The only thing better than one Tokyo Dome show is TWO Tokyo Dome shows.
0. Togi Makabe, Tomoaki Honma, Yota Tsuji & Yuya Uemura vs. Toa Henare, Karl Fredericks, Clark Connors & Alex Coughlin
The Young Lions of New Japan do not run down the ramp, but a tarp on the floor before they enter the ring and trade wrestling holds and really hard chops. Karl Fredericks’ uppercuts in particular made me swoon. At the end of the day this might have been the most credible match on the entire card. Toa getting the win was uplifting. ***
0. Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima
This was four wrestlers I have at different points both appreciated and simply tolerated. At this point we’re at a hard appreciation, especially Kojima whose white boots made him appear twenty years younger and seems ready for another run. Manabu is tired, but adorably tired – he’d throw really light passive strikes then be like OOOOOK time to sprint into the ropes! At just over five minutes this didn’t have a chance to overstay its welcome – glad it was here. **
1. Jushin Thunder Liger Retirement Match I: Jushin Thunder Liger, Tatsumi Fujinami, Great Sasuke & Tiger Mask IV w/ El Samurai vs. Naoki Sano, Shinjiro Otani, Tatsuhito Takaiwa & Ryusuke Taguchi w/ Kuniaki Kobayashi
This was a beautiful fever dream of a wrestling match, with legends of various ages who have always known exactly what to do in the ring whether they were young boys rising up the ranks or old men still able to pull off some of what made them famous. Early 90s Liger rival Norio Honaga acted as the referee, while 90s rival and partner El Samurai hobbled to the ring to accompany Liger’s team and 80s rival Kuniaki Kobayashi accompanied other infamous Liger rivals… plus Taguchi. All the respect in the world to Taguchi but WHERE WAS KANEMOTO? What happened between Jushin and Koji???
The entrance videos that highlighted classic Liger matches were incredible, as was a lot about the entrances: Great Sasuke’s half-and-half Liger mask, Fujinami’s Dragon/Liger robe, and Jushin Thunder Liger being AN ABSOLUTE GOD.
I won’t do the Liger retrospective here, but a masked man’s success lies in his body language and not many communicate better with there body than Jushin Thunder Liger. In this case he soaked in the adulation and showed us, the viewer, that he appreciates it and DESERVES IT.
The match was 8 and a half minutes and all about The Moments, and they were beautiful moments. 54-year-old Naoki Sano dove through the ropes, while Great Sasuke took two bumps for the ages as he went face-first into the floor off an Otani boot and hit the mat on a Swanton Bomb so hard I thought I heard his vertebrate compress. Nobody seemed to know who Takaiwa was but he tried his best to remind them just being stiff as SHIT with chops, a Death Valley Driver, and an elbow drop to remember. Even Tiger Mask did something memorable with a chaotic planha to the floor.
Then, Jushin Thunder Liger had one of his final wrestling sequences doing ass-based comedy spots with Ryusuke Taguchi. I loved it. I even bought some of the near falls too before Taguchi actually pinned Liger. A beautiful, frustrating, sensible, and realistic end. ****
2. SANADA, EVIL, Shingo Takagi & BUSHI vs. Minoru Suzuki, Zack Sabre Jr., Taichi & El Desperado
Pretty basic undercard New Japan multi-man, plus maybe a bit more. Taichi had a fine 2019 but I wasn’t expecting him to bring the house down at Tokyo Dome – opposite Shingo Takagi, it was done. Outside of his initial attack, I’m not sure Suzuki did anything else. SANADA and Zack Sabre Jr. had a neat exchange to impart a belief in the viewer that their match tomorrow might be good. It was all fine and now I forgot it. **1/2
3. Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano & YOSHI-HASHI vs. KENTA, Bad Luck Fale, Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens
Japanese wrestling is great until you’re watching YOSHI-HASHI and Yujiro Takahashi go back-and-forth. Ishii and Fale had another fun exchange at the Tokyo Dome, otherwise this was nothing more than completely forgettable. **1/4
4. IWGP Tag Team Title: The Guerillas of Destiny [c] vs. Juice Robinson & David Finlay
The great secret to a Guerillas of Destiny match is to let the good guys their spots in as they’re getting beat up because Guerillas of Destiny are pretty bad and boring when beating people up. They did that here so the crowd got into the good guys while the beatdown wasn’t bad and boring, and then it led into a fun finish that the crowd was real hot for.
Finlay countering the super powerbomb with a Frankensteiner was awesome, and Tonga Loa adorably and slowly did the the tag save where you throw the guys’ partner into the pin. The Tag Titles win for Juice Robinson, David Finlay, and Juice Robinson’s mustache was a very feel good start to 2020. ***1/2
5. Texas Death Match – IWGP U.S. Heavyweight Title: Lance Archer [c] vs. Jon Moxley
I did not expect this to hit so well. It’s probably a good thing I never know what to expect from Jon Moxley these days. In Japan he seems to find the truth of MOX, and kept the craziness coming so often that this felt really short despite going 15 minutes. Moxley was bumping like he doesn’t work house shows anymore, while Archer has become a DUDE and played along – the big dive over the top and chokeslam off the apron into the ring attendant were tremendous Wrestle Kingdom spots.
There was a fine tease of Mox losing at the end off the chokeslam, before he stood up and threw up his middle fingers and ran into a boot to the FAAACE. Then Archer took out a PLASTIC BAG to make this one memorable. Loved Mox throwing a lariat like “SUP” before he made his comeback too. Wild, crazy, cool. ***3/4
6. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title: Will Ospreay [c] vs. Hiromu Takahashi
Consider my jaw dropped. Outside of that weird part where Ospreay whiffed on both a double foot stomp and missile dropkick to Hiromu’s neck, this was pretty blissful awesome junior heavyweight wrestling. Ospreay’s dive run where he apparently legitimately hurt his ankle was one of the most astounding things I’ve ever seen, a master class in athleticism and precision and blah blah blah. Despite Ospreay’s seeming unwillingness to hit Hiromu in his previously broken neck until the end, Hiromu more than made up for that by landing directly on his head off every possible move, like he was doing the DDP gimmick where he could Diamond Cutter you out of any position but Hiromu is landing on his head.
Will apparently saved up all his strike impact for the Hidden Blade, which felt more like a snuff film than a wrestling move. A bunch of fun wrestling and heat on Hiromu bled into a series of awesome near falls before Hiromu finally won his title. Not everything hit perfect but most of it did. ****1/4
7. IWGP Intercontinental Title: Jay White [c] vs. Tetsuya Naito
God, just what every Tokyo Dome semi-main event should be now: Jay White working the leg. The crowd stayed with this due to a fervent love of Naito and White’s ascension into Serviceable New Japan Main Eventer, but this was 30 minutes of leg work, Gedo shtick, a couple blown tornado DDT’s, and a whole lot of “eh I dunno.” The people love Naito – that’s all I’ve got. **
8. IWGP Heavyweight Title: Kazuchika Okada [c] vs. Kota Ibushi
A high level kind of match, though outside of that sweet spot where Ibushi kipped up I’m not positive anything in the first half did anything to influence the last half of the match. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I’m tired. I do know that despite a tough sell start, Okada was making all the faces in the world to make the hold exchanges interesting: amusement, annoyance, confusion. Ibushi added a new layer to himself by just being an asshole, straight-up punching Okada and smirking from time to time with his haircut that would look stupid on any other human being.
I’d tell you this had an epic Okada finishing stretch that somehow felt more epic than all the others, and it did, but I also might be a little bored of saying that. That’s on me though – these two hurt each other, outsmarted each other, and outworked each other. Okada might need a new layer himself at some point, but he’s still casually a master at simmering something into the most epic edge of your seat finale. This might not be the greatest Okada title defense there is, but I’d be open to listening to an argument on why it might be. ****1/4
Tremendous wrestling show, with a big time feel and ridiculous amount of quality wrestling matches. The Liger match was special and outside of the White/Naito turd the main events delivered while the midcard over-delivered. 9/10
