Category: Japan

by Bryan Rose, WrestlingObserver.com

Here are quick results for the last of the Road to Destruction shows, taking place this morning in Uwajima.

Ryusuke Taguchi defeated Yohei Komatsu. He was defeated after Taguchi pinned him following a dodon. Good opener with lots of hot near falls towards the end.

Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi defeated Jay White and Satoshi Kojima. Nagata pinned White with the backdrop suplex hold. Solid match, but nothing beyond that.

Mascara Dorada, Tiger Mask and Jushin Thunder Liger defeated Roppongi Vice and Gedo. Tiger Mask submitted Gedo with what looked like a modified seated chickenwing. Another solid tag match with both Tiger Mask and Dorada doing cool dives here and there. Crowd was really into it. Tiger Mask cut a promo, probably talking about the NWA Jr. title match coming up.

Tomoaki Honma and Katsuyori Shibata defeated Tetsuya Naito and Juice Robinson. Honma pinned Robinson with the top rope kokeshi headbutt while Shibata choked Naito using the ropes on the apron. Sibata threw him into the barricade after the match. They had the same finish from the last show where Naito acted like he was going to hit Shibata with a chair, but sat on it instead. This time Shibata used Honma to give Naito another kokeshi, then Shibata beat him up some more to send him packing. Solid match that the crowd was really into.

The mayor of Uwajima came to the ring with the town mascot, which looked like a sun in a bonnet wearing a superhero outfit. Don’t ask me! Sho Tanaka, who is the hometown favorite, came to the ring to a nice pop as he posed with them.

Hiroshi Tanahashi, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Kushida and Sho Tanaka defeated Bad Luck Fale, Kenny Omega, Cody Hall and Doc Gallows. Tanahashi pinned Hall following the high fly flow. People were very into the match, especially when Tanaka was on offense. Very good match helped by the crowd reacting big to everything. Tanaka had his music played after the match and posed with his team mates.

Kazuchika Okada & Tomohiro Ishii defeated Karl Anderson & Tama Tonga. Just a standard match, not very much to it. Okada pinned Tama Tonga with the rainmaker.

Shinsuke Nakamura, Yoshi Hashi and Toru Yano defeated Togi Makabe, Hirooki Goto and Captain New Japan. Nakamura won after pinning CNJ with a boma ye. Nothing that exciting but not bad by any means. There was a period where CNJ was scoring a number of near falls on Nakamura but very few people in the crowd bought it, which is weird because they even get into the young lion pin falls. But I guess that result is why no one buys him as anything more than a job guy.

by Bryan Rose, WrestlingObserver.com

Tonight’s show took place on October 13, 2014 at Sumo Hall. It’s a look at New Japan’s annual November PPV,  King of Pro Wrestling, which is one of the bigger events on the New Japan calendar. Tonight’s show is our first look at the card, as this episode highlights the big junior heavyweight matches on the card.

First up is reDragon vs Timesplitters for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight tag titles. reDragon, as far as in ring work goes, are one of the best tag teams on the planet right now and Timesplitters aren’t too far behind. They’ve faced off countless times in the last year, and I think they’ve have had better matches on other shows than this one right here. Not that it’s bad, it was actually a pretty good bout, but it just feels like I’ve seen better from the four. reDragon have totally proved that they belong in New Japan, as we’ll see in future episodes, and when they won the titles I wasn’t too surprised, so good on them. Good, solid work from everyone involved overall.

After the match, reDragon and Timesplitters are confronted by two other teams- The Young Bucks and Forever Hooligans (Rocky Romero/Alex Koslov). All four teams argue with another as reDragon leave with the titles, holding them up. This sets up a four way at the WrestleKingdom show, but it doesn’t make much sense, especially since the Timesplitters just lost clean in the middle of the ring. But hey, the match on paper sounds pretty good either way.

Next is Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Taichi for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight championship. This is the follow up to the previous episode where the Suzuki-gun junior heavyweights attacked Taguchi, and sure enough Taichi’s two cohorts Desperado & Taka Michinoku are at ringside for this match. Taguchi is the kind of guy who can have great matches with great workers, and Taichi isn’t considered a great worker in the least bit. Looking at the highlights here, they did end up having a pretty good match. The editing was kind of poor as they aired a big spot where Taichi gave Taguchi a Gotch piledriver through a table, then immediately fast forwarded to Taguchi making a comeback, eventually winning with the dodon. That wasn’t the best edit I’ve seen. Regardless, the highlights were good and overall probably a better match than people would expect.

After the match, Bullet Club members enter ringside. Karl Anderson enters the ring and introduces the newest member of the Bullet Club, “The Cleaner” Kenny Omega. He comes in and cuts a promo on Taguchi, saying that he didn’t want the lion mark prestige, all he really wants is the money. He also said that he wanted the IWGP junior title, and that he’s here to clean up NJPW. They have a staredown before exiting the ring, but not before Taguchi takes the mic and says he doesn’t understand English, then says to answer his question, oh my and garfunkel (his catchphrase). It doesn’t sound like it on paper, but after the long promo Omega cut it was pretty funny for Taguchi to give such a succinct answer. This also leads to a title match at WrestleKingdom.

Jushin Thunder Liger is interviewed next, as he takes on Chase Owens for the NWA Junior Heavyweight championship. He says when he thinks of the NWA, he remembers legends such as Ric Flair, the Funks, and Harley Race. They were truly the king of kings as they wrestle all throughout the word. In regards to Owens, he says his moves are simple but he knows to make them devastating. Says it’s hard to wrestle at this age in a New Japan ring but he still has the biggest heart of any wrestler.

The main event aired. This was a solid match as well. Not great, but pretty good. Bruce Tharpe as the NWA manager is so great, his mannerisms are top notch and he’s effective as the wacky heel manager. Owens looked good throughout the match. Like Liger mentioned, he doesn’t do anything fancy, but does enough to have a good match and it works for him well. Always good to see a different style in New Japan, and Owens brings that to the table here. They kept it safe and didn’t do anything crazy. Liger went for a splash at one point but Liger made it to the ropes. Mostly just a good back and forth match until Liger laid out Owens with a brainbuster, then followed with another one and pinned Owens to win the belt. Commentary here did a great job as well with putting the NWA Junior Heavyweight title over as they made it sound like a really big deal when Liger won it.

Liger in a post match interview says that he wants to defend the title in NOAH and other places now that he’s a NWA champion. Tenryu told him to say to keep wrestling until you’re satisfied. Making a comeback is embarrassing, as he will never forget those words. He says that while this is the final chapter for Liger, he will keep going forward. In his reflective interview, he talks about winning the belt in Osaka. In regards to how he envisions the future, he says the future is amazing, and lists people like Kushida, Alex Shelley and Kenny Omega and also mentions that he wants to wrestle Tiger Mask IV one more time, which is something we’ll see down the road.

Very cool episode this week. It didn’t have any blow away matches, but it did show the healthy relationships with Ring of Honor and NWA and how they’ll continue to thrive into 2015, with both reDragon winning the IWGP tag titles and Liger winning the NWA Jr. title. Also very interesting to hear Liger’s words about this being his final chapter. I wonder if he still feels that he’s on the final chapter of his career as we now enter 2016.

by Bryan Rose, WrestlingObserver.com

Tonight’s show is the main event of King of Pro Wrestling, held on October 13, 2014 at Sumo Hall in Japan.

We’re going right to the main event as Hiroshi Tanahashi is interviewed. He was after the belt and nothing but the belt, that was his goal going into the match. In regards to AJ Styles, he has great moves and his his body is well built, so he knew he was a wrestler that the fans liked. He also knew going into the match that it wasn’t going to be a one sided match in his favor.

The match itself was really great. Seeing Jeff Jarrett at ringside annoyed me,  but I get why they did it, and it built to a cool moment later anyway. Slow build, but really well worked with both guys looking like the best in the business, which at this point they very well are. They way they built up to the false finish was great, with Jarrett pulling out right as AJ was being pinned after two high fly flows. Very rarely does anyone kick out of two consecutive high fly flows so this was awesome, at least when looking back at it roughly a year later. I bet that pissed off a lot of people when it aired live, but hey, everything happened in this match for a reason. Jarrett’s role in the match was to come out and wield the guitar, which he did, and was about to strike Tanahashi with it when who should come out but Yoshitatsu, fresh off a WWE run and making his return to New Japan after a six year absence. Crowd liked this one once they knew who it was. With the interference out of the way, they scored some hot near falls.

This was a more americanized match they usually do. Some people hated the Bullet Club stuff, and I see why, but this made it feel different than their other matches. If you do ONE americanized kind of match on a show like this, I think it works well and could even add to a match with the right circumstances. This was a good example of that. It was a well worked match throughout, with Jarrett coming into the equation just once so they could build the return of Yoshitatsu. Once that was over with, it was a fun of great near fall spots until Hiroshi Tanahashi caught AJ with a high fly flow in the standing position then finished him off with another. I wouldn’t say it was an excellent match, but it was a very good New Japan main event by those standards.

After watching this show live, I was kind of bummed that they went with Tanahashi winning the title back. To me, the story of 2014 seemed to be Okada getting his revenge against the Bullet Club by beating AJ Styles at WrestleKingdom. But they went ahead with Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada again as a main event. But as much as I didn’t understand it in 2014, I get why they did it after watching this match again. The story that they’ve been building isn’t so much AJ versus Okada – it’s Okada vs. Tanahashi, which of course in ring wise (and probably promo wise considering the post match stuff) has been one of the best feuds of the decade. Think about it – when Okada loses at the Tokyo Dome show, he leaves the ring crying his eyes out. The second opportunity he has to beat Tanahashi at the Tokyo Dome was blown, so of course he’d be sad. Small things like this tell me that all this will culminate at the Tokyo Dome when Okada finally gets his win against Tanahashi. Of course, this could all change, but this seems like the story they’re going towards, and it makes the most sense.

Yoshitatsu is interviewed. He didn’t come here to save Tanahashi but his body moved when he arrived here in the arena to help him out. Most of all, he feels that this was the place to return to in the end.

Okada and Gedo came out to confront Tanahashi. Gedo says it’s funny, he thinks the belt has been looking for you. But that won’t work against the Rainmaker. The Rainmaker will make sure of one thing at the Toyko Dome…he will bury you. Well, as long as it’s not Stephanie McMahon. Okada complimented him on the great work, but said a dull sun like him won’t light up New Japan. As the bright golden sun, he will, and he will light up the entire industry…it’s time for him to go down.

Tanahashi says he isn’t tired. He says Okada, maybe you can make money rain, but you can’t be the sun because I exist. They had a brief posedown before Okada make his exit. Tanahashi did his usual thanks, then in a post match interview gets a beer bath by Captain New Japan and the timesplitters. He says that He’ll answer expectations much more now that he’s champion.

Looking back at the match, he said that he stayed focus on his path back to the title. He says in regards to winning the title for the seventh time, a record, he says that he is emotional whenever he has the belt and he feels the connection the crowd has with the belt and himself. He also says that he remembers seeing Yoshitatsu wrestle in the FCW arena when he was working for TNA, so he is happy to see him back since it is the best timing for him. In regards to winning the 2014 MVP, he felt this match was the deciding factor; as far as 2014 goes, this was definitely his most important match.

A really great stuff. Between the main event, and the post fight promos, this was a well done show.

by Bryan Rose, WrestlingObserver.com

Yohei Komatsu vs. David Finlay

This only lasted roughly around ten minutes, but this was a fine back and forth match. They traded offense and submissions, including Finlay’s stretch muffler which is always a fun move to see in pro wrestling. Komatsu made a comeback and put him in the half crab, and Finlay submitted.

Tiger Mask & Jushin Liger vs. Jay White & Sho Tanaka

It was what you’d expect out of a veterans vs. young lions match. Lions made a comeback at one point and Tanaka nearly had Tiger Mask submitted with an awesome looking figure four. Liger was able to make the comeback for his team, then Tiger Mask isolated Tanaka with what looked like a half chickenwing.

Liger cut a promo after the match mentioning how Tiger Mask has a NWA Jr. Heavyweight title match coming at at Destruction. He goes with the Mick Foley routine, telling him to win it so he can challenge him at Korakuen. That got a pop, of course.

Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi & Ryusuke Taguchi & Mascara Dorada & Juice Robinson vs. Toru Yano & Yoshi-Hashi & Gedo & Rocky Romero & Baretta

Toru Yano came out with a new song from the CHAOS album. It was…rather interesting. He was introduced as the producer of the album. Typical ten man tag with some good moments. Taguchi and RPG Vice were in there for a while and did some comedy spots. Nagata was in there briefly and beat both of RPG Vice up. It boiled down to Juice Robinson and Yoshi-Hashi. He looked better here than last week, but still feels like he’s a step below the other heavyweights. We’ll find out how he does in time. They had some fine back and forth with Yoshi-Hashi hitting his neckbreaker and pinning Robinson with the swanton bomb.

Kazuchika Okada & Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Tama Tonga & Cody Hall

Another simple match. Not bad, but there was a familiar story. Tonga and Hall had the heat on Sakuraba for a long time. Okada made the hot tag and cleared house. Hall made a comeback and soon both heels were on Okada. Sakuraba came in for the save and took Tonga down as Hall was submitted with the Red Ink by Okada. That’s the first time in a long while someone submitted to that; would be a good idea to use it on guys like Hall in the future to get it over as a finish.

Hiroshi Tanahashi & Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima & Kushida vs. Bad Luck Fale & Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows & Kenny Omega

Good match. This wasn’t like a typical ten man tag where everyone just works against their future opponent; they all worked with one another (though there was focus on their opponents during certian points of the mtach) and the action was good. At one point Doc Gallows had Kojima choked out with a chair and was dragging him backstage. The crowd was also getting into it near the end. Kojima was making his comeback on Anderson but Gallows was involved and was able to take him out with the magic killer, allowing Anderson to score the win for his team. 

Togi Makabe & Katsuyori Shibata vs. Kota Ibushi & Tetsuya Naito

Of course the stories here are between Shibata/Naito and Makabe/Ibushi. Shibata did the spot he’s done in other tags against Naito by giving him a huge boot to the face that sends him to the floor. Fans were super into the interactions between Naito and Shibata. Naito’s heel mannerisms are top notch and it’s getting big reactions from the fans. Shibata actually submitted him with a sleeper, which seems to be the theme of the night with getting a lot of submissions over. Shibata destroyed Naito’s Los Ingobernales hat to boot. Ibushi and Makabe brawled after the match and had to be separated a few times before doing so. 

Hirooki Goto & Tomoaki Honma vs. Shinsuke Nakamura & Tomohiro Ishii

This was a match where the crowd made it better than it was. This was actually a very good match but the crowd made it seem like this awesome main event. I wouldn’t put it at that level but it was very fun. It was what you’d expect, with the four rivals pairing off with one another. Good offense, but it just felt familiar. The fans ate it up regardless . Finish had Honma and Ishii dishing out punishment. Ishii pelted Honma with headbutts but he was no selling them until Ishii headbutted him in the throat and got a nearfall with a lariat. My least favorite place to be headbutted would probably in fact be the throat, ouch. Ishii hit a brainbuster and pinned him.

I’d say watch the two top matches as they built up Destruction really well with those. Overall, a pretty solid card that served its purpose. 

With Destruction now over, we focus on the next big New Japan show, King of Pro Wrestling, the last big show of the year before the Tokyo Dome show on January 4. The right to the  IWGP title match at WrestleKingdom 9 will be defended on tonight’s show as Kazuchika Okada will face Tetsuya Naito in a rematch of sorts from the 2014 WrestleKingdom show. Okada beat Naito that night, but during the G1 Naito had Okada’s number by beating him in an excellent match. Tonight’s show is the culmination of their year long feud; will fresh, babyface Tetsuya Naito pick up the win here on tonight’s show, or will Okada prove he’s one of the top dogs in New Japan?

by Bryan Rose, WrestlingObserver.com

First up we have Ryusuke Taguchi taking out El Desperado for the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight championship. Taguchi started to introduce the hip attacks here as his new gimmick. It’s such a mid card comedy act thing to do here, but he didn’t harp on it as much as he did once he dropped the title, so it’s not as bad here. Desperado is fine but given that he was in New Japan for just a year under this gimmick before jumping over to NOAH, I didn’t gain any real thoughts on him as a single during this run. In this match, he was fine. Taichi freely interferes, but the ref sees Taichi helping Desperado and kicks his hand away, giving Taguchi the opportunity to hit the dodon then apply the ankle lock for the submission. It was a solid, perfectly acceptable match but nothing I would call memorable.

Katsuyori Shibata & Hirooki Goto vs. Shinsuke Nakamura & Yoshi-Hashi is next. I wonder who is taking the fall here. I think I’ve mentioned this before, but Yoshi-Hashi is a good example of someone who could go to NOAH and get over there because he’s stuck in the midcard here in New Japan. Considering how many people they bring in here in New Japan, he’s going to be lost in the shuffle, even though he’s pretty good when put in certain situations. This was clipped, but was pretty good and the crowd was heated. Yoshi Hashi looked good with his interactions with Shibata, but one penalty kick later he’s facing the ring lights.

Shibata and Nakamura have a staredown after the match, meaning things aren’t done here yet. Nakamura cuts a promo, basically challenging Shibata to a match down the line.

Okada does his reflective interview. He reflects on the Tokyo Dome match from 2014, then mentions how he lost to Anderson and Naito in the G1. He wasn’t looking forward to fighting him, but this match was just a match for payback in his opinion.

The match aired. From what I remember the G1 match was just as good as this match. But it was really great. The crowd was hot and they worked a really great match with lots of false finishes and great reversals. The wheelbarrow into the German suplex towards the end was really great. Okada, of course, pins him with the rainmaker. There’s so many great matches in New Japan I don’t know if this would crack the top five, but it would probably be around the top 10 mark in terms of main events this year. Naito’s an excellent babyface worker and so is Okada, and they had a terrific match here.

Naito said it’s great Okada won, New Japan Pro Wrestling will e safe now. He heard so many fans chanting his name, he felt very happy about that. The more people chant for him, the more people will give back. What will be interesting to see on these shows is how Naito eventually transitions into his new heel persona.

Okada says he’s curious about the next match. Upon reflection, he realized how strong he was during the match. The stamina he had at the end of the match even surprised him. Not a lot to say here at the end. Overall, a pretty good show highlighted by a great main event. There will be more coverage of King of Pro Wrestling next week, so tune in then!

by Bryan Rose, WrestlingObserver.com

Welcome to this morning’s coverage of the New Japan Pro Wrestling show, taking place at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan. We kick off the Road to Destruction tour as a eight man tag featuring the Bullet Club headlines, as well as the debut of former NXT star CJ Parker, now going under the name Juice Robinson. 

David Finlay vs. Jay White

Very good, technical match. Crowd was quiet for a lot of it but were into the big spots. Both guys had a back and forth match with a lot of mat wrestling and counters. Very different that what you would normally see, which is nice. Finlay hit the rolling senton. White tried to reverse but Finlay caught White with the stretch muffler and he had to tap out.

Yuji Nagata & Sho Tanaka vs. Yohei Komatsu & Manabu Nakanishi

Good match. Komatsu and Tanaka continue to look like they’re far beyond ready to move beyond the young lion stage and Nagata did his part well. There was one point in the match where Tanaka teased a deadlift on the immobile Nakanishi but he blocked it. Nagata and Komatsu had a nice exchange at the end with Nagata drilling him with a great belly to belly overhead suplex then pinned him with the backdrop hold.

Tomohiro Ishii, Yoshi Hashi and Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Jushin Thunder Liger, Captain New Japan and Tomoaki Honma

Another good tag team match. They didn’t work it entirely like a standard New Japan six man as they have a formula, and that’s what I liked about the match. Everyone looked good and had their moments. Liger and Ishii had a cool exchange, as well as Ishii and Honma. They did a spot where Liger laid out Ishii and Honma hit the kokeshi, then CNJ splashed him on the top rope but he kicked out. Sakuraba came in and put him in a sleeper, then Yoshi Hashi helped Ishii set up the sliding D but CNJ kicked out of that. Ishii followed with a brainbuster and pinned him.

Kota Ibushi, Tetsuya Naito and Juice Robinson vs. Tiger Mask, Togi Makabe and Katsyuori Shibata

Looks like Tiger Mask is back after being out for most of the G1 with a neck injury. This was good but it’s clear that some people didn’t fit here. People were into it whenever Shibata and Naito interacted, and were also into Ibushi and Makabe, but crowd was dead whenever Robinson and Tiger Mask were in. Of course it’s not a main event so putting in junior heavyweights was a given, but still. Shibata cleared the ring with a big boot to Naito that sent him to the floor as Tiger Mask pinned Robinson with a roll up variation. Both Ibushi/Makabe and Shibata/Naito got into it after the match and had to be repeatedly seperated.

Kazuchika Okada and Toru Yano vs. Tama Tonga and Cody Hall 

Just a match. Not bad, but nothing memorable at all. Most of the highlights involved Toru Yano being afraid of Tama Tonga whenever he got creepy and doing his trademark spots. Okada pinned Hall with the rainmaker.

Roppangi Vice and Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Hirooki Goto, Ryusuke Taguchi and Mascara Dorada

Good match. Nakamura and Goto worked together and so did RPG Vice, Taguchi and Dorada. Taguchi is doing this gimmick where he imitates Nakamura and it gets on Nakamuras nerves as he laid him out with a kick before the bell rang. At one point in the match Goto helped Taguchi land a sliding hip toss onto Nakamura and scored a near fall there. Good back and forth match from here as everyone has good chemistry with one another. Dorada and Beretta were the ones in the ring as Dorada tried to hop over Beretta but he grabbed him and hit the dudebuster as Romero hit the dropkick for the win.

Kenny Omega, Karl Anderson, Doc Gallows and Bad Luck Fale vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kushida, Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima

This was a good main event. Lots of action and everyone worked well against one another, and the crowd was very much into it which helped as well. They did every New Japan multi man tag trope in the world with barricade spots, brawling out into the crowd, everyone pairing off with their rivals, etc. But the action was good enough that it turned out to be fine. The finish came after Gallows landed the Gallows Poll but Kojima kicked out. Gallows went to the corner to hit something but Kojima blocked and blasted him with a lariat for the win, setting up a future title program with them. It’s not the most interesting feud of all time, but considering the division is stale and uninteresting, and New Japan doesn’t have any plans to fix that, this is what we’ll get.