Night one of the Super Junior tag tournament in Korakuen Hall. Winners get an IWGP Jr Tag title shot at Power Struggle. Let’s see if the returning Roppongi 3K and Hiromu can resurrect my long-dead interest in New Japan’s junior division.
Yujiro Takahashi & Leo Tonga vs. Tomoyuki Oka & Shota Umino
Leo and Oka really bring the hatred in this one and beat the absolute hell out of each other. They stiff each other to the point that Yujiro’s punches come off as business exposing-level-bad once he gets the tag. Umino is awesome at getting the hot tag and blazing through his basic young lion offense. Huge pop when Shota BODY SLAMS big Leo Tonga on the first attempt. Yujiro gets the win with the Pimp Juice on Umino. Fully acceptable wrestling. **
Jushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask, Ryusuke Taguchi & ACH vs. TAKA Michinoku, El Desperado, Taichi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru
This is all sorts of fun. Super fast-paced action with everyone going all out and Suzuki Gun being massive pricks. Once again, ACH impresses by being a more reasonable version of Ricochet. Same kind of athleticism and connection with the crowd, but his stuff feels about 15% less like an exhibition. Liger is so ridiculously good at acting OUTRAGED when the heels try to unmask Tiger Mask. No one can emote better than this man. The match ends way too soon when Taguchi hilariously goes for a BOMA YE HIP ATTACK (Complete with the Shinsuke pose to set it up), but receives Taichi’s mic stand right in the butt, setting up a sneaky Gedo Clutch for the win. Post-match, Suzuki Gun lay in a ridiculous heel beatdown with mask ripping and chair shots. I would’ve taken another 10 minutes of this. **1/2
Minoru Suzuki & Takashi Iizuka vs. Hirooki Goto & Toru Yano
Half of this match consists of Suzuki straight-up destroying Yano all over ring-side. The other half is okay professional wrestling aided by crazy Korakuen Hall heat. Goto is good at getting the hot tag, Iizuka is good at biting people, Yano is good at being Yano and Suzuki is better than all of them. Goto catches Iizuka with the Ushigoroshi and then puts him away via GTR. Suzuki takes out his post-match frustration on young Lion Yagi. **
Hiroshi Tanahashi, Togi Makabe & Katsuya Kitamura vs. Ibushi Kota, Juice Robinson & David Finlay
This thing is a blast. All of these guys work so well together and everything just moves along perfectly. Kitamura is insanely over in Korakuen. He has an interesting dynamic with the opposing team where he is definitely treated like a young lion, but the little offense he manages to get in is sold HUGE, like he’s a real monster in the making. Compared to the last few months where he spent every midcard tag match on the apron, Tanahashi gets a lot more ring time these days, which could be a positive sign that some of his injuries are finally healing up. His exchanges with Ibushi are awesome and I’m officially psyched for their title match. Kitamura now does the Manabu Nakanishi YAJIN DANCE to set-up his spear, which is brilliant. LIKE FATHER LIKE SON! Milano is SO HYPED when Kitamura goes for the Jackhammer. It all comes down to Big Katsuya and Juice and the crowd is way into Kitamura’s kickouts. He eventually falls to Juice’s BIG PUNCH and Pulp Friction but still got over huge in the process. ***
Kazuchika Okada, YOSHI-HASHI & Tomohiro Ishii vs. Tetsuya Naito, SANADA & EVIL
Hilarious opening where Naito has a very serious staredown with Okada and then slowly tags out. Pure Naito. This one actually takes a while to get going, but things start looking up when LIJ get a hold of Ishii and beat him down. Ishii pulls an epic comeback which sets up a long run of very fun wrestling where everyone get their spots in. SANADA and YOSHI-HASHI are two guys that I’m not super high on, but they have weirdly good chemistry together. Naito helps his Ingoberna-BRO turn the tide and SANADA locks the Skull End on YOSHI-HASHI for the tapout win. All of this was totally solid, but considering the talent involved, it could’ve been a little better. **3/4
SHO & YOH vs. KUSHIDA & Hirai Kawato – Super Junior Tag Tournament Round 1
I have to get this out of the way: Roppongi 3K’s Rocky Romero rapped entrance theme is the corniest shit ever. Anyway, this is SHO and YOH’s second big showcase since their return and it’s another good one. They spend the first portion of the match working on Kawato and although I’d like to see more dickishness from them, they’re adept at showing character and getting their shtick over. KUSHIDA gets the hot tag and he gets in all of his handspringy spots. Sweet reversal sequence where SHO powers out of KUSHIDA’s Hoverboard lock and hoists him up into a massive Dominator. The match reaches another level when Kawato tags back in and holy shit, this thing turns into THE KAWATO SHOW! Kid starts kicking the crap out of everyone and busts out an absolute mind fuck of a TOPE CON HILO. INSANE HEIGHT! He gets in a bunch of flash rollup near-falls and the crowd eats it up until Roppongi cut him down with their Flapjack/Complete shot combo (which might be called the ‘’3K’’?). Man, SHO and YOH come in with all this hype and it’s young lion Hirai Kawato who ends up stealing the show. This guy needs to go on his excursion stat, come back and save junior heavyweight wrestling. Seriously though, we could be looking at New Japan’s homegrown version of Ibushi Kota. Pretty good match, BTW. ***
Hiromu Takahashi & BUSHI vs. Dragon Lee & Titan – Super Junior Tag Tournament Round 1
Hiromu and BUSHI come out with their mixed-up lucha masks and look amazing. To no one’s surprise, this match is balls to the wall insanity. Team LIJ go full heel for the mid-portion of the match with crowd brawling, mask ripping, cutting the ring in half and wearing down Titan. The eventual Hiromu/Dragon Lee exchanges are totally spectacular but very low on selling, which gets annoying at times. They do a Lucha Libre version of the Fighting Spirit German Suplex No-Sell, which I am super conflicted on. Anyway, things get absolutely crazy as Dragon Lee fires off an INSANE tope suicida through his partner’s legs and Titan follows up instantly with a huuuuge top-rope Quebrada. Milano loses it on commentary, going ‘’VIVA MEXICO’’. The action keeps escalating from there and so does the difficulty level of every high spot, all four guys pulling off everything with world class execution. We get nutty Canadian Destroyers out of impossible angles, jaw-dropping double-team spots and all sorts of wild counters. Once all is said and done, Titan ends up eating the MX Impact and Hiromu/BUSHI advance to the next round. Crazy, crazy stuff. An almost never-ending stream of hugely impressive high spots and career-ending dives. Questionable selling at times, but I guess it comes with the territory. ***1/2
Talk about a fun show. Fully enjoyable undercard topped off by an insane lucha spot-fest and the magical Korakuen crowd to make everything better. Thumbs up.
