NJPW REPOTO: Road To Invasion Attack 2015

As Wrestlemania weekend took hold of sunny California, across the Pacific an NJPW event took place and was broadcast via the New Japan World streaming service. Not a mind blowing happening, but The Road to Invasion Attacks was a nice hint of the action that lay in wait 1 week later along with some nice development for its newer talent. Despite the show being in low broadcast production mode (no commentators, limited camera angles) a lot of the action spoke fine for itself and didn’t suffer as a result.

Here’s a rundown of the show.

Tiger Mask and Sho Tanaka VS The Young Bucks

This was another match pairing one of the young talents Tanaka with a veteran, Tiger Mask. The Young Bucks put Tanaka through his paces, hitting plenty of high spots. One involved a backbreaker on Tanaka, held in place while the other Buck slingshotted himself over the ropes to hit a leg drop. The Young Bucks ended the match by landing a tombstone piledriver assisted by an extra push after a leap off the top turnbuckle for the pin.

Mascara Dorada and Captain New Japan VS Cody Hall and Kenny “The Cleaner” Omega

This was a nice match featuring the two newest members of the Bullet Club, and a chance for Hall to get more experience of his own as opposed to being lost in the shuffle among a group of 3 or 4 Bullet Club members. It also featured the combatants who will compete in a singles match for the IGWP Jr. Heavyweight championship at Invasion Attack. Hall had an impressive outing, putting on an offensive that revolved around his size with lots of boots to his opponents. Captain New Japan seemed positioned to take the fall, but experience maintained its role as the determining factor and the babyfaces won when The Captain hit a sudden roll up on Hall from a downed position for the pin. He seemed more surprised than anyone else to get the victory.

Satoshi Kojima, Tenzan, and Ryohei Komatsu VS Yuji Nagata, Manabu Nakanishi, and Ryusuke Taguchi

This multiman tag team match did not hold much perspective on the Invasion Attack card, but it did feature one of the other up and comers, Ryohei Komatsu in action. It also featured two tag teams with a classic feud going back to the early 2000’s in Kojima and Tenzan on one side, and Nagata and Nakanishi on the other. During the match, Nagata and Nakanishi brought back some nostalgic battle cries from their prime as a team. Kojima and Tenzan showed no signs of dissension following the verbal and physical hostility that arose between them during the New Japan Cup shows. At one point, Ryohei got Taguchi into a crab submission and when Nakanishi appeared on the ring apron to break things up, the rookie hit a running boot to knock the veteran down. Taguchi hit plenty of rear-end based offense, eventually landing a finishing maneuver in which he lifts Komatsu from behind with both arms hooked, and then plants him facedown with a sit out slam to pick up the pin fall victory.

INTERMISSION……

As intermission set in, a series of promotional videos ran on a wide screen suspended above the ring entrance, which a camera honed in on and remained settled for the duration of the break. Among the content was a commercial for the New Japan World service…still 999 yen per month; interesting to see how this indispensable product is advertised in its native environment. The videos began with a pre-taped clip of Bullet Club’s Anderson and Luke ‘Doc’ Gallows welcoming the challenge of The Kingdom, with the two teams facing off a week later at Invasion Attack. Anderson made some lewd references to Kingdom valet, and Mike Bennet’s wife, Maria, as Gallows made sufficiently creepy tongue gestures. The Kingdom, being the team of Bennet, Matt Taven, and Maria Kanelis, fired back with their own prerecorded promo, talking about the victories they have achieved in Ring of Honor over the Young Bucks and, at the ROH 13^th Anniversary Show, one half of the Bullet Club in a 3 way tag team match that included the Addiction (Anderson represented the Bullet Club on his own, as Gallows had flight troubles keeping him from the show. A Roppongi Vice video also played, with the duo speaking of their penchant for embracing the city’s night life. In fact, the details of these videos were hard to discern due to a rather lacking sound quality, but for the benefit of those in the arena, and as a plus for those practicing Japanese at home, the Caucasian promos were subtitled. There was also a commercial for a mobile phone NJPW game, trading card game sets (Goto was in a shop buying them from store clerk Taguchi), a NJPW theme song CD (I wonder if the fact that these could be played when the audio for ring entrances is yanked off World for copyright reasons was a selling point?), an animated commercial for NJPW themed collectible mame-shiba (which translates as something like mini bean puppies) figures featuring Tanahashi and Nakamura, an ad for NJPW themed stamps for the LINE social networking APP featuring Toru Yano…And in case you missed any of that, they cycled through the entire rundown at least once more.

                                                                                                                     

Hiroki Goto and Kazuyori Shibata and Tomoaki Honma vs Karl Anderson and Luke ‘Doc’ Gallows and Toma Tonga

The announcement of this matchup held some promise of tension between Shibata and Honma, which was the story of their previous match on the last New Japan Cup show against Hall and Tonga. They remained on the same page throughout the match, though; perhaps Goto had sat them down and laid down some ground rules before the match. Tonga seemed like the ideal candidate for taking the loss, and he held true the role, although Honma could’ve also conceivably pinned to help make Anderson and Gallows look strong for their title defense against Ring Of Honor team The Kingdom at Invasion Attack.

The NJPW representatives got the advantage on Tonga. Honma went for his kokeshi headbutt off the top turnbuckle and missed, but Shibata followed up with the running penalty kick to a seated Tonga to pick up a pinfall victory for his team. During the match Honma had turned things around at one point with a crowd pleasing diving headbutt into Gallows, who was running off the ropes. There was also good chemistry between Honma and Anderson and it occurred that could be a very fun match; maybe during the next G1 Climax tournament. After the match tempers did flare between Shibata and Honma resulting in some shoving. Potential lies for the two of them to have a dynamic match as well.

Tomohiro Ishii, Shinsuke Nakamura, Toru Yano, and Ropongi Vice (Rocky Romero and Trent Barreta) Vs Togi Makabe, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Naito, and Time Splitters (KUSHIDA and Alex Shelley)

A couple of stories were unfolding amidst this rather packed multiman tag team match. The most tension would arise in the conflict between Ishii and Makabe, still feuding over the Never Openweight Title. Yano has gotten the better of Tanahashi, pinning him twice in a row in singles and tag team matches. And the match was an introduction to the newly formed tagteam of Romero formerly in Forever Hooligans) and Barreta, going under the name Ropongi Vice plus an official acknowledgment that the pair are wrestling as a part of the CHAOS faction. This was a very busy match, in which not a lot stood out. The lack of camera angles prevented lot of the action around the ring and outside of it from getting seen clearly. Ropongi Vice came to the ring to a funky hip hop tinged theme song that Romero apparently produced himself, previewing it earlier on the Talkin’ Shop podcast he hosts with Karl Anderson and ‘Doc’ Gallows. Yano pulled off a series of the irritating offensive on Tanahashi that has characterized their recent matches, namely grabbing Hiroshi’s hair from behind and yanking him to the mat when he attempted to run the ropes. Four of the members of CHAOS hit a powerful sequence of moves into Togi Makabe as the former Neverweight champion was in the corner, after which current champ Ishii hit him with a big powerbomb.

There was a lot of action between Time Splitters and Roppongi Vice featuring double teaming techniques. Things ended when Barreta held KUSHIDA in a suspended backdrop position, allowing Romero to hit a drop kick to KUSHIDA’s side, followed by Baretta dropping down and driving KUSHIDA’s head into the mat with legs hooked

 for the pinfall victory. Afterwards, Makabe and Ishii exploded into a physical confrontation that had to be broken up. Their feud will apparently continue into the foreseeable future, with both of them on either side of a six man tag team match on Invasion Attack.

Gedo, YOSHI HASHI, and Kazuchika Okada VS Yujiro Takahashi, ‘Bad Luck’ Fale, and AJ Styles

Here was a match-up between the two main factions of NJPW: CHAOS and the Bullet Club. It served as a precursor to Okada’s rematch against Fale, after losing to ‘Underboss’ in the opening round of the New Japan Cup ; that followed numerous interactions in tag team combinations, with Okada never managing to pin his towering adversary. It also gave a look at IWGP Heavyweight champion AJ Styles before he defends his title at Invasion Attack against Kota Ibushi. With Gedo having a far leser in-ring role than his partners, spending more time performing as a spokesman for Okada (and in the behind the scenes, determining the direction of the company) he was a shoe-in for the man to take the fall in this bout. Sure enough, Gedo took the Styles Clash from AJ for the Bullet Club to pick up the win and AJ to look strong heading toward his upcoming battle with Ibushi. Afterwards, AJ took the mic and asserted his, as well as Fale’s dominance at Invasion Attack. Often keeping a low profile as Anderson does the talking, this promo proved AJ to be quite assured and confident on the mic.

After Thoughts

Overall this was an entertaining show that moved at a brisker pace than many of the earlier ‘road to’ shows I’ve seen. The number of matches did not seem overwhelming, and there were not too any instances of matches being so overstuffed with wrestlers on either side that keeping track of who’s who becomes a nuisance. It was nice to have only one match with more than 3 wrestlers per team, and all of the matches contained one or more stories, thus a reason for happening.

A more clearly defined landscape has been emerging, in which you have NJPW talent and the two factions of the Bullet Club and CHAOS. Bullet Club is still the out and out heel group with CHAOS embracing some ‘in between’ tendencies. Yano, Nakamura, and the added CHAOS all have some heelish-ness to their tactics, to varying degrees, although the members of the group are too beloved to be booed. There is an interesting triangular dynamic of all 3 of these groups being embroiled with 1 another: Okada (CHAOS) going at it with Fale (Bullet Club), Tanahashi (NJPW) and Yano (CHAOS), and the teams of Goto/Shibata (NJPW) and Anderson/Gallows (Bullet Club).

It is interesting to see the ‘special attraction’ effect with wrestlers like Ibushi and Sakuraba not appearing regularly. In the case of Ibushi, though, if his other gig is the extreme wrestling based DDT promotion, I would much rather see him focusing his energy on NJPW so he could attain the greatest heights possible and reduce risk of injury.

I wonder about Nakamura and the apparent lack of a one-on-one program going into Invasion Attack. At once Ibushi seemed as though he would challenge for a rematch until he chose to use his New Japan Cup win to challenge Styles. With Okada taking on a diminished status coming out of Wrestle Kingdom, I wondered if Nakamura may be suited to lead a charge against the Bullet Club in a contest between the two factions to wipe the other out. Perhaps Naito will step up as the next challenger to Nakamura’s Intercontinental title. Both of them were on opposing sides of a match tonight and will face each other in the six man tag team match at Invasion Attacks. Naito seems to need a bit of something to make him feel like a truly major player, but he definitely has the potential, with a little tweeking, to challenge for a major title again.

Stay tuned for a preview of the Invasion Attack show April 5 and a report following the event.

Twitter: @MondocurryMARK

NJPW The Story So Far This Year part 3 Drink From the Cup

The New Japan Cup is an annual staple of the company's program, which features a single elimination tournament of non title holders, the winner of which gets an opportunity to challenge for any of the company's titles at the next major event. This year that will be Invasion Attack.

New Japan Road was an event added to NJPW World shot in the unspectacular manner of limited camera angles and no commentary accompaniment. There was no Bullet Club presence on the show, though some among their ranks would make a showing at the upcoming New Japan Cup shows.

The show was opened by the lions in training, Sho Tanaka and Yohei Komatsu. Tanaka won this one, causing Komatsu to tap out to a Boston Crab, that started with a single leg variation before both legs were secured.

Also of note, there was a good tag team match between Yuji Nagata and Captain New Japan and opponents Hiroki Goto and Kazuyori Shibata. Past matches involving Nagata and the team of Goto and Shibata have resulted in seriously heated exchange between Yuji and both members of the recently dethroned tagteam championship holding team. The match ended with Goto taking Nagata out of action with a sick looking lariat. Then Goto hit the Captain with his patented maneuver that flips his opponent out of a fireman's carry driving the back of the skull into his knee. This set up for Shibata to hit a nasty penalty kick to the Captain's chest and pick up the pin.

CHAOS was represented strongly in the two final matches: First Okada and YOSHI-HASHI beat the team of Naito and Taguchi, with Okada hitting the Rainmaker lariat on the previous Junior Heavyweight champion. Then, Nakamura, Ishii and Yano fought the ragtag combination of Tanahashi, Makabe and Honma. This was a very good match with Honma mounting impressive offense on the 'King of Strongstyle' near the end, including a flying kokeshi headbutt to the chest. The onslaught was broken up by an Ishii lariat, allowing Nakamura to eventually hit a running bomaye knee to the skull of Honma for the win.

New Japan Cup day 1

The March 5 show featured the opening round tournament bouts, which went at a rather brisk pace, surrounded by a mix of multi-man tagteam matches. The show opened with newcomers Jay White and Yohei Komatsu, KUSHIDA, and Liger taking on Mascara Dorada, Tiger Mask, Rysuke Taguchi, and the fledgling Sho Tanaka. Macara Dorada continued his impressive showing with a corkscrew dive off the top rope onto Jay White for his team's win. Several first round tournament matches followed.

Bullet Club member Yujiro Takahashi defeated CHAOS' youngest member YOSHI-HASHI. Makabe defeated his stand-in at the NEW BEGINNING show, Honma with a brutal performance of his King Kong knee drop from the top turnbucke that landed scarily close to Honma's neck. When watching NJPW strongstyle wrestling, the physicality makes it easy to suspend disbelief and sometimes the reality of the action is impossible to deny. Here I would speculate if some genuine aggression was on display: disappointment at Honma's loss to Ishii, that would make sense as part of storyline, or irritation at Honma having such a great standout performance in his match for the Never title when he was just serving as a replacement for Makabe. The pain Honma sold after the match made me really question whether some unnecessary harm was carried out, or are these guys just that good at simulating credible athletic violence?  

Shibata defeated Kojima in a match where both of these guys hit each other with very hard hitting offense. Shibata won with a gift to fans of CM Punk and Hideo Itami/Kenta, first applying a sleeper hold to bring Kojima to near unconsciousness; then hoisting him up for a stiff looking GTS followed by a kick to the side of his head. Shibata's tag team partner Goto would defeat Nagata in good match, with Goto landing another one of his patented moves, lifting his opponent into a vertical suplex position and then swinging him forward to collapse under a neckbreaker-like move.

The tournament action would be broken up by another multi-man tagteam match pitting the members of CHAOS holding titles, Nakamura and Ishii, along with Sakuraba who here again would be included in the faction's ranks. They took on Captain New Japan, veteran Nakanishi (who used to be in a popular tag team with Yuji Nagata, but has held up far less well than the Anti Aging Hero), and Tenzan. What I recalled most from this match is Nakanishi landing some very difficult to believe offense on Nakamura, who could run circles around the lacking in mobility old timer. Ishii put down the Captain with a brainbuster and the pin. After the match there was some tension teased by Tenzan and Ishii, but it would follow that Tenzan, a popular veteran likely close to his end run, is inviting confrontation with more than one of his peers.

Back in the tournament, the high flying Ibushi and Naito defeated Bullet Club bullies 'Doc' Gallows and Karl Anderson respectively in their first round matches. Next would come two seemingly unlikely results. Tanahashi would lose to the far less agile CHAOS member, Yano, known for getting by with heelish techniques like low blows and tearing off the turnbuckle mats to slam opponents into the post back first, landed several very close pin attempts from out of nowhere. Then, he blocked a move by Tanahashi and yanked the former Heavyweight champion down by the hair, cradling him into an embarrassing pinfall victory.


Kazuchika Okada and 'Bad Luck' Fale had their first round match in the main event, and it was a match built to by several confrontations amidst tag team matches. This seemed like the moment Okada would gain retribution for failing to take down the Bullet Club heavy, but it would not come to be quite yet. Fale dodged a Rainmaker lariat and took out the fan favorite with a Samoan Spike finisher. The Bullet Club home team - AJ Styles and The Young Bucks presently doing ROH and presumably some indie shows in the US - would stand triumphantly in the ring with Anderson promising the tournament would be won by Fale. Here was an interesting move by the company, taking out its two top stars, promising to either put the tournament in the hands of next generation talent or the mega heel faction that dominated the one of the previous shows.


twitter = @mondocurrymark

NJPW: The Story So Far This Year Part 2 Back to the NEW BEGINNING

Following Fantastica Mania, NJPW's momentum picked up as it moved towards promotion of its next big events: THE NEW BEGINNING comprising of shows in Sendai and Osaka, and the New Japan Cup, which features a tournament whose victor can go on to challenge for any championship in the promotion at midyear event Invasion Attack. 

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

The Road to THE NEW BEGINNING consisted of 3 dates leading up to the major 2-day show. The first of these was presented unspectacularly without commentary and primarily from only two camera angles. In the opening match, Alex Shelly of Time Splitters defeated newcomer Jay White, another 'young boy' training in the NJPW dojo of Western descent. 

Yohei Komatsu, another 'young boy' who would appear in a series of matches against counterpart Sho Tanaka, would face half of reDRagon, Kyle O'Reilly. O'Reilly was victorious without breaking too much of a sweat.

Mascara Dorada would team with the other half of Time Splitters, Kushida, to take on the Young Bucks. The Young Bucks won with an impressive driver move carried out with assisted jumping forced applied from the ropes. A few multi-man matches would ensue, the most significant ones being those that promoted the upcoming matches between AJ Styles and Tanahashi, and Nakamura vs Nagata. In the former Tanahashi partnered with Heavyweight tag team champions Goto and Shibata, plus Taguchi defeated the Bullet Club members Anderson, Gallows, Toma Tonga and Kenny Omega, with Tanahashi delivering a statement a la AJ Style's finisher, the Styles Clash, followed by the High Fly Flow onto Tongha for the win.  Meanwhile, Nakamura would team with CHAOS comrades Ishii, Toru Yano, and YOSHI-HASHI to go up against Nagata, Makabe, Tomaki Honma, and Naito. Nagata scored the pin on YOSHI-HASHI with a backdrop suplex held into a pinning position. 

Okada would team with his hypeman and fellow CHAOS member, though one who has not seen much recent in-ring action, Gedo, to take on Fale and Takashi Yujiro, during which Okada showed signs of fatigue against the usually nonthreatening members of Bullet Club. Yujiro hit his unique finisher, something of a rack into a twisting backdrop, for the win as Okada tried unsuccessfully to shake Fale off on the outside of the ring. 

Day 2 of The Road opened with the two Japanese 'young boys' Tanaka and Yohei challenging reDRagon. reDRagon won decisively, showing off their impressive double team maneuvers.

Honma and Naito took on the newly paired Yano and Sakuraba, the latter being a veteran of mixed martial arts whose arsenal consists mainly of kicking strikes and take downs. Sakuraba would appear in teams involving members of CHAOS, making it possible that he is acting as a member of the group, whose members are not always representing themselves as a cohesive unit anyway.

Okada continued his program with Fale in another tag team scenario, this time with Yano on Okada's side, and Toma Tonga representing Bullet Club along with Fale. Okay would fall further into decline, taking the pin and loss to Fale's power bomb finisher. 

In a match that neatly conjoined two NEW BEGINNING singles matches into one, CHAOS members and friends Nakamura and Ishii took on challengers to each of their respective titles Nagata and Makabe. All four of these competitors would have a lot at stake at the NEW BEGINNING events. Keeping things interesting, it was Nagata who scored a pin on champion Nakamura with another back drop bomb into a tightly rolled up pin. 

Tanahashi would promote his upcoming match against Styles alongside the tag team champions Goto and Shinto against a Bullet Club trio of Gallows, Anderson, and Yujiro, with AJ again not on the card. Tanahashi would score the win building momentum for his title defense, with another Styles Clash followed by a High Fly Flow splash from the top for the win. 

The last day on The Road featured a lot of multi-man tag team combinations, making day 2 the show that best built excitement for the upcoming New Beginning shows.Out of day 3, it's worth noting that Okada has continued on a losing streak, although not taking the pin directly. Once again, Fale kept him at bay on the outside as this time Toma Tonga scored a pin on Okada's partner, Gedo. Tanahashi and Taguchi would win in a tag team match against Yujiro and Omega when Tanahashi hit the High Fly Flow on Yujiro. Nakamura would lead his CHAOS conglomerate to a victory over Nagata, Naito, Makabe and Captain New Japan when Nakamura hit a running bomaye kick into the Captain's head for the win.

At this point, the absence of members of the Suzuki-Gun heel faction led by Minoru Suzuki, whose Wrestle Kingdom 9 match ended in victory over Sakuraba, Desperado, Shelton Benjamin, Davy Boy Smith Jr. and Lance Archer who team as The Killer Elite Squad, cruiserweight competitors TAI-CHI and former WWE wrestler TAKA Michinoku, and wild man Takashi Iizuka. They did not appear at the Road or NEW BEGINNING shows, having been busy taking a central role in an invasion angle in the Japanese promotion NOAH. Suzuki will challenge for the heavyweight championship against Naomichi Marufuji, as Killer Elite Squad take on NOAH's tag team champions hailing from Australia, Mikey Nichols and Shane Haste (TMDK). The angle would be previewed during Wrestle Kingdom 9 when Marufuji, Nichols, Haste, and Toru Yano defeated Suzuki Gun's Iizuka, Benjamin, Archer, and Smith.  

BACK TO THE BEGINNING 

THE NEW BEGINNING in Osaka was characterized by The Bullet Club grabbing a groundswell of momentum, sweeping the card with victories. This was their show, with all of the group's matches concentrated onto this show, with the second prong of the event featuring Japanese talent.

Jushin Thunder Liger and fellow veteran Tension would preview their title defenses of the NWA belts they have won against NWA heel wrestlers Chase Owens and Rob Conway. Represented by the shiny suit wearing NWA 'sacho' (president) Bruce Tharpe, the heels won the victory, suggesting the baby faces are on the rocks when they defend their respective titles a few days later.

Honma and Ibushi had a great match, which Ibushi won unsurprisingly, keeping his momentum up with the possibility of an intercontinental title rematch looming in the distance.

An excellent three way tag team match for the Junior heavyweight tag team titles, which was basically a rematch from Wrestle Kingdom sans Forever Hooligans, found the belts changing hands and going to the Young Bucks, marking the first title win for the Bullet Club of the night. It was an excellent match, given more time than on the Wrestle Kingdom show. The pin was scores on Kushida of Time Splitters, meaning a reDRagon member was never pinned, which keeps their feud with the Young Bucks hot, even as it spills over into Ring of Honor in the US.

Ryusuke Taguchi would attempt to win the junior heavyweight title back from Bullet Club member Kenny Omega, but fall short in a match that I found disappointing among the other bouts join the card, and compared to their first match at Wrestle Kingdom. In short, the match was marred by too much comedy. A lot of it was related to rear ends, Taguchi has already made a jumping thrust of the backside a major part of his oeuvre, and the attempt to poke a Bullet Club flag's pole into the opponent's undefended orifice. Thanks but no thanks. Both these guys ought to scale back on the silliness a bit. As a result, I did not at all mind the post-match assault by "The Cleaner" and Young Bucks in which Omega hoisted Taguchi up, the Jackson brothers jumped from the turnbuckle to deliver a double pile driver like maneuver. The former champion was left as though facing serious injury. Cushier, Shelley and Mascarada Dorado hit the ring to assist Taguchi. Dorada would throw down a challenge to Omega for the Junior Heavyweight title, and this showdown would carry over into a match at the Sendai show.

Okada and Fale went at it again, with a six-man tag team match as the backdrop. On team CHAOS Toru Yano and Sakuraba joined the fight, while the Bullet Club was rounded out by Toma Tonga and Yujiro Takahashi. Here, Okada showed signs of recovery. Although reeling for a good part of the match, he hit the Rainmaker clothesline on Tonga for the win. 

Shinsuke and CHAOS members IShii and YOSHI-HASHI,  faced his challenger in Osaka, Yuji Nagata with the team of fellow veteran Satoshi Kojima and Naito. Here the main players did not gain a leg up on one another. a bloodied Naito scored the pin on YOSHI-HASHI. 

In a bit of a surprise, the Bullet Club heavies Karl Anderson and 'Doc' Gallows won the tag team championship belts back from Goto and Shibata after they enjoyed a very short run as champions. This result seemed a little suspect, as if it was part of a master plan to make the Bullet Club look strong as they enter the international waters of Ring of Honor. Will talk the potential implications of this further in, but it should be noted both teams looked great here. They had a lot more time to develop a story than in their clearly rushed match at Wrestle Kingdom. I'm hoping a rematch happens with a title changing hands and going back to Goto and Shibata for a lengthier run.

That match provided a bit of foreshadowing for the main event, in which AJ Styles defeated Tanahashi for their first time in their series of matches, regaining his title after losing it to Tanahashi in the aftermath of the 2014 G1 Climax tournament. It was not the most graceful of matches, but was hard fought and emphasized the numbers advantage held by the Bullet Club. However, there was far less outside interference than in Styles' challenges to Okada when he held the Heavyweight title. A high spot involved Tanahashi delivering a high fly flow splash to all members of the Bullet Club on the outside, in the middle of which Tanahashi bumped heads with an inconveniently placed Young Buck, leading to a fair amount of bleeding as Tanahashi struggled to stay afloat. AJ Styles ended the match with a really sharp looking Bloody Sunday, followed by Styles Clash.

THE NEW BEGINNING in Sendai found Fish and O'Reilly taking out their frustration of losing their titles as reDRagon on the previous show in a match against Jay White and the historically iconic crusierweight Tiger Mask. 

 

An interesting six-man tag team match pitted Bullet Club high flyers The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega against Time Splitters and Mascara Dorada. Dorada pinned Omega, and after the match, the two continued to build heat around a title match.

Liger and Tenzan would both defend their respective titles, keeping the NWA challengers at bay and leaving a fluorescent jacketed Bruce Tharpe howling mad. 

This was followed by an intermission featuring an interview segment with the challenger in the main event Yuji Nagata. Some notes about Nagata are due at this point. He is one of the old guard in the company right now, but among them, he is most able to go at it at a high level of competition. Hence, he has taken on the moniker of the 'Anti-aging Hero.'  His offense includes heavy hitting boots to the head and kicking strikes, an armbar submission hold during which Nagata's eyes roll back to reveal a demonic furor (here commentators will often yell 'kami-sama' translating to 'a god!'),  and a backdrop hold that keeps an opponent locked into a pinned position. Some might recall Nagata during his modest run in WCW back in the days of NWO supremacy where he was a baby face that experienced moderate success. Since then he has been IWGP Heavyweight champion, and a heavyweight tag team champion along with Manabu Nakanishi among others. Nakanishi and their rivals Tenzan and Kojima, all of whom are still wrestling but not at the level of Nagata, would appear at ringside to show their support. 

Following the break, the team of Yano and Sakuraba faced off against the faster moving of the heavyweight division, Ibushi and Naito. This time, Naito scored another pin fall, catching Yano in a cradle after the CHAOS member had landed a low blow and attempted a rollup of his own.  

Okada and YOSHI-HASHI took on 'Bad Luck' Fale and Yujiro of the Bullet Club again, this time 

The feud between the Bullet Club's Anderson, Gallows, and Toma Tonga and the losers in Osaka Tanahashi, Goto and Shibata continued with Tanahashi regaining his footing from the loss the night before, hitting a High Fly Flow on Toma Tonga for his team to pick up the victory.   

Next a surprising blast of a match occurred between Ishii and Honma. Scheduled to be Ishii challenging for the Never title against Makabe, Makabe had to withdraw and vacate the title due to a sudden bout of influenza, causing the belt to go back to Ishii and for him to defend against Honma. Honma has not been one to make light of an opportunity and, as when he replaced the injured Ibushi in the 2014 G1 Climax tournament, here he performed stunningly. The two had a brutal battle of forearm strikes, head buts and clothe-lines, which ended with a devastating brain buster delivered by Ishii for the win. Honma's attack consists of numerous variations on a kokeshi, or flying headbutt. A truly dizzying spot saw Honma deliver the headbutt from the top rope onto a fallen Ishii on the outside of the ring. In this match, Honma also incorporated a flying headbutt into Ishii as he was running the ropes. The match showed Tomoaki Hoinma is full of promise and could have big things ahead. 

In the main event, Nagata and Nakamura battled it out in a great match filled with taunts, slaps, and vicious kicks. In the end, a series of Nakamura's bomaye running kicks secured the win.

Next time: The New Japan Cup

twitter: @mondocurrymark

 

 

 

NJPW: The Story So Far This Year Part 1

Since entering the NJPW World, the streaming service that gives viewers access to the most current live events as well as a storehouse of archival footage from throughout the promotion's 43 year history, I've been meaning to find a way to catch up with recent activity, and hopefully continue to document the course that the premiere wrestling company is chartering into the future.

The January 4 Wrestle Kingdom show is a good jumping off point, as many non-World subscribers are likely to have seen that show broadcast on PPV in the US, or  in other parts of the world on an APP called Flipz. though the operation of the latter was severely hindered by an unprecedented number of customers streaming the event. Others may have watched the event by way of illegal torrenting, another avenue by which the event generated a historic volume of traffic.

When Wrestle Kingdom 9 ended, most of the company's standings remained the same as it had been going into the event. ReDRagon successfully defended their IGWP (International Wrestling Grand Prix) tag team titles in a 4-way match against The Young Bucks, Time Splitters, and Forever Hooligans (the team of Rocky Romero and Alex Koslov, which due to a need for Koslov to take time away, went inactive soon after). Shinsuke Nakamura retained the IWGP intercontinental championship against the hard driving upstart Kota Ibushi, a former IWGP Junior Heavyweight champion with a lot of momentum going for him, in what has been widely considered a very early contender for match of the year. Hiroshi Tanahashi successfully defended the IWGP Heavyweight championship against Kazuchika Okada, a result that surprised many as a win for Okada would help cement him as the top star of the company since Tanahashi is a veteran closer to the end of his reign than the beginning.

Then there were changes. Hiroki Goto and Katsuyori Shibata, a team with a storied past of close alliances and feuds, won the IGWP Heavyweight tag team titles from Bullet Club mainstays Karl Anderson and 'Doc' Gallows after the members of the popular heel faction held onto the belts through a lengthy title run. Fellow Bullet Club member Kenny Omega, flaunting his newly minted "Cleaner" persona, snatched the IWGP Junior heavyweight championship from Ryusuke Taguchi. The Never Openweight title, a championship created by NJPW to showcase new talent unsigned to long term contracts, changed hands as Togi Makabe defeated Tomohiro Ishii, currently a member of the faction CHAOS whose successful run in the company is nearly synonymous with his possession of the Never title.

THE DAY AFTER

The action in Japan did not end there for those with access to NJPW World, as a next day followup show, NEW YEAR DASH, quickly appeared on on the site's live show menu. In a much smaller venue, the event mostly consisted of 6 and 8-man tag team matches, the company's default mode of incorporating its range of talent in in-ring activity to tease and promote major matches on the horizon.

The Junior tag team championship program split in two, with ReDRagon defeating Koslov and Romero, and the combined team of Time Splitters and Taguchi defeating the three cruiserweights of the Bullet Club, The Young Bucks and Kenny "The Cleaner Omega." Justin Thunder Liger, arguably the most recognizable icon of NJPW, defended the NWA World Junior Heavyweight title against Suzuki Gun stable member El Desperado.

In an upset victory, Bullet Club members Bad Luck Fale (Fa-leh) defeated Okada and CHAOS stablemate Toru Yano, with Okada being pinned by the physically imposing Fale in what seemed like a move to send Okada on a downward spiral since his loss in the Wrestle Kingdom main event. The main event combined several of the match-ups from the previous night in an eight man tag team contest with Bullet Club members Aj Styles, Anderson, Gallows and Yujiro Takahashi on one side, and Tanahashi, new heavyweight tag team champions Goto and Shibata, and Tetsuya Naito on the other. AJ Styles, who had won the night before in an impressive match against Naito, scored the pin setting up for him to issue a challenge to Tanahashi for the Heavyweight title. Another notable aspect of the match found the Bullet Club announcing Cody Hall, son of NWO charter member Scott Hall, as the group's new official 'young boy,' a term for the rookies who are in service to a particular group of wrestlers. At first, it would seem an amusing degradation angle might ensue, as Hall appeared in ring gear replicating that of his father in somewhat mocking fashion. But later outings would find the second generation newcomer held in high regard by his sempai peers.

In the most dynamic match and the one with the most interesting fallout, Makabe, Ibushi, and winner of a gauntlet style match that kicked off the NJPW World broadcast of Wrestle Kingdown, Yuji Nagata, faced CHAOS members Ishii, Nakamura, and YOSHI-HASHI. During the match, Ibushi and Nakamura rekindled a generous amount of the heat between them in their title match the night before, and included an unforgettable double jumping stomp by Ibushi onto Nakamura's forehead. The match ended with veteran Nagata defeating the youngest participant in the match and CHAOS' weakest link, YOSHI-HASHI. He would then step up and challenge 'The King of Strongstyle' to a match for his Intercontinental title.

ARRIBA FANTASTICA!

The next event to be streamed on World was an interesting detour that teamed NJPW up with well established Mexican wrestling organization CMLL. In its annual hosting of a series of dates called FANTASTICA MANIA that highlight its lucha libre counterpart, the events featured both inter-promotion matches and bouts that advanced programs between some of the Mexican pro wrestlers. Upon singing up for World, I was enthusiastic about the prospect of catching up on Japanese pro wrestling and not thinking beyond that, yet along comes this great opportunity to get a glimpse into the world of Mexican lucha libre, one that I've rarely looked in upon. Consisting of a tour spanning several days, the offering on World included two dates, January 18 and 19.

The first Fantastic Mania card was of the more modest variety, and among the more interesting matches, the tag team of Kushida of Time Splitters and CMLL luchador Triton faced CMLL heels Okumura and Barbaro Cavernario (rocking a full on stone age neanderthal gimmick). The aftermath of the match found Cavernario antagonizing a CMLL wrestler at ringside, Rey Cometa, setting up for a singles match to occur between the two on night 2.

The Bullet Club took a breather for the most part, but Yujiro Takahashi came out to introduce Mephisto and name him an honorary member. It seemed to be a counterintuitive move, as Mephisto in his full body Batman-esque bodysuit did not come off as cool, or a heel for that matter, considering  how over he was with the crowd. No matter, it didn't seem to have much bearing long term. He would take the victory in a match with fellow CMLL star Stuka, Jr.

Taguchi and Naito would play defacto heels, teaming with CMLL villain La Sombra to defeat Captain New Japan, Mascara Don, and Mascara Dorada (who would appear against La Sombra in a far more impressive singles match outing the next day). Taguchi would play up his goofier comedic side, donning a clunky sphinx mask/headpiece through a good portion of the match and striking a mystifying zen-like pose, forming a circle between thumb and 1 finger on each hand. It was also entertaining to see top stars Tanahashi and CHAOS representatives Okada and Nakamura mix it up on either side of trios teams along with the latest incarnation of Mistico (the former going on to be the former Sin Cara of WWE, before heading back to Mexico to work for AAA as Myzteziz), Stigma, and Polvora. Tanahashi and his masked partners won the match. This night was headlined by a bout between CMLL mainstays Ultimo Guerrero and Atlantis, which Guerrero with much support from the Japanese crowd, won.

Day 2 contained a few highlights for me. First was the singles match between Barbaro Cavernaria and Rey Cometa. Barbara won after a hard-hitting match in which a grudge between the two competitors was convincingly carried out, both in and out of the ring. Another large eight-man tag team match found Tanahashi and Ibushi defeating Nakamura, Okada along with Gran and Ultimo Guerrero. The Guerrero's had a lot of support from the fans here, a true attraction for the lucha fans in attendance.

Last of all, a match that combined the best of the high flying lucha style and compelling storytelling was a bout between La Sombra and Mascara Dorada. La Sombra got the victory after both competitors put on an amazing display of technical skill and unthinkable feats of agility. It's a match well worth seeking out clocking in at just under 20 minutes and it is worth noting that Mascara Dorada has since been signed to NJPW, and is already gunning for a title match against Junior heavyweight champion Kenny Omega.

End part 1. Part 2 will continue with a look at New Japan Road and the beginning of the New Japan Cup.