Will Ospreay, Mikey Nichols & Rocky Romero vs. Bad Luck Fale, Hikuleo & Taiji Ishimori
Korakuen was distractingly dead for this, which seemed a bit harsh because the wrestling was completely fine. Will and Fale have figured out a fun David/Goliath dynamic for their upcoming match and it mostly involves Ospreay bumping like a pinball. Works for me. This was my first time seeing Mikey Nichols and it was impossible to get a good read on the guy due to the strangely quiet crowd. Ishimori and Rocky did a lot of cool shit together, making me think they might have a fun singles match in them. **1/4
Satoshi Kojima, Toru Yano & Toa Henare vs. Minoru Suzuki, Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr.
Kojima and Minoru had a good thing going here. Suzuki clearly has a visceral hatred for Kojima’s machinegun chops, so Koji takes it upon himself to do it on Suzuki every time they face each other. Smart stuff. Really hoping Henare pulls the upset against Archer in their first round match. He once again looked rock-solid taking the fight to the gaijin brutes and the crowd’s responding well to him. **1/2
EVIL & BUSHI vs. Zack Sabre Jr. & TAKA Michinoku
I’m really excited for TAKA to hit up Joey Janela’s Spring Break and blow indie wrestling fans’ minds with his eye poke-based offense. Not much to say about this one: short and sweet, EVIL and Zack are always good together. WRESTLING! **1/2
Tetsuya Naito, SANADA & Shingo Takagi vs. Kota Ibushi, Hirooki Goto & SHO
It says a lot about the SHO/Shingo blood feud that their exchange in a match jam packed with so much talent stood head and shoulders above the rest. Being around Shingo really is doing SHO a world of good – the kid throws a mean fucking lariat now. Seeing Ibushi back was cool. Him and Naito ripping shit up even cooler. Ibushi is a master at pulling off very anime-esque ‘’We meet again…’’ dramatic facial expressions before clashing with his rivals. A whole lotta’ fun. ***
Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kazuchika Okada, Togi Makabe & Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Michael Elgin, Colt Cabana, Ryusuke Taguchi & Shota Umino
Half of this might have been everyone taking a night off and doing ass comedy with Taguchi, but the other half was Shota Umino getting to work with Tanahashi and Okada and it was pretty fascinating. The way both guys interacted with Shota said a lot about how they view the kid, and how they view their own character at this moment in time. Tana basically let Shota kick his ass and sold like crazy for him, while Okada treated him like a worthless punk and dispatched without breaking a sweat. In both cases, Umino looked right at home going at it with the top guys. **1/2
YOSHI-HASHI vs. Manabu Nakanishi – New Japan Cup (Round 1)
This was… kind of a good match!? An honest-to-God Korakuen crowd pleaser designed smartly to work around Manabu’s limits and get the old bastard over in defeat. YOSHI-HASHI’s still boring as shit but his game plan made sense here: try to neutralize THE POWER OF MANABU by taking out his leg.
The one thing he didn’t expect was that Nakanishi has a bunch of SWEET HIGH FLYING MOVES up his sleeve! Holy shit at that ‘’jump on the apron then dive out’’ pescado and MIL MASCARAS-ESQUE flying cross body. One could argue about inconsistent leg selling but who gives a fuck, it’s Manabu in 2019. I’m not gonna act like you absolutely need to see this match but I had fun, man. I had fun. ***
Taichi vs. Tomoaki Honma – New Japan Cup (Round 1)
Parts of this came off as a little bland due to Honma’s ever-concerning mobility issues and the quiet Korakuen crowd, but other parts were flat out amazing. I know this is hard for people to comprehend, but Taichi is a legit very good wrestling heel. He worked really, really hard in this one to get something exciting out of Honma (in his current walking corpse state) and it definitely clicked more often than not.
All of the Kawada tribute offense looked extra-fucking-devastating due to Taichi’s effective early neck-targeting beatdown and Honma basically being someone who should probably not be in a wrestling ring right now. The Honma comebacks were compelling and I popped huge for his Big Match Honma offense, namely the god damn FIRE THUNDER and big Kokeshi Rocket to the face.
Toshiaki Kawada has fully disowned Taichi at this point, but there is no way he could have disapproved of the Stretch plums in this match. Taichi made that shit look VICIOUS. A good match that might have been great a few years ago with pre-injury Honma and a better crowd. ***1/4
Juice Robinson vs. Chase Owens – New Japan Cup (Round 1)
Milano’s reaction at Chase winning was almost worth it, but also not really. This match would’ve been so much better as a tight 15 minute back and forth rather than a 25 minute slog. There was literally no reason for these two guys to go this long. It’s a shame because I liked a ton of the individual segments they put together here, but you could just constantly feel them slowing the pace down to a crawl in order to reach that dreaded 25 minute mark.
I’m a fan of Chase’s old school NWA heel shtick, and it was definitely a natural fit for Juice’s consummate babyface act, but a lot of the Flair-ish rope-grabbing tricks came too late into the match and sucked the excitement out of all of the rollup exchanges. An all-time great JUICE PUNCH and some fun guardrail spots couldn’t save this one. Shave off 10 minutes for the rematch and we’re in business. **3/4
Yuji Nagata vs. Tomohiro Ishii – New Japan Cup (Round 1)
The year is 2019 and Yuji Nagata just had the New Japan MOTY. A match that was very much in the mold of Ishii/Goto from last year’s G1 – two no non-sense bastards trying to prove their toughness by tearing into each other as hard as possible. The big difference between the two is that Nagata is now a 50 year old man spending most of his time in throwaway undercard matches. The fact that he stepped up to the plate here and had THIS match is absolutely mind blowing.
From the moment Nagata slapped the fuck out of Ishii on the first rope break spot and flashed him a shit-eating grin, you just knew these two were going to kill each other. And man, did they ever. Nagata kicked as hard as I’ve ever seen him do and Ishii took all of it, responding in kind with his Choshu-approved lariats, chops and headbutts.
They worked in a really neat little subplot with Ishii’s arm injury, which Nagata would go back to from time to time with brutal kicks, gradually building towards the DEMON ARMBAR (even more demonic here thanks to Nagata’s bloody mouth) and getting an unreal reaction from the crowd once he finally synched it in.
Both guys pulled a perfect balancing act between dishing out colossal damage, selling a lot and never falling into absurd overkill. Just the right amount of head drops, 1 counts and ‘’fight through the pain’’ no-sells without ever turning into Puroresu caricature. Just a brilliant match that made a strong case for Nagata as a guy that should be getting a whole lot more singles match opportunities in NJPW. ****1/2
