Here we are, finally past the wrestling purgatory known as the World Tag League, and firmly on the way to the Tokyo Dome. We are literally on the ROAD TO TOKYO DOME, my friends. The show kicks off with a 2017 year-in-review video and the thing is an epic reminder of what an amazing year this has been for New Japan. It’s all there: Okada and Kenny SIX-STARRING IT UP at Wrestle Kingdom, Suzuki-Gun invading, the rise of Naito and LIJ as counter-culture babyfaces, Shibata finally getting his title shot and then dying in the name of pro-wrestling, the USA expansion, one of the best G1 Climaxes of all time and so much more.
Shota Umino vs. Tetsuhiro Yagi – Young Lion Cup
Hell of a young lion match to kick off the show. Yagi goes after Umino’s injured knee and young Shota’s selling is pure INTERNET WET DREAM material. Dude looks in constant agonizing pain, clutching the bad leg every time he mounts a comeback. This is the guy that’ll be having the 6-star New Japan Main Event matches in a few years. Yagi yanks on the bad knee with a nasty Indian deathlock and throws a MEAN dropkick. Umino unleashes his glorious Tenryu reverse flying elbow and my main man KAZUO YAMAZAKI calls the reference on commentary. What a legend. Umino wraps it up with a young lion-killing Boston crab. **1/4
Katsuya Kitamura vs. Ren Narita – Young Lion Cup
Kitamura looks like a monster next to pretty much anyone, but when you put him in the ring with little Narita, he looks like a real-life, city-stomping Kaiju space monster. The difference in size tells the whole story of the match and it’s awesome while it lasts: Kitamura throwing Narita around like a rag doll and chopping the life out of him, Narita making some spunky comebacks. Kitamura still seems to be struggling with putting an effective finish together as his Jackhammer really comes out of nowhere here, but he’ll get there. Fun. **
Hirai Kawato vs. Tomoyuki Oka – Young Lion Cup
These two are the most advanced lads from this crop of young lions and they put on a fully competent wrestling match for the good people of Korakuen Hall. Kawato is particularly dickish with his kicks in this one and Oka’s not afraid to take them right in the freaking THROAT. Oka gets revenge with a few neck-crunching submissions and a gutwrench suplex that legitimately BREAKS KAWATO IN HALF. When things really start to get going, Kawato counters a Boston crab attempt with a flash rollup and sneaks away with the victory. Would’ve watched more of this. **1/4
Jushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask & Henare vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru, El Desperado & TAKA Michinoku
This is kind of a watered down version of the hate-filled brawls that Team Legend and the Suzuki-Gun juniors have been having this year. There’s a fun opening bit where Henare goes on a rampage on TAKA and the crowd gets way into him. I’d be up for Henare vs. Kitamura in battle of the young lion monsters. The heel beatdown on Liger is pretty boring until Tiger Mask gets the hot tag and does a pretty cool TOP-ROPE ARMDRAG. We get whisky spraying shenanigans in the finish and Desperado gets the pin on Tiger. These guys have done better. **
Togi Makabe & Kota Ibushi vs. Yujiro Takahashi & Leo Tonga
I expected this to be mildly pleasant but everyone seems fired up by Ibushi’s presence and have this weirdly awesome match!? Yujiro’s more of a dick than usual, BIG BOI Leo Tonga works super stiff and actually comes off as a threat for once and Makabe is just insanely over and has the crowd going nuts just by hitting lariats and sceaming for the whole match. The Bullet Club lay in an actually convincing beatdown on Ibushi, then everything following the hot tag is just non-stop fun. Ibushi outwits everyone with his spectacular offense and Korakuen eats it up with two spoons. Tiger Hattori does these weird 2.9999 counts that get HUGE POPS and allow Tonga to get a legit believable near-fall on Ibushi following a gigantic high-angle Flatliner. Ibushi picks up the win with the godslaying KAMIGOYE and Leo takes it like a champ. Makabe and Ibushi have a hilarious interaction post-match where grumpy Makabe’s annoyed by Kota’s backflip celebration. Dug aaaaaall of this. ***
Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano vs. Minoru Suzuki, Takashi Iizuka & Taichi
Suzuki-Gun are in full CHEAT 2 WIN mode for this one. We get the non-stop crowd brawling, TAKA interfering, Iizuka biting fellow human beings, etc. There’s nothing really interesting going on until Goto and Suzuki finally get in the ring together and have a bunch of compelling professional wrestling. Goto takes out Taichi with an Ushigoroshi followed by the GTR. Post-match angle is good stuff as Hirooki and Suzuki keep fighting until Minoru gets enough and decides to grab young lion Yagi and SHAVE OFF HIS HEAD! Evil incarnate. Not a good match, but still looking forward to that NEVER title defense. **
Satoshi Kojima, KUSHIDA & Masked Horse vs. Rocky Romero, SHO & YOH
Masked Horse is Ryusuke Taguchi working a masked man gimmick based on a weird Wrestle Kingdom cellphone game tie-in. He even tweaks his move-set for the occasion and starts randomly throwing throat thrusts. The match walks the line between comedy wrestling and junior action but never really kicks into high gear. SHO pretty much steals the show with his deadlift suplexes, while YOH gets kind of exposed whenever he gets in the ring on his own. Little guy just doesn’t have the same spark as his partner. Kojima and Romero have weirdly comical chemistry together and end up working the finish, the Cozy one pinning Romero via lariat. Harmless fun. **1/4
EVIL, SANADA & BUSHI © vs. Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga & Tonga Loa – NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag-Team Titles
This is a perfectly fine wrestling match that really struggles to hit that next-level sweet spot. The crowd keeps zoning in and out, which definitely hurts whatever these guys are going for. Bullet Club put BUSHI through an extended heel beatdown for a long stretch, which should normally work wonders but the whole thing just falls flat. Tama Tonga’s usually the most charismatic New Japan gaijin by a mile and he just doesn’t seem to care at all in this thing. The highlight of the match is SANADA, who gets an amazing hot tag run of offense. I love how he moves his feet in mid-air when he hits that Pescado dive. Fale does some good big man stuff, like Vader hammering the crap out of BUSHI in a corner. Both sides trade off some tag finishers and we get some ref-pulling shenanigans until Fale finally clocks BUSHI with the Grenade for the win. Not bad by any means, but I honestly expected something a little more engaging. Maybe it’s time to get rid of the 6-man tag belts? Both the crowd and the wrestlers seem like they couldn’t care less about this title. **3/4
Kazuchika Okada & YOSHI-HASHI vs. Tetsuya Naito & Hiromu Takahashi
Naitomania is at a fever pitch in Korakuen Hall, man. Literally half of the people here are decked out in Los Ingobernables t-shirts and caps. There’s a bunch of girls holding Darryl dolls. Naito fist-bumps a BABY TETSUYA NAITO FAN. Tetsuya Naito is for the kids! New Japan have a real Attitude Era Austin-type cultural phenomenon on their hands with Naito, and it’s a beautiful thing. Now I’m probably just going to be repeating myself, but all of the Okada/Naito lead-up tags have been awesome, and GUESS WHAT, this one is also awesome. All of their exchanges are red hot and I am permanently psyched for their Wrestle Kingdom match, BUT the real star of the match here is HIROMU TAKAHASHI.
Hiromu’s a guy who was given a truckload of great opportunities in the first half of the year and then was stuck in multi-man tag limbo for the second half. Even while trapped in this less than desirable position, the guy steals the show every chance he gets and reminds YOU, the gentle viewer, that he is an absolute star. Here he does that by going toe to toe with the freaking IWGP champion and really gives him a run for his money. He counters a Rainmaker attempt with a HUGE German suplex and just splatters Okada with the Dynamite Plunger. Then Okada completely ACES IT UP, puts everyone back in their place with picture-perfect dropkicks and taps Hiromu via Cobra clutch. Just a great action-packed main event with three of New Japan’s best delivering the goods and the man known as YOSHI-HASHI managing to not get in the way. ***1/2
Shit keeps getting realer and realer post-match, as Okada and Naito keep going at it until Okada counters a Destino attempt with a Tombstone piledriver and then just rips his rival’s head off with a huge Rainmaker. For Wrestle Kingdom, if Naito and Okada can mix up the hatred they’ve been showing in all of their post-match angles with the beautiful in-ring wrestling they’ve been doing in these tags, we’re gonna have a real classic on our hands, folks.
I love the Young Lion Cup and the Ibushi tag match was surprisingly good, but the show was mostly filler until the main event. If you are looking to get hyped up for Wrestle Kingdom, DO check out that main event though.
