My alarm is currently set for 6 AM so I can watch Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada live with my buddy Jason. Our love of Japanese wrestling transcends time and space. But before we get there, I must catch up on the big title matches (and ISHII/HENARE!) from the Dontaku tour.
Yoshinobu Kanemaru & El Desperado © vs. BUSHI & Hiromu Takahashi – IWGP Jr Tag-Team Title (4/23/2018)
Tag-team wrestling is a great thing when done right. This was tag-team wrestling done right. Completely old school, bulletproof Southern tag structure with Kanemaru and Despy playing total dirtbag heels and Hiromu being an amazing babyface. Two great moments that stood out from the champs’ heel rampage: Taichi popping up from the commentary table to assist his boys with a chairshot (bless his heart) and Kanemaru busting out his crazy guardrail-jumping legdrop. That thing brought a green-colored tear to my eye. (#RIPMisawa)
The big hot tag moment was awesome, BUSHI cleaning house with all sorts of cool shit like a whacked-out double Frankensteiner spot. Hiromu then absolutely lit up the crowd with TWO consecutive flying dropkicks off the apron and then a crazy-ass diving senton attack dive off the top-rope. The guy is ridiculously over at this point and the crowd wants him to win SO bad. Hopefully the shitty year he’s having is all leading up to a massive BOSJ win. Despy and Hiromu got sucked into a long Fighting Spirit forearm exchange, which I felt was a weird choice for this match and kind of killed the crowd for a moment. Finally, the ending sequence had all of the screwy shit possible (whisky, black mist, ref bump, belt usage), but all done in a weirdly fun and compelling way. A real good time. ***1/2
Tomohiro Ishii vs. Toa Henare (4/24/2018)
This one has been a long time coming. Henare’s been binge-watching all of the Ishii/Shibata matches, thinking to himself ‘’YES, THIS IS WHAT I WANT TO DO’’, and here Ishii is like ‘’Nah bruh’’, as he proceeds to keep him in a headlock forever and then just beats the shit out of him with soccer kicks and throat chops. Friends, hear me out: this match was GREAT. I love the modernization of New Japan as much as the next guy, but with Shibata out of action, I often find myself craving the old-school, no non-sense NJPW of the past. Here, Ishii and Henare put together the perfect match for grumpy fucks like me.
Ishii was in full-on disciplinarian mode, just laying into Henare and making him struggle every step of the way. The crowd was pretty quiet early on, but through the sheer power of hierarchy-based story-telling, fighting spirit and STIFF LARIATS, they were all chanting for Henare by the end of the match like he was the second coming of Kensuke Sasaki. To me, that is the very essence of Japanese wrestling and these guys tapped into it beautifully. Henare standing up to Ishii and blasting him with slaps and headbutts made him look like the next gaijin ace. His performance was that good. Eat your heart out, Switchblade.
The match went the exact right amount of time, accomplished everything it set out to and got me deeply invested in the Ishii/Henare story. Cannot wait for the next singles match between them. Fuck it, I am giving a Henare match four stars. ****
Jay White © vs. David Finlay – IWGP US Heavyweight Title (4/24/2018)
Considering both of these guys have no business going 30 minutes at this stage of their careers, this was pretty solid. A lot of the cool shit they did was diluted by the absurd match length, but a lot of it worked well and the crowd was hooked for the most part. Some of the early parts of the match felt a little flat until Jay brought his young lion history with Finlay to the forefront and started treating him like shit, murdering him with Backdrops and trying to tap him via Boston crab while shouting ‘’REMEMBER THIS, FINLAY?’’. Jay still has a long way to go, but the kid does have a lot of good ideas.
There was a weird sequence where Jay kept being out of position for SOMETHING and I started getting PTSD flashbacks to that cringe-fest with Hangman Page, but this time around both guys pulled through and worked a really fun finish, the highlight being a super effective classic NJPW Fighting Spirit strike exchange culminating in an IN-SANE hairpull lariat from Jay. Finlay also dug deep and pulled out some new Roderick Strong-esque Indie Death Moves that had the crowd going wild in the last few minutes. Their February match was more compact, but this one was more inspired. I think the key for them would be to go 20 minutes max, but still, I’m seeing progress from both guys. ***1/2
Hirooki Goto © vs. Juice Robinson –NEVER Openweight Title (4/27/2018)
This was Flamboyant Juice Robinson and Samurai Mullet Hirooki Goto working a high-end NJPW main event match with all the bells and whistles and delivering on all fronts. The red hot crowd (50/50 into both guys right off the bat) definitely helped but both dudes really went all out. Limb work, big-time selling, epic counters and nuclear near-falls: this baby had it all. I expected Goto’s neck work to be early-match-filler but much to my amazement, the match seriously kicked into high gear when Goto started going back to the injured neck to open up the third act, drilling Juice with Backdrops, softening him up for the Ushigoroshi and GTR.
Big props to Juice for the top notch neck selling, which made everything even more satisfying when Goto went back to the injury late in the match. The guy has an amazing connection with the Japanese fans and these people really wanted him to win by the end of this thing. Both guys played off their previous encounters brilliantly: tons of counters, callbacks and great 2.9999 near-falls leading up to the actual finish. I must mention Juice’s BEYOND DEADLY Brainbuster/Codebreaker combo that had Liger absolutely LOSE HIS SHIT on commentary, as well as the mind-blowing SHOTEN KAI near-fall where Juice got splattered into a million pieces.
Even if Juice lost again, he keeps getting elevated via great performances and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him pick up some big scalps during this year’s G1. Uber-satisfying match. ****
