BRM Reviews the NJPW Manabu Nakanishi Retirement Event

[Big Red Machine]

NJPW Manabu Nakanishi Retirement Event (2/22/2020)- Tokyo, Japan


YOTA TSUJI & YUYA UEMURA vs. TIGER MASK IV & GABRIEL KIDD- 4.75/10

COLT CABANA, ROCKY ROMERO, RYUSUKE TAGUCHI, & TORU YANO vs. SUZUKI-GUN (Minoru Suzuki, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, El Desperado, & Taichi)- DUD!
Suzuki-Gun jump the bell on their opponents. This was a combination of the usual bullsh*t on the outside with no enforcement of the rules, plus every spot from every Taguchi vs. Suzuki-Gun match we’ve seen over the past few years, plus every spot you’ve seen in every Yano vs. Suzuki-Gun match over the past few years.

ROPPONGI 3K & TOA HENARE vs. LOS INGOBERNABLES DE JAPON (Hiromu Takahashi, Sanada, & BUSHI)- 6/10
Stuff happened. Hiromu and BUSHI have a tag team finisher now, so that’s cool.

TOGI MAKABE, TOMOAKI HONMA, & FINJUICE vs. BULLET CLUB (Guerrillas of Destiny, Bad Luck Fale, & Jay White)- 6.5/10

CHAOS (Tomohiro Ishii, Will Ospreay, & YOSHI-HASHI) vs. LOS INGOBERNABLES DE JAPON (Tetusya Naito, Shingo Takagi, & EVIL)- 7/10
Lots of fun action.

MANABU NAKANISHI TRIBUTE VIDEO- perfect for what it was

MANABU NAKANISHI, SATOSHI KOJIMA, HIROYOSHI TENZAN, & YUJI NAGATA vs. KOTA IBUSHI, HIROSHI TANAHASHI, & CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada & Hirooki Goto)- 7/10
Some of the world’s top workers give Old Man Nakanishi one last worthy outing. It was fun seeing Nakanishi get his sh*t in one last time. I anticipate seeing this sort of match for Tenzan around this time next year, seeing as how NJPW has established this as the “retirement time” over the past two years (Iizuaka last year, and now Hattori and Nakanishi this year).

MANABU NAKANISHI RETIREMENT CEREMONY- very nice


This was a fine little show from NJPW, and very good for what it was supposed to be. Both the Nakanishi ceremony and video were great, but getting to see the man of the hour do his stuff and look like a good worker one last time was the real treat.