Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa, Chase Owens & Hikuleo vs. Togi Makabe, Toru Yano, Ayato Yoshida, Shota Umina & Ren Narita
Better than it had any right to be, and a lot of it was on the young lions’ brilliance and a red hot crowd ready to eat up some MIDCARD MULTIMAN TAG WRESTLING. I’m seeing a lot of potential in Hikuleo as the heir to Bad Luck Fale – he already has the ‘’big dude wrestling’’ mindset down and some great mobility for a guy of his size. Him manhandling little Narita was a good time. Speaking of Ren, him taking out Jado with a sliding dropkick and then bringing back the Young Lion Rock n’ Roll Express double low dropkick with Shota popped me huge. **3/4
Yuji Nagata & Toa Henare vs. Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI
This little undercard slug-fest kicked my ass from Monday to Sunday and accomplished many great things. Getting the good people hyped for Nagata/Ishii in the New Japan Cup – Check. Showcasing Henare as an up and coming bruiser that can easily hang with the vets – Check. Making me care about YOSHI-HASHI – Not quite, but almost.
You know you’re always getting great stuff with Nagata and Ishii, but Henare came off as the star here. He even made YOSHI-HASHI compelling, pulling off great facial expressions when YOSHI started slapping him around and then taking a completely wild backflip bump for his lariat. This guy could easily be molded into the Kensuke Sasaki-type Strong Style Warrior heavyweight that’s sorely missing near the upper card and I would be there for it. ***1/4
Satoshi Kojima, Tomoaki Honma, Tiger Mask, Ryusuke Taguchi & Dragon Lee vs. Minoru Suzuki, Taichi, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, El Desperado & TAKA Michinoku
A fairly straight-forward crowd pleaser that hinted at greatness whenever Dragon Lee or Taguchi got in the ring. I had trouble getting excited at the prospect of Kojima/Suzuki and Taichi/Honma in the New Japan Cup, as both pairings were kind of going through the motions and Honma is just plain hard to watch these days. BUT, Dragon Lee flying all over the place and Taguchi working a ridiculously tight finish TAKA was fun stuff. **3/4
Shingo Takagi & BUSHI © vs. SHO & YOH – IWGP Jr Tag Team Title
Shingo and SHO go together like whichever two condiments are particularly fond of ramming into each other with brutal lariats. They’re literally made for each other. My friends, this match was a fucking blast. The amazing Ota crowd gave Roppongi 3K the much deserved babyface heat they’re sometimes lacking and their reactions put this whole thing way over the top.
Loved the layout: R3K going for a new approach after getting previously thwarted by Shingo and trying to take out his leg was both smart and compelling thanks to Takagi selling his ass off and Rocky Romero being a great cornerman coaching his gang sign-flashing boyz.
BUSHI and YOH aren’t the most exciting guys on offense, but BUSHI’s t-shit choking bullshit was kept to a minimum and YOH actually impressed with his Ode to Tanahashi dragon screw-based offense. The super fast pace was beneficial for everyone involved – every time the match was on the verge of dragging, Shingo would jump in and rip someone’s head off. I was marking the hell out in my minuscule apartment for the note-perfect ending stretch and BONKERS finish. ***3/4
Taiji Ishimori © vs. Jushin Thunder Liger – IWGP Jr Heavyweight Title
I watched this after learning about Liger’s retirement, so you better believe this wonderful wrestling hit me right in the feels. A ridiculously action-packed match that was worked perfectly to give the adoring pro-Liger crowd everything they wanted (except Liger winning). All of the Liger tropes that YOU need were in full effect: the early matwork with all of your favorite submission spots, a tope con hilo off the apron, a god damn Brainbuster on the floor, shoteis for everyone, everything.
Taiji was more than game to make Liger look like a million bucks, bumping like a fucking maniac and doing a great job catching every ‘’high risk’’ spot while still asserting his dominance as champion. In a match that was all about the 50+ year old Liger wowing the crowd with all of his signature spots, it’s the little things that pushed things to the next level.
Stuff like Liger milking the shit out of Taiji’s Yes Lock and that final stretch of flash near-falls that sent the crowd into a freaking frenzy. It’s going to be a hell of a final year for Liger if this is the type of match he wants to go out having. ***3/4
Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kazuchika Okada & Hirooki Goto vs. Tetsuya Naito, EVIL & SANADA
The key moment here was Tanahashi visibly dying to bust out the ZANMAI POSE with the CHAOS boys and Goto/Okada not giving him the satisfaction. Incredible. Other than that, this wasn’t exactly the barnburner it could have been but it still got the job done. Okada is a certified legend for milking the short tights pop in every arena now. Lots of fun pairings all over the place, most notably Goto/SANADA. They stole the show in the G1 last year and I’m psyched for their New Japan Cup match. Speaking of the Cup, the post-match Cup bickering between Tana/Okada/Goto was suitably dorky and I loved it. ***
Jay White vs. Will Ospreay
I was extremely into this for the first 10 minutes or so. Really solid character-based wrestling that established a strong heel/face dynamic and made a better case for the Switchblade character than most of the match with Tanahashi. Jay’s violent rib work and dickish cutoffs were on point, Will came off as a sympathetic babyface you could cheer for – both guys were just geling quite well.
For me, shit went sideways when they moved away from Will’s underdog arc and leaned hard into the ‘’Will Ospreay Is Actually A Dangerous Tough Guy’’ bullshit, playing off the Ibushi concussion awkwardly. Ospreay’s great at many things, but being a believable concussion-giving WARRIOR is not one of them. His insane overacting and paleolithic grunting made the whole transition from the air-tight first half to messy second half of the match even more jarring.
They pulled off enough crazy shit to keep the match afloat, but by the time Gedo jumped in the ring for the second or third time, my interest had completely waned. Lots of big ideas, but too many of the story-telling decisions left me rolling my eyes. ***1/2
