It’s Tetsuya Naito vs. Yota Tsuji for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.
El Desperado and Ryusuke Taguchi vs. TMDK (Kosei Fujita and Zack Sabre Jr.)
Decent tag match that shined a light on Fujita head of the Best of the Super Jrs. Fujita v Despy might just be an important match in that tournament and they kept them apart quite well here. That gave us Despy v Zack which was a lot of fun. Taguchi was there to take the pin and while I was worried they’d have him beat Fujita, the Ichiban Sweet Boy got an O’Connor Roll to win. ***
Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI and Hiromu Takahashi) vs. BULLET CLUB War Dogs (David Finlay and Gedo)
Finlay’s pissed at working with junior heavyweights but his work against Hiromu was decent and felt quite fresh. They didn’t hang around here with a 6 minute match and it was more of a build for BUSHI who pinned Gedo. Fine. **
United Empire (Callum Newman, Great-O-Khan and Jeff Cobb) vs. Just 5 Guys (DOUKI, SANADA and Yuya Uemura)
Just a match in a lot of ways. The work is decent, but guys like SANADA and Cobb looked rather uninterested. O’Khan and Yuya seem to be starting a feud and their interactions were quite good with Yuya pinning O’Khan in the finish. It was an ending that had a point, but the match before it was pretty pointless. **1/4
BULLET CLUB War Dogs (Clark Connors and Drilla Moloney) (c) vs. Catch 2/2 (Francesco Akira and TJP) vs. Intergalactic Jet Setters (Kevin Knight and KUSHIDA) for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships
This is tornado style and benefits from it MASSIVELY. This is just non-stop action with each team having their own role. The Jet Setters want to excite fans and provide a showreel (Knight’s dive to the outside was spot of the night), Catch 2/2 are all about proving doubters wrong and showing (in TJP’s case) if he can be the leader and BCWD just want to use any opportunity to escape with their titles. Drill does offer something different as a junior – he wrestles like a heavyweight with big strikes and some power moves so he looks great. They tease everyone getting counted out and Chris Charlton PANICS which always pops me. Connors delivered a GREAT running spear on the apron to KUSHIDA and it came down to Jet Setters v BCWD. Connors countering the Culture Clash with a mid-air spear looked great! No Chaser. AND STILL. Really good match and exactly what you want from these matches. Cobb telling TJP after the match that if he wants to lead United Empire, he has to lead by example could be SUPER INTERESTING. ***3/4
Bullet Club (Chase Owens and KENTA) (c) vs. Bishamon (Hirooki Goto and YOSHI-HASHI) for the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championships
This wasn’t the best. There’s way too much Chase in this and as much as NJPW can try and present him as an interesting wrestler, he’s just not. KENTA as the cheating heel was fine again and he used a chair behind the referee’s back in a good spot that was timed to perfection from everyone involved. Later, he tried to use the belt but Goto countered with an ushigoroshi. Owens nearly won with a few roll-ups but we got some much needed course-correction for the divisin. Shoto. AND NEW. **1/2
SHO (c) vs. YOH for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship
YOH immediately gets injured from a dropkick and the match is stopped. DISASTER. NR
Jon Moxley and Shota Umino vs. House of Torture (Jack Perry and Ren Narita)
Mox is back in Japan and this was a really interesting match that sets up future stuff. It’s Perry v Shooter at Windy City Riot and they had a preview of that here. The work was okay, but like in their NJ Cup match, it was JUST okay. The highlight here was Mox v Narita which was a delight! Narita turned off the HOT and tapped in to his old self and it made for a great match up against Mox. They really laid it on thick that Narita is a threat to Mox which may come in handy in the future. The key spot was Shota sacrificing himself to take the push-up bar shot and Mox beat Ren with the Death Rider. I’m curious by all of this which is better than any of House of Torture from the last 12 months so good. ***1/4
EVIL (c) vs. Shingo Tagaki for the NEVER Openweight Championship
A NJPW title match with Attitude Era vibes with all the good and bad that come with it. The first 60% or so of this is a really good story-telling match. EVIL is doing it on his own against Shingo but not falling into Tagaki’s traps of strong style brawling. He’s smartly controlling the pace and the contest until House of Torture interfere on his behalf and it backfires. I did like how it paid off some long-running themes. Dick wore a BUSHI mask and BUSHI beat him up, Kanemura’s referee impression was caught out by Hiromu and the finish played off how EVIL beat Shingo in their last match. This time, EVIL got spat in the face with whiskey. This time, EVIL got sprayed with mist AND SHINGO HITS LAST OF THE DRAGON TO WIN THE TITLE. ***1/4
Gabe Kidd came to the ring and cut a scathing shoot promo on New Japan. He mentions the arrivals of Nic Nemeth, Matt Riddle and Jack Perry. He spits at Tanahashi. He spits on the NJPW logo in the ring. He references suicide attempts and then says he’s coming after the NEVER Openweight title. FUCKING YES GABE GET EM YOU MAD BASTARD.
Tetsuya Naito (c) vs. Yota Tsuji for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship
Good main event but ultimately, it’s not a great one as the pace was worked so slow due to Naito’s inability to go as he once did. Let’s face it – he’s been cooked for a while and this was another example. They worked a slower pace which is not Tsuji’s strong point, but they did layer in some nice story-telling. Naito works on the neck/back of Tsuji throughout and it’s a genius play. By the end of the match, Tsuji’s got no power due to the injuries so it’s really smart by Naito. Tsuji had two aims here: make Naito tap to a Boston Crab as revenge for how he lost a send-off match to Naito a few years ago and win the championship. Sadly, he doesn’t have enough strength to make the champion submit and while he gets a good near fall from a Stomp just after, Tsuji was always struggling to get the moment he craved. Naito even hit a Gene Blast of his own for a ONE COUNT as Tsuji showed his fighting spirit. It wouldn’t last much longer. Destino. 1. 2. 3. Naito retains and goes to Chicago to defend v Moxley. This wasn’t Tsuji’s time, but it certainly is time Naito wasn’t on top. Roll on Chicago. ***1/4
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