Csonka’s NJPW New Beginning in Niigata Review 2.14.16

Csonka’s NJPW New Beginning in Niigata Review 2.14.16

OFFICIAL RESULTS
– Matt Jackson, Nick Jackson & Cody Hall defeated Jushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask IV @ 5:55 via pin [**¼]
– Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish defeated Kazushi Sakuraba & Gedo @ 8:25 via pin [***]
– Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima, Ricochet & Matt Sydal defeated Yuji Nagata, Manabu Nakanishi, Ryusuke Taguchi & David Finlay Jr. @ 8:14 via pin [**¾]
– Tetsuya Naito & EVIL defeated Michael Elgin & Jay White @ 8:38 via pin [**½]
– NEVER 6 Man Tag Championship Match: Toru Yano, Jay & Mark Briscoe defeated Champions Bad Luck Fale, Yujiro Takahashi & Tama Tonga @ 8:20 via pin [**]
– Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI defeated Hirooki Goto, Katsuyori Shibata & Juice Robinson @ 16:36 via pin [***½]
– IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship Match: Champion KUSHIDA defeated BUSHI @ 16:30 via submission [****]
– IWGP Tag Championship Match: Champions Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma defeated Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows @ 14:16 via pin [***½]
– IWGP Intercontinental Championship Decision Match: Kenny Omega defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi @ 29:10 via pin [****]

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Matt Jackson, Nick Jackson & Cody Hall defeated Jushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask IV: This was a perfectly solid opening match for the time given. It’s difficult to work something of note in such a short time frame. The Bucks and Hall picked up the win with the triple team Indytaker on the good Captain New Japan, ensuring that the timeline will remain the same. Nothing wrong with it, but a couple more minutes could have allowed it to breathe and develop into something better.

Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish defeated Kazushi Sakuraba & Gedo: This was a good and really fun match. ReDRagon really thrives in this environment, because they can work tight and short matches with anyone, adapt and make it fun. O’Reilly and Sakuraba had a fun grappling exchange, which I really dug and makes me want to see an undercard singles between them so that they can just work grapplefuck for 10-mintes. Gedo took chasing the dragon, allowing reDRagon to pick up the win.

Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima, Ricochet & Matt Sydal defeated Yuji Nagata, Manabu Nakanishi, Ryusuke Taguchi & David Finlay Jr.: This was another good multi-man once you get past Nakanishi’s part early on. Sydal and Ricochet were working a tame version of themselves, partly because they weren’t there to steal the show but also because this didn’t exactly get a lot of time. Fun work as they made the most of their time, and Ricochet hit his shooting star press on Finlay and that was that. I liked the previous match a bit more, but this was pretty good and easy to watch.

Tetsuya Naito & EVIL defeated Michael Elgin & Jay White: While they haven’t been successful in a lot of singles matches, the one thing that is for sure is that Los Ingobernables has been well protected as a unit in regular and six-man tag matches. This was another sub-10-minute match, and your mileage on enjoyment will be tied to how much of the Los Ingobernables act you enjoy. It was solid stuff overall, Elgin impressed with his power stuff, which the crowd love and White worked really hard as always. Tetsuya Naito & EVIL pick up the win when EVIL hits EVIL (STO) on White, and then Naito, because he’s a dick, dropkicked the ref to the floor.

Toru Yano, Jay & Mark Briscoe defeated Champions Bad Luck Fale, Yujiro Takahashi & Tama Tonga : This felt like the same damn match that I have seen them work since the beginning of the year. It never really gets going, the work is solid, but it has no feel of effort or importance considering that it’s a title match. And then they did the one thing I feared, and traded the titles right back to the former champions, which gave Bullet Club a strong three-day title reign. Again, it would have been more acceptable to do this scenario, with these titles, on the smaller “Road to” shows in order to make them feel important and possible bump audience numbers. Instead it simply felt lazy here. Give the belts to Los Ingobernables.

Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI defeated Hirooki Goto, Katsuyori Shibata & Juice Robinson: This match was your higher quality, second half of the show multi-man tag from NJPW. Goto was back to being regular Goto, but oddly enough had more fire here than he did in his main event from a few days ago; the entire thing in honestly puzzling to me. In what could have been night off match for Okada, I felt he was awesome here, looking and working like the biggest star in the match and leaving little doubt about that. The work was strong and this was easily the best match on the show so far. Juice Robinson ate the top rope elbow and rainmaker from Okada, keeping the natural balance. Okada invited Goto to join CHOAS, but he walked again.

Champion KUSHIDA defeated BUSHI: I really enjoyed this match, they had taken care to give BUSHI a good run leading to the match to make sure he was a viable contender, and I felt as if the crowd bought into this and were expecting a title change. They hit all of their signature stuff, and worked the match like it was a big time main event. BUSHI hit the MX (leap off the top rope into a codebreaker) bur KSHIDA survived. Naito has been doing attacks on the young lions as part of his I don’t give a fuck about anyone gimmick, which finally came back to bite him in the as the lions held him back from interfering at one point. I am not a huge fan of tons of interference, this is something I tend to rally against, but having KUSHIDA overcome the odds here like a king was a great vibe and made him come off as a big star. BUSHI has been cool since the change to Los Ingobernables, but this felt like one of his best performances as a complete performer. There were times he’d have a great character right, or a great in ring night, but he really put them together to add a lot to the match. KUSHIDA survived the interference, the mist and BUSHI’S best to retain. This was a very good match with some great performances from both men.

Champions Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma defeated Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows: Anderson and Gallows had a great stretch of matches to close out their run with NJPW, the only bad thing about this is that anyone and everyone who has been watching the product just wonder where these two have been (mostly Gallows) the rest of the run. Anyway, Anderson and Gallows worked over Honma for most of the match, Makabe ended up having to pull a Hogan/Savage deal and basically had to beat up his own partner to revive him. The champions hit the doomsday kokeshi on Anderson, dispatched Gallows, and then finished Anderson with the King kong knee drop and kokeshi for the win. Anderson and Gallows went out on a good note and did the totally clean job on the way out. Post match Tama Tongs challenged Honma and Makabe to a title match, promising a new Bullet Club member (not currently in New Japan). Please be Haku, please be Haku, please be Haku, please be Haku.

Kenny Omega defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi: Kenny Omega defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi to win the vacated IWGP IC Title, in a match that featured tremendous performances by both men, the right call in the decision, but a lot of bullshit that held this back from being a true MOTY contender. They went nearly 30-minutes, and worked this like a big time main event match, which they needed to do in order to officially coronate Omega as a player with the departures of Styles and Nakamura. Omega worked over the previously injured shoulder on Tanahashi, while Tanahashi tried to take out the knees of Omega whenever he got a solid chance to fight back. Omega did some spectacular selling of the knee, making you legit feel that he could be hobbled. And then the shenanigans really started, with the Young Bucks coming from under the ring. Omega using the Style clash at one point, the Bucks used superkicks and the indytaker, Omega used the boma ye several times and we also had trashcans and then Elgin got involved to help Tanahashi. Which, at least that made sense and reminds people that Tanahashi actually has friends unlike other faces in wrestling who always get their ass beat and never get help. Tanahashi kept fighting back with all he had, Elfin carried the Young Bucks away, and Omega then hit the one winged angel to win the title. On one hand it felt like complete overkill in the way they over booked the match, but on the other hand it did deliver some drama and at the end of the day we got the right decision with Omega winning the title and air guitaring with his broom over Tanahashi’s carcass. A lot of the time this overbooking will ruin a match for me, this time it took away a bit, but it did not ruin it. Omega feels like he got made as a heavyweight player, the booking was to protect Tanahashi from back to back clean big show losses, and also puts him in the role of the completely sympathetic babyface. I don’t think it’s a MOTY candidate my any means, but as a complete package, it came off very well.

* End scene.

* Thanks for reading.

“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia!”

8.0

The final score: review Very Good

The 411

New Japan still has some issues, let that be clear, but I feel that the New Beginning shows actually reflected the title well. KUSHIDA feels hot, Omega was made as a heavyweight, Tanahashi is still Tanahashi even while hurt, we have stars exiting but others being slotted and given shots. I think the overall direction is good, I liked the show a lot, and if they can ever fix the issues with the juniors, we’re in for a great year.