IWGP Tag Team Title: Guerrillas of Destiny [c] vs. The Briscoe Brothers (Jay Briscoe & Mark Briscoe) (6/19/16)
What a weird place the NJPW tag division got to in mid-2016. The Briscoe feather camo pants are incredible, but the Sons of Haku also wearing camo kind of took away from the effect – you guys have got to plan these things better. AXS showed around half of the 14 minutes but what was not very good. A couple impressive spots but never got moving or had anything resembling a point. Good for the Briscoes? *3/4
NEVER Openweight Title: Yuji Nagata [c] vs. Katsuyori Shibata (6/19/16)
Liked this better than the last one… felt more like a struggle the entire time and had way more Jesus Fucking Christ spots. They start early with grappling and Nagata breaks clean but Shibata hits him and IT IS ON. Shibata cracks Nagata in the face with an elbow and just punishes him until Nagata uses his raging Fighting Spirit to fight back. Boots, boots… so many glorious boots. Both guys pushed the ref away at some point. Kojima, Tenzan and Nakanishi fervently cheering for Nagata is tremendous. Shibata wrestles like it’s real and Yuji Nagata is still awesome. His selling here legit popped the crowd, highlighted by a close-up shot on his eyes fading as Shibata had the sleeper on. He rolled his eyes in the back of his head when he got the Nagata Lock on later too and the crowd went NUTS. Last 5 minutes or so are incredible… Nagata’s repeated knees to Shibata in the corner, some nice near falls off a couple of backdrops, Nagata’s desperation in the sleeper and Shibata just keeping it on and finishing him off. Shibata bowing to Nagata post-match is everything. As JR says, “Does everyone have to act like an ass?” ***3/4
IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title: KUSHIDA [c] vs. Will Ospreay (6/19/16)
This was a great modern-day juniors match… hit the notes of yesteryear with the moves of today. Still though, felt like the type of match always destined to be a blast but not anything that feels like a truly epic wrestling match. Their sequence early on is amazing – these guys do some crazy bullshit but I love the quirks they add to make it feel legit, all topped off by KUSHIDA pointing to his head. KUSHIDA’s swanton to the awesome is wild. Some of it got a little too cute towards the end, like KUSHIDA going for a straight right and Ospreay doing a backflip and everybody feeling really awkward. The Springboard stunner being put over well for the last few months paid off as KUSHIDA caught it with a Hverboard Lock for the W. ***1/2
