Back at Korakuen Hall for more of the Super Junior tag tournament. Bullet Club and the CHAOS gaijins have joined up with the tour, so we get some fresh faces on the undercard.
Juice Robinson & David Finlay vs. Yujiro Takahashi & Leo Tonga
Simple heel vs. face wrestling to kick off the show. Sadly, Yujiro and big Leo are not the most compelling heels ever and the crowd is dead silent whenever they are on offense. God bless Juice for trying his best to wake up the place with some snappy offense and a ‘’COME ON BABY!’’ that would make Chris Jericho proud. Finlay catches Leo with the Prima Nocta and Juice follows with the Pulp Friction for the pin. I give this two whole stars. **
Hirooki Goto & Toru Yano vs. Minoru Suzuki & Takashi Iizuka
This is pretty much the exact same match as the last Korakuen show, with a little less crowd brawling. It’s the usual mix of Yano comedy, Suzuki-gun heeling and a Goto babyface run of offense. Suzuki gets DQ’ed for bringing the bull rope and choking out Yano. Suzuki’s post-match young lion killing rampage is fantastic but the match was boring for the most part. *3/4
YOSHI-HASHI, Beretta & Will Ospreay vs. Kenny Omega, Chase Owens & Marty Scurll
I really don’t care for Ospreay but I’m forced to admit he helped this match a lot by just working harder than everyone else. Bullet Club are in full comedy mode, YOSHI-HASHI is eternally useless and Beretta only comes in for the finish. That being said, props to Kenny and Chase for breaking out some cool new double-teams near the end. Ospreay pulls off the Dragon Kid stunner-out-of-vertical-suplex reversal and a truly suicidal Space Flying Tiger Drop to turn the match around. Beretta escapes Owen’s Package Driver and dunks him with his Dude Buster for the win. Pretty decent once it got going. Beretta challenges Kenny for the US belt post match. I am feeling completely neutral about this. **1/4
Hiroshi Tanahashi, KUSHIDA & Hirai Kawato vs. Ibushi Kota, Dragon Lee & Titan
Oh man, this is a lot of fun. Once again, little Kawato puts in a star-making performance as he is totally game to hang with the luchadores and do some crazy shit. The Tana/Ibushi feud continues and it’s all gravy. Ibushi actually has a real mean streak in this match, as he keeps getting in Tana’s face and puts Kawato in a freaking disgusting looking half crab. Dragon Lee and Titan pop the crowd non-stop with their high flying acrobatics, including a gorgeous tope con hilo from Dragon. Titan shows some truly jaw-dropping balance at some point when he almost flubs a springboard cross body but re-adjusts on the ropes in mid-air and pulls it off. Titan puts Kawato away with some nutty tilt-a-whirl-rollup thingy. Like like like. **3/4
Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii, Rocky Romero, SHO & YOH vs. Tetsuya Naito, EVIL, SANADA, Hiromu Takahashi & BUSHI
Okada grabs Milano’s phone on the way to the ring and changes his background picture, so you know the dude is fired up. This match is CHAOS and LIJ working a full-on Dragon Gate sprint and it rules hard. SHO plays such a great babyface in peril, selling his ass off for Los Ingobernables. The guy has great facial expressions, even with that goofy tooth-gap mouthguard. YOH’s chest is ripped to shreds for some reason and the heels try to aggravate it with more chops. Dick move. Okada has totally perfected his big hot tag segment. It really feels like The Champ jumping in the ring to take care of business and the crowd flips out every time. Everyone gets some time to shine until SANADA finally manages to slap the Skull End on Rocky for the tapout. The Hiromu/SHO exchanges in this had me psyched for the Roppongi vs. LIJ super junior tag semis. ***
Jushin Thunder Liger & Tiger Mask vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru & El Desperado – Super Jr Tag Tournament Round 1
Allright, I’m all about this match. Suzuki-Gun make the mistake of jumping Team Legend when they walk out, which infuriates Liger to no end and things quickly take a violent turn. As we all know, Pissed Off Liger is one of the best things in wrestling. He shoves the referee around, slaps the crap out of Kanemaru and smashes Desperado into an exposed turnbuckle, talking all sorts of shit all the way through. Even Tiger works about twice as stiff as usual and just kicks the living HELL out of El Desperado. Suzuki-Gun retaliate by playing even dirtier as they start going after the masks and then just straight up obliterate their opponents’ legs with chair shots. Liger’s mask gets literally 50% ripped open, which makes for an epic visual. Tiger Mask busts out the top-rope double-arm suplex so you know this match is the real deal. Meanwhile, Liger’s big offense run is a thing of beauty: shoteis for everyone, Ligerbomb, big Brainbuster, all the classics. He almost gets the win, but in what is SURELY a deep reference to the infamous 1999 JUVENTUD GUERRERA TITLE SWITCH, Desperado clocks him with Kanemaru’s whisky bottle! 2 COUNT! Desperado connects right away with the Pinche Loco for 3. I loved every second of this. Loads of hatred, vicious heeling and a brilliant Liger performance. ***1/4
Ryusuke Taguchi & ACH vs. TAKA Michinoku & Taichi Ishikari – Super Jr Tag Tournament Round 1
Taguchi walks out with a hole in is tights, so you better believe they get ripped to pieces by Suzuki-Gun within a matter of minutes. The early parts of this are mostly Taguchi butt comedy and baseball jokes. Taguchi is your face in peril, TAKA and Taichi going heel and working over his exposed butt. ACH’s big hot tag run of offense looks great. Dude has insane speed and timing. They work a long submission segment with TAKA keeping Taguchi in the Just facelook, which really ramps up the drama, and then kick things up another notch by bringing out the dives, including a sweet Quebrada from TAKA. The ending stretch has bunch of really gripping near-falls with the crowd biting on flash rollups. TAKA and Taichi try to CHEAT 2 WIN, but Taguchi Japan manage to outwit them and Taguchi unleashes the BOMA YE HIP ATTACK to a nuclear pop from the crowd. He further rips up his own pants to set up the move, brilliant stuff. Taguchi Japan then pick up the win with a Dodon/Facebuster combo. Super fun match that got the crowd going wild thanks to the right blend of comedy and fast-paced junior action. ***1/4
The usual New Japan Korakuen fun with three damn good matches at the top of the card. Nothing absolutely must-see, but if you’re an old and grumpy Japanese wrestling fan like me and Jason, you’re gonna want to check out the Liger tag match. LIGER IS LIFE.
