NJPW Invasion Attack 2016

BULLET CLUB (Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi) Vs. Juice Robinson & Ryusuke Taguchi - 5/10

I had never payed attention to Taguchi's tron video, I feel bad for him, he's such a joke. He tried to do the Nakamura entrance and got his ass kicked for it, he kinda deserved it. I liked how they referenced that Juice was trained by Martini, a future Ingobernable maybe? Match was ok, nothing special, Fale was dominant.

Jyushin Thunder Liger, Satoshi Kojima & Yuji Nagata Vs. CHAOS (Kazushi Sakuraba, Toru Yano & YOSHI-HASHI) - 5.5/10

The idea that The Briscoes and Yano are still being mentioned in the same sentence is crazy. The con of the match is Yano, the pros are everyone else. Match was good, everyone got their stuff in, YOSHI-HASHI was particularly good, I'm really hoping that he gets a spot in this year's G1 Climax considering that there are more open spots this year. The right person took the pin.

CHAOS (Hirooki Goto and Tomohiro Ishii) vs Los Ingobernables de Japon (EVIL and BUSHI) - 6.5/10

Everytime I see EVIL i think that a Japanese RVD stole Taker's gimmick. I love that BUSHI gets to mix it up with the heavyweights, Japan needs a heavyweight masked man. The story of the match was pretty much that Goto and EVIL want to beat the shit out of each other to the point were they kinda ignored the ref and count outs. Ishii and Goto made EVIL look like a million bucks in this match. Crowd was completely behind LIDJ, perfect crowd for Naito to main event later. When Goto vs EVIL finally happens it should be great, and I'm kinda wishing that BUSHI vs Ishii would happen before Ishii drops the ROH TV title. Great Match.

Post-Match - EVIL and Goto kept brawling on the outside, got separated by the young boys and Ishii himself.

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Title Match
Matt Sydal and Ricochet (C) vs Roppongi Vice - 7.5/10

Corino makes reference that Beretta and Sydal worked together at 'World Wrestling Entertainment', so they know each other's style, which I guess we could say the same between Romero and Sydal in Ring of Honor. I honestly don't think I've ever seen so much synchronicity between two wrestlers as the Sydal/Ricochet Moonsault/SSSP combination. Romero hits s move that made me yell out loud "WHATTAH...!' Great near falls towards the end of the fight. Ending sequence was great. Really gonna miss this Sydal/Ricochet experiment.

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title Match
KUSHIDA (C) vs Will Ospreay - 9.5/10

No Comments, just go watch this match right now.

Okay, I can't help it, some actual comments. This was an interesting match, we got to see Ospreay play a more heelish wrestler, we got to see some British flavored spots in NJPW, which now that I think about it, we don't get that much. KUSHIDA worked on Ospreay's arm, and he sold it like a champ, to the point that we saw a no-hands hand-spring to a kick! There was also a spot where Ospreay went for Okada's Rainmaker, and I just imagined that one day, Ospreay and Okada could be fighting in NJPW at the Tokyo Dome. Finishing sequence was amazing. Ospreay won the crowd with one match, move aside Ricochet and Dragon Lee, Ospreay is the BEST Flying wrestler, and he couldn't have asked for a better debut match.

Post-match - Jyushin Liger comes to the ring. Crowd goes CRAZY! They know what's coming. Congratulates KUSHIDA and challenges for the title, KUSHIDA accepts. In 2016, and this could still be amazing. KUSHIDA also went by the english broadcast table, makes a challenge for Lethal's ROH title.

NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Title Match
BULLET CLUB (Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks) (C) vs Hiroshi Tanahashi, Yoshitatsu, and Michael Elgin - 7/10

They made a big deal about the return of Yoshitatsu, it reminded me that Tatsu not only botched the Styles Clash, but got a guitar shot for his troubles. It also makes me think that Tatsu's WWE run was just his american excursion. Kenny Omega in his entrance cut a shoot on WWE. Right from the start the story was that Omega wanted to hit Tatsu with the Styles Clash, LOVE IT! Really early in the match there was a swanton to the group by Nick Jackson, Cody Hall took all the weight on his neck and was down. You know this sucks because now all wrestlers will keep thinking about him all match, not to mention the story of the match is about breaking another man's neck. Anyway, match did pick up after this and it was quite entertaining, felt like a big deal for Tatsu to win, but also for Elgin to capture Japanese gold.

Post-Match - Omega pretty much offered to put his title on the line against Elgin to get match one on one. Later on after celebrating and all, Bad Luck Fale attacked and destroyed Tanahashi. So we now have two new programs going forward. it was pretty well executed because Elgin and Tatsu were already in the back when we started hearing the crowd go wild. So what the hell is Tatsu going to do now that their partners have singles feuds?

I wanted to wait until this match to give an assessment on commentary. I personally think Corino/Kelly work best for the NJPW shows, primarily because Corino actually knows some Japanese and can translate quick stuff that wrestlers say in the ring. HOWEVER, he seriously shouldn't go 'SUPERKICK' crazy for these shows, it's annoying.

NEVER Openweight Title Match
Katsuyori Shibata (C) vs Hiroyoshi Tenzan - 6.5/10

Considering the spot in the card this match had, I was kinda disappointed by how short and basic this match was. Tenzan mostly did Mongolian Chops, headbutts, and like two submissions, Shibata himself sold most of the match. Crowd was super behind Tenzan, but I think everyone knew this was just a step in Shibata's Legend Killer run and this was needed to build Shibata's next big match. Having said that, Shibata actually made Tenzan look good, like he didn't know what he was getting himself into when you try to headbutt Tenzan.

IWGP Tag Team Title Match
G.H.B. (C) vs Guerrillas of Destiny - 7/10

Good match, but nothing speial, i'm liking GoD, but they need to work on their timing as a team.

IWGP World Heavyweight Title Match
Kazuchika Okada (C) w/Gedo vs Tetsuya Naito w/Los Ingobernables de Japon - 8.5/10

This match has an interesting feeling, an underdog vs Ace feeling, and not that Naito can't hang with Okada, but it's almost as the poor boy from the slums is challenging the rich kid in town. Right from the start of the match, even tough Gedo is out there, they told us that this is going to be a 3-on-1 fight, during the match EVIL and BUSHI kept interfering and Okada looked great fending them off over and over, including the last time, which was close to the end of the match and you felt 'this is it'. Okada mostly worked Naito's neck. At one point, a new masked man came to the ring, and actually allowed for Okada to hit the tombstone piledriver on Naito, later taking out Okada and revealing himself to be Seiya Sanada. Crowd didn't recognize him initially, but the commentary table sold it. After this we had a great closing sequence.

Post-match - LIDJ are taking out Gedo and Okada, which brings out Goto and Ishii. Ishii and Naito go face to face and pretty much set our next feud. Sanada had Okada in the dragon sleeper for a while, so that could bew what is next for Okada.

Tetsuya Naito Promo - Naito took out Red Shoes as he was getting his title, thanked the fans for the support, said that fan support was more important than being champion, grab the title, launched it through the air and walk out. Crowd was really behind him, you can tell that they appreciate how long it has taken him to reach this point. Ingobernables Forerver! TRANQUILO!

OVERALL THOUGHTS:

Great show by NJPW, it's usual that the first matches tend to be filler and drag, but they all felt worth watching to some point since they eventually led to building new feuds. Definitely worth watching, with Ospreay vs KUSHIDA a must watch, and Naito's win worth checking out for historical reasons.