NJPW Power Struggle 2016

SATOSHI KOJIMA, HIROYOSHI TENZAN, & JUICE ROBINSON vs. YUJI NAGATA, MANABU NAKANISHI, & TERUAKI KANEMITSU- 4/10

JUSHIN “THUNDER” LIGER, TIGER MASK IV, RICOCHET, & DAVID FINLAY JR. vs. RYUSUKE TAGUCHI, ANGEL DE ORO, TITAN, & FUEGO- 4.25/10

Lots of Lucha.

YOSHITATSU, TOMOAKI HONMA, & TOGI MAKABE vs. BULLET CLUB (Yujiro Takahashi, Chase Owens, & Bone Soldier)- 4.5/10

Bone Soldier tried to choke Yoshitatsu out after the match but ran away when he saw Makabe coming towards him.

IWGP HEAVYWEIGHT TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH:
The Guerrillas of Destiny(c) vs. CHAOS (Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI)- 6.5/10

SUPER JUNIORS TAG TEAM TOURNAMENT FINALS:
Roppongi Vice vs. Taiji Ishimori & ACH- 8.25/10

Match of the night. Awesome stuff. I’d love to see more of ACH in New Japan.

IWGP JR. HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH:
BUSHI(c) vs. KUSHIDA- 7.75/10

THE TIME BOMB EXPLODES - it’s Kamaitachi under his real name. He wants the championship that KUSHIDA just won. Should be an awesome match.

BULLET CLUB (Adam Cole, Kenny Omega, & the Young Bucks) vs. CHAOS (Hirooki Goto, Will Ospreay, Kazuchika Okada, & Gedo)- 7.25/10

A very fun match. The spot with Gedo against all four Bullet Club members was a bit too silly for my tastes, but the important takeaway is how much this made me want to see Okada vs. Omega on January 4th.

NEVER OPENWEIGHT TITLE MATCH:
Katsuyori Shibata(c) vs. EVIL- 5/10

You know… for a few minutes there I thought we were going to get a good Shibata match where he actually sells and doesn’t do dumb sh*t, but then, after selling his arm for a few minutes, he decided to just sit there and let EVIL kick away at his injured arm because fighting spirit. F*cking idiot. From then on they mostly forgot that EVIL had used a chair on Shibata’s arm (not a DQ for some reason) and spent several minutes working it over.

Then they did other stuff for a while before EVIL hit Shibata with a Fisherman’s Buster onto a chair. Shibata kicked out, then was immediately pinned after EVIL’s STO. This match has no psychology whatsoever.

HIROSHI TANAHASHI vs. SANADA- 8/10

Tanahashi beats Sanada for the second straight month, which isn’t good for Sanada’s prospects. He’s so great that they really should be protecting him more. This match showed his fantastic selling ability. He sold his knee MUCH better than Tanahashi sold his back and neck here. Awesome match.

IWGP INTERCONTINENTAL TITLE MATCH:
Tetsuya Naito(c) vs. Jay Lethal- 7.75/10

Better than their ROH match, but still disappointing considering how great these two have been this year.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT - We’re getting Tanahashi vs. Naito at the Tokyo Dome on January 4th. For the long term health of the promotion, they REALLY need to have both Okada and Tanahashi lose clean at the Dome, but I have absolutely no faith that they will have the guts to do so.

A very good show from New Japan, but nothing you really need to go out of your way to see.