1. 3-Way Tornado Tag Team Match – IWGP Tag Team Title: War Machine [c] vs. Guerillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa) vs. K.E.S. (Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Lance Archer) (JIP)
Again. AGAIN? Not cool, Gedo. At least the Tornado Tag rules gave them some other toys to play with. This is still just a lot of STUFF, but there are a couple cool things here and there. Camacho does a nice sell off a jumping elbow from Rowe. Archer does a rope-walk plancha. Rowe bodyslamming Hanson off the apron through Davey Boy and a table is wild. War Machine’s pop-up powerslam is nice. And they do a nice tease of War Machine winning before Davey and Archer pull it off and win the titles. OK. **1/2
2. IWGP U.S. Heavyweight Title: Kenny Omega [c] vs. Juice Robinson
This thing is 32-minutes long, and that is just not fair. Personally, I’m proud of Juice Robinson. He could’ve done just fine having Heath Slater’s career, but instead went and learned how to work like a top guy. That’s really cool. But he’s not there yet, and Kenny Omega is not the right guy for him to prove that with either, as Kenny goes for another six-star affair and ends up at two and three quarters.
They do start it off well, working a deliberate pace where they’re telling a little story. Omega had minor surgery on his knee a couple weeks ago, so Juice is hesitant to attack it and Kenny avoids strain on it – doesn’t leapfrog, doesn’t springboard. Meanwhile Kenny is being a jerk, pulling Juice’s hair and whatnot. But then Kenny just goes on and does Kenny things and assures us everything is OK, and the match loses ALLLLL of its steam. I’m not sure how I personally would’ve built on that little story they had going, but Kenny Omega might just know something I don’t. I know the match didn’t take for me, but I also know Kenny is a star in this business and will continue to be one.
They just go back-and-forth and hit big moves and Juice kind of goes after Omega’s knee but doesn’t, like, REALLY go after it. They do one of the all-time worst turnbuckle post figure-fours. They do a fucking SUPERPLEX off the apron to the floor. Juice takes 4 V-Triggers, getting up for each, before catching the 5th and dropping Omega with an Electric Chair, and a MAN IN THE FRONT ROW YAWNS. Omega eventually catches Juice with a TOPE ROPE ONE-WINGED ANGEL for the win. The wrestling and precision and all that is good, but it’s just drawn out and a match that makes ya wanna see what’s going on on Twitter. Some good bits but not impressive. **3/4
