Seeing all of these empty seats in Korakuen Hall is the weirdest thing. Maybe New Japan went a little overboard by booking 28 Korakuen shows for the Dontaku tour.
Tetsuhiro Yagi vs. Yuya Uemura
Look. I love Umino and Kawato as much as everyone else, but the more I see of Yagi, the more I think this guy is our next Ace. Tall, handsome, technically-sound, great dropkick. Reminds you of anyone? This was my first time seeing Uemura as I missed his Lion’s Gate debut but I have a feeling I’m gonna like this kid as he already has pretty great facial expressions. The match itself went a little too long and nothing was clicking as much as that recent Yagi/Narita match that lit up Twitter, but it worked fine as an opener and that Boston crab finish looked brutal. **
Manabu Nakanishi vs. Tomoyuki Oka
I dug the hell out of this match. Grumpy Manabu beating the crap out of Oka, Oka selling and bumping his ass off. Super simple stuff, but sometimes that’s all you need. Old man Nakanishi seemed more focused and vicious than usual too. Him chopping down Oka on the floor and Oka somehow managing a freaking belly to belly suplex later on were all highlights. **1/2
Togi Makabe, Ryusuke Taguchi & Ren Narita vs. Yuji Nagata, Tiger Mask & Shota Umino
This was all about New Japan’s weirdo midcard fan-favorite characters cutting loose and working a fun sprint. Makabe, the chain-wielding gorilla bruiser/lovable TV personality. Taguchi, the ass-obsessed comedy goofball. Nagata, the disgraced former ace turned cranky dojo trainer. Tiger Mask, the legacy cartoon character turned lazy bum veteran. THE YOUNG LIONS. Love this company. **1/2
Rocky Romero, SHO & YOH vs. Taichi, Takashi Iizuka & TAKA Michinoku
Taichi getting top billing ahead of Iizuka brings a god damn tear to my eye. The DANGEROUS T ERA truly is upon us. This one look a while to get going as the heel beatdown on YOH wasn’t exactly lighting the world on fire, but things started cooking once Rocky got the hot tag and began working the crowd like crazy. Liked Taichi laughing off Rocky’s chops and then spin kicking him to death. Fine match but too much Iizuka. **1/4
Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Toa Henare vs. Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano
Henare and Ishii are destined to face off on every single New Japan Pro-Wrestling undercard in 2018. Imagine Gedo pitching this to young Henare: ‘’HEY BRO, HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT WRESTLING ISHII FOR AN ENTIRE YEAR?’’. Ishii came out with his new RevPro belt, which highlights the hilarious contrast between the booking of Ishii in Japan vs. outside Japan. He’s thrown into all of these big Indie Dream Matches whenever he works American/European promotions but has been feuding with Henare and teaming with Toru Yano all year long in NJPW. Again, the Ishii/Henare stuff was rad and Henare is well on his way to becoming a MAN’S MAN. **3/4
The BONE SOLDIER RETURN VIDEO playing to a complete non-reaction from the crowd = MAGIC.
EVIl, SANADA, BUSHI & Hiromu Takahashi vs. Lance Archer, Davey Boy Smith Jr, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & El Desperado
On one level, this was a fairly by-the-book multiman tag lead-in for both upcoming IWGP junior and heavyweight tag title matche. On another level: a LOT of bonkers shit happened. Lance Archer, who the announcer referred to as both the AMERICAN PSYCHO SPRINKLER and MR. MOISTURE (!), tried to scare TWO babies and was no-sold by BOTH. Incredible. I must also point out that SANADA bleached his chin beard to match it with his hair. That’s just pure commitment. Speaking of which, El Desperado pulled the most heelish spot ever in this match by RUINING SANADA’s hairstyle during the heel beatdown. Some real villainous shit. BUSHI kicking out of the Deep Impact and sneaking away with the win off a flash rollup was totally unexpected and bumps this into three star territory. ***
Kazuchika Okada, Hirooki Goto, Jay White, YOSHI-HASHI & Will Ospreay vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Michael Elgin, Juice Robinson, David Finlay & KUSHIDA – Special Elimination Match
A super-efficient mix of comedy brilliance and action-packed over-the-top elimination fun that doubled down as perfect lead-in for all of the upcoming CHAOS vs. Sekigun title matches. Lots of hilarious spots: Okada pointing at all the empty seats during his entrance and looking puzzled, Captain Tanahashi stealing Taguchi’s coaching spots and adding air guitar bits and BEST OF ALL: Jay White refusing to join-in on the CHAOS ZANMAI POSE, complete with the most amazing look of shock on Okada’s face during the whole bit (GIVE THE RAINMAKER AN OSCAR ALREADY).
Then you had a cool sequence with Tana wiping out all of CHAOS to show he can still hang with the youngins, KUSHIDA and William Ospreay ripping it up (holy shit @ KUSHIDA’s mid-air cross armbreaker counter to Bill’s springboard forearm) and a really good finale between Switchblade and Finlay that fully sold me on their upcoming title match. Not that I needed to be sold considering Finlay seems to be only guy on the roster capable of having good singles matches with Jay. Finlay can be cringey as all hell (THAT ENTRANCE) but I totally dug his post-match promo. Also, Proud Dad Tana looking so genuinely happy for David’s big win was adorable. ***1/4
Welp. The half-empty Korakuen Hall told the whole story here. Outside of the crazy-fun main event, this card was a little uninspired. Nothing down right bad, but I’ve seen a lot of better Korakuen shows.
