Guys, you have no idea how happy I am to see the lights of Korakuen Hall and non-tag league-participants. I feel like I’ve just been through a serious ordeal and am still trying to shake off some PTSD. One-camera New Japan house show wrestling is only for the strongest among us. But today we have Okada, Tanahashi, Los Ingobernables and MULTIPLE CAMERAS! Feeling better already.
Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi vs. Shota Umino & Ren Narita
Shota’s starting to grow a pretty decent Anime Protagonist haircut, which is enough to convince me he has strong Ace potential. This is short and sweet: the New Japan dojo trainers beating the snot out of their trainees, the young lions making some spunky comebacks. Shocker: Narita manages to get in a BELLY TO BELLY SUPLEX on Manabu near the end. Nakanishi takes it home via Argentine backbreaker while Nagata keeps Umino trapped in the Nagata lock. Classic New Japan opening match wrestling. **
Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima, Juice Robinson, Sami Callihan & Tomoyuki Oka vs. Bad Luck Fale, Yujiro Takahashi, Chase Owens, Hangman Page & Leo Tonga
We get a red hot start with the Bullet Club jumping Oka before the bell and everyone goes into sprint-mode until things grind to a halt for a boring Bullet Club beatdown portion. The action picks up again for the babyface comeback and my boy Oka gets himself over in the ending stretch against Owens before getting nuked by his Package Driver. Efficient but forgettable. **1/4
Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI vs. Minoru Suzuki & El Desperado
Allright, I’m fully sold on a possible Goto/Suzuki NEVER title match for the Dome. Their recent interactions have all been good, but they take it to another level here and try to straight up murder each other. I’m talking BAR BRAWL-level hatred. This could be exactly what Goto needs to get fired up and reboot himself for 2018. Suzuki is such a world class heel that he even throws a freaking water bottle at TOMOAKI HONMA on commentary. Suzuki-Gun rip YOSHI-HASHI to shreds and this match just kicks all kinds of ass. Not having Iizuka around really makes a huge difference, obviously. Goto’s always been good at making babyface comebacks and this is what he does here, man. Goto and YOSHI pull off a new double-team finisher called the GYT to put Desperado away. Looks way better than the Bunker Buster/GTR combo they’ve been using on house shows. Yeah, the Minoru/Goto feud is my jam. ***
Hiroshi Tanahashi & Hirai Kawato vs. EVIL & SANADA
Man, Tanahashi/Kawato would’ve made an amazing tag league team. This match is legitimately better than pretty much all of the tag league matches I’ve seen so far, except for the crazy LIJ/Death Juice match from opening night. Kawato is on absolute freaking FIRE in this match. He moves around the ring at light speed, kicks people around and just comes off as the most promising young wrestler in Japan. Tanahashi plays the Cool Uncle that saves little Kawato’s punk ass when he gets in too much trouble. He busts out a ridiculously fun new spot at some point where he somehow gets EVIL and SANADA to dragon screw each other!? Kawato is so fired up in this match that he actually inspires SANADA to go all out and be awesome, which is no small feat. Seriously, the execution on SANADA’s dropkick and Backdrop suplex in the ending stretch are absolutely OUT OF THIS WORLD. Dude is not playing around. He finishes off Kawato with the most painful looking Skull End I’ve ever seen him do, as he just SPINS the little guy around in the Dragon sleeper instead of dropping down. God damn. YOU WANT ALL OF THIS. ***1/4
Kazuchika Okada, Will Ospreay & Gedo vs. Tetsuya Naito, BUSHI & Hiromu Takahashi
Rematch from the last Korakuen show. The main difference here is that Okada seems to have gotten fed up with Naito’s trolling and is clearly intent on hurting him in this match. He’s been pretty chill about the title match and Naito’s antics so far, but this is something else. He literally German suplexes Naito at the bell and then spends half the match whipping him right into the guardrails. For the rest of this, Ospreay has the crowd going apeshit by flying all over the place and working the usual magic with Hiromu. He really is the perfect 6-man tag guy. The Okada/Naito beef keeps escalating as the champ grabs Naito and traps him in a MILLION DOLLAR DREAM (THIS MAKES SO MUCH SENSE!) for the whole finish and keeps the hold locked in after the bell. Naito sells like death and has to be carried to the back by Hiromu. Could add an interesting new twist to the Dome match. PS – Ospreay takes it home for CHAOS with the Oscutter. These guys can do no wrong in 6-man tags. ***
David Finlay & Katsuya Kitamura vs. Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa – World Tag League (Block B)
The first half of this is pretty much a comedy match, and an efficient one at that. I kind of like Tama Tonga more as a comedy wrestler than as a straight wrestler, and he does a lot of funny shit in this match. Selling a single Kitamura chop like instant death, using a girl’s bag in the front row as a weapon then respectfully giving it back to her and using the KOKESHI as a tribute to Honma at ring-side to a nuclear pop. Kitamura’s the perfect foil for GOD’s antics and Korakuen is waaay into him, but the whole place deflates once Finlay gets the hot tag. He seems to try harder than usual but the guy is just as bland as it gets. Big Katsuya gets to show off his new Military press for a big ol’ Korakuen pop. Tanga Loa takes him out with a Blue Thunder followed by the Apeshit for the win. Real fun first half and then an okay second half. **1/2
Togi Makabe & Henare vs. Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano – World Tag League (Block B)
Yano is almost in Serious Mode for this one so you know we’re on to something. The match is worked exactly how a match between these four should be worked: fast-paced, lots of brawling and power fighting and the young lion gets himself over with the crowd. Makabe and Yano are actually fine and don’t get in the way, but the heart of the match is Ishii vs Henare and it’s pretty rad. Kind of like Kitamura on one of the recent house shows, Henare really steps up and takes the fight to Ishii in a surprisingly believable way. This should be a mandatory process for all heavyweight young lions looking to graduate to the next level: throwing down with the Stone Pitbull. Henare definitely pulls it off here and Ishii actually gives him a bunch of kickouts in the ending stretch, which get huge reactions from the crowd. He eventually goes down to a big Brainbuster but all of this was a big step in the right direction for him. ***
Michael Elgin & Jeff Cobb vs. Beretta & Chucky T – World Tag League (Block B)
Holy crap, this is the high-level tag wrestling that’s been (mostly) missing from the tag league so far. None of these guys have been particularly impressive on the house shows leading up to this, but maaaan do they turn it up here and have an awesome match. This is actually the match that finally sells Elgin and Cobb as a Monster Tag Team rather than just Two Big Dudes In Singlets that were randomly thrown together. They come off as total beasts here, manhandling Best Friends who just sell and bump their asses off for YOUR viewing pleasure. Elgin and Cobb do all sorts of impressive double-team shit that highlights their power and strength, like trading off delayed Vertical suplexes or just double slamming the crap out of dudes.
Elgin’s clearly a 90’s All Japan fan, and this usually manifests in him going into finisher overkill or using the freaking Burning Hammer on Kenny Omega. In this match however, him and Cobb take a page from the classic Kawada/Taue tags where one guy gets annihilated and his partner has to fight off two opponents at once, generating insane drama and crowd support. Elgin wrecks Chucky T with two Powerbombs on the floor, leaving Beretta to fight off the two monsters on his own, and it’s just great, compelling story-telling. The two big guys take turn suplexing Beretta like a rag doll and the guy constantly looks on the verge of death. All of the big bombs also work sooo much better in this kind of tag context, because you have partners breaking up near-falls instead of guys kicking out of everything.
Despite all the accumulated damage, Best Friends actually pull a believable comeback where they use their speed/athleticism to outsmart the two monsters and eventually catch Cobb with a Dudebuster/Diving stomp combo for the pin. High-impact, smart tag wrestling where everyone came out of the match looking like a million bucks. ****
Raymond Rowe & Hanson vs. Lancer Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr – World Tag League (Block B)
I guess this is the high-end version of the War Machine/KES match we’ve seen a thousand times, and it’s not something I really care about, or ever want to see again. Unlike the last match, there’s no story to this thing, it’s just big guys going back and forth and doing spots for 15+ minutes. I don’t know. Rowe and Archer try to out-tough-guy each other for a while and they eventually do a your-move-my-move thing where everyone screams ‘’FUCK YOU!’’ after getting in their spot. The crowd’s crazy into it and I’m just puzzled for most part. It’s all very Nu-Metal. Very Limp Bizkit. Everyone does missed Moonsaults. There’s suplexes and fat man high spots. But there’s no drama whatsoever, no exciting near-falls, no one ever really looks in any actual trouble. It’s just an exhibition of big guys doing STUFF and trying to out-douche one another. Can’t do it. **3/4
That main event sent me into a downward spiral of wrestling depression but the rest of this show was really good stuff. Everything seemed to click more than the previous tag league shows and the crowd was just red hot throughout. Elgin/Cobb vs. Best Friends is one of the best New Japan tag matches I’ve seen in a long time, so you should definitely check that out. I hope there’s some long-term plans for these two as a team.
