NJPW Road to Wrestling Dontaku 2016 results: Kenny Omega vs. Michael Elgin I-C title match

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source: http://www.f4wonline.com/japan/njpw-roa ... tch-211831

Juice Robinson and Jay White vs. Captain New Japan and David Finlay

Pretty short. Had internet problems during this bout, so didn’t see much of it. Really just saw the finish where Robinson submitted CNJ with what looked like a version of the camel clutch. On Twitter, he mentions he calls this the Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Clutch. No, really!

Yoshi-Hashi and Roppongi Vice vs. Manabu Nakanishi, Tiger Mask & Ryusuke Taguchi

Pretty solid match. Heels controlled most of the match, faces made a comeback. Nakanishi and Yoshi-Hashi brawled into the crowd. Tiger Mask avoided Romero but he grabbed his mask and rolled him up for the win.

Romero cut a promo for his team, saying they’ll be retaining the titles at Dontaku against Sydal and Ricochet.

Yoshitatsu and Great Bash Heel vs. Guerrillas of Destiny and Yujiro Takahashi

Bullet Club came out wearing white camo. Largely a solid match, nothing all that interesting. Crowd woke up when Makabe was tagged in and ran wild on Tanga Loa. Loa made a comeback, but eventually with the rest of the team’s help Makabe got the win with the king kong knee drop.

Yuji Nagata & Jushin Liger vs. Katsuyori Shibata and Kushida

Lots of brawling. They brawled inside, outside, just about everywhere. A lof of the match was Shibata beating up Nagata and vice versa. Liger had Kushida in a figure four for a good while At one point Kushida had escaped from it, but Liger put it back in. The Jushin Liger of 2016 has some really good mat work and it’ll probably play a part in their upcoming match. There were good aspects of this match, but it felt really, really longer than it needed to be. Nagata and Shibata went at it for a long time until tagging in their partners. Liger tried working on Kushida’s bum legs and worked in an arm wringer but Kushida grabbed Ligers arm and snagged him in a modified roll up for the win.

Tetsuya Naito, Evil, Bushi and Sanada vs. Hirooki Goto, Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii & Gedo

New Japan eight man tag matches usually follow a formula, and this one followed it to a tee: everyone works against their rival, then something happens and they all wind up on the outside and brawl. Here, it was Sanada using his submission finisher the Skull End on Okada. Goto and Evil were in there and had really good chemistry with one another. Evil is one of those guys that is going to do very well as far as doing that hard hitting stiff style. Everyone came in towards the end and laid out one another, with Ishii laying out Naito. Bushi came in, ate a lariat and a brainbuster and that was it. Pretty good match.

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Bad Luck Fale

Fale, as you’d expect, used big guy power spots to start. Wasn’t particularly interesting. Fale dominated, Tanahashi made a comeback, including the high fly flow to the floor. Fale made a comeback, got a near fall after a grenade. Tanahashi countered the Bad Luck Fall, hit the slingblade and pinned Bad Luck Fale with the high fly flow. It was a very patterned match, but it was fine. Tanahashi is excellent as a ring general as he knows how to work with a guy like Fale.

Intercontinental Title: Kenny Omega (c) vs. Michael Elgin

Omega was all alone for this title defense, but had plenty of weapons anyway, including a ladder for some reason. He tried to use them all as Elgin stomped on him but Elgin kicked them all away. Elgin used the ladder to shove Omega into the barricade but Omega came back with it. They set up a table on the outside. Some really good back and forth in the ring. Omega used to be good, but now he’s like really good, not just in terms of athleticism but also just being the overall package. He has a ton of confidence. At one point Omega went for a hurricanrana, Elgin blocked it and powerbombed him through the table in a crazy spot.

Elgin hit the buckle bomb and was going to the Elgin bomb but Omega spiked him with a reverse hurricanrana as he was going up, then another one after Elgin blocked the One Winged Angel. Elgin went for another buckle bomb but Omega came back with two knee strikes and hit the One Winged Angel to retain the title. Great main event.

Tanahashi came out after the match and challenged Omega. Omega said he’d think about it. He proceeded to think about it for approximately two seconds by low blowing Tanahashi, saying his answer was no. He took the ladder and put it on top of the fallen Tanahashi. He climbed to the top of the ladder and basically said he never wanted to face Tanahashi again, and that is real. He left, streamers flying as the show closed. Obviously this is the next program, so I guess eventually Omega’s going to change his mind. Or maybe not, who knows!

That main event blew the rest of this card out of the water, so if there’s one match you need to see it’s that one.