Destruction in Fukushima, Destruction in Hiroshima – the word ‘destruction’ apparently does not conjure up a sense of history in Japan.
OK – the AXS announcer saying “The Mariachi Madman” in regards to El Desperado and “Can they keep the funk alive?” in regards to Taguchi & Ricochet is amazing.
1. Roppongi Vice Final Match: Roppongi Vice vs. Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens (JIP)
RPG is (was) a fun team that does cool stuff, but Yujiro and Chase Owens are not exactly classic opposition. A solid enough swan song for Romero and Beretta. **1/2
2. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Title: Ryusuke Taguchi & Ricochet [c] vs. Taichi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru
My goodness gracious, Taichi SINGS in his entrance. Let’s talk about Yoshinobu Kanemaru real quick. Seeing this guy in New Japan after a decade away from puro is wild. I’ve been following New Japan again for about a year, but still haven’t seen much from him outside of interference in Minoru Suzuki matches. He was a fine but lifeless junior heavyweight back in the day (granted, with a few classics under his belt) – and that tradition continues today. JR just gets right to it as the match begins: “Well, this should be an interesting match because… I am not familiar… with the challengers.”
This is a match with a 3-act structure and it is kind of awesome. It starts off as pretty inoffensive fun… Taguchi does his comedy spots, Taichi and Kanemaru work basic old man heels. But then the beatdown keeps going and Taguchi actually becomes a totally sympathetic face-in-peril who does ass spots. Ricochet then gets a hot tag and it is incredible – he’s a guy who I’ve never seen have a super engaging story (sorry, Lucha Underground) but he’s also a guy who has been ready for the big time for a while. His run of offense off the hot tag is just PERFECTION, completely inhuman-like ala a Rey Mysterio in 1996. Yeah I went there. And THEN, outside of a Taichi/Taguchi powerbomb screw-up towards the end, everybody manages a super hot finish. Kanemaru’s bump off the Dodon is awesome. The crowd goes WILD for Ricochet’s amazing tope. They do a few HUGE near falls. And finally Ricochet drops a springboard 450 on Kanemaru (who’s fighting through a Taguchi heel hold), then goes right into another insane dive to the outside on Taichi, and Kanemaru taps. Taguchi, Taichi and Kanemaru are all fine but rarely impressive wrestlers, but this was impressive. ***1/2
3. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title: KUSHIDA [c] vs. El Desperado
What is with New Japan giving a random Japanese rookie a lucha gimmick? First El Samurai, now El Desperado. Anyways, I guess this is a show about weak matches on paper ending up good because almost everyone in New Japan is at a minimum good. There’s some great chain wrestling and rope-running early, then an AMAZING bullet somersault tope into the crowd by Desperado. Desperado uses some tricks (a guitar! a bull rope!), KUSHIDA goes after the arm (including a couple nasty, awesome top rope double wristlock slams). Desperado locks in a NASTY stretch muffler in the middle, the Liontamer to anyone else’s Walls of Jericho. And THEN he traps the arm!! The Desperate One manages a few fine near falls on the junior ace before said ace brings it home with a Hoverboard lock DRIVER. ***1/4
