Tigerkinney

I'm having the urge again to do a new TEW diary but in all honesty I'm just not feeling the new Cornellverse. Besides I feel like I have unfinished business with DIASPORA and will probably have another crack at that promotion.

Can't wait to see what the first promo round is going to be and how I can apply Jeremy Vile's pompous character to whatever awaits in store. I've already got a few promo idea's in mind, but it all depends on how those ideas can be moulded to the criteria of the round.

Become A Star Entry Form Name: Jeremy Vile Short Name: Vile Biography: Jeremy Vile's profile on the local Southern UK circuit has been growing of late, due to his sneering pompous character that belittles the British underclass. Loving nothing more than calling the fans that come to see him as 'Wastes of Space' and taunting fans and wrestlers a like to 'grow a pair'. The self righteous Vile is able to generate huge amounts of heat, just with his words yet alone his actions. When in the ring he mixes old school technical ring work with plenty of heel stalling tactics- all designed to enrage the fans further. Appearance: Like a younger version of Jeremy Kyle-obviously! Age [between 20 - 25]: 25 Nationality: British Race: White Ring Style: Technician Size: Lightweight Finishing Move: DNA Test (Hammerlock DDT-Impact) , Lie Detector (Arm Hook Sleeper-Submission) Face Gimmick: Traditionalist Heel Gimmick: Arrogant Heel Mask (Yes or No): No Hair (Yes or No): Yes Languages (All entrants must have at least passable English): English Other Areas Active (All entrants will have USA active by default): UK, Canada. Personality: Very Egotistical, Slightly Selfish, In the middle on compassion/ruthless, Slightly Pessimistic, Slightly Manipulative, Extremely Dependable, Social, Very Loyal, Very Bold, Very Driven, Extremely Conservative. Performance: Weak babyface (20-30), Very strong heel (90-100), Weak Cool (20-30), Strong Cocky (70-80), Below Average Crazy (40-50), Average Legit (50-60), Strong weasel (80-90), Very weak Brute (10-20), Weak Weird (20-30), Below Average Wholesome (40-50) Camera Skills Grade: C Good star quality, poor sex appeal, poor menace Physical Skills Grade: C- Average athleticism, good stamina and resilience, mediocre toughness, very little power. Performance Skills Grade: B- Average consistency, good selling, good safety, Excellent basics, above average psychology. Entertainment Skills Grade: B Good charisma, Excellent Mic, Above Average Acting Flying Skills Grade: F No flashiness to speak of, suffers from vertigo just by trying to jump off the lowest turnbuckle. Technical Skills Grade: C+ Average chain wrestling, Good mat wrestling, Average submissions Rumble Skills Grade: D+ Average Brawling, Average Hardcore, Poor Puroresu

Just my quick thoughts on NJPW Dominion , which overall I thought was a great show.... Pre Show 8 Man Tag- Nothing memorable but fine as pre-show filler. Junior Tag Titles 3-Way (Young-o Bucks-o vs reDragon vs RPG Vice)- The typical fast paced action you would expect from this match-up. Still pretty entertaining, but the match-up is 'played out' and the division could do with some fresh teams coming into the picture. Naito & Honma vs Fale and Yujiro- Naito's subtle turn towards the dark side, since his return from his Mexican excursion made this filler tag a little more interesting. OK action, lifted by more intriguing storytelling. Shibata vs Sakuraba- It's being proven that Sakuraba is a useful asset to NJPW in small doses, as he's now had stellar matches with Nakamura, MiSu and now with his former 'protege' Shibata. This was an enjoyable contest that saw the heavy striking style of Shibata, go up against the superior submission game of his former mentor Sakuraba. Junior Title (Omega vs KUSHIDA)- Phenomenal video package before this match, showing KUSHIDA as a young kid who always had dreams of becoming a pro wrestler- if you weren't already behind him, this video surely would have succeeded in getting you behind him even more. Match itself was very good with a creative finish, and saw Omega viciously going after KUSHIDA's knee, whilst the Time Splitter looked to weaken the arm of 'The Cleaner' to set up for the Hoverboard Lock. However KUSHIDA's spotty selling of having his leg worked over, did take away from the match a bit. His selling whilst on defence was very good, but he completely forgot to sell the extent of the damage his legs were supposed to have taken, when momentum swung his way. NEVER Title (Makabe vs Ishii)- This was OK- just the usual 'fighting spirit' brawl these two have against one another. Not a bad match, but it's a match-up I can do without seeing for a long time now- thankfully this does appear to be the end of the feud, as they have been drawn in different blocks in the G-1. Tag Titles (Kingdom & Maria's ASSets vs Douchebag Club)- How far the IWGP Tag Titles have fallen. This was the most rubbish thing on the card, and the tag division needs a major overhaul to help the titles get their prestige back. Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Toru Yano- Though far from a what you would call a great match, this was still pretty entertaining for what it was, which is all you can expect from a Toru Yano match. In fact I don't mind Yano's presence at all in New Japan, as his brand of 'light relief' is generally kept out of the title picture (unlike the Tag Team title nonsense), and whilst some will see this as a 'waste of Tanahashi's talent'- working a lighter programme like this for the past six months, probably means he will be in better condition to handle the rigours of a G-1 climax. Intercontinental Title (Goto vs Nakamura): Nakamura is becoming the king of the uber cool entrance- this time coming out in a sequined Ninja ensemble, to perfectly set the scene of the match up, as Ninja (Nakamura) vs Samurai (Goto). As for the match itself, this was another very good contest between these two- bit slow to start with, but ended on a strong note. IWGP Heavyweight Title (Styles vs Okada): This one threatened to be sunk by Douchebag Club interference at the start, but the legend that is Red Shoes told them to 'suck it' and sent them packing. As soon as this become a fair one on one match up, this match became phenomenal- with a jaw dropping finishing sequence. Personally Nakamura vs Ibushi from WK9 is still my favourite NJPW match up of this year, but the main event between Styles and Okada is still a surefire MOTYC, and I wouldn't begrudge anyone giving it the full boat of 5-stars, even with the early interference- in a lot of way, the Douchebag Club nonsense ended up adding to the match, as it gave us what must now be a classic moment in the legendary career of Red Shoes

MOTYC for sure, a great end to the tournament, with the two standout performers of this years BOSJ ending up in the finals. Overall this years tournament was solid rather than spectacular, but I didn't really expect anything more from this years line-up. Like the G-1 did last year with A.J Styles, I think this years Best of the Super Juniors has helped O'Reilly get properly over with the Japanese fans. This years G-1 Participants have been announced: A.J. Styles Bad Luck Fale Doc Gallows Hirooki Goto Hiroshi Tanahashi Hiroyoshi Tenzan Karl Anderson Katsuyori Shibata Kazuchika Okada Kota Ibushi Michael Elgin Satoshi Kojima Shinsuke Nakamura Tetsuya Naito Togi Makabe Tomoaki Honma Tomohiro Ishii Toru Yano Yuji Nagata Yujiro TakahashiSeen quite a bit of whingeing on various wrestling forums, that this years line-up is 'stale' and that many card carrying members of the IWC are disappointed Michael Elgin got the ROH representative nod over Roderick Strong. No Suzukigun representation this year- Looks like they've effectively been loaned out to NOAH for the entire year. Though the only one I think that is truly missed from the line-up is their leader Minoru Suzuki. In all honesty I think people would be complaining less about this line-up being stale if they just tweaked a couple of the spots. For me the most disposable members of this years line-up are Yujiro (no matter how many scantily clad ladies they put this guy with his ceiling is midcard at best) and Doc Gallows (not sold on him at all as a singles performer). In their place should have been- YOSHI-HASHI (has been working his butt off in the multi-man tags and would have been more fun in the 0-9 underdog role, than Yujiro would have been as some middle of the pack spoiler) and Kenny Omega (Thought NJPW were having him sit out the BOSJ, so they could enter him in this years G-1 and test the waters for an eventual Heavyweight division push).

Tigerkinney's opinions on NJPW Best of the Super Juniors (Nights 2-5) * Spoilers Ahead- Skip over this post if you do not to know the results* BOSJ Matches from Night 2 (Saitama) A Block: Gedo bt Yohei Komatsu in 10:01 Not as good as Komatsu's match with Liger from the opening show, as this was worked at a much slower deliberate pace, that at this moment in time doesn't really mesh well with Komatsu's fiery young lion character. The story here was as you expected, with the seasoned veteran Gedo, being one step ahead of the plucky youngster. ** 1/2 B Block: Ryusuke Taguchi bt Barbaro Cavenario in 08:43 The few other reviews I've read round the web, hated this match, with the usual bemoaning of Taguchi's act. Whilst admittedly Taguchi's goofball persona and ass obsessed offense, also annoyed the hell out of me coming into this tournament, perhaps unlike some others, I have come to terms with what Taguchi has become (and don't have any expectations that his matches are going to be work-rate classics) and that perhaps a fair few wrestling fans could do with lightening up and not taking scripted fighting so bleeding seriously. In all honesty, this match was good fun, with Taguchi meshing well with the equally bizarre Cavenario, and whilst the ass based offense does still grate, he's starting to incorporate it better with the finish to the match as butt Boma Ye, complete with parody of Shinsuke Nakamura- was actually amusing, unless of course you're someone who thinks Pro Wrestling should be serious business 24/7. ** 1/2 A Block: Nick Jackson bt KUSHIDA in 09:08 Nick Jackson managed to pull off the upset here in an even more shockingly clean fashion, in what ended up being a very solid match. Not a classic or anything, but this ended up being an enjoyable back and forth affair, that was refreshingly free of Bullet Club Shenanigans. 'Slick' Nick probably went over here to place some doubt in the fans minds in regards to the predictable outcome of KUSHIDA going on to win the tournament. *** The Alex Shelley vs Rocky Romero match was pulled from this show, after Shelley injured his ankle in the first match. As it turns out a few days later, the news was even worse, with Shelley forced to pull out of the whole tournament due to the injury. Shelley now forfeits the rest of his matches, with the opponents he would have been facing getting 2 points each by default. It's unfortunate for Shelley who suffers terrible injury luck during the BOSJ for the second year in a row and it must also ruin the plans for Block B, as KUSHIDA and Shelley were going to face one another during the final round of matches, in what looked to be on paper- the Block decider and now leaves the tournament favourite, with no match during the final round of matches. BOSJ Matches from Night 3 (Niigata) A-Block: Beretta bt Chase Owens in 10:19 Probably Owens best match thus far in an NJPW ring- the crowd still aren't really into him (with them noticeably being more excited whenever Beretta was on offense) but the match made him look like more of a buyable threat (though one that ultimately ended up being a losing effort) and his chemistry with Beretta was noticeably better than with Cavenario. The teased finish of Beretta being counted out after taking a package piledriver on the apron was done well, and overall this match ended up being surprisingly pretty good by the end. *** B-Block: Mascara Dorada bt David Finlay Jr in 7:46 The story of the match here, as expected was the story of the match here, was the mat-technician Finlay, trying to keep the flashy high flyer in Dorada grounded, and when that ended up not going to plan, that ultimately forced Finlay into thinking he would need to take a few risks himself, in order to get the better of Dorada. I came away a little more impressed by Finlay than after his first match with Alex Shelley- he got a little more time here to show what he can do and despite the styles clash, he had decent chemistry with Dorada. ** 1/2 B-Block: Tiger Mask IV bt Bobby Fish in 9:22 You know the kind of match, that is inoffensive but forgettable, this was the very definition of that kind of match. It's this kind of consistent mediocrity, that leaves many wrestling fans unexcited when it comes to Tiger Mask IV's annual presence in the tournament. ** A-Block: Kyle O'Reilly bt Jushin Thunder Liger in 8:52 This ended up being a pretty evenly contested back and forth, with Liger giving O'Reilly enough to put the rising star over, but also being given enough by O'Reilly to remain looking strong- what this resulted in by the conclusion of the match, was an effort that was good but not great. *** BOSJ Matches from Night 4 (Yamagata) A-Block: Barbaro Cavenario bt Gedo in 10:53 In a lot of ways Gedo, can be compared to his fellow CHAOS member Toru Yano, when it comes to their role in these kind of tournaments, being the 'banana-skin' that uses smarts and cunning, rather than power and athleticism to get the better of their opponent- Though it's easy to make the comparison, when both like to incorporate the exposed turnbuckle spot. This match began a bit slow, with many of the spots built around trying to send their opponent/trying to avoid the exposed turnbuckle. Once it built up a head of steam though it became really good with Cavenario getting to either show off or at the very least tease some of his crazier spots. Despite the leaden beginning, this ended up being one of the best matches of the tournament thus far. *** 1/2 B-Block: KUSHIDA bt David Finlay Jr in 09:40 The bulk of this match was like something you would see from old 'World of Sport' matches in the U.K from the 70's and 80's with the bulk of the work being done on this match. This ended up being a solid technical contest, with KUSHIDA doing his best to help make his inexperienced opponent look competitive. Finlay Jr is gradually improving with each outing during this tournament. *** B-Block: Rocky Romero bt Nick Jackson in 13:05 Suck It, Suck It, Suck It, Suck It, Suck It, Suck It, Suck It, Suck It, BAKA, Suck It, Suck It, Suck It, Suck It, Suck It, Suck It, Suck It, BAKA, Suck It, Suck It, Suck It, Suck It, Suck It,Suck It, Suck It, BAKA, Suck It, Suck It, Suck It, Suck It, Suck It, Suck It, Suck It, Suck It, Suck It, BAKA,Suck It, Suck It, Suck It, Suck It, Suck It, BAKA, Suck It, Suck It, Suck It, Suck It, Suck It, Suck It, SUCK IT. There's the match for you. OK it didn't actually 'suck it', but it was just average- they worked in a lot of their 'comedy' routine, which would be more amusing if you haven't seen them do the same routine for the past few months during the Young Bucks/RPG Vice matches. ** 1/2 A-Block: Ryusuke Taguchi bt Beretta in 10:58 Honestly here is where I am now with Taguchi and his goofy ass based offense. I can take it in small doses, his match with Cavenario on BOSJ show #2 was fine, as it was kept reasonably short . This time though the match dragged on way too long, and ended up being a bit of a chore to get through. Worst match of the tournament thus far. * 1/2 Matches from Night 5 (Aomori) A-Block: Kyle O'Reilly bt Yohei Komatsu in 10:14 Nothing flashy about this match, in terms of the wrestling on display- it was pretty basic stuff throughout, but this was basic stuff, enhanced by Komatsu's gutsty underdog performance. Once the 'young lion' shackles come off Komatsu, he really could be something special. *** B-Block: Mascara Dorada bt Tiger Mask IV in 10:05 Most of the best moments of this match came courteousy of Dorada, but his dance partner was 'Mr Mediocrity' Tiger Mask IV- so as one would expect this match ended up being as average as they come. ** 1/2 A-Block: Chase Owens bt Jushin Thunder Liger in 8:07. Another solid match here. Owen's to give him credit has shown improvement in his last couple of outings, and appears to be getting more comfortable in his role as a douchebag heel, willing to bend the rules at every opportunity to gain an advantage. Liger may no longer have the stamina to go much more than 10 minutes, but he has shown throughout this tournament he can still consistently play his part in a short(ish) but entertaining contest. *** Overall Assessment from Day 2-5: General consensus on this years BOSJ thus far has been this 'The tournament has been fine but a bit underwhelming'- Personally I would go along with the first part of that statement, but in all honestly this is the standard I expected for this years BOSJ, so personally I haven't found it to be underwhelming. Standings after three matches A-Block Kyle O'Reilly 3-0 (6 Pts) Barbaro Cavenario 2-1 (4 Pts) Gedo 2-1 (4 Pts) Ryusuke Taguchi 2-1 (4 Pts) Jushin Thunder Liger 1-2 ( 2 Pts) Beretta 1-2 (2 Pts) Chase Owens 1-2 (2 Pts) Yohei Komatsu 0-3 (0 Pts) B-Block Mascara Dorada 3-1 (6 Pts)# KUSHIDA 3-1 (6 Pts)# Tiger Mask IV 3-1 (6 Pts)# # Scheduled to face Alex Shelley later in the tournament, forfeit wins already added. Bobby Fish 2-1 (4 Pts) Rocky Romero 2-1 (4 Pts) Nick Jackson 2-2 (4 Pts) Alex Shelley 1-6 (2 Pts)* * Withdrawn from tournament, all 6 losses via forfeit. David Finlay 0-3 (0 Pts)

<p><span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>Tigerkinney's opinions on NJPW Best of the Super Juniors- Night 1 (Korakuen Hall, Tokyo) </strong></span></p><p> </p><p> <span style="color:#8B0000;"><strong>* Spoilers Ahead- Skip over this post if you do not to know the results*</strong></span></p><p> </p><p> <strong>1. BOSJ Block A: Jushin Thunder Liger bt Yohei Komatsu in 8:36 </strong></p><p> </p><p> This match was prime evidence that you don't need over ten minutes to put on a great match and tell a compelling story. Komatsu came out here and literally took the fight right to Liger from the opening bell, drop-kicking the legend before Liger could even take his cape off. Liger managed to withstand the storm, and pissed off by Komatsu's insolence gave the young lion a brutal brainbuster out on the floor. From then on the story of the match was Komatsu fighting from underneath, with the odd tease that he might just pull off the upset, with the crowd fully behind Komatsu and his plucky effort. </p><p> </p><p> For the reasonably short time they were given here, they told the story they were trying to get over, to perfection<span style="color:#808000;"><strong>. ****</strong></span></p><p> </p><p> <strong>2. BOSJ Block B: Tiger Mask IV bt Nick Jackson in 8:03</strong></p><p> </p><p> Nick Jackson, came out riding on Cody Hall's shoulders<em> (a nod to the Bullet Club's past where Prince Devitt would come to the ring on Bad Luck Fale's shoulders</em>). As expected this match had interference from Hall as Jackson's second and the sole Young Buck on this occassion usual brand of obnoxiousness. Despite the interference though, this ended up being a reasonably entertaining match , and in some ways the story of the NJPW veteran and loyalist in Tiger Mask, battling against the deck being stacked against him, ended up adding to the match. <span style="color:#808000;"><strong>** 1/2 </strong></span></p><p> </p><p> <strong>3. BOSJ Block B: Alex Shelley bt David Finlay Jr in 5:32</strong></p><p> </p><p> This match did nothing to make me excited about the rest of Finlay Jr's appearances in the tournament. Whilst he didn't really do anything wrong, he did nothing really to stand out- then again only being given 5 and a half minutes and jobbing rather easily is going to leave that kind of underwhelming impression. If all they are going to do with Finlay is have him be easy pickings, then they may as well have given this spot to Sho Tanaka or Jay White.<span style="color:#808000;"><strong> ** </strong></span></p><p> </p><p> <strong>4. BOSJ Block A: Barbaro Cavernario bt Chase Owens in 7:15 </strong></p><p> </p><p> This match summed up my issues with Chase Owens, he's got some inventive stuff in his repetoire but his delivery of his moves are often awkward looking- and this also summed up this match, where both Cavnenario and Owens delivered the odd impressive looking spot but ended up putting together an incoherent match due to having next to no chemistry with each other as opponents. <strong><span style="color:#808000;">** </span></strong></p><p> </p><p> <strong>5. Hirooki Goto, Katsuyori Shibata, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma bt Shinsuke Nakamura, Kazushi Sakuraba, Toru Yano, Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI in 14:19 </strong></p><p> </p><p> Nothing new here, this was your standard 'Road To' six man tag, with the individual feuds pairing off with one another and the bigger stars working at half speed, until the closing stretch. YOSHI-HASHI who (predictably) ended up taking the fall here, worked his socks off in the closing stretch and ended up being the man to lift the match. Though YOSHI-HASHI I'm not going to start campaigning that YOSHI-HASHI should be given a stronger push but he's becoming pretty great as the CHAOS fall guy in these multi-man tags, obviously seeing them as his opportunity to impress, whilst the star names semi take the night off. <span style="color:#808000;"><strong>*** </strong></span></p><p> </p><p> <strong>6. BOSJ Block B: Bobby Fish bt Rocky Romero in 13:06 </strong></p><p> </p><p> Both Fish and Romero, are seconded by their tag partners at ringside. Match began with some comedy, with Fish stealing Romero's eye-patch and thus took a little while to get going. Once it did get going, this got pretty good with the match being built around Fish targetting Romero's legs with various submissions and ultimately forcing Romero to tap out. <strong> ***</strong></p><p> </p><p><em> O'Reilly and Beretta enter the ring, and the two teams end up brawling, until Romero and Fish end up brawling to the back, and the bell rings to begin the next match. </em></p><p> </p><p> <strong>7. BOSJ Block A: Kyle O'Reilly bt Beretta in 13:04 </strong></p><p> </p><p> O'Reilly controlled the early portion of the match, working over Beretta's arm, before the match lead to some fun spots out of the floor <em>(including O'Reilly delivering a running drop-kick off the apron to a seated Beretta)</em>. Eventually the match settled into an enjoyable back and forth, with the armwork from earlier in the match paying off for O'Reilly, when he forced Beretta to tap out to the arm bar. </p><p> </p><p> Aside from the odd issue with O'Reilly's sometimes goofy looking selling, this ended up being a really good match, that for me ended up edging out Fish/Romero as the pick of the two reDragon/RPG Vice matches. <span style="color:#808000;"><strong>*** 1/2 </strong></span></p><p> </p><p> <strong>8. BOSJ Block B: KUSHIDA bt Mascara Dorada in 8:53 </strong></p><p> </p><p> As expected this match had some good moments, but overall this ended up being a really disappointing match, and that's due to it not being given enough time or more to the point being paced poorly. The match started off in a slow build manner, with KUSHIDA working over Dorada, and then they suddenly switched gears before the match ended up finishing in a sudden and anti-climatic manner with Dorada tapping out to the floor Hoverboard Lock. </p><p> </p><p> The spots they did once the match did get going, were impressive and showcased the talent that both KUSHIDA and Dorada have but that doesn't hide the fact that as a whole the match was constructed in a disappointing manner. <span style="color:#808000;"><strong>** 1/2 </strong></span></p><p> </p><p> <strong>9. BOSJ Block A: Gedo bt Ryusuke Taguchi in 14:00 </strong></p><p> </p><p> I don't think anyone was excited about this being announced as the main event of the opening round of the BOSJ, especially as Taguchi's comedic act, has been irritating- rather than amusing people. </p><p> </p><p> However this turned out to be surprisingly entertaining, it wasn't full of great 'work-rate', but they told a good story here, with the crowd fully behind Gedo<em> (despite him technically being the heel, and constantly using short-cuts throughout the match- in fact when Taguchi 'snapped' and was tempted to use the same tactics as Gedo, the Korakuen Hall crowd roared their disapproval)</em>. Taguchi's try too hard goofy persona, actually meshed well on this occasion with an opponent such as Gedo, whose act is less about flashy moves and more about out-smarting the opponent.<span style="color:#808000;"><strong> ***</strong></span></p><p><span style="color:#808000;"><strong> </strong></span></p><p><span style="color:#808000;"><strong> </strong></span><span style="color:#808000;"><span style="color:#000000;"><strong>Overall Verdict:</strong></span></span><span style="color:#808000;"><span style="color:#000000;"> The opening show provided a consistently solid, rather than spectacular start to this year's tournament- and in all honesty I expect the over-riding feeling of good but not great to continue throughout this years BOSJ. </span></span></p>

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Hashasheen" data-cite="Hashasheen" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="30254" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Shelley's out with an injury. I think their giving all his opponents forfeit victories, but I think they should sub in Tanaka.</div></blockquote><p> </p><p> Sucks for Shelley, second year in the row where he has had to pull out of the BOSJ through injury. </p><p> </p><p> I don't think there has ever been a precedent where someone 'subs' in during a tournament. NJPW have always gone with the wrestler pulling out forfeiting their remaining matches.</p>

<p>TNA is shown on free TV here in the UK on Challenge TV (a widely available TV channel) and I've been checking it out again for the last few weeks, after swearing off TNA for being burned on them too many times.....</p><p> </p><p> Anyway point being, is that the product has been 'OK' lately, not great but watchable, but if they are to go out of business I can't be saddened by it, as the promotion has brought all these problems on themselves with all the misguided decisions they have taken over the years. TNA's increasingly inevitable demise, all stems from the fact that they tried way too hard to be competition for the WWE (i.e WCW Mark II), instead of settling for being a genuine alternative and a solid number 2. </p><p> </p><p> <em>Rough time line of TNA and how they screwed up </em></p><p> </p><p> <strong>2002-2004:</strong> The weekly PPV era- A mixed bag- There was some real wrestle-crap in the early days but to counter-balance that there was the X-Division. </p><p> </p><p> <strong>2004-2006:</strong> Still not perfect, especially as the main event scene was quite boring with Double J hogging the spotlight but the X-Division headed by the triumvirate of A.J Styles, Samoa Joe and Christopher Daniels saw TNA carve itself as a genuine alternative to the WWE. </p><p> </p><p> <strong>2007-late 2009</strong>: Whilst many feel that TNA's problems began during the Hogan-Bischoff era, the seed of them were actually sown here. Instead of elevating the likes of Styles, Joe and Daniels to main event status, they instead get them held down in upper midcard limbo, whilst pushing continuing to push ex WWE/WCW talent as the bigger stars. </p><p> </p><p> Instead of using the likes of Angle/Sting/Booker T etc to put over TNA's homegrown stars, they instead (give or take the odd exception) were consistently made to look unstoppable. Mishandled feuds such as Main Event Mafia vs Frontline, only ended up being favourable towards the ageing stars, whose prime was during the previous decade. </p><p> </p><p> Meanwhile the X-Division the very thing that gave TNA an identity of sorts was being de-emphasized. Whilst not everything was bad during this era, TNA's move towards being WWE-lite began here. </p><p> </p><p> <strong>Late 2009:</strong> A somewhat forgotten oasis in the history of TNA, the autumn/winter of 2009 saw TNA push the re-set button of sorts and finally begin to push their homegrown 'stars' towards main event status- Sadly all it was in the end, was a 'holding pattern' before the arrival of Hogan/Bischoff. </p><p> </p><p> <strong>2010-2013:</strong> The dreadful Hogan/Bischoff era, that is pretty much responsible for leading TNA towards it's death-bed. Instead of building on the promising direction they had at the end of 2009, Hogan/Bischoff bought in their chronies and near enough only push ex Monday Night Wars talent. Whilst decisions such as trying to literally re-ignite the Monday Night wars (by going head to head with WWE on the same night) and expanding touring ended up being expensive and embarrassing failures. </p><p> </p><p> Whilst 2012 saw the promotion take some steps in the right direction <em>(the pushes of Bobby Roode and Austin Aries</em>), the damage of the first two years of the Hogan/Bischoff era had already been done, and they inevitably ended up undoing their good work from that year, with the dreadfully executed Aces and Eights angle. </p><p> </p><p> <strong>2014- Now:</strong> The post Hogan/Bischoff era has seen the promotion operating as a shell of it's former self, barely hanging on to it's existence. Whilst the current product isn't at all terrible, TNA has gathered up too much ill-will towards it that it will struggle to convince the old fans it's lost over the years to return to it's product and for new fans to give it a try.</p>

<p></p><div 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</span><span style="font-size:12px;"><span style="color:#4169E1;"><span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>NJPW Best of the Super Juniors XXII </strong></span></span></span><p> </p></div><p></p><p></p><p> </p><p> So the annual NJPW Best of the Super Juniors begins this Friday (22nd May). All shows will be shown on NJPW World, though only the three Korakuen Hall shows (22 May, 30 May, 5 June) plus the Finals event from the Yoyogi National Gym in Tokyo (7 June) are getting shown live. </p><p> </p><p> I suspect that some of (if not all) the lesser shows will be single (hard cam) shows with no commentary. </p><p> </p><p> Anyway here are this years Blocks and participants- My thoughts on each performer and how much I feel they have a chance of winning their block and making the finals.....</p><p> </p><p> <span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong><span style="font-size:12px;"><span style="color:#FF0000;">A-Block</span></span></strong></span></p><p> </p><p> <span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>Bárbaro Cavernario </strong></span></p><p> </p><p> <span>http://www.cagematch.net/site/main/img/workers/00012139_2014_El%20Barbaro%20Cavernario_CMLL.jpg</span></p><p> </p><p> Worked the Fantasticamania tour in January and has a pretty unique character. Pretty highly rated by Lucha fans, personally he didn't blow me away from what I saw of him in January but I thought he did OK and character wise he stood out as something different. </p><p> </p><p> <strong>Chances of winning the Block:</strong> Pretty Low- Will probably pick up a few wins and could even go 4-3 if NJPW fall back on the default 'parity booking' that has been the go to formulas for these tournaments, the past few years but I would be surprised if he's in the Finals match.</p><p> </p><p> <span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>Beretta</strong></span></p><p> </p><p> <span>http://www.cagematch.net/site/main/img/workers/00002963_2013_Trent_DGUSA.jpg</span></p><p> </p><p> One half of Roppongi Vice, who just had a 'blink and you'll miss it' run with the hot potato that is the Junior Tag straps. He's been decent in his latest run with NJPW, but has been slightly over-shadowed by his more charismatic tag partner, Rocky Romero. The singles situation may give him a chance to shine by himself and show his full potential. </p><p> </p><p> <strong>Chances of winning the Block:</strong> Medium- A Block is definitely the weaker of the two blocks, so Beretta who has a couple of NJPW tours under his belt may just come through as a surprise winner. </p><p> </p><p> <span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>Chase Owens</strong></span></p><p> </p><p> <span>http://www.cagematch.net/site/main/img/workers/00010747_2014_Chase%20Owens_Independent.jpg</span></p><p> </p><p> Former NWA Junior Heavyweight title holder, is a slightly surprising/disappointing inclusion as he has been largely unimpressive during his NJPW appearances- maybe the NJPW feel he will be able to show more against opponents other than Liger. Personally if they had to bring him someone from the NWA, I would rather have seen Steve Anthony again who quietly impressed me during his appearance at Wrestling Hinokuni. </p><p> </p><p> <strong>Chances of winning the Block</strong>: Low- He'll probably pick up a couple of wins, but his inclusion was shocking enough, yet alone a trip to the finals. </p><p> </p><p> <span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>Gedo</strong></span></p><p> </p><p> <span>http://www.cagematch.net/site/main/img/workers/00000122_2014_Gedo_NJPW.jpg</span></p><p> </p><p> I'm a little split on this one, whilst I respect Gedo as a veteran performer (that is actually doing better work in his later years), the inclusion of one half of NJPW's booking team and effectively a part-timer these days, feels like a backward step in my opinion for this tournament. </p><p> </p><p> <strong>Chances of winning the Block</strong>: Low- Will probably pull off a few 'banana' skin wins, but most likely is just there to make up the numbers. </p><p> </p><p> <span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>Jushin Thunder Liger</strong></span></p><p> </p><p> <span>http://www.cagematch.net/site/main/img/workers/00000455_2013_Jushin%20Thunder%20Liger_CHIKARA.jpg</span></p><p> </p><p> Though he is now past his best (as much as it will pain many to admit that), a BOSJ without the most iconic Junior Heavyweight in history, would just feel odd. He's still capable to having good matches with quality opponents, but he's no longer able to pull miracles when working with mediocrity. </p><p> </p><p> <strong>Chances of winning the Block</strong>: Medium- Though he hasn't won this tournament or the IWGP Junior belt for well over a decade, you can never count Liger out, as there is always that feeling NJPW may give Liger just one last 'nostalgia' run. </p><p> </p><p> <span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>Kyle O'Reilly </strong></span></p><p> </p><p> <span>http://www.cagematch.net/site/main/img/workers/00004006_2014_Kyle%20O%27Reilly_ROH.jpg</span></p><p> </p><p> Technically sound ROH import and one half of former Junior tag champs reDragon who has been booked pretty strongly during his run with NJPW , so it looks as though the New Japan office are pretty high on him. From a personal perspective, I think O'Reilly has impressed fairly well during the reDragon matches and I look forward to what he brings to the NJPW table as a singles performer. </p><p> </p><p> <strong>Chances of winning the Block:</strong> Medium- In all honesty A-Block is a pretty open block, and O'Reilly who the NJPW office appear to be pretty high on <em>(given reDragon's strong booking)</em> appears to have as good a chance as anyone to emerge on top of the Block. </p><p> </p><p> <span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>Ryusuke Taguchi</strong></span></p><p> </p><p> <span>http://www.cagematch.net/site/main/img/workers/00000767_2014_Ryusuke%20Taguchi_NJPW.jpg</span></p><p> </p><p> My least favourite performer right now in NJPW <em>(and I'm pretty sure for many other's too)</em>. For most of his career Taguchi has been a solid but somewhat bland Junior heavyweight, capable of having decent matches but lacking the charisma to truly stand out and convince that he is someone to build the Junior Division around. However this year in order to bring more 'charisma' to his act, he has converted himself into an <em>(unfunny)</em> comedy performer- who does silly poses and uses an offence based almost entirely around thrusting his backside . At least he was tolerable as solid but bland, now he makes me groan every time he enters the ring. </p><p> </p><p> <strong>Chances of winning the Block:</strong> Pretty High- My heart says 'hell no!' because Taguchi sucks right now, but he is a former <em>(and recent)</em> holder of the IWGP Heavyweight Championship and has history of doing pretty well in this tournament, with several finals appearances. </p><p> </p><p> <span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>Yohei Komatsu</strong></span></p><p> </p><p> <span>http://www.cagematch.net/site/main/img/workers/00012596_2014_Yohei%20Komatsu_NJPW.jpg</span></p><p> </p><p> Whilst his young lion rival Sho Tanaka was unfortunately not given the chance to be in the tournament, Komatsu has managed to earn himself a spot in this years BOSJ. Fundamentally sound, Komatsu looks to have the tools in place to become a breakout performer and a solid contributor to the NJPW roster in the next few years<em> (whether that future is a Junior or if it see's him bulk up and move into the heavyweight rank</em>s). Many will feel pleased about Komatsu's inclusion (myself included) and out of everyone in this Block, his matches will be the one's I look forward to most. </p><p> </p><p> <strong>Chances of winning the Block:</strong> Non existant- Whilst I would love for Komatsu to suddenly have the proverbial rocket strapped to him, and see him score upset after upset, he will be lucky to pick up just a single victory given the fact that he is still booked as a 'Black Trunks' Young Lion that primarily wins or <em>(more often than not) </em>loses to variations of the Boston Crab. </p><p> </p><p> <span style="font-size:12px;"><span style="color:#0000FF;"><span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>B-Block</strong></span></span></span></p><p> </p><p> <span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>Alex Shelley</strong></span></p><p> </p><p> <span>http://www.cagematch.net/site/main/img/workers/00000352_2014_Alex%20Shelley_NJPW.jpg</span></p><p> </p><p> One half of the Time-Splitters tag team, he just had an unsuccessful bid to dethrone Kenny Omega as the Junior Champion. Technically solid with a decent amount of charisma, Shelley has won over the NJPW fans due to a strong work ethic both inside and outside of the ring and his popular partnership with KUSHIDA, that has seen them win the Junior Tag titles on several occasions. </p><p> </p><p> <strong>Chances of winning the Block</strong>: Fairly Low- Shelley has been booked pretty strong in the BOSJ the last few years, with a finals appearance in 2013 and only injury denying him a spot in the semi's last year. However whilst I expect him to be in the shake-up right until the last day, I would be surprised if he is given another chance to challenge Omega, so soon after this failed attempt at Dontaku. </p><p> </p><p> <span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>Bobby Fish</strong></span></p><p> </p><p> <span>http://www.cagematch.net/site/main/img/workers/00001768_2014_Bobby%20Fish_ROH.jpg</span></p><p> </p><p> The other half of reDragon, Fish has plenty of experience working in Japan having done several tours of Pro Wrestling NOAH, prior to his partnership with O'Reilly. Despite reDragon raising Fish's profile both in the U.S and now in Japan, the general consensus is that he plays more the role of the solid veteran hand, whilst O'Reilly is positioned more as the break out star of the team. </p><p> </p><p> <strong>Chances of winning the Block:</strong> Fairly Low- Whilst I'm pretty positive Fish will pick up more than one win, and most likely will pick up more than two, I would be surprised if emerges as the winner of this Block. An all reDragon finals seems highly unlikely as NJPW rarely go for all gaijin finals- the one time they recently did it Devitt vs Shelley, was because unlike O'Reilly and Fish they were both strongly established members of the NJPW roster by that point. </p><p> </p><p> <span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>David Finlay Jr. </strong></span></p><p> </p><p> <span>http://www.cagematch.net/site/main/img/workers/00012790_2014_David%20Finlay%20Jr._Europa.jpg</span></p><p> </p><p> The son of Irish legend Fit Finlay, who has been training in the NJPW dojo. I have absolutely no idea how good he is <em>(though I suspect he works more of a grounded style, as opposed to being a flashy high flyer)</em> but his inclusion in the tournament comes as a complete shock. All in all the appearance of Finlay jr in this years BOSJ is a decision that intrigues rather than excites. </p><p> </p><p> <strong>Chances of winning the Block</strong>: Non existent- Unless NJPW are planning to push this guy to the moon right from the off <em>(who knows they may well be thinking of that, given his shock inclusion) </em>more than likely Finlay is there to be the Block whipping boy. </p><p> </p><p> <span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>KUSHIDA</strong></span></p><p> </p><p> <span>http://www.cagematch.net/site/main/img/workers/00005987_2014_KUSHIDA_NJPW.jpg</span></p><p> </p><p> Popular and charismatic, KUSHIDA went to the finals last year, and had a brief run with the Junior belt <em>(though that was clearly an audible of a decision, after Kota Ibushi suffered a concussion during their match)</em>. KUSHIDA has multiple Junior tag title reigns, alongside Alex Shelley as the Time Splitters, but many now feel it is time that NJPW pulled the trigger on KUSHIDA as a singles performer and for New Japan to begin to build the Junior Division around him. Out of all the Japanese Juniors on the NJPW roster, KUSHIDA is certainly the one who has the right combination of technical acumen, flashy moves and charismatic persona to be both the present and future of NJPW's Junior Division. </p><p> </p><p> <strong>Chances of winning the Block</strong>: Very High- Many people's nailed on favourite to not only win the block, but also the entire tournament, especially as the story of him being the one to step up to Kenny Omega and dethrone the Bullet Club menace, following his partner's defeat is already in place. The only grain of doubt, on whether KUSHIDA wins this years tournament, is if the booking powers that be within NJPW feel that the narrative many expect to see coming, is too predictable. </p><p> </p><p> <span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>Máscara Dorada</strong></span></p><p> </p><p> <span>http://www.cagematch.net/site/main/img/workers/00007764_2015_Mascara%20Dorada_CMLL.jpg</span></p><p> </p><p> The dazzling lucha high flyer, is on loan from CMLL for a whole year, and was a recent challenger for the IWGP Junior belt. Whilst his flashy arsenal does boast a 'wow' factor, I personally find him slightly over-rated- as sometimes his work can look a little too 'spotty'. However he is certainly capable of having good matches, and his recent interactions with KUSHIDA during several multi-man tags points to a promising contest between those two. </p><p> </p><p> <strong>Chances of winning the Block:</strong> Medium- The NJPW office are probably higher on Dorada than I am, and he has been booked fairly strong <em>(for a Junior)</em> during his current run with NJPW. Expect him to be in and around the mix going into the final set of matches, and if the NJPW office feel that KUSHIDA is too predictable a choice, Dorada may well be someone that they end up going with. </p><p> </p><p> <span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>Nick Jackson</strong></span></p><p> </p><p> <span>http://www.cagematch.net/site/main/img/workers/00004740_2014_Nick%20Jackson_ROH.jpg</span></p><p> </p><p> Only one Young Buck, in this years BOSJ due to the fact that Matt's wife is expecting a child during the time of the tournament. Whilst the Bucks might not be everyone's cup of tea, I will fully admit to enjoying their work, which shows that you can work a flashy/fast paced style of wrestling and get over as heels due to their obnoxious/disrespectful characters. </p><p> </p><p> However that being said I've always been much more convinced by the Young Bucks as a tag team commodity, and really don't see much 'singles star' potential in either of them, until they truly begin to differentiate one Buck from the other and though I'm a fan of the Bucks as a team, Nick Jackson's inclusion in the tournament feels like something of a wasted spot. </p><p> </p><p> <strong>Chances of winning the Block</strong>: Low- NJPW office more than likely feel the same way I do, and see more value in the Young Bucks together, rather than apart. </p><p> </p><p> <span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>Rocky Romero</strong></span></p><p> </p><p> <span>http://www.cagematch.net/site/main/img/workers/00000254_2014_Rocky%20Romero_NJPW.jpg</span></p><p> </p><p> Romero has been a long time on and off presence on the NJPW roster, both as himself and under the Black Tiger Mask and has multiple Junior tag title reigns, both as part of Forever Hooligans and more recently Roppongi Vice. </p><p> </p><p> Always a solid presence in the Junior ranks, Romero has recently begun to really connect with the NJPW crowds, due to crafting a charismatic character and also the fact that after tour after tour and obtaining a passable command of the Japanese language, he truly feels like a fixture on the NJPW roster. </p><p> </p><p> <strong>Chances of winning the Block:</strong> Fairly Low- Whilst I think it is unlikely that the NJPW office will pull the trigger on a Romero singles run at this stage, it is becoming increasingly clear that he might well be more over than he has ever been, at any stage during his run with NJPW. </p><p> </p><p> <span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>Tiger Mask IV</strong></span></p><p> </p><p> <span>http://www.cagematch.net/site/main/img/workers/00001051_2013_Tiger%20Mask_NJPW.jpg</span></p><p> </p><p> The most maligned Tiger Mask in history <em>(well certainly amongst smarks, the 'little shinjis' that wear replica Tiger Mask's clearly still love him</em>), was always going to be part of this tournament. </p><p> </p><p> Though I've never though of him as 'bad' as some people make out, and that the vitriol towards him would be less if the division wasn't built around him during the mid to late 2000's, his act is admittedly very stale. </p><p> </p><p> <strong>Chances of winning the Block</strong>: Low- Tiger Mask run at the top of the Junior Division has long since come to and end, and he mostly just participates in opening multi-man tags these days. He'll probably pick up a few wins, as the NJPW office have a lot of respect for him, as do most of the fans that attend the NJPW shows and buy the merchandise, but it would be a complete shock if he makes the finals. Out of the two veteran icons, Liger has the more likely chance of making a nostalgia run to the finals.</p><p> </p><p> </p><div style="text-align:center;"><p>______________________________________________________________</p><p> </p><p> </p><div style="text-align:left;"><p>My ideal winner would be Yohei Komatsu, but there is less than zero chance of that happening! Realistically though, I both expect and would like to see KUSHIDA win the tournament, as he really is the guy NJPW should be building their Junior Division around, at least for the next few years. </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> I would be most disappointed with Ryusuke Taguchi winning the tournament, as his bum based offense act right now is painful to watch and it brings down the quality level of every match that he is in. </p><p> </p></div><p></p><p></p><p> </p></div><p></p>

Tigerkinney's opinions on NJPW Wrestling Dontaku 2015 (Fukuoka Convention Center) * Spoilers Ahead- Skip over this post if you do not to know the results* 1. Jushin Thunder Liger, Mascara Dorada, Tiger Mask & Yuji Nagata bt Captain New Japan, KUSHIDA, Manabu Nakanishi & Ryusuke Taguchi in 8:29 This was your bog standard get everyone on the show multi-man tag opener. Whilst not something I would say people should go out of their way to see, this was reasonably entertaining for what it was and the time it was given. Taguchi continues to have X-Pac heat from me due to his irritating ass based offense, but the interactions between grizzled vets Nakanishi and Nagata, plus those of the Juniors Mascara Dorada and KUSHIDA were fun to watch. Highlight of the match was the cliched everyone does dives to the outside sequence, that saw Nakanishi execute the most awkward looking slingshot crossbody ever. It was awesome for being so terrible. ** 1/2 2. Kota Ibushi & Yohei Komatsu bt Sho Tanaka & Tetsuya Naito in 11:55 This match saw the spotlight placed much more on the young lion duo of Komatsu and Tanaka, rather than their more experienced partners, as New Japan continue to take babysteps in transitioning the plucky pair of young lions into a more prominent position within the New Japan roster. Komatsu and Tanaka, are still in Black trunks and doing basic stuff, with a strong emphasis on using/surviving variations of the Boston Crab, but they excecute what they are given really well and certainly get the crowd behind them. Naito and Ibushi were solid in their 'supporting' roles but were probably told to hold back a little, so not to overshine the young lions. *** 3. Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima & Tomoaki Honma bt 'BULLET CLUB': Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga & Cody Hall in 8:57 Honma got the win over Cody Hall, which got a mild pop (Honma getting wins over the Bullet Club B Team is now having diminishing returns of meaningfulness) in what was a solid but forgettable filler six man tag. I'm fine with NJPW putting one meaningless multi-man tag on during the bottom portion of the card, but in all honesty either this or the opener could have been cut in favour of getting another high profile singles match onto the card. ** 4. IWGP Junior Tag Team Championship: The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson) bt Roppongi Vice (Beretta & Rocky Romero) © and reDRagon (Bobby Fish & Kyle O'Reilly) in 17:17 to win the titles. So the hot potato that is the IWGP Junior tag titles change hands yet agan, as The Young Bucks instantly win back the belts they lost to Roppongi Vice last month. Whilst I don't expect teams to have long dominant reigns with these titles and the anyone can beat anyone at any time deal is pretty much the story of this division, the amount of rapid title changes these belts have gone through is beginning to become overkill. Could a team just hold these belts for say more than three months? As for the match this is exactly what you would come to expect from these teams- fast paced action, inventive spots and a bit of comedy thrown in. If you're of an old school mind-set and aren't already sold on the style of wrestling executed here, you aren't going to be converted by this match. If you are a fan, this was a really good example of this kind of wrestling- The Young Bucks aren't everyone's cup of tea, but you have to be completely ignorant to think they aren't good at what they do. The only real blot on this match, was the indifferent Fukuoka crowd who drifted in and out of this match (they were much more up for the relatively meaningless trio of openers that proceeded this), which may have something to do with the lack of native talent in the match. In front of a hotter crowd, this match is an easy four stars, as it is the lack of atmosphere did end up taking a little away from it. *** 1/2 5. IWGP Junior Championship: Kenny Omega bt Alex Shelley in 16:07 to retain the title. Kenny Omega ended up retaining in a make that saw plenty of Bullet Club interference. Whilst I'm not normally a great fan on interference in important matches and it would have been nice to see a 'clean' match between these two, I didn't actually mind the shenanigans here and in a lot of ways it added to the drama of the match, and went some way to making Shelley look strong and a serious enough threat that Omega would be desperate enough to call in the help of the Young Bucks to help him retain. Not perfect, but I personally found this to be the most entertaining Junior title defense yet during Omega's reign thus far with the belt. *** 1/2 Post match Kenny Omega got on the mic and declared that he had nothing to prove and that he won't be taking part in this years 'Best of the Super Trash'. Given the disappointing Blocks that have just been announced for this years tournament he somewhat has a point. Colour me surprised if KUSHIDA doesn't end up winning the tournament and being the one to challenge Omega for the belt at Dominion. 6. Mixed Gender Tag: 'The Kingdom': Mike Bennett, Matt Taven & Maria Kanellis bt 'Bullet Club' Karl Anderson, Doc Gallows & Amber Gallows in 8:09 NJPW on the whole is a well booked promotion, it's not perfect by any means but compared to a lot of promotions they put on a good product that utilizes the talent at their disposal well, but every year the booking team of Jado & Gedo seem to come out with a brain-fart of an angle. Last year it was the bore-fest involving MMA dullards The Gracies, this years it's this slice of wrestle-crap involving Karl Anderson becoming infatuated with Maria Kanellis. Look I'm not going to sit here and pretend to be some moral crusader complaining about the NJPW camera crew zooming in on Amber Gallows chest or Maria's backside- I'm a man and I actually appreciate a bit of T&A/Fanservice whatever you want to call it- but this whole angle is just so preposterously silly and whenever Amber/Maria were in the ring, their 'wrestling' was pretty terrible. In it's defence though it did standout more than the more generic multi-man tags on this card, even if they were for 'wrestlecrap' reasons. * - Decided to give this one star, rather than a DUD for the fact that this at least was something different, even if ultimately it was crap. Post match Maria Kanellis ended up taking a 'Magic Killer' after Anderson, felt scorned and snapped out of being 'lovestruck'- which is another thing that won't please the 'morality police' when it comes to this angle. I agree that this angle is 'wrestlcrap' personnified, but the morality police kind of annoy me more. 7. Togi Makabe, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Katsuyori Shibata bt 'CHAOS' Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano & Kazushi Sakuraba in 15:52 This was your usual six man tag, with the rivals pairing off against one another. Sometimes these kind of matches can see the participants up their game due to being on a PPV card, but this time round this just felt like any run of the mill 'Road To' tag. Tanahashi managed to score a roll up pin on Yano, but won't be satisfied until he's got a much more convincing win over his tormentor. Overall this was OK (as should be the minimum for the talent involved here) but nothing more than that. ** 1/2 8. 'Bullet Club' A.J Styles & Yujiro Takahashi bt 'CHAOS' Kazuchika Okada & YOSHI-HASHI in 13:20 The idea of Styles vs Okada in a tag match with their semi-jobber buddies didn't look all that great as a semi-main coming into the event, but this actually ended up over-achieving and was a really enjoyable match. Okada and Styles delivered as expected, but it was the performance of YOSHI-HASHI that stood out. Whilst he's nowhere near ready for a mega-push, the CHAOS lowman often steps up when put into these situations , working alongside top quality talent such as Okada and Styles. In fact I really like the Okada/YOSHI-HASHI tag team, as they work really well together- the problem for YOSHI-HASHI is that the team doesn't have much championship potential, due to Okada's much stronger singles push. *** 1/2 Post match Styles sneak attacked Okada, and then went for a Styles Clash onto his title belt, only for Okada to slip out and then almost nail Styles with a Rainmaker. Styles bailed from the ring and Okada taunted Styles by holding up the IWGP Heavyweight Belt. That was a nice way of building up some more heat for their showdown at Domininion , at Osaka-Jo Hall in July. 9. IWGP Intercontinental Championship: Hirooki Goto bt Shinsuke Nakamura in 20:53 to win the title. The build up to this match had been executed really well with Nakamura's taunting of Goto, revolving around the CHAOS leader feeling that Goto was 'too small-time' due to consistently choking when put it came to fighting over a major championship belt. This time though Goto was able to finally shake off the choker label, as he emerged triumphant. Goto may have held the IC belt before, but that was during the days when the belt probably had even less prestige than the NEVER belt and not the '1B' main event level title it is now. As for the match itself, it delivered a main event that even got the sometimes lacklustre Fukuoka crowd ramped up with excitement. This had just the right amount of 'slow build' and provided the sort of exciting action packed finish, you will come to expect from a New Japan main event. **** 1/2 Overall Verdict: Sure there were probably too many 'lazily booked' multi-man tags and there was also the sheer 'wrestlecrap' of the Bullet Club vs The Kingdom, but overall this was a pretty good show, that ended with a superb main event and a nice feelgood story moment for perennial choker Hirooki Goto.

Tigerkinney's opinions on NJPW Wrestling Hinokuni (Kumamoto Grand Messe) * Spoilers Ahead- Skip over this post if you do not to know the results* 1. 'CHAOS': Gedo, Beretta & Rocky Romero bt Yohei Komatsu, Sho Tanaka & Jay White in 8:01 Gedo as most people should be aware, is one half of the NJPW booking team, so he was getting to see first hand the progress of the trio of young lions, himself and Roppongi Vice would be up against. Though the trio of young lions have all shown of bags of promise (and especially Komatsu and Tanaka have looked ready to step up from the black trunks, no character stage for about half a year now), people should temper their expectations to expect, amazing stuff from them everytime out. As it was this was a solid opener, and the triple young lion Boston Crab on the veterans spot, was a fun sight to behold. ** 1/2 2. 'Bullet Club': Yujiro Takahashi & Cody Hall bt Satoshi Kojima & Captain New Japan in 8:07 So Yujiro, picked up the win over jobbing specialist Captain New Japan in this not terrible, but pretty forgettable lower card tag match- I guess he has to win sometime, to remain remotely relevant. This was also technically Cody Hall's first win, but he pretty much sold the outcome like he did with his losses- with a lack of emotion/expression. It is of course early days but call it character, call it in-ring charisma, that is one area Hall certainly needs to improve on . ** 3. Manabu Nakanishi, KUSHIDA & Ryusuke Taguchi bt Yuji Nagata, Mascara Dorada & Tiger Mask IV in 7:50 Urgh Taguchi and his lame butt offense- I could tolerate him when he was a technically sound but 'vanilla' Junior Heavyweight, but his transition into a try too hard 'comedy' wrestler is getting on my wick. In another inoffensive (when Taguchi wasn't in there) but forgettable lower card filler tag , KUSHIDA pinned Mascara Dorada- which seemed like it was there to plant seeds in the audience minds that the Best of the Super Juniors tournament was coming up soon. ** 4. NWA Junior Heavyweight Championship: Steve Anthony bt Jushin Thunder Liger in 12:35 to retain. So Liger dropped the NWA Junior strap to Anthony on one of his many excursions to America. The match saw Anthony retain the title, via nefarious means after some shenanigans involving a ref bump and interference from his manager Bruce Tharpe (who plays the douchebag heel manager role so well). I wasn't exactly thrilled about the screwy finish here, but I didn't completely hate it either, and if they going to have a finish like that, I would rather it here, with his midcard NWA stuff, than in the main event. As for the match itself (prior to the screwy finish), it was actually pretty decent- I had never seen Anthony before and I came away mildly impressed- he's not what you call spectacular, but he's very solid and came across much better than Chase Owens. *** 5. NWA World Heavyweight Championship: Hiroyoshi Tenzan bt Big Daddy Yum Yum in 10:57 to retain. More Bruce Tharpe, and just like the last time we had two NWA Championship matches on the show, he went out back to change his garish jacket and glasses combination. Like the last match he tried to interfere on behalf of his client, but this time failed to influence the outcome of the match and Tenzan was able to retain. I wasn't expecting this match to be good at all, as the last time Yum Yum came over to NJPW he was pretty terrible, but this ending up being pretty solid, even if the closing stretch was rather anti-climatic. Yum Yum himself, is still a bit awkward but he was much, much better here than he was against Kojima and the BME style moonsault he pulled out during the match was pretty impressive. ** 1/2 6. 'Bullet Club': Kenny Omega, Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows bt Tetsuya Naito, Tomoaki Honma & Alex Shelley in 12:50 They kept the Bullet Club vs Kingdom feud/angle in people's minds with Karl Anderson, constantly declaring his love for Maria and Doc Gallows admonishing him for his lack of focus. The main problem I (and I'm sure many others have with this angle) is that Anderson has never shown a glimpse of his kind of character before now- sure Maria is very hot but Anderson has suddenly seemed to taken on the personality of a lovestruck (or should that be luststruck) teenager overnight. The match itself was a pretty good six man tag, with a fairly hot closing stretch, that saw them tease another tag team match pinfall triumph for cult favourite Honma, but ultimately saw the plucky loser taken out with the Magic Killer. *** 7. 'CHAOS': Kazuchika Okada & YOSHI-HASHI bt 'Bullet Club' Bad Luck Fale & Tama Tonga in 11:39 Because Styles isn't working this show (for reasons I don't know why, at least with Ibushi I knew he was booked in the main event of a DDT show on the same day), Okada has to build up his up-coming showdown with the IWGP Heavyweight champ, by taking on other members of Bullet Club and that means him continuing to be stuck with Bad Luck Fale. This wasn't a terrible match, but we've seen these Okada vs Fale tag contests so many times now, it's getting extremely stale. Hopefully after this tour Okada and Fale have very little to do with each other (outside of the odd multi-man Chaos vs Bullet Club 'Road To' tag). ** 8. 'CHAOS' Shinsuke Nakamura, Toru Yano & Kazushi Sakuraba bt Hiroshi Tanahashi, Hirooki Goto & Katsuyori Shibata in 16:45 This semi main event, was in effect like the sort of main event you would normally see on a 'Road To' show from Korakuen Hall, and all in all it was a pretty entertaining contest that did a decent job of helping to build up the respective individual feuds. The finish saw Yano once again get one over on Tanahashi, and though some will feel that Tanahashi's talents are being wasted in a feud against someone like Yano- because Tanahashi is carrying a chronic back injury right now, it's probably sensible that he's working a prolonged programme with a 'lighter' worker like Yano, who's game is more about cerebrial one upmanship than stiff strikes and/or power moves. *** 1/2 9. NEVER Openweight Championship: Togi Makabe bt Tomohiro Ishii in 25:42 to win the title. Makabe actually never lost this title, so it was more a case of two wrestlers getting in the ring and proving themselves to be the rightful holder of the belt, more than a champion vs challenger affair. In what became a 'war of attrition' slugfest, Makabe eventually triumphed to win back the belt he had to relinquish due to the flu in February. This was exactly the brutal hard hitting affair of manly one up-manship, you would expect it to be, climaxing in a pretty molten closing stretch. However it did go about five to ten minutes too long, with a slow and plodding opening portion of the match, that in all honesty could have been cut. Great stuff once it got going. **** Overall Verdict: Odd show this , as it was effectively a 'Road To' style event with a semi-main event level match (at a proper supercard)headlining, and the NWA title stuff thrown in, that was run in a slightly bigger building than they would run for 'Road To' events. At the end of the day, this wasn't a bad show and the main event is certainly worth checking out by itself, but if you're not a hardcore NJPW follower, then this one is pretty skippable.

Tigerkinney's opinions on NJPW Invasion Attack (Ryogoku Kokukigan/Sumo Hall) * Spoilers Ahead- Skip over this post if you do not to know the results* 1. Yuji Nagata, Captain New Japan, KUSHIDA, Alex Shelley & Yohei Komatsu bt Manabu Nakanishi, Ryusuke Taguchi, Jushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask IV & Sho Tanaka in 8:14 This was your bog standard try and get everyone on the show, who has nothing else to do opener. As expected the quality of the match, was patchy depending on who was in the ring at the time. The opening exchange between heavyweight vets Nakananishi and Nagata was good fun, but I can really do without Taguchi and his bum offense (Taguchi actually got booed by the crowd for breaking up Nagata's trademark eyes rolled back armbar submission with one of his bum attacks). Predictably Sho Tanaka ended up taking the fall here, as Alex Shelley picked up the win for his team (something that would become more significant later in the show). ** 1/2 2. Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima & Tomoaki Honma bt Yujiro Takahashi, Tama Tonga & Cody Hall in 9:26 Apart from some Mao based fanservice during Yujiro's entrance, and Tomoaki Honma picking up another multi-man tag win over a Bullet Club lowman, this was a nothing six man tag. It was fine for what it was, but just very forgettable. Cody Hall continues to look like he has lots of potential but still very green at the same time- where does the point come where we stop forgiving Hall for not quite looking like he is ready to belong in an NJPW ring yet? ** 3. IWGP Jr Tag: Roppongi Vice (Rocky Romero & Beretta) bt The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson) in 12:33 to become the New Champions. Trent? Trent Baretta, Baretta, Beretta...what ever he want's to call himself, he has certainly brought some freshness to the Junior tag ranks, by being Rocky Romero's new partner. Romero himself is probably one of the more underrated members of the NJPW roster, whilst there are flashier Juniors out there, he's always been a solid wrestler but he's really found his groove in terms of combining those solid wrestling skills with in-ring charisma. This ended up being a really good Junior tag match, that was worked at a slightly more deliberate pace than previous Junior tag matches, and saw the Young Bucks continue to put a modern spin on the cocky heel champion routine. Overall the match was a nicely balanced mix between the sort of inventive high octane action you would expect from a Junior Tag and genuinely amusing comedic stuff, as both teams tried to put the other off their game with juvenile taunts. **** 4. IWGP Junior: Kenny Omega bt Mascara Dorada in 12:59 to retain Omega has thankfully toned down some of his more wacky stuff (no silly arm chainshaw in this match), many put this down to Omega toning down 'The Cleaner' character, but really it was just Kenny Omega adjusting to the fact that he's now in New Japan and not DDT or PWG. Overall this match was good in parts, they did some impressive stuff but it felt a bit 'spotty'- and most of that was down to Dorada. His stuff is impressive but it's very contrived and though some of his stuff can get you oohing and aahing, he couldn't really pull me emotionally during his Junior title challenge, and in the end this felt like a routine stopgap defence for Omega, before he moves onto a more interesting program. *** Post match Kenny Omega gets on the mic and say that he's cleaned up the Japanese trash (Taguchi), Mexican trash (Dorada) and now it was time to clean up the worst trash- Motor City Trash- before calling out Alex Shelley as his next challenger. Cue post match staredown- Really looking forward to that, as I've always like Shelley's work and for me he's an upgrade on both Taguchi and Dorada. 5. IWGP Tag: The Kingdom (Mike Bennett & Matt Taven) bt 'Guns & Gallows' (Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows) in 9:41 to become the New Champions. And so we come to the match that many have stated to be the 'dud' of the night. The match bascially revolved around Maria and Karl Anderson acting like an infatuated schoolboy, that had never seen a beautiful woman before in his life. I'm fine with a bit of comedy in wrestling, it certainly has it's place but it felt out of place here in what's supposed to a serious title match, especially as Anderson's brain moving to his pants ended up costing Guns and Gallows the title. It's booking that does no favours to either team, as the new champs look like they basically need Maria's feminine charms to get anywhere and Anderson (who hasn't been booked this way before) looks like a geek. The only real positive point of the match, was Matt Taven putting in a good shift, as the work-rate guy for his team- had he half assed it, then I would have rated this even lower. ** Intermission announced the schedule for this years G-1 , which will be the 25th anniversary edition of the tournament. And it's going to be the longest G-1 yet, with a whopping 19 date schedule, starting in Sapporo on July 20th and ending with a six date stint in Tokyo (3 shows at Korakuen Hall, 3 shows at Sumo Hall) with the finals taking place on August 16th. My guess is that we won't actually be seeing two 18 man blocks (as that would be insane and would probably only end up with a bunch of injury induced withdrawals) and they are just spreading the tournament out more, with the participants getting more than one rest day. 6. Hirooki Goto, Togi Makabe & Tetsuya Naito bt Shinsuke Nakamura, Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI in 13:49 One of the matches that got criticism for being announced as part of the card, as on paper it looked like the sort of bog standard multi-man tag you could see on any Road to Show, and saw both the Intercontinental and NEVER champions 'wasted' in what looked like filler. Thing is with these multi-man tags (especially when placed post intermission), the wrestlers involved always step it up to another level on a PPV card, and that was certainly the case here. It wasn't what you would call show stealing stuff but it was certainly a cut above your standard 'Road to' effort. The highlights here were Ishii's and Makabe's intense exchanges that helped to build heat for their inevitable rematch over the NEVER title that Makabe never lost and a hot closing stretch that saw Goto score a big win over Nakamura and cement his challenge for the IC belt. *** 1/2 7. Toru Yano & Kazushi Sakuraba bt Hiroshi Tanahashi & Katsuyori Shibata in 10:51 Coming into this match, the focus seemed to be more on the feud that had built up between Yano and Tanahashi, following Yano's upset victory over Tanahashi in the New Japan Cup. But by the end it served more as vehicle to sow seeds for a possible feud between former Laughter-7 partners Sakuraba and Shibata who ended up working the bulk of the match, whilst Tanahashi effectively took a night off. Your enjoyment of the match will rest entirely on how much you enjoy Sakuraba's and Shibata's MMA influenced work, and I have to say whilst I wasn't in love with it, I didn't hate it either. This time last year Sakuraba would have been right up at the top of the list of guys I think New Japan could dispense with, but he's actually winning me over. He's being pushed the right way as a midcard attraction, he can be carried to decent matches given the right opponent and his odd couple tag team with Yano is actually good fun, even if it doesn't exactly produce great matches. As for Tanahashi, he looks like he will be stuck with Yano for a while- but my guess is that working through injuries has caught up to him and that's why they've stuck him in a low work-rate midcard feud with Yano. It's not as though New Japan haven't anyone else to step up and take Tanahashi's place at the top of the card. ** 1/2 8. Kazuchika Okada bt Bad Luck Fale in 15:59 This thankfully ended up being the feud ender, and set up Okada moving on to other things. Not that this was a bad match, far from it, in fact this is the match where Okada was finally able to do what Nakamura was able to do last year and get a good match out of Bad Luck Fale. Whilst it still plodded early on, whilst Fale was in control (and almost putting the audience to sleep by working a nerve hold), they ended up working the tried and tested 'David vs Goliath' formula really well with Okada putting Fale over as a monster, whilst also wrestling like a man who just wouldn't give in. Okada summoning up all his might to Tombstone Fale, would have been the highlight of the entire show, had it not been for the jaw-dropping finish to the main event. *** 1/2 9. IWGP Heavyweight: A.J Styles bt Kota Ibushi in 27:01 to retain. As expected these two put on a really good match, as would have been expected of two wrestlers of their ability. Whilst most of the work was great (the teasing of the Styles Clash throughout, the Pele exchange, Styles release German to Ibushi out on the floor), it did drag a little in the middle whilst Styles looked to work over Ibushi's legs, which wouldn't have been so bad if (as much as I love him as a performer) Ibushi's selling wasn't so spotty. All in all they were heading for a 4 star match that lived up to the minimum of expectations I would have had for this match....And then the finish happened..... Ibushi had Styles down and went up for the Phoenix Splash, but Kenny Omega (who came out to second Styles) hopped up on the apron, but he looked torn about interfering in a match against his old friend and tag partner in DDT and stepped down from the apron...... But the distraction ended up being enough for Styles to rise back to his feet, catch Ibushi in mid-air whilst doing the Phoenix Splash and immediately transition it into a Styles Clash (I know that probably sounds physically impossible but that's what happened!) From the subtle storyelling of acknowledging Omega's history with Ibushi in DDT, to the Styles Clash counter to the Phoenix Splash itself, this was once of those finishes that (well for me anyway) ended up putting an extra half star onto the match rating. **** 1/2 Post match Omega continued to look torn about 'helping' AJ to retain the title over Ibushi..... Then as Styles was about to leave following his post match celebration, Okada came rushing down and then laid Styles out with a vicious Rainmaker, before standing over Styles holding the title. Again just fantastic storytelling here, as this announced that Okada was back to his old self, whilst also calling back to last years Invasion Attack, where Styles attacked Okada. Overall Verdict: Coming into this event, people were moaning about too many tag matches (and they've already started doing the same thing for Dontaku), but once again New Japan end up putting on a really good show. Main event was great, and it was supported by other good stuff, Okada vs Fale ended up being a good match, both of the Junior title matches were good (with the Jr Tag being very good) and the Chaos vs Team Goto six man was a significant step up from your average multi-man tag. Plus there wasn't actually anything bad on the show, the duo of opening multi-man tags were passable for the early filler that they were and whilst the booking for the IWGP Tag match was questionable, it wasn't a terrible match. Sure I think they could do even better, and perhaps put one or two more meaningful matches onto every show and not feel the need to try and get everyone on the roster onto every PPV. But the finish to the main event and the post match angle to end the show, went a long way to remind us just how great present day NJPW can be.

I'll have my usual review of sorts up later this week, but I'll second the finish to the Styles vs Ibushi match plus the post match being fantastic. Tremendous storytelling all round.

Tigerkinney's opinions on New Japan Cup Finals (Hiroshima Sun Plaza) * Spoilers Ahead- Skip over this post if you do not want to know the results* 1. Mascara Dorada, Tiger Mask IV & Ryusuke Taguchi bt Jushin Thunder Liger, KUSHIDA & Jay White in 10:23 Dorada is now sporting a mask that lets him show off his mane of hair. As for the match itself, it was a fairly decent junior six man, though nothing special and all honesty unless something like a Young Bucks or a Time Splitters is going to be involved in this match, you can see this sort of action executed better over in Dragon Gate. Also Ryusuke Taguchi's butt based offense is really starting to grind my gears, I appreciate that he's trying to do something to change the perception people may have had of him a bland/generic junior heavyweight guy (the type that Kevin Nash would have coined a 'vanilla midget' ) but I'm not sure that channelling Shiro Koshinaka and basing your moveset around thrusting your backside into people is the way to go. ** 1/2 2. Satoshi Kojima & Yohei Komatsu bt Yuji Nagata & Sho Tanaka in 9:35 This was still good fun when the Young Lions were taking it to opposing veteran but this was several notches below the match where Komatsu tagged with Tanahashi from the quarter finals show. Decent stuff but oddly enough for a match involving young lions (who still have limited young lion movesets and finish every match with a Boston Crab) I was expecting better. Guess it just goes to show the potential Komatsu and Tanaka have already shown, despite still being limited within playing the young lion role. ** 1/2 3. New Japan Cup Semi Final: Hirooki Goto bt Togi Makabe in 8:11 This was one of those matches that got cut off, before it really got going as Goto pinned Makabe with his pinning combination out of nowhere. The action that was there was pretty good but it felt like the second half of a 15 minute match had been left on the cutting room floor. Still it didn't surprise me that one of the semi finals would end up being short-changed and if I was to choose the semi that would get the short end of the stick, Goto vs Makabe was the right decision- given the potential greatness of the other semi. ** 1/2 4. New Japan Cup Semi Final: Kota Ibushi bt Tetsuya Naito in 14:14 This ended up being the match of the night and indeed the best match of the entire New Japan Cup tournament. This was balls to the wall action from start to finish, as Ibushi and Naito literally did everything they could to put the other one away- the escalation of this violence from two supposed pretty boys saw Ibushi counter a role up attempt from Naito into an off the cuff piledriver type thing (the sheer unpredictability of Ibushi is what makes him so exciting to watch as a perfomer), that Naito sold like death. MOTYC? Not quite for me, but it was certainly thrilling stuff and further proof that Ibushi should be considered one of the elite wrestling talents on the planet (and Naito's not half bad either!) **** 1/2 5. Katsuyori Shibata & Tomoaki Honma bt Tama Tonga & Cody Hall in 10:30 What looked like a nothing match on paper (a random pairing of NJPW babyfaces vs the Bullet Club job squad) ended up being the surprise of the night. With what seemed like a guest booking slot from Vince Russo , Shibata and Honma were 'tag partners that don't get along' but on this occassion the dynamic actually worked and added some much needed tension to a match that looked like a walkover on paper. It was genuinely amusing to see Shibata and Honma somehow fumble into a fully functioning tag team and whilst the match had a comedic edge to it, the quality of the in-ring action didn't suffer. *** 1/2 6. Toru Yano & Kazushi Sakuraba bt Hiroshi Tanahashi & Captain New Japan in 11:22 A tag match that looked to a complete waste of Tanahashi's talent on paper, but in the end turned out to be....well, it turned it out to be OK. It wasn't great but given that everyone in the match apart from Tanahashi is hardly what you call a great in-ring performer it was far from terrible. The finish saw Yano score yet another roll-up finish on Tanahashi, who sold the indignance of this outcome by throwing a toddlers temper tantrum post match. As long as the Tanahashi/Yano program that they obviously have in place now, doesn't drag on for the rest of the year and it's just a brief diversion for a couple of months from the top of the card for Tanahashi then I'm fine with where Jado and Gedo are going with this, but if it does end up dragging on forever like the Yano/Suzuki feud then I'll be joining with the whinger brigade ** 1/2 7. 'Chaos': Shinsuke Nakamura, Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI bt 'Bullet Club': Bad Luck Fale, Karl Anderson, Doc Gallows & Yujiro Takahashi There were signs here in terms of crowd reaction, that Okada being stuck in a program with Fale (and coming out on the losing end thus far) isn't doing him any favours as the crowd reaction to his entrance was notably more muted this time around. As for the match itself, it ended up being a notch above many other Bullet Club tags, due to a hot finishing stretch, that saw the crowd end up becoming emotionally invested in Okada's struggle against Fale (I know that sounds contradictory to what I said earlier but once the match got going the crowd got behind Okada again). In the end Okada managed to finally land a Rainmaker and pin the Bullet Club monster (albeit with a great deal of help from his Chaos stable mates). Okada and Fale meet again in another singles contest at Invasion Attack, where if Jado and Gedo are sensible will conclude this feud with a decisive victory for Okada or they risk devaluing their biggest asset in terms of the future (not just for now) even further. *** 8. New Japan Cup Finals: Kota Ibushi bt Hirooki Goto in 17:31 The general feeling going round about the Finals match, is that it was good but disappointing. I actually really enjoyed it myself, sure it wasn't anywhere near MOTYC levels and it didn't manage to outshine Ibushi's semi final contest with Naito, but it still managed to pull me in and make me believe that either man could end up as the winner at the end of the match. All in all the match probably suffers from fans being somewhat spoiled by the consistently high quality of NJPW and always expecting a home-run in the main event of every show. **** Post match Kota Ibushi received an ostentatious trophy and a giant cheque for 5 million Yen, before everyone's favourite New Japan announcer Shinpei Nogami asked Kota Ibushi the 5 million yen question- which title would he challenge for? In the end in a surprise to everyone, Ibushi didn't go after the Intercontinental belt and challenge Nakamura to another match but he was shooting straight for the very top and going after A.J Styles and the IWGP Heavyweight belt. Absolutely loved this decision- Ibushi going after A.J was completely unexpected and it provides a completely fresh match up (one that if they don't overbook it with BC interfence has the potential to be a MOTYC) at the very top of NJPW. And whilst I appreciate the way NJPW have built all their heavyweight singles belts up strongly, I also like the fact that with this decision they essentially re-establish the IWGP Heavyweight title as the top belt and the prize that everyone in NJPW is ultimately striving for. Overall: Whilst the New Japan Cup Finals, wasn't a blow away show, there was nothing bad on the show and overall it was an enjoyable event. Ibushi was obviously the star of the show, not just because he was booked to be but because he actually delivered in the ring, whilst Shibata/Honma vs BC jobbers ended up being the midcard surprise of the night.

I'll have my 'review' of the finals show up in the next couple of days. As for Invasion Attack, the main event I'm very pleased with but they should have done more with the under card, too much trying to cram everyone on the card for a pay-day.

Tigerkinney's opinions on New Japan Cup Quarter Finals (Korakuen Hall) * Spoilers Ahead- Skip over this post if you do not want to know the results* 1. YOSHI-HASHI bt Jay White in 7:07 Not a bad opener here, as gaijin young boy Jay White manages to pull a better match out of YOSHI-HASHI than 10 year veteran Yujiro Takahashi from the first round event. White's far from the finished article but he shows a lot of promise. ** 1/2 2. Satoshi Kojima, Manabu Nakanishi, Mascara Dorada, Tiger Mask & Ryusuke Taguchi bt Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Tomoaki Honma, Captain New Japan, Jushin Thunder Liger & KUSHIDA in 10:54 The match itself was one of those fun but forgettable multi-man tags, where they've ultimately packed in too many people to showcase their stuff in too little time. Still as undercard filler goes, it wasn't a chore to sit through. One observation I do have from the match is that there was a bit where Taguchi mockingly did the Kokeshi on Honma and I thought that's the direction they need to go with him- 'Veteran douchebag heel' for the Junior Division. Lately he's gradually transitioned from bland serious babyface to someone who's trying too hard to be goofy. ** 1/2 Post match Kojima and Tenzan had a war of words, that soon escalated into a pull apart brawl- adding heat to their up-coming NWA World Title match against each other. Tenzan even clocked his long term tag partner with the belt during the melee- is this the start of a Tenzan heel turn or just Tenzan acting like a dick in the heat of the moment? 3. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Yohei Komatsu bt Yuji Nagata & Sho Tanaka in 12:10 More of this for Komatsu and Tanaka please! The moments where the fiery young lions were taking it to the two veterans in this match were absolute gold. Great fun all round, as this offered up 'undercard filler' that offered up some really dynamic and feisty wrestling and also felt fresh. *** 1/2 4. 'Chaos': Shinsuke Nakamura, Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii & Kazushi Sakuraba bt 'Bullet Club': Karl Anderson, Doc Gallows, Tama Tonga & Cody Hall in 11:22. Lets be honest here the result was never going to be in doubt with this one, as the CHAOS quartet was pretty close to being their strongest line up, whilst the Bullet Club team featured someone who rivals Captain New Japan for jobbing expertise over the past year in Tama Tonga and a newcomer announced as the Bullet Club's 'young boy' in Cody Hall. Despite that this ended up being a surprisingly entertaining 8 man tag, and provided a pretty decent showcase for Hall, even if he did inevitably end up being the one to take the fall (inside Tama Tonga is now rejoicing that he's no longer the guaranteed fall taker for Bullet Club!) The upside for Hall is that he shows a surprising amount of agility for someone his size and his Discus Lariat looked really good, the downside is that he's still obviously really green and pretty awkard in the ring. ** 1/2 5. NJC Cup 1/4 Final: Togi Makabe bt Yujiro Takahashi in 10:13 Once again the most worthwhile thing in a Yujiro match was the entrance of his valet Mao. At first the PVC jumpsuit she was wearing seemed 'conservative' until she turned around and showed that a sizeable amount of material was cutaway from the region of her derriere. Of course the 'pervy' New Japan cameraman took great delight in zooming in on the fact. As for the match itself, it was better than Yujiro vs YOSHI-HASHI but that was to be expected. It got considerably better once it made it past Yujiro's 'generic WWE wrestler' inspired heat segment, and the finishing portion of the match actually ended up being pretty good. Thankfully Makabe went over, saving us from Yujiro bringing down the quality of one of the semi-finals. ** 1/2 6. NJC Cup 1/4 Final: Kota Ibushi bt Toru Yano in 2:44 Tanahashi was on commentary for this one, and he brilliantly sold his indignance at losing to Yano in the first round, as his conqueror made it to the ring. Just as with the Tanahashi/Yano match this was simply too short to know what kind of rating to put on it, but it brilliantly played off that match with Yano rapidly going through his box of tricks to try and pick up another quickfire banana peel win but the plan ultimately backfiring with Ibushi finding a way to score a flash pin of his own. N/R (But as sub 3 minute matches goes this was four star entertainment) 7. NJC Cup 1/4 Final: Tetsuya Naito bt Bad Luck Fale in 12:51 The match was a bit awkard in places, but I felt that Naito got a better match out Fale here, than Okada in the first round. The main thing that this match had going for it, was the fact that they told a logical story here, as Naito went of the tried and tested formula of trying to take the big man off his vertical base. In the end it looked as though Fale was going to be too strong for Naito, but 'the Stardust Genius' was able to counter the Bad Luck Fall into a hurracanrana pin. Even though I'm not as 'down' on Fale as some people, I can't say that I'm not disappointed he's not in the quarter finals- especially as it gives us Ibushi vs Naito as one of the semi finals which could potentially be great (provided it's get enough time to shine). *** 8. NJC Cup 1/4 Final: Hirooki Goto bt Katsuyori Shibata in 17:18 And so we come to the latest installment of this rivalry between these two best friends. In all honesty this was a fun and hard hitting match, as you would expect from these two but their last few efforts have lacked the legit heat they had against one another in their earlier bouts with Shibata playing the obvious heel (as Goto struggled to get the better of his University pal). Ultimately these two are never going to have bad matches with each other but it's time to lock this match up away for a couple of years, so that it feels fresh again. *** 1/2 Overall: Just like the first round show, there wasn't anything here that is 'must see' but on the other hand there wasn't anything bad either, and overall this ended up being an 'easy show to watch'. The two semi-finals bring us Ibushi vs Naito and Makabe vs Goto. Two match up's that feel relatively fresh (especially Ibushi vs Naito), and in the end it's resulted in an unpredictable New Japan Cup. Personally I would like to see Ibushi win the cup, but I don't have a major problem with any of the other three winning. Then again I probably would let out a groan if Makabe wins the cup and then challenges Ishii for the NEVER belt, as that's a match-up they can just book regardless of whether Makabe win the cup or not.

Tigerkinney's opinions on New Japan Cup First Round * Spoilers Ahead- Skip over this post if you do not to know the results* 1. Ryusuke Taguchi, Tiger Mask, Mascara Dorada & Sho Tanaka bt Jushin Thunder Liger, KUSHIDA, Jay White & Yohei Komatsu in 8:02 This Junior Division 8 man tag opener was one of those matches where everyone showcases a snippet of what they bring to the table and ultimately ends up blending together into a forgettable blur. Taguchi's stupid bum based flurry aside, nothing was 'offensive', it was just the definition of 'meh' ** 2. NJC Round 1: Yujiro Takahashi bt YOSHI-HASHI in 7:56 Mao accompanied Yujiro to the ring in a sexy nurse's outfit and then proceeded to do a semi strip tease- as expected it was all down hill from there, as the match everyone expected to be the worst first round match delivered to lowly expectations. YOSHI-HASHI has shown some improvement over the past year but he's still one of the weakest talents on the New Japan roster and Yujiro is never going to be anything more than mediocre as an in-ring performer. In the match's defense it wasn't so bad to be considered terrible but it certainly wasn't what you could consider good either. ** 3. NJC Round 1: Togi Makabe bt Tomoaki Honma in 10:10 Honma's matches are always entertaining, as he's great at channelling that fiery underdog aura and getting the crowd into his matches. That being said I think he's a getting to be a bit 'overhyped' by some sections of the IWC. Whilst Honma's Kokeshi (falling headbutt) based offense is his unique selling point, it's also the very thing that stops him from stepping up from being a semi comedic jobber. To his credit he keeps coming up with unique ways that he can shoe-horn the Kokeshi into his matches but even then the formula is starting to become a little bit stale. *** 4. NJC Round 1: Katsuyori Shibata bt Satoshi Kojima in 8:53 A pretty good hard hitting 'sprint' which is the least that you would expect out of these two, but given the sub ten minute running time it never had the chance to develop into anything more. *** 5. NJC Round 1: Hirooki Goto bt Yuji Nagata in 11:24 The string of 'good' matches continues- a solid back and forth (though Nagata probably had the lions share of the offense) between two slightly under-rated talents among some of the NJPW fanbase. *** 1/2 6. Shinsuke Nakamura, Tomohiro Ishii & Kazushi Sakuraba bt Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Manabu Nakanishi & Captain New Japan A complete mismatch on paper as the CHAOS side features two belt holders (one who is considered to be one of the three current 'aces' of New Japan, the other a cult fan favourite) and a strongly protected former MMA legend, whilst their opponents feature two respected but broken down veterans and a man whose entire existence is to be a pathetic failure of a wrestler. To it's credit though the outcome was never in doubt, the match still managed to be fairly entertaining. In the end this was midcard filler, but as midcard filler goes it did it's job reasonably well. ** 1/2 7. NJC Round 1: Kota Ibushi bt Doc Gallows in 8:49 Still not sold on Gallows, especially in singles competition and I feel his prescence in the NJC was a bit of a waste, but much to Kota Ibushi's credit the match ended up being a decent formula big man vs little man match. Though I'm far from a Gallows fan, as the monster gaijin heel, he rightly got the bulk of the offense with the story ultimately being that the nimbler Ibushi was able to out maneuver the big man and pick up the victory with a flash pin. ** 1/2 8. NJC Round 1: Tetsuya Naito bt Karl Anderson in 12:10 This ended up being the match of the night, it didn't quite have enough to move into MOTYC territory but once Naito got a foothold in the match, this ended up being a fun back and forth affair. Naito's actually been a consistently good performer over the past year, responding well to his failed main event push with strong in-ring performances even if the booking hasn't reflected that, whilst Karl Anderson was able to remind everyone, that though he's not an 'elite' talent that if you put in the ring with other good wrestlers, he's a good singles wrestler and not a just a tag specialist. **** 9. NJC Round 1: Toru Yano bt Hiroshi Tanahashi in 2:47 And here we come to the huge upset of the first round of the New Japan Cup, as iconic Tanahashi ends up falling to defeat to Toru Yano in under three minutes! At the end of the day this was a 'banana peel' loss, that played to the strengths of Yano's gimmick as a sneaky heel (though these days he's more a sneaky loveable rogue that still uses heel tactics). As expected though this had plenty of people whining about Tanahashi being jobbed to Yano in a match that basically consisted of 'BS shenanigans' and denied us a showdown between Tanahashi and Ibushi in the next round. At the end of the day New Japan were never going to waste the first ever Tanahashi/Ibushi singles showdown in Korakuen Hall and those who whine about Yano, probably need to lighten up and not take wrestling so seriously- especially as Yano is booked in New Japan as someone who occasionally causes upsets and not as someone they seriously push as a main eventer. Pretty much impossible to give the match a star rating, as it wasn't a great match from a work rate perspective but it served it's purpose in delivering a shock upset that ended up being entertaining for what it was and if you properly think about it makes sense from a long term booking perspective, instead of crying over the better wrestler not going through. N/R 10. NJC Round 1: Bad Luck Fale bt Kazuchika Okada in 16:34 As New Japan main event's go, this probably has to rank amongst the weakest, with Okada not quite being able to get as much out of the lumbering monster heel that is Fale, as his Chaos comrade Shinsuke Nakamura managed to, during Swagsuke's feud with the Bullet Club enforcer over the IC belt during last year. That being said the match wasn't terrible, it was just 'average'....I'm firmly in the middle when it comes to Fale- in the fact that I don't think he's as terrible as a lot of people make him out to be, but he certainly has a long way to go before he's someone I can fully get behind as someone deserving of a prominent push. Though I wanted Okada to win here, to end the feud and move on to other things, I'm not completely shocked nor terribly disappointed that Fale ended up winning here. Though I think he's a little bit overpushed right now, I understand that Gedo and Jado are trying to build him up to fulfill the role vacated by Giant Bernard a few years back, as the resident monster heel that basically serves the purpose of being an uppercard roadblock, rather than being a fully fledged main eventer. ** 1/2 Overall: Though the show lacked a truly special match (though Anderson vs Naito is worth seeking out, if you're going to cherry pick something from the show) the first round of the NJC ended being a solid show from top to bottom, even if the semi main event ended up being more of an angle than a match and the main event itself was (perhaps unsurprisingly) disappointing by New Japan standards.

Tigerkinney's opinions on New Beginning in Sendai 2014 * Spoilers Ahead- Skip over this post if you do not to know the results* Togi Makabe's still sending in a sick note from his mother, so the card once again gets changed, it also results in Makabe having to vacate the NEVER Openweight title- but we're still getting a NEVER Openweight Title match as everyone's favourite underdog Tomoaki Honma, steps up to take on Tomohiro Ishii for the vacated belt. 1. Captain New Japan & Manabu Nakanishi bt Satoshi Kojima & Yohei Komatsu in 6:19 Tanaka's the young lion that loses out this time, with Honma being moved up the card and this match getting cut from a six man tag to just a regular tag. The elements you would have expected from this match were there with young lion Komatsu putting in the most effort for very little reward and broken down big man Nakanishi putting in the least effort for considerably more reward. Fine for what it was and it's spot on the card. ** 2. reDRagon (Kyle O'Reilly & Bobby Fish) bt Jay White & Tiger Mask IV in 10:31 This ending up being a nice showcase for the new young lion, New Zealand born Jay White who showed plenty of fighting spirit against reDRagon. In fact this ended up exceeding expectations, as it got plenty of time and White already looks a better prospect than some of the lower end midcarders (looking at you Yujiro). *** Personal Rant: Actually even Tiger Mask IV was fine here, even though the spotlight was obviously on White. In fact I think Tiger Mask IV, probably gets a tad too much stick . Sure he's never been on the same level as the original Tiger Mask, or Tiger Mask II (Misawa) or even Tiger Mask III (Kanemoto- though Kanemoto only got good after he ditched the mask) but he's not as dreadful as some would have you believe. When he was getting his mega push as the face of New Japan's Junior division during the mid to late 2000's, then the anti Tiger Mask sentiment probably had more legs but in his current role as a lower card veteran that mostly works in meaningless tags he's perfectly acceptable. 3. Alex Shelley, KUSHIDA & Mascara Dorada bt 'Bullet Club': Kenny Omega, Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson in 11:11 Ryusuke Taguchi was originally scheduled to be in this match, but they are selling the injuries that he suffered in the post match beatdown from Osaka, so Dorada (who is looking to challenge Omega for the Junior strap) steps up to take his place. This ended up being a really fun Junior six man, and a nice showcase for Dorada who ended up having the most impressive spot of the night, a jaw dropping sunset flip powerbomb on Kenny Omega off the apron and into the barricade but also picked up the victory, by countering Omega's One Winged Angel finisher into a victory roll. *** 1/2 4. NWA Junior Heavyweight Championship: Jushin Thunder Liger bt Chase Owens in 7:49 Bruce Tharpe came out wearing a sparkly purple ensemble and to be honest that's the only memorable thing about this match. In the matches defence it did get short changed for time but I see nothing in Owens that would make me wish to see him back inside an NJPW ring again. He's not Michael Tarver or Big Daddy Yum Yum terrible but I've come to the conclusion that after four matches (3 NWA Junior title matches and the tag from Osaka) he's mediocre and mediocre shouldn't really cut it in NJPW. ** 5. NWA World Heavyweight Championship: Hiroyoshi Tenzan bt Rob Conway in 11:50 In an absurdly hilarious move, Bruce Tharpe got changed from his purple ensemble in the previous match to a silver set for this match. I've said it before and I'll say it again, if it wasn't for Bruce Tharpe this whole NWA angle would be a complete waste of time- as it is Tharpe's presence makes these NWA matches with NJPW veterans vs Tharpe's mediocre at best band of chronies somewhat watchable. This was a feelgood match with Hiroyoshi Tenzan winning his first singles title in a decade, with him over-coming the nefarious tactics of his American opponent and his irritating (in a gloriously entertaining way) ringside manager. I've seen near enough 4 stars being bandied about for this match, but to me that praise is a little over the top, sure the closing stretch was heated and it was nice to see Tenzan get his feel good moment (especially as two years ago he looked as though he should seriously consider hanging up the boots, after a G-1 where he performed poorly and looked broken down beyond repair), but for much of the contest this was your typical Rob Conway two star special. *** 6. Kota Ibushi & Tetsuya Naito bt Kazushi Sakuraba & Toru Yano in 12:51 As expected this match was a mismatch of styles, but to their credit they managed to get a reasonably entertaining midcard tag out of it. The finish was quite clever, with Yano's trickery back-firing on him, when Naito was able to reverse a roll up attempt following a low blow. ** 1/2 7. 'CHAOS' Kazuchika Okada & Yoshi-Hashi bt 'Bullet Club' Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi in 9:55 Okada continues to send a message to Fale (though he's yet to truly get even with the Bullet Club enforcer) as Yujiro (who might be the most despised member of the NJPW roster in both a kayfabe and literal sense) ends up being Rainmakered! This match was a tell of two halves, deadly dull during the first half when the Bullet Club pair were working the heel control segment, much much better during the second hald when the Chaos duo got a foothold back into the match. ** 1/2 8. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Hirooki Goto & Katsuyori Shibata bt 'Bullet Club' Karl Anderson, Doc Gallows & Tama Tonga The Bullet Club trio all came out wearing KISS face paint- what wasn't surprising was that Tama Tonga ended up jobbing again. From a Kayfabe sense, it's a wonder why the Bullet Club continue to allow Tonga to run with them, given his extended levels of incompetence that are perhaps surpassed only by Captain New Japan. This actually ended up being a solid six man tag , with Shibata's triple corner drop-kick spot being the highlight of the match. At the end of the day this didn't necessarily surpass expectations but it certainly didn't come in below them either. *** 9. NEVER Openweight Championship: Tomohiro Ishii bt Tomoaki Honma This was one of those rare occasions, where an enforced change to the original plans ends up being of benefit, rather than detriment to the show. I'm sure Ishii would have had another solid outing with Makabe, but I doubt it would have matched up to the fantastic match he had against Honma here. From a booking standpoint, if doesn't make much sense- seeing that Honma loses 99% of his matches (the fact he is Makabe's friend is really clutching at straws) but what the hell when it results in a great match up like this who cares. As expected Ishii and Honma delivered the essence of fighting spirit match, you would expect them to deliver and more! Honma is perhaps the only perennial loser who can everyone in the arena and at home, believe in all of his nearfalls. In fact Honmamnia was running wild in Sendai, with the crowd solidly behind the ultimate underdog, despite Ishii being a cult favourite himself. Five stars and terms like Match of the Year are being bandied about for this match- whilst it was a fantastic match and certainly amongst the best of the year thus far, I don't quite think I can go full boat, as personally for me I still enjoyed Nakamura vs Ibushi from Wrestle Kingdom more. The minor niggle that just prevents me from joining the five star bandwagon is that there a few times during the match, where it slows down to a halt whilst they roll around the mat 'selling the pain' . Whether or not you think this match is deserving of five stars or like me, you think it just comes up short of it- this was still a bonafide MOTYC, and the best match across both of the New Beginning shows. **** 1/2 10. IWGP Intercontinental Championship: Shinsuke Nakamura bt Yuji Nagata They did a great hype video prior to the main event, showing Nagata with his wife and kids- the gist of the video was that Nagata was contemplating retirement after only being booked in the New Japan Rambo on the Wrestle Kingdom pre-show, but he's not ready to hang up the wrestling boots just yet and that he still has enough fire left in him to challenge for the gold! Even though I can't understand virtually a single of what is being said, New Japan always put together really great video packages for their main events, that help get you emotionally invested in the matches, this certainly succeeded in getting you behind Nagata as the grizzled veteran, proving that he still has some gas left in the tank. As for the match itself, much like the main event from Osaka, this ended up being a good match but slightly disappointing for the main event. Unlike Tanahashi-Styles the issue wasn't with chemistry (in fact Nakamura and Nagata have pretty good chemistry as opponents) but whilst it was refreshing to see Nakamura not have to spam multiple variations of the Boma-Ye, the finish felt anti-climatic. The NJPW fanbase are now so conditioned to people kicking out after just one Boma-Ye that they simply become puzzled, when Nakamura doesn't have to resort to stringing together several Boma-Ye's in a row to keep his opponent down. *** 1/2 Overall: Going in, Sendai looked to be the much weaker of the two cards, but overall ending up being the more enjoyable event, certainly the fact that the NJPW babyfaces managed to strike back here, and Bullet Club ended up having a bad night managed to wipe away some of the sour-taste that the Bullet Club domination in Osaka would have left in some people's mouths. Even if the rest of the show will end up being largely forgotten in the annuals of time, it still gave us a booked on the fly MOTYC out of nowhere with the Ishii vs Honma match for the vacant NEVER Openweight title.

Tigerkinney's opinions on NJPW New Beginning in Osaka * Spoilers Ahead- Skip over this post if you do not to know the results* Ok so I've decided to switch over to the traditional star rating system, just like everyone else to rate matches. Though I still think that 1/4 stars are a bit silly, so you're only going to see full or half stars from me, in terms of match rating. The Osaka card ended up getting changed as Togi Makabe was out with the flu- Satoshi Kojima got moved up the card to take his place in the Nakamura lead CHAOS team vs 'Team Nagata' six man tag, whilst Jay White got cut from the card and the six man tag that Kojima was also going to be in became a standard tag. 1. Sho Tanaka bt Yohei Komatsu in 5:38 I suppose that by officially being on a major card and not billed as a dark match, you could call this latest showdown between Komatsu and Tanaka their biggest showdown yet! They worked a decent 'young lion' match for the short time they were given, and it's clear both have a lot of potential. I would just like to see them push on now from constantly having young lions matches against one another. ** 2. Mascara Dorada & Tiger Mask bt Captain New Japan & Manabu Nakanishi in 5:03 This is one of those matches that got affected by Togi Makabe coming down with the flu, with Kojima moving up the card and Jay White being cut from the match- ending up with this lopsided all Junior vs all Heavyweight match. This is where the whole seniority + Heavyweight over Junior hiearchy becomes a bit grating at times in Japan. Mascara Dorada rightfully picks up the win, but it ends up looking like he got the win with a bit of a fluky pin over Captain Jobber of all people (It's not going to hurt the Captain if he loses more convicingly to Dorada- he's at rock bottom already). * 1/2 3. Chase Owens & Rob Conway bt Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Jushin Thunder Liger in 7:53 This whole NWA 'invasion' angle would be an even bigger steaming pile of horseshit if it wasn't for the stellar work of Bruce Tharpe as an old-school jerkass manager. The match itself was OK, with the NWA team or more specifically Chase Owens getting put over as a threat, after he pinned Liger following the Package Piledriver. ** 4. Kota Ibushi bt Tomoaki Honma in 12:15 After a sluggish start with three matches that can be best described as filler, the Osaka show finally kicked into gear with this singles match up between Ibushi and Honma. The set up of this match isn't as random as it first might appear, because if you cast your minds back to August of last year- Ibushi was originally supposed to be in the G-1, but was denied his spot when he suffered a concussion- and the man who took his place in that tournament was Honma. Both of these normally fight in the underdog role- Honma being a perennial one, whilst Ibushi has being doing the same as he makes the transition from Junior to Heavyweight. Ibushi worked as the favourite here, which was the right choice as it worked to Honma's over-riding strength as a big hearted under-dog, which allowed for the crowd to get behind Honma and his comebacks. In the end Ibushi rightfully went over to maintain his gradual push after an excellent match, that if given perhaps just a little more time could have turned into a genuine MOTYC. **** 5. IWGP Junior Tag Team Championship: The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson) bt reDRagon (Kyle O'Reilly & Bobby Fish) + The Time Splitters (KUSHIDA & Alex Shelley) in 13:31 So the Young Bucks regain the belts, in what would be a bit of fore-shadowing for the events to come. With Time Splitters being the team to take the loss here- the next logical step would be for the Bucks and reDRagon to face each other in a straight 2vs2 tag match. It goes without saying that you're either going to really like the fast-paced, spotty style of these Junior Tag matches or they are not going to be your cup of tea at all. I know there are plenty who fall into the latter camp but I'm not ashamed to say that I fall into the former camp. I wouldn't want a whole card full of these kind of matches, but for one match a show they are good fun. With Forever Hooligans eliminated from the match, they worked a slower more deliberate pace at the start but soon built up to the usual plethora of action packed spots. Even if you're not a fan of this style, you have to appreciate that these three teams have built up an incredible chemistry with one another and each match see's them come up with new and inventive spots that keep their matches fresh. The only real problem with these Junior tag contests is that the New Japan fans are conditioned not to pop (get excited) for these matches as much as they should. Put this match in front of an ROH/PWG or even a Dragon Gate crowd and you'll have people talking in MOTYC terms, as it is the lukewarm reception from the NJPW fanbase when it comes to these matches does put a slight dampener on things. **** 6. IWGP Junior Championship: Kenny Omega bt Ryusuke Taguchi in 13:58 Though it was the weakest of the title matches at Wrestle Kingdom, I still quite enjoyed the first Junior title match between Taguchi and Omega. But for the most part this was terrible, as Omega and Taguchi unfortunately went in to lame comedy mode, that included a whole bunch of spots based around jabbing each others anuses with a flagpole (due to the fact that Taguchi has been channeling Shiro Koshinaka of late and been using a lot of backside based offence). They picked it up a bit down the closing stretch and the match saw a clean decisive win for Omega, but it wasn't enough to save this match from being the worst Junior's title match in recent memory. Some feel this is the fault of Omega being in the Bullet Club and working 'The Cleaner' gimmick, but that's poppycock. Even if Omega was working as a babyface, he would still be trying to shoe-horn in his goofy comedy. There is a lot to like about Omega, he's an athletically gifted performer and an inventive wrestler and his comedy can be fun in the right promotion but in a mostly serious promotion like NJPW he needs to learn to reel that aspect in. * 1/2 Post match Omega and the Young Bucks beatdown Taguchi, giving him an Indy-Taker (Spike Piledriver) onto a chair.....Mascara Dorada and Alex Shelley then make the 'save' before Omega and Dorada have a staredown setting up Dorada as the next challenger for the Junior Championship. At the very least that's a fresh match up, but Omega really does need to done down the DDT/PWG goofball stuff. 7. Kazuchika Okada, Kazushi Sakuraba & Toru Yano vs 'Bullet Club': Bad Luck Fale, Yujiro Takahashi & Tama Tonga in 11:45 This match ended up mostly being Okada versus The World or more specifically Okada versus the Bullet Club, which ended up not being a bad way to go because the match probably would have been dragged down further if Yano or Sakuraba (who is only motivated for big singles matches against opponents he respects) played a more prominent role in the match. In the end this ended up being an OK match, with Okada being made to look strong again as he pretty much took down the Bullet Club trio by himself, resulting in Tonga doing what he does best and getting murdered by the Rainmaker. ** 1/2 8. Yuji Nagata, Tetsuya Naito & Satoshi Kojima bt 'CHAOS' Shinsuke Nakamura, Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI in 16:30 This was the other match that got changed due to Togi Makabe getting a sick note from his mother, with Kojima pulled from the meaningless match at the beginning of the card and put into this more prominent contest. Despite the talent in the ring, this ended up being a passable but pretty forgettable six man tag- it's the kind of match that probably would have gone down better on a 'Road To' card but here it just felt like filler to pass the time. The only truly memorable thing about the match was the Osaka crowd's continued irrational hatred of Naito. It's amusing, but it baffles me why Naito continues to get so much stick from Osaka in particular. ** 1/2 9. IWGP Tag Team Championship: 'Bullet Club' Guns & Gallows (Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows) bt Meiyu Tag (Hirooki Goto & Katsuyori Shibata) in 16:26 The result of this match had everyone up in arms, with Guns and Gallows winning the title's back, resulting in the popular Goto/Shibata tandem dropping the belts after only their first defence. I was a disappointed as everyone else initially to see Meiyu Tag drop the belts straight back to the Bullet Club team, whose year long reign with the belts last year was agonizingly dull. But I'm willing to see how this plays out before I cast complete judgement, as long as we don't get a repeat of last year when it comes to the tag division, then I'm fine with Guns and Gallows winning the belts back here and prolonging the feud with Goto and Shibata. In fact the Guns and Gallows vs Meiyu Tag matches have all been pretty good- not MOTYC's but they've built up a good chemistry against one another and have as strong formula down for their matches, so one more match between these two teams isn't going to be a terrible thing. I'm still not completely sold on Gallows (and I think he could be interchanged with practically any other big man gaijin) but he has improved and doesn't look completely out of place in an NJPW ring- at the end of the day he's developed into a solid tag partner for Anderson, but I wouldn't want to see any more of him beyond that (I certainly don't need to see Gallows in this years G-1) *** 1/2 10. IWGP Heavyweight Championship: A.J Styles bt Hiroshi Tanahashi in 26:08 Sometimes you can take two incredibly talented performers, but unfortunately the sum ends up lesser than the parts. As great as Styles and Tanahashi are in their own right, their matches end up being a tad disappointing due to having what some might term to be awkward chemistry with one another. The match began with a lot of 'slow build' but it was the sort of slow build, that felt like slow build for the sake of being slow build. The match ending up kicking up a notch, after Tanahashi accidentally butted heads with Matt Jackson, when he went for a high fly flow to the outside that took out all of the Bullet Club (who had all out come to support Styles- they did interfere at one point, but the interference was minimal and they were a non factor after this spot). Tanahashi ended up getting busted open- from that point on the match got better but I'm not really sure it had anything to do with that. Just seemed like they were probably about to kick into the more exciting portion of the match anyway- which saw a dramatic finish that teased Tanahashi giving Styles an avalanche Styles clash (a nice call back to the Styles vs Naito match at Wrestle Kingdom) but ultimately ending in Styles winning the battle and regaining the World Championship to cap off a dominant night for the Bullet Club. *** 1/2 Overall: Not a terrible show by any means, but a disappointing one by New Japan's standards, and the Bullet Club domination, feels like they've reset back to the same time last year. But I'm going to wait and see, before I whinge too much- at the end of the day people were saying the same thing this time last year that NJPW's booking was getting stale and that they were fed up of the Bullet Club. But by the end of the year Jado and Gedo got it right, resulting in a fantastic Wrestle Kingdom. Like it or not, as long as people keep buying Bullet Club merchandise (and that includes plenty of Japanese fans), they are here to stay. Another thing in BC's defence here, is that they won/defended the titles in a mostly clean manner. The interference and distractions are still there but they've been toned it down a lot compared to when they first come onto the scene and they no longer end up having a direct influence on the outcome of the matches.

So with NJPW's New Beginning shows in Osaka and Sendai happening this week, I thought I'd share my thoughts and predictions on what I expect from these up-coming New Japan shows...... New Beginning in Osaka 1. Sho Tanaka vs Yohei Komatsu I like both of these young lions and think they have a bright future ahead of them, but they really need to stop facing each other (this must be like their millionth match against one another). What I'm really hoping for these two, is that NJPW start to really get behind them as a Tag Team for the Junior division and hopefully by the end of the year pick up an upset win (or two) against one of the veteran teams. Complete coin toss who wins this match though- as their win/loss record against each other seems to be pretty even. 2. Mascara Dorada, Tiger Mask IV & Satoshi Kojima vs Jay White, Captain New Japan & Manabu Nakanishi The insignificant filler match of the night. The Kojima team are sure to win here, as the opposing team consists of a broken down old timer, a recently debuted young lion and a comedy wrestler who's made a career out of losing. 3. Jushin Thunder Liger & Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs Chase Owens & Rob Conway This match is basically there to preview the two NWA title matches that will take place at the Sendai show. This match has two stars written all over it, and could go either way with one of the 'challengers' on the Sendai show likely to pick up the win- though my bet would be on Tenzan being the winner here. 4. Tomoaki Honma vs Kota Ibushi If given enough time, this could be a show stealing match, but the result is in little doubt. Honma is a cult fan favourite, but his role (which he has perfected) is to be the plucky loser, where as Ibushi is in line for a strong push this year and will likely be a champion (whether that's for the Intercontinental, NEVER or even the IWGP Heavyweight remains to be seen) by the end of the year. 5. IWGP Junior Tag Team Championship: reDragon (Bobby Fish & Kyle O'Reilly) vs Young Bucks (Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson) vs Time Splitters (Alex Shelley & KUSHIDA) A repeat of the Tokyo Dome match (minus the weakest links- Forever Hooligans....I didn't dislike the Hooligans but compared to the other 3 teams, they were always a notch below). This won't necessarily be better than Wrestle Kingdom showdown but will likely be as good. Wouldn't surprise me if any of these three teams emerged with the titles, but I'm going to go out on a limb here , and say that Young Bucks regain the belts, pinning one of the Time Splitters. That way Bullet Club become dominant in the Junior Division, reDragon stay in the title hunt by not being pinned and this becomes the catalyst for the Time Splitters to receive stronger singles pushes for the rest of the year. 6. IWGP Junior Championship: Kenny Omega vs Ryusuke Taguchi A re-match from Wrestle Kingdom- Omega's only just won the belt, so I doubt he'll be dropping it straight back to Taguchi and with Bullet Club currently not dominating the heavyweight title picture, they need to be dominant somewhere else and right now that's going to be the Junior Division. More than likely this will be at the same level as their Wrestle Kingdom match, which wasn't a classic but I thought was pretty decent. Omega's been good fun as an obnoxious heel, and whilst I'm not the biggest fan of Taguchi he's a solid hand and nowhere near as bad, as some people irrationally make him out to be. 7. Kazuchika Okada, Toru Yano & Kazushi Sakuraba vs Bad Luck Fale, Yujiro Takahashi & Tama Tonga I can't see this match being good, in fact it might be pretty bad as Okada's the only 'great' in-ring talent in this match. Never know maybe they'll find ways to make this match entertaining and find a way to accentuate everyone's positives whilst hiding their negatives- if any promotion can do it, it's NJPW? The story here is that the big bad enforcer of the Bullet Club Fale currently has Okada's number. However as far as this six man goes, I'm going for Tonga doing what he does best. 8. Yuji Nagata, Togi Makabe & Tetsuya Naito vs Shinsuke Nakamura, Tomohiro Ishii & Yoshi-Hashi This one's previewing the Intercontinental and NEVER title matches for Sendai. On paper this looks to be considerably better than the preceding six man. Yoshi-Hashi's the weak link here, but he's not so bad these days that he'll drag down the match. My betting is that the wrestlers involved in the the title matches cancel each other out, leaving Yoshi-Hashi to do the job to Naito. 9. IWGP Tag Team Championship: Meiyu Tag (Hirooki Goto & Katsuyori Shibata) vs Guns & Gallows (Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows) Meiyu Tag only just won these belts from Guns & Gallows, ending the Bullet Club duos long but uneventful reign with the belts. This will be the third match in three months between these two teams, and though the previous two both ended up being decent (and this will likely be more of the same) this feud needs to be done after this show and Meiyu Tag retaining will bring a sense of finality to this story. 10. IWGP Heavyweight Championship: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs A.J Styles On paper this looks to be a great match, and the build has been incredibly well done from Styles post match attack and challenge of Tanahashi at the New Years Dash event, to Tanahashi bringing back the Styles Clash into his arsenal as a form of psychological warfare during the Road to events. There are plenty who feel that Styles could win the belt here (reasons being that NJPW still want to keep Bullet Club strong, this time round Styles is a lot more over and is now ready to be a champion in NJPW, they'll want him to be champion for the ROH cross promotion events in May). But whilst it wouldn't shock me if Styles won the belt back here, I don't think NJPW would want to hot-shot their main belt onto someone else and my feeling is that this is going to be a relatively long title reign for Tanahashi. ___________________________________________________________________________ New Beginning in Sendai 1. Captain New Japan, Manabu Nakanishi and Sho Tanaka vs. Satoshi Kojima, Tomoaki Honma and Yohei Komatsu So many 'jobbers' in one match! So many people that know how to lose. However I would say that Kojima stands above everyone else in this match (Nakanishi included), so I'm pretty sure he'll get the win, with either the Captain or Tanaka doing the job. 2. Non Title?: reDragon (Kyle O'Reilly & Bobby Fish) vs Mascara Dorada & Tiger Mask Whether or not this ends up being a non title match or whether reDragon will be ex champions by the time this show rolls around, is utterly irrelevant because there is no way that they are going to be losing to a makeshift team made up of a loan from CMLL and a past his sell by date veteran that has fallen into semi jobber/opening match fodder status. 3. Alex Shelley, KUSHIDA and Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Bullet Club (Kenny Omega, Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) Whilst I don't think the first two matches will be terrible, this should be a step above the first two matches- this could end up being really good (though to temper expectations it should be noted that Nick Jackson is working through an injury right now). Anyway my out on a limb prediction for this match is that KUSHIDA picks up the win here (possibly even pinning Omega) to put in motion the seeds for the next programme for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship. 4. NWA Junior Heavyweight Championship: Jushin Thunder Liger vs Chase Owens With Liger already calling out Tiger Mask to challenge him, I doubt that Owens will be winning the title back here (though it wouldn't be the first time a wrestling promotion has set something up just to immediately forget about it- NJPW themselves have even been guilty of this practice), plus I don't think they put the NWA Junior belt on Liger for him to have a cup of coffee with the title. The match itself will be O.K and Owens will either never be heard of again in NJPW or make a reappearance at this years Best of the Super Juniors. 5. NWA World Heavyweight Championship: Rob Conway vs Hiroyoshi Tenzan This will be the usual Rob Conway 2 star special, and I also think he'll retain here against Tenzan. This will either lead to this being the beginning of the NWA angle slowly being faded out or we will finally move on from Ten-Koji being the only one's who can challenge for this belt- or at least that's what I'm hoping for as Ten-Koji vs Bruce Tharpe and his goons has been done to death. 6. Kazushi Sakuraba and Toru Yano vs. Kota Ibushi and Tetsuya Naito Talk about a weird clash of styles- with one team consisting of a pair of flashy high flyers and the other team consisting of a semi-comedic wrestler with a penchant for heel tactics and a broken down former MMA star. Colour me shocked if the Ibushi/Naito team doesn't win here- because all the signs are there that Ibushi will be pushed to the moon this year. 7. Kazuchika Okada & Yoshi-Hashi vs Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi I was really hoping that at least one of these New Beginning shows would have had a singles match between Okada and Fale, rather than dragging this feud out. I have no problems with the idea for the feud (former champion want's to get on the road to recovery, but his first road block is the resident monster heel) but holding off on the singles match between these two just feels like dragging this feud out unnecessarily for at least another month- more than likely they will now be drawn together in the New Japan Cup next month. More than likely they'll hammer home the point that Fale currently has Okada's number, by having Okada falling victim to the Bad Luck Fall again- and this match won't be able to rise above mediocrity, despite the presence of Okada. 8. Bullet Club (Doc Gallows, Karl Anderson and Tama Tonga) vs. Hirooki Goto, Hiroshi Tanahashi and Katsuyori Shibata With Tama Tonga competing as part of the Bullet Club team, this looks like any old six man tag you might see on a 'Road To' show, but because it's on a PPV card, they probably will step ut up a bit here and this will be surprisingly decent. The match would have been better and less predictable, if the managed to convince A.J Styles to stick around in Japan for the Sendai show, as I can't see anything beyond Tama Tonga fulfilling his duties as Designated Jobber. 9. NEVER Openweight Championship: Togi Makabe vs Tomohiro Ishii Despite this being Makabe's first defence with the NEVER belt, it wouldn't shock me in the slightest if Ishii wins the belt back here (if he was going to bother to get his injuries heeled up he would have done so by now). Expect a carbon copy repeat of their Wrestle Kingdom match, which isn't a bad thing, but it won't exactly be surprising. 10. IWGP Intercontinental Championship: Shinsuke Nakamura vs Yuji Nagata This match could be really good, and I have faith in Nakamura 'saving' what looks on paper to be a sub-par 'PPV' card. Nagata can still bring it when he's motivated, and is someone who has the credentials to believably dethrone Nakamura for the belt- plus this could be a way to transition Nakamura into challenging once again for the IWGP Heavyweight title. I still think Nakamura will retain, but it wouldn't completely shock me if Nagata adds the Intercontinental belt to his list of achievements inside an NJPW ring.

Some more NJPW classics from the NPJW World archive.... 1991 Content for 1991 is unfortunately very sketchy on NJPW World, so I'll probably end up recommending most of what is there (1990 honestly had more posted up!). 21 March 1991- NJPW/WCW Starrcade in Tokyo Dome IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship: Jushin Thunder Liger vs AKIRA Liger's most iconic outfit is of course the Red and White version, but often for bigger shows he would rock a different variation- and here he is sporting a rather swanky Green and Gold version. As for the match itself, is it worth watching for more than Liger's cool outfit? It's not a classic but it's a pretty solid match, personally I prefer a bit more flash from my Junior's matches (very few highspots in this one) but they tell a solid story here with AKIRA using a strategy to work over Liger's legs and they stick with it, with Liger's selling being exceptionally good here. At times sticking so fervently to the story they were telling does lead to the match being a bit dull in places (imo) but I can appreciate what they were trying for here and the finishing sequence is still quite exciting, even if the near-falls are mostly comprised of roll up variations. IWGP Tag Team Championship: Hiroshi Hase & Kensuke Sasaki vs Steiner Brothers (Rick Steiner & Scott Steiner) This match is a really well executed formula tag. Hase works the bulk of the match for the babyface champions, playing Ricky Morton and leaving the Tokyo Dome crowd in desperate anticipation of when he will be finally make the hot tag to the young powerhouse Kensuke Sasaki. When that hot tag does come, the crowd explodes in delight before a thrilling back and forth ending sequence caps off an entertaining tag team contest. El Gigante vs Big Cat Hughes This one's more of a 'Wrestlecrap' recommendation, than a serious one.... What do you get when you put a circus freak giant with zero wrestling talent in against another talentless big man? Well no revelations here because this delivered exactly to it's extremely low expectations. Proof positive that even Puroresu promotions aren't imune to delivering pure manure. The Great Muta vs Sting This match obviously built off their previous encounters in WCW, in the fact that whatever either man went for nothing seemed to be working for them. Interestingly here the Japanese crowd are more behind Sting, doing the right thing in booing Muta, whenever he tried to gain an advantage through nefarious means, though Sting came off as a bit of jerk in the post match angle. A little too rushed to be considered a classic (this got around 10 minutes) but this was a well planned match between two wrestlers that clearly had excellent chemistry with one another. IWGP Heavyweight Championship/NWA World Heavyweight Championship: Tatsumi Fujinami vs Ric Flair The match itself is quite disappointing, but it's still quite interesting to see Flair perform in front of the Tokyo Dome. Despite both being solid technical wrestlers, Flair and Fujinami don't mesh together all that well and the match is one of those slow paced matches that goes long for the sake of going long, even Flair getting busted open during an outside brawl fails to lift a match, that whilst not terrible, doesn't live up to expectations. 30th June 1991- NJPW Explosion Tour (Tokyo- Ryogoku Kokukigan) Top of the Super Juniors Final/IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship: Jushin Thunder Liger vs Norio Honaga This match was for both the Top of the Super Juniors trophy and the vacant Junior Heavyweight Championship (Liger vacated the title prior to the tournament). Like so many of Liger's big matches, this one starts off a little slow with the usual technical mat based exchanges, however it kicks up a notch when Honaga as the dirty heel goes after Liger's Mask. This appeared to the formula of the day for Liger vs heel matches in the early nineties. Anyway as cheap and as predictable as that is, it gets the crowd and Liger riled up and the match builds towards a exciting climax, where both Liger's and Honaga's nearfalls have the crowd on the edge of their seat. Liger in his prime was simply a joy to watch, and was one of those wrestlers who made both himself and his opponent look great. 11th August 1991- NJPW Violent Storm in Kokukigan (Tokyo- Ryogoku Kokukigan) G1 Climax Finals: Masahiro Chono vs Keiji Muto This match was to crown the inaugral winner of what has become an annual tradition for New Japan the G1 Climax tournament. NJPW had held similar tournaments in the past, but this was the first under the G1 Climax banner. This match goes for around half an hour, but it doesn't ever feel overlong or plodding- there is little in the way of a feeling out process and though the middle portion features plenty of matwork/submission exchanges they never feel dull. The super hot crowd throughout certainly adds to the drama and importance of the match and whilst I wouldn't say this is a bonafide five star match, it's certainly very good. I would have loved to have seen the Chono vs Hashimoto decision match on here from earlier on the card that the finals took place, but sadly it's not on NJPW World at the moment. 1992 4th January 1992- NJPW/WCW Starrcade 1992 in Tokyo Dome Black Cat vs Hiroyoshi Yamamoto The late Black Cat (Victor Mar Manuel) was Mexican wrestler that spent much of his career in Japan and was an established veteran when this match took place, whilst Yamamoto is the future Hiroyoshi Tenzan. This is surprisingly competitive stuff (as Yamamoto/Tenzan was only a year into his career). Not only is it interesting to see Tenzan before he got inflicted with having to sport the same terrible hairstyle for the rest of his career, this is genuinely a good contest. Antonio Inoki vs Hiroshi Hase Inoki was in truth past his peak at this stage, but was still being booked like a God and he was still capable of having good matches with the right opponent (or more to the point concentrated on having pro wrestling matches, instead of shitty faux MMA bouts), whilst Hase was a rising babyface on the fringes of the main event scene. This ended up being a really solid match, with Inoki playing subtle heel as the grumpy veteran determined to keep the rising star looking to step up to the next level in his place. The Great Muta & Sting vs The Steiner Brothers (Rick Steiner & Scott Steiner) Muta and Sting must have set aside their differences at this point, to form this 'superteam' against the Steiners. Whilst I wouldn't call this a classic, this was still a good evenly contested match, with the Steiners showcasing the outstanding double teams and killer suplexes they were noted for. This was by far and away the best of the matches on this card with WCW representation, as everything else was either mediocre (Chono vs Luger) or flat out terrible (Vader vs El Gigante). 26th June 1992- Masters of Wrestling Tour/TV Taping (Tokyo- Nippon Budokan) IWGP Tag Team Championship: Big Van Vader & Crusher Bam Bam Bigelow vs The Steiner Brothers (Rick Steiner & Scott Steiner) A match up between two all gaijin oufits over the IWGP Tag Team titles- the acrofatic duo of Vader and Bigelow defending the titles against the technique and power of The Steiners. There's a spot around the mid point of the match where Scott Steiner falls hard off the top rope (not sure if this was a botch or by design) but it proves to be a real turning point in the match, that leads to Bigelow and Vader dominating most of the match from that point on, because prior to that the Steiners were in control and were actually man handling their larger opponents. The finish which involves a ref bump is a little hokey, but the match remains an entertaining watch. 31st July 1992- Summer Struggle Tour/ TV Taping (Sapporo) Masahiro Chono vs Shiro Koshinaka Koshinaka was an established presence in the NJPW midcard but far from being a main eventer (If he was a part of todays NJPW he'd most likely be competing for the NEVER Openweight title). Most noted for is love of using hip attacks, he had just come off a violent feud with a Karate Dojo fighting alongside veteran junior Kuniaki Kobayashi. The crowd are fully behind the underdog Koshinaka, as Chono is in full dick/bully heel mode here- with the match taking a violent turn when Chono repeatedly sends Koshinaka into the ring post out on the floor- this inevitaly leads to a 'crimson mask' for Koshinaka but instead of wilting under the sight of his own blood, this seems to spur Koshinaka on, who puts on a superhuman effort to try and get the better of Chono. You don't need 'colour' to have a good match,but this was certainly one where the violent turning point helps take the contest up a few notches. 12th August 1992- G1 Climax Tour/TV Taping (Tokyo- Ryogoku Kokukigan) G1 Climax Finals/NWA World Heavyweight Championship: Masahiro Chono vs Rick Rude The 1992 G1 was a 16 man single elimination tournament that was also for the vacant NWA World Heavyweight Championship. This match presented a clash of styles with Chono's variation on New Japan's Strong Style up against the American Sports Entertainment based wrestling of Rick Rude. They obviously wanted to go long here but in order to do so they do a lot of matwork/restholds during the middle portion of the match, whilst Rude also works the crowd with his posturing heel gimmick. So unfortunately the match does drag in places. However the closing stretch is pretty good, helped a long by a rabid Tokyo crowd, desperate for the native hero to overcome the arrogant gaijin. If this had ten minutes shaved off this could have been a great match, as it is it ends up being a pretty good one but it takes a while to get going. 23rd September 1992- Battle Autumn 1992 Tour/TV Taping (Yokohama) NWA World Heavyweight Championship: Masahiro Chono vs Steve Austin A chance to witness Steve Austin, before he became a megastar in WWF with the Stone Cold gimmick. Austin in his younger days was actually a technically sound wrestler, and he probably still was when he switched to the Stone Cold gimmick. Of course part of why Austin switched to a more simplistic style later in his career, was due to the fact he was never the same worker (in-ring wise) after he suffered a botched piledriver from the late Owen Hart. This match is odd- it's technically solid but the crowd are dead, one of the deadest crowds ever! (Even if you put Nakamura vs Ibushi from Wrestle Kingdom 9, there would still be more life in a mortuary than this lot). It's just really weird watching Austin be a heat vacuum, rather than the crowd being rabidly into everything he does. Another thing to note, is that though Austin was generally technically sound for most of the match, he hit's a rather sloppy looking piledriver on Chono- Apparently Chono had his neck buggered up taking the Piledriver and he was never the same worker after that and had to switch to a more slower paced/brawling based style of wrestling- just as Austin was forced to do 5 years later when he suffered the same fate.

<blockquote data-ipsquote="" class="ipsQuote" data-ipsquote-username="Nathers7" data-cite="Nathers7" data-ipsquote-contentapp="forums" data-ipsquote-contenttype="forums" data-ipsquote-contentid="30254" data-ipsquote-contentclass="forums_Topic"><div>Watched this card not that long ago. All of it is great, the inter-promotional tags are very good, crowd is super hot throughout. You summed it up well, the incident in the Vader-Hansen match is UGLY, Vader's eye practically falls out. Zbysko-Saito is surprisingly great. <p> </p><p> I don't have New Japan World so have no idea if this is on there but this is also worth watching. Have it only behind Liger/Sano from New Japan that year:</p><p> </p><p> Riki Choshu, Kantaro Hoshino, Kuniaki Kobayashi, Kensuke Sasaki & Shiro Koshinaka vs Animal Hamaguchi, Super Strong Machine, Tarzan Goto, Hiro Saito & Masanobu Kurisu (26th June 1990)</p><p> </p><p> Great post though. Are you going through every year from 1990?</p></div></blockquote><p> </p><p> Unfortunately quite a few of the shows only have select matches (for instance the interpromotional NJPW vs AJPW tags are missing from the Super Fight in Tokyo Dome show), but I'm going to do my best to recommend the best or most interesting stuff from what is there. </p><p> </p><p> In that sense NJPW world isn't perfect, but for me it's still well worth getting as I can follow the current product with ease and despite stuff being missing, there is still a hell of a lot of classic content. </p><p> </p><p> The intention is to do every year up to 2011, though of course I'll be taking breaks in the project- if I consume all this old New Japan stuff all at once, I won't have time for anything else/I'll get burnt out on it. <img alt=":p" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/tongue.png.ceb643b2956793497cef30b0e944be28.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" /></p><p> </p><p> Going to do up to 2011, because 2012 is when Okada returned to NJPW with the Rainmaker gimmick, and when I feel the current era of NJPW started, which also coincides with Bushiroad buying out NJPW from Yukes.</p>

<p>Part of a fun project I'm starting up- I'm looking at different years from NJPW on NJPW World and will give my recommendations (which will be matches I think are either good matches to seek out or one's that are interesting).</p><p> </p><p> So without further ado, I bring you Tigerkinney's NJPW World Recommendations for 1990: </p><p> </p><p> <span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>31st Jan 1990- TV Taping (Osaka) </strong></span></p><p> </p><p> <strong>IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship: Naoki Sano vs Jushin Thunder Liger </strong></p><p> </p><p> Really intense Juniors match, Sano is fantastic as a dick heel ripping away at Liger's Mask. Liger is of course fantastic here too, fighting back with an emotional fire over his beloved mask being torn apart. The post match angle is great too, with Liger really losing his shit post match over Sano's mask abuse. </p><p> </p><p> <span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>10th Feb 1990- Super Fight in Tokyo Dome </strong></span></p><p> </p><p> <strong>Akira Nogami & Jushin Thunder Liger vs Naoki Sano & Pegasus Kid</strong></p><p> </p><p> Be forewarned that the match does feature Chris Benoit under a mask, considering the infamy of Benoit's departure from this world- I would fully understand why people would want to skip this match- I did dice over it myself, but as the years have passed I have managed to separate to a certain degree, Benoit the person from Benoit the wrestler. The fact he is working under a mask here, probably helps in that regard. </p><p> </p><p> As for the match itself, it only goes for about 9 minutes, but they pack a hell of a lot of action into the match. This match is practically an early incarnation of those IWGP Junior Tag spotfests, and though those feel a bit cliche now, at the time this match must have felt very fresh. Plus for once the Tokyo Dome crowd (who are usually quite nonchalant towards Junior Division matches) are losing their shit for a match featuring Junior Heavyweights, but again that probably has to to do with the fact with the spots and pace of the action at the time felt fresh and original to them. </p><p> </p><p> <strong>AWA World Heavyweight Championship: Larry Zbyszko vs Masa Saito</strong></p><p> </p><p> This one begins a bit slow but gets really good at the end and they have the Tokyo Dome Crowd fully invested into the match by the finish. This one follows the native hero vs dirty gaijin formula, with Saito dominating most of the match but Zbyszko able to just about keep a foothold in the match with a string of desperate heel tactics. </p><p> </p><p> <strong>IWGP Heavyweight Championship: Big Van Vader vs Stan Hansen</strong></p><p> </p><p> What happens when two of the most respected gaijin badasses in history collide. You get an ugly slugfest, so hard hitting that Vader spends almost the entire match with one eye closed due to being punched in the face so hard by Hansen. There's nothing pretty about this match and it's more 'bar-room brawl' than a wrestling contest but as literal slobberknockers go, it's as stiff and as real as an 'arranged' fight can get. </p><p> </p><p> <span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>2nd March 1990- Big Fight Series (Tokyo, Korakuen Hall)</strong></span></p><p> </p><p> <strong>Crusher Bam Bam Bigelow & Punisher Dice Morgan vs Shinya Hashimoto & Masa Saito</strong></p><p> </p><p> Not really a great match, it's just a run of the mill tag match (not bad, not great either, distinctly average) but for those curious to see a pre Undertaker Mark Callaway, then here is your opportunity to do so. </p><p> </p><p> <span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>27 April 1990- TV Taping (Tokyo Bay NK Hall, Uruyasu)</strong></span></p><p> </p><p> <strong>IWGP Tag Team Championship: Shinya Hashimoto & Masa Saito vs Masahiro Chono & Keiji Muto</strong></p><p> </p><p> This match features the 'Three Musketeers' (Hashimoto, Chono & Muto) the three men that would go on to be the 'aces' of New Japan during the rest of the decade. Whilst the match isn't a five star classic it's still a good <em>(4 stars level) </em>back and forth contest that leads to an exciting finish with a fully invested crowd. </p><p> </p><p> <span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>24 May 1990- TV Taping (Tokyo Bay NK Hall, Uruyasu)</strong></span></p><p><span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong> </strong></span></p><p> <strong>Shinya Hashimoto, Masa Saito & Koji Kitao vs Big Van Vader, Crusher Bam Bam Bigelow & Steve Williams</strong></p><p> </p><p> More entertaining, than absolutely fantastic, due to the fact that one of these wrestlers just doesn't belong with the rest of the talent in the ring- that's because Koji Kitao sucks something fierce and the crowd really let him know it. Heck even his tag partners think he sucks, completely ignoring him for the rest of the match <em>(after he's done one stint in the ring)</em>. Despite the presence of Shitao the other five manage to construct a pretty good match, and watching Shitao get frustrated about not being tagged in and getting 'X-Pac heat' from the crowd makes this match a thoroughly entertaining watch. </p><p> </p><p> <span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>12th June 1990- TV Taping (Fukuoka)</strong></span></p><p> </p><p> <strong>'Different Style Match: Jushin Thunder Liger vs Masashi Aoyogi</strong></p><p> </p><p> This is Liger engaging in a 'Different Style' match with some Karate dude. Basically it's just a faux MMA match divided into round. This actually turned out to be better than I expected it to be with the angle of Liger having to abandoning his mask half way through the contest because it got damaged- adding to the match....because that leads to one of my favourite sights in all of wrestling 'Pissed off Liger' who in his rage ends up bloodying Aoyogi. Also if you want to get a clear look at what Liger looks like under the mask<em> (well at least what he looked like when he was in his prime)</em>, then this is the match to see. </p><p> </p><p> <span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>19th August 1990- TV Taping (Tokyo- Ryogoku Kokikugan)</strong></span></p><p> </p><p> <strong>IWGP Heavyweight Championship: Big Van Vader vs Riki Choshu</strong></p><p> </p><p> This one's all about whether or not Choshu can withstand the dominance of Vader and string together enough offence to take the big man down. Not a classic by any means, but enjoyable for what it was and the hot crowd helps to keep you invested in the match. </p><p> </p><p> <span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>14th September 1990- TV Taping (Hiroshima)</strong></span></p><p> </p><p> <strong>The Great Muta vs Hiroshi Hase</strong></p><p> </p><p> This match is most definitely not family viewing, if you're even the slightest bit squeamish then you'll probably want to give this one a miss. Hase gets busted open fairly early in the match, and he gets busted open bad, real bad. So bad in fact, it's a miracle he's able to stand yet alone string together enough offence to actually be a competitive factor in this match, but as it wears on Hase fights back like a man with nothing to lose, causing Keiji Mutoh's sinister alter-ego to become even more desperate in his attempt to fend off the challenge from the determined babyface. </p><p> </p><p> <span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>1st November 1990- TV Taping (Tokyo- Nippon Budokan)</strong></span></p><p> </p><p> <strong>IWGP Tag Team Championship: Keiji Muto & Masahiro Chono vs Hiroshi Hase & Kensuke Sasaki</strong></p><p> </p><p> The crowd are fully behind the challengers here, especially when Hase is in against Muto. Anyway the match slowly simmers along with the champions controlling the early portion of the match, but then that simmer gradually gets hotter and hotter, leading to a red hot finishing sequence of breath taking near falls. Fantastic tag team match- if there is absolutely one NJPW match to see from 1990- then this is the one.</p>

It all makes sense now why he was the one to be jobbed out two nights in a row. Koslov injured his shoulder pretty badly during the Best of the Super Juniors tournament in June, and he started to gain the weight since then- a sign that he's not been able to workout and get back in shape properly. Sounds to me that he isn't completely done with wrestling, but will only return to it when he's physically and mentally back in shape to do so. Just where this leaves his now former tag partner Rocky Romero, we will have to wait and see.