Sho Tanaka & Yohei Komatsu vs. Guerrero Maya Jr. and The Panther
This is officially the young lions’ last match before they go to CMLL on their excursion. Nice action from both teams. Pretty quick match with Panther submitting Komatsu with a high angle armbar. Komatsu grabbed a microphone after the match. He promised that they would come back as stars. Tanaka said he had the time of his life as a young lion, and promises to come back stronger than ever.
Tiger Mask, Fuego, Kushida and Stuka Jr. vs. Yoshi-Hashi, Okumura, Hechicero and Bobby Z
Stuka and Kushida brought in girls to dance with them and Fuego while Tiger Mask stood in the distance unamused, I guess because he’s a stick in the mud. Good six man tag with some decent heat. Okumura’s manager Mima Shimoda kept getting involved. The faces wasted no time in laying her out every time she came into the ring. That’s certainly something to see in professional wrestling in 2015. Stuka Jr. won with the torpedo on Okumura and Shimoda.
Virus vs. Jushin Thunder Liger
This was very much a mat wrestling match as both exchanged holds back and forth. These kind of straight up technical matches you don’t see too often, so it’s pretty fun to watch. Virus went for a sharpshooter but Liger reversed it, took him back down and somehow transitioned into a pendulum swing (or the campanara for the submission. Haven’t seen Liger use that move before, but it worked here in the context of the match. It didn’t last too long, but the mat wrestling was good while it lasted.
Ryusuke Taguchi, Atlantis and Mascara Dorada and vs. Tetsuya Naito, Bushi and Evil
This is also Mascara Dorada’s last match as a full time NJPW wrestler as he’s heading back to CMLL. This time when someone removed Taguchi’s pharaoh mask he had his eyes painted like Evil’s, which he didn’t take too kindly to. Solid match, just your typical six man here with some cool dives here and there. Dorada hit a great looking Asai moonsault to the floor, wiping out everyone. Dorada countered Bushi’s codebreaker and went for the Dorada screwdriver but he escaped. Naito came back to the ring and low blowed Dorada, allowing Bushi to get the win with a bridging pin.
Naito faked an injury, so Komatsu came in and gave him ice. Naito put the Ingobernables hat on him and teased like he was a new member, but it was a swerve and laid him out with a clothesline. That was a payoff to what had been going down in the last month with Naito being nice to Komatsu before and after matches.
Kazuchika Okada, Shinsuke Nakamura and Barbaro Cavernario vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Juice Robinson and Titan
The latter team came out in their outfits from Saturday morning, but this time Cavernario had a wheel painted in his back. Okada had a skull mask similar to Nakamuras but was gold colored. Really good six man with, again, lots of crazy dives. Robinson, Titan, Robinson and Tanahashi all did stereo planchas on the outside. Titan did a awesome moonsault from the top rope that took out Nakamura. Robinson threw Cavernario out to the floor but Okada did his comeback and pinned Robinson with the rainmaker.
Hirooki Goto appeared immediately after the bell had rang and laid out Okada, Gedo, Titan – pretty much everyone in his path. He laid out Okada with his reverse neckbreaker on the leg and promptly made his exit. Goto’s kind of had a loose cannon like gimmick attacking Okada at every opportunity.
CMLL Lightweight Champion Dragon Lee vs. Kamaitachi
Incredible match, easily blows everything from the last two days out of the water. Just a series of incredible moves and counters that has to be seen to be believed. Lee did a great running rana from the ring, over the ropes and to the floor. Lee did a double footstomp that sent them both to the floor. Lee went for another, this time facing the ring but Kamaitachi avoided him and ended up doing a dropkick that sent Lee to the floor. Kamaitachi followed with a big senton off the top rope that was absolutely crazy. Sinked in a figure four but Lee grabbed the ropes. He had been grabbing his knees during some of the match. Just a ton of flashy, awesome back and forth counters. Crazy nearfalls by Dragon Lee including another double foot stomp and a cradle German suplex. They traded moves back and forth. Awesome heat from the audience. Lee went for a powerbomb but Kamaitachi somehow floated over him and countered with a Canadian destroyer for an incredible finish to win the title.
Mistico vs. Ultimo Guerrero
This was slightly hard to get into at first after the previous match, but these guys had a very good match that the crowd did get into. They did their same routine from the last few days where Mistico and Guerrero would fight over who got the bigger reaction. Mistico did a lot of great high flying and Guerrero looked good in doing big power spots and keeping him grounded. He powerbombed Mistico off the middle rope, for example. Guerrero hit a top rope reverse suplex for a nearfall but Mistico kicked out. Mistico came back and sank in la mistica and got the submission.
CMLL Welterweight Champion Volador Jr. vs. Mephisto
I saw most of this match, excluding the last couple of minutes as the stream completely died. From what I saw, this was a decent match but not as good as the two prior matches and the crowd wasn’t as into it. Still, they worked hard and had a good match. Volador came to the ring wearing pain inspired by Venom from the Spider Man universe. Basic lucha match. Mephisto did some cool dives, as did Volador Jr. There was a cool spot at one point where Mephisto slid under Volador, and he responded by dishing out a moonsault. Volador kicked out of the double underhook facebuster that had him pinned the previous night. I didn’t catch all of the finish as the stream completely died, but Volador retained with a top rope spanish fly.
Everyone came to the ring after the match and posed for cameras. Volador thanked the crowd and said they’d hope to see them again next year.
*****
All three of these shows were pretty fun to watch. Definitely check out Dragon Lee/Kamaitachi as that’s a match that needs to be seen.
