NJPW New Beginning in Osaka

NJPW New Beginning in OsakaNJPW New Beginning in Osaka

By Big Red Machine
From February 11, 2014
Discussion

NJPW New Beginning in Osaka (2/11/2014)- Osaka, Japan

IWGP JR. HEAVYWEIGHT TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The Young Bucks(c) vs. Time Splitters- 8/10
Now THAT is a f*cking opener!


KATSUYORI SHIBATA vs. YOSHI-HASHI- 4.25/10

THE BULLET CLUB (Karl "Machine Gun" Anderson, Tama Tonga, & Doc Gallows) vs. SUZUKI-GUN (Minoru Suzuki, Lance Archer, & Davey Boy Smith Jr.)- 4/10
Short and kind of pointless. Suzuki hit Tonga with a chairshot after the match. The little bit that Anderson and Suzuki did together really made me want to see those two face off one-on-one.

RYUSUKE TAGUCHI & TOGI MAKABE vs. THE BULLET CLUB (Prince Devitt & Bad Luck Fale)- 5.75/10
Taguchi gets a roll-up on Devitt but gets beaten down after the match. I can't wait for those two to face off one-on-one.


NWA WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE #1 CONTENDERSHIP MATCH: Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima vs. Michael Tarver & Big Daddy Yum-Yum- 2.75/10
Big Daddy Yum Yum might have the greatest disparity between the quality of his look and the quality of his name in wrestling history. Tarver had an awesome lower-half of the face-style mask that looked extremely badass.
Then the match actually started and things went way downhill. 99.9% of the offense in this WRESTLING match was strikes. To make matters worse, "Mr. 1.9" Michael Tarver, whose whole gimmick is that he can knock someone out with his punches in just 1.9 seconds... barely through any punches. That was dumb.
Just a dull match whose outcome was never in doubt.

DANIEL & ROLLES GRACIES vs. YUGI NAGATA & KAZUSHI SAKURABA- 5/10
WHOA! When did Nagata win the GHC Heavyweight Title?!
GRAPPLING!

JUSHIN "THUNDER" LIGER & HIROSHI TANAHASHI vs. SHINSUKE NAKAMURA & YUJIRO TAKAHASHI- 6.5/10

IWGP JR. HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Kota Ibushi(c) vs. El Desperado- 5/10
Kota did a poor job of selling his knee.

NEVER OPENWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Tetsuya Naito(c) vs. Tomohiro Ishii- 8.25/10
A lot of just hitting each other in the head and then no-selling it in the beginning, but it got a lot better as it went on. The crowd was super-hot for Ishii and they did a great job of creating believable false finishes.

IWGP HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Kazuchika Okada(c) w/Gedo) vs. Hirooki Goto (w/Katsuyori Shibata)- 7.5/10
Okada has now officially become the coolest wrestler ever. For his entrance he carried this big-ass sword to the ring, which I can only assume is the Ring of Glory Sword of the Spirit +4 and his entrance now also includes A GIANT ANIMATRONIC DINOSAUR!
The match was great, but not as good as many of Okada's other defenses. Okada and Shibata had a staredown after the match.

A pretty good show from New Japan.

Join this review's conversation in the discussion board