NJPW POWER STRUGGLE

Osaka

attendance: 2,834

TORU YANO vs. ZACK SABRE, JR. (12:11): This was for the new King of Pro-Wrestling title. I think the last thing New Japan is a new title. They already have the IWGP title, the Jr. title, the NEVER title, the 6-man title, the Intercontinental title, the Jr. tag team title, and the tag team title. Oh...that's not enough, you greedy bastards? The KOPW title is only different because every match has to have a stipulation. New Japan never does good stipulations, though, nor do they do gimmick matches like cage or ladder matches (they did a ladder match once with Omega and it was awesome and you'd think that would've opened their eyes to doing things like that more). The stip here was that there were no turnbuckle pads...I guess because Yano always takes them off anyway. Yano did win when he tied Zack's shoelaces together around the metal ringside barrier. Sometimes Yano matches are mildly amusing. This was not one of those times. 1/2*

SHINGO TAKAGI vs. MINORU SUZUKI (18:56): I actually thought that this would be a lot better than it was. Everyone online that reviewed this show loved this match...but I thought it wasn't very good at all considering both of these guys are hard hitting and brutal and the match should have been stellar. It probably didn't help that Suzuki either got knocked out towards the end or just got dazed by one of Shingo's clotheslines because Suzuki was practically falling over in a concussion haze and they went right to the finish. *1/2

KAZUCHIKA OKADA vs. THE GREAT O-KHAN (12:58): The Great O-Khan sucks. Everyone has kind of noted that his stupid, racist cliche Mongolian character is something you might have seen in the WWF in the 80's. That wouldn't really bother me if he was a great wrestler or did exciting moves or, really, anything of note. His big offensive move is a double chop to his opponent's shoulder blades. Jesus Christ. The crowd for this match was a silent tomb. I guess New Japan is stuck with him now. Will he get any better? They did give him a great storyline/feud with Okada and Ospreay. They must have seen something in him to give him that, right? Ospreay was at ringside in a suit and after the match he called out Okada then gave a weird Ric Flair promo about expensive watches. If you can't have a good match against Okada then really there's no hope for you. 1/2*

KENTA vs. HIROSHI TANAHASHI (19:57): This show was really bad. It probably didn't help that I watched AEW's Full Gear before this and that show was phenomenal. The card for this show sucked, though, so it wasn't a total surprise. Kenta retained his briefcase in this match. Yep, there were two briefcase matches on this show. And everyone says Gedo is a great booker. Does he also write the stupid storylines? Kenta's briefcase is for a title shot at the lame U.S. title that hasn't been defended since February because Jon Moxley is the champ and can't really come to Japan until the pandemic is over (he could...but would have to quarantine for 2 weeks before his match...meaning he'd be off AEW's Dynamite for like 3 weeks). The crowd really was surprised when their star, Tanahashi lost. Especially considering Kenta fucking sucks. I'm wondering if anyone can get a good match out of Kenta these days. Could Ospreay? Hiromu? Doubtful. *

JAY WHITE vs. KOTA IBUSHI (18:47): I think it's safe to say that Gedo's genius booking has officially died this year. I've never really bought into his booking skills, anyway, considering he took way too long to give Omega the title and had Okada beat Naito at that Wrestle Kingdom show two years ago that was a terrible decision. I think people just say how great his booking is because they're used to how God-awful the WWE booking is and by comparison he looks like a Nobel laureate or something. Well Gedo's booking has been atrocious this year. First off he gave Evil the title. Then he had Ibushi lose his Wrestle Kingdom title shot in this match...only to have Ibushi still wrestling for the title at Wrestle Kingdom. Huh? This match was for the briefcase that contained the Wrestle Kingdom title shot. Ibushi got it by winning the G1. Nobody has ever lost the briefcase before. White won it in this match by putting his feet on the ropes to cheat and win. That was a shock. But WK is two nights, so at a press conference, Naito just decided that Ibushi still deserves a shot and so it'll be Naito/Ibushi for the IC and IWGP titles on Night #1 and the winner of that match vs. Jay White on Night #2 for both titles. So Ibushi lost...but didn't really lose? Bryan Alvarez on the Observer radio show railed for like ten minutes on how preposterous this was. And it is! Yes, you need 2 main events for WK and yes, of course everyone wants to see Ibushi/Naito. But do it in some other way that's not utterly ridiculous. And, really, nobody wants to see Jay White in a main event. I can't see why they didn't just have Ospreay/Okada as the main event on Night #1...considering that'll be the best match of 2021 probably. This match was decent, and the shocking finale at least woke me up. I'll give it that. **1/2

TETSUYA NAITO vs. EVIL (38:08): We got a 38 minute match between Naito and Evil who are amidst the worst feud of the year. Thanks! This was probably their best match to date, though that isn't saying much. There was so much interference in this match it bordered on ludicrous. Naito gave Evil two Destino's and was all set to win when Dick Togo pulled the ref out of the ring. Eventually the whole fucking roster ran out and there were more ref bumps. Sanada ran out to save Naito. Jay White ran out to tease turning on Evil but just beat up Naito instead. Ibushi came out to get Jay White out of the ring and then just stared at him. All of this was ridiculous...but also made this at least more compelling that the usual, terrible Naito/Evil match. This was the 4th Evil/Naito match since July. I hope I never see another one. **