After traveling to the U.K. in 2019 to host the first Royal Quest, New Japan probably wasn’t expecting to wait three years before the next one. They probably didn’t expect a pandemic to stop all travel either, but, you know…
That show was headlined by an excellent main event between Kazuchika Okada and Minrou Suzuki for the IWGP Heavyweight Title and featured most of the New Japan roster. For the return, Royal Quest became a two-day event and New Japan had a little more help from their friends: mainly RevPro (where young lions Shota Umino and Yota Tsuji have been on a learning excursion) and AEW (where IWGP Tag Team Champions FTR call home).
Partnerships are necessary in many businesses, and sometimes they even work out: the New Japan young lion excursion has paid dividends for decades, while FTR has spent the past year delivering a tag team wrestling renaissance and did it almost entirely in other companies. They got their tag team rocks off in main events for AEW’s wrestling partners (or subsidiaries), who borrowed FTR’s reputation as tag team Top Guys to make their own shows better – like this one.
Both days of Royal Quest II were held at the Crystal Palace Indoor Arena in London, England. The first was headlined by Will Ospreay vs. Shota Umino and Aussie Open vs. FTR.
1. Gabriel Kidd vs. Dan Moloney
Kidd entered with theme music that began “2 years in the dojo..” so he has to be legit. This was his return to New Japan after a leave of absence from the L.A. Dojo earlier this year, and he was wrestling with conviction in between stiff chops, a Shibata tribute spot and a stuff piledriver. Moloney (of early NXT UK) threw stiff chops back and swore a lot. They kept the intensity bell-to-bell and defined a physical and spirited tone for the evening. ***1/4
2. Great-O-Khan & Gideon Grey vs. Ricky Knight Jr. & Michael Oku
Gideon Grey is NOT the fox from Zootopia but the heel manager for the United Empire in RevPro (and recently New Japan). He does some heel mic work before the match to introduce the undefeated (in the U.K.) O-Khan, who had his learning excursion in RevPro and gets an enormous pop.
RKJ is Saraya’s nephew and RevPro’s Undisputed British Heavyweight Champion, wearing gear that failed to settle on what badass it was trying to be. He teamed with Michael Oku who built on a well-received match with Will Ospreay earlier this year by showing out here with a ‘rana on O-Khan and a backflip dive to the floor that completely cleared the top rope. O-Khan charmed the crowd with chops and signatures and everyone had a fine wrestling match. ***
3. Jazzy Gabert & Kanji vs. Ava White & Alex Windsor
“Alpha Female” Jazzy Gabert returned to the ring for the first time since 2020 after a dominant run in Stardom and less-dominant one in WWE. Tomorrow she faces Ava White in Round 1 of Stardom’s IWGP Women’s Title Tournament and this was a teaser for it, or whatever it’s called when something tries to be a teaser but doesn’t succeed. Kanji fired up the crowd and seems to have potential, while RevPro Women’s Champion Alex Windsor got the pin but didn’t really stand out beyond that. **1/2
4. Tetsuya Naito, SANADA & Hiromu Takahashi vs. Zack Sabre Jr., El Desperado & DOUKI
Better than your standard New Japan undercard 6-man thanks to an enthusiastic crowd and extra-motivated ZSJ. He and Naito wrestle tomorrow and began with hijinks before Despy and Hiromu pivoted to wrestling. Hiromu got caught in a Suzuki-gun beatdown highlighted by ZSJ countering his flying headscissors with a heel hook, a great cut-off that got a big pop. ZSJ went back-and-forth with SANADA on cradles for some good near falls too, then trapped SANADA in a prison lock and Naito in an Octopus hold at the same time. Shoutout to Desperado’s little swing at Naito while he hit a slingshot dropkick on DOUKI too. ***1/2
5. Kazuchika Okada & Tomohiro Ishii vs. Bad Dude Tito & Zak Knight
Okada has a match with Tito tomorrow (and Tito’s buddy Jonah in a week) so there was a reference point beyond Okada and Ishii playing the hits. Otherwise, it was Okada and Ishii playing the hits. Ishii fired everyone up with strikes before he took heat from Tito and Zak Knight, who is Saraya’s brother and dressed more like a boxer (not sure why the Knight family’s attire stood out over anything else they did). Ishii reversed a suplex, the crowd chanted Okada, Ishii tagged Okada, Tito almost pinned Okada, Knight tried to choke out Ishii, and Ishii brainbustered Knight. Afterwards Ishii was confronted by his opponent tomorrow, the now-dastardly Yota Tsuji. ***1/4
6. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Tama Tonga, Hikuleo & Jado vs. Jay White, Karl Anderson, Doc Gallows & Gedo
Tama Tonga, his tall brother Hikuleo and his 54-year-old admirer Jado all entering in matching protective vests delivered the most ridiculous visual. Tanahashi entered in white afterwards, separately, above it all. Unlike the 6-man earlier this was a standard New Japan undercard match that didn’t try to be anything else. Jado took heat as The Good Brothers good brother’d and Switchblade stuck to mostly crowd work. London was blessed with some Jado-on-Gedo violence and Tama taking his shirt off before Tanahashi got tagged in for the first time and closed up. ***
7. Will Ospreay vs. Shota Umino
Besides FTR vs. Aussie Open the most exciting thing on the Royal Quest cards was the chance to check in with and see spotlight matches from Shota (Shooter) Umino and Yota Tsuji, two Noojies on excursion who’ve been in RevPro — in Shooter’s case, NJPW USA and AEW PPV too — the past year plus.
Shooter Umino can go. He comes off more polished than most recent New Japan rookies and most guys on the New Japan roster in general, with slick hold-trading and babyface selling ala Tanahashi as well as rope-running and diving ala Ospreay and basically every other wrestler. Here he kept up with Ospreay for 15 minutes second from top and it resulted in… royalty?
Ospreay is an especially frustrating combination of annoying and talented, and in RevPro he’s also incredibly over. He milked his reaction for a while before treating Shooter like a young boy then throwing some rough-looking strikes, things Shooter really didn’t like though his responses had the crowd siding with him when the speed increased and signatures started flying. ****
8. IWGP Tag Team Title: FTR [c] vs. Aussie Open
Aussie Open was on the first Royal Quest challenging for the IWGP Tag Team Title, and a few years later they feel only slightly more defined: Kyle Fletcher is a skinny shit, Mark Davis has a bushy mustache, and they’re aligned with Will Ospreay’s United Empire and wrestle for New Japan sometimes. It’s not much, but once FTR’s theme song hit to a gigantic pop and they entered through the crowd like beloved hometown heroes; once the bell rang and Dash controlled Fletcher with rasslin and Davis pasted Dax with chops; anything undefined was replaced with a great tag team wrestling match driven mostly by personality.
When Aussie Open isolated Dash they went all-in on being little assholes – posing, crotch chopping, pushing Dax off the apron at all the worst times. Dash went all-in on being a babyface-in-peril that will occasionally smack your back with his open palm as hard as he can, then Dax tagged in with a tag that was more than hot – it was an urgent tag – on a mission to win until he kept getting kicked in the head. Cash pulled out the match’s first dive, one of the greatest tope suicidas I have ever seen.
Dax got busted open on the floor and Davis gave a bleeding man an airplane spin, then came the double teams and stolen double teams, blood and belt shots, maybe 1-2 too many tricks to pad the time, more dives and near falls and at some point a 3-count. ****3/4
Happy Thoughts: Unique environment with a lively crowd and some new faces, solid undercard with a strong semi-main and one of the best matches of the year – this was a good wrestling show. 4.0 / 5.0
