NJPW Road to Power Struggle 2017: Blue Justice VII
KATSUYA KITAMURA & TOMOYUKI OKA vs. BULLET CLUB (Yujiro Takahashi & Leo Tonga) - 5/10
REN NARITA, TETSUHIRO YAGI, & SHOTA UMINO vs. SUZUKI-GUN (El Desperado, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, & Taichi) (w/Miho Abe) - 5/10
For once Suzuki-Gun didn't jump their opponents to start the match off, which caused me to jump for joy. They did beat them up after the match, though.
ACH, KUSHIDA, RYUSUKE TAGUCHI, & HIRAI KAWATO vs. JUSHIN "THUNDER" LIGER, TIGER MASK IV, DRAGON LEE, & TITAN - 6.25/10
Everyone looked fine, but that last bit between Kawato and Dragon Lee has me intrigued. I've never seen something that looked so Lucha Libre and yet also so raw before.
CHAOS (Toru Yano, YOSHI-HASHI, & Jado) vs. SUZUKI-GUN (Minoru Suzuki, Takashi Iizuka, & TAKA Michinoku) (w/El Desperado) - DUD!
Suzuki-Gun jumped their opponents to start things off. They were on the outside forever with no count-out and used chairs with no DQ. Sh*t happened for a while until Suzuki tried to choke Yano to death with a rope. Still no DQ. The ref yelled at him to stop but he didn't. Still no DQ. The ref tried to physically intervene but Suzuki shoved him down. Still no DQ. It happened again. Still no DQ. But the third time. THAT was cause for a DQ. You know what? F*ck it. DUD!
KOTA IBUSHI, JUICE ROBINSON, & DAVID FINLAY JR. vs. HIROSHI TANAHASHI, SATOSHI KOJIMA, & HIROYOSHI TENZAN - 6.5/10
LOS INGOBERNABLES DE JAPON vs. CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada, Tomhiro Ishii, Gedo, & Roppongi 3K) (w/Rocky Romero) - 7/10
MANABU NAKANISHI vs. YUJI NAGATA - 6.75/10
Well… I said multiple times last month that I wouldn't mind seeing these two face off in a singles match. No I have learned to be careful what I wish for. Those were them interacting in tag matches that didn't go more than eight minutes. This was an eighteen-minute singles match. It wasn't "bad" per se, but it was just kind of sad to see these guys trying so hard but working so slowly. It was like watching a very good match in slow motion.
Final Thoughts
A bland and disappointing show from New Japan, although I wasn't really expecting any more than that from all but the last two matches.