RESULTS & RATINGS
All scores out of 10.
As suspected, Makabe is out sick and will not face Ishii for the Openweight title. Honma is announced as the surprise replacement to face Ishii.
(1) Captain New Japan & Manabu Nakanishi def. Satoshi Kojima & Yohei Komatsu in 6:19.
Komatsu is dwarfed by Manabu and looks hilarious trying to put a dent in him. He dropkicks Captain and makes a hot tag to Kojima who does two dozen short chops in the corner. They continue playing up Manabu as too big to take down, until they double team him with splashes and clotheslines. He suplexes both of them, no-sells more Komatsu offense and spears him for a nearfall. He hits the Hercules Neckbreaker for the win. Not much here. [3]
(2) reDRagon (Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish) def. Jay White & Tiger Mask in 10:31.
White – who has to be in his early-to-mid 20’s – locks up with Fish and out-grapples him, then gives him the “this close” taunt. He wins another trade and rolls him up for a two-count. Fish does’t want any of the newcomer and both guys tag out. Some high-flying with Tiger Mask until O’Reilly takes a breather, but White flies off the apron with a knee to take him out. They do a Looney Toons chase around the ring and reDRagon takes control, slowing things down. They build the hot tag for Tiger Mask, who cleans house and does the 619 on Kyle. The rest of the match sees White power through reDRagon offense, including a neckbreaker combo and the Fall of Man, but eventually loses to Chasing the Dragon. Good match that the crowd wasn’t really behind. White was very impressive. [5.5]
(3) Time Splitters (Alex Shelley & Kushida) & Mascara Dorada def. The Young Bucks & Kenny Omega in 11:11.
The babyfaces all work over Matt early on with quick tags. Shelley does the “suck it” taunt and Nick tries to rush in, but trips on the ropes and falls on his face. The Club regroup and beat down Shelley for several minutes. They build to a hot tag but the Bucks kick his partners off the apron. He DDT’s both of them and tags KUSHIDA who hits a standing moonsault on both Bucks. Dorada hits a great springboard armdrag. Matt superkicks the Time Splitters and Omega tries to suplex Dorada KUSHIDA off the apron, but Dorada flies over the ropes with a sunset flip powerbomb that sends him into the barricade and both Bucks; jaw-dropping spot. The Club does a double Indytaker on the Splitters. Omega tries for his finisher on Dorada, who rolls the champion up for the win. Some really great work from everyone, with Mascara coming off as a huge star. [7]
Dorada does a post-match promo where he officially calls out Kenny Omega.
(4) Jushin Thunder Liger (c) def. Chase Owens to retain the NWA Jr. Heavyweight Championship in 7:49.
Liger controls early and looks to fly off the top rope, but Bruce Tharpe distracts him and Owens attacks from behind. He builds heat on Liger for a few minutes until the champ rallies back. The big spot was a top rope hurricanrana, and a big splash where Owens get his knees up. Challenger hits a double knee gutbuster for two. He tries for a piledriver multiple times, and Liger rolls him up with a bridge for three. I think they tried to do something decent here, but the match was far too short to really get anything going. [3.5]
Tiger Mask was ringside for his friend, and Liger got on the mic after the match and challenged him to a title match. Tiger accepted and they shook hands.
(5) Hiroyoshi Tenzan def. Rob Conway (c) to become the NEW NWA WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION in 11:50.
Most of the match is Conway beating down Tenzan, getting some mileage out of referee counts on the floor and in the ropes. Bruce Tharpe gets in a choke from the outside while the ref is distracted. Tenzan strong-mans a few lariat attempts from Conway and drops him with a spinning wheel kick. He starts throwing Mongolian chops and heatbutts and counters a lariat with a one-arm fireman’s carry slam. He hits the diving headbutt for a nearfall. Tenzan slaps on an Anaconda Vice but Tharpe gets on the apron a second time, and Conway is able to use the title belt for a close nearfall. Great spot where Conway hits the Ego Trip, but Tenzan kicks out and hits his own Ego Trip using the ropes. Tharpe tries a third time, but Tenzan headbutts him off the apron and hits a moonsault for the 1-2-3. New champion. Solid match with good pacing, that build to a great finish the crowd was really into. [7]
Intermission
(6) Kota Ibushi & Tetsuya Naito def. Sakuraba & Toru Yano in 12:51.
Good news is Naito wasn’t booed out of the building like he was in Osaka. Sakuraba and Ibushi did some stand-up MMA style fighting early on, which was alright. They did get into a good rhythm with some grappling at the end of it. Naito put Yano in a wrist lock and Yano sold it like his arm was broken, screaming in the ropes, then laughed it up with the crowd. Lots of comedy spots between these two. He sobered up briefly, brawling on the floor and ended up hitting Naito with a chair; Naito barely made the 20-count. They worked him over for the rest of the match until the hot tags were made. Ibushi did a moonsault but got trapped in a triangle choke by Sakuraba. The finishing sequence was great, with all four brawling around. Yano threw Naito into the ref to do a low blow, but Naito countered a roll-up with his own to win. This ended up being a great post-intermission match, and I thought they mixed Yano’s brand of comedy with Sakuraba’s serious MMA style really well. [8]
(7) Kazuchika Okada & Yoshi-Hashi def. The Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi) in 9:55.
Fale starts off with Okada, but Takahashi takes a shot from behind, and that’s the theme of this match. Yoshi tags in and the same thing happens. Fale chokes out Okada with Yoshi’s Kid Goku power pole on the floor early on. The Club works over the babyfaces for the entire match until Okada makes the hot tag and picks the big man up for a body slam. They did the same spot in Osaka but it’s still impressive and gets a reaction. Yoshi-Hash saves his partner from the Bad Luck Fall and does a plancha over the ropes to take him out of the match. Okada gets the dropkick and Rainmaker on Takahashi to win. Things picked up at the end, but prior nothing really stood out. Yoshi is getting over next to Okada, and the B.C. always make for good heels to play off. [4.5]
(8) Hiroshi Tanahashi & Shibata & Hirooki Goto def. The Bullet Club (Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows & Tama Tonga) in 12:07.
Cody Hall came out waving the flag for Bullet Club, who all had KISS face paint. Shibata showed a lot of heart, backing his partners into their corner and wanting to start alone; the crowd gave him a big chant for it. He avoided a Gallows splash in the corner and put him the Figure Four. The majority of the match was the Club working over Tanahashi, who sold his injuries from AJ Styles in Osaka. Goto had some offense against Gallows and Shibata put him in a sleeper, but the champs did the same running neckbreaker spot from the last show. The obligatory 6-man brawl ended with Tanahashi hitting the High Fly Flow on Fale to wiin. Standard tag stuff. The heels controlled most of the action, so it was very Western. Tanahashi was there to get on the card and gain some semblance of revenge on the Club, but the real story was the former champs vs. the current champs. That program is not over. [5.5]
(9) Tomohiro Ishii def. Tomoaki Honma to WIN THE VACANT NEVER OPENWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP in 24:46.
This may be the very definition of strong-style, and an obvious Match of the Year candidate.
They open trading elbows with neither guy having a real advantage. Honma keeps coming back from everything, but misses the running headbutt spot three separate times. They get into an amazing knife-edge chop battle that lasts for over a minute; Honma wins and nails the headbutt to a huge pop. Next up is a suplex battle, which Ishii wins. They slow it down briefly with a double-arm submission, until Ishii hits a superplex from the top for a two-and-a-half count. Honma takes a stiff lariat but snaps off a DDT out of nowhere, and Ishii sells like he’s really messed up his neck. The ref lets it continue and he nails him with three big lariats, each getting a bigger reaction than the last. Another lariat to the back of the neck sends him into the ring post, and we get a coast-to-coast diving headbutt from the top rope to the floor! They barely make a 20-count and Honma hits yet another lariat for a nearfall. He starts showing a bit of disrespect with little kicks and slaps, then Ishii literally walks through his offense, starring a hole through him. Another superlex spot that hurt both men, another nearfall after yet another lariat. Honma dead-lifts the big man off the ground and spikes him with the Brainbuster for a two-and-three-fourths count! A headbutt to the back connects followed by a scoop piledriver for ANOTHER nearfall. Honma goes to the top but comes up empty on the diving headbutt, and both guys are dead at this point. Ishii with a quick release German suplex, but Honma no-sells it to a massive pop. Ishii with lariat after lariat, but kick-outs at one every time. They trade elbows and slaps with Ishii winning and hitting another brutal lariat for two. Honma hits a headbutt you can actual HEAR, but Ishii clotheslines the back of his head but he barely gets the shoulder up. Delayed Brainbuster connects for the 1-2-3. F***ing incredible. [10]
(10) Shinsuke Nakamura (c) def. Yuji Nagata to retain the IWGP Intercontinental Championship in
They do some striking and blocking early on before Nagata targets an arm and works it over for several minutes. Shinsuke takes a breather but is followed, and throws him through the barricade. He does the vibration in the corner and starts lightly kicking Nagata’s head to toy with him, and Nagata just stares at him blankly before throwing a knee lift. They trade elbows with Nakamura getting the upper hand, following up with knees to the head. Yuji with a belly-to-belly out of nowhere. Shinsuke tries to start a slap battle, and he loses badly. They do a test of endurance on the top rope with Nagata holding on through dozens of elbows and headbutts, and he ends up pulling off a super fall-away slam for two. Yuji follows with an exploder suplex, but the champ pops back up and knees him in the back of the head. They show Nagata’s family in the crowd as he locks in an armbar, then transfers into the cross armbreaker, but Shinsuke gets to the ropes. They trade enzuigiris and Nakamura hits the Boma Ye for the win. This was a great match, but everyone (including me) was exhausted from the last match. The crowd got into the big spots, but it seemed like they didn’t really build the finish; like there would have been a kick-out, especially with them playing up Nagata in front of his family, but it just ended. Still a strong way to finish off the show, and these two work really well together. [8]
