Spoke too soon last week – the JR and Barnett soundbites are back in the intro. Damn you, Mark Cuban. Damn you.
1. Tetsuya Naito, EVIL, SANADA, Hiromu Takahashi & BUSHI vs. Minoru Suzuki, Davey Boy Smith Jr., Lance Archer, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & El Desperado (JIP)
This is just the last minute or so with some decent action from T-Shirt Naito & Friends.
A masked man attacks Tetsuya Naito after the match and by god it is CHRIS JERICHO. Jericho as a crazy man knocking anyone in his path on their ass, a new age Stan Hansen with black lipstick, is some wild stuff. He busts poor Naito open and and we’re off to Dominion. This man is NOT the same Chris Jericho that Jim Ross knows.
The sight of Naito covered in blood still trying to play it cool as he’s interviewed is something else.
2. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title: Will Ospreay [c] vs. KUSHIDA
Bill Ospreay might have finally won me over, that son of a bitch. The purple dye job being gone might help more than anything, but he has successfully built-in the real possibility that his body is breaking down into is matches. Is it legit? Is it not? I don’t know and I kinda like it.
This is special stuff – crisp high-end rope-running, big moves, a STORY, intense dramatic hands being thrown towards the end, everything performed perfectly and having some sort of weird-ass logic to it. A Canadian Destroyer DDT?? SURE. WHY NOT. KUSHIDA goes after poor Bill’s neck for most of the match and keeps going back to it and in between it all of it these guys are just blowing minds.
I like that Bill is also this annoying guy where nobody understands why he is as successful as he is – first Marty, and now KUSHIDA just has to stomp him into oblivion to try and put him away, and he still can’t do it. This match also features one of the best springboard hurricanrana’s I have ever seen in my entire life. Not even sure what to say about the double tilt-a-whirl FACEBUSTER (!?) but it was wild, as was the Ospreay Cutter into Hoverboard Lock. Bill pulls out another one and I am sold on the impressive professional wrestling. ****
Tama Tonga appears and cuts a very bad promo to re-introduce Bone Soldier, who reveals himself as TAIJI ISHIMORI. Oh Helllll Yeah.
