NJPW Invasion Attack 2014
NJPW Invasion Attack 2014 (4/6/2014)- Tokyo, Japan
IWGP JR. HEAVYWEIGHT TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The Young Bucks(c) vs. Kota Ibushi & El Desperado- 8/10
Fantastic opener.
YUJI NAGATA, TOGI MAKABE, & KAZUSHI SAKURABA vs. SUZUKI-GUN (Minoru Suzuki, TAKA Michinoku, & Taichi)- 5.75/10
For some reason the heels decided to stop being heels and fight fair at the end. That was weird. They seem to be building towards Sakuraba vs. Suzuki which, based on the first sequences of this match, should be great. After the match, a frustrated Suzuki beat an innocent man up on the outside while the babyfaces just stood there in the ring, making no move to help.
NWA WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Rob Conway & Jax Dane(c) (w/Bruce Tharpe) vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima- 5/10
TORU YANO & TAKASHI IIZUKA vs. DANIEL & ROLLES GRACIE- 4/10
Same boring match that Yano and Iizuka always have, but with two guys who are bad workers. Yano was an entertaining heel at times, but I just did not enjoy this in anyway. Major props are due to the referee, though, for doing such a fantastic job of making sure that he saw absolutely none of the heels’ cheating.
RYUSUKE TAGUCHI vs. PRINCE DEVITT (w/the Young Bucks)- 7/10
Wow. Devitt got ALL painted up for this. Even more than at WrestleKingdom VIII. He was also unhappy when the Bucks tried to help him. This caused them to turn on him. The ref did not call for a DQ, despite witnessing the Bucks beating down first Taguchi and then turning on Devitt and beating him down, too.
Devitt recovered, took the Bucks out with a dive, then tossed them over the guardrail, then Devitt and Taguchi really started to go. The match was great, but the turn seemed very random and the match as a whole didn’t have the epic feel that a singles confrontation one year in the making should have had.
YOSHI-HASHI & KAZUCHIKA OKADA vs. THE BULLET CLUB (Tama Tonga & Bad Luck Fale)- 5.75/10
It is a major PPV, and yet the IWGP World Champion is stuck in an undercard heel vs. heel tag team match teaming with the chumpiest member of his own stable against the two least important members of another heel stable while the guy with the undercard title is in the main event against a guy we’ve all seen him face a million times before because it doesn’t matter how over anyone else gets: Management will always see Tanahashi as the top guy, so it sucks to be CM Punk Okada.
The match happens. Okada just felt like any other random guy. Until…
THE POST- MATCH SEGMENT- great!
Okada and Bad Luck Fale have a staredown, but then someone in a hoodie jumped Okada from behind and beat him down. Then he takes his hood off… and this collective â€"WHOA!†of surprise comes over the crowd, because the assailant is AJ STYLES! AJ gives Okada a Styles Clash, then cuts a promo calling Okada a young boy and saying that he wants the IWGP Heavyweight Title… and says that he will win it… because he is now a member of the Bullet Club!
NEVER OPENWIEGHT TITLE MATCH: Tomohiro Ishii(c) vs. Tetsuya Naito- 9/10
This started off with a few minutes of Ishii’s stupid, pointless no-selling… but then they started selling and it KICKED ASS! Both men worked over each other’s heads all match, to the point that you were sure that every spot could be the finish (though they did randomly go back to the no-selling once or twice, and Naito’s slapping was stupid).
IWGP HEAVYWEIGHT TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Doc Gallows & Karl â€"Machine Gun†Anderson(c) vs. Katsuyori Shibata & Hirooki Goto- 6.75/10
Gallows and Anderson now have awesome Bullet Club masks for their entrance and Gallows had a noose (thankfully Anderson did not have a machine gun).
So the match opened up with Anderson giving Shibata a million forearms to the head, but Shibata no-sells them all, then gives Anderson one forearm shot that pretty much knocks Anderson out. Shibata then spent the rest of the match working over Anderson’s arm. Other than that, the match was great. The finishing sequence in particular was awesome.
IWGP INTERCONTINENTAL TITLE: Hiroshi Tanahashi(c) vs. Shinsuke Nakamura- 10/10
HOLY F*CKING SH*T THIS MATCH WAS AWESOME! An awesome story and absolutely AMAZING selling from Nakamura. He fought through so much and got you so behind him that not seeing him win the match would have been heartbreaking.
An awesome show from New Japan, with awesome wrestling and big moments, all capped off by a perfect main event.
IWGP JR. HEAVYWEIGHT TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The Young Bucks(c) vs. Kota Ibushi & El Desperado- 8/10
Fantastic opener.
YUJI NAGATA, TOGI MAKABE, & KAZUSHI SAKURABA vs. SUZUKI-GUN (Minoru Suzuki, TAKA Michinoku, & Taichi)- 5.75/10
For some reason the heels decided to stop being heels and fight fair at the end. That was weird. They seem to be building towards Sakuraba vs. Suzuki which, based on the first sequences of this match, should be great. After the match, a frustrated Suzuki beat an innocent man up on the outside while the babyfaces just stood there in the ring, making no move to help.
NWA WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Rob Conway & Jax Dane(c) (w/Bruce Tharpe) vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima- 5/10
TORU YANO & TAKASHI IIZUKA vs. DANIEL & ROLLES GRACIE- 4/10
Same boring match that Yano and Iizuka always have, but with two guys who are bad workers. Yano was an entertaining heel at times, but I just did not enjoy this in anyway. Major props are due to the referee, though, for doing such a fantastic job of making sure that he saw absolutely none of the heels’ cheating.
RYUSUKE TAGUCHI vs. PRINCE DEVITT (w/the Young Bucks)- 7/10
Wow. Devitt got ALL painted up for this. Even more than at WrestleKingdom VIII. He was also unhappy when the Bucks tried to help him. This caused them to turn on him. The ref did not call for a DQ, despite witnessing the Bucks beating down first Taguchi and then turning on Devitt and beating him down, too.
Devitt recovered, took the Bucks out with a dive, then tossed them over the guardrail, then Devitt and Taguchi really started to go. The match was great, but the turn seemed very random and the match as a whole didn’t have the epic feel that a singles confrontation one year in the making should have had.
YOSHI-HASHI & KAZUCHIKA OKADA vs. THE BULLET CLUB (Tama Tonga & Bad Luck Fale)- 5.75/10
It is a major PPV, and yet the IWGP World Champion is stuck in an undercard heel vs. heel tag team match teaming with the chumpiest member of his own stable against the two least important members of another heel stable while the guy with the undercard title is in the main event against a guy we’ve all seen him face a million times before because it doesn’t matter how over anyone else gets: Management will always see Tanahashi as the top guy, so it sucks to be CM Punk Okada.
The match happens. Okada just felt like any other random guy. Until…
THE POST- MATCH SEGMENT- great!
Okada and Bad Luck Fale have a staredown, but then someone in a hoodie jumped Okada from behind and beat him down. Then he takes his hood off… and this collective â€"WHOA!†of surprise comes over the crowd, because the assailant is AJ STYLES! AJ gives Okada a Styles Clash, then cuts a promo calling Okada a young boy and saying that he wants the IWGP Heavyweight Title… and says that he will win it… because he is now a member of the Bullet Club!
NEVER OPENWIEGHT TITLE MATCH: Tomohiro Ishii(c) vs. Tetsuya Naito- 9/10
This started off with a few minutes of Ishii’s stupid, pointless no-selling… but then they started selling and it KICKED ASS! Both men worked over each other’s heads all match, to the point that you were sure that every spot could be the finish (though they did randomly go back to the no-selling once or twice, and Naito’s slapping was stupid).
IWGP HEAVYWEIGHT TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Doc Gallows & Karl â€"Machine Gun†Anderson(c) vs. Katsuyori Shibata & Hirooki Goto- 6.75/10
Gallows and Anderson now have awesome Bullet Club masks for their entrance and Gallows had a noose (thankfully Anderson did not have a machine gun).
So the match opened up with Anderson giving Shibata a million forearms to the head, but Shibata no-sells them all, then gives Anderson one forearm shot that pretty much knocks Anderson out. Shibata then spent the rest of the match working over Anderson’s arm. Other than that, the match was great. The finishing sequence in particular was awesome.
IWGP INTERCONTINENTAL TITLE: Hiroshi Tanahashi(c) vs. Shinsuke Nakamura- 10/10
HOLY F*CKING SH*T THIS MATCH WAS AWESOME! An awesome story and absolutely AMAZING selling from Nakamura. He fought through so much and got you so behind him that not seeing him win the match would have been heartbreaking.
An awesome show from New Japan, with awesome wrestling and big moments, all capped off by a perfect main event.