NJPW Wrestling Dontaku 2016

[chrom]

Lineup for tomorrow's show.

(1) Captain New Japan & David Finlay vs. Juice Robinson & Jay White
(2) Manabu Nakanishi, Tiger Mask IV & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. YOSHI-HASHI, Rocky Romero & Barreta
(3) Togi Makabe, Tomoaki Honma & Yoshitatsu vs. Yujiro Takahashi, Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa
(4) Katsuyori Shibata & KUSHIDA vs. Yuji Nagata & Jushin Thunder Liger
(5) Tomohiro Ishii, Kazuchika Okada, Hirooki Goto & Gedo vs. Tetsuya Naito, SANADA, EVIL & BUSHI
(6) Special Single Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Bad Luck Fale
(7) IWGP Intercontinental Championship Match: Kenny Omega vs. Michael Elgin

[chrom]

Omega successfully retained the IWGP IC title today against Elgin.

[Raskovnik]

Great match, too. I enjoyed the heck out of it, anyways.

[JoDaNa1281]

Road to Wrestling Dontaku Results - 4/27/16

1. Tag Team Match: Juice Robinson & Jay White d. Captain New Japan & David Finlay via submission at 5:07 when Juice made the Captain tap out to a Cobra Clutch/Camel Clutch combo.

2. Six Man Tag Team Match: CHAOS(YOSHI-HASHI, Rocky Romero & Beretta) d. Tiger Mask, Ryusuke Taguchi & Manabu Nakanishi via pin at 8:04 when Romero partly ripped off Tiger's Mask, Tiger went to cover his face & then Romero rolled him up with a small package for the pin.

3. Six Man Tag Team Match: Yoshitatsu & G.B.H.(Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma) d. Bullet Club(Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa & Yujiro Takahashi) via pin at 12:42 when Makabe pinned Takahashi after Honma hit him with a Super Kokeshi, followed by Makabe hitting him with the King Kong Knee for the pin.

4. Tag Team Match: KUSHIDA & Katsuyori Shibata d. Jushin Thunder Liger & Yuji Nagata at 16:34.

5. 8 Man Tag Team Match: CHAOS(Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii, Hirooki Goto & Gedo) d. Los Ingobernables de Japon(Tetsuya Naito, EVIL, SANADA & BUSHI) via pin at 15:37 after Ishii hit BUSHI with the Brainbuster.

6. Singles Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi d. Bad Luck Fale via pin at 14:59 with the High Fly Flow.

7. IWGP Intercontinental Championship Match: Kenny Omega d. Michael Elgin via pin at 22:56 with the Katayoku no Tenshi to retain the Intercontinental Title.

Post match, Tanahashi came out & apparently challenged Omega to a IC Title Match, but Omega responded with a kick to the nuts, then he put up a ladder on top of Tanahashi, climbed to the top & raised the belt high.

[The Kevstaaa]

Road to Wrestling Dontaku
April 27th, 2016 | Hataka Star Lane in Fukuoka, Japan

The final broadcasted Road to Wrestling Dontaku show before the big event itself on the third. Right off the bat, I’d like to point out that this is a different arena than we usually see giving the show a different feel to most other NJPW shows. It’s nothing major but I like it.

Jay White and Juice Robinson def. Captain New Japan and David Finlay in 5:07
Captain New Japan has the best entrance video in all of NJPW. Picture a worse looking Hurricane tron. Considering one team had the Captain, who is the king of taking losses, and Finlay, who loses all of the time to White, the outcome of this seemed rather obvious. White and Finlay were good but Juice and the Captain had an awkward bit of a botch at one point. While the Young Lions went at it outside, Robinson made the Captain submit to his camel clutch variation, known as Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Clutch. I kid you not. Match was short and mostly inoffensive. *¾

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Roppongi Vice and YOSHI-HASHI def. Manabu Nakanishi, Ryusuke Taguchi and Tiger Mask IV in 8:04
No mask for Rocky Romero this time around. Baretta lost rock, paper, scissors again and had to start the match. He’s terrible at it. This was very similar to a match they ran last week but that one had Gedo instead of YOSHI-HASHI. Nakanishi played the big dude that was mostly unaffected by Roppongi Vice’s offense. Taguchi again got Nakanishi to do the ass attack, which still makes me laugh. Rocky, being a dastardly heel, tried to unmask Tiger Mask before rolling him up to steal it. I suspect they meet in the Best of the Super Juniors Tournament. It’s been a decent mini-feud. The match was almost a carbon copy of the Gedo one. **¼

Great Bash Heel and Yoshitatsu def. IWGP Tag Team Champions Guerillas of Destiny and Yujiro Takahashi in 12:42
The Yoshitatsu Triple H cosplay stuff is strange and I’m not really a big fan of it. While this wasn’t much longer than the previous match, it certainly felt like it. Something about the Guerillas of Destiny and Great Bash Heel just hasn’t meshed yet and it still didn’t here. Add in Yoshitatsu, who is decent and Takahashi, who sucks ass, and you’ve got a recipe for something unentertaining. Yoshitatsu doing HHH’s entrance is one thing but he tried, and failed with Hunter’s offense here. His spinebuster looked anemic. It’s just not working. Makabe got the final and ran over his opposition before pinning Takahashi with the King Kong Knee Drop. This dragged on and made me less interested in the upcoming Tag Team Title match, which I was already not looking forward to. *¼

NEVER Openweight Champion Katsuyori Shibata and IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion KUSHIDA def. Jushin Thunder Liger and Yuji Nagata in 16:34
Here we had a rematch from an earlier Road to Wrestling Dontaku show. That match was pretty great as these two singles matches are probably my most anticipated at Wrestling Dontaku. No wasted time here as Shibata attacked once he entered the ring. He applied a sleeper with Nagata’s shirt pulled over his head, which made me chuckle. Every interaction in this match was really good, regardless of who was wrestling who. Things got violent as Liger brought a chair into play and bashed KUSHIDA’s leg with it. It’s a side of Liger we don’t see often. Shibata and Nagata continued to go to war and it was glorious. KUSHIDA, despite the bad leg, was able to roll up Liger and defeat him, evening the score from their tag match heading into the title match. Like their previous encounter, this rule was some damn fine wrestling. ***½

Chaos (Gedo, Hirooki Goto, Kazuchika Okada and ROH World Television Champion Tomohiro Ishii) def. Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI, EVIL, SANADA and IWGP Heavyweight Champion Tetsuya Naito in 15:37
Like most “Road to” multi-man tag matches, this was pretty standard. Everyone got a chance to work their Wrestling Dontaku opponents, while Gedo and BUSHI were kind of just there. SANADA seemed to have the upper hand on Okada, which we don’t see very often. I fully expect Okada to win at the event but it is a bit refreshing. The interactions between Naito and Ishii were probably the best thing about this. Ishii has proven that he has really good chemistry with almost everyone, but there’s something about his work with Naito that stands out. It’s nearly on the level of Ishii/Honma. Ishii got the pin, of course on BUSHI, with a Brainbuster, building momentum for his title match. This was relatively fine, though nothing special. **¾

Hiroshi Tanahashi def. Bad Luck Fale in 15:33
I feel like I’ve seen this a lot. They’ve wrestled a few times in the G1 and two or three times since then. I believe Fale has a winning record over Tanahashi too. Anyway, this went about the same way as their previous matches. Tanahashi has always played to Fale’s strengths very well, even when it is a time wasting feud like this one. It didn’t click as well as some of their previous matches unfortunately, but still managed to be better than some other Fale bouts. Tanahashi took it easy for the most part, spending most of the match selling before making the big comeback and picking up the fine. ***

IWGP Intercontinental Championship: Kenny Omega (c) def. Michael Elgin in 22:57
This was Kenny Omega’s first title defense despite winning the belt way back in mid-February. Without his Bullet Club buddies at ringside, Kenny Omega resorted to bringing weapons into play to try and level the playing field against the much bigger Michael Elgin. They didn’t do anything groundbreaking with them, but tables and ladders are more effective in NJPW since they’re used so rarely. There was some really solid back and forth throughout this as well as some big spots from both men. The biggest came when Elgin powerbombed Omega to the outside and through a table. Like I said, it doesn’t happen often, so the impact was bigger. Omega survived and went for a top rope move but slipped, leading to a bit of an awkward moment. Elgin used another powerbomb for the closest near fall of the match before a trio of knee strikes and an impressive One Winged Angel allowed Omega to retain. Better than I expected as these two had a different match than we’re used to seeing in NJPW. Bravo. ****

After the match, Tanahashi came out and challenged Omega to an Intercontinental Title match at Dominion. Omega responded with an “I’ll think about it” before a low blow. Omega brought out a ladder, set it up over Tanahashi and said he doesn’t feel like facing him ever again. I wonder if they would actually do a New Japan ladder match.

Overall: 5/10. A mixed bag compared to some of the pretty good “Road to” shows earlier in the week. The main event is definitely worth going out of your way to see but everything else is rather pedestrian. Well, the KUSHIDA/Shibata tag was pretty rad too. Everything else is an easy skip in a very middle of the pack show.

[KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!!]

This Omega push is STRONG. The clear next gaijin to hold the top IWGP belt.

[froggyfrog]

Very excited for this. Still haven't seen the Invasion Attack main event. RIP

[JoDaNa1281]

NJPW Wrestling Dontaku - 5/3/16 Results

1. Tag Team Match: Bullet Club(Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi) d. Juice Robinson & Captain New Japan via pin at 2:26 after Fale hit the Captain with the Grenade for the pin.

2. 8 Man Tag Team Match: CHAOS(Gedo, Kazushi Sakuraba, Will Ospreay & YOSHI-HASHI) d. Ryusuke Taguchi, Tiger Mask, David Finlay & Jay White via pin at 7:23 after Ospreay hit Finlay with a Springboard Cutter for the pin.

3. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Championships Match: Ricochet & Matt Sydal d. Roppongi Vice(Beretta & Rocky Romero) via pin at 16:26 after they hit them with Stereo Shooting Star Presses(Ricochet on Beretta & Sydal on Romero) & Ricochet pinned Beretta to win the match & become the new IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champions.

4. NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championships Match: The Elite(Kenny Omega, Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson) d. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Michael Elgin & Yoshitatsu via pin at 14:03 after Omega hit Yoshitatsu with the Katayoku no Tenshi to win the match & become the new NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Champions.

5. IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championships Match: Guerillas of Destiny(Tama Tonga & Tanga Roa) d. G.B.H.(Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma) via pin at 12:12 after they hit Honma with Guerilla Warfare & Tonga pinned him to retain the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championships.

6. NEVER Openweight Championship Match: Yuji Nagata d. Katsuyori Shibata via pin with the Backdrop Hold to win the match & become the new NEVER Openweight Champion.

7. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship Match: KUSHIDA d. Jushin Thunder Liger via submission at 14:37 with the Hoverboard Lock to retain the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship.

8. Singles Match: EVIL d. Hirooshi Goto via pin at 9:53 with the Evil STO.

9. Revenge Match: Kazuchika Okada d. SANADA via pin at 15:11 with the Rainmaker.

10. IWGP Heavyweight Championship Match: Tetsuya Naito d. Tomohiro Ishii via pin at 30:33 with the Destino to retain the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.

[543Y2J]

Well...BOSJ is pretty stacked

[berlynwright]

well i wasn't expecting that result

[AwamoriRock]

Nogami...lol.

[魔界5号]

Nagata is NEVER Champ.. well, that was certainly unexpected. I love Yuji but I've really been enjoying Shibata's reign. Awesome that he's getting a reign now though.

[________ has left the building]

Yeah, Volador Jr! Boo, no Dragon Lee or Mascara Dorada. And Gedo??? You mean they couldn't find someone else? They made it seem like they were going to bring in a bunch of newcomers for the BOSJ and outside of a few, everyone been there for quite a while.

The junior tag titles continue the musical chairs. So does the NEVER tag titles. Nagata earns another title for the record books and Shibata gets another setback. Wouldn't be shocked if Liger won just to continue the angle of the vets having the numbers of the new generation. And please sweet merciful Yeezus don't let Ishii beat Naito because it feel like that would be a move that they will make.

[魔界5号]

this show

[魔界5号]

May 3, 2016 5:46:03 GMT -5 ________ has left the building said:

Yeah, Volador Jr! Boo, no Dragon Lee or Mascara Dorada. And Gedo??? You mean they couldn't find someone else? They made it seem like they were going to bring in a bunch of newcomers for the BOSJ and outside of a few, everyone been there for quite a while.

The junior tag titles continue the musical chairs. So does the NEVER tag titles. Nagata earns another title for the record books and Shibata gets another setback. Wouldn't be shocked if Liger won just to continue the angle of the vets having the numbers of the new generation. And please sweet merciful Yeezus don't let Ishii beat Naito because it feel like that would be a move that they will make.

I'm guessing they want to save a few names for the Super J Cup.

[berlynwright]

Goto always has incredible intensity in his matches

[froggyfrog]

Just woke up to see 3 title changes I didn't expect so far?!

[魔界5号]

The Super J Cup is probably gonna be stacked since Gedo can pick and choose from basically every company in Japan and a few others around the world. Plus it happens not long before Paul Levesque's Totally Tubular Vanilla Midget Open Invitational and he'll want it to be as big as he can.

[berlynwright]

holy crap Goto and EVIL has such awesome chemistry

[________ has left the building]

May 3, 2016 5:54:06 GMT -5 魔界5号 said:

The Super J Cup is probably gonna be stacked since Gedo can pick and choose from basically every company in Japan and a few others around the world. Plus it happens not long before Paul Levesque's Totally Tubular Vanilla Midget Open Invitational and he'll want it to be as big as he can.

He might what to start announcing names to build buzz before WWE bogards all of it. WWE been doing a great job of introducing the outsiders for the cruiser tourney. Meanwhile New Japan hasn't named anyone yet.