BRM Reviews NJPW New Year's Dash 2015

[Big Red Machine]

NJPW New Year’s Dash 2015 (1/5/2015)- Tokyo, Japan

TIGER MASK IV & SHO TANAKA vs. SUZUKI-GUN (TAKA Michinoku & Taichi)- 4.75/10
Taichi & Tiger Mask had a stare-down after the match.

FOREVER HOOLIGANS vs. reDRagon- 7/10

HIROYOSHI TENZAN, SATOSHI KOJIMA, CAPTAIN NEW JAPAN, MANABU NAKANISHI & TOMOAKI HONMA vs. SUZUKI-GUN (Minoru Suzuki, Davey Boy Smith Jr., Shelton Benjamin, Lance Archer, & Takashi Iizuka) (w/TAKA Michinoku & Taichi)- 6/10

NWA WORLD JUNIOR HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Jushin “Thunder” Liger(c) vs. El Desperado- 7.5/10
Both guys work the arms, but Desperado does it after his cheating buddies hit Liger in the arm with a chair while the ref was distracted. Desperado also went after Liger’s mask. The ref took a back elbow and went flying the entire way across the wing and flying out of it.

RYUSUKE TAGUCHI, ALEX SHELLEY, & KUSHIDA vs. THE BULLET CLUB (The Young Bucks & Kenny Omega)- 7/10
Great action. Babyfaces win, but the Bullet Club assaulted them all after the match.

THE BULLET CLUB (Bad Luck Fale & Tama Tonga) vs. CHAOS (Toru Yano & Kazuchika Okada) (w/Gedo)- 5.25/10
So… is Okada good enough to salvage a match with these three shlubs? Yes. Yes he is.
That being said, his bodyslam on Fale didn’t get the reaction I thought it would. The finish on the other hand… now THAT got a reaction from the crowd.

TOGI MAKABE, YUJI NAGATA, & KOTA IBUSHI vs. CHAOS (Shinsuke Nakamura, Tomohiro Ishii, & YOSHI-HASHI)- 5.5/10
Makabe and Ishii did the same stuff they did last night, but less of it and not as good, while the interactions between Kota and Nakamura just didn’t feel like the interactions they should be having after the match they had last night.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- Nagata wants an IWGP Intercontinental Title match. Nakamura says okay.

BULLET CLUB SEGMENT- they brought out someone who I correctly guessed to be Cody Hall, son of Scott Hall. I was able to guess this despite having never seen Cody before in my life because he appears to be wearing his father’s gear from WCW. The Hall family doesn’t have enough money to buy him gear that isn’t a hand-me-down? He couldn’t have asked for it as a birthday present from Hunter & Steph?
Anyway, they announce that he will be their young boy. He reaches for the Bullet Club t-shirt, but it is pulled away from him, and Doc Gallows said “No. You’ll have to earn these colors” at which point my brain completely shut off as I had a flashback to all of those horrible Aces & Eights segments.

HIROSHI TANAHASHI, TETSUYA NAITO, HIROOKI GOTO, & KATSUYORI SHIBATA vs. THE BULLET CLUB (AJ Styles, Doc Gallows, Karl Anderson, & Yujiro Takahashi) (w/the Bullet Club)- 8/10
Lots of great stuff here. Naito was a great babyface in peril, and once he made the hot tag, things really picked up. AJ pins Tanahashi to set up for an IWGP Heavyweight Title match at The New Beginning in Osaka 2015.

A great show from New Japan. A good follow-up to last night’s Tokyo Dome show.

[cero2k]

THE BULLET CLUB (Bad Luck Fale & Tama Tonga) vs. CHAOS (Toru Yano & Kazuchika Okada) (w/Gedo)- 5.25/10
So… is Okada good enough to salvage a match with these three shlubs? Yes. Yes he is.
That being said, his bodyslam on Fale didn’t get the reaction I thought it would. The finish on the other hand… now THAT got a reaction from the crowd.

i'm guessing we're about to see Okada on a downward spiral and small losing streak

[Big Red Machine]

THE BULLET CLUB (Bad Luck Fale & Tama Tonga) vs. CHAOS (Toru Yano & Kazuchika Okada) (w/Gedo)- 5.25/10
So… is Okada good enough to salvage a match with these three shlubs? Yes. Yes he is.
That being said, his bodyslam on Fale didn’t get the reaction I thought it would. The finish on the other hand… now THAT got a reaction from the crowd.

i'm guessing we're about to see Okada on a downward spiral and small losing streak

I'd like to see that, and him have to work his way back up, culminating in something at next year's Dome Show (maybe a win over Nakamura for the IWGP Heavyweight Title), but I don't think that's what they'll do. I think the angle here was that he was injured from the night before (he was very taped up). It wouldn't surprise me to see beat Fale clean at The New Beginning and go back to the top. I fully expect him to beat Tanahashi at Dominion (if not sooner).

[cero2k]

THE BULLET CLUB (Bad Luck Fale & Tama Tonga) vs. CHAOS (Toru Yano & Kazuchika Okada) (w/Gedo)- 5.25/10
So… is Okada good enough to salvage a match with these three shlubs? Yes. Yes he is.
That being said, his bodyslam on Fale didn’t get the reaction I thought it would. The finish on the other hand… now THAT got a reaction from the crowd.

i'm guessing we're about to see Okada on a downward spiral and small losing streak

I'd like to see that, and him have to work his way back up, culminating in something at next year's Dome Show (maybe a win over Nakamura for the IWGP Heavyweight Title), but I don't think that's what they'll do. I think the angle here was that he was injured from the night before (he was very taped up). It wouldn't surprise me to see beat Fale clean at The New Beginning and go back to the top. I fully expect him to beat Tanahashi at Dominion (if not sooner).

that would have been a beautiful story if he hadn't won last year's G1 Climax, since that's the perfect run to 'get back on track'

[Big Red Machine]

i'm guessing we're about to see Okada on a downward spiral and small losing streak

I'd like to see that, and him have to work his way back up, culminating in something at next year's Dome Show (maybe a win over Nakamura for the IWGP Heavyweight Title), but I don't think that's what they'll do. I think the angle here was that he was injured from the night before (he was very taped up). It wouldn't surprise me to see beat Fale clean at The New Beginning and go back to the top. I fully expect him to beat Tanahashi at Dominion (if not sooner).

that would have been a beautiful story if he hadn't won last year's G1 Climax, since that's the perfect run to 'get back on track'

Rats. I forgot about the G1. Well... maybe it would work if he challenged for the IC Title.