Tag: new japan

Thumbs up

Best match: Nakamura vs. Goto

Another good show. I thought the tag title match came off too rehearsed or choreographed and not like two teams in a fight.

I knew Nakamura won the match when I watched but it was still very good. Had I not known the outcome, many of Goto’s near falls would have been very convincing.

The show did a very good job of setting up matches for the near future which is great when you don’t have weekly TV to set up big shows.

Mike Hiscoe

Below are my thoughts on the Kobe show from this weekend

-Overall I give the show a thumbs up

-Best Match: Goto vs Nakamura

-Worst Match: Juice Robinson, Capt. New Japan, and Nakanishi vs Nagata, Tiger Mask, and Liger

-Kudos to New Japan for setting up feuds for their King of Pro Wrestling Show during Destruction in Kobe. Although the thought of another Ishii/Makabe match is down right infuriating.

Luis Gonzalez

Slight thumbs up

Best Match: Nakamura/Goto

Worst Match: Nagata/Liger/Tiger vs Nakanishi/CNJ/Robinson

1) Shohei vs Finlay: Fun opener, not as strong as the young lions have been recently but when you look back at previous young lions from the past decade there is really no reason to complain. (**1/2)

2) Yuji Nagata, Jushin Thunder Liger & Tiger Mask vs Manabu Nakanishi, Captain New Japan & Juice Robinson: This was just a match. (**)

3) CHAOS B Team vs Great Bash Heel, Mascara Dorada & Ryusuke Taguchi: There was some good stuff here, mostly involving the juniors, but I am not interested in Makabe vs Ishii IV, particularly considering Makabe has already beat him 3 TIMES. (**1/2)

4) TenKoji & Matt Sydal vs Bullet Club: I actually really enjoyed this, mainly because if you’d told me four years ago that Evan Bourne would be teaming with Hiroyoshi Tenzan to face Luke Gallows and Kenny Omega in a New Japan ring I’d question your sanity. Nonetheless, there was some good stuff here and the finishing stretch with the juniors was great. (***1/4)

5) Tetsuya Naito vs Katsuyori Shibata: You put these guys together and it will never be bad, but especially with the awesome build-up and high expectations from their G1 match, this fell a little short. Also, can we be finished with these low blows? Such a waste of a finish every single time. (***1/2)

6) CHAOS vs Bullet Club: Whenever AJ and Okada were in, this was incredible. They turned it up to a level nobody expected, and really made me interested in their 10/12 match. The other stuff was fine but this match’s job was to sell me on the King Of Pro Wrestling match and it absolutely succeeded. (***1/4)

7) IWGP Jr. Tag Team Championship: reDRagon (c) vs Time Splitters: I thought this was a hell of a match, and was my match of the night to this point, but the crowd just didn’t get into it. It’s sad to see, because these four guys are incredible talents and this match would have gotten over so big in the US. More straight tag team matches for this junior title, please. (***3/4)

8) IWGP Heavyweight Championship Wrestle Kingdom 9 In Tokyo Dome 1/4/2016 Certificate Gimmick: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Bad Luck Fale: This was the perfect spectacle match. Tanahashi was phenomenal here, and Fale held up his end of the bargain and was the fierce giant he needed to be. While certainly not any sort of match-of-the-year contender, I’m sure this surprised a lot of people and certainly exceeded my expectations. (****)

9) IWGP Intercontinental Championship: Hirooki Goto (c) vs Shinsuke Nakamura: This was exactly what you would have expected and maybe a little bit better. That’s not a bad thing when these two guys are in my top 10 workers for this year, but we’ve seen this match before many times. Nonetheless, the finishing stuff was great, Goto adding arm submissions to his arsenal was absolutely fantastic, and the final minute or two delivered in a big way so I can’t hate on this match at all. (****1/4)

Overall a really good show but very similar to everything over the last 6 months. I’m sensing that New Japan’s main event scene is as strong as ever but the same matchups keep getting repeated, which can only go on for so long. The undercards simply have TOO MANY AMERICANS. So far this year New Japan has debuted: Jay White, David Finlay, Juice Robinson, Beretta, Matt Sydal, Kenny Omega, Michael Elgin and Cody Hall, with The Briscoes & Jay Lethal rumoured to be coming. The crowd doesn’t really care about these meaningless introductions 90% of the time, and what’s more concerning is that not a single Japanese wrestler has debuted this year. Just something to think about.

Brian Jackson

Thumbs up. Best match Goto vs. Nakamura 

Yohei Komatsu and Sho Tanaka vs. Jay White and David Finlay

I actually like these tag match quite a bit with the younger guys… they’re always really good. I can’t wait to see what Komastsu and Tanaka look like in couple of years.

IWGP Jr. Tag Team Championship: reDragon vs. Time Splitters

This match was really good but the crowd would have way more into it if was an American crowd. 

IWGP Intercontinental Championship: Hirooki Goto vs. Shinsuke Nakamura

Really good match, but basically the same one we have seen all year. 

John Juett

Welcome to our live coverage of New Japan Dominion from the Osaka Jo Hall in the company’s biggest event in seven months.

We’re looking for your thoughts on his show, as well as the WWE’s Beast from the East show yesterday so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match for each show to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

YOHEI KOMATSU & TIGER MASK & JUSHIN LIGER & SATOSHI KOJIMA & HIROYOSHI TENZAN VS. YUJI NAGATA & MANABU NAKANISHI & RYUSUKE TAGUCHI & MASCARA DORADA & SHO TANAKA

Hot opener. Crowd was hotter for the opener than usual, even for Osaka  Everyone looked good except Nakanishi who is setting records for being slow and his stuff with Tenzan looked out of place with everyone else.  Everyone worked basic good stuff that got over, but no spectacular stuff.  Best action was Liger vs. Tanaka, Kojima vs Nagata and Dorada vs. Komatsu at the end.  Dorada pinned Komatsu with the Dorada screwdriver after a moonsault.

They are showing the pre-show video showing build for all the matches.  Crowd reacted well to most matches but were quiet for the Gallows & Anderson vs. Taven & Bennett.  The top three matches got the biggest reactons.  The reaction was pretty much even to all three. 

I hope people could see how cool a building this is from the outside.

YOUNG BUCKS DEFEND IWGP JR. TAG TITLES AGAINST ROCKY ROMERO & BARETTA AND BOBBY FISH & KYLE O’REILLY

Bucks retained with More Bang For Your Buck on Romero.  A lot more heel comedy than usual by the Bucks.  A million moves but more toned down than these guys have been in the past.  There was a spot where Fish had a heel hook on Romero and O’Reilly had the guillotine on Baretta but the Bucks broke it up with 450’s on Fish & O’Reilly. 

BAD LUCK FALE & YUJIRO TAKAHASHI VS. TETSUYA NAITO & TOMOAKI HONMA

Interesting match because Naito is clearly turning heel and most of the way didn’t help Honma.  He just watched at the beginning when they doubled on Honma.  He wouldn’t tag in the first few times Honma tried and the crowd turned on him.  But then he helped out Honma with a missile dropkick on Yujiro.  Honma then went wild and actually hit the diving head-butt on Yujiro to score the upset win.  Then afer the match, Naito just walked off.  Honma was really over and he’s a good guy for Naito to turn on, people expected it, it was teased but didn’t fully happen.  People were surprised at the finish.

KAZUSHI SAKURABA VS. KATSUYORI SHIBATA

Great match.  Very different even for these guys with lots of simple legit looking stuff and people bought into it and liked it a lot  Shibata killed him with the stiff offense but Sakuraba used a lot of submissions and both used hard kicks.  Once when Sakuraba had a double armbar Shibata had to make the ropes with his mouth.  At another point, Sakuraba did his ankle choke which was really over.  They traded chokes at the end.   Shibata had him just about out, let it go, and used the penalty kick for the pin.

KENNY OMEGA VS. KUSHIDA FOR IWGP JR. TITLE

This was the best match so far on this card and also beat anything on the WWE show.  Just super.  Kushida is one of the best wrestlers in the world today.  Omega worked his knee for a long time.  The match built well.  Kushida did his usual flip dive.  Omega did sick jumping knees.  Omega did a new form of superplex and a one arm power bomb.  Kushida did both a moonsault and midnight express for near falls.  The finish saw Omega go for his one winged angel but Kushida from that position grabbed the hoverboard lock (Kimura), and got the submission to win the title.  So we’ve got Kushida vs. Ricochet coming soon.  Ricochet wasn’t here.

TOGI MAKABE VS. TOMOHIRO ISHII FOR THE NEVER OPEN WEIGHT TITLE

This was super physical.  Ishii’s selling was out of this world but it was not like a pro wrestling match selling.  He went for a flip plancha in the first minute, Makabe didn’t catch him well, just barely breaking his fall but Ishii landed right on the shoulder he separated in the Davey Boy Smith Jr. match last year.  Ishii was selling like his shoudler was out.  The doctor came out and threatened to stop it a few times.  A lot of stuff was mistimed.  But they beat the hell out of each other  Ishii kept doing this out of this world sell job that may have been partially real.  They did all the stiff stuff, German and dragon suplexes and toned nothing down. There were miscommunication spots that gave the sense that Ishii was hurting and shouldn’t continue but he kept going.  Makabe finally won with a German superplex and kneedrop to the back of the head.

Time for the G-1 announcement.

A block:

Makabe, Tenzan,Yano, Gallows, Fale, Naito, Shibata, Ibushi, Tanahashi, Styles

B block

Goto, Kojima, Nagata, Honma, Elgin, Anderson, Takahashi, Ishii, Nakamura, Okada

Biggest pops for the big four.

7/20 Sapporo

Shibata vs. Styles, Tanahashi vs. Ibushi

7/23 Shizuoka

Okada vs. Elgin, Nakamura vs. vs. Anderson

7/24 Kyoto

Tanahashi vs. Tenzan, Shibata vs. Naito

7/25 Takamatsu

Nagata vs. Nakamura, Honma vs. Okada

7/26 Hiroshima

Styles vs. Ibushi, Tanahshi vs. Naito

7/28 Beppu

Goto vs. Honma, Okada vs Kojima

7/29 Fukuoka

Styles vs. Naito, Shibata vs. Ibushi

8/1 Osaka

Goto vs. Okada

Nakamura vs. Ishii huge pop

8/2 Nagoya

Tenzan vs. Ibushi, Tanahashi vs. Yano

8/4 Sendai

Nagata vs. Ishii, Goto vs Nakamura

8/5 Morioka

Styles vs. Makabe, Naito s Ibushi

8/7 Hamamatsu

Nakamura vs. Takahashi, Okada vs. Ishii

8/8 Yokohama’

Styles vs. Tenzan, Tanahashi vs. Shibata

‘8/9 Korakuen Hall

Goto vs. Ishii, Honma vs Nakamura

8/11 Korakuen Hall

Styles vs Fale, Tanahashi vs. Makabe

8/12 Korakuen Hall

Okada vs Nagata, Honma vs Ishii

8/14 Sumo Hall

Makabe vs. Ibushi, Tanahashi vs, Styles big pop’

8/15 Sumo Hall

Nagata vs Goto, Nakamura vs Okada  big pop

8/16 Sumo Hall

A block winner vs. B block winner

No intermission as this show is looking to be going well over four hours

MICHAEL BENNETT & MATT TAVEN VS. KARL ANDERSON & DOC GALLOWS FOR IWGP TAG TITLES

Anderson & Gallows regained the title.  This was more Americanized heat with the women, Maria Kanellis and Amber Gallows being a focal point.  Gallows went to deck aria who ducked and Maria gave him a low blow.  The finish saw Gallows superkick Maria and then Anderson gave Bennett a gunstun on the apron.  This left Taven alone and he got a 3-D and a magic killer for the pin.  Bennett had to carry Maria out.  After Gallows superkicked Maria, Bennett go all fired up and was just killing Gallows until Anderson laid him out.  This was better than their last match and it’s different from everthing else on the show but I’m not sure it clicks that big with the crowd.

HIROSHI TANAHASHI VS. TORU YANO

Tanahashi won clean with the sling blade and high fly flow after Yano did all of his stuff on him, several times sending him head first into the exposed metal, chair shots, a low blow and cradle.  Tanahashi tried the high fly flow earlier but Yano protected himself with a chair.  This wasn’t your typical Tanahashi good wrestling match and more a longer version of a Yano match.  Crowd was very into it and Tanahashi did look good and the match told a story coming off finishes from this entire feud.  Most matches on this show have been better.

HIROOKI GOTO VS. SHINSUKE NAKAMURA FOR THE IC TITLE

Nakamura is wearing a super cool red ninja outfit.  Even though Nakamura is the star, Goto came out second because he’s the champion.  Super match ending with Goto retaining the title with the shoten kai.  It started slow.  The crowd was really into it and it had the fight feel more than anything on the show, because Ishii vs. Makabe was more Ishii selling.  Nakamura power bombed him out of the corner and did a bom a ye off the middle rope for a near fall and a sliding bom a ye for another near fall.  The big move was Nakamura going for a bom a ye and Goto at the last second grabbed his knee to block it and picked him up for neckbreaker over the knee.  Nakamura punched him in the face, and the Japanese punch to the face so rare it’s a big deal  But Goto came back with two head-butts to set up the shoten kai.  These two have a real sense of drama that nobody else has reached so far.

A.J. STYLES VS. KAZUCHIKA OKADA FOR THE IWGP TITLE

There have been a lot of great matches in the last 30 hours or so, but this was in a completely different league.  This was two of the three best wrestlers in the world beyond the top of their game.  Okada won the title with a second rainmaker, a German suplex and a third rainmaker at about 26:00 and it was excellent from start to finish.  He hit the first rainmaker seconds earlier but Styles ducked the second and hit the Pele kick and went for the Styles clash but Okada got out of both that and the Bloody Sunday DDT.  It’s really amazing how good these two are, plus there is an art to a world title match and they hit it perfect.  They did everything they could including Okada using a Death Valley Bomb off the top rope onto the apron near the finish.  Lots of Bullet Club interference early but Red Shoes not only booted them out but crotch chopped then and told then to suck it which was poetic justice on the Young Bucks.  Okada and Gedo did mic work but with G-1 coming up there’s no challenges after.  Looks like Okada against either AJ, Nakamura or Tanahashi at the Dome.  

Really a fantastic show, about 4 1/2 hours in total with no intermission and I can’t say it went too long and I’m wide awake at 4:15 a.m.