The night after New Japan was at Korakuen Hall, they were back at Korakuen Hall. TJP and Francesco Akira captured the IWGP Jr. Tag Titles while Tomohiro Ishii and Clark Connors qualified to qualify for the Inaugural AEW All-Atlantic Title 4-Way Match at Forbidden Door in just under a week.
Following Forbidden Door, New Japan was to return to Korakuen for three more shows en route to the annual, updated and expanded G1 Climax 32. Before all that, however: the New Japan Road tour stopped at Korakuen Hall on June 21st.
1. Yuto Nakashima vs. DOUKI
Yuto Nakashima made his debut last March and looks like a bruiser-in-training – the last name is similar to (Manabu) Nakanishi, but so are the love handles and broad shoulders. Some nights you tag with Okada; some you tapout to DOUKI. *1/2
2. Ryohei Oiwa vs. Taichi
Ryohei Oiwa has an impressively defined upper back but other than that looks like a novelist or something – I can’t get a read on it. He does throw a nice dropkick though, and it looked like he was paying extra attention to selling his back after taking a shoulder tackle. Taichi, of course, was mean in all sorts of entertaining ways – up to and including the point where as an offensive maneuver he just grabbed Oiwa by the hair and shoved him down. **
3. Hirooki Goto, YOSHI-HASHI, Toru Yano & YOH vs. EVIL, Yujiro Takahashi, SHO & Dick Togo
Don’t shoot the messenger – The House of Torture is at it again! Hirooki Goto, denied a match with Jon Moxley and United States excursion, settled for a brief wrestling exchange with SHO. YOH, who should do something, tapped SHO out while the referee was distracted then got hit by a wrench and was pinned by SHO. Oh. *3/4
4. Ryusuke Taguchi, Master Wato & Jado vs. Aaron Henare, Francesco Akira & TJP
Francesco and TJP are the new Jr. Tag Champs, Jeff Cobb and The Great O-Khan are in America as heavyweight Tag Champs, and Will Ospreay is wrestling everyone from Dax Harwood to Nick Wayne to Orange Cassidy — life is good for the United Empire. The junior heavyweight portion of this had a few sequences out of last night’s fine match, then Henare and Jado – a former junior heavyweight turned heavyweight by just being old I think – tagged in to wrap-up. **
5. Kazuchika Okada, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Togi Makabe & Kosei Fujita vs. Tetsuya Naito, Shingo Takagi, SANADA & BUSHI
Kosei Fujita got the thrill his peers received last night, facing down the quiet bad boys of Los Ingobernables de Japon while tagging with “The Rainmaker” Kazuchika Okada. Unfortunately for this spirited Noojie, he submitted to a crab hold before any of his three partners could even tag in. Good match. **1/2
6. Inaugural AEW All-Atlantic Title 4 Way Match Tournament – Final: Tomohiro Ishii vs. Clark Connors
Obviously, Clark Connors – trained by Katsuyori Shibata in Japan and trying to make “Big Horn Energy” a thing in Japan – gave it his all against Tomohiro Ishii. The shoulder tackling came early and often, eventually mixed with elbows and chops (hard-ass chops) where Connors impressed even before putting Ishii on his ass with a lariat. He kept bringing it and Ishii kept taking it but also bringing it, and eventually two spears couldn’t keep Tomohiro Ishii away from another stay in America. Good effort and good wrestling, young Clark. ***1/2
7. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title: Taiji Ishimori [c] vs. Hiromu Takahashi
Just a couple minutes after the bell, Taiji Ishimori motioned for Hiromu Takahashi to come outside and Hiromu casually slid out, only for Taiji to grab his arm and bring it down on the concrete with a tornado DDT. And so it began: the arm work and arm selling. Hiromu proved he’s more than a pretty face by using the leg-based flying headscissors to try a comeback as opposed to anything that involved his arm. Then he did the running dropkick off the apron and, well. Love that spot.
Hiromu delivered great underdog energy, and the clapping was rapid after he stumbled to stay upright from a Canadian Destroyer then caught a charging Taiji with an overhead suplex into the turnbuckle. He survived a Fujiwara armbar and crossface too – both on that hurt arm – then got dropped with a piledriver on the apron, which was more to the point.
As they pulled out more and got closer to the eventual 36-minute runtime, I’m not sure if it felt dramatic or elongated – maybe it was both at different times. The same feeling went for Hiromu’s last-second kickout after Taiji’s big top rope reverse DDT. It all stayed pretty consistent, but never felt like much more than them just doing that stuff they do. ***1/2
No moment in the match came close to what followed though, as after three disappointing years with WWE, KUSHIDA returned to New Japan. The best part? Like it was the glory years of 2019 or something, he got a bonafide classic Korakuen Hall POP. I got goosebumps. Then I cried. No – just goosebumps.
Happy Thoughts: If New Japan combined last night‘s show with this show, with the two junior heavyweight main events back-to-back and a streamlined undercard and maybe some crowd noise besides claps… this might have been a good show. The building blocks of one were occasionally visible, but too much just felt like one show in two. That’s the bad one! 2.0 / 5.0
