411’s NJPW Invasion Attack Review 4.05.2015

So, I actually have a review of the New Japan Cup tournament (the tournament matches, not the shows), but it remains unedited. It will be out soon. After this show, I’m not planning on reviewing any full NJPW shows until the G1 (where I’ll either do the blog style I did last year or full reviews of each show).

 

April 5, 2015
Tokyo, Japan

 

Jushin Thunder Liger, Manabu Nakanishi, Ryusuke Taguchi, Sho Tanaka & Tiger Mask vs. Time Splitters (Alex Shelley & KUSHIDA), Captain New Japan, Yohei Komatsu & Yuji Nagata

It’s crazy to me that the juniors title division is not built around KUSHIDA, and he’s stuck in matches like this one. He could be the ace that division desperately needs to carry it.

Nagata and Nakanishi did a sequence to start the match. It was good, grandpa fun. After some more back and forth action from the teams, Nakanishi’s team briefly ran a train on the good Captain. Komatsu and Tanaka did a sequence. Have these two ever worked together before? The match broke down. Eventually, Shelley pinned Tanaka with the Air Raid Crash.

This was solid, mindless fun and better than the matches in this spot used to be. It was hard to care about it though. That’s a big issue with too many PPV undercard matches from NJPW these days.

Match Rating: **3/4

 

BULLET CLUB (Tama Tonga & Yujiro Takahashi) & Cody Hall vs. TenKoji (Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima) & Tomoaki Honma

I’m mildly interested in this because I have not see Hall wrestle yet. He seems to have the necessary look and athletic ability.

Honma hit Tonga and Hall with the falling headbutt early! Wow! Yujiro is YOUR heel in peril. Tenzan eventually got cut off and worked over. Kojima made the hot tag. He got cut off and then worked over for a bit. Honma then got worked over. The babyfaces fought back. Hall ate the 3D from TenKoji and the diving headbutt from Honma to give the babyfaces the victory.

My feelings on this were similar to my feelings on the opener: a fun enough match that could not make me care. I didn’t feel that this gave me much of a look at Hall unfortunately. Thus, I remain without an opinion on the man.

I’m trying to be optimistic about Honma’s booking for the rest of the year. If he’s not at the NEVER level at least by 1/4/2016, I’ll be beyond disappointed.

Match Rating: **1/2

 

The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson) (c) vs. Roppongi Vice (Beretta & Rocky Romero) [IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship]

Forever Hooligans were desperately stale, and I’m very happy that a new team is occupying their spot. I’m not a Rocky Romero fan at all, but this team could breathe some much-needed new life in him.

RV had a lot of success early on. The Bucks tried to walk out on the match. They were just baiting RV to the floor though and gave them each a superkick! RV then desperately crawled back to the ring to avoid a countout! Rocky ended up tossing Trent into the ring to save the match. Loved that. Bucks immediately cut off Trent and then worked him over. Trent had one attempt to tag, but Rocky was taken out. Rocky was ready on the second attempt though and then made an energetic hot tag. RV had all the momentum. Matt led the charge back for the Bucks. Rocky avoided the IndyTaker once but couldn’t the second time. Trent had to make the save. The Bucks isolated Rocky again. Rocky managed to block More Bang for Your Buck and then wiped out Nick with a tope suicida! RV then finished Matt with a Double Stomp/Jig ‘n’ Tonic combo: 1…2…3!!!!!

There was not a tremendous amount of heat for this one, but the structure was so good and the execution genuinely took me by surprise a few times.

Rocky Romero switching tag partners genuinely makes this division seem so much fresher and exciting. I really like this title change even if I don’t see them as a great long-term champion team. I hope NJPW continues to mix it up with this division.

Match Rating: ***3/4

 

Kenny Omega (c) vs. Mascara Dorada [IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship]

BIG match for both men. It needs to be good.

Dorada hit an awesome tope suicida early on. Omega cut him off by reversing a hurricanrana into an apron powerbomb. Omega then worked him over for a while. Dorada avoided some movez and then started to come back. Dorada ended up leaping over the top rope and giving Omega a hurricanrana from the apron to the floor. Awesome. Omega blocked a moonsault in the ring. They sort of botched something but also sort of covered for it. Then they ruined it by going right back and doing it again (Argentinian Backbreaker). Dorada came back again. He hit a ton of movez. Omega fought back with a dragon suplex, a leaping knee, and then finished Dorada with the Katayoku no Tenshi (single-leg Rubik’s Cube).

Omega said he had cleaned out Japanese and Mexican garbage. Now, he needed to clean out American garbage. He’s turning on the Bullet Club??? No, Motor City garbage. Shelley vs. Omega was set up for a future show. That’s definitely intriguing.

This was okay given how much they did and how much time they had. Dorada looked great here, and I really want to see more of him this year. I think he and a tag partner would do great work in the junior tag title division. Omega was better here than his previous singles bouts as The Cleaner, but his heart did not seem into this match or the post-match promo. Whether I’ve enjoyed Omega or disliked what he was doing, I’ve never felt that he was holding back ever until this show. Maybe he’s toning back the shtick and still adjusting? Regardless, it was just an odd performance for someone who always looks like he’s going 110%.

Match Rating: **3/4

 

BULLET CLUB (Doc Gallows & Karl Anderson) (c) vs. Matt Taven & Michael Bennett [IWGP Tag Team Championship]

Two tag teams that I do not care about. I once watched Matt Taven wrestle in front of 40 people in New Jersey though. I don’t know? I feel like fans are supposed to say stuff like that when indie guys make it somewhere.

The story early on was that Anderson and Gallows really wanted to sexually assault Maria. Shades of Mike Mondo. That caused Bennett to get cut off as he tried to take them on by himself. Bennett then got worked over for a while. Taven made the hot tag. He did a bunch of stuff that I’ve never seen him do before. He got little to no reaction. The teams went back and forth. Just as it looked like Anderson might be able to finish Bennett, Maria hopped up on the apron and distracted Anderson. Gallows was irate and pulled Maria off the apron. Anderson was mad. Taven wiped out Gallows with a Deadman suicida, and The Kingdom then finished Anderson with a tandem piledriver: 1…2…3

This was not what I wanted from the NJPW heavyweight tag division in the slightest. The stuff with Maria is so terrible and really is go-away heat for me with the division. Pure WrestleCrap.

I can appreciate how hard Bennett and Taven worked (the latter really busted out all of his movez) but a good match that does not make. I’m not optimistic about this division yet again.

Match Rating: *

 

The G1 shows were announced. There’s going to be 19 shows within the span of about 26-27 days.

 

CHAOS (Shinsuke Nakamura, Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI) vs. Hirooki Goto, Tetsuya Naito & Togi Makabe

Imagine if YH doesn’t eat the pin here.

I don’t care about this match going in, but it certainly has the potential to deliver something fun. The match broke down into a brawl, and Ishii attacked Makabe with his chain. Naito ended up getting worked over by CHAOS though. Makabe tagged in and squared off with Ishii. This went on much longer than I needed it to. It basically ended in a stalemate, and Nakamura tagged in. Goto and Nakamura eventually squared off. They avoided each other’s finishers once. Naka hit the diving Boma Ye, but Goto avoided the regular one. After some twists and turns, Goto eventually finished him with the Shouten Kai. I guess I don’t have to imagine YH not taking a pinfall. A dunce is me.

Goto vs. Nakamura and Ishii vs. Makabe are the clear directions respectively for the IC and NEVER Championships. Ehhhhh.

As I suspected, these guys managed to entertain me despite me not caring about the existence of this match nor the predictable booking directions that it would lead to. Good on all of them for that.

Match Rating: ***1/4

 

Hiroshi Tanahashi & Katsuyori Shibata vs. Kazushi Sakuraba & Toru Yano

I AM VERY EXCITED! I HOPE YANO HUMBLES TANAHASHI YET AGAIN!

Yano ran away from Tana, and Saku then ended up running away from Shibata for a beat. The latter was unexpected. Saku and Yano used the numbers game to isolate Tanahashi. Tanahashi eventually escaped. Saku and Shibata squared off again. Saku ended up getting the advantage. He applied a sleeper, and Tanahashi couldn’t get him to break the hold. Saku transitioned to a kimura, and Shibata actually tapped out.

While the action here was not as scintillating as some of the action in earlier matches, I cared about this match much more and the booking directions it led to. Thus, I thought it was better. Shibata and Sakuraba *might* be capable of something special in a 1v1 match. I’m also pleasantly surprised that Tanahashi didn’t get his revenge on Yano here. I hope Yano beats him again!

Match Rating: ***

 

Bad Luck Fale vs. Kazuchika Okada

I was pleasantly surprised by their NJC match, and I’m now cautiously optimistic for this one.

Okada took it to Fale right away, but the lumbering big man cut him off quickly enough. He then worked him over for a while. Okada ended up making his comeback on the floor. They went back and forth in the ring. They avoided each other’s finishers and kicked out of signature movez. They built a great deal of drama that way. Okada’s face got fucked up somewhere along the way. He delivered the scariest-looking tombstone that I’ve seen in a while before finally finishing Fale with the Rainmaker.

This ended up being of a similar quality to the Fale/Nakamura IC title matches from last year. Kudos to Okada for showing a bit more fire/energy as a babyface here when that’s something he’s struggled with in the past. I still don’t think that’s a natural direction for him, but I’m glad he’s getting better at it at least.

Match Rating: ***1/2

 

 

AJ Styles(c) (w/ Kenny Omega) vs. Kota Ibushi [IWGP Heavyweight Championship]

As usual with long AJ matches, they did the feeling-out process to start the match. Given that this is a first-time match, that makes a bit more sense at least. Still trite as shit mind you. AJ avoided the moonsault to the floor and then dropped Kota on his head with a German to the floor. That was nifty. AJ then worked him over. Kota started to fight back, but AJ cut him off by going after the left leg. Luckily, that didn’t last long, and Kota hit the moonsault to the floor to kick off his proper comeback. He got a few nearfalls. AJ fought back. They did a strike exchange sequence. AJ was building momentum. He hit Bloody Sunday. Kota avoided the Clash but then got locked in the Calf Slicer. Kota got to the ropes. Kota went for the Frankensteiner. AJ tried to reverse it to a super Clash. Kota avoided that and hit a springboard Frankensteiner for the first real nearfall of the match. AJ avoided the Liger Bomb but couldn’t avoid the lariat. Kota went for the Phoenix Splash, but Omega hopped up on the apron. Omega, as he did for the whole match, looked very conflicted. Omega didn’t end up doing anything. Kota went for the Phoenix, but AJ caught him in the Styles Clash position! Dear lord! Styles Clash: 1…2…3!

Kazuchika Okada came out and delivered the Rainmaker on AJ. Gedo cut a promo. Okada wants a title shot.

That’s the kind of “exclamation point” finish that I love! An awesome way to end the match, and it honestly elevated the match for me. This was yet another AJ main event performance that did little to nothing for me. He’s *fine*, but he does entertain me the great majority of the time. There is a clear formula to his main event matches: feeling-out process, heat segment, comeback, trading strikes, AJ (usually) wins. To be fair, that is a very common formula, and he’s not the only one who has fallen into its trap. That doesn’t make the fact he does it nearly every time annoying though.

Kota was the better man here in my opinion (despite him once again not selling a leg that’s been worked over). He managed to bring a level of energy that the recent AJ main events with Tanahashi have been missing. He cut down on the goofy execution of some of his movez, and his presence in the main event elevated the stakes of the match considerably for me.

While Okada/AJ “makes storyline sense,” I would have preferred to see Kota go over here. The dude is hot right now, and it would be refreshing for NJPW to jump on the Ibushi train as soon as he was elevated to the main event much like they did with Okada in 2012.

Selfishly, I also just do not want AJ Styles on top of NJPW. I don’t think he’s interesting in the role, nor do I think the world title matches have delivered the way I want NJPW main events to deliver (with this being the first one I really liked at all). I can also recognize though that I am in a very tiny minority in that regard. I do not expect wrestling companies to my individual tastes. He’s so boring though!

Match Rating: ***1/2

 

Watch some NJPW matches for free!

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Yuji Nagata

Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Yoshi Tatsu

Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Katsuyori Shibata

Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Hirooki Goto (G1 Climax)

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Jun Akiyama (G1 Climax)

Katsuyori Shibata vs. Yuji Nagata (G1 Climax)

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Prince Devitt (G1 Climax)

Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Togi Makabe (Chain Match)

Tetsuya Naito vs. KUSHIDA

Hirooki Goto vs. Tomohiro Ishii

Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Karl Anderson

Masato Tanaka vs. Tomoaki Honma

Kota Ibushi vs. Ryusuke Taguchi [Fantastic Match]

Prince Devitt vs. Kenny Omega

Sin Cara vs. Averno

Prince Devitt vs. Kota Ibushi (With thoughts from Prince Devitt)

Kurt Angle vs. Yuji Nagata

ORLANDO JORDAN VS. YUJI NAGATA

Katsuyori Shibata &Wataru Inoue vs. Eddy Guerrero & Black Tiger

8.0

The final score: review Very Good

The 411

While this show was missing the great matches that the best shows of 2015 (1/4, TakeOver, Wrestlemania), this was still a very fun show that way over-performed. With the exception of the heavyweight tag title match, there was something positive to take from every match on the show. If you already have New Japan World, you should absolutely check it out without reservation.