#wrestling hinokuni 2018

[puroresu-musings]

NJPW Road To WRESTLING DONTAKU & WRESTLING HINOKUNI 2018 Reviews

April 23rd, Tokyo, Korakuen Hall:

IWGP Jr. Tag Title Match: Yoshinobu Kanemaru & El Desperado (c) vs. Hiromu Takahashi & BUSHI  ***1/2

April 24th, Tokyo, Korakuen Hall:

Tomohiro Ishii vs. Toa Henare  ***3/4

IWGP U.S. Title Match: Jay White (c) vs. David Finlay  ***3/4

April 27th, Hiroshima:

NEVER Openweight Title Match: Hirooki Goto (c) vs. Juice Robinson  ****1/4

Kazuchika Okada & Will Ospreay vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi & KUSHIDA  ***3/4

WRESTLING HINOKUNI 2018, April 29th, Kumamoto, Grand Messe:

Yuji Nagata & Ren Narita vs. Tomoyuki Oka & Shota Umino  ***

David Finlay & Jushin Liger & Tiger Mask & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Jay White & Rocky Romero & Sho & Yoh  **¾

Togi Makabe & Toa Henare vs. Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano  **½

Kenny Omega & Kota Ibushi & Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens vs. Zack Sabre Jr. & Takashi Iizuka & Taichi & Taka Michinoku   ***

Hiroshi Tanahashi & Juice Robinson & Michael Elgin & KUSHIDA vs. Kazuchika Okada & Hirooki Goto & Will Ospreay & YOSHI-HASHI  ***¼

BUSHI vs. El Desperado  **1/2

Hiromu Takahashi vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru  ***

IWGP Tag Title Match: EVIL & SANADA © vs. Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr.  ***1/2

IWGP Intercontinental Title Match: Minoru Suzuki © vs. Tetsuya Naito  ***1/2

Photos.

This has been a very long tour indeed, and I must admit that I’m not too fussed about it anymore, just get to the Fukuoka shows already. And even then the Bullet Club: Civil War show on the 3rd does nothing for me either, so just get to the 4th. The gimmick for this tour is LIJ vs. Suzuki-gun, CHAOS vs. New Japan, and Bullet Club vs. Bullet Club, which we’ve thankfully pretty much been spared so far.

The Korakuen Hall shows were your standard Road To... shows with some strong matches. The Suzuki-gunners retained the IWGP Jr Tag belts against the LIJ Junior Heavy squad in a match which started slow and oh so very familiar, but then turned into a very good outing. Desperado pinned BUSHI with Pinche Loco after a lot of silliness, as is prerequisite with most of Suzuki-gun bouts these days. Henare and Ishii finally squared off in a hard-hitting singles collision on the 24th. This was great, with both guys killing each other with strikes, including a great exchange later on. Ishii did a tremendous job of selling a body blow, before unsurprisingly putting the rookie away with the Vertical Drop Brainbuster in 15:20. And in the main event of that show, Jay White beat David Finlay in another great outing, after pinning him with Blade Runner at the 26:49 mark. The main problem here is that no one bought Finlay really winning, and neither are especially over as main event guys. Beyond this though, the match was really good. Also these shows drew fairly disappointing houses to Korakuen.

The Road To... show in Horishima was a lot of the same, in terms of all the usual tag variations we’ve seen all tour, but it did feature an excellent NEVER Title defence by Goto, taking on the fiery Juice Robinson. This went a little long for my liking (26:36), but it was great stuff, and the best match on the entire tour so far. The finishing stretch was highly believable as Juice nailed a devastating Brainbuster on Goto, which looked like it nearly killed him, for a great near fall, then Goto busted out the old Shouten Kai for a super-close near fall, before finally hitting the GTR to retain. Both guys looked tremendous here, especially Robinson, who has come such a long way in the last two years. Of all the people in the world to be Goto’s next challengers, Michael Elgin and Taichi came out to set up some kind of three way. This is as random as it gets folks. Then in the main event, Tanahashi pinned Will Ospreay with the High Fly flow in 18:15 to end another really good tag bout.

The returning Wrestling Hinokuni show (its been on hiatus since Kumamoto was devastated by that earthquake in 2016) was a really disapointing show in my opinion. It featured nothing bad at all, everything was pretty much good, but the top two matches didn’t deliver like I thought they would at all. The main theme of this show was LIJ vs. Suzuki-gun as BUSHI took on Desperado and Hiromu battled Kanemaru in singles contests, K.E.S. looked to regain the tag belts from SANADA and EVIL and Suzuki put the I.C. Title on the line against Naito. BUSHI beat Despy by DQ in an OK match after Kanemaru interfered, then Hiromu came in to make the Kanemaru match immediate. Takahashi won this after the Suzuki-gun guys interfernce backfired, BUSHI misted Kanemaru, then Hiromu hit his Dynamite Plancha, the Death Valley Bomb into the corner and the Time Bomb to win in 11:28. All of this was fine, but I don’t fully understand the reason for it. I have no real interest in seeing them square off in the BOSJ either. EVIL and SANADA retained the Tag Titles over K.E.S. in a very good brawl which was on a par with their WK12 match. This featured some good action, including K.E.S. hitting a Killer Bomb on SANADA off the apron and through a table, which took him out for a while and EVIL had to go it alone. He put up a brave fight, even kicking out of an assisted middle rope power slam and a Magic Killer, which put him away at Sakura Genesis. The LIJ duo rallied back, hitting a Magic Killer of their own, and EVIL hit Smith with a chair, before scoring the win with the STO at the 17:58 mark.

And Tetsuya Naito won the I.C. Title in something of a shock in the main event. This was a very good match but was just missing something. Suzuki worked over Naito’s knees in glorious Suzuki fashion throughout, locking on kneebars aplenty, and Naito did a really great job in selling this, but the Kumamoto crowd just didn’t buy Naito submitting for whatever reason. I mean it was all believable, but they were dead for his peril and struggles. For example, there were points where Suzuki had Naito trapped in a figure four and the same kneebar he defeated Tanahashi with, but you could probably literally hear a pin drop in the building. This kind of fell apart in the closing moments for some reason, as Suzuki locked in a choke, but Naito tried to counter with a neckbreaker (possibly), but they totally botched it and fell to the mat unceremoniously. They had a tremendous slap exchange, which resulted in Suzuki bleeding from the nose and mouth. Naito then hit what looked like a Northern Lights Bomb, but it too looked maybe like a botch, before hitting a Destino out of nowhere to end the match unexpectedly, and give LIJ the clean sweep. The crowd certainly weren’t expecting the finish, but popped for the Naito title win. As I say, there was nothing wrong with this match, but it just didn’t do much for me. Their encounters in the 2013 and 2014 G1s were much better in my opinion, and the finish just seemed kind of flat. One problem was it was maybe too long (30:22) and with the quiet crowd, this made it seem much longer. Naito winning is a surprise, but I suppose it keeps him at the top end of the card, and at nearly 50 years old, Suzuki, though still great, maybe can’t go at the top level as much as he’d like to, so could do with some time in the mid card and in multi-man’s. All in all, these are decent shows and the Goto/Juice match is well worth going out of your way for.

NDT

[njpwdaily]

NJPWDAILY SUPERLATIVES 2018 BEST HEAVYWEIGHT WRESTLER → Tetsuya Naito (28.6% of votes)

Perhaps it was the controversial loss to Okada at Wrestle Kingdom, or the re-gaining of the IWGP Intercontinental Championship at Wrestling Hinokuni against the formidable Minoru Suzuki, or the consistently great in-ring performance in G1 Climax 28, or the protection and loyalty to his L.I.J brethren, or the defiant attitude towards the legendary Chris Jericho. Whatever the reason, fans found themselves more endeared than ever to Tetsuya Naito in 2018. And what’s not to love anyway? Despite not holding the IWGP Heavyweight Championship during the year, Naito more than proved that he belongs at the head of the pack and, in his own tranquilo way, can carry New Japan on his shoulders in the foreseeable future.

RUNNER-UPS: Kenny Omega & Kota Ibushi (19%), Hiroshi Tanahashi (11.9%), Kazuchika Okada (9.5%), Jay White & Tomohiro Ishii (4.8%), Zack Sabre Jr. (2.4%)

2017 WINNER: Kazuchika Okada

[puroresu-musings]

So here are the top matches from the next big New Japan shows. There’s a lot of good stuff on here, especially the May 4th Dontaku show, which could be an amazing show. Most of the tour revolves around the Bullet Club civil war, the LIJ/Suzukigun feud, and its topped off by rematches between Ospreay (if he’s healthy) and KUSHIDA and the long awaited bout between Okada and Tanahashi. Both feuds, specifically the latter, have produced some of the finest matches of the 21st century and theres no reason these shouldn’t follow in their predecessors footsteps. The May 3rd show isn’t too appealing, especially with an Omega vs. Hangman Page main event that doesn’t exactly get the mouth watering, however, the Suzuki/Naito I.C. Title on April 29th in Kumamoto should be tremendous.

Wrestling Hinokuni 2018 (April 29, Grand Messe, Kumamoto)

BUSHI vs. El Desperado

Hiromu Takahashi vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru

SANADA & EVIL (c) vs. Killer Elite Squad for the IWGP Tag Team Championship

Minoru Suzuki (c) vs. Tetsuya Naito for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship

Wrestling Dontaku 2018 Day 1 (May 3, Fukuoka International Centre)

Bad Luck Fale & Guerrillas of Destiny (c) vs. The Young Bucks & Marty Scurll for the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship

Hiroshi Tanahashi & KUSHIDA vs. Kazuchika Okada & Will Ospreay

Kota Ibushi vs. Cody

Kenny Omega vs. Hangman Page

Wrestling Dontaku 2018 Day 2 (May 4, Fukuoka International Centre)

Tetsuya Naito, EVIL, SANADA, BUSHI & Hiromu Takahashi vs. Minoru Suzuki, Killer Elite Squad, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & El Desperado

Kenny Omega, Kota Ibushi, Bad Luck Fale & Guerrillas of Destiny vs. Cody, Hangman Page, Marty Scurll & The Young Bucks

Will Ospreay (c) vs. KUSHIDA for the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship

Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship

[pwrestlingxpress]

Projected Match Card for Dominion 6.9 in Osaka-Jo Hall

After getting huge surprises in night two of Wrestling Dontaku 2018, here is the projected match card for Dominion 6.9 in Osaka-Jo Hall.  The match card will not be finalized ‘till after the day after Best of the Super Juniors 25 which will be June 5th since the finals will be taking place on June 4th in Korakuen Hall.  

Anyway, here is the projected match card in order of the angles teased through the Dontaku tour:

3-Way Match with a 60-minute Time Limit for the NEVER Open-weight Championship: (Challenger #1) Michael Elgin vs. (Challenger #2) Taichi [Suzuki-gun] vs. (Champion) Hirooki Goto 

Tag Team Match with a 60-minute Time Limit for the IWGP Tag Team Championship: (Challenger Team) Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson [The Young Bucks/Bullet Club] vs. (Champion Team) “King of Darkness” EVIL and Seiya Sanada [Los Ingobernables de Japon]

Singles Match with a 60-minute Time Limit for the IWGP United States Championship:  (Challenger) Juice Robinson vs. (Champion) Either Jay White [Chaos] or Punisher Martinez [ROH].  Winner will be revealed on May 10th when Jay defends against Martinez at ROH’s War of the Worlds in Toronto

Singles Match with a 60-minute Time Limit for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship:  (Challenger) Chris Jericho vs. (Champion) Tetsuya Naito [Los Ingobernables de Japon]

Special Singles Match (Time Limit to be determined):  Kota Ibushi [Golden☆Lovers] vs. “The American Nightmare” Cody [Bullet Club] 

Singles Match with a 60-minute Time Limit for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship:  (Challenger) Taiji Ishimori [Bullet Club] vs. (Champion) Will Ospreay [Chaos]

Singles Match, No Time Limit, 2 out of 3 Falls for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship:  (Challenger) Kenny Omega [Golden☆Lovers/Bullet Club] vs. (Champion) Kazuchika Okada [Chaos] 

With this the following title matches have yet to be announced:  The IWGP Junior Tag Team Championship and the NEVER 6-man Tag Team Championship.  Considering that Matt and Nick are 2/3rd of the NEVER 6-man Tag Team champions with Marty Scurll, it’s going to be very interesting to see how New Japan can get the belts off of them between now and June 9th. Either that or how the belts will be defended leading into Osaka-Jo on the ninth.  

Also what’s interesting is that there was apparently no tease for a IWGP Junior Tag Team Championship match but we’ll have to stay tuned and watch the Best of the Super Juniors to see who will challenge the Team of El Desperado and Yoshinobu Kanemaru for those belts at Dominion. 

And...in a surprise twist, Hiroshi Tanahashi is no where to be found on this projected card of Dominion 6.9 in Osaka-Jo,  so one has to wonder what match will he have this year if any at all.  The same case can go for Minoru Suzuki, who just recently lost the Intercontinental Championship to Tetsuya Naito at Wrestling Hinokuni 2018. Again, the card will not be finalized ‘till June 5th, so stay tuned between now and then for the final card. 

Dominion 6.9 in Osaka-Jo Hall presented by Hoken Minaoshi Honpo airs on Saturday June 9th from Osaka at 3 AM Eastern (4 PM local time) on NJPW World with English Commentary provided by Kevin Kelly and Don Callis. Tune in then to see the best New Japan has to offer. 

[pwrestlingxpress]

Uproxx’s Bill Hanstock has put up an article-like interview asking Kenny Omega how it feels to be back with Kota Ibushi as the Golden☆Lovers and how he wants to make it his mission to make Tag-Team wrestling more noticeable.  He also is asked about if New Japan would want to implement a women’s division sometime in the near future and is does he still consider himself a singles competitor.   You can learn all that and more by clicking on the title above.  If that link doesn’t work, here’s the original link.  Just click here.

Omega will be facing “The American Nightmare” Cody at Ring of Honor’s Supercard of Honor XII on April 7th and then (as of this typing) will be having his next match on April 29th at Wrestling Hinokuni in a 8-man tag-team match.  Go to www.njpw1972.com and click on schedule to see who he’ll be facing and who’ll be teaming up with.  Enjoy the article, everyone.

[pwrestlingxpress]

Tetsuya Naito in Need of a Change

The reason why I titled that Tetsuya Naito is in need of a change is because of what happened at Dominion 6.9 in Osaka-Jo Hall this past weekend as well as all his matches so far in 2018. 

You notice he lost in the Tokyo Dome to Kazuchika Okada in a match that I called the match of the night.  Then the next month, he wrestled both YOSHI-HASHI and Taichi who aren’t considered top stars but are given a chance to be in the spotlight.  And then came the New Japan Cup where he went into his first round match against Zack Sabre Jr. with too much confidence and that caused him his match against the submission specialist.  

After that we go to Hinokuni in Kumamoto where Tetsuya Naito defeats Minoru Suzuki to become the 18th IWGP Intercontinental Champion.  That match to me, though good, almost exposed Tetsuya Naito as he had been scouted very well. 

And then we go to Osaka-Jo Hall and Dominion 6.9 where Tetsuya walked in as the IWGP Intercontinental Champion and got embarrassed by Chris Jericho to the point that he barely left the gate the moment the match began.  To me, based on his 2018 campaign so far, it’s time for Tetsuya Naito to change.

Out of the top four guys within New Japan, Tetsuya Naito is the only one who walks into his matches with the same attitude and the same calmness.  Kenny Omega, Kazuchika Okada, and Hiroshi Tanahashi have been going into their matches with different game plans and somehow have been able to succeed.  Tetsuya has been walking into his matches with the same game plan to the point now that everyone knows what he’s planning and what he’s doing.

The term “Tranquilo” can only work for so long.  Look what it did to his former ally, Andrade “Cien” Almas.  He became so tranquilo that his career went down the drain before Zelina Vega came in and boaster his career.  Now, he’s one of the top talents within professional wrestling.  Now, Tetsuya Naito needs to do the same thing.  You can’t stay tranquilo forever especially when it comes to your singles matches.  Even the rest of his Los Ingobernables de Japon stable have changed over time to the point I have to say that he’s now beneath their level. 

A change is needed in Tetsuya Naito.  What that change is though I don’t know but know that he needs it.  The term “tranquilo” can only work for so long and the fact that’s worked for over two years is something but here in 2018, it hasn’t worked as much as it used to.  And in Osaka-Jo, that style was exposed in brutal fashion to the point where after his controversial loss to Chris Jericho, didn’t even look at the camera or comment about the loss. 

By the time the G1 begins, let’s hope that we’ll see a different Tetsuya Naito then the one we’re seeing now.  Him as the Stardust Genesis didn’t work at all and him as the Ingobernable can only work for so long.  Time for Tetsuya Naito to stop being “tranquilo” and start being serious like Okada, Omega, and Tanahashi are or he may be replaced as one of the top four in New Japan.