NJPW Road to Invasion Attack 2014, Day 1: Wataru Inoue Retirement Show
NJPW Road to Invasion Attack 2014, Day 1: Wataru Inoue Retirement Show (4/2/2014)- Tokyo, Japan
SHO TANAKA & YOHEI KAMATSU vs. CHAOS (w/Takashi Iizuka vs. Toru Yano)- 2/10
The same boring-ass match we always get Iizuka (and Yano to a lesser extent) is involved. I actually groaned when I saw that they were facing the tag team of young boys. They really should just stop using these two.
BUSHI & KUSHIDA vs. RYUSUKE TAGUCHI & EL DESPERADO- 6.25/10
JUSHIN â€"THUNDER†LIGER & TIGER MASK IV vs. JADO & GEDO- 5.5/10
Some fun comedy from Jado in the beginning with the Flair-flop fake-out. The heels then get the heat on Liger, who eventually makes a hot tag to Tiger Mask. I’ve really been enjoying Tiger Mask IV’s stuff lately, and I’d love to see him challenge for the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title or see him and Liger challenge for the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Titles.
YUJI NAGATA, SUPER STRONG MACHINE, & CAPTAIN NEW JAPAN vs. SUZUKI-GUN (Minoru Suzuki, Taichi, & TAKA Michinoku)- 3/10
Captain New Japan AND Super Strong Machine on his team? Nataga is screwed. Or maybe not. Taichi clearly fails to understand what â€"Super Strong†means. It means that a Jr. Heavyweight is not going to be able to take him down with a shoulder tackle.
Blatant chairshots are apparently not DQ’s. Didn’t New Japan used to have rules? Some of the babyfaces’ young boys try to break up these illegal attacks on their mentors and get beaten up for it. WAY too much of this match consisted of the heels beating up young boys and then getting heat on the promotion’s official jobber. Nagata eventually gets the hot tag and gets the win, pinning TAKA 1-2-3 in the middle of the ring. If this match is supposed to build up to Suzuki-Gun vs. Nagata and two other babyfaces, shouldn’t you… I don’t know… maybe let the heels get some heat on Nagata? And not give Nagata the win right here?
HIROYOSHI TENZAN, SATOSHI KOJIMA, MANABU NAKANISHI, TETSUYA NAITO, & TOGI MAKABE vs. CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada, Shinsuke Nakmura, Tomohiro Ishi, Yujiro Takahashi, & YOSHI-HASHI)- 6.5/10
Ishii and Tenzan’s brief headbutt exchange looked horrible. The foream that ended said exchange was the total opposite of horrible. CHAOS’ wacky Dragon Gate triple-team spot (which involved two other guys dropping Ishii into a seated senton onto someone) made me laugh.
Naito and Ishii exchanged forearms for approximately three hours, neither guy selling a single one, then, after an Irish whip, Naito gives Ishii a forearm… and Ishii sells this, meaning he is no longer immune to forearm shots because… the other spot was over, I guess?
This was an entirely random ten man tag team match with a bunch of big names in it. It really didn’t seem to be building to anything at all for Invasion Attack 2014 aside from Ishii vs. Naito, and with only two real â€"Road to†shows (the New Japan Cup is pretty much its own thing and the anniversary show was mostly random stuff), they really can’t afford to do that.
TAMAOKI HONMA & HIROSHI TANAHASHI vs. HIROOKI GOTO & KATSUYORI SHIBATA- 7.5/10
Towards the end of the match, Tanahashi did some semi-odd set up for a modified Fujiwara Armbar that had me marking out because it appeared for a few seconds like he was about to lock in the CHIKARA Special.
A great match, and this was Honma’s best match in a while, so I don’t want to complain or anything , but I have to ask: What is it with him and missing his diving headbutts? At least Flair actually HIT a top rope move once every fifteen years or so.
WATARU INOUE RETIREMENT CEREMONY- seemed kind of nice, but I don’t speak Japanese so I really don’t know what was said.
Not a good show from New Japan. It didn’t do a good job of building up most of the card for Invasion Attack, which was the primary purpose of the show, and even the Inoue retirement stuff seemed tacked on at the last minute. It’s not like Inoue still isn’t working for them backstage, so why not wait to do this until the May PPV where you can build it up well and build up a card that really pays tribute to Inoue?
SHO TANAKA & YOHEI KAMATSU vs. CHAOS (w/Takashi Iizuka vs. Toru Yano)- 2/10
The same boring-ass match we always get Iizuka (and Yano to a lesser extent) is involved. I actually groaned when I saw that they were facing the tag team of young boys. They really should just stop using these two.
BUSHI & KUSHIDA vs. RYUSUKE TAGUCHI & EL DESPERADO- 6.25/10
JUSHIN â€"THUNDER†LIGER & TIGER MASK IV vs. JADO & GEDO- 5.5/10
Some fun comedy from Jado in the beginning with the Flair-flop fake-out. The heels then get the heat on Liger, who eventually makes a hot tag to Tiger Mask. I’ve really been enjoying Tiger Mask IV’s stuff lately, and I’d love to see him challenge for the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title or see him and Liger challenge for the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Titles.
YUJI NAGATA, SUPER STRONG MACHINE, & CAPTAIN NEW JAPAN vs. SUZUKI-GUN (Minoru Suzuki, Taichi, & TAKA Michinoku)- 3/10
Captain New Japan AND Super Strong Machine on his team? Nataga is screwed. Or maybe not. Taichi clearly fails to understand what â€"Super Strong†means. It means that a Jr. Heavyweight is not going to be able to take him down with a shoulder tackle.
Blatant chairshots are apparently not DQ’s. Didn’t New Japan used to have rules? Some of the babyfaces’ young boys try to break up these illegal attacks on their mentors and get beaten up for it. WAY too much of this match consisted of the heels beating up young boys and then getting heat on the promotion’s official jobber. Nagata eventually gets the hot tag and gets the win, pinning TAKA 1-2-3 in the middle of the ring. If this match is supposed to build up to Suzuki-Gun vs. Nagata and two other babyfaces, shouldn’t you… I don’t know… maybe let the heels get some heat on Nagata? And not give Nagata the win right here?
HIROYOSHI TENZAN, SATOSHI KOJIMA, MANABU NAKANISHI, TETSUYA NAITO, & TOGI MAKABE vs. CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada, Shinsuke Nakmura, Tomohiro Ishi, Yujiro Takahashi, & YOSHI-HASHI)- 6.5/10
Ishii and Tenzan’s brief headbutt exchange looked horrible. The foream that ended said exchange was the total opposite of horrible. CHAOS’ wacky Dragon Gate triple-team spot (which involved two other guys dropping Ishii into a seated senton onto someone) made me laugh.
Naito and Ishii exchanged forearms for approximately three hours, neither guy selling a single one, then, after an Irish whip, Naito gives Ishii a forearm… and Ishii sells this, meaning he is no longer immune to forearm shots because… the other spot was over, I guess?
This was an entirely random ten man tag team match with a bunch of big names in it. It really didn’t seem to be building to anything at all for Invasion Attack 2014 aside from Ishii vs. Naito, and with only two real â€"Road to†shows (the New Japan Cup is pretty much its own thing and the anniversary show was mostly random stuff), they really can’t afford to do that.
TAMAOKI HONMA & HIROSHI TANAHASHI vs. HIROOKI GOTO & KATSUYORI SHIBATA- 7.5/10
Towards the end of the match, Tanahashi did some semi-odd set up for a modified Fujiwara Armbar that had me marking out because it appeared for a few seconds like he was about to lock in the CHIKARA Special.
A great match, and this was Honma’s best match in a while, so I don’t want to complain or anything , but I have to ask: What is it with him and missing his diving headbutts? At least Flair actually HIT a top rope move once every fifteen years or so.
WATARU INOUE RETIREMENT CEREMONY- seemed kind of nice, but I don’t speak Japanese so I really don’t know what was said.
Not a good show from New Japan. It didn’t do a good job of building up most of the card for Invasion Attack, which was the primary purpose of the show, and even the Inoue retirement stuff seemed tacked on at the last minute. It’s not like Inoue still isn’t working for them backstage, so why not wait to do this until the May PPV where you can build it up well and build up a card that really pays tribute to Inoue?