EL DESPERADO & YOSHINOBU KANEMARU vs. JYUSHIN THUNDER LIGER & TIGER MASK (9:51): When these four dudes waltzed out for the first match I was like, oh, jeez, a typical, random New Japan multi-man opener. I was sadly mistaken, as this was for the Jr. tag titles, which Desperado and Kanemaru retained. What a fucking title that is, as I'd forgotten who the champs were. It's probably because I loathe Suzuki-Gun. And where the hell is the Dragon Lee vs. Desperado mask vs. mask match we were promised? This was mildly entertaining. **
TOGI MAKABE & TOMOAKI HONMA vs. JUICE ROBINSON & TOA HENARE (10:20): Honma was almost paralyzed but is back and looks...the same? I guess a little rusty, but he's still doing diving head butts for some reason. This was just okay. The crowd still loves Honma, though, which at least made this a hotter match than it had any right to be. *1/2
BAD LUCK FALE, TAMA TONGA, TANGA LOA & TAIJI ISHIMORI vs. THE YOUNG BUCKS, HANGMAN PAGE & CHASE OWENS (12:06): Where the hell has Ishimori been? I know he wrestled for TNA/Impact at their last ppv...but he set the world on fire in June during the Super Juniors. Hopefully he'll face Kushida at the Dome. And The Bucks are always fun to watch, so there was that. **1/2
TOMOHIRO ISHII, HIROOKI GOTO & WILL OSPREAY vs. MINORU SUZUKI, TAICHI & TAKASHI IIZUKA (12:10): Ugh. Taichi. Dude comes out dressed like The Phantom of the Opera. He's the NEVER champ and is facing Ospreay next for it. Why does Taichi exist? And what's the point of Iizuka? He's like a chained animal set loose. Actually, that's his gimmick. Ospreay and Ishii were fun to watch. **1/2
TETSUYA NAITO, SANADA, BUSHI & SHINGO TAKAGI vs. KAZUCHIKA OKADA, TORU YANO, YOH & SHO (9:30): Takagi was the new member of Los Ignoberables that debuted. He's from Dragon Gate. He looked good. Match was okay. The set-up video for this match was hilarious, though. It had Los Ignoberables gambling and drinking in a private room while dressed in suits. They're so fucking cool! I guess. Although they were in the room alone. No girls. **
EVIL vs. ZACK SABRE, JR: Chris Jericho was dressed up as one of Evil's ring entrance zombie/ghost characters. He beat up Evil and unmasked and there was no match. Sabre stood at ringside at watched. This was amusing. **1/2
KUSHIDA vs. MARTY SCURLL (18:33): Good match. Kushida is the new Jr. champ. Takahashi broke his neck so he had to vacate the title. The last time these two wrestled on a big show it was for Ring of Honor in 2017 on a ppv and it was a bore. This was not super fast paced but it was well wrestled and entertaining. With Ospreay moving up in weight and Takahashi out, this division is fairly depleted these days, which is a shame. It was the greatest thing on earth three months ago. **1/2
HIROSHI TANAHASHI vs. JAY WHITE (20:40): This match was good and the post-match was good...but, c'mon, Jay White was not winning and going on to main event the Dome. So that took any drama out of this. The problem is that the G1 winner gets a title Dome main event match. Well Tanahashi won that but still had to defend his title shot against Okada last month and now White. What the hell is the point of winning the G1 these days? It's kind of like how winning the Royal Rumble became pointless once the February ppv was added. So the post-match had Jay White and Gedo joining The Firing Squad...creating a new, NWO style heel faction. Okada ran out and got beat up, too. Gedo is a great heel and they're pushing the hell out of White for some reason but he still can't win the big one. **1/2
KENNY OMEGA vs. CODY vs. KOTA IBUSHI (34:13): This match was announced last week at the Long Beach show. I guess I'd rather see an Ibushi/Omega match at a bigger show where the end result isn't obvious (Omega was not going to lose the title after his Tanahashi Dome match was pretty much set up two months ago), so I wasn't too mad that Cody was meaninglessly added to this. And Cody added nothing to this. He detracted. It was still great in spots but a bit sloppy and a bit pointless. **1/2
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