NJPW Road To Tokyo Dome 12.17

Kotetsu Yamamoto Memorial 11th Young Lion Cup Match
Tetsuhiro Yagi vs Umino Shota - 6.5/10

Umino is sporting a knee brace, which i'm hoping it's not a legit injury since it was the focus of Yagi throughout the match. This could be a small gimmick added to Shota as the young lion fighting with a bad leg. Match was mostly Yagi working that injured knee, Shota having some hope spots here and there, a beautiful dropkick, and when you thought that Yagi had this, Shota locked in a boston crab for the submission win. Great young lion's opener, these two guys are great.

Kotetsu Yamamoto Memorial 11th Young Lion Cup Match
Ren Narita vs Katsuya Kitamura - 5.5/10

Narita jumped Kitamura during his introduction, and he jumped him with a freaking dropkick. Kitamura quickly enough regained control of the fight. To my surprise, the match was back and forward with Narita actually getting some good offense in like a Belly to Belly on Kitamura. When Kitamura finally got in offense mode, it was brutal, he chopped a hole on poor Narita. Moreover, the previous match ended with a Boston Crab, so this time they did two different teases with the Boston Crab, right before Katsuya won the match with a Burning Hammer. Good match.

Kotetsu Yamamoto Memorial 11th Young Lion Cup Match
Tomoyuki Oka vs Hirai Kawato - 5.5/10

Oka looks considerably slimmer since the last time I saw him. This was a bit of a technician vs power match with Kawato working Oka's leg with Kneebars, but Oka would cut him off and work on Kawato's neck. Kawato kept working the leg, but it wasn't enough and Oka started dominating, but in a sudden move, Kawato reversed a crab into a pin and win. Oka has been watching Jeff Cobb tapes. Good match, I liked that the finish wasn't like the other two and this being a roll up and allows Oka to show sadness and frustration in the face of failure.

Suzuki-Gun (El Desperado, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, & Taka Michinoku) vs Jyushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask, & Henare - 4.5/10

Henare jumped Suzuki-Gun during introductions, I guess even when it's not them doing the jumping, there HAS to be someone jumping someone on a Suzuki-Gun match. Kanemaru early on did the Whisky Mist on Liger to cut him off and get the heat on him for a while, they worked on Liger for a while. Tiger Mask got the tag and at this point the match just went for the finish with Liger and Mask double teaming Desperado, Liger steals Kanemaru's whisky and as he is about to spit on Desperado, he dodges and hits Tiger Mask instead. Desperado rolled up Tiger for the win. Shit match, but at least Henare looked good and surprisingly, didn't take the pin.

Bullet Club (Yujiro Takahashi & Leo Tonga) vs Togi Makabe & Kota Ibushi - 6.5/10

They had this match pair Makabe and Leo for the hoss fight and Yujiro and Ibushi for the faster paced wrestling and longer segment of the match. BC got heat on Ibushi for a while after he was cut off trying a moonsault. Ibushi eventually made the tag to Makabe, who ran wild. Ibushi and Leo fought it off until the end, Leo getting some good (not really credible) near falls, but eventually falling to Ibushi's version of the V-Trigger. After the match Makabe and Ibushi continued their love-hate/father-son relationship, Makabe finally acknowledging Ibushi.

Suzuki-Gun (Minoru Suzuki, Taichi, & Takashi Iizuka) vs CHAOS (Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii, & Toru Yano) - 5/10

Suzuki, building towards his hair match with Goto, came out with clippers, and guess what, Suzuki-Gun jumped CHAOS and Suzuki went straight for Goto's hair. Inside the ring, Taichi was stupid enough to piss off Ishii and got his ass kicked for it until Suzuki helped him out with a chair. The Suzuki beat ups outside the ring have become so stale that Yano vs Iizuka inside the ring was actually one of the highlights of the match for me. Goto and Suzuki had another good exchange inside the ring, with them going back and forward, but at the end, it again reverted into Suzuki-Gun cheating until Taichi was left alone with Goto for him to kill with the GTR. One of those match that have good pairings, but overall the match is a clusterfuck.

Post-match - Goto cut a fiery promo on Suzuki. They got in each other's faces, slapped each other and that was about it. Suzuki shaved a young lion, not sure who it was, but I guess that kid will have to start his apprenticeship from the start.

KUSHIDA, Satoshi Kojima, & "Masked Horse" Ryusuke Taguchi vs Roppongi 3K - 6.5/10

Taguchi doing his 'Masked Horse' gimmick promoting the wacky races video game. SHO and KUSHIDA had a great early exchange, wrestling on the mat technically and I guess displaying a bit of their MMA abilities, and from that point on, RPG cut off KUSHIDA and got heat on him for a bit until he tagged in the Masked Horse, who only did comedy. All 6 men mixed it up and at the end, it was Kojima hitting a Lariato on Rocky Romero for the win. Ok match, pontential there with KUSHIDA and RPG3K.

NEVER Openweight 6-Man Championship Match
Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale & Guerrillas of Destiny) vs Los Ingobernables de Japon (C) - 7/10

These titles are so meaningless that they don't get to main event a 'Road to' show with no other title matches. BUSHI is wearing an amalgamation of all three LIJs in this match.

Bullet Club came in to the match with the plan of alieniting BUSHI from the rest of the team and focusing on the weaker link of the three LIJs, as early on as soon as Fale got his hands on him, they cut him off. SANADA got the hot tag, but was quickly enough by both GoDs working together, so EVIL and SANADA rekindled their feud with GoD for a bit, but the match would go back to BUSHI vs Bad Luck Fale. That whole pairing built up until LIJ hit a 3-man Magic Killer on Fale and the MX for a sure near fall, but GoD made their return, took out SANADA and EVIL leaving BUSHI as an easy prey for Fale, who killed him and pinned him 1-2-3.

I really liked the match, I liked that BUSHI and Fale had a good chance to do stuff and it worked out to their styles. GoD vs E&S wasn't as good as their WTL match, but because they had a small window of time to do their thing. Bullet Club takes the trios titles, leaving LIJ opened for their tag team championship match against Killer Elite Squad.

CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada & YOSHI-HASHI) w/Gedo vs Los Ingobernables de Japon (Tetsuya Naito & Hiromu Takahashi) - 7.5/10

Okada and Naito started the match throwing each other into the guardrails, and in consequence, both men's shoulders got hurt; furthermore, when YOSHI took the tag to let Okada rest, LIJ worked on YOSHI's knee, so at the end of the day, even as everyone is chanting for Naito, he was the heel getting heat over YOSHI.

Okada came in for a second run, he kicked Naito's ass for a bit and Himoru came in and actually got great offense on Okada, but you can't just defeat the Rainmaker with that. Finish of the match came quickly after with Okada locking in the Cobra Clutch on Hiromu until the submission.

Post-match - Okada held the cobra clutch locked and even with Naito stomping on him, he wouldn't release. Okada and Naito kept brawling, and in the same way that they have been displaying how they have counters to their moves, Okada reversed Destino into a Tombstone Piledriver and consequent Rainmaker to leave Naito down.

Okada cut a promo on Naito to end the show.

OVERALL THOUGHTS

Not really a good show, it had a necessary title change setting up for Tokyo dome, but that's about it. I think I enjoyed more the Young Lion's tournament matches more than some of the upper card matches.