There were some things I missed this year by relying mostly on AXS TV for my New Japan fix, so join on an adventure as I explore those things.
Tip of the hat to Captain Lou – his reviews helped form this list.
IWGP Tag Team Title: EVIL & SANADA [c] vs. Kazuchika Okada & Hirooki Goto (2/6/18)
I Support Native Tag Team Title Matches. And if this match is any indication New Japan should be doing a lot more of them. Hirooki Goto taking heat, as exemplified a month before this vs. Minoru Suzuki = good. SANADA out-wrestling Okada en route to their IWGP Title match was very cool too. And it all built to a hot all over the place finish with Korakuen going batty. ****
Best of the Super Jr. – Block A: Will Ospreay vs. Taiji Ishimori (5/18/18)
Korakuen reacting to spectacular flying remains a treasure, but this had too much wimpy striking and Bill over-selling to completely work for me. There’s some real cool stuff here but the in-between is where it comes together and the in-between was lacking. ***1/4
Best of the Super Jr. – Block B: Hiromu Takahashi vs. El Desperado (5/22/18)
Ohhhh THIS is the match. Half ECW brawl, half NJPW juniors match, all El Desperado showing up and being Hiromu Takahashi’s nightmare. Hiromu’s John Woo dropkick in the crowd was beautiful, Despy snapping on Hiromu for fucking with him was transcendent.
Most of this is Desperado kicking Hiromu’s ass both in the crowd and the ring and it is awesome. Desperado is throwing Hiromu into rows upon rows of cheers, crushing a beer can over his head, and pushing young boys around when they get in his way. His run of offense is so good that HIROMU feels like a step down when it’s his turn. Hiromu remains a dynamic interesting performer though and a Desperado elbow drop prompts an all-time great facial expression from him. They lost a little steam in the middle but quickly brought it back with a frantic finish and huge near falls. Incredible, chaotic wrestling. ****1/4
Best of the Super Jr. – Block B: KUSHIDA vs. SHO (5/27/18)
This is single-cam house show footage with no commentary – it is pure and it is wonderful. It is 75% MATWORK. And you hear every single uproarious clap for said matwork. It is beautiful and makes a case for dropping Kevin Kelly, Milano Collection AT, and whoever else wants to talk over this blissful pro wrestling.
KUSHIDA eventually starts teeing off on SHO’s arm, SHO on KUSHIDA’s leg. Everything is under-stated and credible and awesome. SHO has the audacity to run the ropes for the first time late in the match and KUSHIDA clobbers him with a handspring. There’s a fun subplot of SHO being a big strong boy too, highlighted by a TRIPLE POWERBOMB. Wonderful wrestling. ****
Best of the Super Jr. – Block B: Hiromu Takahashi vs. SHO (6/2/18)
This was, like the last match, a single-cam house show with no commentary and really shows the versatility of young SHO as instead of some UWFi tribute this had him flying and countering all over the place with Hiromu and just flipping out a gymnasium of people. They hit all their good stuff and strung it together so well. This style can kind of run together but it as a hell of a match, and I was a big fan of SHO passing out in a triangle choke as the finish. ***3/4
Best of the Super Jr. – Block B: Hiromu Takahashi vs. KUSHIDA (6/3/18)
After stocking up on the Hiromu Takahashi I missed this year, my verdict is this – he’s a bit like Nakamura, in that he can struggle sometimes in the middle of his matches but gets a pass due to his charisma and how insane his start and finishes are. This is a good match between two guys who match up well together. It has a REALLY long lock-up at the start, but it also has a freakish somersault senton by KUSHIDA and freakish strength by Hiromu when he counters a handspring with a deadlift German suplex. After a wild finish Hiromu wins AGAIN with a triangle choke finish. ***1/2
IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title: Hiromu Takahashi [c] vs. El Desperado (6/18/18)
It is a beautiful thing when two wrestlers find out they were made for each other. They banter with bouquets of flowers and guitar cases early, then get to what we came for: BRAWL!!! And crazy shit. All indy of crazy shit. And Despy crazily dominating Hiromu, being this masked psychopath hell bent on beating a guy he knows he can beat. Also, big manly strike battles.
This is a good NJPW juniors match with some serious mustard on everything, and the Kanemaru and BUSHI run-ins added to the chaos. The finish was dramatic too with great teases of Desperado winning, including a wild cradle near fall. Their first match had more novelty and was less drawn out, but this was still great. Long live Desperado. ***3/4
G1 Climax – Block B: Tomohiro Ishii vs. SANADA (8/11/18)
Ishii was the G1 MVP and I love it when SANADA gets a fire lit under his ass, so this was great. They had a couple issues with Ishii taking some of SANADA’s more complicated offense, otherwise – whoa, dude. SANADA catches Ishii with a hurricanrana here that iconic in how flawless it is. And as promised, a completely nutty finish. ****
Kenny Omega & Kota Ibushi vs. Tomohiro Ishii & Will Ospreay (9/7/18)
A match of amazing pairings. Ibushi vs. Ospreay was amazing, as promised. Ishii vs. Omega was amazing, as promised. Ishii gets beat up a bit, and then Omega vs. Ospreay is amazing, as promised. I mean Ospreay is just a freak of a wrestler here and fits right in with the heavyweight boys. I wish we got more Ishii vs. Ibushi, but this was more about heating up Ishii on Kenny and it did a great job at that too. Very fun tag team wrestling from four freakish wrestlers. ***3/4
NEVER Openweight Title #1 Contender Match: Will Ospreay vs. Taichi (12/9/18)
This is a match that is reliant on Ospreay selling for 90% of it and that’s a little goofy for me. I buy a LOT of weird stuff in the confinements of a wrestling context but this is challenging for me and I can’t even imagine how his overdone grunts and breathing comes off to someone unfamiliar with the fact that sometimes you have to really really suspend your disbelief for this stuff to work.
Since it’s 90% Ospreay selling, it is also a match with a whole lot of Taichi offensive maneuvers. And I like Taichi but that’s not going to do it for me either.
Still though, they do tell a solid story and the cut-offs are well done. The sequence with Ospreay rallying and going for a Shooting Star Press > Taichi putting his knees up > Ospreay escaping a powerbomb > Taichi catching the OsCutter > Ospreay escaping another powerbomb and hitting his spin kick thing was awesome. And Taichi eventually hitting the big powerbomb creates a tremendous near fall. Very good match that could’ve been way better if Taichi was more interesting on offense and Bill’s screams of pain weren’t so squeaky. ***1/2
NEVER Openweight Title: Hirooki Goto [c] vs. Kota Ibushi (12/9/18)
This was a good physical match, though it didn’t really feel like it was going anywhere until the very end. Ibushi remains spectacular and Goto remains an enigma capable of amazing matches when you least expect it but also just OK matches with top-tier talent. I loved the last few minutes, which eventually became both guys just throwing bombs at each other until one fell. ***1/4
World Tag League – Final: EVIL & SANADA vs. Guerillas of Destiny (12/9/18)
Man, the Guerillas of Destiny suck. I’m sure they’re cool brothers in the back but this was a 20-minute slog that only got interesting the last few minutes. Those few minutes were hot, but Haku’s boys are just black holes of wrestling, especially when trying to do this big tournament final match. They ain’t no Bart Gunn and Jungle Jim Steele, that’s for sure. **1/2
Shingo Takagi vs. Shota Umino (12/14/18)
This ruled and I’m so glad I watched it. Shingo has his first singles match in New Japan with rookie Umino and once they find their grove it is phenomenal. Shingo will hit hard but Umino’s dazed selling put this way over the top. His eventual dropkick to fight back is a great moment. They did a wild sequence with Shingo just clobbering poor Umino with elbows, Umino fighting back with slaps but running into a lariat, Umino kicking out at 2, ducking another lariat, and hitting a German suplex hold for a near fall. Umino kicks out of a few more things (including a straight right hand and lariat) before he finally falls to the Last Falconry. Glorious young lion wrestling. ***1/2
Kazuchika Okada vs. Gedo (12/14/18)
The prospect of this was exciting but not sure I needed a drawn-out Gedo beatdown of Kazuchika Okada. These dudes tried to have an actual match complete with a Gedo clutch near fall and it was weird. Switchblade interfered but Okada still ended his old pal with the Rainmaker. Memphis Gedo is always better on paper than in reality. *3/4
Kenny Omega & Kota Ibushi vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Will Ospreay (12/15/18)
This match is bound to be remembered for that all-timer close-up camera shot of Ibushi coming to the realization that Bill Ospreay had just landed on his feet off a top rope frankensteiner, but it’s a tremendous match beyond that too. Ibushi and Omega and Tanahashi bring it but are like, let’s maybe chill out until the Dome. Bill Ospreay meanwhile is like – WE’RE AT THE DOME, RIGHT? He takes a shotgun bump into the post, does a sunset flip powerbomb to Kenny that lands on Ibushi, nearly breaks Kenny’s jaw with a nasty Stunner, and is throwing some of the hardest kicks he’s ever thrown – this man is ready to graduate a weight class.
The double Spanish Fly to the Golden Lovers was some dumb but awesome shit, and the finish was madness – HUGE near fall saves from Ospreay covering Kenny with a perfect Shooting Star Press, insane hurricanrana, and a straitjacket suplex that was setup by Ibushi mistakenly kicking Kenny. Big time action, big time fun, nothing deep but a total trip of a match. ****1/4
BONUS: Shinsuke Nakamura & Kazuchika Okada vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Tetsuya Naito (12/23/13)
We now travel back to the Road to Tokyo Dome five years ago – same Korakuen Hall, a younger and more spry Tanahashi, a young and fired up Naito, Okada ready to take over the company, and a still-motivated Nakamura throwing some of the most vicious kicks you ever will see. This was tremendous, great tag team wrestling brought up a bunch of notches by Korakuen being completely rabid for everything. The crowd basically sexually harassed all four for the entrances and didn’t let up once.
Naito and Okada did some wild rope-running here, while Nakamura kicking Naito’s ass while they both still had a gleam in their eye was special stuff. Naito brought some awesome counters, whether he was doing a missile dropkick to halt the Rainmaker pose or a front cradle out of the Kinshasa run. He also just randomly headbutted Okada at one point when they were exchanging strikes.
There was so much cool stuff towards the end here and not just big near falls: the Tana/Nak final showdown before the Dome, Okada setting up Rainmaker and Naito headlock taeovering him into the Puma Blanca, and yes a MASSIVE near fall off a gorgeous Stardust Press from Naito before time ran out. The finish was insane and not just New Japan insane – this was WILD.
Tremendous match, four of the greats at different stages in their careers getting it done in front of the greatest wrestling crowd in the world. ****1/2
