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Post by The Kevstaaa on Apr 20, 2019 10:53:25 GMT -5
NJPW Sengoku Lord April 20th, 2019 | Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium in Nagoya, Aichi | Attendance: 4,731
NJPW and their oddly named shows. This one seems to be taking on the role that Wrestling Toyonokuni and Wrestling Hi No Kuni had last year. It’s just before Wrestling Dontaku and features a few marquee matchups. Most of 2019 NJPW has kind of just been there. We’ve got a few great matches, but I’ve never been less engrossed in the stuff they’re doing. Let’s see if this show is a turning point.
Ren Narita and Shota Umino vs. Yota Tsuji and Yuya Uemura From what I’ve seen, this is a solid group of Young Lions. Not on the level of some previous groups, though Umino feels like the biggest potential star of the bunch. He’s had the big matches against established guys. He and Narita are the most advanced duo and it showed. Though their offense wasn’t much different, things looked more crisp and smooth when they were in control. Tsuji and Uemura brought the fire and played the underdogs that they usually would against the rest of the roster. I popped for the finish as Narita busted out a great bridging underhook suplex to win in 7:37. A solid way to start the show. [**¾]
El Desperado, Minoru Suzuki, Taichi, TAKA Michinoku & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Jushin Thunder Liger, Satoshi Kojima, Toa Henare, Tomoaki Honma & Yuji Nagata Still not a fan of the new version of “Kaze Ni Nare.” Is Honma a New Japan Dad yet? If not, that team is Toa Henare, his dads, and that one uncle with the raspy voice. I got to see Liger get into a strike exchange with Suzuki and that was all I needed in this one. Liger played the face in peril and those dastardly Suzuki-Gun members tried unmasking him. The hot tags led to the usual fun offense from Nagata and Kojima. I love those guys. Still among the best in the company. Eventually, the match broke down into something of a brawl. Taichi picked up the win after a superkick and Stretch Plum on Henare in 12:15. Another pretty good tag. It was mostly here to give Taichi a win heading into his upcoming NEVER Openweight Title match. As much as I dig Jeff Cobb, that match doesn’t sound appealing. [**¾]
IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion Dragon Lee, Togi Makabe and Toru Yano vs. IWGP Tag Team Champions The Guerrillas of Destiny and Taiji Ishimori If you’re wondering why I’m so down on NJPW, one of the reasons is the Guerrillas of Destiny. I don’t ever recall a team being so consistently lame and being such a prominent force. They’ve had years to impress and always cap out at mediocre at best. And that’s me being nice to them. Anyway, this built towards some upcoming title matches. This was another one of the wildly average matches you can expect from these guys. When it was Lee against Ishimori, things were fun. The tag team stuff never worked. Yano had a few highlights, but it was nothing we hadn’t seen before. Yano won with a sneaky rollup in 8:13. I yawned. That tag division is atrocious. [**]
Chase Owens vs. Mikey Nicholls I’ve seen a lot of people praise Chase Owens for his undercard work. I think he has definitely improved, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s anything special. Mikey Nicholls came over during the New Japan Cup and hasn’t done much to impress. Jado attacked Nicholls with a kendo stick before the bell. These attacks and Bullet Club shenanigans were old in 2015, so imagine now. At least the attack set up a target for Owens, who focused on the back throughout. He used submissions on it and threw him into the guardrail a few times. Mikey made the babyface comeback and won with the Mikey Bomb in 8:56. A decent little match that told a fine story. It just felt a lot like Nicholls right now. Bland. [**½]
HIKULEO and Jay White vs. Hirooki Goto and Ryusuke Taguchi Disappointing but not at all surprising that Jay no longer has the title. Also, his next feud is Hirooki Goto? Talk about falling off a cliff. Goto’s good, but he stopped mattering after Okada wrecked his life in 2016. HIKUELO is big. That’s about it. The fact that Jay White is calling Goto a failure is one of those funny because it’s true things. Anyway, the match followed the formula you’d expect. HIKUELO was too big to knock down easily. Taguchi brought his wacky antics. White was cunning. Goto was there. Goto beat HIKULEO with USHIGOROSHI and the GTR in 10:57. I’d say this was a match that happened. That’s about all that’s worth pointing out. Nothing outwardly bad, but lacked any kind of energy. [**¼]
BUSHI, EVIL, SANADA, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito vs. IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada, IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Roppongi 3K, Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI Cold blooded commentary hypes the Jr. LIJ team as SHINGO TAKAGI…and also BUSHI. Poor BUSHI. These tag matches are always fun and these guys were here to save this show. This was exactly what it needed to be. Shingo had some great exchanges with Roppongi 3K. Ishii and EVIL came across like they wanted to kill each other. Naito and HASHI existed. Okada and SANADA built towards their upcoming match with some solid exchanges. I like the stuff between Okada and SANADA, but it never translates to anything more than a good match. They haven’t even sniffed greatness together. The match actually lost energy when Naito was in there with HASHI. That should be impossible and would be if Naito was booked properly. Naito ultimately picked up the win with Destino on HASHI in 16:31. YOSHI sucks so hard, it only took one Destino to beat him. As expected, this was the best thing on the show to this point. A lot of fun and it did well to hype upcoming matches. [***½]
IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship: Juice Robinson [c] vs. Bad Luck Fale I really like Juice and I don’t think Fale is as bad as most people consider. He did had a terrible G1 run, though. Fale spent the early portions slamming Juice all around the ringside area, into chairs, and beating him up in the crowd. Kevin Kelly had an over the top Michael Cole style moment where he exclaimed, “JUICE’S BACK COULD BE BROKEN!” It did set the stage for Juice’s back to be a major problem here. He did wrestle like a moron, continually trying to body slam Fale despite the injury. I get the idea of building a match around the body slam spot, but it would make more sense if Juice was just struggling because of Fale’s size. Doing it with the back injury made him seem like an idiot. Juice survived the Grenade, escaped the Bad Luck Fall, and won via Pulp Friction in 17:25. What worked in this match worked because Fale is a good bully and Juice is great at the fiery underdog role. I expressed my issues with the back/body slam stuff. [***]
IWGP Intercontinental Championship: Kota Ibushi [c] vs. Zack Sabre Jr. I love when these guys wrestle, even if their recent New Japan Cup match was the one I thought was worst (***¾) and that was still very good. With so much history, it made sense that they took time to fully get going. They don’t want to make the first mistake and know each other’s strengths. I loved how Sabre continued his vicious streak. He applied submissions while Ibushi was on the guardrail and put the focus on Ibushi’s neck. Ibushi has had problems there in the past. From there, Sabre dominated by bending and twisting Ibushi in unusual ways. Even when Ibushi would get an opening, Sabre found a way to turn his offense into a submission. I liked how Sabre would get cocky and try to kick/strike, only for that to be when Ibushi got going. That’s Ibushi’s wheelhouse. Once that happened, it set up a great closing stretch filled with close calls and dynamite exchanges. Ibushi won with the Kamigoye in 28:58. A great main event. Their G1 27 match is still my favorite, but this is probably third. Everything Zack did was smooth and brutal, while Ibushi brought a ton of fire to the match. I liked the story of working the neck and Ibushi paying homage to the IC Champions he looked up to in the past. [****¼]
Post-match, Tetsuya Naito came out and challenged Kota Ibushi for the title. That match will be great, as always between them, but it’s yet another in a long line of NJPW rematches. Imagine if they had a weekly TV show to book. Yikes. Also, Naito continues his role as the Nakamura of the company, focusing solely on the IC Title despite being the most popular. I see predictions that he’s the one to beat Okada this time, but that shipped sailed for me at WK12. Still, Naito vs. Ibushi will rule.
Overall: 6/10. Typical New Japan show. People wonder why they don’t appear on my “Show of the Year” list and it’s because most of their events are like this. An undercard that is decent with nothing special happening, before giving us a few notable moments. There’s only one match you need to check out, which is the main event. Skip the rest. Although, at least it isn’t one of those 4.5 hour B shows from NJPW. They kept this one much tighter.
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Convoy
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Post by Convoy on Apr 20, 2019 12:23:38 GMT -5
I like Juice/Fale more than expected, and Ibushi/ZSJ might be my new second-favorite between the two of them.
Also like Ibushi really coming out of his shell both in and out of the ring. It's as if finally declaring a home has made him comfortable with taking the next step.
Going into Friday's show and the Jr. Tag title match, a reminder than Shingo has yet to be pinned or submitted since coming to New Japan. That's an extra important fact when you remember BotSJ starts next month. You'd imagine someone will have to defeat him for the first time in the next 4-6 weeks.
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chrom
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Post by chrom on Apr 20, 2019 12:32:51 GMT -5
Yeah Shingo has never been pinned or made to submit in the 6 months plus he's been in New Japan. He's been feuding with Sho and its likely they'll be paired up in the same block
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chrom
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Post by chrom on Apr 20, 2019 15:22:58 GMT -5
Juice is one defense away from tying Kenny's record
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Post by Clash, Never a Meter Maid on Apr 20, 2019 15:23:16 GMT -5
Guys, question for you all. WHAT BAR!? is Juice Robinson in this outfit? A pack of Airheads Extremes.
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chrom
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Post by chrom on Apr 21, 2019 17:14:24 GMT -5
Three days of shows at Korakuen starting tomorrow
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Convoy
El Dandy
Rusev admits to being a sex addict to large applause.
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Post by Convoy on Apr 21, 2019 23:00:56 GMT -5
Big change to all upcoming cards - Ibushi will now switch places with Rocky Romero on every show in the tour. That allows him to face off with Naito on every event. Remaining cards updated: 4/22 (Road to Wrestling Dontaku 2019 - Korakuen Hall) Satoshi Kojima, Yuji Nagata & Tomoaki Honma vs. Ren Narita, Yota Tsuji & Yuya Uemura Jyushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask & Shota Umino vs. Minoru Suzuki, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & El Desperado Rocky Romero, YOSHI-HASHI & Toa Henare vs. Zack Sabre Jr., Taichi & TAKA Michinoku Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii, Kota Ibushi, YOH & SHO vs. SANADA, EVIL, Tetsuya Naito, BUSHI & Shingo Takagi Juice Robinson & Mikey Nicholls vs. Bad Luck Fale & Chase Owens NEVER OPENWEIGHT 6-MAN TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP: Togi Makabe, Toru Yano & Ryusuke Taguchi (c) vs. Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa & Hikuleo Hirooki Goto & Dragon Lee vs. Jay White & Taiji Ishimori
4/23 (Road to Wrestling Dontaku 2019 - Korakuen Hall) Satoshi Kojima, Yuji Nagata & Tomoaki Honma vs. Shota Umino, Yota Tsuji & Yuya Uemura Jyushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask & Ren Narita vs. Minoru Suzuki, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & El Desperado Rocky Romero, Tomoaki Honma & YOSHI-HASHI vs. Zack Sabre Jr., Taichi & TAKA Michinoku Togi Makabe, Toru Yano, Juice Robinson & Mikey Nicholls vs. Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa, Bad Luck Fale & Chase Owens Hirooki Goto, Ryusuke Taguchi & Dragon Lee vs. Jay White, Hikuleo & Taiji Ishimori Tomohiro Ishii, Kota Ibushi & SHO vs. EVIL, Tetsuya Naito & Shingo Takagi Kazuchika Okada & YOH vs. SANADA & BUSHI
4/24 (Road to Wrestling Dontaku 2019 - Korakuen Hall) Satoshi Kojima, Shota Umino & Ren Narita vs. Yuji Nagata, Yota Tsuji & Yuya Uemura Rocky Romero, Tomoaki Honma & YOSHI-HASHI vs. Zack Sabre Jr., Taichi & TAKA Michinoku JYUSHIN THUNDER LIGER 30 YEAR ANNIVERSARY MATCH: Jyushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Minoru Suzuki, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & El Desperado Juice Robinson, Mikey Nicholls & Dragon Lee vs. Bad Luck Fale, Chase Owens & Taiji Ishimori Hirooki Goto, Togi Makabe, Toru Yano & Toa Henare vs. Jay White, Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa & Hikuleo Tomohiro Ishii, Kota Ibushi & YOH vs. EVIL, Tetsuya Naito & BUSHI Kazuchika Okada & SHO vs. SANADA & Shingo Takagi
4/26 (Road to Wrestling Dontaku 2019 – Aki no Kuni SENGOKU EMAKI) Shota Umino & Ren Narita vs. Yota Tsuji & Yuya Uemura YOSHI-HASHI, Tiger Mask & Toa Henare vs. Minoru Suzuki, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & El Desperado Togi Makabe, Toru Yano, Juice Robinson, Mikey Nicholls & Tomoaki Honma vs. Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa, Bad Luck Fale, Chase Owens & Jado Jeff Cobb & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Taichi & TAKA Michinoku Hirooki Goto, Will Ospreay & Dragon Lee vs. Jay White, Hikuleo & Taiji Ishimori Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii & Kota Ibushi vs. SANADA, EVIL & Tetsuya Naito IWGP JUNIOR TAG CHAMPIONSHIP: Roppongi 3K (c) vs. BUSHI & Shingo Takagi
4/29 (Wrestling Hi no Kuni 2019) Tomoaki Honma, Shota Umino & Ren Narita vs. Toa Henare, Yota Tsuji & Yuya Uemura Jeff Cobb, YOSHI-HASHI, Jyushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Taichi, Minoru Suzuki, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, El Desperado & TAKA Michinoku Dragon Lee & Will Ospreay vs. Taiji Ishimori & Hikuleo Mikey Nicholls vs. Bad Luck Fale Juice Robinson vs. Chase Owens Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii, Kota Ibushi, YOH & SHO vs. SANADA, EVIL, Tetsuya Naito, BUSHI & Shingo Takagi IWGP TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP: Guerrillas of Destiny (c) vs. Togi Makabe & Toru Yano Hirooki Goto vs. Jay White
4/30 (Road to Wrestling Dontaku 2019) Tiger Mask & Yuya Uemura vs. Shota Umino & Ren Narita Jyushin Thunder Liger & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. El Desperado & TAKA Michinoku Togi Makabe, Toru Yano, Mikey Nicholls & Tomoaki Honma vs. Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa, Bad Luck Fale & Hikuleo Jeff Cobb, YOSHI-HASHI & Toa Henare vs. Taichi, Minoru Suzuki & Yoshinobu Kanemaru Hirooki Goto, Will Ospreay, Juice Robinson & Dragon Lee vs. Jay White, Gedo, Chase Owens & Taiji Ishimori Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii, Kota Ibushi, YOH & SHO vs. SANADA, EVIL, Tetsuya Naito, BUSHI & Shingo Takagi
5/1 (Road to Wrestling Dontaku 2019) Tiger Mask & Shota Umino vs. Toa Henare & Yota Tsuji Ryusuke Taguchi & Ren Narita vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru & El Desperado Togi Makabe, Toru Yano & Tomoaki Honma vs. Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa & Jado Jeff Cobb, YOSHI-HASHI & Jyushin Thunder Liger vs. Taichi, Minoru Suzuki & TAKA Michinoku ELIMINATION MATCH: Hirooki Goto, Juice Robinson, Mikey Nicholls, Will Ospreay & Dragon Lee vs. Jay White, Bad Luck Fale, Chase Owens, Hikuleo & Taiji Ishimori ELIMINATION MATCH: Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii, Kota Ibushi, YOH & SHO vs. SANADA, EVIL, Tetsuya Naito, BUSHI & Shingo Takagi
5/3 (Wrestling Dontaku 2019 Night 1) Tomoaki Honma, Shota Umino & Ren Narita vs. Toa Henare, Yota Tsuji & Yuya Uemura YOSHI-HASHI, Jyushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Minoru Suzuki, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, El Desperado & TAKA Michinoku Togi Makabe, Toru Yano & Will Ospreay vs. Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa & Hikuleo Kota Ibushi, YOH & SHO vs. Tetsuya Naito, BUSHI & Shingo Takagi Hirooki Goto, Juice Robinson & Mikey Nicholls vs. Jay White, Bad Luck Fale & Chase Owens Kazuchika Okada & Tomohiro Ishii vs. SANADA & EVIL NEVER OPENWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP: Jeff Cobb (c) vs. Taichi IWGP JUNIOR HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP: Dragon Lee (c) vs. Taiji Ishimori
5/4 (Wrestling Dontaku 2019 Night 2) Shota Umino & Ren Narita vs. Yota Tsuji & Yuya Uemura Jeff Cobb, YOSHI-HASHI, Toa Henare, Tiger Mask & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Taichi, Minoru Suzuki, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, El Desperado & TAKA Michinoku Togi Makabe, Toru Yano & Jyushin Thunder Liger vs. Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa & Jado Hirooki Goto, Juice Robinson, Mikey Nicholls & Tomoaki Honma vs. Jay White, Bad Luck Fale, Chase Owens & Hikuleo Dragon Lee & Will Ospreay vs. Taiji Ishimori & X (El Phantasmo) Kota Ibushi, YOH & SHO vs. Tetsuya Naito, BUSHI & Shingo Takagi Tomohiro Ishii vs. EVIL IWGP HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP: Kazuchika Okada vs. SANADA
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chrom
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Post by chrom on Apr 22, 2019 5:40:43 GMT -5
Taichi picks up another win
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chrom
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Post by chrom on Apr 22, 2019 5:46:53 GMT -5
Think its the first time Ibushi's ever teamed with Okada
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chrom
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Post by chrom on Apr 22, 2019 9:18:53 GMT -5
New Japan announced that Ibushi has signed a long term contract with them
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chrom
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Post by chrom on Apr 22, 2019 9:21:43 GMT -5
Yano stole back the IWGP Tag Titles but left the ROH belts
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Post by Some Baritone guy IS REDEEMED! on Apr 22, 2019 9:25:20 GMT -5
Yano stole back the IWGP Tag Titles but left the ROH belts ... you think he’s trying to tell us something?
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chrom
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Post by chrom on Apr 22, 2019 10:45:36 GMT -5
Tanahashi has been released from the hospital following surgery for his elbow
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Post by HMARK Center on Apr 22, 2019 14:14:05 GMT -5
Man, they're setting up Jay for a hubris-driven fall on this tour...though it's a Goto match, so the redemption arc being sabotaged is always a possibility.
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chrom
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Post by chrom on Apr 22, 2019 18:22:09 GMT -5
BOSJ Participants to be announced tomorrow
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chrom
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Post by chrom on Apr 23, 2019 10:08:23 GMT -5
Good show today
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chrom
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Post by chrom on Apr 23, 2019 15:41:54 GMT -5
Match is building between Liger and Suzuki
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chrom
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Post by chrom on Apr 23, 2019 21:00:00 GMT -5
Liger's 30th anniversary show is tomorrow
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Convoy
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Rusev admits to being a sex addict to large applause.
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Post by Convoy on Apr 23, 2019 21:57:49 GMT -5
Finally had time to watch today's show, and the highlight was the brief interaction between Shingo and Ibushi.
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Post by HMARK Center on Apr 23, 2019 22:37:42 GMT -5
Finally had time to watch today's show, and the highlight was the brief interaction between Shingo and Ibushi. I can't put into words how much I'm hoping Shingo shines in BoSJ and then gets booked for the G1.
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