BRM Reviews NJPW Road to Power Struggle 2014: Day 7

[Big Red Machine]

NJPW Road to Power Struggle 2014: Day 7 (11/2/2014)- Shizuoka, Japan

FUEGO vs. YOHEI KOMATSU- 4.25/10

RYUSUKE TAGUCHI, ALEX SHELLEY, & KUSHIDA vs. SUZUKI-GUN (El Desperado, TAKA Michinoku, & Taichi)- 7.5/10
Great action. This would have been an 8/10, but Taguchi stopped selling his leg in the middle.

BUSHI, TIGER MASK IV, MASCARA DORADA, & JUSHIN “THUNDER” LIGER vs. THE BULLET CLUB (The Young Bucks, Tama Tonga, & Yujiro Takahashi)- 7/10
Lots of great junior heavyweight action.

SUZUKI-GUN (Minoru Suzuki & Takashi Iizuka) vs. CHAOS (Toru Yano & Gedo)- 1/10
They did a bunch of crowd brawling, like this atrocious Yano vs. Iizuka feud usually does. This show unfortunately, was shot with only the hard-cam, you couldn’t even see most of it. Later in the match, Suzuki shoved the referee down for absolutely no reason. This was not a DQ.
Suzuki’s double submission spot was cool, but other than that it was the same sh*tty match we always see. Suzuki is WAY too good to be stuck in this feud.


TOGI MAKABE, CAPTAIN NEW JAPAN, & TETSUYA NAITO vs. THE BULLET CLUB (Doc Gallows, Bad Luck Fale, & Karl “Machine Gun” Anderson)- 6.75/10
The referee caught Anderson choking Captain New Japan with a steel chain. This was not a DQ. After that it got good, though, as everyone but Fale got the chance to show their stuff. Captain New Japan rocks. I want him to win SOOOO badly, but I know he never will. It’s like rooting for Heath Slater, except that New Japan won’t do any wacky distraction finishes so you know he has absolutely no chance, but you can’t help but root for the guy. He didn’t win here, either. Instead he got pinned with the most vicious-looking Magic Killer I have ever seen. It was at this point that if finally dawned on me that Anderson and Gallows have been the IWGP Tag Team Champions for ten months now, and will probably hold the belts for at least a year.

SUPER JUNIOR TAG LEAGUE 2014 SEMIFINAL MATCH: Forever Hooligans vs. reDRagon- 7.75/10
Great stuff here. reDRagon continue to impress with their ability to come up with new spots for their matches.

HIROSHI TANAHASHI, KATSUYORI SHIBATA, HIROOKI GOTO, & TOMOAKI HONMA vs. CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada, Shinsuke Nakamura, Tomohiro Ishii, & YOSHI-HASHI)- 7.5/10
They did their teases of their big matches (Shibata vs. Nakamura for Power Struggle and Tanahashi vs. Okada for the Tokyo Dome), then they did stuff. Also, Ishii and Goto are apparently facing off for Ishii’s NEVER Openweight Title at Power Struggle. If anyone is wondering, Honma and YOSHI-HASHI are not facing off at the PPV.


A solid show from New Japan that did a good job of building to Power Struggle. Great wrestling all up and down the card… aside from the f*cking Yano-Iizuka feud.