NJPW Kizuna Road 2016: Day 6
NJPW Kizuna Road 2016: Day 6 (7/3/2016)- Iwate, Japan
DAVID FINLAY JR. vs. CHASE OWENS- 5.5/10
This match was really great for the time it was given.
HIROYOSHI TENZAN, JUSHIN â€"THUNDER†LIGER, TIGER MASK IV, & KUSHIDA vs. CHAOS (Tomohiro Ishii, Kazushi Sakuraba, & Roppongi Vice)- 6.5/10
Liger and Rocky worked together for a bit first. Then Taguchi and Sakuraba tagged in. Taguchi did butt stuff with Sakuraba, then Sakuraba started doing his submission stuff and even started choking Taguchi very roughly. Then they started doing stuff that I couldn’t twist into making it sound like they were having rough sex, which means the rest of the review of this match probably won’t be quite so entertaining. Tenzan got to be the big babyface here, going toe-to-toe with Ishii, then pinning Beretta with the moonsault.
HIROYOSHI TENZAN PROMO- he wants into the G1 one last time.
CAPTAIN NEW JAPAN & YOSHITATSU vs. BULLET CLUB (Hangman Page & Yujiro Takahashi)- 7/10
Bullet Club jumped the babyfaces during their entrance. This was a great showing by Page.
MANABU NAKANISHI & YUJI NAGATA vs. TOGI MAKABE & JUICE ROBINSON- 6/10
This match felt like it was more about Robinson than any of the other three, which is the last way you would expect it to go.
NEVER OPENWEIGHT SIX-MAN TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The Elite(c) vs. Satoshi Kojima, Matt Sydal, & Ricochet- 7.25/10
A great match with lots of clever set-ups into and out of spots, especially towards the finish. Kojima’s thumb is heavily taped up and he didn’t do too much here (though it’s not like he did nothing), so he may be working hurt. Sydal, Ricochet, and Kojima pick up the win to successfully capture the NEVER Openweight Hot Potatoes. I am predicting that they will go on to become the longest-reigning champions of so far, simply because the G1 will prevent them from defending their belts until September.
SATOSHI KOJIMA PROMO- he gives his best friend and longtime tag team partner Hiroyoshi Tenzan his spot in the G1, telling Tenzan he had better win it. There a lot of different ways they could go with this Tenzan story, and all of them have a lot of potential.
ELIMINATION MATCH: Los Ingobernables de Japon vs. CHAOS (Will Ospreay, Hirooki Goto, YOSHI-HASHI, & Kazuchika Okada) (w/Gedo)- 6.75/10
They made good use of the stip (especially Okada), and the Okada-Naito double-elimination spot was something I haven’t seen before in New Japan and it was quite shocking to see those two be the first two guys out. EVIL eliminating Goto smacks of the dreaded â€"50-50†booking after Goto’s victory over EVIL last month at Dominion. Getting eliminated right afterwards by popular but perennially undercard YOSHI-HASHI probably undoes a lot of what EVIL did tonight.
The match was entertaining and had some good spots, but it wasn’t close to being anything special. It came down to Ospreay vs. BUSHI, and at one point Ospreay did the Rainmaker pose (though the camera didn’t respond by zooming out) then did a Rainmaker verison of a standing moonsault slam which BUSHI kicked out of… and maybe I’m just imagining it, but Okada looked quite annoyed. Ospreay then hit the OsCutter for the win.
NEVER OPENWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Katsuyori Shibata(c) vs. Tomoaki Honma- 7/10
This was pretty good until they did that â€"I’ll just stand here and let you chop me spot†where Shibata just let Honma chop him a bunch of times, so when one of the chops caught him in the throat and he went down, I burst out laughing at this idiot who asked a guy to chop him a bunch of times with no resistance and wound up getting hurt.
Aside from some technical stuff in the beginning, this was nothing you haven’t seen before. Both guys’ heads were worked over, which was exacerbated by Honma going for various types of headbutts from various different heights and locations with varying degrees of success. It’s nothing new or even particularly exciting.
A decent show in the ring, but a very newsworthy one.
DAVID FINLAY JR. vs. CHASE OWENS- 5.5/10
This match was really great for the time it was given.
HIROYOSHI TENZAN, JUSHIN â€"THUNDER†LIGER, TIGER MASK IV, & KUSHIDA vs. CHAOS (Tomohiro Ishii, Kazushi Sakuraba, & Roppongi Vice)- 6.5/10
Liger and Rocky worked together for a bit first. Then Taguchi and Sakuraba tagged in. Taguchi did butt stuff with Sakuraba, then Sakuraba started doing his submission stuff and even started choking Taguchi very roughly. Then they started doing stuff that I couldn’t twist into making it sound like they were having rough sex, which means the rest of the review of this match probably won’t be quite so entertaining. Tenzan got to be the big babyface here, going toe-to-toe with Ishii, then pinning Beretta with the moonsault.
HIROYOSHI TENZAN PROMO- he wants into the G1 one last time.
CAPTAIN NEW JAPAN & YOSHITATSU vs. BULLET CLUB (Hangman Page & Yujiro Takahashi)- 7/10
Bullet Club jumped the babyfaces during their entrance. This was a great showing by Page.
MANABU NAKANISHI & YUJI NAGATA vs. TOGI MAKABE & JUICE ROBINSON- 6/10
This match felt like it was more about Robinson than any of the other three, which is the last way you would expect it to go.
NEVER OPENWEIGHT SIX-MAN TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The Elite(c) vs. Satoshi Kojima, Matt Sydal, & Ricochet- 7.25/10
A great match with lots of clever set-ups into and out of spots, especially towards the finish. Kojima’s thumb is heavily taped up and he didn’t do too much here (though it’s not like he did nothing), so he may be working hurt. Sydal, Ricochet, and Kojima pick up the win to successfully capture the NEVER Openweight Hot Potatoes. I am predicting that they will go on to become the longest-reigning champions of so far, simply because the G1 will prevent them from defending their belts until September.
SATOSHI KOJIMA PROMO- he gives his best friend and longtime tag team partner Hiroyoshi Tenzan his spot in the G1, telling Tenzan he had better win it. There a lot of different ways they could go with this Tenzan story, and all of them have a lot of potential.
ELIMINATION MATCH: Los Ingobernables de Japon vs. CHAOS (Will Ospreay, Hirooki Goto, YOSHI-HASHI, & Kazuchika Okada) (w/Gedo)- 6.75/10
They made good use of the stip (especially Okada), and the Okada-Naito double-elimination spot was something I haven’t seen before in New Japan and it was quite shocking to see those two be the first two guys out. EVIL eliminating Goto smacks of the dreaded â€"50-50†booking after Goto’s victory over EVIL last month at Dominion. Getting eliminated right afterwards by popular but perennially undercard YOSHI-HASHI probably undoes a lot of what EVIL did tonight.
The match was entertaining and had some good spots, but it wasn’t close to being anything special. It came down to Ospreay vs. BUSHI, and at one point Ospreay did the Rainmaker pose (though the camera didn’t respond by zooming out) then did a Rainmaker verison of a standing moonsault slam which BUSHI kicked out of… and maybe I’m just imagining it, but Okada looked quite annoyed. Ospreay then hit the OsCutter for the win.
NEVER OPENWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Katsuyori Shibata(c) vs. Tomoaki Honma- 7/10
This was pretty good until they did that â€"I’ll just stand here and let you chop me spot†where Shibata just let Honma chop him a bunch of times, so when one of the chops caught him in the throat and he went down, I burst out laughing at this idiot who asked a guy to chop him a bunch of times with no resistance and wound up getting hurt.
Aside from some technical stuff in the beginning, this was nothing you haven’t seen before. Both guys’ heads were worked over, which was exacerbated by Honma going for various types of headbutts from various different heights and locations with varying degrees of success. It’s nothing new or even particularly exciting.
A decent show in the ring, but a very newsworthy one.