NJPW Road to the Tokyo Dome: Day 6
NJPW Road to the Tokyo Dome: Day 6 (12/20/2014)- Tokyo, Japan
YOHEI KOMATSU vs. EL DESPERADO- 4.75/10
Yohei TOOK IT to Desperado at the beginning of the match and got one or two good false finishes in at the end.
TIGER MASK IV & JUSHIN â€"THUNDER†LIGER vs. SHO TANAKA & KUSHIDA- 7/10
Speaking of young boys getting believable false finishes… SHO F*CKING TANAKA. I’d expect him to have some color on his tights the next time we see him.
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- El Desperado jumped Liger and Tiger mask after the match, but Liger fought back and hid a big backbreaker. Liger teased taking Desperado’s mask off, but instead challenged him to an NWA Jr. Heavyweight Title match. Not sure Liger feels the need to put his title on the line.
RYUSUKE TAGUCHI, SATOSHI KOJIMA, & HIROYOSHI TENZAN vs. YUJI NAGATA, MANABU NAKANISHI, & CAPTAIN NEW JAPAN- 4/10
JADO, YOSHI-HASHI, & KAZUSHI SAKURABA vs. SUZUKI-GUN (Minoru Suzuki, Taichi, & TAKA Michinoku)- 5.75/10
At the beginning of the match both teams are staring each other down. Then Taichi and TAKA jumped Jado and YOSHI-HASHI… but I guess Sakuraba and Suzuki didn’t get the message because they just stood there and kept doing their staredown while these two brawls erupted around them, which looked really weird. Sakuraba and Suzuki were great, as always, and Suzuki-Gun are always fantastic heels. They did a finish that seems to be building up to Jado & Gedo vs. TAKA & Taichi, would be a fun match for the New Year Dash 2015 show the day after the Tokyo Dome or even for one of the New Beginning PPVs.
Suzuki and Sakuraba get grappling afterwards and had to be pulled apart from a mutual pair of heel hooks after the match.
Also, I cannot stress enough how nice a change it was to get to see Suzuki and Sakuraba wrestle in a match that didn’t involve the most infuriating, stale and boring feud I can remember…
TAKASHI IIZUKA vs. TORU YANO- -1/10 (Yes, negative this time)
Tenzan and Kojima were on commentary, and prevented Iizuka from tormenting the announcer. After YEARS of this, some of the babyfaces FINALLY step up to defend the poor announcer.
They did the same sh*t they always do, including the referee being completely incompetent until the Suzuki-Gun Junior Heavyweights run in and the referee finally calls for a DQ. While his pals hold Yano up, Iizuka prepares to hit him with the Iron Fingers, but someone comes to make the save. Was it Tenzan & Kojima, the babyfaces who are sitting right there at ringside?
Of course not! That would require this feud to make any sort of sense. Instead, the save was made by Mikey Nichols, Shane Haste, and Naomichi Marufuji… NONE OF WHOM EVEN WORK FOR NEW JAPAN!
Yano reveals that they will be his tag team partners in an eight man tag team match at the Tokyo Dome against Suzuki-Gun’s Iizuka, Shelton Benjamin, Lance Archer, & Davey Boy Smith Jr. Yes. They are wasting time with this at the TOKYO DOME!
Look… I understand wanting to have Marufuji on the Tokyo Dome because he is the GHC Heavyweight Champion, and he’s pretty darn awesome. I don’t know much about TMDK aside from their few short matches in ROH in early 2012, but from what I understand, they’re no slouches themselves. I understand that they want to increase the appeal to American fans by using guys that American fans are more likely to know, and Smith, Archer, and especially Shelton all fit that role nicely. Now, with that being said:
Iizuka and Yano have been feuding for SEVEN MONTHS now. Yes, the feud has sucked so hard it could suck a football through a garden hose, but it has been going on a for a long time, and blowing it off in a (SHORT) singles match at the Tokyo Dome on the biggest show of the year (likely in some sort of No DQ’s match) would be appropriate, but if it is just going to be another random tag match that doesn’t resolve anything as we have seen for MONTHS now, it probably should be relegated to New Year Dash 2015.
And that was my thinking BEFORE they made the deal with GFW to get on American PPV and as a result had their time cut to a mere four hours, rather than the FIVE AND A HALF that January 4th Tokyo Dome shows usually go!
You already have SIX title matches on the show, including what should be a CRAZY Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Title Four-way with probably the four best junior heavyweight teams in the world right now, Kenny Omega’s big return as a heel, Shibata & Goto being the first guys to really looked poised to dethrone the Bullet Club and end their year-long IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Title, Makabe and Ishii beating the sh*t out of each other for NEVER Title, Shinsuke Naka-freakin’-mura vs. Kota f*cking Ibushi, and it’s all headlined by OKADA VS. TANAHASHI FOR THE IWGP HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE! All of those matches need time (especially the last two). In addition to this, you also have AJ Styles vs. Tetsuya Naito and a dream match between Minoru Suzuki and Kazushi Sakuraba! These matches also need time.
If you are looking to have names that American fans know, you’ve got AJ Styles, Jeff Jarrett, Alex Shelley, Doc Gallows, the Young Bucks, and reDRagon. Shelton Benjamin, Lance Archer and Harry Smith aren’t going to do much of anything for you at this point. Hell… a title match involving JUSHIN LIGER got bumped to the next day’s show! So why the hell is this stupid, pointless eight-man still happening on the Tokyo Dome show? Maybe if it was just a singles match between Marufuji and Shelton to give Marufuji a win and make NOAH happy to cement some sort of working relationship I could understand it (though I still think it’d be better to save it for another show), but there is absolutely no reason to waste extremely precious time on your biggest show of the year and your debut on traditional American PPV with this sh*tfest of a match!
HIROOKI GOTO & KATSUYORI SHIBATA vs. TETSUYA NAITO & TOMOAKI HONMA- 7/10
A fun wrestling match with some creative spots a good finishing sequence.
HIROSHI TANAHASHI, TOGI MAKABE, & KOTA IBUSHI vs. CHAOS (w/Tomohiro Ishii, Shinsuke Nakamura & Kazuchika Okada)- 8.75/10
A completely awesome match that made all three of these big singles title matches at the Tokyo Dome feel like must-see matches. My only nitpick is that Chaos playing the heels felt wrong after the way that Kota jumped Nakamura from behind at Power Struggle 2014 to set up their Tokyo Dome match.
A GREAT show from New Japan with a must-see main event that did a fantastic job of building up their biggest show of the year.
YOHEI KOMATSU vs. EL DESPERADO- 4.75/10
Yohei TOOK IT to Desperado at the beginning of the match and got one or two good false finishes in at the end.
TIGER MASK IV & JUSHIN â€"THUNDER†LIGER vs. SHO TANAKA & KUSHIDA- 7/10
Speaking of young boys getting believable false finishes… SHO F*CKING TANAKA. I’d expect him to have some color on his tights the next time we see him.
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- El Desperado jumped Liger and Tiger mask after the match, but Liger fought back and hid a big backbreaker. Liger teased taking Desperado’s mask off, but instead challenged him to an NWA Jr. Heavyweight Title match. Not sure Liger feels the need to put his title on the line.
RYUSUKE TAGUCHI, SATOSHI KOJIMA, & HIROYOSHI TENZAN vs. YUJI NAGATA, MANABU NAKANISHI, & CAPTAIN NEW JAPAN- 4/10
JADO, YOSHI-HASHI, & KAZUSHI SAKURABA vs. SUZUKI-GUN (Minoru Suzuki, Taichi, & TAKA Michinoku)- 5.75/10
At the beginning of the match both teams are staring each other down. Then Taichi and TAKA jumped Jado and YOSHI-HASHI… but I guess Sakuraba and Suzuki didn’t get the message because they just stood there and kept doing their staredown while these two brawls erupted around them, which looked really weird. Sakuraba and Suzuki were great, as always, and Suzuki-Gun are always fantastic heels. They did a finish that seems to be building up to Jado & Gedo vs. TAKA & Taichi, would be a fun match for the New Year Dash 2015 show the day after the Tokyo Dome or even for one of the New Beginning PPVs.
Suzuki and Sakuraba get grappling afterwards and had to be pulled apart from a mutual pair of heel hooks after the match.
Also, I cannot stress enough how nice a change it was to get to see Suzuki and Sakuraba wrestle in a match that didn’t involve the most infuriating, stale and boring feud I can remember…
TAKASHI IIZUKA vs. TORU YANO- -1/10 (Yes, negative this time)
Tenzan and Kojima were on commentary, and prevented Iizuka from tormenting the announcer. After YEARS of this, some of the babyfaces FINALLY step up to defend the poor announcer.
They did the same sh*t they always do, including the referee being completely incompetent until the Suzuki-Gun Junior Heavyweights run in and the referee finally calls for a DQ. While his pals hold Yano up, Iizuka prepares to hit him with the Iron Fingers, but someone comes to make the save. Was it Tenzan & Kojima, the babyfaces who are sitting right there at ringside?
Of course not! That would require this feud to make any sort of sense. Instead, the save was made by Mikey Nichols, Shane Haste, and Naomichi Marufuji… NONE OF WHOM EVEN WORK FOR NEW JAPAN!
Yano reveals that they will be his tag team partners in an eight man tag team match at the Tokyo Dome against Suzuki-Gun’s Iizuka, Shelton Benjamin, Lance Archer, & Davey Boy Smith Jr. Yes. They are wasting time with this at the TOKYO DOME!
Look… I understand wanting to have Marufuji on the Tokyo Dome because he is the GHC Heavyweight Champion, and he’s pretty darn awesome. I don’t know much about TMDK aside from their few short matches in ROH in early 2012, but from what I understand, they’re no slouches themselves. I understand that they want to increase the appeal to American fans by using guys that American fans are more likely to know, and Smith, Archer, and especially Shelton all fit that role nicely. Now, with that being said:
Iizuka and Yano have been feuding for SEVEN MONTHS now. Yes, the feud has sucked so hard it could suck a football through a garden hose, but it has been going on a for a long time, and blowing it off in a (SHORT) singles match at the Tokyo Dome on the biggest show of the year (likely in some sort of No DQ’s match) would be appropriate, but if it is just going to be another random tag match that doesn’t resolve anything as we have seen for MONTHS now, it probably should be relegated to New Year Dash 2015.
And that was my thinking BEFORE they made the deal with GFW to get on American PPV and as a result had their time cut to a mere four hours, rather than the FIVE AND A HALF that January 4th Tokyo Dome shows usually go!
You already have SIX title matches on the show, including what should be a CRAZY Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Title Four-way with probably the four best junior heavyweight teams in the world right now, Kenny Omega’s big return as a heel, Shibata & Goto being the first guys to really looked poised to dethrone the Bullet Club and end their year-long IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Title, Makabe and Ishii beating the sh*t out of each other for NEVER Title, Shinsuke Naka-freakin’-mura vs. Kota f*cking Ibushi, and it’s all headlined by OKADA VS. TANAHASHI FOR THE IWGP HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE! All of those matches need time (especially the last two). In addition to this, you also have AJ Styles vs. Tetsuya Naito and a dream match between Minoru Suzuki and Kazushi Sakuraba! These matches also need time.
If you are looking to have names that American fans know, you’ve got AJ Styles, Jeff Jarrett, Alex Shelley, Doc Gallows, the Young Bucks, and reDRagon. Shelton Benjamin, Lance Archer and Harry Smith aren’t going to do much of anything for you at this point. Hell… a title match involving JUSHIN LIGER got bumped to the next day’s show! So why the hell is this stupid, pointless eight-man still happening on the Tokyo Dome show? Maybe if it was just a singles match between Marufuji and Shelton to give Marufuji a win and make NOAH happy to cement some sort of working relationship I could understand it (though I still think it’d be better to save it for another show), but there is absolutely no reason to waste extremely precious time on your biggest show of the year and your debut on traditional American PPV with this sh*tfest of a match!
HIROOKI GOTO & KATSUYORI SHIBATA vs. TETSUYA NAITO & TOMOAKI HONMA- 7/10
A fun wrestling match with some creative spots a good finishing sequence.
HIROSHI TANAHASHI, TOGI MAKABE, & KOTA IBUSHI vs. CHAOS (w/Tomohiro Ishii, Shinsuke Nakamura & Kazuchika Okada)- 8.75/10
A completely awesome match that made all three of these big singles title matches at the Tokyo Dome feel like must-see matches. My only nitpick is that Chaos playing the heels felt wrong after the way that Kota jumped Nakamura from behind at Power Struggle 2014 to set up their Tokyo Dome match.
A GREAT show from New Japan with a must-see main event that did a fantastic job of building up their biggest show of the year.