Cero Reviews NJPW Battle in the Valley 2021

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cero2k
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Cero Reviews NJPW Battle in the Valley 2021

Post by cero2k » Nov 15th, '21, 18:51

NJPW Battle of the Valley 2021
November 14, 2021
San Jose, CA

Josh Alexander vs. Yuya Uemura - 6.5/10
This was really good, but it was planned out like a pre-excursion Young Lion match, so I did think Uemura could had done more damage to Alexander, who is a really underrated seller. Alexander mostly focused on Germans and going after the ankle lock, while Uemura kept going for the arm. Alexander won with a wrapped ankle lock, while he kicked Uemura in the back.

VLNCE UNLTD (Brody King & Chris Dickinson) vs. Stray Dog Army (BATEMAN & Misterioso) - No Rating
Not rating this match since we had the unfortunate accident where Dickinson hit a frog splash and literally dislocated his whole leg and broke off a bit of the pelvis, and thus wasn't able to continue. The match up to that point had been good and at 10 minutes, I think they still had about two more minutes to set up some near falls and the ending sequence, probably pushing the quality of the match up a bit. If you look at the spot, Dickinson definitely has a bad landing, he got sideways mid-air with the leg bent, and surely the impact snapped the leg out of position. King and Misterioso did some spots outside the ring while the referee checked on Dickinson, but less than a minute in, Bateman pinned Dickinson to end it all. Up to what we got from the match, it had mostly been SDA working over Dickinson until King for the hot tag, and it was here that Dickinson hit the frog splash. Unfortunate for Dickinson, it feels like it's the second time that he is about to make an impact and he gets sidelined.

This may had been the first time I've seen King face off against his OG Violence Unlimited tag partner.

I loved that for the first 5 minutes of the match, commentary just kept teaching each other how to say Misterioso.

Alex Coughlin, Alex Zayne, David Finlay, Fred Rosser & Rocky Romero vs. Team Filthy (Danny Limelight, Jorel Nelson, JR Kratos, Royce Isaacs & Tom Lawlor) - 8.5/10
This match is pretty much the final stop before the Lawlor vs Rosser title match, everything happening in this match is about their rivalry. Rosser came out with a shaved head after Lawlor cut his hair a couple of shows ago.

The first couple of minutes felt like a lumberjack match, with Rosser and Lawlor brawling all over the place and their teams only getting involved when they would land on either side of the ring.

Later on, the match started showcasing the rest of the participants and the match somewhat became a crowd pleasing spot fest, but in a good way, with so many people, you don't have enough time to feature them all with long sequences, but they were smart to pick and choose the spots to get in. Finish saw Rosser get the pin over Isaacs. After this match, I'm mostly convinced that it's Rosser's time to win the title.

Kratos and Coughlin stole the match, they were the best in there. Their sequence towards the end with Coughlin deadlift slamming Kratos was awesome.

Clark Connors & Karl Fredericks vs. The United Empire (Jeff Cobb & TJP) - 7/10
This was a great and fun match, and even with Fredericks and Connors getting the win, this was without a doubt, the Cobb and TJP show. They dominated the babyface in peril sequence, overcame the hot tag, and regained control again. Fredericks and Connors had a couple of good spots towards the end, but nothing strong enough to take out either UE member.

Finish itself was a cheat from Cobb and TJP, poking Connor's eyes, but it backfired when Fredericks rolled the casita on TJP's shoulders and Connors got the win.

Will Ospreay vs. Ren Narita - 8.5/10
Ospreay came out with the IWGP World title he claims is the real one, and the two unified RevPro titles he got after defeating Ricky Knight back in September. While not official, Ospreay forced referee Justin to hold the IWGP title up as if this was a legit title defense.

This match was really good, in a way, it was the level of competition I wanted to see with Alexander and Uemura, but understandably, Narita is far ahead in his training and he has become little Shibata, with his own twist to it. He didn't take Ospreay to the limit, Ospreay won with a Hidden Blade, but Narita still managed to dodge one Hidden Blade and escape and kickout from an Os Cutter, plus he got some good near falls.

Juice Robinson vs. Moose - 8.5/10
Second major NJPW Strong show that Moose steals the night, the match per say wasn't amazing, but Moose's performance was, especially after that scary spot where Juice hit a lariat and brought Moose down on his neck, and the followed by a dazed top rope Spanish Fly where Moose also took a bad landing.

As is usual for Moose, he was a total powerhouse, he was dominant even when Juice built momentum and brought him down, at one point kicking out of Pulp Friction. Finish came after that scary Spanish Fly, Moose did a kip-up, hit the Lights Out, and got the win.

Post-match - After Moose finally made it to his feet, Jonah Rock made his debut for NJPW, he got face to face with Moose, but then turned his attention to Juice Robinson, hitting a senton and attacking him until Finlay came down for the save. Jonah took him out and landed a second running senton on him too. I wonder if he'll reunite TMDK with Nicholls, who also hasn't been seen in years.

Kazuchika Okada vs. Buddy Matthews - 6.75/10
Good match, but what was likely Matthews' biggest match of his career, was one of the most meh Okada matches I've seen in the last couple of months.

Matthews was a total heel, stealing Okada's pose and being all cocky. The only good spot I liked was when Matthews couldn't break away from Okada's wrist control, even after kicking him five times in the face, he couldn't break away from a simple palm grip. Okada quickly took him down with a Rainmaker for the win. Smartly enough, Matthews never hit a V-Trigger, the last thing you want is to remember people you're Wish version Kenny Omega.

Post-match - Okada offered Matthews a hand shake, and he took it, because otherwise he ain't getting booked again on NJPW, and I do think he could be a good hand for the Jr. Heavyweight division.

After Matthews left, William Ospreay came out. He said he has the real IWGP World title and after telling Okada to challenge him, Okada told him that it was going to be the other way around, it was Ospreay who would need to challenge him, and thus made the challenge to the winner of the Okada vs Shingo match on January 4th. Main events for Jan 4th and 5th are set, we're just missing the main event for Jan 8th, but I suspect that could be set up after Jan 5th.

NEVER Openweight Championship Match
Jay White (c) vs. Tomohiro Ishii - 8.5/10
Really good match, a mix between a White and Ishii match, but nowhere near the best we've seen these two have. White worked over Ishii for a big chunk of the match, and then went on to a back and fourth exchange of moves and strikes. I did think the match slumped a bit during White's heat minutes and some of the stuff after Ishii's comeback felt repetitive, but it did land a good finish, with a Brainbuster for the win.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
Really good show, bell to bell a great set of wrestling matches. I still think that as good as everyone from NJPW Strong is, these shows only mean anything when you bring New Japan proper to the show, and even then, it takes more than Suzuki to make them feel important. Not to mention, even when Japanese crowds can only clap, they make shows feel more lively than US crowds NJPW brings in.

I do want to mention that this venue looked good, it was recorded like a Japan NJPW show, and it was set up so that it looked like a Ota Ward Gymnasium, just smaller. The one issue I did see was the lighting was terrible, the show came off really dark.

Lastly, thank you NJPW for giving me Japanese commentary for these US shows!
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