#villain yuji isn’t a tag

[gdwessel]

G1 Supercard - 4/6/2019; Wrestling Dontaku Tour: Featured Matches, Tanahashi & Tenzan Injured; Nagata/Kojima in Crockett Cup; This Week’s NJPW on AXS

Yes, hi, hello. It’s been a bit. After two twelve-hour drives, five wrestling shows (which is apparently NOT ENOUGH judging by how many shows some people attended, or WORKED, during Mania Weekend), and a brush with death (I’ll explain next time I record), I needed to recover a bit. I’m still kinda half-assing it now, since I won’t be going through the full lineups for Wrestling Dontaku in this post. But youse all can forgive me, right? Anyway, let’s start with the whole reason I went to NYC...

(And hey, you can also listen to me do a podblast on Pro Wrestling Only about the event!)

ROH/NJPW G1 Supercard - 4/6/2019, Madison Square Garden, NYC (NJPWWorld / PPV)

Honor Rumble: Kenny King d. Jushin Thunder Liger, Great Muta [Wrestle-1], TK O’Ryan, Vinny Marseglia, Tomohiro Ishii [CHAOS], King Haku [Bullet Club], Cheeseburger, Minoru Suzuki [SZKG], Hirooki Goto [CHAOS], Jonathan Gresham, Toru Yano [CHAOS], Colt Cabana, Delirious, Bad Luck Fale [Bullet Club], YOSHI-HASHI [CHAOS], Rocky Romero [CHAOS], PJ Black, Tracy Williams [Lifeblood], Brian Milonas, Chase Owens [Bullet Club], Will Ferrara, Ryusuke Taguchi, Shingo Takagi [Los Ingobernables], Rhett Titus, SHO [CHAOS], YOH [CHAOS], Shaheem Ali, LSG, BUSHI [Los Ingobernables], Beer City Brusier (42;21, OTTR)

NEVER Openweight Championship & ROH World Television Championship Title v. Title: Jeff Cobb [FREE] © d. Will Ospreay [CHAOS] © (Tour Of The Islands, 12:52) - Ospreay fails his 2nd defense - Cobb succeeds his 6th defense, and is the 24th NEVER Openweight Champion

Rush [Los Ingobernables] d. Dalton Castle (Skewer Dropkick, 0:15)

Women of Honor World Championship: Kelly Klein d. Mayu Iwatani [STARDOM] © (K Power, 10:38) - Iwatani fails her 3rd defense - Klein is the 4th champion

NYC Street Fight Open Challenge: Juice Robinson [Lifeblood], Flip Gordon & Mark Haskins [Lifeblood] d. Bully Ray, Silas Young & Shane Taylor (Gordon > Bully, Four Flippy Splash, 15:01)

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship 3-Way Match: Dragon Lee [CMLL] d. Taiji Ishimori [Bullet Club] © & Bandido [Lifeblood] (Lee > Bandido, Desnucadora, 8:54) - Ishimori fails his 3rd defense - Dragon Lee is the 84th champion

IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team v. ROH World Tag Team Championships Title v. Title 4-Way Match: Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa [Bullet Club] © d. PCO & Brody King [Villain Enterprises] ©, EVIL & SANADA [Los Ingobernables] and Jay & Mark Briscoe (Loa > King, Super Powerbomb, 9:54) - Guerillas of Destiny succeed their 1st defense - PCO/King fail their first defense; Guerrilas of Destiny are the 54th ROH World Tag Team champions

RevPro Undisputed British Heavyweight Championship: Zack Sabre Jr. [SZKG] © d. Hiroshi Tanahashi (Jim Breaks Armbar, 15:14) - Sabre succeeds his ? defense

IWGP Intercontinental Championship: Kota Ibushi d. Tetsuya Naito [Los Ingobernables] © (Kamigoye, 20:53) - Naito fails his 2nd defense - Ibushi is the 21st champion

ROH World Championship 3-Way Ladder Match: Matt Taven d. Jay Lethal © & Marty Scurll [Villain Enterprises] (29:35) - Lethal fails his 13th defense - Taven is the 21st champion

IWGP Heavyweight Championship: Kazuchika Okada [CHAOS] d. Jay White [Bullet Club] © (Rainmaker, 32:33) - White fails his 1st defense - Okada is the 69th champion

Hoo wee, a lot to unpack here. This actually ran longer than Wrestle Kingdom 13. And it did feel every bit of that towards the end, sitting in MSG, I have to say. But this was a great show, and for being the last show I saw this weekend, it was a great way to end my Mania Weekend.

Which isn’t to say there are some major questions here. Like, was this the right move to take titles off White and Naito? Both are VERY over in their respective roles, Naito the only NJPW wrestler to get pre-match chants, White clearly the most hated heel in NJPW, both in Japan AND America. While Ibushi in his first championship as a contracted wrestler offers fresh title matches, Okada retaking the belt does not. And they were in the midst of an angle whereby Naito wanted to win the IWGP Heavyweight title while still IC champion. So that was... a waste of time and energy? Neither of which says the matches were not good, because both of them were. Just not sure of the results.

Tanahashi got injured, maybe by that Jim Breaks Armbar? So he is out of the next tour. So is Hiroyoshi Tenzan, which, not sure how he got injured considering he didn’t work this show. Maybe it happened during the New Japan Cup tour, or whilst in training. 

The Guerrillas of Destiny are now double-champions, however their belts were stolen by Toru Yano at the conclusion of the match. Not that anyone in MSG actually noticed, because everyone’s attention was on the (what we now know to be worked) crowd invasion by fucking Enzo & Cass. I really don’t want to spend too much time on those two scumfucks. MSG let their feelings known in no uncertain terms, however. As did many of the wrestlers, like, true to form, Tama Tonga. This was a recurring theme, of Ring Of Honor really not reading the room, and having such shitty booking decisions. The Women of Honor match was patently Not Good, and a waste of Mayu Iwatani’s talents; this goes double for the Beautiful People appearing at the end, to absolute crickets in MSG. Kenny King robbing both Jushin Thunder Liger and the absolute surprise entrant THE GREAT MUTA (yes, I absolutely did lose my shit seeing him at this show, why do you ask?) of an MSG moment (Muta did spit red mist in King’s face tho). A streetfight clusterfuck that became a 6-man match to put over Herb Gordon. The way too long ladder match. ROH stinks, folks. Stop watching them. They are awful. The only thing  on their end that was remotely good was Rush destroying Dalton Castle, but Dalton is either turning heel or leaving the company, following his attacks on The Boys. But yeah, this show made it crystal clear that NJPW are way better off without fucking around with Sinclair Broadcasting Group, especially if they are going to hire scumbags like Enzo Amore.

Dragon Lee finally wins the IWGP Junior Heavyweight title! That was a bit of a shocker. So was Ospreay ending his Giant Killer push by losing the NEVER title to a much deserving Jeff Cobb. Real happy he finally has an NJPW title.

Long story short, I really did enjoy this show, but mostly by ignoring the ROH content. I also had a wonderful weekend, where I met quite a lot of people, both regular folk and wrestlers (ZSJ! Shibata! Chinsuke Nakamura! Jiro “Ikemen” Kuroshio!), saw friends and co-hosts, ate some great food, and saw some awesome wrestling. Including the RevPro show on Friday, which had a lot of NJPW guys, but I don’t have the energy to go over that now. And what’s passed, is past. Time to look into the future yo...

This Saturday (my 46th birthday!), we begin the cycle of shows leading in to Wrestling Dontaku, which will be a 2-day event once again. I don’t have the energy to enter in the full tour cards right now. I will get to that tomorrow/Friday when I do a new Upcoming Events post. But I can go over some of the feature matches...

On 4/20, we will have Sengoku Lord in Nagoya, at Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium. Two title defenses on this show, as Kota Ibushi will make his first defense of the IWGP Intercontinental title against Zack Sabre Jr., who of course beat Ibushi during the New Japan Cup. Also on this show, Juice Robinson will defend the IWGP US belt against Bad Luck Fale.

Another title match takes place on 4/29, at the annual Wrestling Hi no Kuni  event in Kumamoto. Here, GOD will defend the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team straps against the Most Violent Players, Togi Makabe & Toru Yano. The main event of this show is a special singles match between Hirooki Goto v. Jay White. Not sure why, but here we are. There will also be a special singles, non-title match (if Juice retains on 4/20) between Juice v. Chase Owens.

The first day of Wrestling Dontaku, on 5/3 in Fukuoka, has the first time the IWGP Junior Heavyweight title is a main event match for a megashow in... a long time. (Someone tweeted when the last time was, and I didn’t save it, and I can’t fathom looking right now.) Dragon Lee makes his 1st defense against the previous champion, Taiji Ishimori. That ought to be good. Also, Jeff Cobb makes his first defense of the NEVER Openweight title against Suzuki-gun’s Taichi. And only that belt.

The following day, on 5/4, sees Kazuchika Okada make his first defense of the IWGP Heavyweight title against LIJ’s SANADA. Those three have had great matches before, including the recent New Japan Cup Final. They are also advertising a special singles match between Tomohiro Ishii v. EVIL, as well as a tag match that sees Dragon Lee & Will Ospreay team v. Taiji Ishimori & an X wrestler. Not sure why they are going the X route when we all know it’s El Phantasmo. 

As I said above, I will list all cards tomorrow or Friday in an Upcoming Events post.

Meanwhile, the brackets have been announced for the 2019 Crockett Cup tag team tournament, taking place on 4/27/2019 at Cabarrus Arena in Concord, NC. NJPW will be sending over the team of Yuji Nagata & Satoshi Kojima to this event; one assumed it would have been TenKoji were Tenzan not injured. They will face the recently dethroned ROH World Tag Team champions PCO & Brody King in their matchup. Should Nagata/Kojima win, they will face the winners of The Briscoe Brothers v. The Rock’n’Roll Express. Yes, you read that right. Over in the other block, an ROH team of Herb Gordon & Bandido (poor Bandido) goes up against a CMLL tandem of Stuka Jr. & Guerrero Maya Jr., whilst the War Kings (Jax Dane & Crimson) face off against the winner of a Wild Card Battle Royale that will take place during this show. This event will also have an NWA World’s Heavyweight title defense by Nick Aldis v. Marty Scurll. 

Finally, NJPW on AXS has a 2-hour special this week, with matches from G1 Supercard just last weekend. The advertised matches are the IWGP Heavyweight and Intercontinental matches. You can scroll above to see who is in those. Show starts at 8pm EDT / 7pm CDT.

And that’s it. I’m still recovering, so off to bed with this old man. Tour starts Saturday. Happy to be back. Hope you enjoyed the G1 Supercard, and anything else you watched during Mania Weekend. Come back for the Road to Wrestling Dontaku!

[wrestlingisanime]

My Wrestle Kingdom 13 Mental Preparations

This Friday, I'm going to try to stay up and watch Wrestle Kingdom…this will be like the 3rd time I attempt to do this. Ever year around this time, I tell myself, "I'm finally going to start to get into watching New Japan regularly, starting with Wrestle Kingdom!" but it always falls through.

It's mainly the time difference that kills it for me. Even back when I didn't have a job and would regularly stay up until 6 AM, I couldn't sit still enough to watch the entirety of the show. I remember the first time I did this, I was doing laundry while watching some people dressed up like Doraemon dancing on stage or something. That's the only thing I remember about that show. 

Last year, I tried to stay up to watch it, but I had to go to work the next day, so I eventually went to bed. I remember waking up at 5 AM, getting ready for work and thinking, "I wonder who won between Jericho and Omega," and then finding out the show was still going on as I drove to work. I ended up downloading the show and watching Omega vs Jericho while waiting at the DMV to renew my license… 

Anyway, this year, I'm going to actually do it! I'm going to stay up and pay attention to the show! I have my New Japan World subscription ready. The show starts on a Friday, so I don't have to worry about getting up early for work the next day. I even plan on taking a nap Friday evening in an attempt to combat any sleepiness I might encounter staying up to some crazy hour!

Now, I will admit, I really don't follow New Japan that closely at all. I'm familiar with some of the names…Omega, Okada, Naito, Kota Ibushi, Tama Tonga… but I've never really watched their matches in full. I don't know much about any of the storylines going in. But, I think that it's important to broaden my knowledge and expand my horizons into the Japanese pro wrestling world, especially in my quest to compare wrestling and anime. I mean, Japanese wrestling is as close to live action anime as it gets, right?! 

So…I'm just going to ramble about the NJPW stuff I'm KIND OF familiar with in an attempt to prep myself for watching Wrestle Kingdom 13. So let's get started.

PRE-SHOW NO.1 CONTENDER GAUNTLET MATCH FOR NEVER OPENWEIGHT 6-MAN TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP

Togi Makabe, Toru Yano & Ryusuke Taguchi vs Yuji Nagat, Jeff Cobb & David Finlay vs Hirooki Goto, Beretta & Chuckie T vs Minoru Suzuki, Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs  Hangman Page, Yujiro Takahashi & Marty Scurll

When I first looked at a match-up graphic of this match, I had no idea why there were so many people in a tag team match. I was confused about who was teaming with who, but I think I've figured it out.

I recognize a few names on this list, and I'm just going to detail what little I know about these wrestlers.

I've heard the name "Taguchi" said in a sexy Irish accent before…So this is the Ryusuke Taguchi that used to be buddies with Finn Balor/Prince Devitt. I don't know much more than that.

David Finlay sounds like he'd be the son of Fit Finlay…which apparently is the case! I don't know much about any of the Finlays except Fit was in one of the N64 AKI wrestling games.

Jeff Cobb, aka, the monster Mantza Cueto! I've seen him wrestle live as Matanza at the Impact/Lucha Underground show on Wrestlemania weekend last year. He's pretty freakin' good.

Chuckie T, I can only assume is that Chuck Taylor dude who was always the star of those Chikara videos I used to watch all the time, with him squealing like a little girl and yelling at children.

Marty Scurll is that "Villain" dude with the umbrella. He was a very popular wrestling cosplay at A-Kon last year. Lots of dudes with masks and umbrellas.

Hangman Page apparently killed Joey Ryan with a telephone and was haunted by cowboy boots. His original Bullet Club shirt was also a major inspiration for my Doki Doki Wrestling Club shirts, specifically Sayori's for obvious reasons…

Minoru Suzuki. I always hear how freakin' badass this dude is. Looking forward to see him wreck people.

I've heard some other names before, like Toru Yano, Yuji Nagata, and Davey Boy Smith…but I honestly don't know much about them. Hopefully that'll change soon! 

As for the "NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship" …well, I recently learned that the NEVER Openweight Championship is a title that isn't restricted by weight class. When I first looked at this card, I was very confused as how a 3-man team could compete to be a contender for a single title…but Wikipedia just now tells me that there is indeed a separate NEVER Tag Team Championship. That makes sense!

I still don't know what "NEVER" means. Apparently it's "New Blood," "Evolution," "Valiantly," "Eternal," and "Radical." Yeah, a bunch of random English words put together to form a nonsense acronym. Sounds pretty Japanese for sure. Reminds me of the notorious B.L.O.O.D.M.O.S.E.S. organization…

1ST MATCH  60 MINUTES LIMIT NEVER OPENWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP

Kota Ibushi vs Will Ospreay

I really hope this match isn't an hour long, but…

So, of course I'm familiar with Kota Ibushi! He's Kenny's Golden Lover and he's done a bunch of crazy cool DDT matches. I think he was also in the WWE Cruiserweight Classic. And he starred in a kaiju movie that I really want to watch.

I only know Will Ospreay from that anime-as-hell match he had with Ricochet a few years ago that Vader got really mad about (R.I.P.).

Anyway, they both seem like amazing wrestlers, so sounds like it'll be a sick match…even if it somehow does last an hour.

2ND MATCH 60 MINUTES LIMIT IWGP Jr. TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP

Yoshinobu Kanemaru & El Desperado vs Roppongi 3K vs BUSHI & Shingo Takagi 

Why can't these tag matches just have 2 teams!!!

I honestly don't know much about any of these people. I've heard the name "Roppongi 3K" before, and it's a cool sounding name, so that's cool. I also probably get "BUSHI" and Kota Ibushi confused sometimes.

Oh, and I guess I need to finally look up what "IWGP" stands for. Okay, so apparently it stands for "International Wrestling Grand Prix" which is the governing body of NJPW…what. I don't know what that means. I have never heard a human utter the words "International Wrestling Grand Prix" before…huh, weird. I'd rather they just call it the NJPW championship, but I guess there's a legacy there that they want to preserve, so that's fair. Also, weird title names seem to go hand-in-hand with Japanese wrestling anyway. 

3RD MATCH 60 MINUTES LIMIT BRITISH HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP

Tomoiro Ishii vs Zack Sabre Jr.

I did not know that New Japan had a British Heavyweight Championship.

Like many Japanese wrestlers, I've heard the name Tomohiro Ishii mentioned in podcasts a lot, but I can't envision a specific person or match in my head. Sorry. :(

I don't know if I've seen Zack Sabre Jr. wrestle, either. I know he was in the WWE Cruiswerweight Classic, but that's it.

They're probably both really good, though, and very deserving of whatever this Japanese British championship is.

4TH MATCH 60 MINUTES LIMIT IWGP TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP

Tanga Loa & Tama Tonga vs Sanada & EVIL vs The Young Bucks 

Seriously, do they just not have 2v2 tag matches in Japan?

I'm very familiar with Tama Tonga. He's that Bullet Club dude that used to have face paint that reminded me of the box art to Knights of the Old Republic 2. Much like I haven't played any KOTOR game, I don't think I've ever watched Tama Tonga actually wrestle. I know that he's done some goofy stuff on Twitter recently. Also, he's got a cool name that's fun to say: "Tama Tonga."

Speaking of cool names, who doesn't like the name "EVIL"? That name..it's just…so freaking good. I keep hoping there's an association with that one Sponge Bob episode, but probably not.

Also, the Young Bucks…yeah they're very popular, but, again, I don't think I've ever seen them wrestle. I just know that they superkick people a lot, they have streamers on their pants, and they're very good at selling merch. 

5TH MATCH 60 MINUTES LIMIT IWGP US HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP

Cody vs Juice Robinson

Obviously, I know who Cody is. He was that dude who used to be Stardust! …man, Stardust was cool. Stardust is literally THE reason I started watching wrestling again. It was a bummer to hear that Cody didn't like doing the character. He was so good at it, though.

I recently learned that Juice Robinson used to be CJ Parker in NXT. That was pretty mindblowing, because CJ Parker was one of the standout characters for me back when I first watched NXT. Apparently he's a good wrestler, too, so cool. 

Also, I'm almost tempted to ask why there's an IWGP US Championship…but I guess "I" in IWGP stands for "International." …but why isn't the British title the IWGP British Championship??? Looking that up now…oh, so the British Championship is actually the RPW British Heavyweight Championship owned by Revolution Pro Wrestling. Huh.

6TH MATCH 60 MINUTES LIMIT IWGP Jr. HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP

KUSHIDA vs Taiji Ishimori

I remember a long time ago, I watched some clips from an older (then recent) Wrestle Kingdom that featured a team called the Time Splitters, which I thought was cool because I like the video game TimeSplitters: Future Perfect. But also, I guess this was a time traveler wrestling gimmick, and that's cool, and I liked hearing the ring announcer go "TIIIIIIIME SPLTITERRRRRRRSSSSS." But that's not even it! They had a freakin' Back to the Future Delorean entrance. And then there was one that had a dude dressed as Doc Brown…and apparently that guy was Taguchi. Huh, weird.

So, I guess KUSHIDA was one of the Time Splitters, so that's cool. I don't if he's still a time traveler or not. I hope he is. 

As for Taiji Ishimori, he's the new "Bone Soldier," and I don't really know much about that, other than Captain New Japan used to be the Bone Soldier and everyone hated that one for some reason, but they like this new one. And Ishimori might be going to WWE? I don't know! 

Oh, I just realized that all these matches have a 60 minute time limit…

7TH MATCH 60 MINUTES LIMIT SPECIAL SINGLE MATCH

Kazuchika Okada vs Jay White

Of course I'm familiar with Okada. He's the Rainmaker! And then he turned into that guy with the balloons…I dunno, but he's in Yakuza 6, so that's cool!

Jay White is apparently the new leader of the Bullet Club. I used to think he was always part of the Bullet Club because I remember seeing Jay White Bullet Club shirts a while back…but apparently he wasn't actually in the Bullet Club until recently? I don't know! I just know that people used to call him "Knife Pervert" and I thought that was funny, so I used it in Doki Doki Wrestling Club.

8TH MATCH 60 MINUTES LIMIT IWGP INTERCONTINENTAL CHAMPIONSHIP NO DQ MATCH

Chris Jericho vs Testuya Naito 

Chris Jericho is a guy who wears a scarf and dresses like a mime or something. I don't know. 

I always thought Naito was cool. I like "Tranquilo" and the eyeball thing he does. There's also that super cute Naito teddy bear plush that I would really like to have one day. I once bought a Naito keychain from an anime con artist alley booth. Yeah, I like Naito, and apparently so does everyone else…except Chris Jericho, I guess.

9TH MATCH 60 MINUTES LIMIT IWGP HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP

Kenny Omega vs Hiroshi Tanahashi

I first heard of Kenny Omega when people were sharing that clip of a grown dude wrestling a 9-year-old Japanese girl. I also learned that he was a huge nerd and spoke fluent Japanese. From my limited perspective, he didn't seem to blow up in popularity until he debuted as "The Cleaner" in the Bullet Club. Now he's like the most popular non-WWE wrestler in the world. I wasn't ever a super huge fan of Kenny, but he DID put Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon on his Top 10 video games list last year, so he's cool in my book. I wish he played fighting games other than Street Fighter, though…

As for Tanahashi, I remember on like my second attempt to stay up and watch Wrestle Kingdom, people kept saying that Tanahashi was the "John Cena of Japan." I'm assuming that's still true to this day. Honesty, that's all I know about Tanahashi, lol.

So, I assume Tanahashi is going to win and Kenny will finally have his rematch against a grown up Haruka!

And that's it!! That's all I know about Wrestle Kingdom 13. Hopefully I'll finally start to get into NJPW following this Wrestle Kingdom, because I honestly think Japanese puroresu knowledge is absolutely necessary in my campaign to prove that wrestling…is anime.

[gdwessel]

Honor Rising Night 2 - 2/23/2019

The second night of Ring of Honor’s trip to Korakuen Hall took place, and you can see it now on NJPWWorld... if you must.

- 2/23/2019, Tokyo Korakuen Hall (NJPWWorld)

Toa Henare & Jonathan Gresham d. Zack Sabre Jr. & TAKA Michinoku [SZKG] (Gresham > TAKA, Octopus Catch, 12:20)

Marty Scurll [Villain Enterprises] d. Robbie Eagles [FREE] (Crossface Chickenwing, 8:55)

Toru Yano [CHAOS] & Colt Cabana d. Delirious & Cheeseburger (Cabana > Delirious, Superman, 10:09)

Hirooki Goto & Will Ospreay [CHAOS] d. Jeff Cobb [FREE] & Dalton Castle (Ospreay > Cobb, Stormbreaker, 11:45)

Tetsuya Naito & Shingo Takagi [Los Ingobernables] d. Matt Taven & Vinny Marseglia (Naito > Marseglia, Destino, 11:50)

ROH World Championship: Jay Lethal © d. TK O’Ryan (Lethal Injection, 10:52) - Lethal succeeds his 11th defense

IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa [Bullet Club] d. EVIL & SANADA [Los Ingobernables] © (Tonga > SANADA, Super Powerbomb, 20:26) - EVIL/SANADA fail their 2nd defense - GOD are the 83rd champions

ROH World Tag Team Championship: Jay & Mark Briscoe © d. Juice Robinson & David Finlay Jr. [Lifeblood] (Jay > Finlay, Froggy Bow [Mark], 17:13) - Briscoes succeed their 2nd defense

EVIL & SANADA lose their titles in a fuck finish, BOOOOOO. Lifeblood’s first title challenge as a unit doesn’t go their way. Post-main, the Briscoes challenge GOD to a title v. title match at G1 Supercard at Madison Square Garden. Lethal retains the ROH World Title but gets hit with it by Matt Taven in lead-up to ROH’s upcoming 17th Anniversary show. Not sure why they even do the ROH World Title matches in Japan because they always, without fail, end up being such nothing matches (although last year’s was not ROH’s fault, rather they had to cover for Trent Beretta being severely injured from PWG).  Matches were changed as the Young Lions v. Cabana/Delirious/Cheeseburger 6-man opener was scratched. Ospreay beating Cobb seems like a heat killer on Cobb to me. I dunno. The show is there if you wanna watch it, but it’s, again, hardly essential viewing.

The next show is a New Japan Road show from Okinawa on Wednesday that I wish was making tape, but isn’t. Phooey. As a way of being a nice guy, I will tell you if you have All Japan’s streaming service AJPW.tv, tomorrow is a show to watch, as the Junior Battle of Glory Final between Seiki Yoshioka v. Koji Iwamoto will be happening, as well as a Triple Crown defense where Kento Miyahara defends against Suwama. So maybe check that out.

New Japan Road - 2/27/2019, Okinawa Prefectural Budokan

Jushin Thunder Liger, Gurukun Mask [Ryukyu Dragon] & Yota Tsuji v. Tiger Mask IV, Ultra Soki [Ryukyu Dragon] & Yuya Uemura

YOSHI-HASHI [CHAOS] v. Ren Narita

Hirooki Goto [CHAOS] v. Toa Henare

Yuji Nagata & Shota Umino v. Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano [CHAOS]

Rocky Romero, SHO & YOH [CHAOS] v. Tetsuya Naito, BUSHI & Shingo Takagi [Los Ingobernables]

Kazuchika Okada [CHAOS] & Ryusuke Taguchi v. EVIL & SANADA [Los Ingobernables]

Hiroshi Tanahashi, Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma v. Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa & Jado [Bullet Club]

Strong Style Story Episode 49 on Pro Wrestling Only

[gdwessel]

Wrestling Hi No Kuni 2019 - 4/29/2019; Nagata/Kojima in Crockett Cup 4/27/2019

The annual Wrestling Hi no Kuni show took place today, on the traditional date, in Kumamoto. This is the second occurrence show since the 2016 earthquake in the region damaged Grand Messe Kumamoto, but it is now firmly back on the schedule. You can watch it now on NJPWWorld.

Wrestling Hi no Kuni - 4/29/2019, Kumamoto Grand Messe (NJPWWorld)

Tomoaki Honma, Shota Umino & Ren Narita d. Toa Henare, Yota Tsuji & Yuya Uemura (Umino > Uemura, Fisherman’s Suplex, 11:00)

Jeff Cobb [FREE], YOSHI-HASHI [CHAOS], Jushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask IV & Ryusuke Taguchi d. Minoru Suzuki, Taichi, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, El Desperado & TAKA Michinoku [SZKG] (Cobb > TAKA, Tour Of The Islands, 12:42)

Dragon Lee [CMLL] & Will Ospreay [CHAOS] d. Taiji Ishimori & Hikuleo [Bullet Club] (Ospreay > Hikuleo, OsCutter, 10:06)

Bad Luck Fale [Bullet Club] d. Mikey Nicholls [CHAOS] (Grenade, 7:24) 

Juice Robinson [Lifeblood] d. Chase Owens [Bullet Club] (Pulp Friction, 8:43)

Tetsuya Naito, EVIL, SANADA, BUSHI & Shingo Takagi [Los Ingobernables] d. Kazuchika Okada [CHAOS], Tomohiro Ishii [CHAOS], Kota Ibushi, SHO [CHAOS] & YOH [CHAOS] (SANADA > SHO, Skull End, 16:40) 

IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa [Bullet Club] © d. Togi Makabe & Toru Yano [CHAOS] (Tonga > Makabe, Schoolboy, 14:50) - GOD succeed their 2nd defense

Jay White [Bullet Club] d. Hirooki Goto [CHAOS] (Bladerunner, 22:59)

Some of the matches were fun, I guess. Taichi attacked Cobb. Liger and Suzuki got into it with chairs again. I dunno. This show isn’t really anything essential by any means. Three singles matches that may or may not go anywhere. And one of the least compelling titles in the company being defended. You might like some of it. Maybe watch the AJPW Champion Carnival Finals instead.

The 4th Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup took place this past Saturday 4/27/2019 in Concord, NC, and along with the Cup, the winners would become the first NWA World Tag Team Champions since 2017. Unfortunately, the NJPW squad of Yuji Nagata & Satoshi Kojima would not be those champions. They fell in the first round to the eventual winners, and champions, the Villain Enterprises tandem of PCO & Brody King. PCO/King would also defeat the Briscoe Brothers and Royce Isaacs/Thomas Latimer on their way to becoming champions. The other member of the unit, Marty Scurll, would fail in his attempt to become NWA World’s Heavyweight Champion, tapping out to defending champion Nick Aldis.

Michael Elgin apparently made his debut in Impact Wrestling last night. OK.

The tour continues tomorrow, and this show will be on NJPWWorld.

- 4/30/2019, Kagoshima Sun Arena Sendai (NJPWWorld)

Tiger Mask IV & Yuya Uemura v. Shota Umino & Ren Narita

Jushin Thunder Liger & Ryusuke Taguchi v. El Desperado & TAKA Michinoku [SZKG]

Togi Makabe, Toru Yano [CHAOS], Mikey Nicholls [CHAOS] & Tomoaki Honma v. Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa, Bad Luck Fale & Hikuleo [Bullet Club]

Jeff Cobb [FREE], YOSHI-HASHI [CHAOS] & Toa Henare v. Minoru Suzuki, Taichi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru [SZKG]

Hirooki Goto [CHAOS]. Will Ospreay [CHAOS], Juice Robinson [Lifeblood] & Dragon Lee [CMLL] v. Jay White, Gedo, Chase Owens & Taiji Ishimori [Bullet Club]

Kazuchika Okada [CHAOS], Tomohiro Ishii [CHAOS], Kota Ibushi, SHO [CHAOS] & YOH [CHAOS] v. Tetsuya Naito, EVIL, SANADA, BUSHI & Shingo Takagi [Los Ingobernables]