BRM Reviews NJPW Road to Power Struggle 2013: Day 9

[Big Red Machine]

NJPW Road to Power Struggle 2013: Day 9 (11/6/2013)- Tokyo, Japan

SUPER JUNIOR TAG TOURNAMENT 2013 SEMIFINAL MATCH: The Young Bucks vs. Jado & Gedo- 6.75/10

SUPER JUNIOR TAG TOURNAMENT 2013 SEMIFINAL MATCH: Forever Hooligans vs. BUSHI & Valiente- 6.75/10
Having the Hooligans play the heels here was odd, considering that they are babyfaces in their feud with the tag champs and that they would have to be babyfaces later tonight against the Bucks.

CAPTAIN NEW JAPAN, & HIROYOSHI TENZAN, & KUSHIDA vs. TIGER MASK VI MANABU NAKANISHI, & JUSHIN “THUNDER” LIGER- 4.75/10
Captain New Japan plays the babyface in peril, but they also did some spots where he just looked like a doofus while trying to make a comeback, so I really didn’t care about him.

YGUI NAGATA vs. TAKASHI IIZUKA- 5/10
Iizuka jumps Nagata before the match and beats him up with a bunch of weapons before they get to the ring. He keeps beating Nagata up a lot. Nagata makes a comeback, but Toru Yano comes out and hits him with a chair, causing a DQ. Yano and Iizuka then beat Nagata down to build up to their tag team match against Nagata and Sakuraba at Power Struggle 2013.

BAD LUCK FALE vs. TAMAOKI HONMA- 5/10
Great big-man vs. not-as-big man story here. When Fale finally went down, it felt important.

SHINSUKE NAKAMURA, BRIAN KENDRICK, & BARRETA vs. SUZUKI-GUN (Minoru Suzuki, Taichi, & TAKA Michinoku)- 7/10
Good action, and a post-match brawl, too.

TETSUYA NAITO, HIROSHI TANAHASHI, KOTA IBUSHI, & TOGI MAKABE vs. MASATO TANAKA & CHAOS (Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano, & Yujiro Takahashi)- 5.5/10
Extremely short, considering the massive amount of talent and star power involved, but extremely fast-paced, and everyone got the chance to shine.

KAZUCHIKA OKADA & YOSHI-HASHI vs. KARL “MACHINE GUN” ANDERSON & PRINCE DEVITT (w/Bad Luck Fale)- 7/10
Lots of fast-paced action, and it definitely got me hyped for Anderson vs. Okada.

SUPER JUNIOR TAG TOURNAMENT 2013 FINALS: The Young Bucks vs. Forever Hooligans- 8.5/10
Awesome tag team wrestling. Some might not like the overbooking at the end, but I thought it did a good job of letting the Bullet Club be heels as a unit, helping Fale look like a monster and building Anderson up for his title shot.

The Super Junior Tag Tournament Finals rocked and the show as a whole did a great job of building to and hyping up Power Struggle 2013. A good show from New Japan.