Rappongi 3K vs El Desperado & Kanemaru of Suzuki-Gun for the IWGP Jr Heavyweight Tag Team Championship
The match was good. I did think though that it took the two teams to get on the same page. There were a couple of botches. Once they got together, this match really got going. On the whole, it was a good match.
Jay White & YOSHI-HASHI vs Juice Robinson & David Finlay
This match was good. I’d never seen David Finlay wrestle before, but he’s good, and a good counterbalance to Robinson, who I’ve felt for some time is an up and comer for a long time. Yoshi-Hashi is a pretty good wrestler, but this match wasn’t the best showing for him. Jay White is currently the IWGP US Champion, but you wouldn’t know it from this match. No one really cheered or booed him. Also for me, being that this is the first time I’ve seen him in a full match, this show was uninspired for me. He wrestled with lose face. I don’t know if that is just his persona or not, but it’s how I felt watching him during this match. The stand out in this match was truly Juice Robinson.
Minoru Suzuki & Zack Saber Jr. of Suzuki-Gun vs. Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano of Chaos
If not for the main event, this would have been the match of the night for me. Suzuki and Ishii, good grief those two are battle-hardened badasses. The back and forth between those two, sprinkled in with the submission mastery of Saber Jr. and the comedy of Yano made the match. Oh and good grief, the slap fest that happened between Suzuki and Ishii after the match made my face hurt. I would pay to see a match between these two.
Hirooki Goto vs Michael Elgin vs Tai Chi for the Never Openweight Championship
This match was well paced and gave participants a chance to show their stuff. I liked how Tai Chi showed his cowardly heel ways. Elgin just seems like wannabe badass, and Goto is an actual badass. I honestly didn’t care who won this match. Elgin won.
Evil & Sanada of Los Ingobernables de Japon vs The Young Bucks for the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship
The selling in this match by the Young Bucks was amazing. The action in this match was amazing and kept me invested throughout. This match and the Suzuki match is how tag team matches should be. I hope the higher-ups in Connecticut were looking at these matches. I’m actually glad that the Young Bucks won. I like them, and they showed in this match why those belts will be well represented. Very good match.
Rey Mysterio Jr., JushinLiger & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Cody, Marty Scrull & Hangman Page of Bullet Club
This match was kinda weird. It felt to me that there are six amazing and/or up and coming wrestlers who got into the ring and couldn’t quite get it together. Each wrestler did well with their spots, but for me, it just felt that something was kinda missing.
Will Ospreay vs Hiromu Takahashi for the IWGP Jr Heavyweight Championship
This match started off quick. Man, Ospreay is super quick and willing to do anything to entertain the audience, no matter what it does to his body. Takahashi was a very nice counter to Ospreay. Also, this time (maybe because he’s hurt), Ospreay this time felt slightly unhinged, menacing and deliberate in this match, and it was amazing. I’m glad that Takahashi won.
Tetsuya Naito vs Chris Jericho for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship
Man, Jericho is ridiculous! The way he can constantly reinvent himself, even at this stage in his career is amazing. When he comes to the ring dressed in this mix of an insane clown and Clockwork Orange, I know he was about to destroy Naito win or lose. He waylaid into Naito even before the match started, and only seem to really let up to allow Naito to show what he can do, which is a lot. The back and forth of these was amazing. It was a total shock when Jericho won the match because this leaves questions. Is Jericho fully with NJPW now? What happens to the IC belt now? IS he going to regularly defend the belt, or is he going the Lesnar route? I hope it’s the former not the latter. Man, this match was amazing.
Kazuchika Okada vs Kenny Omega – 2/3 Falls for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship
This match left me physically and emotionally drained. This match is the match of the year so far for me, ahead of Gargano vs. Ciampa, and the NXT NA Championship Ladder Match. The way they started off simple, and slowly built towards a rapturous conclusion at the end, with Omega finally winning the Championship is the way a story is supposed to be told in a match. Good Lord, this match and honestly the last two years of this feud/story should be a clinic on how to write a feud, and to put on an amazing ending. Honestly, I shed tears when the Young Bucks came into the ring to finally embrace after many months of strife was amazing. This is the night that the Golden Elite is born.
As a first time watcher of NJPW PPVs, on the whole, this PPV was head and shoulders above of many of the PPVs that have been offered by WWE’s main roster, and I don’t think it’s the fault of the wrestlers. I think if the main roster of the WWE were allowed to do the same, they would go toe to toe with NJPW in terms of PPV content and story.
Well, those are my thoughts on this PPV. What do you think? Let me know in the comments.
