of the video package, it could be him. But I also don’t know much about him, nor many Mexican wrestlers who may be jumping to new japan, so I could be wrong.

Grade: B+. This was the best of the multi-man tag team matches. White and Goto are not nearly finished with each other, Nicholls is still trying to really break out in New Japan, and Robinson is finally having a dominant title reign. I liked these stories going in, I like how Robinson really wrapped up his feud with BULLET CLUB, and I absolutely love the mystery set for the BOSJ finals. I like the storylines, and I liked the match.

Into a special tag match, EVIL and SANADA took on Kazuchika Okada and Tomohiro Ishii, their opponents for night 2. Okada is still getting a pop for having trunks rather than pants, which is so weird but awesome. The story being told here is how much Ishii and Evil hate each other, and also Sanada’s increasing ability to go the distance with Okada. Ishii hardly cared about Sanada, even when the two were in the ring together. Evil targetted Ishii’s legs in a move that could come back up during their singles match. Sanada looked great in this match, really flying around to take down Ishii, and he continued to wrestle to stalemates against Okada. A lot of this match was simple singles competition, but it really picked up when everyone started acting like a team. LIJ was able to hit Ishii with a magic killer, but refused to pin him. Instead he opted for the scorpion deathlock, in an attempt to embarrass Ishii. Okada tried to run interference, but was caught in skull end by Sanada. The referee eventually had to stop the match after Ishii was stuck in the scorpion deathlock for over a minute.

Grade: A-. I really liked this match. At first it seemed like a simple preview, though entertaining. However, as the match wore on and it became more of a tag match, the excitement really picked up. Big victory for Evil, even if Ishii didn’t actually tap. I think that he could pull out the victory again tomorrow night, and that would be a huge boost of momentum for the coming months. As for Sanada, he is really getting a big push right now, and I think the match will be awesome, but this match didn’t change my opinion on the outcome. Still, this match did make me excited.

Into the title matches, Taichi took on Jeff Cobb for the NEVER Openweight Championship. Taichi stalled like crazy in the beginning of the match. Taichi tried several dirty tricks early on, such as having Miho Abe (the lady that comes out with Taichi) distract Cobb so that he could get a shot in, although it did not affect Cobb at all. He also used Abe as a shield to prevent a suicide dive, enlisted the help of Yoshinobu Kanemaru to fight Cobb while the ref was down, and of course used the mic stand as a weapon. Cobb eventually fought his way back into the match, hitting an awesome delayed superplex. The match became a battle from behind for Taichi, whose strikes could rock Cobb, but couldn’t match his strength. At one point, Cobb hit a huge gutwrench suplex, only to pick him up again and hit a piledriver. Taichi did a great job of slipping out of the tour of the islands, countering one into a roll up. Right after that, Taichi pushed the ref and hit a low kick and a gedo clutch, but Cobb again kicked out. However, Taichi was on a role, hitting his superkick and black mephisto for the win and the NEVER Openweight Championship.

Grade: B+. Very good match, but not quite in A range. I thought the lay out and story of the match was quite good, the way Taichi had to continuously change his strategy to take out the incredibly strong Jeff Cobb. I am sad to see Cobb’s reign end so quick, especially since he is on a role right now, but he probably has too busy of a schedule to work in New Japan consistently. Makes sense. Taichi really does deserve a run, so I am glad to see that. Also, I realized midway through the show that the whole “winning streak” for Cobb that I mentioned in my predictions was false, cuz he lost at Honor Rising night 2. So I feel dumb, but I am fine with this outcome. Congrats Taichi.

And the main event, Taiji Ishimori vs. Dragon Lee for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship. The video package for this match focused a surprising amount on Hiromu Takahashi, so hopefully that means the return is soon. Lee came out with the Kamaitaichi mask on his head as well, another nod to Takahashi. Ishimori refused the handshake at the start of the match, which really set the tone for the rest of the contest. The pace that these guys wrestled at was inhuman, I loved it. Lee worked over Ishimori’s leg in order to slow him down, but that hardly worked. Ishimori opted to go for Lee’s mask rather than a body part, although it seemed to cause Lee just as much pain. At one point, Ishimori hit an awesome crucifix bomb for a near fall, and Lee came right back with a one arm powerbomb for a near fall. On the outside, Ishimori countered simply being thrown into the ring by handspringing off of the ropes on the outside, and then arm dragging Lee into the barrier. The two then kicked into a second gear, with Lee hitting a superkick, Ishimori a bicycle kick, Lee a snap german suplex, Ishimori a mexican destroyer, and finally a huge falcon arrow from Lee for a near fall. Ishimori was able to lock in a lebel lock for a long submission sequence. Lee fired up after a double knee gutbuster, hitting a bicycle knee, a reverse rana and a running knee for a near fall, and then the dragon driver for the win.

After the match, Lee put over Hiromu Takahashi, saying that the win was for him and that the match is waiting for Takahashi. Can’t wait.

Grade: A. Definitely match of the night. These guys blended together extremely well and put on an awesome, fast paced match. The strikes were hard, both competitors were desperate to win, and they put on a crazy show for everyone deserving of the main event. Dragon Lee has proved that he deserves the championship, and Ishimori still stays as a favorite for Best of the Super Juniors. The spots were just so brutal, but it was impossible to look away. Love this match, definitely recommend a watch.

Overall Grade: B+

Pros: Suzuki and Liger feud; Ospreay booking; Chaos + Ibushi vs. LIJ; Mystery US Title challenger; special tag match; NEVER Openweight Match; main event

Cons: no more Jeff Cobb