NJPW Invasion Attack 2016
NJPW Invasion Attack 2016 (4/10/2016)- Tokyo, Japan
JUICE ROBINSON & RYUSUKE TAGUCHI vs. BULLET CLUB (Yujiro Takahashi & Bad Luck Fale)- 5/10
Fale is a monster.
JUSHIN â€"THUNDER†LIGER, SATOSHI KOJIMA, & YUJI NAGATA vs. CHAOS (Kazushi Sakuraba, Toru Yano, & YOSHI-HASHI)- 5.5/10
I despise Toru Yano so f*cking much. He is a waste of space. The match was fine.
LOS INGOBERNABLES DE JAPON (BUSHI & EVIL) vs. CHAOS (Tomohiro Ishii & Hirooki Goto)- 6.75/10
Chaos won with a really nifty-looking Goto Sleep into sliding lariat combo. I’d actually like to see these guys as a full-time tag team using that finisher. It’d be something new for both them in particular and CHAOS as a whole, and it would be nice to inject some new blood into the division (and no, the Guerrillas of Destiny don’t count. More on that later).
It’s pretty clear that they are looking to elevate EVIL, and they did a good job of doing so by letting him look like Goto’s equal, both during the match and in their post-match brawl.
IWGP JR. HEAVYWEIGHT TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Matt Sydal & Ricochet(c) vs. Roppongi Vice- 7.75/10
Roppongi Vice are my least favorite team in the division, and with the exception of Liger Mask I think they are the least talented… but for some strange reason I got really behind them in this match and was really happy to see them get their due. I’m not even sure why, but it just kind of felt like them getting this reign was them getting the recognition they deserved (which is especially strange when you consider that the combination of booking issues and backstage factors pretty much made them the only choice to win this match… but for some reason this still felt kind of like a big babyface win to me).
IWGP JR. HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: KUSHIDA(c) vs. Will Ospreay- 9/10
I will admit that when I heard that Ospreay had been given this title match I got a little worried, simply because â€"sign a gaijin early in the year and give him a title shot at Invasion Attack with very little build†is exactly what New Japan did with Mascara Dorada last year, and after that match at Invasion Attack, Dorada spent the rest of the year wrestling in pointless ten-minute undercard clusterf*ck tag matches. After this match, I’m pretty sure that won’t happen to Mr. Ospreay. He got to show off everything he could do in this match… and even more impressively, he did so with only one hand because of how well he was selling the second one. Lots of athleticism, a great story, and some fantastic selling. FANTASTIC match!
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- Liger wants a title shot. That should be a pretty great match as well.
NEVER OPENWEIGHT SIX MAN TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The Elite(c) (w/Cody Hall) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Michael Elgin, & Yoshitatsu- 7/10
Yoshitatsu is just coming back from a broken neck, so of course the Bullet Club work over his neck. Omega even teased hitting him with the very move that broke his neck, the Styles Clash, in the first thirty seconds of the match. They went back to it once or twice, but eventually they got the heat on Tanahashi and stuck with him, which seems like a major wasted opportunity.
Yoshitatsu was actually the guy who got the hot tag and ran wild for a moment or two. He locked in some sort of leg submission on one of the Jacksons and Kenny Omega want to break it up by spraying air freshener in his face… but he decided it was necessary to hold the can up high in the air before reaching down to spray it in Yoshitatsu’s face while his partner while suffering in the submission. Yes, you’re supposed to make sure the crowd sees what you’re doing, but not if it makes you look completely idiotic! In general, there were just way too many air freshener spots in this match. Less is more.
One of the Jacksons did a completely random dive off of a high thing onto a pile of guys, and Cody Hall got hurt off of it. Not sure what happened but he was still laying there a few minutes later, completely out. I figured he was selling, but then, a few minutes later, some guys can running past the ring with a backboard so I guess it must be legit. I hope he’s okay.
The match was great, and while I do like Elgin, Tanahashi, and Yoshitatsu as the NEVER Openweight Six-man Tag Team Champions, I really don’t like how often these belts are changing hands. I hope they stay on these guys until about September. I think they’d make fine undercard belts to give those pointless tag matches some meaning, and Yoshitatsu is exactly the type of guy who feels like he is a big enough deal to be teaming with Tanahashi and Elgin and yet can get pinned by an undercard guy and no one will bat an eyelash.
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- Elgin wants Omega’s IWGP Intercontinental Title
POST-POST-MATCH SEGMENT SEGMENT- Elgin and Yoshitatsu head to the back. Tanahashi doesn’t join them for some reason, which turned out to be a mistake for him because Bad Luck Fale attacked him and laid him out.
NEVER OPENWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Katsuyori Shibata(c) vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan- 6.5/10
A good night for Mr. Tenzan. I’m certain there were people who thought that Shibata might just accidentally kill him with some of his strikes when they heard this match was booked, but he held his own.
IWGP HEAVYWEIGHT TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma(c) vs. Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa)- 7.5/10
GREAT match. Lots of work on Honma’s head, and being Honma, he only made it worse by constantly attempting (and often missing) headbutts of all sorts. I like the Guerrillas of Destiny as tag champs better than I like Honma & Makabe, but I groaned when they won the belts just because we now have the Bullet Club holding the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Titles yet again. Can we please do something new in this division?
IWGP HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Kazuchika Okada(c) (w/Gedo) vs. Tetsuya Naito (w/Los Ingobernables de Japon)- 7.75/10
The match was, to be honest, a lot less than I was expecting, given how well Okada usually performs at big shows. It just didn’t really click with me on any level until that Koji Clutch variation where they teased that Okada might pass out. Then there was the finish…
This is an example of the stuff you can get away with if you use interference sparingly in big spots. In any other company, the world title changing hands because of a run-in would be met with a groan and people being angry that the company. Because New Japan does it so infrequently (the last time I can remember it really mattering was when Yujiro joined Bullet Club almost two years ago [and now we’ve got a similar situation where Sanada joins the Ingobernables), the fans instead place the heat where it should be: on the heels.
That being said… why didn’t anyone else from CHAOS run in to help Okada fight off the interfering Ingobernables after the ref bump? Even freakin’ GEDO just stood there and did nothing. I mean… if you’re not going to have them help each other in situations like this, then CHAOS is just nothing more than a label that needlessly restricts the combinations you can book together on the undercard.
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- Oh. Finally. Here is someone from CHAOS to help Okada. It’s Ishii, so I guess he’ll be Naito’s first challenger. After Ishii left Naito cut a promo while there was confetti all around him… and then he just tossed the IWGP Heavyweight Title up into the air like it was candy wrapper he was too lazy to even walk to the garbage can to throw out. That got great heat.
A pretty great show from New Japan, and what will probably go down as a very important one in history due to the main event (and also possibly the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title match if Ospreay sticks around and makes a career for himself in Japan).
JUICE ROBINSON & RYUSUKE TAGUCHI vs. BULLET CLUB (Yujiro Takahashi & Bad Luck Fale)- 5/10
Fale is a monster.
JUSHIN â€"THUNDER†LIGER, SATOSHI KOJIMA, & YUJI NAGATA vs. CHAOS (Kazushi Sakuraba, Toru Yano, & YOSHI-HASHI)- 5.5/10
I despise Toru Yano so f*cking much. He is a waste of space. The match was fine.
LOS INGOBERNABLES DE JAPON (BUSHI & EVIL) vs. CHAOS (Tomohiro Ishii & Hirooki Goto)- 6.75/10
Chaos won with a really nifty-looking Goto Sleep into sliding lariat combo. I’d actually like to see these guys as a full-time tag team using that finisher. It’d be something new for both them in particular and CHAOS as a whole, and it would be nice to inject some new blood into the division (and no, the Guerrillas of Destiny don’t count. More on that later).
It’s pretty clear that they are looking to elevate EVIL, and they did a good job of doing so by letting him look like Goto’s equal, both during the match and in their post-match brawl.
IWGP JR. HEAVYWEIGHT TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Matt Sydal & Ricochet(c) vs. Roppongi Vice- 7.75/10
Roppongi Vice are my least favorite team in the division, and with the exception of Liger Mask I think they are the least talented… but for some strange reason I got really behind them in this match and was really happy to see them get their due. I’m not even sure why, but it just kind of felt like them getting this reign was them getting the recognition they deserved (which is especially strange when you consider that the combination of booking issues and backstage factors pretty much made them the only choice to win this match… but for some reason this still felt kind of like a big babyface win to me).
IWGP JR. HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: KUSHIDA(c) vs. Will Ospreay- 9/10
I will admit that when I heard that Ospreay had been given this title match I got a little worried, simply because â€"sign a gaijin early in the year and give him a title shot at Invasion Attack with very little build†is exactly what New Japan did with Mascara Dorada last year, and after that match at Invasion Attack, Dorada spent the rest of the year wrestling in pointless ten-minute undercard clusterf*ck tag matches. After this match, I’m pretty sure that won’t happen to Mr. Ospreay. He got to show off everything he could do in this match… and even more impressively, he did so with only one hand because of how well he was selling the second one. Lots of athleticism, a great story, and some fantastic selling. FANTASTIC match!
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- Liger wants a title shot. That should be a pretty great match as well.
NEVER OPENWEIGHT SIX MAN TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The Elite(c) (w/Cody Hall) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Michael Elgin, & Yoshitatsu- 7/10
Yoshitatsu is just coming back from a broken neck, so of course the Bullet Club work over his neck. Omega even teased hitting him with the very move that broke his neck, the Styles Clash, in the first thirty seconds of the match. They went back to it once or twice, but eventually they got the heat on Tanahashi and stuck with him, which seems like a major wasted opportunity.
Yoshitatsu was actually the guy who got the hot tag and ran wild for a moment or two. He locked in some sort of leg submission on one of the Jacksons and Kenny Omega want to break it up by spraying air freshener in his face… but he decided it was necessary to hold the can up high in the air before reaching down to spray it in Yoshitatsu’s face while his partner while suffering in the submission. Yes, you’re supposed to make sure the crowd sees what you’re doing, but not if it makes you look completely idiotic! In general, there were just way too many air freshener spots in this match. Less is more.
One of the Jacksons did a completely random dive off of a high thing onto a pile of guys, and Cody Hall got hurt off of it. Not sure what happened but he was still laying there a few minutes later, completely out. I figured he was selling, but then, a few minutes later, some guys can running past the ring with a backboard so I guess it must be legit. I hope he’s okay.
The match was great, and while I do like Elgin, Tanahashi, and Yoshitatsu as the NEVER Openweight Six-man Tag Team Champions, I really don’t like how often these belts are changing hands. I hope they stay on these guys until about September. I think they’d make fine undercard belts to give those pointless tag matches some meaning, and Yoshitatsu is exactly the type of guy who feels like he is a big enough deal to be teaming with Tanahashi and Elgin and yet can get pinned by an undercard guy and no one will bat an eyelash.
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- Elgin wants Omega’s IWGP Intercontinental Title
POST-POST-MATCH SEGMENT SEGMENT- Elgin and Yoshitatsu head to the back. Tanahashi doesn’t join them for some reason, which turned out to be a mistake for him because Bad Luck Fale attacked him and laid him out.
NEVER OPENWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Katsuyori Shibata(c) vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan- 6.5/10
A good night for Mr. Tenzan. I’m certain there were people who thought that Shibata might just accidentally kill him with some of his strikes when they heard this match was booked, but he held his own.
IWGP HEAVYWEIGHT TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma(c) vs. Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa)- 7.5/10
GREAT match. Lots of work on Honma’s head, and being Honma, he only made it worse by constantly attempting (and often missing) headbutts of all sorts. I like the Guerrillas of Destiny as tag champs better than I like Honma & Makabe, but I groaned when they won the belts just because we now have the Bullet Club holding the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Titles yet again. Can we please do something new in this division?
IWGP HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Kazuchika Okada(c) (w/Gedo) vs. Tetsuya Naito (w/Los Ingobernables de Japon)- 7.75/10
The match was, to be honest, a lot less than I was expecting, given how well Okada usually performs at big shows. It just didn’t really click with me on any level until that Koji Clutch variation where they teased that Okada might pass out. Then there was the finish…
This is an example of the stuff you can get away with if you use interference sparingly in big spots. In any other company, the world title changing hands because of a run-in would be met with a groan and people being angry that the company. Because New Japan does it so infrequently (the last time I can remember it really mattering was when Yujiro joined Bullet Club almost two years ago [and now we’ve got a similar situation where Sanada joins the Ingobernables), the fans instead place the heat where it should be: on the heels.
That being said… why didn’t anyone else from CHAOS run in to help Okada fight off the interfering Ingobernables after the ref bump? Even freakin’ GEDO just stood there and did nothing. I mean… if you’re not going to have them help each other in situations like this, then CHAOS is just nothing more than a label that needlessly restricts the combinations you can book together on the undercard.
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- Oh. Finally. Here is someone from CHAOS to help Okada. It’s Ishii, so I guess he’ll be Naito’s first challenger. After Ishii left Naito cut a promo while there was confetti all around him… and then he just tossed the IWGP Heavyweight Title up into the air like it was candy wrapper he was too lazy to even walk to the garbage can to throw out. That got great heat.
A pretty great show from New Japan, and what will probably go down as a very important one in history due to the main event (and also possibly the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title match if Ospreay sticks around and makes a career for himself in Japan).