Yota Tsuji vs. Yuya Uemura
They sort of worked the same match as yesterday: a young lion draw with Tsuji going after Uemura’s knee and pulling out the same brutal leglock. The only new thing here was Uemura getting in a brilliant run of flash rollups where the crowd fully bought into his fiery YOUNG LION DESPERATION, as did I. **1/4
Yujiro Takahashi & Taiji Ishimori vs. Shota Umino & Ren Narita
What the fuck? The ‘’Road to’’ undercards can often be a chore to sit through, but once in a while an understated little gem will pop up and this was one of those. Narita having unexplainable beef with Taiji really set a fire under all four guys and everyone decided to work super stiff and bring loads of hatred to the table. Shota and Narita are a really fun team: look at them hitting a hiptoss into running low dropkick combo like they’re auditioning to join LIJ. I was totally dialed into the last few minutes of Shota getting to kick out of Yujiro spots and tossing out the desperation rollups left and right. Just a really tight wrestling match with everyone playing their role well and going beyond the house show formula. ***
Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Tomoyuki Oka vs. Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi
Tenzan/Manabu is the most decrepit pairing in 2018 New Japan. Their exchanges are approaching Haruka Eigen-levels of geriatric banality. I don’t know what was going on with Manabu begging off from the Mongolian chops but it was pretty hilarious. Meanwhile young bruiser Oka got in a lot of offense on Nagata and it was all good stuff. When’s the Oka excursion? **1/4
Togi Makabe, David Finlay, Toa Henare & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Toru Yano, YOSHI-HASHI, SHO & YOH
This totally did the job. Taguchi Japan butt comedy shenanigans, Toru Yano antics with Makabe and Finlay matching up well with SHO were highlights. The pace was brisk and everyone got a chance to get their shit in. **1/2
Tetsuya Naito, EVIL, SANADA & BUSHI vs. Takashi Iizuka, Taichi, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & TAKA Michinoku
As I mentioned on Twitter, Naito deserves to win the G1 again after fist bumping the nervous little kid during his entrance. As for the match, it took forever to get going as the Suzuki-Gun beatdown dragged on and on, but once the hot tag was made, the EVIL/Taichi pairing turned out to be a minor revelation. Would love to see a singles match between the two and it’s a real bummer it won’t happen in the G1 this year. The post-match bit with SANADA ominously walking away from Naito’s fist bump to foreshadow their G1 meeting was great stuff. **1/2
Kazuchika Okada, Hirooki Goto, Jay White, Tomohiro Ishii & Gedo vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Juice Robinson, Michael Elgin, Jeff Cobb & KUSHIDA
Lotta’ stuff to like in this one. Switchblade following up his scuffle with Juice from yesterday by going into this one in full Troll Mode was tremendous and exactly the kind of insufferable heeling he should be doing to get over. Okada, again looking completely lost after the Dominion defeat, is a fascinating thing to watch. He’s selling it hard: no Rainmaker poses, complete lack of swagger. The dude is BUMMED. Elgin and Cobb both kicked things up a notch, popping the crowd like crazy with their wild power moves. Milano giggling uncontrollably when Cobb tossed Okada like a rag doll was everything. KUSHIDA and Gedo work so smoothly together that I’m secretly craving one last BOSJ run from Gedo next year. Fun for the whole family. ***1/4
White and Juice knocked it out of the park with the post-match angle and I am now fully sold on their upcoming US title match. Jay’s character work was on another level here, beating up the young lions, breaking Juice’s fingers with a chair and laughing it off like a complete psycho. Jay getting increasingly unstable coinciding with Okada’s slope is no coincidence and you can bet it’s all coming to a head at the G1.
Hiromu Takahashi © vs. El Desperado – IWGP Jr Heavyweight Title
These guys had a great match during the BOSJ and this was the James Cameron sequel with everything cranked up to 11. A total car crash ECW/FMW hate-filled brawl with great selling and intensity. Also, a very welcome change of pace from the usual NJPW main event with both guys completely skipping over the slow build portion.
There is some weirdly-romantic punk rock tension between Hiromu and Despy, going all the way back to their young lion days and the opening of this match is the perfect distillation of that relationship. Hiromu coming out with a guitar case and opening it to reveal a bouquet of DEAD FLOWERS, Despy grinning from ear to hear under his terrifying open-mouth mask. Was this all an elaborate Rolling Stones reference? I don’t know but it made for an incredible visual.
Despy went above and beyond with the heeling in this one, trying every single trick in the book to take out Hiromu: exposed turnbuckles, ref bumps, chairs, even a Kanemaru run-in. I saw a lot of complaints regarding overbooking when reading the initial reactions to the match, but I thought it all fit with what these guys were going for. The exposed turnbuckle payoff were especially amazing: Despy countering the D by dumping Hiromu HEAD FIRST into it and Hiromu getting revenge later on with an overhead suplex. Big shoutout to El Desperado’s genius selling in this match. The guy sold the Sunset Bomb and aforementioned overhead suplex like he took a freaking shotgun blast to the back.
The uber-dramatic forearm exchange with both guys covered in flower petals was straight out of a Shonen anime. And it was such a New Japan thing to do! Even in a match with a guitar case being used as a weapon, an unmasking shocker and all sorts of death spots: it always comes down to one guy trying to best his opponent with some god damn forearm strikes.
At this point, I think it’s safe to say that NJPW has found their new Jushin Thunder Liger with Hiromu. An exciting junior superworker and larger than life character that can match the big boys in the heavyweight division in terms of pure workrate. ****1/4
