Christmas vacation is already over for Captain Lou. Back to work tomorrow morning. Thankfully, I have some New Japan Pro-Wrestling to keep me going. This is the last main roster show of the year, the last glimpse of 2017 New Japan as we knew it before the massive paradigm shift that will (probably) be Wrestle Kingdom. NOTHING WILL BE THE SAME AGAIN!
Shota Umino vs. Ren Narita – Young Lion Cup
This continues the Umino knee injury storyline from yesterday and it also continues the big story of Umino being the KING OF SELLING. They really beat the crap out of each other but the crowd doesn’t seem to care until the very last minutes where Umino wins them over with some nifty dropkicks. Umino hits the Ode-to-Tenryu reverse flying elbow and slaps on a naaasty Boston crab for the win. **
Tomoyuki Oka vs. Tetsuhiro Yagi – Young Lion Cup
Yagi has a freshly-shaved head thanks to Minoru Suzuki’s evil dickery from yesterday. The struggles of a New Japan young lion, man. We also get some knee-work business in this one as Oka’s had knee issues recently and Yagi enjoys torturing his fellow young lions with old school submissions. Hell, this is one of the better showings I’ve seen from Yagi as he convincingly takes the fight to Oka, slaps him around and pulls an Okada-level dropkick. Oka still wins via Boston crab but Yagi is really growing on me and I’m looking forward to seeing how he develops. **
Hirai Kawato vs. Katsuya Kitamura – Young Lion Cup
These two are already total crowd favorites in Korakuen so the match is a lot more heated than the previous two. They work a short but smart match around Kitamura’s size advantage, Big K coming off as a convincing monster bro and Kawato popping the crowd with his fiery comebacks. They work a cool Triangle hold spot that Kitamura counters with a massive Powerbomb, and then he counters a small package attempt by deadlifting Kawato into the JACKHAMMER for the pin. Very cool finish. I’ve said it before, but these two are ready for their excursion, or whatever comes next. **1/4
Jushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask, KUSHIDA & Masked Horse vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Taichi, El Desperado & TAKA Michinoku
Way better than the lackluster junior match from yesterday. Everyone’s a lot more fired up and works a straight sprint without any heel shenanigans from Suzuki-Gun. You’ve got some fun comedy with Taguchi as Masked Horse, Liger getting pissed at Abe Miho (Taichi’s valet) and KUSHIDA pulling off an awesome Japanese leg-roll clutch/German suplex combo on two Suzuki-Gun members. Liger hits a big Superplex and Tiger Mask brings out the top-rope double-arm suplex, not to be outdone by his masked buddy. Taguchi picks up the win for Team Sekigun with the Boma Ye hip attack on TAKA. Fun stuff. **1/2
Togi Makabe & Henare vs. Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano
This match is all about Henare stepping up and bringing the fight to the Stone Pitbull and I LOVE IT. Early on, Henare uses the classic old Toshiaki Kawada trope of taking shots at Ishii on the apron every chance he gets, which just infuriates Ishii and builds up to one inevitable conclusion: PURE VIOLENCE. Ishii unloads on the young lion with forearms, chops and a flurry of Backdrops but Henare responds in kind by SLAPPING the be-jeezus out of him. Mother of God. This obviously ticks off Ishii to no end, so he brings out the THROAT CHOPS and we gradually move on to the semi-protected headbutts to the face (we do a live in a post-Katsuyori Shibata brain injury universe, after all) as the crowd gets waaaaay into Henare’s crazy ass display of courage. Henare kicks out of a massive lariat to a huge pop but ultimately falls to Ishii’s Brainbuster. HENARE, you guys! I enjoyed all of this wrestling. ***
Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi vs. EVIL & SANADA
EVIL and SANADA come out with their World Tag League trophies to remind us that they are the saviors of New Japan tag-team wrestling. They have a completely solid match with the Bullet Club duo, everyone playing their role effectively. EVIL takes the heel beatdown, SANADA gets the hot tag, there’s some fun near-falls and fast-paced LIJ double-team action. I really dig the chemistry between Fale and EVIL. They do an awesome spot where EVIL lariats the giant over the ropes, Fale doing the full rotation bump and everything. This sets up the Magic Killer on Yujiro and LIJ keep marching on towards the tag belts. **3/4
Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima & Kota Ibushi vs. Tama Tonga, Tonga Loa & Leo Tonga
Kota Ibushi makes any random multiman tag match better, and this match is the ultimate proof. He has a bunch of fun exchanges with Tama, busts out the Triangle Quebrada and keeps having this weirdly compelling chemistry with Leo Tonga. Hopefully he sticks to a more full-time-ish schedule after Wrestle Kingdom because New Japan undercards always benefit from his presence. The other guys did good too: Tama looked way more inspired than in the 6-man tag title match from yesterday and Kojima turned his corner machinegun chops into a hilarious comedy spot. Ibushi survives a KILLER BIG BOI DROPKICK from Leo Tonga and puts him away with a snappy high kick followed by the Kamigoye. Super efficient midcard wrestling. **3/4
Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI vs. Minoru Suzuki & Takashi Iizuka
Considering the long stretches of Takashi Iizuka biting-based wrestling, this is about as good as it could ever be. Suzuki-Gun are in full heel-mode: relentless crowd brawling, outside interference, Suzuki smashing Goto’s head against Korakuen Hall’s Western panel way up in the crowd. The enigmatic human troll known as YOSHI-HASHI, for all of his faults, plays a good babyface in peril and is particularly proficient at selling Iizuka’s biting onslaughts like DEATH. Like all of the previous lead-in tag matches, Minoru/Goto end up taking center stage and this time around they take things up a notch with a BRUTAL never-ending forearm exchange. Some absolutely disgusting thuds, worthy of the Shibata/Ishii glory days of the NEVER title. Both guys’ selling is on point and they do a great job making their confrontation seem like an exhausting, all-out war. Goto somehow survives Suzuki’s sleeper and catches him off guard with reverse GTR. He then has him in perfect position for a cross armbreaker, but Suzuki-Gun jump in and the match is thrown out. Post-match, Suzuki calls off his goons and declares that the Wrestle Kingdom match will now be a NO-SECONDS Hair vs. Hair death-match! I think we’re on to something, guys. ***
Before we can move on to the main event, ‘’GO ACE’’ starts bursting from the speakers and out comes… CURLY TANAHASHI! Ladies and gentlemen, the Ace of the Universe got a PERM. We’re not worthy of this man and his truly wild hair experiments. Tanahashi’s walking with a visible limp, really selling the whole knee injury thing. He cuts a big-time promo and reassures the crowd he’ll still make it to the Tokyo Dome. BUT THEN OUT COMES JAY WHITE! They quickly come to blows and White uses Tana’s own dragon screw against him to further hurt his bad knee and then spikes him with the Blade Runner. Big time heel heat. All of this worked a lot better than their first angle at Power Struggle.
Kazuchika Okada, SHO & YOH vs. Tetsuya Naito, Hiromu Takahashi & BUSHI
Last Okada/Naito lead-in tag match before the Dome, and it’s another good one. After a rapid-fire opening from the two Wrestle Kingdom headliners where they make each other taste the guardrail, LIJ go to work on YOH and cut the ring in half. Hiromu and BUSHI love chopping this little guy’s chest to absolute shreds, and this match is no exception. SHO once again comes off as a total superstar during his hot tag run of offense, prompting Milano to shout: ‘’IT’S SHO TIME!’’ a whole lot. Him and Hiromu work really well and I’m already salivating at the prospect of a BOSJ match between the two. YOH actually doesn’t do half bad either as he gets a lot of ring time with Naito and pulls off some cool stuff like a spinning elbow smash and a big Falcon Arrow. The counters start coming in fast and furious for the finish: everyone here has unreal chemistry. Amazing visual for the ending: BUSHI holds back a screaming Okada at ring-side while Naito points at him and obliterates YOH with the Destino. The post-match angle is pretty much an inversion of the previous day, this time Naito getting the rub and leaving Okada’s corpse behind. MY BODY IS READY! ***1/4
Better show than the previous night at Korakuen, with everything ranging from solid to pretty darn good. The two big Wrestle Kingdom preview matches delivered the goods and the angle with Tanahashi and White was awesome. A fine way for New Japan to end the year (if we’re not counting Lion’s Gate Project, as they still have one show left) and get the good people psyched for the Tokyo Dome.
