Heck of a show, every big match delivered.
1. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Title: Ryusuke Taguchi & Ricochet [c] vs. Roppongi 3K (SHO & YOH)
This is a really fun match, impressive wrestling and a great showcase for the returning and repackaged rookies. Sho Tanaka and Yohei Komatsu have returned to New Japan after a tag team learning excursion to the U.S. and Mexico under the name THE TEMPURA BOYZ, and are now known as Roppongi 3K. They are managed by former Roppongi Vice member Rocky Romero, who comes to the ring with a fire extinguisher.
Most of this is Taguchi taking the heat while SHO and YOH are just trying out new shit and I am HERE for it. There are some blistering fast exchanges here, including the effortless insanity of Ricochet’s hot tag. SHO busts out a completely insane deadlift rolling German suplex and immediately looks like a player. The finish with Ricochet kicking YOH outside, YOH skinning the cat on the bottom rope and rolling in with a superkick to Ricochet followed by a Backstabber from SHO followed by a running knee from YOH followed by their tag finish – WOOO what a trip. I liked this. ***1/2
HEY! AXS showed a Switchblade vignette. Cool.
2. 3-Way Tornado Tag Team Elimination Match – IWGP Tag Team Title: K.E.S. (Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Lance Archer) [c] vs. War Machine vs. Guerillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa)
I guess this was the best of the FOUR 3-way tag team matches between these guys that have aired on AXS in the last month, but I really would have preferred not watching the first three. It had a little more meat to it as it was the blowoff to this feud (I hope) and at times the action felt reckless in a good pro wrestling way. It was just big fellas trying to have themselves a crazy ECW brawl, with big bumps and hard shots. I am into Lance Archer’s big tall psychopath shtick, it always feels like he is just straight-up trying to kill somebody… he elbows a young lion in the crowd for no reason, tries to kill one with a chokeslam post-match. This was alright, but PUT THIS FEUD TO BED, PLEASE. **3/4
3. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title: KUSHIDA [c] vs. Will Ospreay
Try as I might I just don’t buy Will Ospreay as a big time professional wrestler, but he still does 2 or 3 things per match that just make me go JESUS CHRIST THAT’S INCREDIBLE. I’m all for ambition, but I wonder how he would work slotted as a Jack Evans type and not Big Match Will.
This is a good match that I didn’t completely like. It’s high energy from the start, with both guys hockey fighting each other. There is a spot early where Ospreay does a handspring plancha and KUSHIDA CATCHES HIM with a cross armbreaker that completely melts my mind. And then they slow it down and lose me a little. KUSHIDA works the arm, lots of teases of the cross armbreaker or Hoverboard Lock. He busts out the Cattle Mutilation, which is cool.
KUSHIDA is just the most wonderful blank slate of a good wrestler; he has strong quality matches every time and is likely a guy who wrestlers love working with but he doesn’t really have his own defined THING. He kind of just goes along with what his opponent brings, which can be epic, or it can also be him completely willing to go along with some goofy bullshit, i.e. a stupid but insane blockbuster DDT that KUSHIDA lands on his head for.
The match has some wild bits and is a lot of fun, but isn’t completely my thing as it’s one of those matches where they do a lot of crazy stuff but forget to make you buy in or really care about KUSHIDA or Will Ospreay. It’s very good but missing a little something. ***1/2
Hiromu Takahashi confronts Ospreay after the match, but THE VILLAIN Marty Scurll interrupts and snaps Takahashi’s fingers. Takahashi selling his fingers as Scurll and Ospreay banter is wonderful, Takahashi throwing a tantrum after everyone leaves is not.
Tomohiro Ishii: “Naito, your road to the main event at the Toyo Dome ended the moment my name came out of your mouth” – WOOF.
4. Tokyo Dome IWGP Heavyweight Title Contender’s Match: Tetsuya Naito [c] vs. Tomohiro Ishii
Tetsuya Naito vs. Tomohiro Ishii is just a great match-up. Ishii is this old burly tough guy, his head down, ready to clock in and kick somebody’s ass to support what I assume are his five kids. Naito meanwhile is this young millennial fucker who wears a suit to the ring and is too cool to care, who’s the hottest thing in New Japan Pro Wrestling and a complete garbage person about it. Any time these guys lock-up it’s pretty epic – the IWGP Title match last year, the G1 match, the Los Angeles match. But JR and Josh Barnett, oddly enough, kind of get to the heart of the matter that had me not completely into this: JR says Naito has everything to lose in putting his Tokyo Dome title shot on the line and nothing to gain, so we can expect him to wrestle with a sense of urgency. Josh cuts in: “Well hey, this is New Japan Pro Wrestling – we want to see the BEST match-up.” And so they go 23 minutes and it is really good but parts of it also drag.
The first 10 minutes of Naito matches rarely get me but they always close well and this is no exception. Ishii meanwhile is an insane hard-hitting and heavy-bumping treasure of a man who also makes me wonder sometimes how I will look back on these words ten years down the line when he is possibly in a lot of pain. This has Naito working a leg, brutal strikes, mean faces, ATTITUDE, and once again – Brutal. Strikes. There’s chops to the throat, Ishii selling his legs, Ishii walking into elbows, and both guys just looking like tough sons of bitches. Ishii using his knuckles to prop up and stand on his feet after taking a Dragon suplex on his head is so epic. The finish is HOT, as they do. The counters are INSANE, as they do. It’s stronger than the KUSHIDA/Ospreay match, but it’s also another balls out, really awesome match that didn’t 100% connect or stand out. ***3/4
5. IWGP Heavyweight Title: Kazuchika Okada [c] vs. EVIL
I like EVIL a lot – he is capable of everything any high-end New Japan wrestler is capable of. But he doesn’t make for the most credible challenger, even if he did get the big W over Okada in the G1 tournament. So the match loses a little steam for that. Otherwise, it’s pretty freakin’ great. Okada does that Big Match Okada thing where he takes his time – selling, pausing, thinking … he is reacting to and processing the overwhelming moment that he is in right now, the ace of New Japan Pro Wrestling up against a seemingly impossible task.
That approach is awesome and makes for great professional wresting, it’s just up to the other guy to not mess it up. And EVIL mostly delivers, bringing the pain to the champ. Them working most of the match around EVIL’s chair spots and brawling gave it a unique dynamic. I really liked the spot early where Okada sets up the guardrail crossbody, runs at EVIL, and has to DODGE A FLYING CHAIR before hitting it. At the same time, the offense dragged a bit too – as a WWE fan I’m not in any way opposed to chinlocks, but the feeling I got was that EVIL had some cool ideas for half of his offense and went with some bland stuff for the other. The last few minutes are a gem, with elaborate counters and major near falls. This is a great match, a lower-end Okada defense but the thing is still ****.
The Naito/Okada interaction to end the the show is so BIG TIME. Naito has the aura of such a star, while Okada gets real in the post-match press conference: “In this game, I’m the final boss. Bring it on.”
