Puroresu Show Reviews

Wrestle Kingdom Grand Opening VIENTO DORADO: Mistico, Ryusuke Taguchi & Prince DeVitt VS Averno, Jado & Gedo
More of a showcase match to introduce Mistico to the Japanese fans. I thought the New Japan guys were more impressive than the CMLL crew since they didn’t really do anything that we haven’t seen before by other junior heavyweights in other promotions. And since it was the lucha style, there were more than a few awkward moments that broke the pace of the match since they would just stand around to play to the crowd before continuing the match.
Match Rating: *

Jushin Thunder Liger 20th Anniversary Match: Jushin Thunder Liger & Takuma Sano VS Koji Kanemoto & Wataru Inoue
Sano was really out of place in the match, and they teased how Liger & Sano couldn’t seem to function as a team since there were a few miss-timed spots that ended with them hitting each other. It was an ok match, but Liger’s 20th anniversary match deserved better than to be buried on the undercard of a big show like this.
Match Rating: *

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Titles: NO LIMIT (Yujiro & Tetsuya Naito) [C] VS The Motor City Machineguns (Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley)
Note to NJPW: If TNA are ever stupid enough to release the ‘Guns, you guys better sign them to contract! Seriously! The ‘Guns totally overshadowed NO LIMIT here as they wowed the crowd with their tandem offense and flashy speed based offense. I just hope the fact that they actually won the titles here and have been back to Japan several times since is a sign of New Japan’s interest in the duo as great workers, as compared to TNA who really have no idea what to do with them.
Match Rating: ***1/2

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title: Low Ki [C] VS Tiger Mask
I liked that Tiger kicked out of the Ki Krusher at the beginning of the match since he was still fresh, but I hated how after taking all the punishment from Ki that he did throughout the match that he only suddenly needed THREE moves to put him away and win the belt! A release half tiger suplex, followed by a tiger suplex-hold for a near fall and a bizarre half tiger, wrist clutch between the legs suplex hold for the win.
I think Ki deserved better, and it’s no wonder many of the IWC are hating on Tiger.
Match Rating: **

Fighting Holdings Competition: Riki Choshu, Masahiro Chono, Kurt Angle & Kevin Nash VS Karl “Machinegun” Anderson, Tomohiro Ishii, Takashi Izuka & Giant Bernard
I know Nash is broken down and his move set is down to just 2 moves now (not counting punches & kicks), but I was actually expecting to see more Nash VS Bernard action. Nothing riles up the crowd more than 2 big men going at it. The whole match was probably more about setting up the aftermath where Bernard laid out Angle with the Bernard Driver after Angle took the win with the ankle lock.
Long story short, this was the match on the card that was thrown together to get the rest of the roster onto the card, plus two TNA guys who don’t really need the exposure. It served it’s purpose in that regard.
Match Rating: *1/2

Zero-One World Heavyweight Title – Crusade for Justice: Yuji Nagata [C] VS Masato Tanaka
Take two rival promotions, put a belt on the line, and throw in a lot of HATE, and you get an awesome match! This is how you make a blood feud! Both men bleeding and still tearing into each other with all they got. I think my only complaint was that it was a bit on the short side, and maybe they could have let Tanaka kick out of a few more near falls during the ending sequence to build up even more drama, but other than that, still a fantastic match and the first one of the night to really bring the crowd alive.
Match Rating: ****
Click Here to watch highlights from this match.

New Japan VS NOAH Battle Tendencies – The Invasion: Manabu Nakanishi VS Jun Akiyama
Nakanishi’s power VS Akiyama’s cunning, and they put on a passable match based around the amateur backgrounds of both men, though amateur wrestling didn’t play into the match itself. Best spot of the match was when Nakanishi lifted Akiyama off the mat while he had him in a front neck lock and slammed him down on the mat. Akiyama escapes the Argentine Backbreaker and lays in a barrage of Exploders before taking down the big gorilla with a wrist-clutch Exploder.
Match Rating: **
Click Here to watch highlights from this match.

IWGP Tag Team Titles – Hardcore Rules: Most Violence Players (Togi Makabe & Toru Yano) [C] VS Team 3D (Brother Ray & Brother Devon)
The match that featured the infamous "bouncing" diving headbutt, where Devon does a diving headbutt and comes short by about a foot, but his impact bounces him off the mat to reach his target! It's pretty obvious that without the hardcore gimmick, Team 3D would be pulling off the worst tag matches in Japan. How these two got so lazy is beyond me, and it doesn't help that Ray likes doing comedy spots while working in Japan. Makabe & Yano really should have won this one, but then again NJPW have shown almost zero interest in getting their belts back from TNA Team 3D won the belts here.
And what is up with those kindergaren tables they used here? Did New Japan have to slash the budget to save on expenses that they couldn't afford adult sized tables to be used in the match???
Match Rating: **

New Japan VS NOAH Battle Tendencies – The Encounter: Shinsuke Nakamura & Hirooki Goto VS Mitsuharu Misawa & Takashi Sugiura
Unfortunately this would be the last time we hear Misawa's name chanted in the Tokyo Dome. But it was a heck of a match! Even though limited, you could see Misawa was doing all he could for the match. But the star of the match was easilly Sugiura who carried most of the work load for his team. And it still amazes me how Nakamura does that flying cross-armbreker of his, though he probably over did his post match celebration when he won it for his team.
Match Rating: ****1/4
*Match Highlight clip coming soon*

IWGP Heavyweight Title: Keiji Mutoh [C] VS Hiroshi Tanahashi
If you like the dragon screw leg whip, you'll just LOVE this match, as at least 80% of the offense in the match consisted of that one move from various angles and positions. People might complain about Kobashi and his use of the chops, but this was downright ridiculous! At least Tanahashi remembered to sell the knee throughout the match, but Muto really needs to find some other structure to his matches other than countless dragon screws and Shining Wizards with a figure four tossed in here and there.
Match Rating: **

Overall: It was a great show from top to bottom with more good than bad. Definitely worth checking out.

Labels: AJPW, NJPW, NOAH

Akihiko Ito VS Takashi Okita
A good showing for both youngsters. Okita looks a lot like Tomohiro Ishii, and he has a nice spear tackle and a Jackhammer which he should be finishing people off with soon. He'll definitely be a good heavyweight prospect after a few years of work. I'm also still a big fan of Ito and love seeing his progression.
I thought it was a nice touch by the referee to not count the 3 when Okita didn't land properly from Ito's full-nelson suplex, and Ito had to do the move again to get it right for the 3 count.
Match Rating: *1/2

Masao Inoue & Genba Hirayanagi VS Mitsuo Momota & Masashi Aoyagi
Momota is wearing red tonight, matching Aoyagi. The usual comedy antics and slapfests ensue, and Inoue pulls out the win with a very weak looking pin on Momota. Would have been better if they gave Genba the rub of scoring the pin.
Match Rating: 1/2*

Mitsuharu Misawa, Yoshinari Ogawa & Atsushi Aoki VS Yoshihiro Takayama, Takuma Sano & Takashi Sugiura
Standard six-man warfare, with emphasis on Aoki getting to show what he's got. I liked the spot where Takayama blocked Ogawa's eye-poke and gave him one of his own! Everybody now seems weary to avoid Sano sobat kick, and Misawa didn't do much in this one. There was a good pop for Aoki when he kicked out of a big powerbomb by Sano, but fell to the Northern Lights Bomb seconds later.
Match Rating: *

Akira Taue & Akitoshi Saito VS Jun Akiyama & Takeshi Rikioh
This was an entertaining match, with good work from all four men, but I thought Taue deserved better the way Rikioh pinned him with a rather sloppy Muso.
Match Rating: **1/2

Takeshi Morishima VS Katsuhiko Nakajima
The match only went nine minutes, but I still feel Morishima gave Nakajima too much offense here. Sure Nakajima was smaller and faster, but even he shouldn't be recovering so quickly from a DDT on the concrete floor to take back control! Seeing Nakajima German suplex Morishima is always impressive though. Two big lariats and a backdrop suplex later, and Morishima gets the win.
Match Rating: **

2/3 Falls: KENTA & Taiji Ishimori VS Naomichi Marufuji & Ricky Marvin
Marufuji & KENTA did the more high-impact stuff, while Marvin & Ishimori did the speedy flippy stuff. It was surprising that Marufuji scored the first fall over KENTA, followed by KENTA scoring the second fall over Marufuji. And the final fall was Ishimori going over Marvin with a modified cradle.
I liked Marvin heeling the crowd of fangirls was cheering for the pretty boys in the match. Definitely a few missed spots in this one, but all 4 men put in good work here for an entertaining match.
Match Rating: ***

GHC Jr. Tag Team Titles: Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Kotaro Suzuki [C] VS Yujiro & Tetsuya Naito
Yujiro & Naito look like heavyweights compared to the NOAH champions! They weren't even treated as heel outsiders as there was a loud group of fangirls cheering for them throughout the match! Too bad Kanemaru or Suzuki didn't heel it up a bit by yelling at the fangirls like Marvin did in the 2/3 falls match. Having the champions be the face team against an outsider team that was getting cheered more than them just didn't work.
With that said, I actually had a hard time watching this match. For some reason NO LIMIT just weren't as interesting to watch here compared to seeing them in NJPW. I guess it didn't help that they didn't do anything to stand out and be considered a threat to the champions. Being the outsider team, even they didn't try to heel things up to get some heat. Things picked up by the end, with the champions retaining after Kanemaru pinned Naito with the Touch Out, but overall I didn't think the match was anything special.
Match Rating: ***

GHC Heavyweight Championship: Kensuke Sasaki [C] VS Mohammed Yone
Give them credit for starting this off different from other title matches, as Yone attacked Sasaki backstage and dragged him out to the arena! Sasaki was able to regain control though, and it took a while to convince Joe Higuchi to start the match without the official title match declaration and introductions!
One of the major complaints I have about this match was that they went overkill having Kensuke kick out of TWO Muscle Busters! And this was after Yone had already given him one out on the floor earlier in the match! Sure it might have built up a big hope spot for Yone, but kicking out of the move twice just cheapens the effectiveness of the finisher, like what they do all the time in Dragon Gate. Yone also seemed to have lousy facial expressions to sell the shock of Sasaki kicking out of his finisher, and some points he even did a lousy job of selling Sasaki's lariats! Heck, Sasaki did a better version of the Muscle Buster than Yone, making it look more like a fisherman's brainbuster before putting him away with the Northern Lights Bomb to retain.
Yone put up a good fight, but he looked nowhere near being a main event challenger. The overkill of his finisher not working didn't help either.
Match Rating: **1/2

Labels: Kensuke Office, NJPW, NOAH

Kento Miyahara Debut Match ~ A New Dream: Kento Miyahara vs Seiya Sanada
Kensuke Office rookie vs All Japan rookie. Good new blood match, but I felt it went a little too long. Sanada wins with a high-angle Boston crab after hitting a high-angle backbreaker.

Takashi Okita Debut Match ~ A New Dream: Takashi Okita VS Takeshi Minaminao
Minaminao is an Ultimo Dragon student, and Okita is an ex-American football player. This one also felt like it went longer than necessary with Minaminao finally putting away the rookie with a Swanton bomb.

Catfish Yume no Holy Land: Catfishman, Catfishman & Catfishman VS Kikutaro, Magnitude Kishiwada & Boso Boy Raito
Fun little comedy match with these bizzare Catfishmen. Nothing much really stood out for me in this one.

Katsuhiko Nakajima Return Match ~ Future Dream First Confrontation: Katsuhiko Nakajima VS Ryuji Yamaguchi
Fun cometitive match between the returning Nakajima and rookie Yamaguchi. These two folded each other in half several times with backdrops and Germans before Nakajima hit a moonsault press to take the match.
Match Rating: *1/2

Under the Name of Dream: Kensuke Sasaki, Genichiro Tenryu, Yoshihiro Takayama & Minoru Suzuki VS Shinjiro Ohtani, Yutaka Yoshie, Akitoshi Saito & Toshiaki Kawada
A fun all star main event where everyone got to hit their spots. They even teased Suzuki heeling Kensuke when he broke up a cover Kensuke had on Ohtani! There were a lot of fun strike exchanges too and I really loved Tenryu acting like he broke his hand when he smacked Kawada on the cheek with a guh punch! Finish came with Tenryu hitting the 53-Years Old on Saito, followed by a Northern Lights Bomb from Kensuke and the Everast German Suplex-hold by Takayama for the win.
Match Rating: ***1/2

Michiyoshi Ohara and Tatsutoshi Gotoh attacked Kensuke after the match. Where were all of Kensuke's friends then?

Overall: Fun show and worth a look for the two main events.

Labels: AJPW, Kensuke Office, NJPW, NOAH, Zero-1 MAX

I really liked the opening video they used, showing the history of both New Japan and All Japan and generations of great wrestlers from both East and West that came and went throughout the years.

Welcome to Tokyo Dome! New Year Funny Waltz:
Masanobu Fuchi, El Samurai & Ryusuke Taguchi VS Kikutaro, Nobutaka Araya & Akira Raijin
Fun comedy match to kick off the show. It was good to see 30,000+ fan reacting to Kikutaro’s comedy antics, even if he hasn’t done anything new in a while. The commentator put over Fuchi big time, and Raijin & Taguchi had a good showing in the ring. Interesting to see Raijin developing a finisher called the Raijin Buster, which is like a sit-out Emerald Frosion, and I’m enjoying Taguchi’s “Funky Weapon” gimmick, even if he does look a bit like a mini Mohammed Yone. Taguchi picked up the winning hitting the Dodon on Kikutaro, after Kikutaro got slammed by Fuchi’s backdrop suplex and Samurai’s reverse DDT finishers.
Once again, it almost feels like a crime that Araya is nothing more than a comedic punching bag for Kikutaro. He had the least ring time, and that was only for a comedy bit. After the match he even got low-kicked by Kikutaro when asked to do Taguchi’s victory dance, than Araya cried walked out alone with a lone spotlight on him while some sad enka music played. Something like that would imply a sympathetic type push, but of course nothing came of it.
Match Rating: *

Artistic Tag Team Battle:
Jado & Gedo VS NOSAWA Rongai & MAZADA
Fun to hear there was ONE NOSAWA fan in the audience somewhere that tried to get a “Rongai!” chant going, but no one joined in!
Rather interesting to see Jado & Gedo in more of a babyface role here, as NOSAWA & MAZADA out-heeled them and were in charge of most of the match due to dirty tactics like hand-biting and eye-gouging! This match was great with a lot of action, and they even did the MAZADA countering a tombstone piledriver into a flipping tombstone piledriver spot that he did before in his junior title match with Shuji Kondo last year! Jado & Gedo were finally able to out-heel the Tokyo Gurentai when Gedo brought in a drum stick to distract the referee while Jado hit NOSAWA with a low blow, and that lead to them hitting their trademark super-bomb followed by the Superfly Splash from Gedo for the win.
I’m just wondering how much they could have upped the anti if Jado & Gedo’s IWGP junior tag titles were on the line here.
Match Rating: ***

Rockin’ Your Hearts of Fxxxing Outlaws:
Togi Makabe, Toru Yano & Tomohiro Ishii VS D-Lo Brown, Buchanan & Travis Tomko
A fun brawl between six big heels. Buchanan was wearing his old WWE gear for some reason. Tomko looked really good here, and fit in well with his ex-WWE fellows as the three of them have the similarity of size, power and agility. I liked watching Ishii finally get some kind of a direction now, and it’s good to see Makabe come into his own his new death match champion gimmick. I thought the ending of the match could have been a bit better than Buchanan getting hit in the back by a chair and Makabe hitting a big lariat for the pin.
Match Rating: *

Dimesion Zero:
Riki Choshu, Manabu Nakanishi, Takashi Iizuka & Naofumi Yamamoto VS Giant Bernard, TARU, Suwama & RO’Z
I enjoyed all the bits at the beginning when TARU was getting his ass kicked cause I’ve always found him annoying as heck and hate the way he bullies people even if it is his character. Then Yamamoto goes and totally flubs a float-over DDT. I was a bit worried when Nakanishi got the hot tag cause we hadn’t seen much of Suwama in action yet, but I enjoyed the power display of Nakanishi as he managed to get huge RO’Z up for the Argentine Backbreaker for a few seconds. Bernard’s sit-out Last Ride was just awesome, and he even managed a few rotations with Yamamoto above his head before slamming him down! Choshu went wild with Riki Lariats and Iizuka tossed Suwama around with a few Exploders. Suwama scores the win for the Voodoo Murders pinning Yamamoto with a backdrop-hold, Yamamoto’s own finisher.
Not sure why Bernard didn’t like that Suwama scored the win, and that lead to an altercation between the team mates, and TARU received a choke-bomb from Bernard for trying to play peace keeper.
Match Rating: **

Top of the World, Arts of War:
Koji Kanemoto, Tiger Mask, Kaz Hayashi, TAKA Michinoku & Wataru Inoue VS Jushin Thunder Liger, Minoru, Milano Collection AT, Shuji Kondo & “brother” YASSHI
All I can say after watching this is that I’d really like to see a Minoru-Kaz singles match! The two of them work really well together and it’s a waste that they didn’t follow up the animosity they had against each other here with anything.
You had ten men in this match and they all got to show something. We had a comedy spot between TAKA & YASSHI where they grab each other by the balls, there was a lot of ring-to-floor diving, and everyone actually just worked well together here. I think maybe on Liger didn’t do much in the match, with more focus on everyone else other than when the CTU/VM team were working together with multi-man beat downs on whoever was unlucky enough to be in there. Even Tiger Mask only came in at the end to get the win over YASSHI with a great tiger suplex-hold, but was still a great match overall.
Match Rating: ***1/2

Dangerous Rapture:
Shinsuke Nakamura VS Toshiaki Kawada
This was a rather interesting encounter as it features the future ace of New Japan vs. the past ace of All Japan. They did a lot of mat work and both targeted each other’s right arms. Nakamura controlled the mat game, but Kawada easily controlled the standing and striking game, forcing Nakamura to keep him grounded with submission locks. Kawada even lost his temper at one point and battered Nakamura on the mat, kicking and stomping at him like a mad man. There was also a fun no-sell sequence where both men tossed each other back and forth with suplexes, Kawada using his dangerous backdrops, and Nakamura busting out his modified backdrop, a German suplex and a tiger suplex, which I don’t think I’ve ever seen him used before. Nakamura even countered a lariat from Kawada with a SWEET flying cross armbreaker.
A few years ago this would probably have been a heavy squash in Kawada’s favor, Nakamura definitely showed his growth as he took everything Kawada dished out, and managed to kick out at just one from Kawada’s powerbomb and a two from Kawada’s brainbuster! It took a rather sick kick right to Nakamura’s face as he dove to try to dodge it to finally put Nakamura down for the 3 count after an intense physical battle.
Match Rating: ***1/2

AJPW Triple Crown:
Minoru Suzuki [C] VS Yuji Nagata
Seems like Suzuki can only have good exciting matches when he’s up against someone with a serious rivalry behind him. This wasn’t the standard MiSuzuki borefest that most of his matches tend to be thanks to Nagata bringing a Hell lot of intensity due to his hatred for Suzuki! The match only seemed to slow down for a bit when they were on the outside doing their blade jobs, but of course when Nagata bleeds it only means Demon Nagata is in the house! Unfortunately when it came to the finish, Nagata probably has no one to blame but himself for the loss since he pulled up Suzuki at 2 instead of letting referee Kyohei Wada count 3 after a sick Thunder Death Driver. That lead to Suzuki getting a second wind and rallying back to clamp on his sleeper hold which lead to a referee stoppage, which sucks since Nagata wasn’t completely out yet and the hold hadn’t been applied for too long.
Still, this match had major crowd heat going for it from start to finish, and both men turned it up.
Match Rating: ****

NJPW IWGP Heavyweight Championship:
Hiroshi Tanahashi [C] VS Taiyo Kea
Damn, did Kea make Tanahashi look like a million bucks here or what?!?
Kea dominated most of the match and was seemingly one step ahead of Tanahashi every step of the way, finding ways to counter and break up any offense Tanahashi could dish out. Credit to Tanahashi for willing to take some big moves like the TKO on the exposed floor and a head-spiking Surfing Suplex. Tanahashi also kicked out of the high-angle powerbomb that Kea used to put Kawada away in his only Triple Crown defense, as well as kicking out of the TKO 34th, but then again, Kawada kicked out of three of those consecutively so so much for it’s credibility anyway. Kea even busted out something new in the form of a sit-out powerbomb for another near fall.
On offense, Tanahashi got in most of his moves, but like I’ve said in the past they just look too weak to be credible. I liked that he modified the Dragon Sleeper into a Final Cut, and that would even make for a credible finisher. I also liked the trapped armed German suplex-hold he did before hitting a release dragon suplex followed by the High Fly Flow frog splash for the win.
It really irks me that they couldn’t have booked this as a more even back and forth contest instead of having Tanahashi play the champion in peril, but the crowd reacted well and got into it the more Tanahashi kicked out of Kea’s big moves and got any good offense in. Hate to say it, but I did find myself enjoying seeing Kea carry the match, and the only thing that would have really made this match better would have been for Tanahashi to get more offense in and give Kea more near falls like what Kea did for him.
Match Rating: ***1/2

Super Dream Tag Match – This Is Wrestle Kingdom!
Masahiro Chono & Keiji Mutoh VS Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima
I just couldn’t help but notice despite how hard both teams were working, the crowd was just dead silent for most of this one, which really took away from the feel of the match. Then again, the match also felt like it didn’t have much structure at times when both teams just threw everything tooth-n-nail at each other like they were doing anything they could to get a reaction from the crowd. The fans did pop for the double submission Chono & Mutoh did to TenKoji, but were silent for when TenKoji did the same to their former mentors. The crowd also popped for a wicked double Shining Wizard/Shining Yakuza Kick which scrambled Tenzan’s brains for a bit, and loved it when both seniors did Hashimoto’s overhead chop barrage and jumping DDT, but nothing really seemed to get the crowd into it, not even the near falls at the end when Chono kicked out of Tenzan’s big moonsault. When Chono finally scored the win over Tenzan with the cross-legged STF, that also felt like it came out of nowhere. It also did jack for Tenzan since it looked like he tapped too soon and wasn’t even trying to fight to get to the ropes to break the hold.
Overall, I think this match should have gone longer as Tenzan and Kojima didn’t get to uncork their entire arsenal even, and both teams definitely could have done more to actually build something. But of course, the whole reason for this match was just to pay tribute to the late Shinya Hashimoto.
Match Rating: **1/2

Overall: A lot of good entertaining stuff on this show. Definitely check out the big 3 singles matches on the card, and the Hashimoto tribute at the end was a nice touch, if not the only reason for the main event tag match that was a little lackluster.

Labels: AJPW, NJPW

It Works Hard Now Here 5/31/2006

Hirotaka Yokoi VS Mitsuya Nagai
A short match with a whole lot of submission attempts from both guys, that is until Taichi Ishikari and Kazushi Miyamoto got involved and attacked Yokoi behind the referee’s back giving Nagai the chance to hit the Hyper Knee Kuga for the win. This was supposed to be part of the ongoing rivalry with King’s Road, but there really wasn’t much of interest here either.
Match Rating: DUD

Takuya Sugawara VS Yoshihito Sasaki
Talk about getting a raw deal. Sasaki pinned Sugawara in a six-man tag and earned a shot at Sugawara’s international junior title, but Ikuto Hidaka would score a win over Sugawara with his Shawn’s Capture submission hold, which “injured” Sugawara (he tapped out rather quickly too) and because he hadn’t healed up yet, this was declared a non-title match!
Sasaki of course attacks Sugawara’s knee and Sugawara is playing up the cowardly heel bit for all he’s worth. Than comes the kicker, Sugawara tries to make a run for it out into the audience and Sasaki gives chase and catches him. He tries to carry him back to the ring with an Argentine Backbreaker, but Sugawara slips out and gives him multiple low blows before dashing back to the ring and getting Sasaki counted out at just over 5 minutes into the match! Sugawara obviously faked the knee injury and taunted Sasaki after the match.
You could already tell a screw job was coming, and I’m surprised one of the officials with authority in Z1M didn’t do anything since he was sitting right at ringside and made the announcement that it was a non-title match due to Sugawara’s “injury”! Just a waste of Sasaki’s talent.
Match Rating: DUD

NWA United National Heavyweight Title: Kohei Sato [C] VS Daisuke Sekimoto
This was a welcomed relief after the two disappointments so far! This was billed as a battle of the German suplexes, as both men have really awesome German suplexes for their finishers. Sekimoto started off strong with his strength advantage, and even hit a big suicide dive through the ropes onto the Sato on the floor. Sekimoto tried to cheat a bit by removing a corner pad and whacked Sato over the head with it. Both men spiked each other homicidal German suplexes where they dropped each other on their heads, and Sakimoto scored a near-fall on the champion with a stiff lariat and his German suplex-hold! Sekimoto removing the corner pad earlier would come back to punish him, as he missed a corner charge on Sato and rammed his shoulder all the way into the exposed corner post, and Sato scored a near-fall on him with a big tiger suplex-hold! That was it for Sekimoto though, as Sato quickly went for and scored his high-angle German suplex-hold for the 3 count to retain his title. I think the only complaint I have was the match was a bit short.
Match Rating: **1/2

Manabu Nakanishi, Takashi Iizuka & Naofumi Yamamoto VS Takao Omori, Shiro Koshinaka & Ryouji Sai
This one was a bit sluggish in places, but still a solid match that furthered the NJPW / Z1M feud. It mostly focused on Omori/Nakanishi, as well as the Yamamoto/Sai feud. A lot of back and forth action with Nakanishi scoring the win for the New Japan team pinning Sai with the Mana Bauer German suplex-hold. Koshinaka was pissed off at Sai for the loss, and the respect between Nakanishi and Omori started from here as well.
Match Rating: **

Labels: NJPW, Zero-1 MAX

Yujiro, Ryusuke Taguchi & Wataru Inoue VS Jado, Gedo & Minoru
I’m really digging Taguchi’s Funky Weapon gimmick, he sort of looks and acts like a Dragon Gate character and he’s got an afro going for him! Inoue played the serious guy of the team, which didn’t suit him if you ask me. There was a cool spot where Jado countered a spear by Inoue into the Crossface of Jado. The biggest surprise of the match though was Yujiro actually scoring the big upset pin on Minoru after Minoru was heeling him and all. Yujiro ducked a big kick off the ropes and rebounded with a spear to score the win. Good ending, okay match.
Match Rating: *

Naofumi Yamamoto VS Tomohiro Ishii
Now this was a lot of fun! Started out with a whole lot of brawling and no selling, and it got really nasty once they took it outside to the floor as Yamamoto brutalized Ishii on the isle before Ishii regained control and bombarded Yamamoto with chairs regardless of how close the audience were! Ishii controlled most of the match once it got back in the ring, but Yamamoto showed a lot of spirit kicking out of a big lariat and a powerbomb before being put away by a sweet brainbuster. Wonder how much of a push Ishii would get if Choshu wasn’t booking this?
Match Rating: **1/2

G1 Tag League A Block 2nd Place Decision Match: Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Jushin Thunder Liger VS Hiroshi Tanahashi & Koji Kanemoto
Another big brawl off the bat. Tenzan and Liger were great in their roles of being the dastardly heels, as they cheated on several occasions to try and steal the win. Comparing the confrontations between the heavies and the juniors, Liger seemed to get more killer offense in on Tanahashi than Kanemoto got in on Tenzan. Kanemoto almost made Tenzan tap with the ground heel lock, but Liger scored two big near falls on the IWGP heavyweight champion with a Liger-bomb and a top rope brainbuster. Tanahashi managed to rebound back and hit the Slingblade followed by the High Fly Flow (both of which still look weak) to win the match.
Match Rating: **1/2

Akebono, Manabu Nakanishi & Riki Choshu VS Toru Yano, Togi Makabe & Shiro Koshinaka
I rather enjoyed Akebono in the ring every time I see him and I so wanted him to do a hip attack to Koshinaka here! Yano flubbed a scrapbuster by the big man, but the spot of the match went to Nakanishi catching Koshinaka in mid air off the top out of a diving hip attack into the Argentine Backbreaker! Choshu continues his old man no selling ways as he finished off Yano with a Riki-Lariat after Akebono squashed Yano and Koshinaka in the corner with a corner press.
Match Rating: *1/2

G1 Tag League Semi Final: Shinsuke Nakamura & Masahiro Chono VS Giant Bernard & Travis Tomko
This was my first time seeing Bernard and Tomko teaming together, and I was really impressed! They even moved surprisingly quick together and pulled off some cool tandem moves like a modified neckbreaker and a sidewalk-slam/elbow drop combination. Bernard and Tomko did a whole lot more in this match than I can remember them ever doing in WWE come to think of it! Tomko was still a bit sluggish, but still looked good there.
The other team on the other hand, Nakamura had to play up having bad ribs, so he took all the beatings throughout the match, making the hot tag to Chono to clean house. They pulled off the win when Chono pinned Tomko with a ground cobra-twist after a Shining Yakuza Kick from Nakamura. Fun finish, and the gaijins had a good showing.
Match Rating: **

G1 Tag League Semi Finals: Yuji Nagata & Takashi Iizuka VS Hiroshi Tanahashi & Koji Kanemoto
This was a ton of fun! You got the experienced team of Evil Nagata and veteran Iizuka stiffing, slamming and stretching the two division champions and putting up a great struggle! Nagata was just relentless here, stiffing both opponents and even giving Kanemoto an Exploder out on the floor! Iizuka was just as fun to watch as he dished out Blizzard suplexes and almost put out the IWGP champion with his trademark choke sleeper.
Kanemoto and Tanahashi had a great showing as well. Note to Kanemoto though, don’t apply an ankle lock on the LEFT leg immediately after giving the RIGHT leg a dragon screw! They did flub things a bit though not entirely their fault. Iizuka should have eased up on the sleeper a bit so Tanahashi could have hit the Shiranui properly, and they almost lost their balance when Tanahashi pinned Iizuka with a ground cobra-twist for the win. Hard fought win for the two champions, and Nagata looks like he’s ready to kill someone!
Match Rating: ***

NWA International Junior Heavyweight Title: Tiger Mask [C] VS Milano Collection AT
Honestly I expected more out of these two. The now heel Milano played up his part well, and even tried to steal the win by cheating, hitting Tiger on the head with the ring bell hammer when the referee got bumped! The work between the two was rather ok, and the closing sequence of exchanges and counters was fun, I just wished they could have came up with a better finish than Tiger pinning Milano with a crucifix out of the quick paced exchange.
Match Rating: *1/2

G1 Tag League Finals: Masahiro Chono & Shinsuke Nakamura VS Hiroshi Tanahashi & Koji Kanemoto
Is it just me or was Chono again letting Nakamura do all the work here? And what’s up with Nakamura playing up the bad ribs that was worked over constantly in the previous match, but yet he didn’t show any effects of it in this match! On the other team, I noticed it was Kanemoto doing most of the work and getting the bigger reactions for his team. Other than that, it was a really hot back and forth match, with the Black team winning out in the end with Nakamura hitting his new Landslide finisher on Kanemoto for the win.
Nakamura’s Landslide is a bit like a fireman’s carry into a Michinoku Driver II. Nakamura also has a killer modified backdrop now, where he flips them over and slams them on their stomachs. Fun match and a good final I guess.
Match Rating: ***1/2

Overall: This was a really strong show from top to bottom, and it’s good to see how much the youngsters are improving their game now.

Labels: NJPW

Starts off with a video look at the ten men taking part in this year’s G1:

Block A: Hiroshi Tanahashi, Manabu Nakanishi, Giant Bernard, Jushin Thunder Liger and Satoshi Kojima
Block B: Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Yuji Nagata, Togi Makabe, Koji Kanemoto and Naofumi Yamamoto

We than the official in-ring introductions of the 10-men, as well as 2005 winner Masahiro Chono coming out to return the G1 trophy. And the show kicks off!

Yujiro VS Wataru Inoue
Yujiro seems to have bulked up a bit, and had some good offense going for him, hitting a nice front suplex off the ropes, and doing Takashi Sugiura’s corner tackle, pick-up and slam move. He also managed to escape the dreaded “Boston crab of doom” which usually puts away young lions. Inoue didn’t look too impressive, and his Triangle Lancer that he finished Yujiro with was really weak looking.
Match Rating: 1/2*

Minoru & Tetsuya Naito VS El Samurai & Ryusuke Taguchi
My first look at Naito, and he’s still at that stage where he’s got nothing much going for him other than the fighting spirit of a young lion. Minoru seemed to sit out most of the match and Naito took the brunt of the punishment. The crowd popped big when Naito was able to counter a brainbuster from Taguchi into a small-package for a near fall though, but he ultimately fell to Taguchi’s Dondon, which is a modified reverse powerbomb where he picks up his opponents in a double chicken-wing from behind, then slams them face first into the mat.
Match Rating: *

Toru Yano & Tomohiro Ishii VS Shiro Koshinaka & Togi Makabe
Started off as a big brawl and the crowd was really into Koshinaka and his hip attacks and he finished Ishii with a powerbomb. Nothing really memorable here, but it’s good to see Makabe getting some kind of push and a rub from one of the veterans.
Match Rating: 1/2*

Giant Bernard & Black Strong Machine VS Riki Choshu & Akebono
Akebono is still rather green and out of place sometimes, but it’s still rather interesting seeing what the big guy can do in there. Choshu is Choshu of course, meaning he doesn’t have to sell anything if he doesn’t want to. Bernard did what he could to make Akebono look good, but seems to be pushing it just a bit too much if you ask me. Akebono scored the win with a big (literally) splash after a big Samoan drop.
Match Rating: *

G1 Climax – Block B: Yuji Nagata VS Naofumi Yamamoto
If you like your matches with a whole lot of stiff kicks, this is the one for you! Yamamto tried to get an early advantage by jumping Nagata at the bell, but Nagata came back and brutalized Yamamoto’s arm with kicks and armbreakers throughout the match which eventually lead to the referee stop via step-over armbar submission. But Yamamoto showed a lot of fire kicking away at Nagata for all he was worth when he could get in what little offense he could on the former IWGP heavyweight champion. Yamamoto is the future, but Nagata is the present, and the sooner they give him a belt, the better I think.
Match Rating: **

G1 Climax – Block A: Satoshi Kojima VS Jushin Thunder Liger
Kojima gave Liger more offense than he really needed to. He dominated Liger for the most part, but also gave Liger a lot of credible offense and near falls, including a big powerbomb and a pair of brainbusters, not to mention all the cradles and shotei slaps. Too bad Liger couldn’t repay the favor and sell Kojima’s lariat more convincingly when he hit him with it. I would have preferred if he did a flip or something instead of just dropping like deadweight.
Match Rating: *1/2

G1 Climax – Block B: Koji Kanemoto VS Hiroyoshi Tenzan
Tenzan had more control over Kanemoto than Kojima had over Liger. Kanemoto hit some high impact offense early on till Tenzan slowed things down and heeled the crowd when they backed Kanemoto. There was a cool spot where Kanemoto slipped out of the TTD and countered it into an ankle-lock for the near submission. He also managed to hit the moonsault but only got a 1 count! Kanemoto almost snapped Tenzan’s neck when he flipped out of a powerbomb into a sunset flip for a near fall, but Tenzan was able to hit the powerbomb on the second attempt, and spike Kanemoto with the TTD before he locked on the Anaconda Vice. Kanemoto was able to bridge out of the hold, but Tenzan slammed him back down with the Anaconda Slam and applied the hold again for the submission.
Match Rating: *1/2

G1 Climax - Block A: Manabu Nakanishi VS Hiroshi Tanahashi
Well this one just seemed to plod along. Nakanishi controlled most of the match thanks to his power game, but seemed winded for the most part. Tanahashi showed fire, but his offense is still really weak looking, including the top rope Slingblade he won the match with, which didn’t get much of a pop when he pinned Nakanishi after hitting it. The best part of the match was the sequence where Tanahashi slipped out of the Argentine Backbreaker and tried for the Dragon Sleeper, but Nakanishi lifted him off his feet into the powerslam position only for Tanahashi to bring him back down by using a Final Cut!
Match Rating: *1/2

Overall: Hate to say it, but the video package of highlights from the 2005 G1 at the end of the show was probably the best part of this one. Sure it’s only the first day of the tournament, but shouldn’t they go all out since they all want to win the thing so badly?

Labels: NJPW

I like the funny intro bit they did with the commentator and Kotetsu Yamamoto, which sort of resembled the old WWF skits with either Lord Alfred Hayes or Gorilla Monsoon with Bobby Heenan, and this case when had the commentator guy trying to analyze the semis of the BOSJ and Yamamoto is busy eating instead! The commentator picks Kanemoto to win it, whereas Yamamoto picks Kakihara.

El Samurai & Toru Yano VS Tatsutoshi Gotoh & Hiro Saito
Not a lot to this one other than the standard veteran schooling the young lion match. Samurai got some good offense in and sold Gotoh’s backdrop finisher to make it look more brutal than it really was.
Match Rating: 1/2*

Jushin Thunder Liger, Jado & Gedo VS Tiger Mask, Masayuki Naruse & Ebessan
I really miss the original Ebessan, and it was great seeing him here having some fun at the future CTU’s expense. The crowd popped for him even more when he was serious and hit his trademark moves like the Shining Ebe-zard and the Kankun Tornado. Kudos to Liger for playing along with his gags. Naruse is another guy I’ll miss since he was a seriously underrated junior heavyweight, and it was good seeing him in action here. Fun little match overall, with Ebessan dropping the fall in the end to the Gedo-clutch, which received almost ZERO reaction from the crowd.
Match Rating: *

Shinya Makabe & Minoru Fujita VS Dan Devine & Stampede Kid
Devine looked ok playing the tough shooter gaijin here, though he seemed to be acting too much like Ken Shamrock for my taste. Things only pick up near the end when they start busting out the big moves, and Makabe scores the win on Kid with a big short lariat.
Match Rating: *

Best of Super Juniors Semi Final: AKIRA VS Masahito Kakihara
This was rather surprising as AKIRA dominated Kakihara for most of the match, targeting his leg with multiple figure-four attempts and ankle-locks. AKIRA really wanted this one, but one slip up lead to Kakihara hitting a pair of leg lariats, followed by the Kaki-Cutter and a modified head-and-arm ground submission lock for the big upset win.
Match Rating: **

Best of Super Juniors Semi Final: Koji Kanemoto VS Takashi Sugiura
Now THIS was loads of fun! Back and forth action with both men bringing the big guns. Kanemoto stiffed Sugiura all over the place with kicks and knees, and Sugiura tossed him around like salad with multiple suplexes. Both men had the same idea targeting the legs with ankle-locks though, and Kanemoto sort of lucked out in the end countering an Olympic Slam into a ground ankle-lock with Sugiura’s foot twisted in a sick position causing him to submit to the pain.
Match Rating: ****

Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Osamu Nishimura VS Rick Steiner & Perry Saturn
Seeing Saturn here, he looks like Mini Giant Bernard.
Whole lot of back and forth brawling between Tenzan & Steiner, while Nishimura & Saturn mixed it up on the mat. Steiner seems like he can’t do anything other than a Steiner-line, and Tenzan seemed to mock him by hitting him with one of his own! It was sort of sad seeing Saturn, one of the best grapplers at one time, reduced to being a slow paced brawler due to the mass he’s put on. He did managed to bust out a springboard dropkick as well as a springboard Asai-moonsault though. Tenzan had really limited offense here, mostly just Mongolian Chops, but it was enough leading up to the finish where he spiked Saturn with the TTD for the win.
Match Rating: *

Hiroshi Tanahashi & Yutaka Yoshie VS Yoshihiro Takayama & Scott Norton
This was a ton of fun, mostly due to watching Yoshie & Norton go at it. Yoshie is big, but Norton is till HUGE compared to him, and the two went at it throwing power moves at each other like they were trying to one up each other! Takayama had some good exchanges with Tanahashi, as well as taking some double team offense from the young duo. But the Norton/Yoshie stuff was definitely what made this a lot of fun to watch, and it’s awesome watching Norton actually powerbomb Yoshie at the end for the win.
Match Rating: **1/2

Yuji Nagata, Takashi Iizuka & Shinsuke Nakamura VS Manabu Nakanishi, Enson Inoue & Blue Wolf
This one was pretty much forgettable other watching Nakanishi trying to be a bad ass shoot fighter while teaming with Enson. It was fun watching Nakanishi actually do an Exploder to Nagata after Nagata had given him one, and funny watching Nakanishi call out for help from Enson everytime he got caught in a submission near the end. He does manage to pick up the win for his team with a cross-armbreaker though.
Incidentally, watching Nakamura in the rookie black gear made him look like a jacked up Kaz Hayashi.
Match Rating: 1/2*

2003 Best of Super Juniors Finals: Masahito Kakihara VS Koji Kanemoto
A whole lot of support for Kakihara right at the start of this one, and both men quickly target each other’s bad knees as they grapple all over the mat, reminiscent of old Battlarts style shoot matches. Kanemoto takes control after a cheapshot kick, and follows up with even more brutal kicks. Kakihara remembers Kanemoto’s bad leg, and once he had an opening, he jumped right at it with an ankle lock, and when Kanemoto was able to escape, Kakihara was able to transition it to an armbar, and to a headlock, and back to the armbar! Kakihara was like a submission machine here! Kanemoto was able to battle back again with his arsenal of kicks and knees, and thought he was going to put away Kakihara with his trademark ground ankle-hold that put away Sugiura earlier, but Kakihara was resilient enough to get to the ropes. Kanemoto tried for the moonsault, but landed on a pair of knees, giving Kakihara the opening to hit a leg lariat to the back of the head followed by a big time release German suplex and a head kick for a near fall. Both men struggle to their feet and exchange strikes, and Kanemoto gets the better of it but rebounds off the ropes right into a leg lariat! Kakihara quickly follows up with a Shining Wizard for a 2.9! Everyone was sure Kakihara had it there! Kakihara drags Kanemoto to his feet and gives him a Kaki-Cutter, followed by a second more sick looking Kaki-Cutter to finally put him away and win the 2003 Beat of Super Juniors!
This was a really good match, and made even better by all the underdog crowd support Kakihara was getting.
Match Rating: ****

Overall: This show was easily the highlight of Kakihara’s career, and it’s a shame NJPW couldn’t do better with him when they had him and he had to retire earlier this year. I’ve actually been a fan of Kakihara’s since first watching him in AJPW, and the finals he had here was easily one of his best performances ever. Definitely recommended if you’re a fan of Kakihara, as well as wanting to check out some good singles junior heavyweight action.

Labels: NJPW

With the G1 Climax currently underway, I thought I'd better get around to watching this since the G1 shows should be coming out soon.

Yujiro VS Takashi Uwano (Highlights)
Yujiro seems to have beefed up quite a bit, as he almost resembles Nakanishi! They showed a lot of Yujiro in command, slamming Uwano multiple times for near falls. After one sloppily miss-timed STO, Uwano picks up the win with a German suplex-hold.
Match Rating: -

El Samurai VS Prince Devitt (Highlights)
Devitt’s NJPW debut. He showed some good form hitting a Pele kick and a big diving foot stomp for a near fall. Samurai hit the reverse DDT and a diving headbutt for a near fall, but scored the submission win with a kimura armlock.
Match Rating: -

Tiger Mask & Ryusuke Taguchi VS Jushin Thunder Liger & Sangre Azteca
Liger put Taguchi in one of the most gay looking submission holds I’ve ever seen in this one, and I’m not even going to try and describe it other than say that the live fans even chuckled when they saw it. The rest of his offense was vintage Liger: countering almost everything thrown at him or no-selling what he got hit with. And you guys wonder why I’m not a Liger mark like most of the internet?
Azteca’s look sort of reminds me of Super Demekin in Osaka Pro. The guy just doesn’t do anything for me. Why the heck would he stop dead in his tracks after rebounding off the ropes to hit a dropkick? Wouldn’t it have made more sense to use the momentum to make the move more effective?
I like Taguchi now that he’s more than just a “Dropkick Monster” for beating Liger with one in 10-seconds. He’s a good worker and a definite future ace for the junior heavyweight division of NJPW. Tiger Mask for some reason I couldn’t care much about either.
Asteca scores the win over Taguchi with a cradle to counter a tiger suplex. The live fans liked it, I didn’t.
Match Rating: *

Riki Choshu, Manabu Nakanishi & Takashi Iizuka VS Black Strong Machine, Tatsutoshi Gotoh & Togi Makabe
This was just one big train wreck. Choshu either needs to retire from active in ring duty, or at least stop with the no selling of everything thrown at him. He’s over 50, not a young ace anymore. SELL DAMMIT.
Match Rating: DUD

IWGP Jr. Tag Title No.1 Contender’s Match: Koji Kanemoto & Wataru Inoue VS Jado & Gedo
Now this was a solid junior tag match. Lots of fan support and near falls, as well as false finishes! I only didn’t like how sometimes it seems like they have the signature submissions on for too long before it gets broken up by the partner. In some cases they were locked on so long that the guy in the hold just doesn’t act like he’s selling the pain of the hold anymore. The ending was a nice surprise though, with Jado pinning Inoue after the Crossface of Jado.
Match Rating: **1/2

Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Giant Bernard VS Scott Norton & Toru Yano
It was good to see Norton back in action again, even if he’s obviously put on A LOT of weight! He did seem to stumble around a bit because of it, but could still go toe-to-toe with anyone, and just seemed to work well with Bernard here. Whey NJPW aren’t teaming the two together is beyond me. Norton showed he’s still a powerhouse when he was able to suplex Bernard on his own, where as Bernard needed Tenzan’s help to do it!
There wasn’t a whole lot to see from Yano, but Tenzan and Bernard did seem to function well as a team. Bernard even did the Mongolian Chops! Bernard also did probably one of the ugliest release Germans I’ve seen in a while.
This match was fun, mostly to see the big gaijins going at it. Norton pinning Tenzan with the powerbomb was a bit of a surprise, but I guess it made sense since they were building up the singles match between Norton and Bernard to pass to torch.
Match Rating: *1/2

New Japan Cup: Naofumi Yamamoto VS Ryouji Sai
These two had a great match at the Tokyo Dome in January, and this one wasn’t much different as their rivalry continues to boil. I’ve definitely got a soft spot for Yamamoto in NJPW and hope to see him raise his game and get the spot that Katsuyori Shibata turned down when he walked out of NJPW. Despite being in enemy territory, Sai still had his fair share of supporters in the crowd tonight too. The two of them put on a fun back and forth match which had a lot of crowd heat from start to finish. Sai was able to pull off the win with a diving double foot stomp off the top rope, but he spoiled his victory celebration when he lost his footing and fell off the top rope to the floor! Talk about embarrassing. A fight breaks out between the NJPW and Z1M camps after the match, which is broken up by Choshu, but he gets decked by Kohei Sato and the brawl continued for a bit more.
Match Rating: *1/2

New Japan Cup: Yuji Nagata VS Tomohiro Ishii
This was a lot of fun if you enjoy watching seniors slapping around juniors. Ishii attacked Nagata before the bell and rained a barrage of hard elbow strikes. Nagata gets all pissed and then starts to beat the crap out of Ishii himself, battering him all the way out of the ring and bloodying Ishii’s mouth. Nagata continues his relentless attack on Ishii, causing the referee to bring the doctor in to check on him. The match continues, and Ishii is able to comeback and score a near fall with a German suplex! Nagata fires more hard kicks at Ishii before putting him away with a rather sick looking backdrop-hold for the win.
Match Rating: *1/2

New Japan Cup: Hiroshi Tanahashi VS Masahiro Chono
Hyped as the 2005 New Japan Cup winner versus the 2005 G1 Climax winner, this was clipped down to about 10 minutes from the original 25 minutes it went, which probably isn’t a bad thing when the match scored a lot of negative reviews as well as some really loud boos from the audience in attendance. Just a whole lot of the usual Chono Yakuza-kick offense and Tanahashi’s bursts of offense. Tanahashi SERIOUSLY needs a proper finisher as the Sling Blade just doesn’t cut it. At best it’s just a neckbreaker-drop, and nobody should score a pin with a neckbreaker drop if their name isn’t Giant Baba. It helps even less when the move looks like it has ZERO impact. Considering how quickly he beat Kazuyuki Fujita with a barrage of Yakuza-kicks, you’d think Tanahashi would have gone down after all the variations of the move Chono gave him.
I’m glad they didn’t air the whole match, as it really just looked like one big mess.
Match Rating: *

Labels: NJPW

I guess it really shows my devotion to NJPW when it takes me this long to get around to watching one of the first shows of 2005?

Yujiro VS Akiya Anzawa
Quick match, started with a lot of amateur mat grappling before some stand-up, and Yujiro wins with a bizarre spinning Reality Check-like slam. What the heck is up with Yujiro’s porn type entrance music?
Match Rating: ½*

Hiroshi Nagao VS Hirooki Goto
Clipped down. Nagao dominates with his size and power, but Goto sneaks in a quick Minoru Special for the submission win.
Match Rating: ½*

Naofumi Yamamoto VS Tatsutoshi Goto
This was before Yamamoto became a Shibata wannabe, but the attitude was definitely there as he took it straight to Goto, and paid the price when Goto showed his “original heel style” and brutalized the kid with chair attacks outside the ring before ending it with a sweet backdrop for the win..
Match Rating: ½*

Taiji Ishimori & Ryusuke Taguchi VS Tiger Mask & El Samurai
Fun Jr. tag match with a good quick pace to it. The fans were way into the underdog rookie team, and their support paid off when Taguchi scored a big upset pinning Samurai with a hurricanrana. Gotta give NJPW credit for booking Taguchi to get over more than the already established Ishimori, but it’s kind of sad they don’t book Ishimori anymore since he’s a great talent also.
Match Rating: **

Jushin Thunder Liger VS Katsushi Takemura
A lot of animosity between these two, and rightfully so since Liger stole Takemura’s role as leader of CTU and kicked him out of the faction he started! Despite some bursts of offense from Takemura, this was a really one-sided match as he got brutalized by Liger with a piledriver out on the floor that busted him open, taking a Liger-bomb, a top-rope fisherman’s buster, and a standard brainbuster before Liger finally put him away with his new Crash Thunder Buster finisher, which is a atomic-drop facebuster. Give Takemura credit for the strong showing, but it really degrades him back to young-lion status when the only offensive move he got in the match was a Dragon-sleeper.
Match Rating: *1/2

Jado & Gedo VS Koji Kanemoto & Wataru Inoue
A good junior tag title match, though I don’t think it was as good as the one earlier in the show. Inoue pulled off the upset making Gedo tap to the Triangle Lancer, and this set up the Jr. tag title match later down the line where Kanemoto & Inoue won the titles.
Match Rating: *1/2

New Japan VS Black New Japan 5X5 Elimination Single Match Series:
Yuji Nagata, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Shinsuke Nakamura, Osamu Nishimura & Togi Makabe VS Masahiro Chono, Manabu Nakanishi, Mitsuya Nagai, Minoru & Harry Smith

Match #1: Harry “Bulldog” Smith VS Hiroshi Tanahashi
The match was heavily clipped down, and rightfully so from what I saw. The thing that bothers me with the booking for these single match series challenges is why the heck the wrestlers would want to take their time to wear down their opponent when they know if they win they have another match coming up next? They should be looking to end the match as soon as possible and not drag it out like they did here. They only decided to pick up the pace in the last 3 minutes, but even then Tanahashi just seemed like he couldn’t be bothered to put the effort in. Smith was ok, but obviously green.
Match Rating: ½*

Match #2: Minoru VS Shinsuke Nakamura
Minoru had the right idea at the beginning going right after Nakamura, and attacking his arm constantly throughout the match hoping to make the former IWGP champion tap to the Minoru Special. But Nakamura was able to fight through the pain and get the win with the Shining Triangle.
Match Rating: *

Match #3: Shinsuke Nakamura VS Mitsuya Nagai
The last time they had one of these Series, these two had the best match of the night. And it seemed to be heading in that direction again here as Nagai went straight at it with Nakamura again. Unfortunately after some good exchanges, they decided to battle it out on the outside, leading to Nagai winning by count out.
Match Rating: ½*

Match #4: Mitsuya Nagai VS Togi Makabe
You gotta give it to these two here, as the two most under-rated guys in the company put on the best match of the night to this point. After a quick brawl out into the audience, they brought it back in the ring where they laid into each other with heavy stiff strikes and tried to wear each other out. Makabe was able to survive a Stretch Plum from Nagai and rallied back with a big King Bomber lariat for the win.
Match Rating: **

Match #5: Togi Makabe VS Masahiro Chono
Smart move by Makabe to go after Chono right at the start before Chono could even disrobe! Makabe battered Chono for a good portion of the match, attacking his back and shoulder, unfortunately it only took Chono FOUR MOVES to beat Makabe! An atomic drop, a Yakuza Kick, a Shining Yakuza kick, and the UGLIEST small-package hold ever!
Match Rating: ½*

Match #6: Masahiro Chono VS Osamu Nishimura
This was also rather entertaining as Nishimura was running circles around Chono for the most part, hitting hard with European uppercuts and submission locks like the cobra twist. They even did an old-school criss-cross ropes run where Nishimura caught Chono with the cobra twist the first time, but the second time Chono was able to shoulder block down Nishimura. They than brawl to the outside where Nishimura locks on a figure four and both men get counted out!
Match Rating: **

Nishimura asks for a restart, and the fans agree. The referee says no, but for some reason gives a 2 count when Chono & Nishimura brawl, and Chono gets a backslide on Nishimura! They finally clear the ring and we’re down to our last match in the series.

Match #7: Manabu Nakanishi VS Yuji Nagata
Two guys who know each other very well, which is lucky for us since they put on the best match of the show to close it out! Great back and forth action first with Nakanishi in control, hitting a huge lariat off the top followed by a big spear and a lariat for a near fall. Nagata battled back with strikes and an Exploder, before scoring the flash pin with a reverse-Nagata-Lock III to win one for NJPW and send the fans home happy.
Match Rating: ***1/2

Overall: Not really anything outstanding, but still a lot of good wrestling to watch in this one. Now I’m going to go take a nap.

Labels: NJPW

Koji Kanemoto VS GENTARO
Wow. I’m officially convinced that the only reason Kanemoto re-news his contract every year after a lot of teasing is because he knows if he goes to other promotions after leaving NJPW that a lot of people out there would like beat the crap out of him like he likes to do to outsiders. It’s no big secret he tends to stiff outsiders harder than usual, and this was just another squash for Kanemoto. Poor GENTARO. Young lions get in more offense than he did here, and he took one nasty kick right in the face even, where as Kanemoto sold NOTHING, not even an eye-rake! Pointless match, unless it was NJPW’s way of saying, “please stick with us, and we’ll feed you more indy workers you can kick around to show what a tough guy you are.”
Match Rating: DUD

Jushin Thunder Liger, Jado & Gedo VS Kintaro Kanemura, Bad Boy Hidoh & Tetsuhiro Kuroda
Kudos to the production team for actually keeping a camera on Kanemura & Jado as Kanemura was sticking a screwdriver or something in Jado’s head to cut him open!
Interesting to see CTU get out-rudo’d by a team who’ve been doing it for over a decade already. And Liger almost had his masked ripped off, but we still got a good glimpse of his face underneath.
Match basically started off as a big brawl, then the Apache Pro team work on Gedo’s injured ribs a bit in the middle, than a high sprint with both teams trying to get the win, with some good exchanges and near falls before “injured” Gedo scored the win with his Superfly splash.
Match Rating: *

Togi Makabe & Toru Yano VS Takashi Iizuka & Naofumi Yamamoto
The match was a see-saw battle. When Yamamoto was in, the heels were in charge, when Iizuka was in, the faces were in charge. Nothing really outstanding on the teamwork side as they mostly worked as individuals, with only a few tandem moves from Makabe & Yano, which cost them the match at one point when Yamamoto ducked a lariat from Makabe and Yano got clobbered, leading to the two arguing, Makabe giving Yano a German suplex and then walking out on him, leaving an opening for Yamamoto to hit a big backdrop for the win.
I like that Yamamoto is getting a push and is moving along quite nicely in his development. It’s always better to give the young lions a persona instead of just throw them in at each other and trade basics.
Iizuka was more fired up than usual and he threw a few good looking Exploders.
I like seeing Makabe back in action, he’s under rated, like Tomoaki Honma is in AJPW. Despite a bandaged ankle, he still moved well and delivered his signature power moves like the lariat and the brainbuster.
I thought Yano wearing the rookie black tights at the Tokyo Dome on 1/04/06 was a one time deal since he was part of Fujinami’s team and everyone on that team were wearing the same gear. So Yano goes from being a don’t-give-a-damn cheater, to a bad ass, to a rookie with an attitude? At least he didn’t work like a young lion and showed some strength when he powered up Iizuka from a standing position into a powerbomb.
The match was ok overall, a good showing to push Yamamoto, and build somekind of feud between Makabe & Yano.
Match Rating: *

IWGP Jr. Tag Team Titles: Minoru & Hirooki Goto VS El Samurai & Ryusuke Taguchi
Now this was a pleasant surprise. It started off a bit slow with Minoru & Goto cheating to get an advantage, and I like the way Minoru removed the corner pad when the referee wasn’t looking and set down in the corner with a little pat. I don’t think most of the live crowd caught it either.
Anyway, things got really good when the paced picked up. Goto & Taguchi got to show their growth, but one thing that bugs me is why hasn’t Goto been given a makeover yet? He won a title before Taguchi, but still looks like a rookie, whereas Taguchi is given a great look thanks to his excursion to Mexico. Taguchi looks a bit like Mohammed Yone almost. But the good thing here was that both worked well together and got the crowd behind them.
Minoru played the over-arrogant heel here, and I liked how he underestimated his opponents which came back to haunt him many times later. His kicking looked like total crap tonight though.
And kudos to NJPW for giving El Samurai the Akira Taue treatment of having one last big run. It got to the point where the crowd got a small Samurai chant going, and Samurai was aces for selling a bad arm, but still worked hard giving numerous reverse DDTs throughout the match. I just think maybe they pushed it just a little too much as Samurai survived multiple arm-locking attacks on a bad-arm, but only locked on one chicken wing arm lock on a fresh arm to get a quick win.
Still, this was probably the best IWGP Jr. Tag Title bout I’ve seen in a LONG time.
Match Rating: ****

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight and NWA Jr. Heavyweight Double Title Match: Black Tiger VS Tiger Mask
The last time these two faced each other for their junior titles at the Tokyo Dome last year, they put on one of the best matches on the show, so I was a bit disappointed in this one when they decided to speed through this one with next to no build, but an all out spotfest with things going see-saw in the opening minutes, to Tiger Mask kicking out of all of Black Tiger’s moves including his tombstone which won him the titles last time, to Tiger having his way with Black Tiger hitting him with a tombstone of his own followed by a Tiger Suplex for the quick and rather disappointing win.
I guess this is another one of those “serves NJPW right for putting their title on a guy that can’t tour regularly, so they take it off him in a flash to make their guy suddenly better than him” things.
Match Rating: **1/2

Hiroshi Tanahashi VS Yuji Nagata
Wow. The way they promoted this match, you’d think it was Tanahashi VS Brock Lesner next for the IWGP title. And not once did they even mention Nagata here, other than being one of Lesner’s victims.
With that said, the match was actually a really good competitive match. It almost seemed similar to the Shibata/Tanahashi match from 1/04/06 where Nagata stiffed the heck out of Tanahashi, even giving him a sick brainbuster out on the concrete floor! But than this match begins to suffer from a common trait of New Japan’s booking. Tanahashi, who’s been on a losing streak for a while, takes an insane amount of punishment and is able to battle back, suddenly getting a huge second wind and being able to put Nagata away in short order. I can appreciate giving Tanahashi a rub to get his heat back, but much like I’ve mentioned about Ryo Saito’s King of Gate win, this was a bit rushed.
The match finish was also one of the ugliest I’ve ever seen, where Tanahashi hits Nagata with a Dragon Suplex (which Nagata just let him put on), but couldn’t hold the pin and tries to float over into a pinning combination, but can’t get it right and it looks all wrong and f’d up.
Match Rating: ***1/2

Brock Lesner & Shinsuke Nakamura VS Akebono & Riki Choshu
Well it was a good change to actually see Choshu sell for a change. Say what you want about Akebono’s in ring ability, but I actually enjoy watching the big guy in action. With that said, I was a bit disappointed that he sat out most of the match and Choshu did most of the work. The crowd was really eager to see Brock VS ‘Bono, and NJPW only gave them a taste of it today.
Overall, I thought this match was fun, but over too quickly. It wouldn’t hurt to show more of Brock against Akebono to really build something between them instead of have one confrontation and then throw them into an IWGP title match.
Match Rating: ***

IWGP Tag Team Titles: Masahiro Chono & Hiroyoshi Tenzan VS Manabu Nakanishi & Giant Bernard
So after all the build up of both team training hard and learning new tandem moves, the actual match turned out to be pretty average. It wasn’t bad, it just didn’t feel like a big main event match to me for some reason.
I didn’t really think there was much to this match as it was pretty much back and forth for the most part, with nothing much really developing other than Nakanishi & Bernard not being able to work all that well together and blowing up on each other for simple mistakes.
You gotta feel bad for Tenzan having to play the weak link for his team after clearly being made to be stronger than Chono a few years back. At least Chono worked the match more unlike their last title defense at the Tokyo Dome. It wouldn’t really hurt him to give Tenzan a rub by letting him make the pin either.
Match Rating: ***

Overall: I thought the show was ok. You had one really good match, one really bad match, and a lot of strong matches scattered throughout. Passable, but I think they could have done better.

Labels: NJPW

Yutaka Yoshie & Akebono VS Black Strong Machine & Hiro Saito
The commentator almost loses his voice just putting over Akebono entering the ring. “There’s Akebono! He’s walking down the isle! I can’t believe it! OH MY GAWD IN HEAVEN! HE JUST STEPPED ON THE APRON AND IS NOW GETTING IN THE RING! THIS IS THE GREATEST DAY IN THE HISTORY OF OUR SPORT!” Well, maybe he didn’t say it all like that, but I can bet somewhere in that tirade of his he channeled Tony Szhivone. How about saving that energy and just calling the match?
The match itself was a ton of fun (no pun intended). I haven’t seen much of ‘Bono, but I thought he was kinda fun here as the fans popped for everything he did. I enjoyed the sumo slaps at the beginning, but I’m a bit confused at his 64 finisher as first he did the hip-toss version, than he did a Black Hole Slam version, which looked way better. He even delivered a cool looking chokeslam. I guess his only problem is his stamina since he seemed to get winded easily. Give him credit for taking a big double backdrop from the veterans too. I hope to see him team with Yoshie more regularly here as they were a fun team to watch.
Match Rating: *1/2

IWGP Heavyweight Title: Brock Lesner (C) VS Shinsuke Nakamura
Seriously, from the promo video, who does represent the heart of New Japan today more than Shinsuke Nakamura?
Now this was actually a good match despite its short length. I do feel they could have done more though, since we all know both men are capable of it. Heck, Nakamura lasted longer against Bob Sapp and even kicked out of a Beast-bomb. But I guess New Japan just have to have an unbeatable monster as their champion instead of someone who the fans could really rally behind to draw heat for their matches.
Match Rating: **1/2

Manabu Nakanishi VS Giant Bernard
I still find it funny the way Bernard and Lesnar dumb down their promos in Japan.
At first I didn’t think this was as bad as the reports made it out to be, it seemed that everytime they got some good rhythm going, one of them would screw up. There were three major missed spots here; first was when Bernard stumbled out of the way when Nakanishi was running in with a lariat, forcing Nakanishi to pull a last minute swerve to barely catch Bernard. Next was when Nakanishi rolled into Bernard’s reverse corner splash instead of rolling away from it, and finally, Bernard couldn’t get Nakanishi up in a powerbomb and led to an awkward moment which Bernard was able to cover up with a lariat followed by the finish.
This could have been really good if not for those blown spots as the crowd was into the clash of the powerhouses. Nakanishi managed to lift Bernard up in the Argentine backbreaker, and even did a cool German suplex-hold! They even gave Nakanishi a bit of a nudge by having him kick out of the Baldo-bomb. Bernard wasn’t all that bad either playing the big bad gaijin role.
Match Rating: *1/2

Yuji Nagata VS Kazunari Murakami
This match could have been a lot more fun if they didn’t stall so much. I was quickly reminded why Murakami was one of my favorites back in the day as he’s still really explosive despite not really knowing much other than throwing some really heavy strikes.
The match ended as your typical Murakami match though; heated start, stalled outside brawling, blade job, and the finish. I just thought it didn’t make sense for Murakami to bleed since there wasn’t really anything to cause it. If he bladed after Nagata hit him with the barrage of head butts, it would have made more sense.
You still gotta love the really stiff strikes these guys threw at each other. I thought they were both cutting it really close at the beginning of the match when both men barely avoided a really fast coming kick from each other.
Overall, the whole match came together nicely and the crowd loved it. The post match brawl was an interesting way to set up Nagata VS Enson Inoue if they ever follow up on it.
Match Rating: **1/2

Koji Kanemoto VS Shinjiro Ohtani
Now these two put on probably the best match of the show up to this point! A great see-saw where both guys traded heavy strikes and hard slams. I kinda enjoyed watching Kanemoto get his ass handed to him as payback for the beating he gave Yoshihito Sasaki in Zero-One MAX, but Kanemoto gave it as good as he got it. It would have been a lot better if they gave them five more minutes to see what they could have done instead of sprinting through unloading their whole arsenal on each other in ten minutes.
Match Rating: ***1/2

Hiroshi Tanahashi VS Katsuyori Shibata
Mr. “My career is in a slump, but I still got MY U-30 Title” VS Mr. “Leaving NJPW was the biggest mistake of my career”. All jokes aside, this was a really strong match and it really makes me wonder what the heck NJPW were thinking letting Shibata go when the kid is really damn good and reminds me of Murakami as their styles are similar, even the sick grin on their faces.
I also hate to say it, but I really felt sorry for Tanahashi here as he made Shibata look like a million bucks but barely got anything back for himself out of it. They seriously have got to stop booking Tanahashi as the underdog who gets flash wins and as the star that they make him out to be.
Tanahashi got in a few good bursts of offense, but for the most part he was just a punching bag to some really stiff kicks from Shibata.
Match Rating: ***1/4

IWGP Tag Team Titles: Masahiro Chono & Hiroyoshi Tenzan VS Shiro Koshinaka & Takao Omori
I bet Omori never thought he’d ever get into the Tokyo Dome since he quit NOAH.
See what happens when you give a match good time to work out? This was nicely done as it made Omori & Koshinaka look really credible as challengers. I found it weird the crowd were rooting for Tenzan & Chono when Omori & Koshinaka were on the offensive, but were rather quiet for most of the champions offense.
The only thing I didn’t get is why Tenzan had to take all the punishment in the match as well as kick out of all of Omori & Koshinaka’s finishers, but Chono would be the one to hog all the glory in the end? Heck, Chono’s performance here was comparable to Yoshinari Ogawa, the way he sat out most of the match, avoided taking any major punishment, but became the hero by scoring the quick pinfall hitting just a few moves total for the whole match. And you wonder why no one in New Japan takes Tenzan seriously as a main eventer.
One thing I hope comes out of all of this is a Tenzan/Omori feud, as they heated it up really well here with some good exchanges, including a fun mid-air collision when both men went for spinning heel kicks at the same time!
Match Rating: ***1/2

Tatsumi Fujinami, Osamu Nishimura, Takashi Iizuka, Tohru Yano, Hirooki Goto & Hiroshi Nagao VS Riki Choshu, Takashi Uwano, Kohei Sato, Yoshihito Sasaki, Kamikaze & Daisuke Sekimoto
Fujinami’s entire team is wearing matching black rookie gear. How cute.
The problem with this match obviously was that there were too many people involved for anything to really develop or for anyone to really get in a good showing. There were quick tags and bodies going all over the place in this one.
Fujinami seemed to site out a lot of it, but couldn’t get much going when he was in there anyway, same with Nishimura and Iizuka. Yano taunted Choshu with a Scorpion Death Lock only to get it broken up, Goto had a good exchage with Sasaki and Nagao had an OK showing also, hitting a big chokeslam.
On the other side, Choshu was no-selling everything, including a six-man beat down from the beginning of the match. I haven’t seen Uwano in ages, but he reminded me of a young Kobashi here the way he dressed in orange gear. Uwano hit a nice Urinage which pissed off Iizuka since it’s one of his moves. Sato got the win for his team, but was pretty much lost in the shuffle of having so many guys in the match. Sasaki had a good showing against Goto like I mentioned earlier, Kamikaze hit a great bicycle kick and a moonsault, and all Sekimoto got in was a display of his strength when he German-suplexed both Uwano & Yano at the same time!
Overall, maybe this match would have benefited more from being made an elimination match or a team battle royal.
Match Rating: *

Naofumi Yamamoto VS Ryoji Sai
I was really impressed with Yamamoto as he put on a really strong showing here. He’s got some good striking skills going for him and he might become the next Shibata if he works at his skills. He showed good intensity and breaking out from the “Young Lion” mold of just using the basics.
I’m not really big on Sai, but he looked good here as well. Really cool bit being when he stopped “being Mr. Nice Guy”, threw down his mouth piece and showed Yamamoto how to really throw some kicks, leading to a great exchange and a really sick head kick from Sai in the end!
This is the kind of matches they need to use to get the feud between the two over, as well as the inter-promotional war. It’s also good exposure for Yamamoto to see what he can really do when you put him in a heated feud with a fellow youngster, even if Sai has several years experience over him.
Match Rating: **

Tiger Mask & Minoru VS Tatsuhito Takaiwa & Tomohiro Ishii
Is it supposed to be Tiger Mask or Black Tiger in this match? Cause the Tiger dude came out all in black & white, which is the colors of the heel Black Tiger ain’t it? I thought he looked kinda sloppy either way.
The match was clipped down a bit, but still looked pretty good from what was shown. There was this one really cool spot where Takaiwa did his triple-powerbomb, but on his last bomb, he lifted up Tiger and passed him to Ishii in mid-air who than drove him down with a brain buster! Tiger & Minoru showed some good teamwork as well, like Tiger hitting a missile dropkick on Ishii into a German-suplex by Minoru.
Strong match overall, and Takaiwa & Ishii make a good power-tandem I’d like to see more of.
Match Rating: *1/2

Jushin Thunder Liger, Jado & Gedo VS Masato Tanaka, Kintaro Kanemura & Bad Boy Hidoh
It was a travesty that this match was clipped down to about three minutes! A lot of stuff was missing here. They showed Kanemura splashing Liger through a table, but than cut to Jado laying in a broken table but not how he was put through it. I think Liger & Tanaka had some good exchanges, as they showed Liger giving Tanaka a Liger-bomb. I think CTU got out-rudo’d since there was an army of Apache Pro guys at ringside helping out Tanaka & Co. here.
I really would have liked to see this one un-cut.
Match Rating: ¼*

Overall: OK, despite a rather disappointing main event, this was a pretty good show overall and I actually dare say you should check it out. Just try to get your hands on an uncut version instead of the 3hr15minute TV version I watched for this review.

Labels: NJPW

Hirooki Goto VS Akiya Anzawa
I’m officially impressed by these two as this was the first Young Lion match I’ve watched that didn’t bore me to fast forward past it. For one thing, these two showed personality, something usually lacking in rookies, and they actually made it more than just a green horn match as they match to get the crowd drawn into it with some standard big moves and close near falls. The only thing I would say actually spoiled this was the lame Young Lion Boston Crab of Doom finisher. Really takes away from what was being built into a really good match.
Match Rating: *1/2

Takashi Iizuka VS Lizmark Jr
Lizmark put on a ton of tattoos since I last saw him in WCW.
I think the only reason NJPW brought him in is because he’s bigger and can be considered a heavyweight, cause he looked a bit sloppy here. He almost kissed the concrete big time when his feet caught the second rope while trying a suicide dive through the ropes and barely touched Iizuka.
I used to like Iizuka cause he was similar in style to Osamu Nishimura, but he kinda boring here also, not sure if it was his opponent or whatever.
The ending of the match came out of nowhere and looked really weak too.
Match Rating: ½*

Hiro Saito VS Hangman
Hangman’s gimmick is supposed to be that of an insane asylum escapee who hears voices, but he looks like a really poor version of Abyss, and doesn’t even work anywhere near as good as TNA’s resident monster. He has a nice pump-handle powerbomb finisher, but still seriously looks out of place here.
The match was what you’d call a styles clash as both guys looked rather out of place against each other, but still managed to put on an ok match, with Hiro hitting all his senton spots to pop the crowd.
Match Rating: ½*

G-1 CLIMAX 2005 Semi Final: Masahiro Chono VS Shinsuke Nakamura
I wasn’t expecting a lot from this one going into to, so I wasn’t really disappointed when it was finally over. Things just moved too slowly for my liking here, and there were a few holes like having Nakamura injure his knee missing the ill nino knee drop, only to no sell the pain minutes later by doing shining enzuguiris and German suplexes.
The ending spot would have also been better if Chono didn’t pause for so long while trying to figure out which leg to put the STF on after reversing the Shining Triangle, and Chono ended up locking it on the wrong leg! But hey, I’m sure no one else noticed.
Match Rating: *

G-1 CLIMAX 2005 Semi Final: Toshiaki Kawada VS Kazuyuki Fujita
Kawada always has a blank look on his face, but it so looked like he had “lamb being led to slaughter” written on his face this time.
I really hope there are a lot of zeros on that pay check Kawada is getting from this match cause he made Fujita look like a million bucks despite how really awkward all of Fujita’s knee spots were. And what was Fujita waiting for when he turned around and saw Kawada all groggy on his feet? Fujita’s knee strikes just really look weak when compared to Yoshihiro Takayama’s though. Fujita is also probably the first person I’ve seen not go down from Kawada’s desperation closed fist punch.
Kawada did look to give Fujita a lot of trouble here as he was constantly able to pop up to his feet after taking Fujita’s elbow and knee strikes (which was about all Fujita did in the match aside from a front sleeper), but the closing spot was just really weak even if Kawada did sell it like the pro he is, and got his nose busted for it.
This was anything but a dream match as there was next to nothing to live up to that build.
Match Rating: *1/2

Jushin Thunder Liger, Minoru, Jado & Gedo VS Koji Kanemoto, Tiger Mask, El Samurai & Masahito Kakihara
Wow. Kakihara had his hands on the ropes while the CTU had him in a Cobra Twist, but instead of breaking the hold, the referee walks over to the other side to get Kanemoto back to his corner? Despite the wealth of New Japan junior heavyweight talent in this one, I ended up fast forwarding past it as it was just full of things they’ve done a thousand times in the past already, proving that more isn’t always better.
Match Rating: *

Minoru Suzuki & Toru Yano VS Osamu Nishimura & Tatsutoshi Goto
So Yano has bad ribs going into this one, and no one thinks of attacking them? Guess only the heels attack weak spots on their opponents, and since Goto doesn’t have the beach blonde hair anymore, he’s not a heel anymore either.
But God bless the backslide at least, as the ending was the only good part since I thought the rest of it was downright boring.
Match Rating: 1/2*

Yuji Nagata, Manabu Nakanishi & Kendo KaShin VS Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Yutaka Yoshie
I thought this was pretty average also, but seeing Nagata get big Yoshie up in an Exploder and a backdrop-hold was sweet. Everything else was easily forgettable.
Tanahashi is broken goods, Tenzan was boring no matter how hard he tried, and I didn’t find Nakanishi & KaShin’s bickering funny or entertaining. Only Yoshie and Nagata were worth watching here.
Match Rating: *

G-1 CLIMAX 2005 Finals: Kazuyuki Fujita VS Masahiro Chono
So Chono ripping his tights open to reveal his knee brace is supposed to make his kicks stronger? Maybe it added something to his lame attempt at ground knee strikes, if he didn’t MISS them. And again Chono attacked Fujita’s knee only to end up locking on the STF on the wrong knee!
I hate to say it, but I actually would have preferred Fujita winning since he actually looked more convincing here. Basically, this was your typical New Japan big match main event, which of course doesn’t add up to much. But hey, at least Chono did it for Hashimoto.
Match Rating: *

Overall: What does it say about one of the biggest shows of the year for the company when the opener featuring two ROOKIES is actually the best overall match on the ENTIRE show? It just makes no sense that the biggest matches on the card would just whiz by, but the boring filler matches takes so long to sit through. All I can say is at least I didn’t PAY to watch this.

Labels: NJPW

Right off the bat, I’m wondering why they couldn’t air the intro of the show directly instead of having a camera on the giant monitor at the entrance way. It looked really good and would have been nice to have watched it clearly.

Riki Choshu & Tomohiro Ishii VS Tatsumi Fujinami & Osamu Nishimura
The teacher/student tag match. These Japanese fans are really weird; Nishimura comes in and cuts off a Scorpion Death Lock attempt and gets booed, but there’s no reaction for Choshu coming in to try and break up Nishimura’s figure-four attempt! Choshu has got to be loving being “site foreman”, cause he was no-selling moves again and left Ishii to take the brunt of the beating. I don’t get why Ishii, who has at least 3 years experience and some big wins in the indy scene, still works like a green young lion.
I thought this match was ok, but the ending just seem to come out of nowhere.
Match Rating: ½*

Zero-One MAX VS NJPW: Tatsuhito Takaiwa & Yoshihito Sasaki VS Koji Kanemoto & Wataru Inoue
The Zero-1 ring announcer does the ring introductions! He was also heavily cheering on the Z-1 MAX team from ringside, now that’s the right way to push an inter-promotional war. I think it’s a crime to have Minoru Fujita & Ikuto Hidaka as ring seconds and not in an actual match on the card too.
The match itself was a fun fast paced sprint, with lots of good action in it. I just don’t get why Yoshihito Sasaki has to be regulated to be a whipping boy in this match as they just made him look so second rate compared to the New Japan guys. He should be equally on the level with Wataru Inoue since he did win the Tenkai Ichi World Jr. Tournament, and Wataru didn’t even finish the Best of Super Juniors XIII due to injury. They wouldn’t even let Sasaki put two moves together and that ain’t right.
It was still fun watching Takaiwa and Kanemoto trade some hard hits and Takaiwa tossing Inoue around like a rag doll though. I also liked Inoue chaining his Triangle Lancer into a rolling cradle. This match would have been much better if it had more crowd heat.
Match Rating: **

Zero-One MAX VS NJPW: Shinjiro Ohtani, Kohei Sato, Ryoji Sai & Kamikaze VS Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Takashi Iizuka, Yutaka Yoshie & Naofumi Yamamoto
Back to the New Japan ring announcer for this one. The referee had a hard time controlling this one since you had eight big guys involved. I really didn’t see any structure to the match cause there was a lot going on with all the brawling and control of the match constantly switching between teams. But it was ok, with everyone getting their spots in. Good to see the Z1M guys were treated better here than Yoshihito Sasaki was in the previous bout.
Match Rating: *

IWGP Jr. Tag Team Titles: Negro Casas & Felino VS Minoru & Hirooki Goto
This match is under lucha rules, meaning you don’t have to tag. Ryusuke Taguchi is also seconding the CMLL team since he had been training there recently.
I thought this match was pretty much forgettable with nothing really holding my interest. It didn’t even have that big title match feel to it. I can see the obvious improvements in Goto, like his reverse DVD finisher. Now if only they changed his look so that he actually looked like a champion instead of a rookie (which he is).
Match Rating: *

Ex-WWE VS Team Japan: Mark Jindrak & Charlie Haas VS Manabu Nakanishi & Kendo KaShin
Jindrak looks really different, sorta like a bigger Christian Cage, or a bit like Val Venis even. Haas on the other hand looks like James Gibson.
What’s up with the referee backing off and acting like all “don’t look at me, dude!” when Haas tried to complain to him about KaShin twisting his thumb?
This whole match looked like a clusterf*ck. Didn’t find anything interesting here and KaShin is still a d*ck. Why weren’t the ex-WWE guys given any serious offense other than punches and kicks? They looked more like indy-green horns than big time ex-WWE stars that NJPW were pushing them as.
Match Rating: DUD.

Ex-WWE VS Team Japan: Matt Morgan VS Yuji Nagata
I found it funny they would compare this confrontation to classics like Inoki-Hogan and Fujinami-Andre. Nagata might be a former IWGP champion, but Morgan is nowhere near the big names Hogan & Andre were back in the day.
I thought the match was OK. Nagata did all he could to carry Morgan to a good match. The match was actually more enjoyable when Nagata was in charge as Morgan was moving rather slowly when on offense. Nagata manage to hit a sloppy Exploder, with Morgan landing on his shoulder due to his size. Morgan did a pretty good version of the Black Hole Slam, and his Mount Morgan Drop finisher is really cool.
Match Rating: *1/2

Highlights of IWGP tag team champions Hiroshi Tanahashi & Shinsuke Nakamura training in CMLL, in Mexico. We then get a quick look at their opponents tonight, Toshiaki Kawada and Yoji Anjoh of HUSTLE.
They then play a video to hype the triple-threat main event. They can show a nice video like this to hype the main events, but use a crappy camera angle on the titantron to kick off the show?

IWGP Jr. Title & NWA Jr. Title: Black Tiger VS Tiger Mask
This was easily the best match on the show up to this point, and give these two major props for making the match at lest feel important since both their titles were on the line. The crowd was more into this match than anything else so far as they really took it to each other and not holding back, except for that dumb ass referee stopping Tiger Mask from hitting a tombstone off the apron to the floor. New Japan really do need to learn how to do more matches like this where they actually build up something and get the crowd excited with big moves and near falls towards the end.
Match Rating: **1/2

Yoji Anjoh & Toshiaki Kawada VS Hiroshi Tanahashi & Shinsuke Nakamura
At this point I officially HATE the NJPW commentator, as he seems more excited about the wrestlers walking down the isle than their actual ring work. Pay attention to the actual match, dumb-ass!
Ok, THIS was the best match of the show up to this point. It was interesting seeing Anjoh in a serious match for a change, and you know there’s guaranteed goodness when Kawada is in a match. The match had some good crowd heat going for it thanks to Anjoh’s heel tactics. The only complaint I guess is that Tanahashi worked most of the match and took all the glory too.
What I don’t get is why Tanahashi & Nakamura dragged Kawada back to the center of the ring and started laying into him after the match. Kawada also seemed genuinely confused by this.
Match Rating: ***

The only pro-wrestling promoter with an ego that could match Vince McMahon, Antonio Inoki comes out to give his annual speech. Something gets botched on his intro when they were supposed to do something with this monk in the sky box, but his mic wasn’t working, so Inoki had to step out early. I’m not sure, but I think he may have been making fun of the late Giant Baba here, as he mentioned something about him that was followed by a round of laughs.

IWGP Heavyweight Title: Masahiro Chono VS Brock Lesner VS Kazuyuki Fujita
I’d already seen this match before, and seeing it again now, I’m still not impressed. Sure it was a good fast sprint match, but it just looked too planned out. It was just redundant the way they kept 2 guys in the ring by having the guy that got knocked out come in and knock out one of the other 2 just to keep it like that. Just too formulatic for my taste. I can understand wanting Lesner to make a big impact on his debut, but world title matches should be competitive and longer than 8 minutes, especially if it’s 3 guys involved.
And of course Fujita now leaves the company having NEVER PUT ANYONE OVER.
Match Rating: **

Overall: I really hope New Japan can improve things in 2006, and if Brock is going to work full time, that he’s booked like an actual wrestler and not the “squash everyone one in 5 minutes time monster” Fujita was. Brock can WRESTLE, so please let him if you guys are serious about pushing him as champion and not a cheap gimmick to draw a crowd.
As for the overall show, there was good and bad, and a lot of room for improvement. I seriously can’t recommend it though. And for Gods sakes, get a better commentator that actually pays attention to the matches.

Labels: NJPW