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Tag: Kazuchika Okada

  • NJPW Kizuna Road results: G1 announcements, Naito and Bushi vs. Okada and Ospreay

    The card for Kizuna Road itself isn’t all that interesting, though we do have a unique match in Will Ospreay and Okada teaming up to take on Naito and Bushi in the main event. The real interest will be during the intermission, in which the participants for the G1 will be announced, and the big matches on the tour will be highlighted as well. Will Tanahashi make the cut? Who gets left out? Will Yujiro still somehow maintain a spot? We’ll find out soon enough!

    David Finlay vs. Ryusuke Taguchi

    About as solid of a match as you’d expect from these two. Taguchi looked good, as did David, who is now sporting a beard. He lost here to the dodon by Taguchi.

    Rocky Romero, Trent Baretta, Tomohiro Ishii and Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Jushin Liger, Tiger Mask, Captain New Japan and Manabu Nakanishi

    Nakanishi has a new shirt that says Monster Morning, because he has a really big breakfast. No, really, he posts his breakfast like every day on Twitter. Captain New Japan demanded for Sakuraba to get in there. Sakuraba wasn’t interested. Eventually he relented but CNJ ran to Liger for protection. A lot of comedy stuff to start out with- Baretta wanted to shake Liger’s hand. Liger, who is probably aware by now the handshake spot almost always leads to the dumb babyface getting jumped, had no interest.

    Baretta went around shaking everyone’s hand (including a member of the audience) until Liger finally relented. This time, however, Liger caught Baretta trying to lay him out and instead took him out. Basic eight man tag with with pretty fun spots. CNJ and Sakuraba did have another confrontation towards the end, with the latter getting the upper hand. Ishii’s the one to get the win, pinning CNJ with the brainbuster.

    Hangman Page, Chase Owens and Yujiro Takahashi vs. Satoshi Kojima, Yoshitatsu and Matt Sydal

    Heels jumped faces before the bell rang. Everyone looked good here, as it was an  action packed six man tag. Page and Sydal worked together and aside from one noticeable botch they worked pretty well with one another. Kojima made the hot tag, took out Yujiro who was interfering, and pinned Owens with the lariat.

    Bullet Club didn’t like that too much, so they jumped the faces after the match and hanged Yoshitatsu. Given he was out for over a year with severe neck injuries I’m pretty sure they could have put someone else in this spot.

    Here we are: G1 time!

    • A Block: Togi Makabe, Satoshi Kojima, Tomohiro Ishii, Hirooki Goto, Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga, Sanada, Naomichi Marufuji, Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi
    • B Block: Katsuyori Shibata, Yuji Nagata, Tomoaki Honma, Michael Elgin, Toru Yano, Tetsuya Naito, Evil, Kenny Omega, Yoshi-Hashi, Katsuhiko Nakajima

    Big matches:

    • 7/18: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Sanada, Okada vs. Marufuji
    • 7/22: Nagata vs. Naito, Shibata vs. Honma
    • 7/23: Tanahashi vs. Makabe, Okada vs. Sanada
    • 7/24: Nakajima vs. Shibata, Honma vs. Yoshi-Hashi
    • 7/25: Makabe vs. Sanada, Okada vs. Goto
    • 7/27: Yano vs. Naito, Shibata vs. Elgin
    • 7/28: Ishii vs. Marufuji, Goto vs. Sanada
    • 7/30: Omega vs. Elgin, Shibata vs. Naito
    • 7/31: Makabe vs. Marufuji, Tanahashi vs. Goto
    • 8/1: Yoshi Hashi vs. Nakajima, Honma vs. Naito
    • 8/3: Tanahashi vs. Ishii, Makabe vs. Okada
    • 8/4: Nakajima vs. Naito, Shibata vs. Omega
    • 8/6: Tanahashi vs. Marufuji, Okada vs. Ishii
    • 8/7: Omega vs. Nagata, Naito vs. Evil
    • 8/8: Ishii vs. Sanada, Tanahashi vs. Kojima
    • 8/10: Honma vs. Elgin, Shibata vs. Nagata
    • 8/12: Goto vs. Marufuji, Tanahashi vs. Okada
    • 8/13: Shibata vs. Evil, Naito vs. Omega

    Additionally, all shows will be airing live on New Japan World.

    Yuji Nagata, Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Tomoaki Honma vs. Juice Robinson, Togi Makabe and Katsuyori Shibata

    Good match, fast paced and solid throughout. Honma and Shibata, who are in the same block and are also facing off soon over the NEVER title, worked against one another for a lot of the match. Tenzan, who is not in the G1 this year, seemed particularly motivated in this match. He got the win with the moonsault, pinning Robinson. I guess that’ll stick it to those in charge.

    Shibata and Honma had to be separated after the match. Tenzan cut a short promo once that was all settled, wondering why he wasn’t in the G1.

    Evil and Sanada vs. Hirooki Goto and Yoshi-Hashi

    Really great match, easily the best of the night in terms of heat. This was all about Yoshi-Hashi and Sanada as they’ve been feuding for the last month.This got a lot of great heat towards the end as Yoshi-Hashi got a submission in on Sanada and nearly tapped him out. They had a really good back and forth exchanged towards the end. Yoshi-Hashi is ready in terms of being a big breakout singles star. They’ve kept him in tags for years and it’s time to go beyond that. Sanada is going to excel here and in the G1. Evil flattened him with a lariat but Yoshi-Hashi kicked out. They did several more great near falls that people were super into. Finally Sanada went for the Skull End once again but Yoshi Hashi slipped to the ground and rolled up Sanada for the flash pin.

    Kazuchika Okada and Will Ospreay vs. Tetsuya Naito and Bushi

    Since Naito didn’t have Milano Collection AT or any announcers to bully, he opted to lay out the camera guy instead. Pretty good main event overall. It couldn’t match the previous bout, but people were still very much into it. This crowed loved Naito and there were huge changes for him throughout the match. Ospreay came in for fun great highspots including a tornillo dive to the outside. He hit a spanish fly on Bushi, then a spinning kick but missed the springboard cutter and ate a Canadian destroyer by Bushi. Okada broke up that fall, but Bushi came back and hit the codebreaker for the win.

    Bushi cuts a promo and asks why he isn’t in the Super J Cup. Naito says yes, those are the two big events of the summer…but until then, tranquilo.

    Good show, and very newsworthy to boot. Definitely check out the co-main as it has some awesome heat and action.

  • New Japan on AXS results: Okada vs. Nakamura; Ishii vs. Michael Elgin

    First show is from August 15, 2015 at Sumo Hall. No intro, I guess Ishii didn’t feel like introducing us.

    Yuji Nagata vs. Hirooki Goto

    This was a good match.Even though Ross and Barnett put over both of their wrestling backgrounds over before the match started ,this was a very stiff back and forth match. Like Jim Ross said, it was nothing fancy- lots of stiff punches, forearms and kicks. Also really interesting to hear Nagata is 47. I know that Nagata is called Mr. Anti-Aging but I’ve never really thought of his actual age. The way he’s moving at 47 should really be commended. He got the win here.

    Satoshi Kojima vs. Karl Anderson

    This was also a very good match. Anderson worked hard and did his usual heel tactics. Kojima looked really strong. Not much more beyond that, just a good back and forth match. Kojima picked up the win with a lariat.

    Tomohiro Ishii was interviewed. It didn’t mean anything to him to hear that this G1 was the longest ever. On Elgin, he likes his moves and any of them can be finishers. Unlike most Americans, he fights with his heart.

    Tomohiro Ishii vs. Michael Elgin

    This was one of my favorite matches from the last year. Elgin showed in this match that he’s one of the best commodities New Japan has picked up in recent years – he’s just tremendous working a stiff style and excelled here against Tomohiro Ishii, who is also one of the best in this style too. They worked themselves into an excellent match with some scary spots, including a death valley driver to the floor by Elgin.

    He followed that up with one of the scariest moves in some time with a running powerbomb right into the steel guard railing on the outside. Insane. Ishii turned him inside out with a lariat but Elgin kicked out, only to taste defeat following a brainbuster. Fantastic match, well worth taking the time to watch. Definitely one of the best matches in the G1 tournament.

    Ishii says he’s become nothing but a boaster and is disappointed in himself. Elgin vows with every last breath, drop of sweat and blood, he and Ishii will go at it again.

    In an interesting note, Ishii mentions he lost consciousness after the first blow of the match, so he doesn’t have much memories of it. He was out of it. He thought although it was a good, he got beat badly. He thought he was doing well in the tournament until he lost to Okada .He says it’s been another disappointing year.

    Okada welcomes us to part two of the August 15, 2015 G1 event in Sumo Hall.

    Yujiro Takahashi vs. Tomoaki Honma

    This was fine. Yujiro’s in the bottom rung of workers in the New Japan roster, but Honma is so over this turned into a good match anyway. Yujiro used a ref bump to low blow and the Miami shine to pin Honma.

    Okada says that the G1 was probably the best condition he could have been in. He doesn’t fight against Nakamura too often, so this was interesting for him. He wasn’t sure if the math would go ahead due to his injury, but it did. When mentioning that one block was AJ vs. Tanahashi and the other one was him vs. Nakamura, he noted that it was the four best wrestlers in New Japan, so it was hard for him to compete against them.

    Kazuchika Okada vs. Shinsuke Nakamura

    The match that these two had in the previous year’s G1 was absolutely awesome. I forget how this one went, though I remember it being awesome as well, so let’s see how this fares with new eyes.

    They started off slow, feeling one another. The match largely went with a back and forth style; well worked, nothing fancy .Once they started to go to the finishers it became great. Nakamura spun into that wonderful armbar, went into the gogoplata position, then sent him chest first to the ground and submitted him. I really liked that finish, but I thought the match they had in the G1 finals in 2014 has a bit more oomph to it. Still, these were two of the best workers in the business having a great match by any standard, so good on them. That makes it Tanahashi vs. Nakamura in the G1 2015 finals.

    Nakamura says there’s only one more match to go, and he’s ready to give it his all.

    Okada says it was frustrating he got submitted instead of pinned. By far, it’s the most frustrating match for him. If Nakamura wins the whole thing, he’s sure to face him again. The usually chatty Gedo this time says he has nothing to say, Nakamura was incredible. Meanwhile, Nakamura says he gave it his all today. One more match…he’s on fire.

    In his reflective interview, Okada says for him, it was one of the most memorable matches of 2015. He remembers it even more than his match in 2014, perhaps because he lost. He also forgot about the armlock. It was his first tap out since returning to America. After taking part in such a big series, he was proud to take on so many matches. On Nakamura leaving, he’s going to miss him. But he’s not worried about New Japan Pro Wrestling. He’s excited for what’s to come. But with that said, he misses him but hopes he does well in America. He wants to fight him again, He’ll make the New Japan ring the best in the meantime.

    Two very good episodes of New Japan on AXS this week. This show still remains as one of the best TV shows in North America, featuring both hot matches and fresh insight into them.

  • New Japan on AXS results: G1 Climax ’15 continues with Goto vs. Okada

    Yujiro Takahashi vs. Satoshi Kojima

    Yujiro had Mao with him as she proceeded to do a very rated R dance. I don’t think we’ve seen her or any girl with Yujiro since the G1. They aired the match in full, and was fine. Very physical. Yujiro is one of those that are hit and miss as he can be very sloppy at times, but he was fine here for the most part. He got the sneaky win after Cody Hall interfered, allowing him to low blow Kojima and pin him with the Miami Shine.

    Kojima says no matter how bad he looks, he promises to never give up. No matter how he does it, he will fight to the end.

    Goto said that looking back, G1 25 was hard, but liked the breaks and this type of schedule fit him the most. He desires the belt that Okada had. Facing the Heavyweight champion as the Intercontinental champion…he never experienced that.

    Hirooki Goto vs. Kazuchika Okada

    This was another match where it started slow, turned into a pretty good back and forth match and evolved into something great.  The crowd were into it and I think were genuinely interested in seeing the IWGP champion (at the time) face the Intercontinental champion (also at the time). Titles still mean a lot in Japan, unlike in US where I couldn’t tell you a lot of the current champions off the top of my head. Nice back and forth match with Hirooki Goto getting the clean win with the shouten kai. Hey, when the IWGP title is on the line he always has a better chance of winning. When it is on the line, well..

    Goto says “I’VE CONQUERED IT!” to massive cheers. He wants the crowd to celebrate with three cheers, and they do. He says accidents don’t happen twice, we’ll beat the rest. Goto feels that he’s opened a new door. He welcomes anyone to challenge him for the IC title. He had mixed feelings beating Okada. 2015 was a year of change for him, and he’d like to challenge for the belt again.

    Interestingly, a ROH commercial for Best in the World aired near the end of the program. Might not be too unusual, but it’s the first time I’ve seen during this show.

  • FREE: Adam & Mike: Wrestling Dontaku preview and more!

    Worth it at half the price, the original alternate is back with the GRATIS edition to help get you in the mood for Tuesday morning’s New Japan Dontaku show. After we talk for 13 minutes about other random things like the state of women’s hockey, we get into NJPW-ROH in Chicago, Zeus matches, Junior Fujita, lying about attendance, the ballad of Ryusuke Taguchi, spotlights on SANADA, snowflake predictions for Tuesday morning’s Naito-Ishii main, and much more.

    Right click save

  • Wrestle Kingdom 10 Preview Series: The Champion vs. The Ace

    This match! This rivalry! Where do I even begin? How about with a fun fact, and we’ll see what happens from there? Wrestle Kingdom 10 marks the 7th time Okada and Tanahashi will have faced each other for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. They are currently tied with three wins a piece. Tanahashi got the last, tear inducing win over Okada earlier this year at Wrestle Kingdom 9. In a way, you can think of their next match as the final in a very long “Best of Seven Series” which started in 2012 and ends, assumedly, in 2016. Another fun fact is that Wrestle Kingdom 10 will be Tanahashi’s 6th straight Tokyo Dome main event (3rd against Okada). What’s even more impressive is that he’s 5 for 5! If this were NBA Jam, he’d be “on fire.”

    Okada is coming into the match as champion, defeating A.J. Styles for the title at Dominion in Osaka-jo Hall in July. Tanahashi earned his right to challenge Okada for the title by winning the 2015 G1 Climax. However, before getting to Wrestle Kingdom, Tanahashi had to defend his title match contract in matches against Bad Luck Fale and Tetsuya Naito, who both defeated Tanahashi during the G1 tournament. Meanwhile, Okada successfully defended his title against Styles in a rematch at King of Pro Wrestling in October.

    Being the 7th time the two men will have met for the title, and their 9th singles match together (the first was when Okada was a Young Lion, but it still counts), there is a bit of a feeling of “not this again” coming into the match. But that’s the general complaint with New Japan in 2015. With the exclusion of an incredible character transformation here or there (Ingobernable Naito), New Japan’s booking has played things very safe for the most part, with very little changing since Wrestle Kingdom 9.

    The Bullet Club is still…being the Bullet Club. With each passing day, they become more and more like the original NWO as they continue to spawn new members like Mogwai exposed to water (See Chase Owens). Nakamura is still the IC Champ, though he did part with the title throughout the year. Ishii is the NEVER Openweight Champion, just like he was going into Wrestle Kingdom 9. Gallows & Anderson are the IWGP Tag Team Champs, just like they were at Wrestle Kingdom 9. And you guessed it, reDRagon are the IWGP Jr. Tag Champs going into Wrestle Kingdom 10, just like they were going into Wrestling Kingdom 9. Even Kenny Omega, who won the IWGP Jr. title at Wrestle Kingdom 9, is the champ going into Wrestle Kingdom 10.

    In a sense, we’re pretty much getting the same show as last year, though without the time restriction due to Global Force Wrestling’s broadcast in the U.S., and, sadly, also without Minoru Suzuki (Rambo entrant?). So the blame can’t be put solely on the main event for not feeling fresh. It’s a whole group effort. It’s like New Japan saw the Obama “Change” poster and said, “Nope, let’s not do that.”  At least without the U.S. PPV time restriction, we’ll hopefully get the big, elaborate entrances of Wrestle Kingdoms past. DeLoreans and pole dancing routines, please!

    While I may sound a little unenthused by yet another Tanahashi/Okada match, there are some upsides to Tanahashi vs. Okada VII. The most important being that they’ve never had a bad match together, and I don’t think they’re going to start at Wrestle Kingdom 10. Anything under 4.5 stars by these two on this stage would be considered a disappointment, which probably adds a bit of pressure. Another is the fact that while this match was only officially announced in October, it was more or less made the moment Okada lost to Tanahashi at Wrestle Kingdom 9. After the match, Okada was completely devastated, and left the ring in tears.

    It was clear that match last January was not going to be the end of their long and storied rivalry, and another Wrestle Kingdom main event was looming. It was more just a question of if it was going to be at the following Wrestle Kingdom, or saved for further down the line. Thus, while it’s not the freshest match up, it does have a long, solid, emotional backstory and we can expect a fitting conclusion, i.e. Okada redeems himself for being a crybaby and finally defeats Tanahashi in the Tokyo Dome, the figurative torch is passed, the student becomes the master, and so forth. 

    Okada vs. Tanahashi: The Champion vs. The Ace. I know I should be more excited for this than I am, and I am excited. It’s just not off the charts levels. I think what I’m most looking forward to is this match possibly capping off what has been one of the highest profile rivalries in Japan in the current decade, and possibly the best in terms of match quality. If nothing else, it’s all but guaranteed to be a hell of a match.