Cero Reviews NJPW World Tag League, Day 2 - 5

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Cero Reviews NJPW World Tag League, Day 2 - 5

Post by cero2k » Dec 7th, '17, 19:21

Cero Reviews NJPW World Tag League, Day 2 - 5

November 19, 2017
Takasaki, Gunma, Japan


World Tag League 2017 Block B Match
Guerrillas of Destiny (0) vs Best Friends (0) - 6.5/10
Match started with Chuck and Trent doing some of their Best Friends shtick and they teased a bit of RPG Vice stuff, but soon after GoD cut them off and dragged them to the crowd area for a little brawl, which was weird since these are steady cam shows. Back in the ring, GoD had control over Beretta for a while until Chucky T got in and made his best effort to look like a strong hot tag. They went tornado tag for a bit, with GoD coming close to hitting the GunStun, but Beretta reversed it into a Dudebuster on Roa for the win. Good match, but not a lot of heat.


World Tag League 2017 Block B Match
CHAOS (Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano) (0) vs Michael Elgin & Jeff Cobb (0) - 6.5/10
Cobb and Ishii started the match and quickly went into a forearm and shoulder block exchange that ended with Cobb on top. Later on Yano and Elgin came in, and everyone remembers that Yano definitely has Elgin's number; Yano did his moves on Elgin, and while Elgin did get some strikes in, it ended with Yano on top and Elgin on the outside hurting. CHAOS cut off Elgin for a while, Cobb made the hot tag and literally tossed people around. At the end, Ishii was fighting off both Cobb and Elgin, but fell to the numbers game and Elgin eventually pinned him after his powerbomb combination. Elgin and Cobb did some team work spots, but they were mostly out of synch, I'll cut them some slack since it's their first time wrestling together.

November 20, 2017
Tokorozawa, Saitama, Japan


World Tag League 2017 Block A Match
Bullet Club (Hangman Page & Yujiro Takahashi) (0) vs Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi (0) - 6.5/10
Nakanishi beat Yujiro's ass until Page interfered and they double teamed Nakanishi for a while. After teasing the hot tag a few times, Nagata finally made it in and ran wild for a bit. The old timers did some double spots on the BC, but as Nakanishi tried to go for the Torture Rack, BC turned it around leading to Yujiro dropping him with the DDT for the win. This felt like a really short match, but overall good considering the players. If anything else, Nakanishi still has a mean chop.

World Tag League 2017 Block A Match
Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale & Chase Owens) (0) vs TenCozy (0) - 7/10
There was a slight story that TenCozy could handle Owens, but not Fale by themselves, only as a team (and even then), and so we saw control of the match flip sides on several occasion depending on who was in the ring. After going tornado tag for a bit and Fale fighting Kojima for most of that time, Fale dropped Kojima with the Bad Luck Fall for the win. Good match.

November 21, 2017
Kofu, Yamanashi, Japan


World Tag League 2017 Block B Match
Killer Elite Squad (0) vs David Finlay & Katsuya Kitamura (0) - 6.5/10
A team of technically two young lions, will they even capture a single win this tournament? maybe against Henare? It's also impressive how small KES makes Kitamura look. Kitamura started the match and quickly became the babyface in peril, he took a hell of a beating, and quite a credible one. Finlay got the hot tag, but it didn't last long and Kitamura made it in again soon after to show off some feats of strength and then get pinned. Kitamura and Finlay had enough offense to not call this a squash, but the match felt like the champs were just taking care of some pesky pests.

Post-match - Archer and Smith cut a quick promo saying they're going undefeated until the end.

World Tag League 2017 Block B Match
Togi Makabe & Henare (0) vs War Machine (0) - 6/10
I guess War Machine were officially designated as Henare's 'Welcome Back' committee since they got the heat on him for a long while. A bit of a hoss fight every time Makabe was in, and while Henare is not that small, him always being in the receiving end of the match made the match feel somewhat one sided. Finish saw Henare try to set up the King Kong Knee for Makabe, but Rowe got to him and a double team move later, War Machine picked up the win. Ok match, this was more of a squash than the previous match.

November 23, 2017
Kobe Sambo Hall, Hyogo, Japan


World Tag League 2017 Block A Match
Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale & Chase Owens) (2) vs Bullet Club (Hangman Page & Yujiro Takahashi) (2) - 6.5/10
They played dissension between the whole '2 sweet' vs '1 sweet' since Hangman Page is the only one from the ROH version of the Bullet Club. At one point did they pretend they were gonna finger poke of doom this match, it actually started with Page and Owens wrestling cleanly to a stalemate before Fale and Owens attacked first in order to gain the advantage. Match was back and forward, with Page really shinning over the other three guys as he did most of the cool spots of the match and at one point took on Owens and Fale alone. Finish of the match saw Fale prepping Page for the Bad Luck Fall, but Yujiro is trying to convince him not to hit it, Fale drops Page, but uses the distraction to allow Owens to roll up Yujiro from behind for the win. They all 2 sweet at the end. I expected a shit show and got a good short match instead.

World Tag League 2017 Block A Match
Tencozy (0) vs Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi (0) - 5/10
Nagata vs Kojima = good, Nakanishi vs Tenzan = not so good, except both guys are willing to make up for the lack of speed by striking each other stiff, so I'll give them that credit. Kojima was the babyface in peril for a bit, Tenzan came in and fought a bit with Nagata, only to become babyface in peril himself. Finish saw Kojima finish Nakajima off for the win. This was the usual prelim formula for a tag team match, it wasn't bad, but it's also a match between the 4 older guys in NJPW. At one point Nakanishi did a top rope plancha and just because it was Nakanishi, I thought it was impressive.

World Tag League 2017 Block A Match
Los Ingobernables de Japon (EVIL & SANADA) (0) vs Suzuki-Gun (Minoru Suzuki & Takashi Iizuka) (0) - 6.5/10
Yes, the match did indeed start with a brawl and a countout tease and weapons, at this point I shouldn't need to mention it anymore. Match saw mostly Suzuki and Iizuka beat the shit out of EVIL for a large part of the first half of the match. SANADA came in with a strong hot tag taking out Iizuka. Eventually, the match broke out into all four men brawling in the ring, some double moves and close submissions. In the end, Desperado distracted the ref with a chair as Iizuka hit EVIL with the steel claw and Suzuki with a Gotch Piledriver for the pin. A decent match, but I felt that Suzuki-Gun had control for way to long.

World Tag League 2017 Block A Match
Death Juice (2) vs CHAOS (Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI) (2) - 7/10
Mostly a back and forward match with tons of double team moves. I liked the Goto vs Callihan combination, but at the same time, I feel Goto to be too pure of a warrior to have to deal with Callihan spit infested matches. Finish came after Juice hit the Pulp Friction on YOSHI for the win. Pretty good match, Callihan continues to look strong.
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