BAD LUCK FALE & LEO TONGA & YUJIRO TAKAHASHI vs. BUSHI, HIROMU TAKAHASHI & SANADA (6:44): Hiromu Takahashi is one of New Japan's most exciting wrestlers, so it's sad that he hasn't been in a solo match since June and his mega-push earlier this year has stalled (he will probably end up facing Ospreay at Wrestle Kingdom in January, though). He was, literally, the only one worth watching in this. And he didn't even really do anything! Sanada did a big top rope to the floor flip. And why does Sanada always have that permanent scowl like he wishes he was somewhere else? *1/2
HIROOKI GOTO & TORU YANO vs. MINORU SUZUKI & ZACK SABRE, JR. (9:18): Ugh. When will Yano retire already? He was doing commentary during the main event, so maybe (hopefully) soon. He won the match when Suzuki was counted out thanks to Yano's shenanigans. I kind of feel bad when real wrestlers have a match with him. It's like if Daniel Day Lewis would be forced to be on an episode of The Big Bang Theory. 1/2*
RAPPONGI 3K vs. RICOCHET & RYUSUKE TAGUCHI (14:52): The mystery team, Rappongi Vice 3000, turned out to be two guys I didn't even know, Sho and Yo, former Young Lions who wrestled in CMLL last year and in ROH as The Tempura Boys. They're young and fast and sort of fun to watch. I think a match against The Young Bucks would be suited better for them then this. They won the Jr. tag titles here. And while Ricochet and Taguchi are mildly amusing...it pisses me off that such a superior talent like Ricochet is stuck in a frigging comedy tag team low on the card. He should be the main event star. This had a few good high flying sequences but not much else. **1/2
KILLER ELITE SQUAD vs. WAR MACHINE vs. GUERRILLAS OF DESTINY (16:10): This was an elimination match for the tag titles, which Davey Boy Smith, Jr. and Lance Archer retained. It was kind of odd to see six non-Japanese wrestlers wrestling in Japan for the tag team championship. It was also lame that these three already had two back to back matches in September at the big shows. I guess New Japan has no idea what to do with the tag division...or just doesn't care. At least the Jr. tag division has been awesome the last few years, so there's that. This was at least entertaining. The winners put the fat viking of War Machine through a table to win, although the table more collapsed than broke and it looked stupid. Killer Elite Squad are a big, dumb, early 90's style of tag team. Which means they suck. But, hey, big guys doing big moves is usually at least watchable. **1/2
CODY, KENNY OMEGA & MARTY SCURLL vs. BERETTA, JADO & YOSHI-HASHI (13:42): The Bullet Club were amusing (even doing a 2-foot ring-post head stomp and then a 4-foot ring-post head stomp). So this was more comedy than anything. Beretta as a singles dude is still up in the air. He does some high flying suicide stuff which is good but other than that he seems lost. Omega is facing Yoshi-Hashi next week in Chicago at a ROH show for NJPW's U.S. title so those two fought early on. I suppose they could have a good match because Omega is the best wrestler in the world, but, you know, I'm skeptical. Yoshi-Hashi is pretty forgettable. **1/2
JUICE ROBINSON & KOTA IBUSHI vs. HIROSHI TANAHASHI & TOGI MAKABE (10:26): Tanahashi is facing Ibushi for the IC title next month in the main event of Power Struggle, so I guess he wanted to sell the shit out of it because he actually looked fast and good here. All summer he's looked hurt and slow because of his tendon tear or whatever the hell it was (Japanese people apparently never take vacations). This match was short and sort of
fun while it lasted. Nothing special. **
WILL OSPREAY vs. KUSHIDA (15:32): Good match, albeit probably only half as good as their brutal, epic Best of the Super Jr.'s final. Ospreay is just incredible to watch. He's one of those guy's that you watch no matter who his opponent is. He beat Kushida for the Jr. title here. His ridiculously melodramatic victory shock face was priceless. It's the fucking Jr. title, not a million bucks. ***
TETSYA NAITO vs. TOMOHIRO ISHII (23:56): Great match. Anti climatic...but stellar nonetheless. This was for the contract to be in the main event of Wrestle Kingdom...which the G1 winner already won (Naito). Which makes the entire G1 tournament completely pointless (it basically means the winner gets a semi-main event at King of Pro-Wrestling and perhaps the main event at WK). There were maybe one thousand near falls in this match and both guys landed sickeningly on their heads a dozen times. The final ten minutes or so were a typical NJPW frenzy with drama, brutality, kick-outs, and big moves. It wasn't Naito or Ishii's best match together...but it was by far the match of the show. ***1/2
KAZUCHIKA OKADA vs. EVIL (33:26): Evil is boring. And Okada tried his best but this turned out to just okay. Evil, since he's, well, evil, used a chair a few times outside the ring. Yawn. The final few minutes were good with reversals and near falls but, let's face it, Evil wasn't fucking winning the title. That kind of made this match ridiculously pointless. The end was good but it went way too long. And this sets up Naito vs. Okada for the title at WK, which I'm not too happy about. I wanted to see Omega/Okada 4. Naito and Okada for whatever reason have not had the greatest matches against each other. I'm much more looking forward to Omega vs. Ibushi at WK. And what does that say about the champ? **
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