NJPW Road to Power Struggle 2013: Day 1
NJPW Road to Power Struggle 2013: Day 1 (10/25/2013)- Tokyo, Japan
SUPER JUNIOR TAG TOURNAMENT 2013 FIRST ROUND MATCH: BUSHI & Valiente vs. KUSHIDA & Yohei Komatsu- 5.75/10
SUPER JUNIOR TAG TOURNAMENT 2013 FIRST ROUND MATCH: The Young Bucks vs. Brian Kendrick & Barreta- 7/10
Before the match, Devitt introduce the Young Bucks as the newest member of the Bullet Club... and then they all did the Wolfpac wolf's head hand signal. Once the babyfaces came out, all five heels jumped them, and the head-band wearing Young Bucks started doing D-X crotch chops. Fantastic!
The crowd was very into the Young Bucks offense, which is a good sign for the Bucks in their New Japan debut.
SUPER JUNIOR TAG TOURNAMENT 2013 FIRST ROUND MATCH: Jushin "Thunder" Liger & Tiger Mask IV vs. Jado & Gedo- 6.25/10
Jado & Gedo are great heels, Liger is a great babyface. Add in some action, and you get a very good match.
SUPER JUNIOR TAG TOURNAMENT 2013 FIRST ROUND MATCH: Forever Hooligans vs. TAKA Michinoku & Taichi- 6.5/10
Taichi uses an umbrella to choke his opponent right in front of the ref, but there is no disqualification for some reason. Ayway, aside from that, we got some good action and an utterly fantastic finish which I'm not going to spoil.
MINORU SUZUKI vs. SHO TANAKA- 5.75/10
Tanaka plays a fabulous underdog and Suzuki does a fantastic job of playing the big, bad bully. This felt a lot like the first Tim Donst vs. Eddie Kingston match (from CHIKARA's Showdown in Crisisland. Go check it out).
TAMAOKI HONMA & MANABU NAKANISHI vs. HIROYOSHI TENZAN & CAPTAIN NEW JAPAN- 4/10
HIROSHI TANAHASHI, YUJI NAGATA, & TOGI MAKABE vs. TOMOHIRO ISHII, TAKASHI IIZUKA, & TORU YANO- 5/10
After apparently turning heel in the main event of the last PPV, Tanahashi is now back to being a babyface. Lame. Speaking of lame, we got a DQ finish here for the heels using weapons. After the match, the heels went to beat Nagata down with Iizuka’s wacky claw/glove thing, but Kazushi Sakuraba (Nagata’s partner for his match against the Gracies at the January 4th Tokyo Dome show) made the save.
KOTA IBUSHI & TETSUYA NAITO vs. MASATO TANAKA & YUJIRO TAKAHASHI- 6.75/10
Five more minutes would have made this a lot better. Naito and Tanaka brawl after the match, setting up for their Openweight Title and #1 contender’s contract match at Power Struggle 2013.
KAZUCHIKA OKADA, SHINSUKE NAKAMURA, & YOSHI-HASHI vs. THE BULLET CLUB (Prince Devitt, Bad Luck Fale, & Karl "Machine Gun" Anderson) (w/the Young Bucks)- 7/10
Okada and Anderson had some good sequences at the beginning and the end, finishing with Anderson pinning Okada to build up to their title match at Power Struggle 2013.
Overall, a decent show from New Japan. The goal of this show was to hype up their upcoming Power Struggle 2013 PPV, and it did a good job of that.
SUPER JUNIOR TAG TOURNAMENT 2013 FIRST ROUND MATCH: BUSHI & Valiente vs. KUSHIDA & Yohei Komatsu- 5.75/10
SUPER JUNIOR TAG TOURNAMENT 2013 FIRST ROUND MATCH: The Young Bucks vs. Brian Kendrick & Barreta- 7/10
Before the match, Devitt introduce the Young Bucks as the newest member of the Bullet Club... and then they all did the Wolfpac wolf's head hand signal. Once the babyfaces came out, all five heels jumped them, and the head-band wearing Young Bucks started doing D-X crotch chops. Fantastic!
The crowd was very into the Young Bucks offense, which is a good sign for the Bucks in their New Japan debut.
SUPER JUNIOR TAG TOURNAMENT 2013 FIRST ROUND MATCH: Jushin "Thunder" Liger & Tiger Mask IV vs. Jado & Gedo- 6.25/10
Jado & Gedo are great heels, Liger is a great babyface. Add in some action, and you get a very good match.
SUPER JUNIOR TAG TOURNAMENT 2013 FIRST ROUND MATCH: Forever Hooligans vs. TAKA Michinoku & Taichi- 6.5/10
Taichi uses an umbrella to choke his opponent right in front of the ref, but there is no disqualification for some reason. Ayway, aside from that, we got some good action and an utterly fantastic finish which I'm not going to spoil.
MINORU SUZUKI vs. SHO TANAKA- 5.75/10
Tanaka plays a fabulous underdog and Suzuki does a fantastic job of playing the big, bad bully. This felt a lot like the first Tim Donst vs. Eddie Kingston match (from CHIKARA's Showdown in Crisisland. Go check it out).
TAMAOKI HONMA & MANABU NAKANISHI vs. HIROYOSHI TENZAN & CAPTAIN NEW JAPAN- 4/10
HIROSHI TANAHASHI, YUJI NAGATA, & TOGI MAKABE vs. TOMOHIRO ISHII, TAKASHI IIZUKA, & TORU YANO- 5/10
After apparently turning heel in the main event of the last PPV, Tanahashi is now back to being a babyface. Lame. Speaking of lame, we got a DQ finish here for the heels using weapons. After the match, the heels went to beat Nagata down with Iizuka’s wacky claw/glove thing, but Kazushi Sakuraba (Nagata’s partner for his match against the Gracies at the January 4th Tokyo Dome show) made the save.
KOTA IBUSHI & TETSUYA NAITO vs. MASATO TANAKA & YUJIRO TAKAHASHI- 6.75/10
Five more minutes would have made this a lot better. Naito and Tanaka brawl after the match, setting up for their Openweight Title and #1 contender’s contract match at Power Struggle 2013.
KAZUCHIKA OKADA, SHINSUKE NAKAMURA, & YOSHI-HASHI vs. THE BULLET CLUB (Prince Devitt, Bad Luck Fale, & Karl "Machine Gun" Anderson) (w/the Young Bucks)- 7/10
Okada and Anderson had some good sequences at the beginning and the end, finishing with Anderson pinning Okada to build up to their title match at Power Struggle 2013.
Overall, a decent show from New Japan. The goal of this show was to hype up their upcoming Power Struggle 2013 PPV, and it did a good job of that.