New Japan traveled to the United Kingdom for some kind of Royal Quest that, though plagued by some technical issues early on, ended up a mighty fine wrestling show. When New Japan puts on actual New Japan shows outside of Japan, they tend to be good.
1. Rocky Romero & Roppongi 3K vs. Ryusuke Taguchi, Shota Umino & Ren Narita
An opener among openers, with Rocky Romero getting larger pops than usual and Ryusuke Taguchi getting the same large pops he always gets. Narita did a cool roll-through Texas Cloverleaf, while I’m not sure Umino did anything particularly great but his affiliation with MOX has made him a lot more interesting. Thanks, MOX. Anyways, YOH seemed on a different planet for everyone for that last minute. That was weird. **
2. Kota Ibushi & Juice Robinson vs. Yujiro Takahashi & Hikuleo
Tall-ass Hikuleo did a couple cool things but I’m not sure why Kota and Juice couldn’t just babyface it up and take care of business. Instead they spent like 5 minutes on Yujiro offense and in the notes I wrote about this show, I reflected that seconds after watching the match I couldn’t recall one thing he did. **1/4
3. Taiji Ishimori & El Phantasmo vs. Will Ospreay & Robbie Eagles
This felt like the match I wanted from Ibushi and Juice, with Will and Robbie being the babiest of faces taking care of that BUSINESS. Surrounding that were a few pretty wild wrestling sequences. ELP continues to come off as not a heel but just a naturally unlikable wrestler. I don’t like it. Will cuts an amazing hot tag here, and you’ve got to respect the ability to seamlessly go from G1 Climax main event guy to junior tag team guy. **3/4
4. Tetsuya Naito & SANADA vs. Jay White & Chase Owens
A Good Match, with SANADA out-wrestling Chase a bit, Paradise Lock shtick for a bit, SANADA being a charismatic guy for a bit. I guess Naito and White were wrestling too. Chase is doing more STUFF and it’s not bad. ***1/4
5. IWGP Tag Team Title: Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa [c] vs. Aussie Open (Kyle Fletcher & Mark Davis)
Those dueling chants at the start were SOMETHING, and set the atmosphere that carried this already better-than-expected match into a territory known as GREATNESS. There were a pair of bad guys and a pair of good guys and a lot of impressive spots delivered with gusto, with vigor, with ZEST. I was very much into the big fella from Aussie Open too, a big heavyweight motherfucker of a wrestler who ran through a lariat on his hot tag. Finish came together so well too. I’d say GoD are secretly good and the best con artists in wrestling, but I don’t see why they’d choose THIS match to suddenly keep it simple and crush it. So I’m going that Aussie Open might be very good. Yup. ***1/2
6. NEVER Openweight Title: Tomohiro Ishii [c] vs. KENTA
As you might have heard by now, the first half of this was everything I could have ever wanted from Tomohiro Ishii vs. KENTA. Unfortunately the second half of the match appeared to, and I’m no doctor, but appeared to be a guy at the very least knocked loopy trying to stubbornly continue on with a wrestling match that became a confusing, awkward mess, as if any pretense of putting together an entertaining match was gone and they were trying to go home while still inexplicably getting in as much shit as they could. It was all so cautious, and I’m all for cautious given the scenario, but it was a cautious to the point where you wonder why they didn’t just cut the match short. At some point you’re just exposing the biz-ness, you know?
So the first half had it all: Ishii about to break clean, KENTA smacking him in the face instead. KENTA no-selling chops and throwing elbows, Ishii puffing his chest out back at him. Ishii enjoying throwing a flurry of chops and elbows so much that he scared the ref away when he was admonished. Ishii getting whipped in the corner and rebounding by straight-up running full speed into KENTA. KENTA telling the crowd to piss off. KENTA working over Ishii. Ishii firing up.
And then… yikes. KENTA tried to throw a spinning lariat and… was just lost. Lost. Ishii threw some light headbutts, and they just… kept going. It was cautious, but it’s not like Ishii still wasn’t throwing slaps and attempting a god damn BRAINBUSTER that became a Goldberg/Undertaker-esque collapsing suplex. And they kept going and going, mostly slapping and slapping, until KENTA actually WON the god damn match.
I have no idea about this thing. A fun match for a while, probably a great one with an actual finish. A star rating is dumb but I’ll do it anyways. ***1/2
7. RPW British Heavyweight Title: Zack Sabre Jr. [c] vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi
I don’t have much new to say about this pairing that hasn’t been written on the pages of this website before, but it continues to deliver in the best ways every time it happens. This was like the G1 Climax match, in that it had less cautious matwork and more quickly got to the point with both guys’ trying to wreck a limb before they went for the kill. Highlights included the always awesome ZSJ arm work, Tanahashi’s extra nasty dragon screw leg whips, suplex holds upon suplex holds, and a Sling Blade and High Fly Flow that looked tremendous. I’d argue the New Japan Cup Final is their best work, so it’s like they perfected what they can do and are now just building on it. Brilliant chemistry, tremendous match. ****1/4
8. IWGP Heavyweight Title: Kazuchika Okada [c] vs. Minoru Suzuki
Oh my GOD. I was not prepared for this to be as good as it was. I mean every time they wrestle, whether it’s for the IWGP Title or during the G1 or outside in the rain, it’s incredible, but still – oh my GOD. They took all the good bits of their chemistry but added another layer on top of it with Suzuki having this aura about him of like, “ahh man can’t believe we’re still here huh haha you piece of shit.” He throws some elbows early that Okada tries not to acknowledge, then just endearingly slaps him like it’s just so funny that they’re still doing this bullshit.
One other thing I liked that I can’t fit into either the above or below paragraph: When Suzuki is about to throw an elbow the crowd shushes each other, like they’re about to watch the GOAT drop a beat.
They do a little matwork to start before Suzuki’s like “ahhh wtf are we doing here” and takes it outside. He punishes Okada, Okada comes back and sets up the Rainmaker, but Suzuki slaps it away. There are epic moments all over: both guys putting their hands behind their backs, Okada’s collapse on a strike exchange, and a Suzuki elbow to the back of Okada’s head that was delivered and felt like an execution. A Rainmaker Outta NOWHERE after the sleeper from Suzuki had the crowd losing it. Okada as per usual sells the onslaught like absolute death, emoting a two-thousand yard stare after taking one too many really awfully hard Suzuki slaps to the face. Suzuki shows that at age [redacted out of fear] he can still go toe-to-toe with a New Japan main eventer on a dramatic counter-filled finish before the Rainmaker finally, finally ends him. ****3/4
SANADA challenges Okada post-match in pitch perfect English.
Pretty amazing show – the top two matches were as good as any top-tier match in the G1 Climax and the tag titles match way exceeded expectations. Add on the first part of KENTA/Ishii and an actually good undercard tag and you’ve got yourself one hell of a royal quest. 9/10
