Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens vs. Shota Umino & Ren Narita
Umino and Narita as the young lion Rock n’ Roll Express is my favorite thing. Little Ren is great at taking an ass kicking and Shota was born to receive a hot tag and clean house. Truly a perfect combination. Meanwhile, Yujiro and Chase are the ideal undercard goons to get these kids over. Fast-paced and efficient tag wrestling. Yujiro apologizing to the girl in the front row for slamming a young lion on top of her was a tender moment. **3/4
Juice Robinson, Michael Elgin, David Finlay & Ayato Yoshida vs. Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa & Taiji Ishimori
Is Ishimori bolstering the Firing Squad or is he tainted by getting stuck with them? That is the million dollar question, my friends. This was a fun multiman sprint where everyone got over easily. I hope TAKA keeps pulling whatever strings he’s pulling because I’m liking this Ayato Yoshida kid. Good addition to the undercard with Oka/Kawato out on excursion and Kitamura disappearing from the face of the Earth. And the crowd digs him too – big pop for his PK. **3/4
Beretta vs. Toa Henare
I keep saying this, but I need more of these midcard singles matches on the Road To shows. Refreshing change of pace from all the multiman tag matches and good opportunity to showcase your low-tier guys. And yeah, this one totally worked. Beretta worked this like a guy coming back from injury with something to prove – there was a slight dickishness to his offense that lit a great big babyface fire under Henare’s ass and the crowd was there for it.
Both guys’ strengths were clearly highlighted: Beretta the veteran with a speed and technique advantage, Henare the never-say-die youngster that will absorb a lot of punishment and then surprise you with a big ol’ Samoan drop. Shoutout to Trent’s nasty-as-hell flying foot stomp over the guardrail, and shoutout to Big Daddy Harold Meij who brought his buddies to watch some wrasslin’ at Korakuen near the entrance. Fun stuff. ***1/4
Hirooki Goto & Gedo vs. Taichi & TAKA Michinoku
Taichi flipping off Harold during this entrance – this man just gets wrestling on a primary level. Half of this match was about the heels trying to impair Gedo’s vision permanently by eye raking the shit out of him. Yet the crowd stayed red hot for all of it. God bless Korakuen Hall. Dangerous T busting out the Kawada-style Ganmengiri, the CHAOS Zanmai pose, Gedo cursing up a storm – it all worked on a fun, inessential midcard level. **1/2
Tetsuya Naito, EVIL, SANADA & BUSHI vs. Minoru Suzuki, Takashi Iizuka, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & El Desperado
Going right back to Naito/Suzuki after the disappointing match they had earlier this year seems unwise, but at the same time Gedo has to do something with Naito on this tour, and I guess this is it. This was the usual LIJ/Suzuki-Gun tag match: Naito getting destroyed by Suzuki, Iizuka biting people a lot, SANADA/EVIL getting the hot tag and cleaning house. The good news is that the crowd is still fully invested into this story. I’m having trouble getting back into it, unfortunately. **1/2
Hiroshi Tanahashi, Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma vs. Kazuchika Okada, YOSHI-HASHI & Toru Yano
My theory that Tana’s been binging old-school Lucha was confirmed in this match via that opening flying headscissors spot on Okada. It makes a lot of sense that he would look at Mexico for inspiration considering how many old guys still thrive over there. I enjoyed this match a lot, but the layout was a little weird. The whole thing peaked when Tana and Okada had a rocking mini-match together, showing off their bulletproof chemistry, but then they had to revert back to Honma/Yano for the finish and it obviously paled in comparison. A good time was still had and I legit LOL’ed at Okada attempting the Kokeshi. This guy just gets my sense of humor. ***
Kenny Omega & Kota Ibushi vs. Tomohiro Ishii & Will Ospreay
I believe this is the kind of tag-team action NJPW newbies are expecting when they watch the World Tag League for the first time, unaware of the hours of Yujiro house show wrestling mediocrity they are about to witness. What I’m saying is that this match was the mind-melting G1 Climax level tag-team grandiosity that’s (mostly) missing from NJPW all year long. And while I’m nitpicking New Japan booking, the Golden Lovers should have been having matches like this all year instead of feuding with Cody and Hangman Page for god damn eternity.
Lotta stuff going on in this match, but the two main plot threads where Kenny/Ishii beating the absolute fuck out of each other to heat up their upcoming title match, and Ibushi/Ospreay stoking the flames of their would-be Internet Dream Rivalry by out-flipping each other in all kinds of batshit ways. Both stories were as compelling as it gets and all four guys brought their A game, blowing the roof off Korakuen. I also need to mention that Ospreay not having a stupid hair color goes a long way in making me take him more seriously.
Kenny and Ibushi obviously gel perfectly as a tag-team, but Ishii and Will’s chemistry was down right shocking at times. Ospreay flipping off Ishii’s back, or him setting up the sliding lariat at lightning speed were just a few great moments that made me think these guys should be teaming up all the time. As weird as that sounds. The complexity of some of the stuff they were doing near the end was just on another level, and they somehow managed to execute everything to near perfection.
Kenny flying out of nowhere with a V-Trigger on the apron, the perfectly-timed Cross Slash, Ospreay somehow flipping out of the Golden Lovers Powerbomb/German suplex – my god. They also did a great job putting together all sorts of dramatic 2.999 saves instead of just kicking out of everything and it contributed massively to the insane crowd atmosphere. The kind of match you want to rewatch as soon as it’s over. Incredible stuff. ****1/2
