NJPW POWER STRUGGLE

 

Osaka

Attendance: 2,367

DOUKI & YOSHINOBU KANEMARU vs. KOSEI FUJITA & RYOHEI OTWA (4:33): New Japan has been pretty much in the toilet since Ospreay left. I'm still baffled as to why he's been wrestling every weekend in the U.S., Ireland, or the U.K. the last two months but won't go to Japan. I mean...Robbie Eagles had no problem doing this show. I'm pretty sure if you go to Japan all you have to do is quarantine for a week or two or something. Who knows? The one change that happened with this show is that they added more matches so this was a regular, real, 4 hour New Japan marathon show. The audience is still sparse and in masks, though. And it's not like anyone was clamoring for all of these purposeless, multi-man tag matches. What was the point of this match? You could argue it was to give the two Young Lions some ring work...but they pretty much just got beat up and lost in 4 minutes. When I saw the card to this show I thought that I probably wouldn't watch it because the card was terrible. Maybe I'd watch the main event. I'm still unsure why I watched this show. It was probably because all the idiots on CageMatch.net said it was a good show. -No Stars-

GEDO, JADO & TANGA LOA vs. TOGI MAKABE, TOMOAKI HONMA & TIGER MASK (5:07): It was nice to see Honma back. I haven't seen him wrestle in a long time. He was one of my favorite wrestlers a few years ago. Then Jado almost paralyzed him and he has been only used sparingly. Funny that he's back in a match with Jado, though. I guess no hard feelings for that botched DDT. There wasn't much to this match as it only went 5 minutes. Tanga Loa must have been pretty pissed off as he was stuck in this lame, forgettable six man match while his tag team partner was battling Okada in the semi-main event. 1/2*

BUSHI, HIROMU TAKAHASHI & SANADA vs. MASTER WATO, RYUSUKE TAGUCHI & YUJI NAGATA (7:05): Hiromu looked great and Taguchi was on fire. That was about it. Master Wato was supposed to be the next big star but he's looked mediocre since returning from Mexico. The Super Jr.'s tournament is starting next week and maybe Wato will be able to showcase a bit more against some greats like Hiromu and Desperado. The interesting thing is they're also doing the Super Tag League on the same shows as the Jr.'s tournament. Why? Probably because the Tag League fucking sucks and nobody ever cares about it. *1/2

EVIL, SHO & YUJIRO TAKAHASHI vs. HIROOKI GOTO, TOMOHIRO ISHII & YOSHI-HASHI (13:46): Evil, Sho, and Yujiro are knows as The House of Torture. More like The House of Boredom. Sho and Yoh were an exciting tag team but Sho on his own has been forgettable. This was actually a good, wild, fun match with non-stop action and everyone all over the place. No one really stood in the corner and waited for a tag. It was just chaos...which is the team name of Goto, Ishii, and Yoshi-Hashi. Chaos lost the 6-man tag titles here. During the G1, I noticed that Goto, Ishii, and Yoshi-Hashi would come to the ring with belts and I kept wondering what titles they had. New Japan just made it even more confusing by calling the belts the Never 6 man title belts. I kept thinking Ishii or Goto or Yoshi-Hashi were the Never champ. Who is the Never champ? Does that title even still exist? New Japan doesn't even have women wrestlers and they still have too many belts. **1/2

TORU YANO vs. GREAT O'KHAN "AMATEUR WRESTLING RULES MATCH" (6:00): Jesus Christ, who actually thought that this would be entertaining? Who's the idiot that came up with the idea to have Yano and O'Khan in an amateur wrestling match? They do realize that Yano is only good for his comedy, right? So this had zero comedy. This was fucking unwatchable. There were 2 rounds and you got points for slams. They both wore those college wrestling singlet outfits. I'd say that maybe fans of college wrestling might have enjoyed this...but this was fake...also a bore. These King of Pro-Wrestling title match stipulations just get worse and worse. Do they realize that good stipulations are, like, ladder or cage matches? I guess not.  -No Stars-

EL DESPERADO vs. ROBBIE EAGLES (18:20): Eagles surprisingly won the Jr. title in the summer and lost it here. I don't think he even had a successful defense. My big problem with Eagles is that lately he always does the injured leg storyline throughout his matches. Yawn. This was just okay. Really, they should only have Jr. matches with Hiromu because otherwise what's the point? **

KENTA vs. HIROSHI TANAHASHI (23:44): Kenta won the U.S. title. I mentioned earlier that this company had too many titles and I said that before I remembered that stupid new title the KOPW title. The U.S. title has always been a joke. I didn't even realize Tanahashi had it. The only memorable part of this match was when Tanahashi did a High Fly Flow from the top rope and onto Kenta through a table. The rest was kind of boring. Since Tanahashi looks like it's difficult to run around for him and he's old and broken now...maybe they should shoehorn him into a tag team. I don't think New Japan does that with legends but they should start. *1/2

KAZUCHIKA OKADA vs. TAMA TONGA (25:13): Tama Tonga beat Okada in the G1. It was Okada's only loss. So this was for the G1/Wrestle Kingdom title contract. This contract match happens every year now and is totally pointless because what the hell is the point of winning the G1 if you still have to go on and win the contract match? Last year, Ibushi won the G1 but lost to Jay White in the contract match. Yet Ibushi still main evented both nights of the G1. Makes sense. Did anyone actually think Tama Tonga would win and main event Wrestle Kingdom? Nope. Which made this a bad match on paper. Tama Tonga did bring his A game, though. There were some great action sequences here. I can't say the near falls were dramatic as no way in hell was Okada going to lose. The last really good Okada match was probably his match against Ospreay at WK way back in January. He's really due for a masterpiece since he's considered one of wrestling's greatest ever. Will his main event match against Shingo be better than that boring match they had at Dominion? It better fucking be. **1/2

SHINGO TAKAGI vs. ZACK SABRE, JR. (30:27): Zack beat Shingo in the G1. Was he winning the title here? No. That's kind of the problem with Power Struggle every year. The G1 sets up Wrestle Kingdom. Everything after the G1 and before WK is kind of just filler. So no, Zack wasn't going to win the title. Sadly, this wasn't even as good as their G1 match. There were some great, fast paced, back and forth sequences...but it wasn't a great match or anything. It was good, though nothing special. When I saw how awful this card was I thought I probably wasn't going to watch this show. I obviously made the wrong choice in changing my mind. **1/2