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  • Wrestle Kingdom 10 Preview Series: The Cleaner vs. The Time Splitter

    At Wrestle Kingdom 10, the two men who’ve dominated New Japan’s Junior division in 2015 will face off once again for the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship. KUSHIDA and Kenny Omega have been the only two to hold the title in 2015. Well, technically Ryusuke Taguchi did hold the it for the first four days of the year until he was defeated by Kenny Omega at Wrestle Kingdom 9. But since then, it’s been all Omega and KUSHIDA (mostly Omega).

    As mentioned literally one second ago, Kenny “The Cleaner” Omega started 2015 in style by winning the IWGP Jr. Championship at Wrestle Kingdom 9. He then went on a rampage through the Junior division, taking on all comers from all* nations (all of the ones that are Japan, Mexico, and the U.S.). With each successful defence, Omega took one step closer to going off the deep end. He became more egotistical, more maniacal, more eccentric 80’s action movie villain, to the point where he now comes to the ring beating a trash can and singing along to his own theme music. For some, it’s overkill. For me, it’s the perfect storm of questionable acting and complete absurdity. Omega provides the enjoyment similar to what one gets from watching a good bad movie. But behind all the wackiness and overacting, there’s an amazingly talented wrestler

    While Omega was running roughshod through the Juniors, KUSHIDA was upping his game, with his sights set on Omega and the Jr. title. He finally got his chance for a shot at the title when he won the 2015 Super Junior tournament. KUSHIDA defeated Kyle O’Reilly in the finals of the tournament in what was one of the best matches of 2015. He has been very good for long time now, but for me, that match elevated him to another level. Tanahashi may be the ace of New Japan, but KUSHIDA is the ace of the Juniors.

    Kushida made sure not to waste his opportunity and ended Omega’s 182 day run as champion at NJPW Dominion in Osaka. After capturing the title, KUSHIDA looked set for an impressive run as champion. A run that would establish himself as the huge star he has shown he can be. Boy was I wrong. After a one successful defence against Ricochet, KUSHIDA would lose the title back to Kenny Omega at New Japan Destruction in Okayama, a mere 80 days after capturing the belt. All of KUSHIDA’s momentum was stopped dead in its tracks, like a DeLorean with a busted flux capacitor.  

    After regaining his title, Omega would continue his maniacal domination of the Junior division like he’d never missed a beat, while KUSHIDA, fire unequivocally extinguished, would flounder in the Jr. Tag division with Alex Shelley as the Time Splitters. Heads were left scratching, and it wasn’t due to an outbreak in lice, which took the lives of thousands.

    The booking seemed baffling at the time, until it was clear KUSHIDA was going to challenge for the title at Wrestle Kingdom 10. Surely there was a better way to get to KUSHIDA vs. Omega at the Tokyo Dome without cutting KUSHIDA’s momentum off at the knees. It seems like NJPW simply wants to repeat KUSHIDA’s big moment from Dominion when he captured the title on a bigger, grander stage.

    And so, “The Cleaner” and “The Time Splitter” will meet for the third (and final?) time on January 4th at the Tokyo Dome. Their previous two matches have been subjectively very good. Some can’t get past Omega’s eccentricities and the usual Bullet Club antics. Personally, I could do without the Bullet Club stuff, but I enjoy the Omega’s rapscallion ways, and don’t allow them to take away from his matches.

    As with a good portion of the Wrestle Kingdom 10 card, the journey to get there has been questionable, but the match itself should be solid.

  • Wrestle Kingdom 10 Preview Series: reDRagon vs. Young Bucks vs. RPG Vice vs. Matt Sydal & Ricochet

    Welcome to our Wrestle Kingdom 10 Preview Series, otherwise known (by nobody) as the #WK10PS! As January 4th nears, I’ll be bringing you previews of all the matches set to take place at the Tokyo Dome. Up first is the obligatory four-way tag team match for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Titles. 

    I have to be honest: I was not looking forward to previewing this particular match. No offense to any of the guys involved as they’re all great! I mean, Rocky Romero is pretty much the best. Trent has great Bill Murray knee pads. The Young Bucks are the Young Bucks. Kyle O’Reilly is awesome and had one of the best matches this year with KUSHIDA. Bobby Fish has a mean moustache. Ricochet and Matt Sydal are a fresh tag team and do an assortment of very pretty flips. With this much talent involved, it’s no doubt going to be a fun, funny, chaotic, fast paced, Dragon Gate style match.

    When I say I’m not looking forward to previewing this match, what I mean is that I’m not looking forward to trying to explain the storyline reason for this match But, before I endeavour to do that, let’s prolong the inevitable/get to know the participating teams a little better.

    reDRagon

    reDragon (Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly) appear frequently in New Japan as part of the ROH/New Japan partnership. Along with being three-time ROH World Tag Team Champs, they are currently in their second run as IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team champs. Their first run came about after winning the 2014 Super Jr. Tag Tournament and going on to defeat the Time Splitters (Alex Shelley & KUSHIDA) for the titles. Their current reign started on August 16 at the G1 Finals when they defeated the Young Bucks. And yeah, they’re pretty great.

    Young Bucks

    The Young Bucks are another team out of ROH that are featured regularly in New Japan. They are also former ROH World Tag Champs and three-time IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champs. They enjoy doing superkicks and telling people everywhere to suck it. Despite the constant ordering to do so, I’ve never seen any actually take them up on the offer, and I thank the lord for that every day. They’re also in this little group called the Bullet Club. You may have seen their shirts.

    Roppongi Vice, or sometimes, RPG Vice.

    Roppongi Vice are the Forever(ish) Hooligan Rocky Romero and Trent “My Name Is a Question” Baretta. RPG Vice formed after Romero’s Forever Hooligan partner Alex Koslov retired, leaving Romero in need of a new partner. I wouldn’t have minded seeing Romero become a singles wrestler as he’s one of the best and most entertaining juniors on the New Japan roster, but it wasn’t meant to be. It all worked out in the end as the also very talented and underrated Baretta joined Rocky in March this year to form RPG Vice. The duo very quickly captured the IWGP Jr. Tag Team Championship(s?) from the Young Bucks at Invasion Attack in April (They lost the titles back to the Bucks a month later, but who hasn’t?). Their theme music, produced by Romero, is ridiculously catchy and refuses to get out of your head. Furthermore, if they ever produce a line of perfume, it will be called Roppongi Spice.

    Matt Sydal & Ricochet (Air Puma?)

    To enter the 2015 NJPW Super Jr. Tag Tournament, singles stars Matt Sydal and Ricochet joined (air)forces to become…Matt Sydal & Ricochet: Tag Team! The Crown Prince of Boyle Heights and former Evan Bourne defeated the Time Splitters, Young Bucks, and Roppongi Vice in the finals to win the annual tournament. The team has adopted a very effective double team finisher of stereo Shooting Star Presses. Besides making for a great visual, thanks to the pair’s impeccable timing, what I love about it is that it’s a double team move that takes out both opponents. Pretty much every other double team finisher I can think of is done to only one opponent, leaving the other open to make a save. I just think that’s pretty neat. Let’s carry on.

    Well, I guess I’ve avoided this part long enough. So, just how did we get to this quadruple team title match?

    Here goes! To start, reDRagon (Fish & O’Reilly) are the IWGP Jr. tag champs (just like they were this time last year) so obviously they’re in. Sydal and Ricochet earned a title shot by winning the 2015 Super Jr. Tag Team Tournament, so they’re in. Now, this is where it gets a little fuzzy. The Young Bucks felt, and rightly so I suppose, that they deserved their rematch for the titles after losing them to reDRagon back in August, so they’re in. Finally, RPG Vice defeated reDRagon in the semifinals of the 2015 Super Jr. Tag Team Tournament, so they felt they too deserved a shot at the titles, and thus, they’re in. And the rest, as they say, is history. It does make you wonder what the purpose of having a Jr. Tag tournament when 50% of the teams end up in the Wrestle Kingdom title match.

    Of course, the simple version of the story is that four-way tag team matches for the IWGP Jr. Tag titles have seemingly become a traditional Wrestle Kingdom match. The last Tokyo Dome show that featured only two teams fighting for the titles was in 2011 at Wrestle Kingdom VI. Wrestle Kingdom 7 was a three-way, and since Wrestle Kingdom 8, it’s been four-ways.

    Personally, I’d prefer a traditional 2-on-2 tag match for the titles at the Dome. Four-ways are fun, but when it’s teams who’ve faced each other again and again, it’s hard to make the match up feel fresh (at least the new pairing of Sydal & Ricochet help with that issue). They’re always very fast, with a nice mix of athleticism and comedy, and with the level of talent involved, the quality is always top notch. They’re basically a very good Dragon Gate match. I guess the other upside is that eight talented and deserving workers are getting a spot on the card for the biggest show of the year instead of 4.

    Be prepared. There will be flips, splashes, superkicks, forever clotheslines, arm bars, guillotines, back rakes, Indytakers, Meltzer Drivers, Suck Its, and more! And if you blink, you’ll miss all of it.

  • NJPW results: Okada and Tanahashi battle in tag action, CMLL title bout

    It’s the last New Japan show of 2015 as we are back at Korakuen Hall for some more tag action. In the main event, we’ll see Hiroshi Tanahashi and Katsyuori Shibata take on the team of Kazuchika Okada and Tomohiro Ishii, which promises to be one hell of a match if it plays out the right way. We’ll also see Mascara Dorada defend his CMLL Welterweight championship against Bushi, and a bunch of other tag matches that have Tokyo Dome implications.

    Kushida, Jushin Thunder Liger and Jay White vs. David Finlay, Tiger Mask and Ryusuke Taguchi

    Solid opener where everyone worked with one another. Finlay looked pretty alright here as he worked a lot of the match. He and Kushida were the ones in the ring as the finish happened. Kushida laid him out and pinned him with a moonsault. Everyone shook hands after and raised everyone’s hands. Kushida took a microphone after the match and spoke a few words, probably Wrestle Kingdom related but not sure.

    Tencozy and Yohei Komatsu vs. Manabu Nakanishi, Yuji Nagata and Sho Tanaka

    Solid match. A lot of the bout was Tencozy and Nakanishi/Nagata. Sho Tanaka and Satoshi Kojima looked really great in the ring together. The crowd and the announcers flipped out when Tanaka gave Kojima a deadlift suplex for a nearfall. Tanaka hit the ropes but Kojima fired back with a lariat and pinned him.

    Tenzan and Nakanishi teased something as Tenzan goaded Nakanishi into going back into the ring with him and Tenzan jumped him. They did a pull apart brawl to set up a possible feud that, well, no one asked for.  Nakanishi should not be doing singles matches at this point. Let’s hope its hype towards the battle royal or something.

    Kazushi Sakuraba and Yoshi-Hashi vs. Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma

    It’s weird that Sakuraba has been teaming with Chaos members all year, but technically he’s not a part of the stable. Sakuraba worked over boy Honma and Makabe with submissions. Yoshi-Hashi made the hot tag and went toe to toe with Makabe but fell to a lariat. They did a variation of the Doomsday Device as Honma went to the top rope, Makabe held YH on his shoulders and Makabe connected with the headbutt. Makabe followed with the king kong knee drop and pinned him. Solid match.

    Hirooki Goto and Juice Robinson vs. Evil and Tetsuya Naito

    Before the match, Naito offered a mask to Goto that looked similar to Captain New Japan’s mask. He promptly refused and attacked him to start the match. Match was fine, didn’t last that long. Naito choked out Goto on the outside as Robinson was mounting an offense. He looked good here. Evil laid him out with a lariat. Goto came for the save but Naito low blowed him. Evil laid out Robinson with a perfectplex into a brainbuster but only got two. He finished the job with the STO.

    Mascara Dorada vs. Bushi for the CMLL Welterweight title

    Match was fine. They had some nice back and forth early, but aside from one cool suicide dive by Bushi on the outside it was nothing remarkable. Naito started to get involved but Goto came back and they brawled towards the exit. Dorada went to the top rope but Evil came to the ring and distracted the ref. Bushi low blowed him then pinned him with a bridge but Dorada kicked out. Bushi then went to the top rope and hit a codebreaker from there to win the title. I understand this a nice program to do in the months of leading up to the Fantasticamania shows next month, but one stable already does the cheating gimmick, so there’s really no need to do another.

    Shinsuke Nakamura and Toru Yano vs. Cody Hall and Bad Luck Fale

    It’s weird seeing Yano with jet black hair. The guys who dye their hair here have been inconsistent lately. Yujiro used a chair on Yano but he mostly no sold it and tagged in Nakamura who made the comeback. Cody Hall came in and worked with Nakamura towards the end They had a schmozz in the end that ended up with Nakamura hitting the boma ye and getting the win. Just a match.

    Toru Yano got the mic and introduced his partners for the eight man at WrestleKingdom 10 via video. It was none other than the Briscoes from ROH. They cut a short promo with Mark mentioning Yano’s DVDs and Jay saying they’d help out at WK10. Crowd didn’t recognize the name at first but popped when they appeared on the video screen.

    Katsuyori Shibata and Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Tomohiro Ishii and Kazuchika Okada

    My stream kept going in and out during this match. Same thing during the CMLL Welterweight title. I saw most of it, which was very good. Everyone worked with one another. Okada and Tanahashi had a some good back and forth that people got into. Tanahashi laid him out with the sling blade and was going for the high fly flow when Ishii stopped him and superplexed him to the floor. Eventually Tanahashi and Shibata double teamed Ishii, laying him out as Tanahashi hit the high fly flow. Shibata covered with the penalty kick and pinned him.

    Tanahashi cut a promo on Okada after the match, one that ended with Okada storming out. Snow started to fall from the arena as Tanahashi started to leave, then came back inside the ring and did his usual routine to close out the show.

    Not as good as yesterday morning’s Korakuen Hall show, but it was a fine show to watch, technical issues aside.

  • NJPW Road to Tokyo Dome results: Jushin Liger vs. Tiger Mask for NWA Jr. title

    Happy Star Wars day! There will be no spoilers in this review because…this has absolutely nothing to do with Star Wars. Instead we’re heading towards the Tokyo Dome, as the name suggests, which means we’ll be seeing a lot of tag matches related to the event. We’ll also see the NWA Jr. Heavyweight title on the line as Tiger Mask IV defends against Jushin Thunder Liger, and in the main event Shinsuke Nakamura battles the king of the hip attack, Ryusuke Taguchi. All here live at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo.

    They first aired a video highlighting the big moments of 2015 in New Japan, everything from WrestleKingdom to their joint shows with Ring of Honor in the US to what went down a few weeks ago at the World Tag League tournament.

    TenKoji & Jay White vs Nagata, Nakanishi & David Finlay

    The usual good tag opener. Kojima and Finlay had some nice exchanges. Finally went to hit the ropes but Kojima clobbered him with a lariat and pinned him.

    Tomoaki Honma and Togi Makabe vs. Yohei Komatsu and Sho Tanaka

    Nice match. The crowd got really into it towards the end as Komatsu and Tanaka are great at selling and heightening the drama of a match. The World Tag League winners dominated a lot of the match. There was a submission spot that people got into where Tanaka wouldn’t submit to a Boston Crab by Makabe. They had some good back and forth until Makabe pelted him with a lariat to the throat, then hit the king kong knee drop from the top rope for the win.

    Toru Yano and Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Cody Hall and Yujiro Takahashi

    Just a match. Not a really good one, honestly. They just did some plodding work throughout and Yujiro’s antics only led to the finish. He and Yujiro worked part of the math, a lot was Sakuraba facing off against Cody Hall. Hall used power spots while Sakuraba grinded him down. He went for an armbar as Yujiro was about to break it up, but Yano low blowed him, distracted the ref and hit Hall to allow Sakuraba to get the submission win.

    NWA Jr. Heavyweight Championship: Tiger Mask © vs. Jushin Thunder Liger

    Liger wore a completely different outfit here. If you’ve seen him in the past when he’s wrestling heavyweight matches (like in matches against Great Muta and Hashimoto) it’s something similar to that, with a different mask and no bodysuit, just tights. Liger looks in tremendous shape for someone that’s fifty years old. Tiger Mask tried for the tiger suplex at one point but Liger hooked Tiger Mask’s leg and they both fell. Crowd was dead for this for whatever reason despite both working hard and having a pretty good match. Liger submitted after Tiger Mask took him down with an armbar, then transitioned into a chickenwing and Liger verbally submitted.

    Tetsuya Natio, Evil and Bushi vs. Hirooki Goto, Mascara Dorada and Captain New Japan

    Solid match. They were teasing something between Naito and Milano Collection AT as Naito made him open the ring ropes for him. Naito then teased like he was going to attack him, but did nothing. Dorada accidently kicked Goto as Naito tripped him into the ropes and Bushi smashed Dorada’s face into the apron, sending him out of the ring. The usual finish here as Captain New Japan fought bravely against Evil and Naito but he eventually fell to Evil’s STO.

    Bushi ripped off Dorada’s mask after the mask and said he’d be the next CMLL welterweight champion. He grabbed Dorada’s belt and posed with it before making his exit with the belt.

    Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Ryusuke Taguchi

    Taguchi was over tonight. Nakamura went for the boma ye but Taguchi fell to the floor. Taguchi came back with a hip attack and a springboard crossbody to the floor. Taguchi had him in the ankle lock at one point too. Taguchi went for a sliding hip attack but Nakamura rolled out of the way and took him down. Taguchi kicked out a boma ye from the top rope. Nakamura rolled out of a hip attack and struck down Taguchi with another boma ye knee strike for the win. Really nice back and forth match and way better than one would expect.

    Elimination Match: Kazuchika Okada, Gedo, Yoshi-Hashi and Tomohiro Ishii vs. Katsuyori Shibata, Juice Robinson, Kushida and Hiroshi Tanahashi

    Chaos worked as the heels and dominated Kushida in the match, nearly getting him eliminated from the top rope (those count in elimination matches in Japan). Shibata and Ishii worked together and the crowd was very into the elimination teases. They both made it to the apron where Shibata was about to take out Tomohiro Ishii to the floor when Yoshi-Hashi came in and dropkicked Shibata, sending both he and Ishii to the floor, eliminating them. Yoshi-Hashi and Robinson then went at it, which didn’t last long as Robinson missed a moonsault, which allowed Yoshi-Hashi to eventually pin him with the senton.

    Tanahashi came in and soon submitted Gedo with the Texas Cloverleaf, which left him and Okada together. They teased some back and forth, but it didn’t last long as Okada managed to get him over the top rope, eliminating him. That left Kushida, who worked over Okada’s arm. Okada gained control, hit a high fly flow to mock Tanahashi, and pinned him with the rainmaker to win the match. Good stuff throughout and the crowd was into it.

    Overall, this was a fine card. Watch the NWA Jr. title match if you can, and the top two matches were great. One of the better Korakuen Hall house shows in a while.

  • New Japan on AXS report: Nagata takes on Nakamura for the Intercontinental title

    Friday’s matches took place February 14, 2015 in Sendai, continuing our New Beginnings coverage.

    First up is an NWA Jr. title match between Jushin Thunder Liger, reigning champion, against challenger and former champion Chase Owens.

    This was only about five or so minutes overall and was cut for time. Just a match. Liger is good, but can only do so much at this point. He’s good at what he can do. Owens is okay but nothing he does stands out, at least not in this match. He fits in well in New Japan but only just fits in, nothing more. Liger scores a phantom clutch hold for the win.

    Owens says he might have gotten the 123, but this isn’t the last time you’ve seen this face, or the last time he’ll get a shot at the Junior heavyweight title.

    It was shown in between commercials that AXS TV will air the five WrestleKingdom 9 shows on New Year’s Day.

    We follow that up with a NWA World Heavyweight title match between NWA Champion Rob Conway and Hiroyoshi Tenzan

    I remember this match live, and it was awesome. Not because of the work in the match itself – while it was fine, it wasn’t the highlight of the match. It was the crowd. Even in 2015 where the NWA title doesn’t mean a whole lot, people wanted Tenzan to win the NWA title that night, and they let themselves be heard. They were super into the match, and freaked out when he finally won the title. He headbutted NWA manager/President Bruce Tharpe three times, busting him open and sending him to the outside. He followed with the moonsault and pinned Conway to win the NWA title.

    Tenzan thanks the fans for supporting him during the match and asks for their support in the future.Conway says he was cheated. He is the NWA He will be back for what is his.

    Time for the main event, and thus we get an interview with one of the challengers. This week, it’s Yuji Nagata. He talks about how he and other wrestlers back in his day set the standard by having everyone wanting to compete for the title, including those outside of wrestling. Nakamura has done similar things with the Intercontinental title, and Nagata is amazed how he wrestles in his own world. His match with Ibushi intrigued him, and now wants to prove he can still bring his own form of wrestling to the table.

    Shinsuke Nakamura defending the Intercontinental title against Yuji Nagata was next.

    This was pushed like the old veteran getting the title shot as the rest of his colleagues from his era (Tenzan, Kojima, Nakanishi) were all in his corner. Overall, it was a nice back and forth match, but something just felt missing that didn’t make it stand out from normal New Japan main events.. I think it’s more of the style than anything. In the great Yuji Nagata matches I’ve seen in the last few years, they were awesome, stiff back and forth matches with some of the top talent in New Japan like Tomohiro Ishii and Katsuyori Shibata. This wasn’t it. Everything they did looked good, and the crowd was into it for the most part, but this was just a back and forth match. It seemed like they were starting to do the hot nearfalls that you’d usually see in a New Japan main event after Nagata kicked out of one boma ye, but then Nakamura laid out Nagata with another and pinned him out of nowhere. No one felt ready for the finish, it was pretty weird.

    Nakamura says he wants to show respect by saying welcome to the world where everything is accepted. Okay. It was a whole new Nagata that made him boil over. Nagata says backstage that Nakamura was stronger than him. It would have been cool if he won, but today, Nakamura was stronger. He asks Nogami. He says he has a big dream now, and he is glad people backed him up. He’ll keep on fighting.

    In his reflective interview, he says he should have fought him on the ground a little longer. He felt the audience still felt he had it. He wanted to pull Nakamura into his own wrestling style, but he couldn’t\, so that’s why he lost. He says his son told him good luck next time. All this was only possible by his fans supporting him.  

    Overall a fine show, but there have been better. The Jr. title match was okay, the NWA title match was cool, and so was the main event, but there have been better main events.

  • NJPW January 4th Dome Show lineup set

    The New Japan Jan. 4 Tokyo Dome complete lineup was just announced on the acompany’s web site:

    1) New Japan Rumble – This is basically getting everyone in the promotion not in the match on the card along with a bunch of surprises and legends for cameos
    2) Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly vs. Young Bucks vs. Ricochet & Matt Sydal vs. Rocky Romero & Trent Baretta for IWGP Jr. tag titles
    3) Toru Yano and two mystery partners vs. Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi & Tama Tonga
    4) Jay Lethal vs. Michael Elgin (this has not been announced as an ROH title match yet, probably will be after 12/18)
    5) Kenny Omega vs. Kushida for IWGP jr. title
    6) Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows vs. Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma for the IWGP tag team titles
    7) Hirooki Goto vs. Tetsuya Naito
    8) Tomohiro Ishii vs. Katsuyori Shibata for Never Open weight title
    9) Shinsuke Nakamura vs. A.J. Styles for IC title
    10) Kazuchika Okada vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi for IWGP heavyweight title

    The matches should be very good, well, with the exception of the Yano match, and that’s fine.  But the show is lacking in punch, with no special outsiders.

  • NJPW World Tag League Finals report: Evil and Naito vs. Makabe and Honma

    The World Tag League finals are nearing an end, as tonight we’ll finally see the winners of this two week tournament be crowned. Evil and Tetsuya Natio, a relatively new team, will fight against one who rarely teams up in Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma. With the aces of the tag division, Anderson and Gallows awaiting whichever team wins, who will make it past the finals and into the Tokyo Dome to face the dominant champions?

    Yohei Komatsu and Sho Tanaka vs. David Finlay and Juice Robinson

    Really fun match. All four guys worked hard. Not given a ton of time, but looked really good with the time they were given. Robinson, as mentioned before, has really adapted to the style well and fit in here with the likes of Finlay, who is good, and Komatsu and Tanaka, who are great. Robinson and Finlay got the heat on Komatsu. Tanaka got the hot tag and ran wild, soon turned into a ruckus with everyone getting involved. Tanaka and Komatsu hit the dual boston crabs, with Komatsu submitting Finlay.

    Jay White vs. Mascara Dorada

    This is an interesting match as I don’t think White has had too many singles matches in the year he has been wrestling regularly for the promotion. He did some heel antics early, ripping Dorada’s mask. Dorada did this really cool spot where he walked back to the entrance, ran and gave a hurricanrana over the guardrail to White. They had some good back and forth, with Dorada winning after a springboard hurricanrana and the Dorada screwdriver. White looked good and held his own. He’s really athletic and is a surefire candidate for rookie of the year. Good match.

    Bushi came to the ring after the match, wearing his Los Ingobernables hat. He offered it to Dorada. He signaled to the crowd he wasn’t interested, turning his back on Bushi. Bad mistake. He laid him out, then took his mask off to embarrass him. He exited the ring and stole Dorada’s CMLL Welterweight title, so looks like that’s a title program down the road.

    Jushin Thunder Liger and Kushida vs. Ryusuke Taguchi and Tiger Mask

    The focus here is between Liger and Tiger Mask, who are feuding over the NWA Jr. heavyweight title. Yes, this a repeat of a feud from last year, except Tiger Mask is now the champion. They went at it for a while. Taguchi and Kushida were tagged in and had some nice offense. It’s so hard to take Taguchi seriously with his new butt attack gimmick. I mean it’s fine for opening level matches but if they ever put him in a IWGP Jr. title situation again that’d feel like a waste of time. Tiger Mask and Liger were back in the ring, then Tiger Mask rolled him up out of nowhere with a crucifix for the win. It was fine.

    Tencozy, Manabu Nakanishi and Yuji Nagata vs. Doc Gallows, Karl Anderson, Tama Tonga and Yujiro Takahashi

    Mao-chan was back with Yujiro selling her DVD as if she were Toru Yano. I don’t think their DVDs are the same genre. Typical eight man tag you’d see on a New Japan show. Nothing bad, just kind of there. It was decent overall. Anderson caught Nakanishi with the stun gun, then pinned him after a Magic Killer. Makes sense for them to get a win here as their next challengers are being crowned.

    All of a sudden, Truth Martini appeared in a video, highlighting him and the House of Truth. That was random. He appeared with Jay Lethal, who said he will defend the ROH title at the Toyko Dome and questioned who will challenge him. Apparently he doesn’t check the internet I think most of us know who that will be by now (Elgin).

    The Kingdom vs. The Addiction

    Liger, who was on commentary, went completely crazy for Maria as they made their entrance. Good match but nothing out of this world. Very much a back and forth match. The Kingdom win with a spike piledriver on Kazarian.

    Shinsuke Nakamura and Toru Yano vs. Cody Hall and Bad Luck Fale

    Not that interesting of a match. Nakamura worked a lot with Hall with Fale and Yano continued their feud. Yano taped up Fales ankle as Nakamura and Hall were in the ring. Hall went for the Razor’s Edge but Yano low blowed him, allowing Nakamura to hit the boma ye for the win.

    After the match, Yujiro Takahashi and Tama Tonga ran in. Takahashi beat up Yano with a chair as Fale entered the ring again. Nakamura came back and cleared house, so I guess this sets up a Yano feud with the Bullet Club B squad.

    Hiroshi Tanahashi, Michael Elgin, Katsuyori Shibata and Hirooki Goto vs. Yoshi-Hashi, Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii and Kazushi Sakuraba

    They did some atypical eight man tag house show gimmicks, including the “everyone brawls out of the ring spot”. Elgin came in and took everyone out, which got him over big time with the crowd. He and Yoshi-Hashi have real good chemistry with one another. Okada and Tanahashi had their big moment that the crowd got into as well, chanting for Okada. Shibata and Ishii worked a lot in the end, doing their usual, stiff offense. Shibata had in in a sleeper and Ishii fought forever until finally being taken to the ground and was pinned after the penalty kick. Good match overall

    Shibata dropped the NEVER title on Ishii after the match, so there is your NEVER title program. It’s been done, but then again when it was done those were incredible matches, so not much to complain about. Okada and Tanahashi posed in the ring after the match, the crowd 100% behind Okada.

    World Tag League Finals: GBH (Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma) vs. Evil and Tetsuya Naito

    They set up a table at one point and Honma set it up like he was going to piledrive Honma through the table but Bushi interfered and instead Naito gave him a neckbreaker on the table. Makabe had a chair wrapped around his neck and Evil grabbed another chair and smacked the two chairs together at one point. Not a fun spot. Bushi came in at one point and gave the mist to Makabe, who took him out while Naito gave Honma a top rope hurricanrana for a nearfall. They worked over Honma for a long time after this. Makabe came back and gave the lairat to both Evil and Naito. Honma came back and helped set up the King Kong Knee drop by Makabe, then followed with a top rope kokeshi for the win. The match was good in spots but overall didn’t feel like a big deal until the ending, which was actually pretty great and heated.

  • 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. 

  • AJ Styles officially removed from NJPW Tour

    New Japan Pro Wrestling today reported that A.J. Styles is officially off the rest of the current tour due to his herniated disc in his lower back.

    It was reported in Japan that he has returned home to Gainesville, GA. At the show earlier today in Kobe, the company officially announced him as off the rest of the tour, while up until this point they had been acting as through the injury was a day-to-day thing.

    ROH officials are hopeful that Styles will be ready on 12/18 for his title match with Jay Lethal on the Final Battle PPV.

    New Japan announced today that Styles would return on 1/4 for his Tokyo Dome match with Shinsuke Nakamura.

    New Japan likely had to re-book several B block matches to get to the ending that they wanted.

    The final night of the round-robin tournament is tonight in Nagoya which airs live on New Japan World starting at 2 a.m. Eastern time.  We will have live coverage of the show on the site.

    The winner of the A block faces the winner of the B block on 12/9 in Sendai.

    Currently, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Michael Elgin are “in the clubhouse” finishing with a 4-2 record and in first place in the A block.  Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma face Kazuchika Okada & Yoshi-Hashi with both teams having 3-2 records.  If Okada & Yoshi-Hashi win, then Tanahashi &  Elgin go to the finals since they won the head-to-head match on 11/21 in Tokyo.  If Makabe & Honma win, they go to the finals based on beating Tanahashi & Elgin on 11/27 in Hiroshima.

    In the B block, both Hirooki Goto & Katsuyori Shibata and Tetsuya Naito & Evil have 4-1 records, and by the strangest of coincidences, they are wrestling tonight. So the winner of that match goes to the finals.

  • NJPW World Tag League results: Tencozy take on Nakamura and Ishii

    Three more matches in the World Tag League took place early on December 4 in Kagawa. Only a few more days until the World Tag League finals, and two shows away from deciding the finals. Every match is becoming more important as we wind this tournament down!

    Block A: Manabu Nakanishi and Yuji Nagata vs. Kazarian and Daniels

    There wasn’t a lot to this match, and most of it was just dull. Nagata worked on Daniels for a very long time. Addiction made a brief comeback after Nakanishi was tagged in. Daniels shoved Nakanishi to the floor then used the ropes to pin Nagata.

    Block A: Hiroshi Tanahashi and Michael Elgin vs. Tama Tonga and Bad Luck Fale

    Fine match but it felt like it dragged on a bit. Elgin and Fale did a lot of big guy power spots. Elgin and Tanahashi made their comeback but Fale and Tonga made a comeback. They isolated Elgin but he made comeback until getting cut off by a Fale lariat. Then in somewhat of a surprise, Fale pinned Elgin after a spear and a lariat combo.

    Block B: Tomohiro Ishii and Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Tencozy

    A lot of back and forth. Good stuff for the most part, but at this stage of the tournament it’s all been done. Some good double team maneuvers towards the end of the match though by Ishii and Nakamura. Ishii tried to whip Nakamura into Kojima but he dodged and hit a lariat on Ishii. Nakamura rebounded and hit a tope rope boma ye, then followed with another for the win.

    Current Standings:

    Block A:

    Hiroshi Tanahashi and Michael Elgin- 6

    Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma- 6

    Kazuchika Okada and Yoshi-Hashi- 6

    Christopher Daniels and Kazarian- 6

    Manabu Nakanishi and Yuji Nagata- 4

    Kazushi Sakuraba and Toru Yano- 4

    Bad Luck Fale and Tama Tonga- 4

    Block B:

    Evil and Tetsuya Naito- 8

    Hirooki Goto and Katsuyori Shibata- 8

    Shinsuke Nakamura and Tomohiro Ishii- 6

    Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson- 4

    Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima- 4

    AJ Styles and Yujiro Takahashi- 2

    Matt Taven and Michael Bennett- 2