Paypress testing

Tag: japan results

  • Wrestle Kingdom 10 live results: Kazuchika Okada vs Hiroshi Tanahashi

    Jan 4th marks the second biggest pro wrestling event of the year, only behind WrestleMania, WrestleKingdom 10.

    In the main event, Kazuchika Okada will defend his championship against Hiroshi Tanahashi for the third time at a WrestleKingdom event. The story heading into the match is if Okada can beat Tanahashi in the Tokyo Dome, as the last two times they squared off in the arena he came up short, leaving in tears last year. Although the match feels familiar, every match they’ve had is spectacular so far.

    The rest of the card, besides a Tetsuya Naito/Hirooki Goto singles bout, are title matches. Jay Lethal will defend the Ring of Honor title against Michael Elgin. Tomohiro Ishii will defend the NEVER title against Katsuyori Shibata. Kushida battles Kenny Omega for the IWGP Jr. Championship. Shinsuke Nakamura defends the Intercontinental title against a not-so-healthy AJ Styles. Toru Yano and The Briscoes will face Bullet Club members Tama Tonga, Bad Luck Fale and Yujiro Takahashi to crown the inaugural NEVER openweight six man tag team titles.

    Rounding it off are the two tag title matches as Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows defend against Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma, while reDragon defend the junior tag team titles in a four way also involving Roppongi Vice, Matt Sydal and Ricochet and The Young Bucks. There will also be a New Japan Rumble on the pre-show featuring everyone else not on the main card plus a few surprises.

    We are looking for your thoughts on the event, so send a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to Dave Meltzer.

    NEW JAPAN RUMBLE

    We’re opening with Jushin Liger vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara.  The crowd is pretty empty at this point. 

    Long match that wasn’t very good.  It came down to Jado with the hip attack guys from different generations, Koshinaka and Taguchi.  Jado, who was accompanied by Momoka, a famous rock star, eliminated both to win.  She then announced the release of her new album in February.  The match is all about the ring entrances.  Some of the surprises in wre Hiro Saito, Cheeseubrger, who was in third and worked mosst of the way.  Shiro Koshinaka got a good nostalgia pop.  King Haku came out to the Bullet Club music wearing a  Bullet Club shirt, as his son is Tama Tonga.  It was funny as Striker was in his Gorilla Monsoon copying saying how Haku would never submit, and seconds later Tenzan made him submit to the Anaconda vise.  Kazushi Sakuraba got the biggest pop but he was only in for a few seconds.  He squared off with Great Kabuki, who also got a big reaction, and Kabuki blew mist in Sakuraba’s eyes and got DQ’d. Taguchi then pinnd Sakuraba.  None of the young guys like Yohei Komatsu, Sho Tanaka, Juice Robinson, Jay White, Dave Finlay or Cody Hall were in the match,  Everybody was no selling Cheeseburger’s offense but he was in the match for 25 minutes before Yoshi-Hashi pinned him.

    BOBBY FISH & KYLE O’REILLY VS. YOUNG BUCKS VS. ROCKY ROMERO & BARETTA VS. MATT SYDAL & RICOCHET FOR THE IWGP JR. TAG TITLES

    The Bucks won the title with More Bang for Your Buck on Romero.  Great match with so many moves you couldn’t him track of them.  Cody Hall interfered a lot to help the Bucks.  Sydal & Ricochet did their double shooting star press spot on Romero & Baretta but the Bucks pulled them out of the ring to keep them from getting the pin.  Nick Jackson gave a shout out to Kevin Owens, Neville and all their friends at the Fed.  Romero was put over a lot during the match doing forever clotheslines to everyoen since he was losing the fall.  The Bucks before the match looked at the cameras, said four-times jr. champs and winked.    

    MARK & JAY BRISCOE & TORU YANO VS. YUJIRO TAKAHASHI & BAD LUCK FALE & TAMA TONGA FOR NEVER TRIOS TITLES

    The Briscoes & Yano won the titles when the Briscoes used the Doomsday device on Tonga for the pin.  Mark was really good here but the match didn’t build well.  A lot of Yano’s usual comedy.  Jay was struggling with Tonga on his shoulders when Yano hit Tonga with a chair and Mark came off the top with a clothesline and Jay pinned Tonga. 

    JAY LETHAL VS. MICHAEL ELGIN FOR ROH TITLE

    Lethal retained using the Lethal injection after Elgin went for a power bomb afer a Falcan arrow off the middle rope.   Truth Martini tired to interfere but Elgin nailed him and his book went flying.  Lethal grabbed i and when Elgin had him up for the power bomb, Lethal hit Elgin with the book and followed with a Lethal injection for the pin.

    KENNY OMEGA VS. KUSHIDA FOR THE IWGP JR. TITLE

    Great match, with Kushida turning the One Winged Angel into a Kimura and then a cradle for the pin to win the title.  Kushida wa great here and Omega did a tremendous job of selling the left arm during this match.  The Bucks interfered helping Omega.  Ryusuke Taguchi came out as Doc Brown from Back to the Future with Kushida.  The Bucks took him out early with a double superkick.  He came back and took out the Bucks with garbage can shots.  Both did big dives and suepr crisp wrestling.

    DOC GALLOWS & KARL ANDERSON VS.  TOGI MAKABE & TOMOAKI HONMA FOR IWGP TAG TITLES

    Another title change in a really good match.  Crowd was really into Makabe & Honma from the start.  The finish saw Makabe & Honma use the kokeshi impact (double impact with Honma using the head-butt spear off the top rope on Anderson, then Honma used the kokeshi off the top rope on Gallows, followed by Makabe using the kneedrop off the top rope on Gallows for the pin.  Well timed well worked match.  This is Honma’s first title win in New Japan.

    Now it’s time for the 2016 scheudle.

    New Beginning in Oskaa on 2/11

    New Beginning in Niigat 2/14

    ROH shows on 2/19 and 2.20 at Kroakejn Hall

    ROH New Japan in Las Vegas 2/26 and 2/27

    New Japan Cup 3/3 opens and 3/12 ends

    Invasion Attack 4/10 at Sumo Hall

    5/3 Fukuoka Wrestling Dontaku

    6/6 Best of the Super Junior final in Sendai Sun Plaza Hall

    6/19 Dominion at Osaka Jo Hall

    G-1 Climax starts 7/18 in Sapporo

    8/12, 8/13 and 8/14 at Sumo Hall ends the G-1

    HIROOKI GOTO VS. TETSUYA NAITO

    Goto pinned him in a surprise using the shouten kai.  Very well wrestled match.  Bushi and Evil interfered after a ref bump.  Goto had blocked a low blow by Naito.  Bushi went to blow green mist at Goto, who moved and Evil got it inthe face.  Naito then hit the low blow and running cradle but Goto kicked out, used he head-butt and shouten kai.  The inteference is getting old by this point in the show.

    TOMOHIRO ISHII VS. KATSUYORI SHIBATA FOR NEVER OPEN WEIGHT TITLE

    Shibata won the title clean with the penalty kick after a standing kick to the chest.  There two just killed each other with kicks and clotheslines and elbows.  I don’t know how these guys continue to do these kind of matches.  Just ridiculously physical.  The one thing I hated was they did some absolutely sick klunking head-butts to each other toward the end.  A lot of people won’t like this not being traditional pro wrestling with the fired up no sell spots throughout the match but this felt like a fight from start to finish.  It’s just hard to top some of the matches they’ve had in the past but a super match.

    SHINSUKE NAKAMURA VS. A.J. STYLES FOR  THE IC TITLE

    Nakamura retained the title after a falcon arrow off the top rope, the bom a ye to the back of the head and then a regular bom a ye for the pin.  After the match Nakamura offered his fist and Styles gave him a fist bump back.  This was a match of the year candidate.  There were so many great sequences and spots.  Styles kicked out of a bom a ye off the middle rope, Nakamura used a flying armbar after Styles tried a spinning chiop, Styles used a half Styles clash which Nakamura kicked out of, because the full Styles clash is protected.  Styles at one point acted like his back wass out and then got up and attacked Nakamura from behind.  This was two of the best wrestlers in the world determined to have an incredible match.  Styles seemed healthier than against Jay Lethal as he did more and was moving better.  He didn’t fly as much and relied more on his wrestling, but it didn’t hurt the match at all.

    KAZUCHIKA OKADA VS. HIROSHI TANAHASHI FOR IWGP TITLE’

    Another incredible match.  Okada retained the title after three rainmakers.  There were a lot of buffeirng issues throghout this match so it was hard to get a full grip of it but it felt like a match of the year going way over 30 minutes.  The crowd was so intense at the end but I’d have to rewatch to get the full effect of the match.  Among the highlights were Okada kicking out of two high fly flows,Tanahashi kicked out of the rainmaker, Okada did the high fly flow for a near fall and Tanahashi did a rainmaker.   Tanahashi went for a high fly flow late and Okada caught him with a dropkick which was right before the finish.  It felt like this was the classic passing of the torch as Tanahashi had to be helped out while Okada was the one closing the show at the Tokyo Dome.

    Gedo and Okada did promos after the match.  No challenges after the match.  The angles may be shot for the next top matches tomorrow night.

  • NJPW World Tag League live results: Finalists determined, Honma & Makabe battle Yoshi-Hashi & Okada

    Welcome to this morning’s World Tag League coverage, the last show before the finals on 12/9. This card will determine who makes it to the finals.

    The show is from the famed Aiichi Gym in Nagoya, a New Japan stronghold for decades. 

    The A block comes down to this.  Kazuchika Okada & Yoshi-Hashi face Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma.  Both teams have 3-2 records.  Hiroshi Tanahashi & Michael Elgin are in first place with a 4-2 record.  If Okada & Yoshi-Hashi win, then Tanahashi & Elgin go to the finals based on having beaten Okada & Yoshi-Hashi earlier.  If Makabe & Honma win, which is expected, they go to the finals since they beat Tanahashi & Elgin a few days ago.

    The B block has Katsuyori Shibata & Hirooki Goto and Tetsuya Naito & Evil both with 4-1 records.  As coincidence would have it, they face off tonight and the winner goes to the finals.

    The overall tournament winner is expected to face Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows at Wrestle Kingdom 10 at the Tokyo Dome.

    Looks like a full house tonight.  Crowd seems reasonably hot even though it’s December and cold buildings in the winter with people bundled up usually means less crowd heat in Japan.

    MANABU NAKANISHI & MASCARA DORADA & RYUSUKE TAGUCHI & YOHEI KOMATSU VS. YUJI NAGATA & SHO TANAKA & TIGER MASK & CAPTAIN NEW JAPAN

    About what you’d expect.  Tiger Mask may have gotten hurt a little as he’s holding his upper chest.  More comedy than usual, but when you’ve got Captain in, that’s all you can do.  Komatsu and Tanaka were serious and good as usual  Tiger Mask made Komatsu submit to a double armbar.  Funny spot where Nagata kicked Nakanishi in the chest and he said, “Oh fuck.” 

    No live announcing tonight. 

    CHRISTOPHER DANIELS & FRANKIE KAZARIAN VS. JAY WHITE & DAVID FINLAY

    Decent match.  Daniels & Kazarian worked like the veterans and controlled the match, mostly working on Finlay is a solidly worked undercard style match.  White made the hot tag, did a few things but fell victim to Celebrity Rehab and Kazarian pinned White.

    HIROYOSHI TENZAN & SATOSHI KOJIMA VS. YUJIRO TAKAHASHI & CODY HALL

    Yujiro has a woman with 22 inch heels on doing all kinds of splits and almost a strip tease in a small bikini.  Kind of weird having this on a show where Maria is a big part of the act coming up later.  Better than expected.  Crowd was into Kojima & Tenzan’s trademark stuff and Hall has improved.  There was a spot wher Tenzan clotheslined Kojima when Takahashi moved and they played up being mad at each other.  They teased tension after as well but shook hands.  Finish saw Kojima lay out Takahashi with a lariat and Tenzan used the Anaconda buster and Anaconda vise to get a submssion from Hall.

    HIROSHI TANAHASHI & MICHAEL ELGIN & KUSHIDA VS. MICHAEL BENNETT & MATT TAVEN & GEDO

    Good match, best thing on the hsow so far.  The highlight was Elgin giving Taven and Bennett German suplexes building to a spot where he gave both German suplexes at the same time.  Tanahashi was playing it safe here.  After Kushida did a flip dive wiping out Bennett & Taven, Tanahashi used a Dragon screw and Texas cloverleaf for the submission on Gedo.  Maria didn’t do much.  One dancing spot to distract Tanahashi and that was about it.  Kushida borught a little kid over the rail to meet Tanahashi after. 

    Intermission time.  The rest of the show are four tag team tournament matches, the last two deciding who goes to the finals.

    BAD LUCK FALE & TAMA TONGA VS. KAZUSHI SAKURABA & TORU YANO 

    Tanahashi is on commentary we can’t hear.  Nothing at all to this.  Short match with the only cool spot being Sakuraba gettingan armbar on Fale out of nowhere.  Yano had is ribs all taped and didn’t do anything.  Yano gave both guys low blows at the same time and then Sakuraba craled Tonga for the pin.  Yujiro Takahashi ame out and took out Sakuraba and then they beat down three-on-one on Yano after, working over his ribs. and putting the boots to him.  Then Tonga beat down Sakuraba and threw David Finlay around.  

    SHINSUKE NAKAMURA & TOMOHIRO ISHII VS.  KARL ANDERSON & DOC GALLOWS

    The idea here seemed to be to get Anderson & Gallows over since they’re defending the belts at the Dome, so they got to beat a legit team here.  They laid out Nakamura with a Magic killer, and then went back and forth with Ishii until using the Magic killer on him for the pin  Nakamura didn’t do a lot here but Ishii and Anderson were good.  Nobody got their heat back or anything like that.  There was a simple goal of the match and they did it

    TOGI MAKABE & TOMOAKI HONMA VS. KAZUCHIKA OKADA & YOSHI-HASHI

    Makabe & Honma won as they took out Okada, then Honma did a spear head-butt to the back of Yoshi-Hashi as he was getting near falls on Makabe  Makabe did a Death Valley bomb on Yoshi-Hashi  They did a Road Warriors style double impact but Honma, instead of a clothesline off the top, did a spear head-butt.  Makabe then used the King Kong kneedrop off the top rope onto Yoshi-Hashi for the pin.  Tanahashi was in tears at ringside, did a better job of selling it than anyone.  So Makabe & Honma are in the finals against whoever wins the next match.  Match was good, but not nearly as good as it should have been with the stakes.  It’s notable they didn’t change from the original plans here.

    TETSUYA NAITO & EVIL VS. HIROOKI GOTO & KATSUYORI SHIBATA

    Best match on the show but not a blow away match but very good.  Naito & Evil are going to the finals.  A lot of brawling in the crowd.  The finish saw Naito tackle the ref so Bushi could blow green mist into Shibata’s face.  Evil hit the STO on Shibata.  Naito used a low blow and Destino to pin Goto.  After the match, they beat down the ref and Bushi blew mist in his eyes. 

    Naito watnst the i.  Naito attacked the ring announcer.  He’s putting the boots to the ring announcer.  Makabe & Honma made the save.  We’re done before 1:45 a.m. 

  • NJPW World Tag League results: Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows vs. Shibata & Goto

    Here are quick results for the 11/23 World Tag League show held in Mie, Japan:

    B Block: The Kingdom vs. Tetsuya Naito and Evil. Match was just there. Lots of stalling from the heels, who worked over the Kingdom most of the match. Crowd was pretty dead for most of it which hurt the match as well. Kingdom made a great comback and were nearing the finish when Bushi ran in and sprayed mist on Benett, which allowed Naito to hit Destino for the victory.

    A Block: Hiroshi Tanahashi and Michael Elgin vs. The Addiction. Pretty good back and forth match. Crowd was into it slightly more than the first due to Elgin and Tanahashi’s work and chemistry together. The Addiction were going for near falls when Tanahashi took out Daniels. Elgin then hit a deadlift powerbomb and Tanahashi followed with the high fly flow on Kazarian for the win.

    B Block: Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows vs. Katsuyori Shibata and Hirooki Goto. Anderson and Goto were brawling into the crowd at on point. Another good, solid back and forth match. This had the most heat out of anything on this show. Shibata escaped from the Magic Killer and the faces went on offense. Goto took out Anderson on the outside with a plancha as Shibata was putting the sleeper on Gallows. He followed that with the penalty kick and pinned him.

    Current Standings:

    Block A:

    Hiroshi Tanahashi and Michael Elgin- 4
    Kazushi Sakuraba and Toru Yano- 2
    Kazuchika Okada and Yoshi-Hashi- 2
    Manabu Nakanishi and Yuji Nagata- 2
    Christopher Daniels and Kazarian- 0
    Bad Luck Fale and Tama Tonga- 0
    Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma- 0

    Block B:

    Evil and Tetsuya Naito- 4
    Hirooki Goto and Katsuyori Shibata- 4
    Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima- 2
    Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson- 0
    AJ Styles and Yujiro Takahashi- 0
    Matt Taven and Michael Bennett- 0
    Shinsuke Nakamura and Tomohiro Ishii- 0

  • NJPW on AXS results: Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Kenny Omega for the IWGP title

    With WrestleKingdom 9 coverage now over, it’s time to move on to the next big card of early 2015, New Beginning! Seems like we’ll have a multi-part look at this event as well since there were two shows, one in Osaka and the other in Sendai. Today’s matches are from the Osaka show, held in the Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium on February 11, 2015.

    First up is an IWGP tag team title rematch as the former champions Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson take on new champions Hirooki Goto and Katsuyori Shibata. This was okay but nothing I’d call interesting until the finishing stretch. There were many stun guns from Anderson, a good comeback from Goto and Shibata then the finish as Shibata was laid out with another gun stun and pinned after the Magic Killer. Aside from a feud with the Kingdom and Maria, they really did nothing with these belts all year so I’m not sure why they did such a sudden switch here. I felt like there was way more juice with Goto and Shibata as champions than Guns and Gallows, but I guess that’s just me.

    Anderson said every time we step into Osaka we win, and that’s why we’re the best tag team champions walking on planet Earth.

    Taguchi in his sit down interview talked about how champions can ask for rematches and said he wanted another shot as he felt he could win.

    The IWGP Jr. title rematch aired. It’s funny because this was the match where Taguchi solidified himself as a midcard opening act by doing all of this new comedy throughout involving his butt. But even with his new gimmick, the work he does in the ring is just kind of bland. There’s nothing wrong with what he does, and there are matches where he’s really good, but he’s never been consistently good like many other juniors in New Japan. This match was fine, but the WrestleKingdom match was much better. A lot of the start of the match was all ass based, believe it or not, because Omega took the Bullet Club flag and, well, tried to penetrate Taguchi. It backfired and resulted in many hip attacks, which are now a staple in just about every Taguchi match now. Eventually it became an okay back and forth with Taguchi being pinned after Omega hit the One Winged Angel. It was fine.

    They showed the angle after the match where the Young Bucks attacked Taguchi, with Mascara Dorada and Alex Shelley making the save. Dorada challenged Omega after the match, so we’ll probably see that match in the pipeline.

    Omega says in a post match interview that he knows nothing about lucha, but if Dorada wants to take him on, then he will, and he’ll put the title on the line.

    Taguchi says he couldn’t get the belt in the end, but it was about how he could improve as the former 69th champion. It’s better to fight freely than to act as a champion. He can do his best when he fights freely, and thinking positively has led him this far. When asked about going for other titles as the 69th champion (he has an affinity for that number, I guess because he’s wacky), he mentions the heavyweight tag team titles, but he doesn’t have a partner.

    More big title matches next week as AJ Styles challenges Hiroshi Tanahashi for the IWGP Heavyweight title!