THE YOUNG BUCKS vs. reDRAGON vs. BARETTA & ROCKY ROMERO (14:30): Great match. More of the same, but more of the same involving The Young Bucks means fast-action and insane high-flying and, of course, comedy. Rocky Romero is amusing as well and Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly of reDragon are decent enough wrestlers so this was a fun, exciting match. The Bucks kept the IWGP Jr. Tag titles.
*** (out of ****)
TETSUYA NAITO & TOMOAKI HONMA vs. BAD LUCK FALE & YUJIRO TAKAHASHI (8:50): So Naito is a heel now. Okay. He non-chalantly walked to the ring, refused to be tagged in at times, and left before having his hand raised after the victory. Honma is a crowd favorite and just a hell of a wrestler. His diving head-butt that never delivers is hilarious. The other team sucks, though, so there wasn't much here. *1/2
KATSUYORI SHIBATA vs. KAZUSHI SAKURABA (11:48): Excellent match. Someone should tell Shibata that wrestling is fake. It was mostly just stiff strikes and kicks and holds but it was fucking brutal. In one sequence, Shibata picked up Sakuraba and pulled both of his arms back in a submission hold so Sakuraba had to pull them both to the ropes so he could bite the ropes to end the hold. Wild stuff. ***1/2
KUSHIDA vs. KENNY OMEGA (20:44): The last few minutes were stellar. Kushida is fucking dramatic, right? He could win an Oscar for those facial expressions alone. Omega is a bit better than average but the early part was slow when Omega beat down Kushida for ten minutes so it wasn't all fantastic. Kushida won the NJPW Jr. title here. Good match. ***
TOGI MAKABE vs. TOMOHIRO ISHII (17:50): I love Ishii. It's probably because I can't figure out why he's not in a wheelchair by now. He always puts his body on the line. Early on he did a top-rope front-flip to the floor and missed Makabe and landed on his back. Later on he seemed to hurt his shoulder so the ref and ringside doctor looked like they were going to call it off. Ishii is usually in exciting, brutal matches but this one was just brutal. Makabe retained the Never Open Weight title here. *1/2
DOC GALLOWS & KARL ANDERSON vs. THE KINGDOM (10:09): Ugh. The only good thing about this feud is the fact that Doc Gallows and Maria have a weird, stalker thing going on. Unfortunately that comedy schtick was barely used and we were left with a dull match. The crowd fell asleep. Gallows and Anderson won the IGWP Tag titles here. *
HIROSHI TANAHASHI vs. TORI YANU (12:32): Yanu is kind of like the R. Truth of NJPW. When he comes out you want to change the channel. He was kind of humorous here as the villain. He constantly grabbed and knocked the ref over then used a steel chair. Tanahashi is one of the greats so he's good with just about anyone but this was mediocre stuff. **
HIROOKI GOTO vs. SHINSUKE NAKAMURA (22:40): Like all NJPW title matches, the final few minutes were awe-inspiring. Nakamura is, really, the best in the business at being weird and quirky but also captivating. Goto is your typical strong brute. Not awesome or anything but a good match. Goto retained the IWGP IC title. **1/2
AJ STYLES vs. KAZUCHIKA OKADA (26:16): Phenomenal match. One of the year's best. They wrestled a few times before but this was their masterpiece by far. The only complaint I have is that AJ didn't win. Wasn't this his first title defense? Early on The Bullet club interfered so the ref banned them from ringside, even going so far as to giving them the "suck it" hand motion. I'm sure red shoes learned that from Earl Hebner. The reason this particular match was so good was because of the back-and-forth and counters at the end. The final flurry was impeccable. I'm not even the biggest Okada fan but they both put on a hell of a show. AJ might be the best wrestler in the world these days so it's sad to see him lose the IWGP Heavyweight title. Just an awesome finish to a great show. ***1/2
No comments:
Post a Comment