NJPW POWER STRUGGLE

Osaka

BULLET CLUB (CLARK CONNORS, DRILLA MOLONEY, GABE KIDD, ROBBIE X & TAIJI ISHIMORI) vs. INTERGALACTIC JET SETTERS (KEVIN KNIGHT & KUSHIDA), THE VELOCITIES (JUDE LONDON & PARIS DE SILVA) & KATSUYA) & KATSUYA MURASHIMA (6:14): This match was awesome. I was not expecting that out of the opener (there was a kick off match but I didn't watch that). There were no tags in this match which made no sense. It was just everybody in the ring doing crazy moves for 6 minutes. Fun, wild stuff. ***

LOS IGNOBERNABLES DE JAPON (BUSHI, HIROMU TAKAHASHI, TETSUYA NAITO & YOTA TSUJI) vs. SKATEBOARD BROS (DRAGON DIA & RYUSUE TAGUCHI), TOMOAKI HONMA & TORU YANO (7:02): Honma and Taguchi are still wrestling? Interesting. Almost like they signed a 20 year contract or something. Naito, who lost the IWGP title in the main event of the last big show, is now relegated to a prelim, multi-man match. This wasn't good. *1/2

HOUSE OF TORTURE (EVIL & REN NARITA) vs. HIROSHI TANAHASHI & OLEG BOLTIN (7:26): Tanahashi is going on a year long retirement tour next year. It starts at the Dome against Evil, hence why this match existed. Tanahashi can barely walk around so it's honestly kind of sad to see him still attempted to wrestle. Hopefully when he beats Evil, HOT will disband. One can hope. This wasn't good. And Boltin still comes out wearing the stupid fur hat. 1/2*

KENNY OMEGA: Shockingly, Omega came out here to say he'll be wrestling one of the younger New Japan guys on January 5th at the AEW/NJPW Dome show, Dynasty. Funny, because he's in AEW and didn't show up there first. I kind of thought he'd never wrestle again because he almost died from diverticulitis and had part of his intestines removed. He did 99% of his speech in Japanese. I guess it makes sense that he knows the language since he lived there for 15 years or something. Still weird seeing him fluently speaking Japanese. It just looks like such a hard language to learn. I wonder who he will face. They kind of set up David Finlay wanting to wrestle him. Could be Shota, Uemura, or Tsuji. I'd like to see Tsuji. That'd be wild.

SHOTA UMINO vs. SANADA (16:41): Shota was cheered in this match, which is strange because he was booed later on when he challenged Zack Sabre, Jr. I guess they like Shota but they don't want him being in the main event of Wrestle Kingdom. This match was boring. I was watching it thinking that, man, this match is way too long...and it was only 16 minutes! Felt like 30. Towards the end it got somewhat decent with some near falls and action. *1/2

UNITED EMPIRE (GREAT-O-KHAN & HENARE) vs. TMDK (MIKEY NICHOLLS & SHANE HASTE (11:11): Great-O-Khan and Henare won the tag team titles here. Match was okay. It was very hard hitting. There were a lot of hard slaps. Nicholls had his forehead busted up from a head butt. Or it might have been Haste. They're so great I can't tell them apart! **

ICHIBAN SWEET BOYS (KOSEI FUJITA & ROBBIE EAGLES) vs. CATCH 22 (FRANCESCO AKIRA & TJP) (15:20): This was the match of the night. The first half was okay but the second half was back-and-forth, wild moves at a frenetic pace. This was the finals of the Jr. tag team tournament. I wonder if TJP is still doing that stupid demon alter-ego gimmick. He was wearing red contact lenses in this match. Is Ichiban Sweet Boys like a gay reference? Sounds like one. Eagles does always wear scarfs. After the match, Kushida and Kevin Knight came out. I think they're the tag champs. Then the War Dogs came out to beat everyone up. So it'll probably be a 4 way at the Dome. ***1/2

DOUKI vs. MASTER WATO (22:07): Douki is actually the Jr. champ. Really? I guess it got boring with Hiromu, Ishimori, and Desperado constantly holding it. It's funny, but when I was a kid we all used the word dookie. That's like a totally lost word these days. The only reason it's probably sort of still remembered is because Green Day's first album was titled that. I wonder where that word even came from. Honestly, these two aren't exactly setting the world on fire in their matches, so this wasn't that great. Douki choked out Wato. Desperado came out to challenge Douki. **

DAVID FINLAY vs. TAICHI (23:22): The first half was kind of okay, but the second half was dramatic as hell. The announcers had a field day shouting after big moves on this show. These two just gel I guess. The big storyline was that Sanada joined the War Dogs group and pulled the ref out of the ring to help Finlay win. Taichi was in Just 5 Guys with Sanada. I'm guessing this company realized that Sanada isn't a big enough star to have his own group so they got rid of it. Match was wildly entertaining in the last five minutes or so. ***

ZACK SABRE, JR. vs. SHINGO TAKAGI (29:28): I think that this probably should have been the Dome main event. Granted, their 1st match in the G1 was better than this. I realize that Zack's gimmick is submissions, but a lot of this match dragged with all of the holds. It just never heated up into anything fantastic. Zack won the G1 and, surprisingly, decided to cash in his IWGP title shot last month where he beat Naito for the title. We all wondered why that happened in October instead of at Wrestle Kingdom. The answer? Shota Umino came out to a chorus of boos to challenge Zack. So the reason Zack didn't wrestle Naito at WK is because they wanted Shota vs. Zack to be the main event of their biggest show in 2025? Wh-wh-what? I guess the boos happened because Shota didn't really earn the shot and doesn't even have a belt or anything. It's basically the company is forcing his push, and the fans don't like that. Or maybe New Japan wants to turn Shota heel, who knows? The big reason is obvious why Shota is getting such a stratospheric match: the company needs new, big stars right now. Okada, Jay White, and Ospreay all left for AEW. Tanahashi is retiring. Naito is halfway to a wheelchair. I think Shota vs. Zack is intriguing. It's something new. I kind of think Shota has to win, though, otherwise what's the point in doing it? Unless they want to do what they did with Shota and Ospreay. Those two had a 40 minute match where Shota put in his all and came up just short. The weird thing is, Ricochet showed up and did a top rope elbow drop onto Zack after this match and challenged him for Dynasty. That show is the day after the Dome. It's almost like Ricochet was saying that Shota aint beating Zack for the title. I'm so happy for Richochet. The WWE didn't do shit with him and now he's going to main event a show at the Tokyo Dome. This show was entertaining but wasn't spectacular or anything. They did do a good job of setting up Wrestle Kingdom and Dynasty, though. **