Cero Reviews NJPW Power Struggle 2021

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Cero Reviews NJPW Power Struggle 2021

Post by cero2k » Nov 8th, '21, 21:13

NJPW Power Struggle 2021
November 6, 2021
EDION Arena Osaka, Osaka, Japan

Kosei Fujita & Ryohei Oiwa vs. Suzuki-gun (DOUKI & Yoshinobu Kanemaru) - 6/10
Good showing for Fujita and Oiwa, they got a couple of good spots in, but beyond that, it was a night off for DOUKI and Kanemaru.

Great Bash Heel (Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma) & Tiger Mask vs. BULLET CLUB (Gedo, Jado & Tanga Loa) - 5.5/10
2021 and a diverticulitis recovered Tiger Mask and Gedo are in there doing lucha spots and looking really good. The match wasn't long or great per say, but as a tool to show off Loa a bit and probably bring back G.B.H. headed towards the tag league. Loa got the win with Apeshit on Honma.

Master Wato, Ryusuke Taguchi & Yuji Nagata vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi & SANADA) - 7/10
We're still a bit away from the Jr. tag league, but they've been building Taguchi/Wato as a team, and for that matter, Hiromu and Taguchi have had a weird rivalry about who has the better Mongolian chop. The match itself was great, everyone was on their game, and while Nagata and SANADA were mostly there for the spots and the finish, they all worked great together.

NEVER Openweight Six Man Tag Team Championship Match
CHAOS (Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI) (c) vs. House Of Torture (EVIL, SHO & Yujiro Takahashi) (w/Dick Togo) - 7.5/10
This obviously had all the problems of a House of Torture match, especially one when they end up getting the win via Everything is EVIL, but having said that, this match was actually great up until the end. It was somewhat similar to how HOT got the title shot to begin with, but better developed. SHO has antagonized his former CHAOS bros lately, so they built up some good action with SHO cutting off Goto and leading to Ishii's hot tag. The pace and intensity had been pretty good until the end when Togo pulled the referee out of the ring to cut off a pin, followed by low blows and EVIL ending YH for the win.

CHAOS did amazingly during their title run, it was the best reign that title has had since I can remember, maybe since the Bucks and Omega feuded with Sydal, Ricochet, and Kojima. The positive thing here is that it will keep the House of Torture doing trios matches, and most importantly, EVIL and Togo will focus on trios matches earlier in the cards.

Post-match - House of Torture beat up CHAOS, cut down a CHAOS towel, and as SHO was about to take out Goto with a wrench, YOH made his return, and run off HOT. If anything else, YOH looked good.

Amateur Wrestling Rules Point Explanation - Yuji Nagata (official match judge) and the young lions gave a demonstration on how the point system in an Amateur Wrestling match works for the audience. It will be a two 3-minute periods bout.

NJPW King Of Pro-Wrestling Trophy Amateur Wrestling Rules Match
Toru Yano (c) (w/Ryohei Oiwa) vs. Great-O-Khan (w/Aaron Henare) - 7/10
O-Khan came out wearing an amateur wrestling singlet, seconded by the returning Henare. YTR also wore a wrestling singlet and had to drag a YL as a second.

This was legitimately an amateur wrestling match, worked, but both guys played their parts perfectly, both guys had some pretty good take downs and grappling work. First round ended with a 4-1 in favor or O-Khan. Yano brought it back on the second round, with a beautiful takedown towards the end, and ended 5-6 in favor of Yano.

Post-match - United Empire jumped Yano, ending with an Eliminator. At that point, Nagata had to interfere to get the UE off Yano.

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship Match
Robbie Eagles (c) vs. El Desperado - 8.5/10
This was similar to their previous title match, with both guys working on each other's legs, trading control back and forth, and building to that ending sequences were Despy keeps going for Numero Dos, but Eagles keeps reversing. Eagles did really good at pulling off offense with an injured leg, considering he's a high flyer, but at the end, Despy's submission work was too much for Eagles and he tapped out.

This was a really good match, I think I liked it more than their Grand Slam match, but I still can't get invested in Eagles, he's just like so meh, another white dude that jumps a lot.

IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship Match
Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs. KENTA - 7.5/10
Most of that rating goes to the second half of the match, I had a hard time getting into this match, it literally took Tanahashi hitting a High Fly Flow through a table on the floor for me to start popping for near falls. The first half of the match was mostly KENTA stalling, dodging, hit and runs; while Tanahashi did his selling. It all built to a table outside the ring where KENTA tried to foot stomp Tana, but things turned around and Tana ended up hitting a HFF. From there on, it was near falls in the ring, Tana got the Fujinami arsenal in, KENTA chased the GTS and the Busaiku Knee. Finish of the match came down to KENTA countering a third HFF, ramming Tana into an exposed corner and trying to hit the GTS every time, eventually landing it on the third attempt.

KENTA capturing the title is interesting. Tanahashi had promised to go back to the US and defend the title, but this kinda tells me that he won't be going back for a while, but it will be KENTA that may head back to STRONG for a couple of defenses.

IWGP World Heavyweight Championship #1 Contendership Match
Kazuchika Okada vs. Tama Tonga (w/Jado) - 8.75/10
This was really good, but there were a couple of minutes in the middle that things slowed down a lot that it felt like time padding. Beyond that, I thought the match was really good. The biggest issue with this match, and the upcoming main event, is that you knew there was no way Tama Tonga was winning, so you appreciate the wrestling, the counters, the action, but at no point did I pop for a near fall, or I felt like Okada was losing control.

The match itself did a decent job building from their G1 match, trying to build tension with how Tama overcame Okada back then, but it also portrayed an Okada that was ready for many of those situations. Something that we've seen with Okada since the G1 is that part of this storytelling has added a part after the Rainmaker pose where he sometimes loses control of the match, and while he did have some spots were Tonga started to counter and creep in more and more, Okada ended up winning quite decisively with a Rainmaker.

I did think that Tama Tonga looked fantastic, while he didn't look like a champion yet, he looked like someone that can be built into a secondary singles champion easily.

Post-match - Before he left, Tama and Okada had a little staredown of acknowledgement. I still think the Bullet Club babyface turn is imminent.

IWGP World Heavyweight Championship Match
Shingo Takagi (c) vs. Zack Sabre Jr. - 9/10
Great match, but like I mentioned on the previous match, it suffered from having a pair up that made the finish predicable. Nonetheless, the action was really good and they built a couple of near falls that popped the crowd live.

The match was well paced, but I'd say it was more of a Shingo match, with Sabre doing a bit more striking than his submission heavy matches. Sabre focused on Shingo's bombing arm. The match built up to Sabre getting the armbars that tapped out Shingo during the G1, but unfortunately for Sabre, this time, Shingo fell into the ropes and so he had to drop the armbar. They got a good near fall with the Zack Driver, but Shingo kicked out and minutes later hit the Last of the Dragons for the win.

Post-match - Okada came out and made it official, he's challenging Shingo for his title at Wrestle Kingdom and is ready to take over as champion and lead the company. Shingo accepted to see who the best champion.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
Really good show from NJPW, they're back to 9 match cards and while most of the show went on fast, I did feel it towards the last two. Usually around this time of the year, these big shows tend to suffer from having predictable main events, but I thought the rest of the card did a good job at giving us title changes.
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